By Terry Asla
Port of Kingston
Mark your calendars: May 12 is “Kingston Cove (Almost) Summer Fest.”
The event was formerly called “Opening Day of Boating Season.” But, this year the Kingston Cove Yacht Club wanted to expand it into an early celebration of summer outdoor activities and recreation, with lots of free stuff for kids to do and fun stuff for grown-ups, too.
Washington May weather being what it is, rain is always a possibility. So, it should come as no surprise event organizers chose the image of an umbrella-toting beagle wearing a watch cap for its media mascot.
Rain or shine, it’s shaping up to be an event worth coming out for.
The historic sailing schooner, Martha, out of Port Townsend, will be giving tours.
Want a schooner of your very own? Yacht club volunteers will be on hand to help kids build their very own wooden toy schooners using supplies donated by Northwest Millwork & Door Company.
Sail Kingston Cove and the Kingston Krakens high school sailing team will be providing free rides in their FJ sailboats. There will be antique steam launch rides, too, courtesy of Sterling MacKinnon.
Kingston Mercantile & Marine is sponsoring a kids’ fishing derby. Kingston Cooperative Preschool, Boy Scout Troop 1555 and Western Washington University’s SEA Discovery Center will provide games and educational stuff including a Rain Gutter Regatta, derby track racing, knot tying, volcano making, marine animals, face painting, making bubble necklaces, and provide plant seedings to take home.
Meanwhile, out on the guest dock Betsy Cooper’s “Belly Biology” will offer kids of all ages the chance to get prone and discover what is attached to the docks and pilings at the Port.
Safety around the water is always important and members of the Kingston High School Swim Team will be on hand to fit children age five and younger with loaner life jackets. Parents who want to buy life jackets for their children to keep will be able to buy one at cost at the North Kitsap Fire & Rescue booth, according to News & Public Information Officer, Michèle Laboda.
Besides playing with the kids, grownups can sample the offerings of a variety of food vendors, attend free seminars on the crab population in Puget Sound and Geoduck clamming, shop at the Famers Market, and enjoy a family-friendly street dance in the evening featuring The Tropics, a rock-and-roll band that covers Jimmy Buffet tunes, while enjoying cheeseburgers and adult beverages at the yacht club.
The Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce and the Port of Kingston are helping sponsor the event.
And speaking of the Chamber and Port …
Washington Boulevard Park construction underway
At 8 a.m. on Monday, April 9, construction officially began on the Port’s new Washington Boulevard Park across the street from the Chamber offices.
“I’m very impressed with VET Industrial,” said Port of Kingston Executive Director Jim Pivarnik. “I’ve worked on a lot of major construction projects during my career and VET is one of the best.”
When its complete, the Port’s newest park will feature tables and a 24-foot diameter gazebo where visitors can sit and admire the stunning view of mountains and Seattle.
VET expects to complete the project in July.
Windemere gives back
“It’s really important for our office to give back to the community and be part of the community,” said Windemere West Sound-Kingston Managing Broker, Jet Woelke, talking about the company’s recent Kites Over Kingston event and the upcoming Windemere Community Service Day.
Woelke estimated as many as 500 kids and their grownups came to Kites Over Kingston on March 24.
“We made up 200 goody bags for kids and, by one o’clock we had given them all away,” said Windemere Managing Broker Woelke. The event ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On hand to help with the kite building and flying were members of the Washington Kitefliers Association, including local kite masters Brian and Debbie David from Brownsville. Other volunteers included 11 members of the Kingston High School Honor Society and eight members of the Marine Corps Security Force at Navy Base Kitsap-Bangor, Woelke said.
This year, June 8 is Windemere Community Service Day; when all Windemere offices close for the day, and employees at all the Windemere offices work on local community projects of their choosing.
This year, the 23 sales agents and employees at the Windemere West Sound-Kingston decided to spend the day landscaping the grounds around the electronic welcome to Kingston sign.
“The sign went in in late November; not the time of year for gardening,” Pivarnik said. “So basically, we just had a beautiful sign sitting on a mound of dirt, with the coming of spring and the generous assistance of Windemere staff, the corner is going to be beautiful,” “the sign is a very positive way of communicating important events. It’s a good thing,” said Woelke.
Every year, the Port staff and their dedicated team of volunteers challenge themselves to make this year’s Kingston Cove Christmas Lights bigger and better than last year’s. For 2018, work has already begun on new luminary sculptures that will celebrate the many events that take place at the Port every year, such as musical notes in honor of Concerts in the Park and animated Fourth of July rockets.
And a slug. The six-foot-long steel skeleton of a rearing slug—in honor of the long-running Kingston Slug Fest—is already finished, said the Port’s main luminary designer/builder, Steve von Marenholtz.
But, von Marenholtz isn’t talking about his biggest project: creating a luminary sculpture in honor of the Port of Kingston’s 100th anniversary in 2019. “It’s a secret,” he said. “But, I can tell you that it will be big.”
Finally, the ferry, look for construction to begin on the Kitsap Transit fast ferry dock in May. Requests for proposals on different aspects of the project went out in April.
