PORT ANGELES — After Mayor Dan Di Guilio adds the last stroke of paint to “Olympic Visions,” the mural at the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain will be officially re-dedicated Saturday.
The ceremonies at the mural at the fountain at First and Laurel streets in downtown Port Angeles will begin at 2 p.m.
Sponsored by Nor’wester Rotary and the Port Angeles Downtown Association, the re-dedication will celebrate the repainting of the mural, originally painted by Tim Quinn and re-painted after his death by Jackson Smart and Dani LaBlond.
Marine Corps veterans will raise a new flag, and Teresa Pierce will sing the national anthem.
Members of Nor’wester Rotary, who funded this and three other downtown murals, will speak, as will Smart and LaBlond.
Robert Sommers, an actor with the Port Angeles Community Players, will portray President Teddy Roosevelt, to explain why the his face and that of his cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, are included in the mural.
An Olympic National Park ranger will provide information about the “critters” in the mural.
The dedication will kick off this week with the Downtown Association’s “Count the Critter Contest.”
The public can enter the contest by submitting an entry with the number of critters they find in the mural.
Contestants are encouraged to look high and low, as there are “critters” everywhere in the mural, including artist Quinn’s signature “Slick the Slug.”
Entry forms can be picked up and returned to Northwest Fudge & Confections, 110 W. First St.; Family Shoe Store, 130 W. Front St.; The Toggery, 105 E. First St.; Port Book and News, 104 E. First St.; and Necessities & Temptations, 217 N. Laurel St.
Entries must be returned to these businesses by 1 p.m. Saturday or by 2 p.m. at the fountain prior to the dedication.
The winner will be drawn from those with the correct answer at the dedication ceremony and must be present to win the prize of $50 in Downtown Dollars.
Prints of the original “Olympic Visions” mural by Quinn will be for sale by Nor’wester Rotary.
Quinn was painting “Olympic Visions” for the second time last December at the time of his death.
He completed the mural in 1999, but the paint peeled away over the years because a sealant wasn’t applied correctly by volunteers.
Quinn, who lived in Sequim, restarted the project last year and was about half done when he died suddenly from cancer-related causes at 62.
Smart, proprietor of Jackson’s SignArt Studio in Port Angeles, jumped to the task when the Nor’wester Rotary Club put a call out to artists interested in finishing the redo of “Olympic Visions.”
Smart was paid about $11,000 by the Rotary club.
