While diamonds are traditionally more appropriate at this time of year, a pre-Valentine’s Day event in Oak Harbor next weekend could convince hundreds of people an amethyst can be a woman’s best friend, too.

Poised to start its fourth decade of showing off nature’s special sparklies, the 28th annual “Sweetheart of Gems” rock show will pull Whidbey Island’s best rock, gem and mineral specimens out of display cases and dusty shoe boxes for two days of lapidary glory.

Co-sponsored by the South Whidbey Pebble Pushers and the Whidbey Island Gem Club of Oak Harbor, the show will feature 30 cases full of agates, amethysts, geodes, calcite crystals, quartz crystals, fossils, petrified wood and Washington state minerals. Bob Jimenez, a longtime Pebble Pusher and organizer of the “Sweetheart” show, said it is the home state rocks and minerals that grab the attention of the 3,000 to 5,000 people that attend the show each year.

“These rocks come in wide varieties,” he said. Among them are Walker Valley geodes and crystals, Snoqualmie crystal clusters, Bruneau jasper from Idaho, carnelians and agates.

About 50 Whidbey Island rockhounds will bring rock specimens from their own collections plus collections held in common by the two rock clubs. Taking center stage will be a special exhibit of dinosaur, marine and leaf fossils owned by Pebble Pusher John Evelrum.

For the past several years, Evelrum has been accumulating the fossil specimens in conjunction with Seattle’s Burke Museum. In his collection are fossils of small dinosaur bones and 50-million-year-old apple and birch trees that once grew in Washington. He will even have a few lumpy fossils at the show that will ring a few bells for everyone who sees them, in spite of their scientific name.

“They’re dinosaur ‘poop,’ if you will,” he said.

Also featured at the show will be several lapidary specialists who will explain how they facet crystals and otherwise prepare ornamental rocks and gems, including making cabochons from colored minerals, flint knapping, bead stringing, intarsia and other skills.

There will also be several special memorial display cases from past members.

People attending the show can take home some of the rocks they see by purchasing mineral specimens in the show’s silent auction. These are usually material that has been collected on the many field trips taken by club members and donated for the sale to raise funds for various club activities. The clubs award scholarships, put on special shows and events and teach classes in schools, libraries and other sites.

Returning to the show again will be the popular Women’s Table and Men’s Table.

Browsers at the Women’s Table will see a display of jewelry, polished stones and other artistic rock creations, such as seascapes, rock “critters,” butterflies, wind chimes and whirlygigs.

The men will sell rough rocks for cutting and polishing, geodes and polished rock specimens. The show also features dealers who offer lapidary supplies, precious and semi-precious crystals from around the world, finished jewelry and other creations made from rocks.

Also at the show will be the Pebble Pushers’ junior club, which is made up of members under the age of 18.

Both the South and North Whidbey clubs are affiliated with the American and Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies and the Washington State Mineral Council. They are nonprofit organizations that promote mutual interests in mineralogy, gemology, geology, the art of lapidary skills, and kindred arts and crafts. Membership is open to anyone interested in gems and minerals as a hobby, science or recreation.

Those with questions about the show or who want more information about the Pebble Pushers should call Dick Edwards, 579-2807; Bob Jimenez, 331-4088; or Charlie Bash at 579-1684.