Once dark truly settled over Holmes Harbor, Grayson McIntosh grew antsy.
He had waited for a couple of hours on the rocky beach, occasionally throwing a rock toward the lapping waves. Otherwise the three-year-old Oak Harbor boy fidgeted in his tiny camping chair next to parents Brittney and Bud.
As the first shell launched in an array of white, green, red, purple, blue and yellow, his face was all fascination at the 19th annual Celebrate America.
“He loves fireworks,” Grayson’s mom said of him. “Definitely a little pyro.”
The McIntosh family was one of many enjoying their first Celebrate America. Conditions were right to bring out a massive crowd that sprawled across Freeland Park, from the hill along Stewart Road/Shoreview Drive to the beach and grass near the playground.
With temperatures hovering around 70 degrees most of the day, the food-music-zoology-play festival had lots to offer. One of the biggest draws of “oohs” and “aahs,” other than the colorful pyrotechnics, was Scott Petersen, better known as the Reptile Man.
Almost like an attentive classroom, kids sat cross legged on the pavement in front of the stage. Petersen walked around with lizards and a tortoise, but one of the real crowd-pleasers was an alligator snapping turtle. He demonstrated the turtle’s defense, its insanely powerful jaws, by holding a piece of paper in front of its mouth before it snapped shut on it, cleanly slicing the yellow sheet.
Other than entertainment from Petersen and bands Maggie’s Fury and Crossing. Under the Radar, a barbershop quartet, performed various songs and the national anthem leading to the fireworks and patriotic program honoring veterans.
The large crowd attracted a couple of passers by on their way to a house up the hill on East Harbor Road. Drew and Cheryl Rothschild of Austin, Texas took in a performance and eyed the Reptile Man while they were fully attired in Old Glory’s colors, including red pants, a flag denim jacket, red, white and blue wreaths and flag-printed glasses.
“We had to check it out,” Drew Rothschild said of the festival
“We’re very enthusiastic,” he added, regarding Cheryl and his attire. “Or at least we appear that way.”
On a day filled with spectacle, one booth relied on the enthusiasm of its workers to draw in customers for Krispy Kreme donuts. American Heritage Girls Troop 1202 peddled the flagship pastry as a fundraiser for the Christian-based scouting organization. Kyli DeMers, 14, had a song and dance imploring people to buy donuts by spinning about with an empty donut box in hand looking like an old-time street vendor. They started the day with 80 dozen donuts and hoped they would sell out, because as one girl said, “We do not want extra donuts.”
One of the real treats was the gratitude expressed upon purchase of one (or a dozen) donuts, when the girls said in unison, “Thank you for supporting American Heritage Girls.”
Some 100 volunteers made the day, many from South Whidbey Assembly of God, the church that organizes and hosts the event led by its pastor, Matt Chambers. At the church’s curly fries stand, main fryer Nathan Chambers said they went through 600 pounds of potatoes. The church’s other busy stand for pies and pop sold 25 pies cut into slices. Working a long day at the festival, then returning the next day to clean the park was an act of service for many of the volunteers like Gloria Milholland.
“It’s fun when you love the people you’re with, even when you’re slinging garbage,” she said.
The festival’s lost and found tent had only recovered one lost wallet prior to the fireworks. What they would find during clean up the next day is always one of the most interesting parts of the community celebration, Milholland said.
