Meet Your Neighbor: Kree Abravanel

While you may not know Kree Abravanel personally, you have most likely heard about the local events she has created - Meyers Mountain Market, Music in the Park, and the upcoming Meyers Mountain Fall Festival, and helped launch Tube Tahoe.

Always quick with a smile, Kree has become immersed in her new hometown. Raised in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Kree moved to the South Shore in 2017 with her husband Leon who grew up in South Lake Tahoe.

Kree attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, and she hasn't let the grass grow under her feet since. Upon graduation, she said she was convinced to ride her bike across the United States. Once that was completed she made her home in Incline Village for 1.5 years where she taught kids how to ski, worked at the golf course, and the Hyatt. Then it was onto Tahoe City where she worked at Rosie's Cafe, Alpine Meadows, and managed the acting staff for the Shakespeare Festival.

Then New York City called her name, and she was off to experience living in the Big Apple for one year. While there she worked at a German beer house. She moved there with her best friend who fell in love with a Scottish Rugby player who was living in France. The friend went to France to be with him, and Kree followed two weeks later. Her friend and the rugby player and now married, living in Carlsbad, Calif., and have three children.

Kree headed back to Thousand Oaks where she moved back in with her parents, and worked various jobs while there. It was in Southern California where she met Leon who was coaching a soccer team at the time. Their families got the two together and the rest you could say, is history.

While in Southern California, Kree worked as a manager at a farmer's market in Ventura where she oversaw three markets. Her degree is in restaurant and resort management so she was getting closer to working in her field. After the markets, she worked for Z Power and planned their sales events around the world.

That job kicked off her event planning career.

When she and Leon moved to South Lake Tahoe, they looked for a career and thought they had it when starting Tube Tahoe in 2020. Leon had been serving on the Meyers Advisory Council and saw the need for more community events in Meyers.

Then came Meyers Mountain Market, a weekly farmer's market in Tahoe Paradise Park that started in 2021. Kree said she started with 25 vendors in the first summer and now four summers later they host 45-55 vendors a week with 1,000 to 1,500 people enjoying them on Wednesdays all summer. Each week nonprofits also have booths set up for community information as well. A new feature in 2024 has been the Kid's Craft Corner for ages 8-13. The young artists and crafters can learn a business and how to make money with their wares. One young artist has been painting pet portraits all summer. Kree said she does them on the spot and is quite good and has a long list of happy clientele.

"The market is getting better and better each year," said Kree. "It provides a space for vendors and small businesses - it's good vibes!"

Next up was Music in the Park, a monthly summer feature at Tahoe Paradise Park since 2023. Kree applied after seeing a request for proposal from the park's board and has been making it grow since. She said the turnout has been good and it's family-friendly.

With the growing events she was involved in, Kree started SunSnow Event Company as a nonprofit company that hosts the Meyers events, the new Mother Son Spring Fling Dance that was a big hit, and now another new event, the Meyers Mountain Fall Festival that will be held October 19-20 in the Tahoe Paradise Park.

She said she's bringing Apple Hill to Meyers with the festival The event will feature a pumpkin patch, live music with local favorites Mescalito and Broken Compass Bluegrass, a vendor village, a beer garden, a photo booth, a costume contest, a pie-eating contest, and possibly fall produce.

Besides being the area's newest, and possibly busiest, event planner, Kree is also busy being a mom to two little ones. She and Leon are parents to Sunny, age 4, and Hawk, age 3.

Meet Your Neighbor is a new feature in South Tahoe Now that highlights locals and gets people to remember a time when people talked to neighbors on the front porch or with chats over the garden fence.