The Olga Daze festival will once again entertain, tempt and treat islanders on July 16 with live music, “The World’s Shortest Parade,” a silent auction, yard sale, quilt raffle and bake sale featuring “The Willis Girls’” famed homemade maple bars. Other donations for the bake sale table may be brought to the clubhouse on Friday from 5 to 6 p.m. or Saturday morning.
“People come to Olga Daze early each year and line up just so they can get a maple bar,” said organizer Barbara Wheeler. “After printing this in the article for the 2010 Olga Daze, we practically had a traffic jam and the maple bars once again quickly flew off the grills.”
Money raised each year is used to maintain and improve the Olga Community Club’s clubhouse. Proceeds this year will go toward repairing the roof.
The food pavilion, again under the direction of Jenny Welch, will be loaded with baked potatoes, hot dogs, Italian sausage sandwiches, lemonade and strawberry shortcake. The live music has again been arranged by Carl Burger. The lineup includes “JP & The Rhythm Boys,” “The Orcas String Studio,” “The Parking Angels” and Burger, playing and singing with Marc Cohen. The yard sale has been operated by George Post (founder of the Exchange) and his partner, Maria Papademetriou, for the past several years. They will be at the Olga Park on Thursday and Friday, July 14 and 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. to accept donations.
The silent auction is headed by repeat chairman, artist Jackie Kempfer. Items this year include original paintings, a 60-million-year-old fossil from Morocco donated by Orcas Arts, whale watching, handmade jewelry, a collection of vintage duck cookie jars, decoys, and a blackberry pie from Cafe Olga.
The parade will begin at noon from the clubhouse, proceed to the dock and back to the Orcas Artworks. The Grand Marshal this year comes in three-for-the-price-of-one. The “Willis Girls” – Betty (Willis) Marcum, Dorothy (Willis) Lundquist, and baby sister, Judy (Willis) Slater – will lead the parade. Jane Barfoot Hodde will be presenting cards and books at a history table, with the able assistance of her daughters, Irene O’Neil and Fran Macmillan (creators of Olga Daze), and local historian Tom Welch.
