The Mikota family’s century-plus of life and service in Napavine will be honored during this weekend’s Funtime Festival parade.
Mike and Debbie Mikota, longtime volunteers and community fixtures, will ride in the back of their grandson Caden’s 1965 Ford pickup as grand marshals.
Several other grandchildren will likely be in the parade, like Macie, 16, a Napavine High School cheerleader, and Madelyn Stroup, 15, who will be honored for winning seventh place in the nation in the SkillsUSA job skills demonstration competition.
Mike and Debbie Mikota live in a farmhouse at the end of Stella Street that Mike’s grandparents bought in 1909. Five generations of the family have lived there. They still have 88 acres of the old farm, including a barn that Mike has restored and repainted twice.
Their property overlooks Mount Rainier, with a steep hillside that was a popular longtime sledding ground for the community. Allen Creek runs through the bottomland in an area that generations of Napavine High School students have visited to monitor the health of the salmon-bearing stream.
The charming family home has been lovingly restored after it caught fire in 1978. It includes a front door glass window with an etched windmill picture that dates back to the home’s construction in 1907.
They have fruit trees planted by Mike’s grandparents that they still harvest. He grows a bountiful garden each year, leaving extra produce (like apples, zucchini and cherries) at the Ace Hardware store in town for all to eat. His corn plants this year are already waist-high.
Mike, 82, was a volunteer firefighter and has donated historic items to the city, such as an original voting box which is on display at city hall. He served in the Navy, including a tour in Vietnam.
Debbie, 78, came to Napavine to teach school and married Mike 45 years ago. She taught in Napavine from 1970 to 1982 and 2000 to 2020.
They have supported scholarship efforts and volunteered at the food bank. When Debbie saw a need for a particular 4-H program, she led the “Stich n Stir” program.
Eileen Owens, assistant chair of the Napavine Funtime Festival parade committee, said it took some arm-twisting to get the Mikotas to agree to be grand marshals, but she really wanted to honor their decades of service to Napavine and their family’s historic ties to the land.
“They are the type of people who run under the radar as far as anonymity is concerned,” Owens said. “If there is any fundraisers going on, they donate very discreetly. They help out with many projects, also very discreetly and do not want to be singled out because they just want to help out but do not feel like they need to be given any extra accolades ... They are very special people.”
The family’s farm is on the edge of one of the fastest-growing cities in Lewis County. Their property is between the new Stella Station townhouses to the west and 195 homes projected to be built on Woodard Road along the southern edge of their property. Their forested farm is a quiet wooded reminder of the area’s rural heritage.
Mike’s great-grandparents settled in the community of Forest (along today’s Jackson Highway and North Fork Road) in the 1880s. The old Forest-Napavine Road ran through the middle of their property before it was relocated to its current higher ground location. Mike’s uncle Cletus Mikota was in the first class to graduate from Napavine High School.
The family still has close ties to the land and each other.
Mike and Debbie have three children and five grandchildren that all have built memories exploring their family’s wooded property and Allen Creek running through the lowlands.
As Napavine’s annual Funtime Festival brings revelers to the hilltop city this weekend, what does Mike Mikota think about being asked to serve as grand marshal for the town his family has lived in for more than a century?
“I had to catch my breath,” he said. “I couldn't believe they'd even ask us.”
Napavine Funtime Festival set for 11 a.m. Saturday
The annual parade through Lewis County’s third-largest city will take place this Saturday, July 19, at 11 a.m. Other events include vendors, games and family activities outside the shopping center starting at 9 a.m.
Want to help put on Funtime Festival? Meeting set for Wednesday at Fire Hall
Volunteers organizing the Funtime Festival invite anyone who wants to help to join them this Wednesday, July 16, at a meeting held at the fire hall at 7 p.m.
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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.
