SEQUIM –– A spring season of enjoying the outdoors to raise cash culminates Saturday, when the fifth annual Dungeness Spring Fling wraps up with a 10.1-mile stroll and root beer floats.
The Dungeness Spring Fling Frolic caps the annual fundraiser for the Dungeness River Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.
All are invited to participate in the frolic, which begins at 10:30 a.m. with a 10.1-mile walk/run from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center at 1033 Old Blyn Highway and down the Olympic Discovery Trail to the river center.
“We’re going to be living it up,” said Gretha Davis, one of the organizers.
Davis was set to churn up homemade ice cream that will have Bedford’s root beer poured over it for the celebratory root beer float toasts Saturday.
The finale party runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Funds are raised through team sponsorships.
Since the start of May, teams have sought sponsorships to do stuff outside to raise $25,000 for environmental educational programs run by the river center.
“We’re just overwhelmed and appreciative of how creative people got to raise funds,” said Powell Jones, director of the river center.
“We’re really proud of all that our volunteers do to help and that we have a fundraiser that really fits our mission.”
Funds are used to fund educational programs for groups at the center and help pay for teachers for those programs.
Davis has walked the Discovery Trail several times this spring. She and her team of Broom Busters spent every Wednesday in May pulling noxious scotch broom from the shoulders of 5 miles of the trail.
“We just noticed that it’s really taking over, and it was making us crazy,” she said.
In its first year of pulling weeds as one of the Spring Fling’s spontaneous fundraising ventures, the Broom Busters not only swept pesky scotch broom off the trail from the tribal center to Whitefeather Way but raised more than $1,800 worth of sponsorships.
“Let me tell you, all the people that got together, we had a blast,” Davis said.
The group received help from the Peninsula Trails Coalition, and Clallam County’s noxious weed program loaned wrenches to remove the weed.
One would think, with all that time spent pulling weeds off the trail, the Broom Busters might be dreading the upcoming 10.1-mile walk along it.
“No. Not at all,” Davis said. “We love the Discovery Trail.”
Teams’ fundraising
Julie Jackson, who has been in on the Spring Fling since its inception in 2009, reported that as of Wednesday, teams this year have raised a total of $25,270.
Since its founding, the Spring Fling has raised more than $80,000 for the river center.
Anyone can do anything to help with the fling, as long as it’s outdoors and they can get sponsors to donate to the center for their activity.
“We’re really open to what people do as their activity as long as they’re outdoor-based,” Jones said.
Jones helped with his Dirty Face Racing team, which raced mountain bikes around the Northwest.
Jackson’s Swift Swallows team raised money for the river center as people paid it to spot bird species.
In total, the five-member team spotted 289 different species, costing one sponsor who pledged $1 per species a pretty penny.
After Jackson told them the high number of species the team had spotted, “they dropped a check off at the river center for $289.”
Local driftwood sculptor Tuttie Peetz raised $4,525, Jackson reported, after people sponsored her to sand driftwood outside for three hours a day during May.
Match challenge
An anonymous donor, Jackson reported, added to the challenge this year by pledging up to $5,000 to pay staff of the center if the frolicers could come up with a matching total.
Pledges toward the match totaled $1,600 through Wednesday, Jackson said, leaving $3,400 to meet the goal.
Donations garnered Saturday will count toward that total, she said.
“We really want everybody to come out and help us make that match of $5,000 so we can improve our education offerings,” Jackson said.
For more information, visit www.dungenessrivercenter.org/SpringFling.html or email Davis at gretha.d@wavecable.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
