The event was organized by Swiss Consul Emeritus, Max Haechler, and featured an invitation-only guest list of 300 people, including GstaadLife co-founder Antoinettede Scheel and 72 visitors from Switzerland. All the Swiss guests were residents of the Saanenland and Simmental regions, and for most of them it was their first visit to the US (for some their first time on a plane). Among the musical performers was a folk group from Zweisimmen, led by Urs Ueltschi, which went on to play at the Grand Canyon, the Downtown Phoenix Oktoberfest, and in Chicago. The 300 guests consumed 25 kilos of Raclette cheese and 1,000 sausages, and a special tribute was given to US Marine Anthony Haechler (son of the Consul Emeritus) who has served in the Swiss Army and had just returned from a second tour of duty with the US Marines in Iraq.

Above: Gunnery Sergeant USMC, Anthony Haechler, and Staff Sergeant USMC, Gary King, just after raising the US flag which was flown at the Government Center in Ar Ramadi, Iraq on September 11 2006.

There was also a grand raffle with prizes offered by the event’s many sponsors, which included Lufthansa (which now owns Swiss International Airlines) and the Gstaad-Saanenland Golf Club. The Grand Prize of two-roundtrip tickets from the US to Switzerland was won by Swiss astronomer, Beatrice Mueller, who has lived in Tucson Arizona since 1990 and is a senior researcher at the Planetary Science Institute, where she studies comets, asteroids, and other space objects (indeed Asteroid #55,108 has been named “Beamuller” after her).

Above: The Schwyzeroergeli Grossformation from Simmental/Saanenland, organized by Urs Ueltschi of Zweisimmen

Above: Max Haechler, Swiss Consul Emeritus.