For hundreds of dads and families, Father’s Day wouldn’t be the same without eating salmon and buying books at the annual Salmon Bake and Book Sale at the Manchester Library.
And for hundreds of Manchester residents, participation in the longtime event is their favorite way to connect with their fellow community members.
On Sunday, citizens of this waterfront community will once again get an opportunity to partake in this Father’s Day tradition, which is in its 47th year.
The event offers a chance for Dad and family members to fill up on salmon, beans, cole slaw, garlic bread and a drink, with all event proceeds going to benefit the Manchester Library. Meal tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children 6-11 and $5 for children 5 and younger.
Salmon is served from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’s not so much a fundraiser as a community-building exercise,” said John Winslow, a past president of the Friends of Manchester Library.
“Everyone takes pride in the event, as well as in the library.”
Winslow said up to 65 volunteers work to stage the salmon bake each year, including eight who take part in the planning process months in advance. He said the event raised $7,500 last year, making it the largest single revenue source in the library’s $27,500 annual budget.
“This doesn’t go to pay for the library staff or the materials,” he said.
“This money is used entirely for the upkeep and maintenance of the building.”
In its first staging in 1970, the salmon bake took place on the Manchester waterfront with the salmon grilled on the sand. “When someone used an old tides table a couple of years later,” event chairman Ray Prado said, “the cooks had to scramble as the anticipated outgoing tide instead came inward.”
Partly due to that miscalculation, the salmon bake moved to its current location in the parking lot adjacent to the library, which is at 8067 E. Main St. A cook who joined the team in 1975 was the father and grandfather of the Bow family team. That family team and their friends continue to cook the salmon for the annual bake.
In 1947, Mary Sanford, who owned the local Manchester Shopping Mart and was a member of the county’s rural library board, donated a corner of her business to be the library. In 1953, the library moved temporarily into the Manchester Improvement Club building. The following year, it moved into a 16-foot-by-24-foot modular building on the Port of Manchester property.
In 1976, the Friends of Manchester Library became a registered nonprofit organization, sought a loan to build a permanent library building, and with a grant from Kitsap Regional Library, community donations and many hours of volunteer construction, built its own building in 1980. The Port of Manchester leases the land to the Friends of Manchester Library for $1 a year.
The library building is surrounded by gardens designed, donated and maintained by volunteers from the Long Lake Garden Club and the Friends of the Manchester Library.
The gardens are a water-wise teaching garden, used to demonstrate environmentally sound gardening techniques and to educate the public about the local flora.
