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Artist’s rendering of the Centennial Pergola which is expected to be completed by Duvall Days. It will be located in the depot area. Courtesy of City of DuvallThe 53rd annual Duvall Days Festival will be held on Saturday, June 1,  and Sunday, June 2.
 

This year’s festival will be held in conjunction with the City of Duvall’s Centennial Celebration and will be bringing back some of the old favorites such as the Frog Jump Contest and the infamous Cow Pie Bingo.
Highway 203 (Main St.) will be closed from 8 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., or as soon as the parade is finished and the road cleaned up.
 

Saturday’s events will begin with the inaugural Irwin Group half marathon in the morning at 7 a.m. Then the kiddie parade starts at 10:30 a.m., immediately followed by the grande parade with this year’s grand marshals, Ray and Tove Burhen. There will be no parade judging this year.
 

There will be an announcer, so if you are planning on being in the parade, make sure to complete the parade form, so he knows what you want him to say about you or your organization.
 

All those who wish to enter either the kiddie or grande parade need to download the application from the website at www.duvalldaysfestival.com, or pick one up at Duvall City Hall. All entries must complete a form and submit it no later than May 15.
 

There will be an array of vendors located at various locations in the downtown area, primarily in the Riverview School District parking lot on 1st Ave NE. Duvall Fitness will be sponsoring a kids’ fair in the Riverview Plaza parking lot on Main St. There will be a Health & Wellness Fair in the Duvall Chiropractic parking lot on Main St., as well. Various types of entertainment, including music, will be held throughout the day in the Union Bank parking lot as well as other downtown locations.
 

The 7th annual Big Rock Classic Car and Cycle Show will be held in the Safeway parking lot from 9 a.m. - 3  p.m.
 

Sunday starts with the 8th annual Duvall 5K/10K runs and kids’ dashes, and continues with the 53rd annual Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast.
 

All festival vendors must complete an application, available online at www.duvalldaysfestival.com, or at Duvall City Hall. Applications and payments must be returned no later than May 15.
 

For further information, please contact us through the website, or contact Margie Coy at (425) 788-3923.
If you would like to help support the Duvall Days Festival, donations may be made by sending a check payable to “Duvall Days Festival” to P.O. Box 1121, Duvall, through the website, or at Union Bank.   

RAK Week participants in front of the Duvall Library (and throughout town) enjoyed plenty of response to their signs. Photo by Connie Berg

So many wonderful things took place during Duvall’s Local Random Acts of Kindness Week, March 4th-10th.

RAK Week got a huge kick-off this year at the Kindness Workshop held at Stillwater Elementary, the brainchild of the principal, Jack Madigan. Jack was deeply impacted by the events at Sandy Hook Elementary and wanted to do a Kindness Workshop, to honor the students and teachers whose lives were cut short. So many people came together to make the workshop a success. It was so successful, in fact, that it may become an annual event.

Each year Duvall’s RAK Week grows bigger and bigger. This year a huge banner hung over Main Street in Duvall to promote RAK Week. The banner was purchased using donations from Cascade Valley Designs, Duvall Family Drugs, DuVall’s Dazzling Designs and Christi Irwin of Irwin Realty.

Also new this year are Kindness Clubs in almost every school in the Riverview School District.  A big thank you to Kerri Gould for all of her efforts with the clubs and for being one of the original founders of the RAK Club at Cedarcrest.

Some of my favorite highlights of RAK Week were:

The Eagle Rock Kindness Club and the Kindness Club at Cedarcrest met together and worked on kindness artwork and shared RAK stories.

Happy Honking Friday! A group of about 20 kids and adults stood in downtown Duvall with bright yellow balloons and signs that read “Honk If You Love Local Businesses!” The response was amazing! For an hour and a half, horns honked and we waved and screamed and smiled. Two local business owners were so impressed that they bought all of us ice-cream cones.

Giving out chocolate kisses to business owners, at meetings, to RAK students and to friends.

Listening to the Eagle Rock Elementary students singing kindness songs at the Random Acts of Kindness meeting.

Hearing stories about kind acts, especially at coffee places where one after another, people were buying coffee for each other.

Going out to lunch with the Cedarcrest Random Acts of Kindness Club students at Ixtapa and randomly buying lunch for someone at another table.

There are always so many people to thank after RAK Week.

This year there are too many to list so I want to do a couple of Kindness “Shout Outs.”

Thank you to Leanne Christensen, a longtime local resident of Duvall who is in the process of moving out of state.

Leanne has been a huge help in spreading kindness in Duvall for many, many years.

Thank you to Miss Sarah and Mr. Luke for the amazing kindness songs you taught the kids at Eagle Rock. What a wonderful way to spread kindness.

Thank you Liz at Duvall’s True Value for making the Kindness Corner SO beautiful with bright yellow daffodils blooming everywhere. Thank you to Paul, Randy and Colby for seven years of support.

For the past four years, Duvall has included Carnation, Monroe and Woodinville to join us during our local RAK Week.

If there is anyone who would like to be the contact/point person for Carnation, Monroe or Woodinville, please contact me through the Random Acts of Kindness website.

RAK Week has been over for several weeks now but the hope is that RAKs will continue to take place throughout the year.  I personally have witnessed a couple of awesome RAKs take place in the past couple of days.

At Oasis Nails in Duvall, gentlemen paid for a manicure for a complete stranger because she was celebrating her retirement. I have also witnessed, on several occasions, a local Duvall resident, Helen, who for the past several weeks has been picking up roadside garbage all over and around Duvall.  She has even been picking up trash on Novelty Hill. Thank you Helen.

www.rakduvall is currently supporting two local families in need. One is the Bender family. Mark Bender was recently paralyzed in a surfing accident and we are raising money to support Mark, his wife Sarah and their four young boys.

We are also supporting Mia, a beautiful two-year-old who was born with port wine stains covering almost half of her body.

Please visit www.rakduvall.com and show your support.

This volunteer is one of many who helped set up for last year’s Duvall Civic Club Plant Sale. Courtesy photo.

As spring begins to show its bloom, people around the area are already digging up green treasures from their yards to donate to the 41st annual Duvall Civic Club Plant and Garden Art Sale.

The sale is Saturday, May 11, (the day before Mother’s Day) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  It takes place in the parking lot behind the old Duvall Library and along the adjacent Riverside Avenue.

“You can take home a piece of local history for your garden,” Duvall Civic Club Vice President Claire Eaton said of the sale, which will feature thousands of perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, garden starts and blooming baskets. “Some perennials people have donated in years past have been growing in this valley for over a hundred years.”

Plant sale volunteers are taking plant donations now. So if you can donate plants or you have questions, contact Claire Eaton at (206) 371-4579 or at eclaire_3@hotmail.com.

Plant sale organizers are looking for donations of perennials, extra seed starts (especially vegetable starts), unusual annuals, herbs, shrubs, small trees, hanging baskets, pansies, and more. Plants must be potted, and arrangements can be made for drop-off or pickup.

“You can connect with familiar faces at the plant sale,”  plant sale vendor and Civic Club supporter Deb Kyle commented. “So you can see how a particular plant from last year is doing. And it’s a wonderful way to find some great plant deals.”

The plant sale is an event for the non-gardener as well, with plenty of food, local artists and garden art to choose from. And it’s kid-friendly and family-friendly, as children’s librarian Katherine Huber can attest. Huber leads the kids’ activities at the plant sale, including the potting of Mother’s Day marigolds the kids can do while their parents shop.

“The plant sale is a wonderful place to get a Mother’s Day gift,” Huber remarked.

The Duvall Civic Club uses proceeds from the Duvall Civic Club Plant and Garden Art Sale to help support community services such as the SnoValley Senior Center, Hopelink, the Duvall Library, the Riverview School District and SummerStage performances, as well as to fund two scholarships for Cedarcrest High School students.

To find out more, see the Duvall Civic Club’s Facebook page, where you can sign up as a Civic Club Facebook friend.

And for those interested in joining in Duvall Civic Club events through the year, Civic Club meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. in the old library’s downstairs meeting room (except for the summer break in July and August).

Visitors and new members are always welcome.

Barb Olsen is a local writer and journalist and a volunteer with the Duvall Civic Club.

“Be the Change” will be held Saturday, May 4, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., at Chief Kanim Middle School, Fall City.

Over the last six years, the Be The Change Leadership Conference has evolved into a place for local teens to be inspired about making a difference.

Youth voice and leadership are important. The Be The Change Leadership Conference  is about hearing those voices and expanding that  leadership.

We are pleased to announce returning speaker and nationally recognized innovator on the topics of leadership, community organizing and prevention – Nigel Wrangham.

He will be accompanied by several trained youth co-facilitators and other adult presenters from the local community to address this year’s youth selected topics: Media and you, You and your brain,  Stress management and dealing with depression, Healthy relationships –domestic violence, date  rape, sexuality, Dazed and confused –substance abuse – alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs and other drugs, Show me the money –Financial responsibility, Live it up! Don’t give it up! – suicide  prevention, Police response to particular situations,   driving and texting, careers in law enforcement.

If that’s not enough, the flow of the day is designed to have a chance to meet with fellow youth, have FUN, enjoy a free lunch and go home with a free T-shirt!

For more details and registration, visit snoqualmievalleycommunity network.org.