SEQUIM — Just about halfway through Saturday’s Irrigation Festival Grand Parade, there will come a drill team like no other.
It’s composed of eight learned women, propelled forward by the jazz of musical pioneer Herbie Hancock — as well as by their “inner music,” promises Paula Barnes, director of the North Olympic Library System and spokeswoman for the Strait-Paced Librarians book cart drill team.
The team is No. 51 in the 116-entry parade, to go west down Washington Street, from Dunlap to Seventh Avenue, at noon Saturday.
Fresh faces
Yes, the 115th annual Irrigation Festival’s big event, with its “115 years of pioneers” theme, has a number of fresh faces embarking on new frontiers this year.
Among them are the Sequim and Port Angeles library staffers, who Barnes said have been polishing precision maneuvers for quite a while now.
Among the book-cart-whirlers are Sequim Library Manager Lauren Dahlgren, library system assistant director Margaret Jakubcin, librarian Karen Ursino, volunteer coordinator Emily Sly, Port Angeles youth services staffer Susan Price, Sequim senior page Lindy McLaine — and “I’m afraid the director is part of the team this year,” added Barnes.
She’s referring to herself.
Most book cart drill-team members appeared in Port Angeles’ Fourth of July parade last year, so “they’re very accomplished,” hence their footwork is fancy, Barnes said.
“People are so surprised that librarians can let their hair down,” the director mused.
“We are going to march our way into the history books.”
This year’s parade has other newbies in addition to the Strait-Paced Librarians, added organizer Alice Beebe.
The Glass Odyssey Corvette Club from Kitsap County will rumble through, while Sequim Bay State Park and the Fraternal Order of Eagles from Port Angeles will have floats, though Beebe didn’t disclose what will be on them.
That’s part of the suspense of this parade — Beebe’s 10th — along with the chance of precipitation.
Beebe seeks to reduce that possibility by speaking with several pastors around town just prior to parade Saturday.
And “it hasn’t rained on my parade yet,” she said.
Besides the new entries, there will come the must-haves: 10 bands, festival queens and princesses from around Western Washington, the Tenino Motorcycle Drill Team and a genuine piece of irrigation pipe in honor of the festival’s “Where water is wealth” motto.
Grand marshals
The grand marshals of the parade personify Sequim’s mix of agricultural and artistic heritage.
Bob Caldwell, co-founder of the Friends of the Fields farmland preservation coalition, and Elaine Caldwell, a tireless promoter of Olympic Theatre Arts, are the top two dignitaries this year.
Joining them at the front of Saturday’s procession are grand pioneers Dick Shaw, 78, and Irene Zeman Danforth, 86, and honorary grand pioneers Thomas Art Boyd, 96, and Virginia Duncan Brownfield Dickinson, 89.
KSQM-FM 91.5, Sequim’s nonprofit radio station, is providing announcers: veteran disc jockey Pepper Fisher and community-news director Jeff Bankston.
Logging show, ball
Before and after the parade, Irrigation Festival events promise all things Pacific Northwest, including the Logging Show tonight and all day Saturday, a salmon barbecue and, for the first time, a Loggers’ Ball tonight.
Admission to many events is free, and all are part of the volunteer-powered locomotive that is Washington state’s longest-running celebration of community.
To learn more about Irrigation Festival events, volunteer opportunities and history, visit www.IrrigationFestival.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
