Page & Palette formally established its foundation in 2002, building upon decades of community involvement through education, literacy and cultural enrichment. As its work expanded to promote healthy living, it became the Good Life Foundation, guided by a simple mission: Fit Minds & Fit Bodies.
Through Dancin’ in the Streets, Hook ’Em & Keep ’Em, the Good Life Ride, Jubilee Kids Triathlon, Run Forrest Run, literary camps, author fundraisers and other community programs, the foundation contributed more than $360,000 to local schools by 2016. Its largest fundraiser, Dancin’ in the Streets, alone raised nearly $300,000 for school enrichment programs during its ten-year run.
The foundation dissolved after Karin Wilson was elected mayor of Fairhope in 2016, but its work did not end. Several of its signature events were continued by other community organizations, while Page & Palette continues the Hook ’Em & Keep ’Em literacy program through the bookstore.
Page & Palette’s
Good Life Foundation
Dancin’ in the Streets
For ten years, Dancin’ in the Streets was the Good Life Foundation’s signature event and largest annual fundraiser. Each year featured a different theme and transformed downtown Fairhope into a community celebration with live music, food, drinks, an extensive children’s area and one of the largest silent auctions on the Eastern Shore.
During its first three years, all proceeds benefited the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation, where Kiefer Wilson served on the board. In later years, proceeds continued supporting enrichment programs throughout Fairhope’s local schools. Altogether, the event raised nearly $300,000 for education.
Although Dancin’ in the Streets had become a beloved annual tradition, increasingly difficult City requirements made the event impractical for the foundation to continue. It was later taken over by the Fairhope Sunset Rotary Club and eventually became Oktoberfest.
Hook ‘Em & Keep ‘Em
Hook ’Em & Keep ’Em was created to help children become hooked on reading by fifth grade.
Each year, Page & Palette selects an exceptional book for fifth graders, brings its author to Fairhope and gives away approximately 1,200 copies across seven schools. The books are delivered several weeks before the author’s visit, giving every student time to read the story before meeting the person who wrote it.
At this age, books begin opening larger, richer worlds. Reading a book chosen purely for enjoyment feels very different from completing a required assignment. When children discover a story they genuinely love, then meet its author, reading stops feeling like a chore and becomes something they choose for themselves.
The Good Life Foundation may have dissolved, but Hook ’Em & Keep ’Em continues through Page & Palette whenever we discover the right book and can bring its author to our students. Our goal is to reach even more fifth graders across Baldwin County and help create lifelong readers.
Good Life Ride
The idea began in 2009, when Karin Wilson joined a group ride organized by Michelle Smith from Fairhope to the Flora-Bama. Karin and her twin sister, Kelley, were competing in triathlons and would complete a full Ironman together in 2013. That fifty-mile ride showed Karin how cycling could bring together fitness, friendship and a larger community purpose.
The following year, the Good Life Foundation created the first official Good Life Ride, traveling from Page & Palette in downtown Fairhope to LuLu’s in Gulf Shores. Designed as a ride, not a race, it welcomed cyclists of different ages and abilities, with additional starting points and distances added as the event grew.
Proceeds supported Smart Coast’s Share the Road and Complete Streets campaigns, helping advance safer roads for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists. Fairhope became the first city in Alabama to adopt a Complete Streets ordinance, and the movement spread throughout coastal Alabama.
In 2013, the destination moved to The Hangout and the event became the Good Life Ride & Hangout. The Alabama Coastal Foundation later joined the Good Life Foundation in presenting the ride and eventually took over its stewardship.
In 2026, the seventeenth Good Life Ride continues the coastal tradition that began more than fifteen years ago, still promoting bicycle safety, public awareness and roads everyone can share.
Jubilee Kid Triathlon
In 2010, Karin Wilson began creating a triathlon especially for children, expanding the Good Life Foundation’s mission from Fit Minds to Fit Bodies. A triathlete herself, Karin had watched her daughters compete in an IronKids event. They were so proud that they slept wearing their medals, and she wanted children in Fairhope to experience that same sense of accomplishment.
The foundation partnered with Mobile Baykeeper, which held the Grandman Triathlon at the Fairhope Municipal Pier. By keeping the course and equipment in place for one additional day, adults could race on Saturday, then return Sunday to cheer for their children.
The first Jubilee Kids Triathlon was held in 2011 for children ages 7 through 15. Its divisions celebrated Fairhope’s famous jubilees, beginning with Shrimp, then Crabs, Flounders and Mullets.
In 2012, nationally recognized young triathletes Conner and Cayden Long participated. Conner pulled, towed and pushed his brother Cayden, who has cerebral palsy, through every stage of the race. Later that year, Sports Illustrated Kids named them its 2012 SportsKids of the Year.
The Eastern Shore Triathlon Club later helped continue the event. In 2017, Mobile Baykeeper assumed a larger role in producing it alongside the Grandman, and it eventually became the Grandman Kids Triathlon.
For more than a decade, the race introduced hundreds of children to swimming, cycling and running. The Good Life Foundation did not merely encourage children to read about adventures. It gave them one of their own.