Fall 2012 Issue - Colby-Sawyer College

Christopher Birckhead on
Oct. 8, 2011, at the Park
Savoy in Florham Park, NJ.
The wedding was attended
by fellow CSC alums
Tara Strand Balunis ’00,
Rebecca Banas ’00 and
Carla Tornifoglio Breen ’00.
They honeymooned in
the Mediterranean on a
2-week cruise with stops in
Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta
and Turkey. Tracey Guarda
Perkins is still working
in the Colby-Sawyer
College Admissions Office.
The walls of Colgate hall
are still the same but
the campus is busy and
growing and changing,
so come and visit! Her
daughter Abbey turned
4 this summer and she
and Keith Perkins ’99 are
enjoying the life of just
trying to keep up with
her. Brooke Morin Black
is still teaching history in
NY and coaching soccer
and lacrosse. She’s living
in CT with her husband,
little boy, and dog Colby,
and is looking to expand
her family this year.
Karrie Whitmore Swindler
welcomed daughter Leah
Scarlett in July 2009.
Patrick Kelly ’02 and
Melissa Hazelton Kelly
welcomed their 1st child,
Zain W.H. Kelly, to the
world on Dec. 18, 2011.
Pat received his elementary
teaching certificate
from the Upper Valley
Educator Institute in June.
Sarah Outten and her
fiancé, Michael Horan, got
engaged last Nov. In Jan.,
they traveled to Cabo San
Finding a Hole in the Market
Andrew Cesati ’02
It was the crunch of snow that brought
Andrew Cesati from his New Hampshire
home to the ski slopes of Colorado and
Utah. But an altogether different crunch
—that of tasty, fresh-packed pickles—
guides him now. As co-owner, with his
wife Allison, of the Yee-Haw Pickle
Company, Cesati is suddenly finding success
in a hungry market for wholesome
snacks.
After graduating with honors from
Colby-Sawyer’s English Program, Cesati
was hired by the U.S. Ski Team, eventually
moving out west to Crested Butte,
Colo. It was while Allison was laid up
with a knee injury that Cesati, looking for
healthy snacks for her, made a fateful
trip to the store.
“All the pickles were junk,” he says
dismissively. “Loaded with sugar, yellow
dye #5, made in India and shipped
over.” He quickly realized there was a
hole in the market for locally made,
natural pickles.
The couple began to make pickles
in their home. “Living in Crested Butte,
we were five hours from anywhere,” recalls
Cesati. They found themselves traveling
for hours to Denver to buy produce
and then hauling hundreds of pounds of
cucumbers back to their test kitchen. In
the spring of 2011 they relocated to Park
City, Utah, determined to launch their
pickle company in earnest.
After some time to get their bearings—
finding a kitchen, a line on produce,
a supplier of glass jars, and becoming
Andrew Cesati and his wife Allison are the co-founders
of the Yee-haw Pickle Company.
certified—the Cesatis brought their
first batch to a local farmer’s market in
August. “We were prepared to sell about
four jars,” says Cesati. Instead, they
were cleaned out of eight cases, their
entire inventory.
Today, just a few months later, Yee-Haw
pickles are sold in regional Whole Foods
stores, and Cesati has high hopes for
national distribution. The Cesatis are in
the process of creating their own manufacturing
plant, after being dissatisfied
with outsourcing possibilities. With
any luck, the crunch of Yee-Haw pickles
will make their way back East in the
near future.
— Mike Gregory
Learn more about the Yee-Haw Pickle
Company at yeehawpickles.com
Fall 2012
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