PORT TOWNSEND — The Rhododendron Festival Association will have a float in its May 21 parade after all.
On Thursday, association President Christy Green received word that a $1,000 donation will be given to the group anonymously, specifically to fund a Rhododendron Festival float.
The connection was facilitated by a member of the Sequim Irrigation Festival board after reading about the neighboring festival’s financial woes in a Monday story in the Peninsula Daily News.
The story said the association had only a couple of thousand dollars, earmarked primarily for scholarships for its three-member royal court, and that it couldn’t afford the $1,000 it would take to build a float for this year’s festival, the 76th annual, which is scheduled May 16-21.
The board member contacted an acquaintance in Port Townsend who will make an anonymous donation, said Sequim Irrigation Festival President Deon Kapetan.
In addition, the Sequim festival board is opening its float barn to the Rhododendron Festival organizers.
Within the next few days, Green and other volunteers will visit the float barn in Sequim and pick out decorations they can use to embellish the float.
“These girls will not go without a float,” Kapetan said Thursday.
“These festivals are important community events, and they are hard to keep going in these economic times,” she added.
“We thought that it was important to help the Rhody Festival out, knowing they would do the same for us if it were the other way around.”
The $1,000 donation will fund the decoration and construction of this year’s Hollywood-flavored theme, “Lights, Camera, Rhody,” on what is now only a platform powered by an automobile engine that is housed in a building at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.
But the anonymous donation, as welcome as it is, doesn’t mean the Rhody Fest’s financial problems are over.
The association will be unable to function as it has in past years without a significant cash infusion, Green said.
To participate in festival parades statewide, the association needs another $7,000 for travel expenses, she said.
And that doesn’t include repairs to the trailer, which according to Green “is on its last legs.”
Rhododendron Festival royalty this year are Carley Lundgren, 18, Emma King,17, and Abigail Green, 16, who is Christy Green’s daughter.
Because her daughter is in the royal court, Green is not involved in royalty arrangements, she said.
One member of the royal court will be crowned queen during the coronation at 5 p.m. April 2 in the Chimacum High School auditorium at 91 West Valley Road. Admission will be $5.
All are slated to receive academic scholarships: $1,500 for the queen and $1,000 for each princess.
The royal court will appear on the float wherever it may travel.
To raise money, volunteers are considering repeating last year’s successful “Dude Looks Like a Lady” fundraiser, where several local businessmen dressed up as women and danced for tips at the Elks Lodge.
The rhody fest’s most recent fundraiser, which was in January, yielded only $20, Green said.
The Sequim Irrigation Festival, which will mark its 116th year May 6-15, has been more fortunate.
Kapetan said the festival has had many people offer help this year.
“More this year than in the past, so many have stepped up with in-kind services,” Kapetan said. “It’s been a phenomenal response.
“So it was only natural to pay it forward,” Kapetan said.
The Sequim Irrigation Festival organizers have had to dip into reserves ever since its float burned in 2008, Kapetan said.
But she’s hopeful that proceeds from Saturday’s festival kickoff at 7 Cedars Casino, which is sold out to 200 people, will allow the festival to begin to replenish its reserves.
The dinner could raise as much as $11,000, Kapetan said.
Green is hoping others will follow the anonymous donor’s example and help raise more funds for the rhody fest.
Donations can be made on the festival association’s website at http://tinyurl.com/4z585b9, or checks can be made out to the Rhododendron Festival and mailed to P.O. Box 766, Port Townsend, WA 98368, to Green’s attention.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
