Fall City Days draws nearly 4,000 for fun in the sun

By Kathy Lambert, For the Valley Record

This year’s Fall City Days event was the biggest one yet and full of activities as seen in their colorful advertisement and shirts made to match.

The weeks/months leading up to this ever increasingly attended event were filled with planning and coordinating and organizing and inviting.

Saturday morning started early with a run in three categories: 1K, 5K and 10K. There were 543 total participants in all three distances. The 5K and 10K races are sanctioned by USA Track and Field and Road Runners Club of America. Some of the runners were even sponsored. In the 10K, there were 142 runners, 318 runners in the 5K, and in the 1K, there were 83. The stats on age and times can be found on runsignup.com under Fall City Day Run 2024.

During the run there were lots of other activities, such as staging areas being set up for various events, and booths being set up, and a field at the elementary school being cordoned off for the afternoon landing of the helicopter. The pancake breakfast was in full swing with many happy chefs. The donations raised $500 for the King County Search and Rescue Explorer Program.

The many parade participants were arriving in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The emergency vehicles were part of the beginning of the parade, and the end of the parade had the Baxter Barn float, which was nearly as long as the first responders. There were 31 parade units, some comprised of several vehicles or lots of colorful dancers such as in the Falun Dafa entry. There were participants and smiling little faces in the daycare co-op entry and lots of four-footed friends and many others. There were huge monster-size farm irrigation equipment and colorful farm tractors with experienced drivers who are proud of their role in the community as well as in this parade. A dragon led by Johann Sasynuik of Fu Shan Guan Kung Fu Club of Fall Cityagain graced our parade with beauty.

The weather was beautiful and cooperated fully. However, several people got dehydrated and the medic unit had to be put into action several times. So as a reminder for next year, be sure to bring plenty of water.

The awards were given out:

• Grand Marshall Award: Baxter Barn

• Music: Fall City United Methodist Church Bell Hops (Bell choir)

• General: Falun Dafa

• Float: Wildwood Ranch

• Antiques: Northwest Vintage Iron (tractors all lined up and colorful)

For some background information, the United Methodist Bell Choir has been travelling internationally. Marion Querro is retiring from one part of the choir and turning over the youth section to Carly Moorehead Evans, who has been with the choir since she was a young girl. Congratulations to both Marion and Carly.

Kids zone was sponsored by Coach Molly of Swim Guru, and the area was bristling with lots of activities including face painting, pie throwing (it was so popular they had to get more) and cotton candy exceeded the 300 they prepared for and resupplied, lassoing, and a watermelon eating contest, which was the biggest ever.

I heard two boys asking where the event was and they ran there quickly with great enthusiasm to join others. There were pony rides, dunk tanks and big wheels and a trout derby. It was so cute to see little people looking in the tank window with amazement in addition to the fishing going on.

The helicopter landed at about 1 p.m. The sound alerted the crowd and many came to watch it land.

There was live music all afternoon for all to enjoy. Lost Dogz (with Fall City’s John and Cory Lewis who have pruned the cherry trees along the river for over 20 years), Fabulous Orchids, Power House and STAXX Brothers. Morgan Henley Presents organized the concert that was sponsored by Nelson Treehouse. The music included rock, blues, reggae, jazz, disco and folk so it was fun for all music tastes and pleasures.

Using drone estimation, the attendance during the day included about 4,000 people!

Some of the many people helped to organize this event. To highlight a few: Judy Dix who was chair, and has been part of this team for over 25 years. She is known as Judy the Duty from her years as Fall City Elementary playground duty.

Carrie Lee Gagnon was an organizer extraordinaire. You saw her everywhere and in the golf cart setting up, organizing, answering questions and overseeing the parade. Angela Donaldson was mastermind of all preparation too along with her family of Kevin and Laurie Hauglie. Angela was seen everywhere making sure that everyone’s needs were taken care of and supplies were where they needed to be.

This yearbrought on Lyla Parker (who graduates this week) as an intern from the Two Rivers Big Picture School to assist and train on all the social media and event planning . The day also included Laurie Hauglie’s annual project the Fall City Great Duck Hunt to encourage and motivate the community to get out and walk. There were 40 Civil Air Patrol from the Overlake Squad out of Redmond. The command post youth assisted in so many ways too. They were impressive and hardworking and gave me great confidence in the many skills they are developing and how prepared they are to assist in many events.

Many other hands too numerous to mention made the day so much fun and such a success. Thank you to all who attended and took part is so many ways to make this another wonderful community event.

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Kathy Lambert is a former member of the King County Council who represented the Snoqualmie Valley area.