Lana Weeks

Lana Weeks passed away on November 20, 2019 in Big Sur, California after a short illness. Celebration of life services have been postponed until a later date. Interment will be held at Elm Grove Cemetery at a later date. The Lana Weeks Memorial Fund for Big Sur Fire Training, Education and Professional Development has been established with a generous anonymous matching grant. Donations can be made to Big Sur Fire in memory of Lana Weeks, PO Box 520, Big Sur CA 93920, and will be matched up to $40,000 by the anonymous donor. Additional information can be obtained through inquiry to info@bigsurfire.org., or by phone to 831-667-2113. Online condolences may be sent for Lana’s family through the web at www.jonesfh.com. Lana was born in 1956 in Washington, Iowa to Geri and Richard Weeks. She graduated high school in 1975 and Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1980 with a BA in Theatre and Dance, becoming a member of the Minnesota Dance Theater in Minneapolis. In 1984, as a member of Houston Ballet's Marketing team, she took on the position of Audience Development Director, leading to the winning of a National Addy in 1987 for a television spot designed to reach new audiences. That same year, she was the P.R. Manager for the historic Gala Opening of the Wortham Theater Center, current home of the renowned Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera. Her work led her to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Lana became Associate Director of the Stanford Lively Arts, and in 1989 was chosen by the Bay Area Critics as the best publicist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She served also as a member of Stanford’s Centennial Committee celebrations for 1991. This was followed by positions as Director of Performances for the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and, subsequently, to Carmel as a Managing Director at Pacific Repertory Theater. In 1998 Lana served as Development Consultant for the non-profit Sunset Center for the Arts, after consulting with the Carmel Bach Festival in promoting the early stages of the theater renovation, and she played a significant role in this joint project with the City of Carmel, completed in 2003. In 2004, Lana joined the Big Sur Land Trust as Development Director and became a driving force for guiding the Land Trust from its roots in traditional conservation on the Big Sur Coastline to expanding its impact in wider Monterey County. In addition to developing the first major gifts philanthropy program, she helped create new and lasting partnerships with the Salinas social justice community, ranchers, and local arts and music groups, to name a few. These relationships led to innovative new projects such as the Glen Deven Ranch and Marks Ranch youth camps and the Carr Lake project in Salinas, attracting diverse new leadership to the Trust's board. As a resident of Monterey County, Lana fell in love with the Big Sur Coast, the community and the surrounding open spaces and moved to Big Sur in 2013, fulfilling a long-time dream. Not content to be only an observer in her new home in Big Sur, she was attracted to the selfless service demonstrated by the members of the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade and was elected to the Board of Directors of this nonprofit volunteer public safety organization in 2016. Committed to its sustainability, she immediately prepared a fund-raising plan and helped initiate a program to prepare the organization to handle the increasing challenges of serving the community and the literally millions of annual visitors to Big Sur. Lana had an indefatigable optimism and incomparable capacity for encouraging and supporting the volunteers, recognizing their contributions, coaching and preparing for the future under a shared leadership model which encouraged the entire membership to take the initiative in planning for the future. Lana adopted the members into her life and was included warmly as a family member by the operational members. She donated her knowledge, experience and limitless enthusiasm as a professional fund raiser, nonprofit organizer and uncompromising friend and will be missed in the most visceral way by those she coached and mentored in the new model, now known simply as Big Sur Fire. Lana was the Vice President of Sitler Electric in Washington, Iowa and after the passing of her father in 2010, she became President. Those in Lana's circle will remember a person whose personal life and work were about a commitment to preserving the natural world, appreciating wholly the art that exists within all people, and the profound interconnectedness between the two. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Martha Graham, Bill Frisell and Leonard Slatkin were all playing the same song in her eyes, full of passion and grace, beauty and truth. Lana chose a life unconventional and untethered, loved her dogs, Fred and Leroy, and enjoyed spending time with close friends. She is dearly missed by her family, friends, colleagues, and especially the members of Big Sur Fire to whom she became family, friend and mentor.

Lana Weeks

November 21, 2019