I met Sandy Cooper 4 years ago when I was doing a solo project and played the Festival that year. This is our 3rd year back working together and you couldn’t ask for a nicer person to deal with. She is warm, inviting, and just a lovely person to be around and talk to, I wish all festival directors could be so easy. I swear she needs to be an octopus to handle all of the great things she does for The Weiser Fiddle Festival. She gives 100% of her time and energy to all the musicians and performers she juggles. She’s an amazing friend and a beautiful spirit. I am going to reprint her bio, as she puts it, because that is so much easier than me trying to put words in her mouth.
National Oldtime Fiddlers’, Inc. Executive Director Sandra Cooper is a Weiser native who grew up on a cattle ranch north of Weiser. She brings experience garnered from diverse business ventures and careers. She spent ten years in farming, ranching, and real estate sales after graduating high school, then moved to Southeastern Idaho, married and opened a daycare center in Shelley, Idaho. In 1988, she purchased a hotel and restaurant, the Nezperce Inn, in Nezperce, Idaho, operating there until returning to Weiser in 1990 to help with the care of her mother.
From 1990-1997, Sandra worked for Hillcrest and Vencore Corporations as an occupational and physical therapy aid, working primarily with geriatric patients. She spent many weekends and evenings attending Idaho School of Massage Therapy and The Dynamic Arts Institute in Boise, Idaho, from 1993-1996 and became a Certified Massage Therapist. She continued to work full-time for Vencore as she built her massage therapy practice, eventually splitting the working hours between the two until 1997 when she opened her practice full-time in downtown Weiser. In 2001 and 2002, she operated Enrituals School of Massage in Weiser, teaching others healing arts and anatomy and physiology.
She continued with her massage therapy practice until 2005 when she and her husband, Dennis M. Cooper, attended “Income Builders International” training in Los Angeles. Inspired by the program and the concept of “Super Teaching,” they spent two years traveling, as Dennis, a musician, entertained at resorts in the Southwest. Sandra spent her time booking his appearances, selling his CDs and other merchandise at their booth at the Arizona Marketplace in Yuma, AZ. Between customers, she wrote a beginners’ harmonica instruction book entitled “Harmonica Boot Camp.” The first printing was sold out before it was printed.
The Coopers recorded an accompanying 75-minute instructional CD demonstrating the techniques taught in the book, enabling many students to experience “break-throughs” in their playing when concepts of “Super Teaching” were employed. The book and CD are entirely self-produced, from its design and printing to its marketing. As a result of the book and CD’s popularity, she was contracted by Bass Pro, Inc. to write the accompanying instruction booklet for their Special Edition “Camo” diatonic harmonica in their 2007 Holiday catalog.
She became active in the Weiser Little Theater beginning in 2002 as an actor, then as director of five plays, and is a past president of the Theater Board. She remains active in that organization. In 2010, she wrote, directed, and acted in a play, “All the Best- Love, Daddy” for a special program presented by the Weiser Architectural Preservation Society that honored the history of the Little Theater. She is currently writing a comedy, “Runnin’ for the Gumbo,” based on her grandparents’ lives during the Great Depression.
In the spring of 2007, Sandra went to work with National Oldtime Fiddlers, Inc. as an administrative assistant. In the Fall of 2007, she was promoted to Festival Director, a position she held until 2010 when she became the Executive Director. Since taking that position, she has worked to broaden the scope of activities within the organization, including the purchase of a permanent headquarters, historic Slocum Hall, where developing the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame is a cherished project. Additional events are now being held throughout the year, such as concerts, workshops, and music camps.
Sandra believes strongly in using the organization’s influence and reputation for perpetuating old-time music to further nurture and preserve the knowledge of related traditional arts. She has had a long-standing vision of creating a place where families and individuals can come together to study and perpetuate traditional music, folk arts and crafts, creative writing, and other artistic means of expression.
This vision is being fulfilled in the creation of Co-Opportunities, Inc. a 501 (c ) 3 corporation that is the parent company of The Bee Tree Folk School, currently being developed in two historic downtown Weiser, Idaho buildings. Founded by Sandra and husband Dennis, along with Gary Eller, the school became recipients of nine collections from the Simpson-Vassar Collection, gifted by the estate of Roderick E.Simpson. The non-profit’s volunteer staff is creating a museum with music and reading libraries, African Folk Art collection and many other items of artistic, educational and historical significance that will enhance the offerings at the Folk School, which will re-open in mid-summer at the historic Pythian Castle in downtown Weiser.
The National Old Time Fiddlers’ Contest Begins Monday, June 17th, and wraps up Saturday, June 22. There are 46 performances at Memorial Park by musicians, dancers, cloggers, magicians, and storytellers. The contest in and of itself is a different venue up at the high school that is organized by Cindy Campbell and Aimee Burdett and all of their very hard work. Dennis Cooper and his band of merry men and women run sound for all the musicians playing at Memorial Park and help bring the music to life! It’s an amazing time, and there is also a carnival and parade to keep the kiddies happy. For the adults there is a beer garden near the stage hosted by Crescent Brewery in Nampa and owner Jerry Ferguson, as well as other beer hosts. I am going to try to cover as many performers as I can before it kicks off, so stay tuned. I felt that Sandy was the best place to start, as she is responsible for lining everyone up at Memorial Park. It is due to her work as well as all the other volunteers that this turns out to be the best week in Weiser, Idaho.
Idaho Gazette 