Cathy Murphy, who helped create the Onalaska Alliance (OA) and its signature grand event, the Apple Harvest Festival, was outvoted in a recent important decision by the group she loves.
While she is a team player, she cast a dissenting vote when the event’s board made their selection for grand marshals in this weekend’s Onalaska Apple Harvest Festival parade.
The board wanted to honor Cathy and her husband of almost 44 years, Pete, with the place of prominence and appreciation for all they have done for Onalaska and its people.
“I just felt there were other people in the community who needed to be honored before us,” she said in explaining her no vote.
The people who have worked alongside them for years — and the younger generation of community leaders who have been instructed and inspired by their service — felt otherwise.
“This year, we celebrate Pete and Cathy for all the years of volunteering, helping their neighbors, and consistently planning and executing their visions for our community,” Sandy Bowen wrote in the Apple Harvest Festival brochure. “Onalaska is their home, and they are instrumental in the growth of our community.”
Cathy remembers when a group of citizens in Onalaska got together with a grant in 2008 to study who to help and support their unincorporated town. The result was the Onalaska Alliance for Sustainable Community, a nonprofit formed in 2009. (Mossyrock also got a grant, leading to their Blueberry Festival).
The mission of the Onalaska Alliance is to reduce poverty, develop cultural and natural resources, bring diverse people together and sponsor community celebration. Part of their vision was to create a big community event (which not only is fun, but is the main fundraiser to help them operate Carlisle Lake Park, which their nonprofit purchased and now operates).
They looked over the summer schedule and saw that it was too packed to add another event. But there were no big events in the fall. That led to the idea of theming the community bash around the idea of harvest, tying in Onalaska’s foundation history in farming, logging and agriculture.
After clearing the ground and setting up farms, the practical pioneers in Onalaska always planted apple trees. Many of those legacy orchards are still producing fruit.
Apples are not only sweet, they are a way to bring people together. The high school football team, for example, runs the cider press at Apple Harvest Festival (8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Community Youth Center. Bring your apples and jugs). Over the years the same families come back, allowing the coach and older players to literally see the young people of the community grow up year after year as they come back for the good juice.
There’s too much happening in Onalaska to summarize. Go to www.onalaskaalliance.org to get the full rundown. From a fun run to an apple pie-eating content, the festivities are as thick as apples on the tree. One relatively new part of the festival is the farm & homestead tour on Sunday, a self-guided route to some of the heritage and new farms in the greater Onalaska area.
Back to the roots
Cathy and Pete have been involved in the Onalaska Alliance and the Apple Harvest Festival since the beginning.
“It’s been an honor to be involved,” Cathy said. “We’ve loved it. It’s so good for our community, fulfills our mission to bring diverse groups of people together to honor who we are as an agrarian, farming and timber community.”
Earlier this year Pete had to step down from the OA board after being diagnosed with cancer, but he is still an honorary board member. They both have been heartened by seeing so many new younger people stepping in to volunteer and help lead the OA into the future.
Having passed along operation of his Christmas tree farm to his nephew Pat (who will be driving Pete & Cathy in this weekend’s parade), Pete has time to tend to his garden, including all the apple and fruit trees he has planted over the years.
At the time I called them this week for an interview, he was peeling pears. In between setting up booths for 127 Apple Harvest Festival vendors, Cathy was making pear butter.
Pete's chemotherapy has been productive and the community support has been incredible, they say.
“Right now he’s feeling good, side effects and symptoms have been minimal, so there’s a lot to be thankful for,” Cathy told me by phone.
“And we’re not discounting a miracle!” Pat added, loud enough that I could hear him in the background.
“We don’t know how much time we have. We could have years, months. You’re forced to live just being thankful for each day and trusting God for the future. And the bottom line is that’s how we all should be living anyway,” Cathy said. “It refocuses your life. The bottom line is, God has us all in his hands from the beginning to the end. God is present. We have certainly experienced that over and over in this journey.”
Whatever comes ahead is uncertain, but just as apple blossoms in the spring bring a delicious harvest in the fall for the self-reliant people of Lewis County, the dedication and selfless work of people like Pete & Cathy Murphy are bringing forth a bounty of goodness for their community.
Today is for them and for all the people who give back to make something wonderful together. Enjoy.
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Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
