Rainier Lions Club members perform in a past year's Rainier Round-Up Days Parade.
Rainier Round-Up Days, Aug. 24-26, will be filled to the brim with bluegrass, a parade, good food and a fair amount of vendors to round it all out.
“It’s kind of carrying on a tradition,” said Charmayne Garrison, city administrator of Rainier. “It stems from the old rodeo days and when that kind of went away it was like, ‘geeze we’re kind of missing something here.’ And then the FFA took it over for Rainier Apple Days … when that fizzled out, that’s when the city took it over and called it Rainier Round-Up Days. It’s basically just rounding up all of the people and coming together for an event.”
Vendors will be open Friday, Aug. 24, to Saturday, Aug. 25. They can also be there Sunday, Aug. 26, at their discretion. Those that want to be vendors can go to City of Rainier’s website at cityofrainierwa.org or call Rainier City Hall at 360-446-2265.
The bluegrass festival, called a ‘pick’n party,’ will be held Friday, Aug. 24, to Sunday, Aug. 26, at Wilkowski Park and is sponsored by the Rainier Lions Club.
In the park, there will be hamburgers on Friday and Saturday starting at 11 a.m., and the We Love Rainier Washington group is putting on a breakfast from 7-10 a.m., Friday to Sunday.
At the festival, there will be an open-mic night from 7-8 p.m. on Friday, then there will be main shows from 2-5 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. on Saturday.
“But if you really love music, go through the campers,” said Evan Burnett, treasurer of the Lions Club. “The folks out there really enjoy people coming and visiting them, and they’re playing different songs that you aren’t going to hear (on the main stage). It’s a vacation to them — they’re relaxing, doing what they like.”
Often, if someone has a banjo or some other type of bluegrass instrument, they can befriend some people around the campers and join into their jam sessions, Burnett said.
Garrison said that all this music has helped keep the whole event together.
“The bluegrass became a reason for us to continue holding our parade, because it would draw people in,” she said. Yelm has one. Tenino has one, and Rainier did not want to be left out. So we found a way to continue it, and the bluegrass has helped us do that.”
The parade starts at 11 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 25 on Binghampton Street, and do not worry — the candy will be flying. Staging is in the high school/middle school parking lot. Email rainierparade@yahoo.com to get an application to be in the parade.
At the parade, a teen girl’s contest called Miss Round-Up is spurring off this year, with Autumn Kinney as the first ever Miss Round-Up. She and other teens from the program will be in the parade passing out flyers to announce the kick-off of this contest, drumming up interest for next year’s showing.
In addition, this year’s grand marshal for the parade is known in Rainier not only as a retired politician, but as a volunteer as well.
“Awarding the grand marshal honor is the city’s way of letting someone know how much they are appreciated,” Garrison told Nancy Decker, this year’s grand marshal.
Decker, who was once a city council member and mayor of Rainier, couldn’t find words at first to express her thanks to Garrison and the city for bestowing such a distinction upon her.
“I’m grateful to be a part of the parade, for starters, and it makes me feel really good because it’s kind of been a tradition in my family,” Decker said. “My mother was mayor, and she was a grand marshal — it’s just a great feeling. I am very honored.”
In fact, Decker told the Nisqually Valley News that her mother was also on Rainier’s council in the 1980s and served as mayor for four years, and after that time, she didn’t know what to do with herself. When Decker stepped down from her own time as mayor in December of 2009, she was looking for some rest, but also something to occupy her time. So she cooked for the senior center and increased her time at the food bank.
“Currently, I’m the executive director of the Rainier Emergency Food Center,” Decker said. “We operate two days a week serving the people. We don’t just do food, but furniture and miscellaneous items as well — anything that’s donated to us, we have available to the people, and we serve the rural Thurston County.”
While local politics may have been what Decker was known for in Rainier, she’s found a true passion in her work at the food center, she said.
“Right now we do anywhere from 500 to 700 meals a week that we’re distributing,” Decker said. “It’s very rewarding — I call it my calling.”
