To me, there are two starts for the year, January 1 of course, and when school starts. At both times, I like to do a thorough housecleaning to start the year off right and feel ‘squared away.’ This year, that includes this column.
If you are a frequent reader, you may have noticed a change in the content over the past few months. I still occasionally get on my nonprofit soapbox and pull back the curtain on how the nonprofit world works. But instead of including every local nonprofit news item and event I can find, this column focuses on one or two nonprofits and volunteer opportunities. Since I try to ensure that the nonprofit features are relevant and timely, I may mention an event but that is not the focus of the column as previously.
I mention this because many of you are reading the column now (Thank you!) and have emailed or mentioned in the comments that I neglected to include specific details on an event. This is intentional. The JOLT's Calendar includes local events with all the details. I also include links in my column (usually in blue), which you can click on for more information about the organization or the event. For those who are accustomed to traditional journalism, I know this may be an extra burden, but that is the charm of an online publication. That’s all folks.
I’m not headin’ to San Francisco for the Labor Day weekend show cause there is too much going on right here at home! Labor Day means the start of school, as well as Olympia Harbor Days, which is this weekend and yes there is a nonprofit connection. The founding sponsor of the annual Olympia Harbor Days festival is the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association (SSMHA), a nonprofit volunteer-driven 501(c)(3).
According to Carol Riley, SSMHA's executive director and producer of Olympia Harbor Days, the organization has operated for more than 40 years with the mission to preserve the maritime heritage of South Puget Sound for generations to come.
“Olympia Harbor Days was designed as a maritime festival 50 years ago to help meet the mission of SSMHA by bringing the vintage tugboats to Olympia, a former tug building city, for a weekend of onboard shows and races in the shipping channel of Budd Inlet,” says Riley. "Harbor Days was established in 1974 with a small gathering of tugboats and other historic vessels. The first tugboat race was held in 1975 and in 1978 downtown merchants, artists, and musicians organized to start a companion shoreside HarborFair. By 1983 both events were combined into one festival with the logo, designed by Karla and Chuck Fowler, to have a dual purpose as identity for the festival and as recognition and a coveted award for the attending Puget Sound vintage tugs and skippers”.
Riley says the tugboat in the logo changes annually. To become a “Logo Boat” the tugboat had to have been the oldest tug in attendance the prior year that had not previously been awarded the title. The logo is displayed on publicity materials, shirts, hats, and other festival merchandise. While many of the tugs in the subsequent years were illustrated by Karla, some have been illustrated by other designers.
Riley says that Olympia Harbor Days brings over 60,000 to downtown Olympia over the 3-day festival, creating a tremendous economic impact for the city and county. “This is a true community event with a regional pull. About 20% of the attendees do not live in Thurston County and folks from many states and Canada make the trip to the festival annually,” says Riley. “Now in its 50th year, we still hear that this event is a community favorite and often overhear folks talking about their favorite tugboats over the years.”
The festival not only hosts the vintage tugboats of the Puget Sound, but includes workboats, tall ships, steamships, and other historic vessels. Attendees can sail on the State of Washington’s tall ship Lady Washington (we have done that) or cruise the harbor on the Mosquito Fleet steamship Virginia V. A cruise from Tacoma to Olympia is also offered for tour groups.
Maritime arts include scrimshaw, knot tying and marlin spiking, steam bending, tarring and line throwing as well as a class called Working on the Water for teens and adults. The festival promotes the art and music of Olympia with four makers' markets, the largest presentation of makers in Olympia, and over 25 local bands or music ensembles from rock to blues and sea shanties to barbershops. The tugboat theme is carried throughout the festival with tugboats carved from sand, constructed out of Lego bricks, etched in stone, and even a chainsaw carver in action carving a tugboat on a cedar plank.
“Olympia Harbor Days is free and family-friendly,” says Riley. “For kids, there is a make, race and take tugboat activity offered by the Hands on Children’s Museum and a marine science center with a touch tank by the Puget Sound Estuarium, as well as other fun activities, including face painting and puppet shows.” This year, in celebration of the 50th event, a drone light show will be presented on Friday night at about 9:30.
“Olympia Harbor Days is, and always has been, a free community event presented currently by SSMHA volunteers and in the past by the Olympia Kiwanis Club Membership and sustained by sponsorship from area businesses and grants,” says Riley. “Students from the local Key Clubs as well as Civil Air Patrol volunteer to help with poster hanging, set up, and during the event to help where needed. This is a true community event with a regional pull. “Olympia Harbor Days and SSMHA both need volunteers and donations to be sustainable,” says Riley.
If you are interested in joining the crew, email info@HarborDays.com to volunteer or make a donation, click here.
To become a member of SSMHA, click here.
Soliciting your ideas
If you know of a nonprofit that is doing something great, celebrating a success, needs some outstanding volunteers, or hosting an event, let me know! This column (aside from a little education) celebrates nonprofits!
Mary Beth Harrington, CVA (Certified Volunteer Administrator) lives in Tumwater. She travels the country speaking at conferences and to individual organizations articulating issues facing nonprofits. Send your ideas to her at MaryBeth@theJOLTnews.com
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