Brian & Karen Traupman have been volunteering with us since 2019. They both started as Musikfest volunteers and have become even more involved with us since. Both are currently trainees for our ArtsQuest Ambassador program! Aside from volunteering at ArtsQuest, both are glass artists and enjoy doing that in their spare time. This is an important part of the fun story which I’d like to share below from a café show a few months ago which featured stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone!  

Brian & Karen were both volunteering as Ushers during the Paula Poundstone show in the Musikfest Café last October and had a great night full of laughs! After their shift, they hung around to buy catnip that was being sold at her merch table. (Paula, just like the Traupman’s are big cat lovers) They ended up in a conversation about how her stay in Bethlehem was and she mentioned loving all the “North Stars”. The Traupman’s ended up explaining the meaning of the Moravian Star to Bethlehem and eventually offered to send her one as a gift/souvenir of her time here in Bethlehem. They included a note thanking her for making them laugh at a time when this country/world needed more laughter.  

The story doesn’t end there, a short time later the Traupman’s received at letter in the mail from Paula! She went on to thank them for the beautifully crafted star and how it’s now hanging in the ballroom in the front of her house. Paula wrote “It makes the place seem classy” So a little piece of Bethlehem is now in Hollywood thanks to the Traupman’s!  

For the record if anyone was wondering, the cats loved the catnip.