PORT ANGELES — For those looking to shake up their world, to rock and roll and tumble, the sixth annual Rock, Gem and Jewelry Show will form the bedrock of a weekend of science and entertainment.
The show will offer geologic treasures for wear, use and display from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
Admission is free, and each child who enters will receive a free polished rock while supplies last.
The Vern Burton center will be packed with vendors selling rough and polished rocks, gemstones, fossils, beads, slabs, carvings, crystals, minerals, Uruguay amethyst geodes, shells, jewelry, wire wrapping, woodworking, cabochons and stone-working equipment.
25 vendors
About 25 vendors will have extensive collections of items for sale or display, said Rob Merritt, event coordinator for the Port Angeles Parks and Recreation Department, which organizes and sponsors the rock show.
“Some of the vendors have two or even three stalls,” Merritt said.
Vendor items include something for every level of interest in lapidary arts, he said, from simple rocks for children to collect to rare stone for collectors, tools and finished jewelry.
A silent auction of items donated by vendors also is planned.
Featured speaker
New this year is featured speaker mineralogist Russell Boggs of Cheney, who teaches at Eastern Washington University.
Boggs, who holds a doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present three lectures.
They are at:
■ 11 a.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday on rock identification.
■ 2 p.m. Sunday on rock hounding in the North Cascades.
Boggs has been involved in identifying five new minerals: Okanoganite, Calcio Hilarite, Cerio Betafite, George Choaite and Tschernichite, organizers said.
Boggsite, a colorless-to-white zeolite, was named after Boggs and his father, Robert Maxwell Boggs of Seattle.
Boggs also will be available at times to identify rocks brought by visitors.
Also new this year will be Rock Alley, featuring children’s games.
Food sales benefit
Proceeds from food sales will benefit Hayden Webber, 10, a Port Angeles girl who needs surgery to be able to walk without a prosthetic.
This is the second year the family has served food at the rock show to help fund her surgery.
Hayden was born with proximal focal femoral deficiency, a condition that caused her right femur to grow bent, twisted and shorter than her left.
She walks using a “third foot,” a brace for her shortened leg that acts as a prosthetic to match the length of her healthy leg.
A specialty hospital in Florida offers leg-lengthening surgery and a new knee so she can walk with both of her feet on the ground, Jodi Thies, Hayden’s mother, has said.
West Coast children’s medical organizations have not been able to offer the procedure, Thies said.
The family will need to relocate there for at least two months during the procedure and recovery, she said.
Donations for Hayden also can be made at www.gofundme.com/surgeries-for-Hayden. As of Thursday, $10,011 had been raised toward a $60,000 goal.
For more information about the show, phone Merritt at 360-417-4523.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
