You might notice similarities between this year’s Fall City Day festival T-shirts and anything Seattle Seahawks fans are wearing. That similarity is deliberate, says Judy Dix, one of the coordinators of the festival, and only partly because the Seahawks are hot right now.

“It’s a big seahawk totem,” Dix said, from Native American legend. “That’s our theme this year, but it’s not really so much to do with the (Seattle) Seahawks. It’s about being part of a team….because Fall City is unincorporated, we have to do everything ourselves.”

Nothing happens for Fall City’s annual festival without a lot of teamwork, Dix explained. Volunteers run all the events, local businesses contribute the use of their dumpsters for cleanup and Main Street restaurant El Caporal allows vendors access to its sinks and hot water, to meet food safety requirements.

Beyond the annual festival, volunteers do much of the other work, in the community, too, Dix said. The Fall City Community Association, a board of volunteers, arranges such events as periodic litter pickup and weed trimming along the roads, much of it funded by the Fall City Day proceeds. It’s the same in the schools, where the parent volunteer rates are the highest in the district. Fall City Day proceeds also support many school programs.

Fall City Day is still a free community festival, so the opportunities to raise funds for community maintenance and schools are limited to the morning fun run, afternoon Ducky Derby, vendor and parade fees and the minimal T-shirt sales, each with their own additional restrictions. Even the band, Miles from Chicago, is free to watch, and paid for by Fall City Day proceeds.

“The fact that everyone volunteers is the only reason we can give back about $10,000 every year,” said Dix.

This year’s volunteers include fun-run coordinators Perry and Sharon Wilkins and Kirk and Sophie Harris, Angela Donaldson organizing the kiddie parade, Libby Phillips on the grand parade, Sean and Renee Christensen on the (free) watermelon-eating contest and Laurie Hauglie on the ducky derby. Heather Hamerly and the Mount Si wrestling club are running the kids carnival in a new location this year on 336th, next to the Farmhouse Market.

In return, all those volunteers get is a day of community building, and one of those T-shirts.

The Fall City Day committee, sporting the 2015 event shirt with a Seahawk logo.

FALL CITY DAY

Schedule of Events

• 6:30 a.m. State Route 202 closes, 324th to Preston – Fall City Road
• 7 a.m. Mason’s annual Pancake Breakfast, Masonic Lodge
• 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Fun run registration, Olive Taylor Quigley Park
• 9 a.m. Fun runs starts, 10k, 5k and 1k walk; Awards announced at 10:30 a.m.
• 9 to 10 a.m. Parade registration and check-in at Totem Pole Park
• 10 a.m. Kiddie parade and hay ride check-in at Fall City Library
• 11 a.m. Kiddie parade, followed by the Grand parade, with Grand Marshals Carl and Nadine Lind
• 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Live music, Miles from Chicago, plays at Olive Taylor Quigley Park
• 1:30 p.m. Watermelon eating contest, Olive Taylor Quigley Park
• 2:30 p.m. Ducky Derby race, Snoqualmie River; Winners announced at 4 p.m.
• ALL DAY Arts and crafts, food on Main Street; Kids carnival, Fire Dept. dunk tank, at 335th and  Market

Miles from Chicago plays high-energy dance music, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Olive Taylor Quigley Park.