DARRINGTON – Forty miles from the nearest movie theater, 30 from the closest shopping mall, Darrington is the kind of picturesque mountain community city dwellers dream of escaping to.
It’s also the kind of place that can make teenagers feel trapped, alone.
Isolated.
Without the typical diversions, such as professional sports, bowling alleys and even Starbucks stores, many teens experiment with drugs and alcohol.
After three young people died over the summer, some residents decided to step in. Led by lifelong resident Rosetta Willis, they wanted to organize a fun event that embraced and supported young people.
Eyes on the future, they looked back.
They remembered the long-extinct Timber Bowl.
In the ’40s and ’50s, just about everyone in Darrington turned out for the parade and loggers play day. People were proud, not just of the event, but of their community.
Willis wanted that feeling back.
So she resurrected the Timber Bowl. Renamed the Timber Fest, she sandwiched a parade, a barbecue dinner, games and a dance around Darrington’s homecoming football game Friday night.
She said she hoped students would attend the event instead of drinking at parties before and after the Loggers played.
Scores of teens – along with parents, grandparents, and little brothers and sisters – showed up.
Sitting on the junior class float in green and yellow, Caitlin Pendergrass and Karissa Clark said Timber Fest is just what students need.
“Over the summer we lost a lot of people,” Caitlin began. “And this really helps students. …”
“Get our minds on other things,” Karissa finished.
Students dressed as pirates, goblins and movie characters drove pickups and dirt bikes through town to the football stadium. A Boy Scout troop, Community Transit’s “Oxy Gene” superhero and even Darth Vader marched through town, tossing suckers at kids.
“I think this is wonderful,” said Minnie Davis, 76. “This is what Darrington needs – a good shot in the arm. They need some more activities in town.”
Queen of the 1948 Timber Bowl, Davis rode through the parade in a convertible alongside Mayor Joyce Jones, a one-time Timber Bowl princess.
Kids from the Sauk-Suiattle tribe rode on a float drumming and waving to bystanders. Alcohol and drug use is a big temptation for tribal kids and events such as the Timber Bowl help keep them on the right track, said Eugene Edwards, the tribe’s youth and recreation prevention coordinator.
“With the lifestyle now with alcohol, you go into any small town like Darrington and we have three bars, one store and one gas station,” he said. “It’s a real big issue.”
Not everyone at the festival was optimistic that it would keep kids clean. Eighth-grader Kelsey Darst said she didn’t see how one event could avert a problem that affects so many.
But she went with her friends, scooping up handfuls of candy.
Nearby, members of the Darrington Drama Club were rowdily preparing for their parade debut.
“I think it will help because everyone in the community will be together and having fun together instead of doing stuff on our own and then coming to the game,” sophomore Rebecca Di Maggio said.
Nodding, her seventh-grade sister, Nicole Di Maggio added, “It brings spirit back into the town.”
Then she turned and headed off in a long gray wig and a cape – happily playing her role in the revival of an event she never thought to miss.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@ heraldnet.com.
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