George combines Presidents Day events
GEORGE — Things are jumping in the only city in the United States to bear a president's full name come Presidents Day.
"It's only natural we would want to celebrate and highlight the holidays that are kind of patriotic, kind of point toward celebrating our flag and country," said Debby Kooy, facility and events manager for the George Community Hall in George. "We have chosen to really highlight Presidents Day and Fourth of July. That's just kind of been our tradition and it's still going strong after 50 years."
Traditional Presidents Day festivities, including a potato feed and giant presidential birthday cake, kick off at 10 a.m. and run through 2 p.m.
George combines several events for this year's holiday. As in years previous, the event offers cake at noon Monday at the community hall.
"It's going to be a bigger cake than it has been in the past couple of years," Kooy said. "I anticipate we'll be able to feed cake to people all day long, because it's 40 cake mixes. It's, like, really a large cake."
The George-Burkettes serve the cake.
At the same time, the parents' group from George Elementary School offers its winter carnival fund-raiser.
The event marks the dedication for a new pavilion, the Rotary Pie Pavilion, at 2 p.m.
"Every year on the Fourth of July, we serve our giant cherry pie," Kooy explained. "We always put up a tent overhead for shade every year and that's kind of major, to have to move equipment for that and get that all set up. We have thought for a number of years it would be really nice if we could have some sort of permanent structure."
The structure came about when a member of the Quincy Valley Rotary told Kooy the chamber wanted to do a project in George. Kooy said she had an idea.
"We have just an absolutely handsome-looking pavilion at the south end of the park," she said. "It's a 30-foot by 40-foot steel structure. That is just going to be such an amazing addition to our park and to everything that goes on there."
The annual George community fund-raiser was originally scheduled for Jan. 22, Kooy said, but weather issues impacted several residents. So coordinators decided to combine the dinner, the hall's biggest fund-raiser, with Presidents Day. Dinner includes roast beef, a baked potato, salad, corn, hot rolls and for dessert, more of the giant presidential birthday cake.
Cost is $15 for an individual to attend the dinner, $25 for a couple and $35 for a family of any size.
"We also decided, since we were doing that much, we would just do a little more and have our February Coffeehouse the same day," Kooy added with a laugh.
Yakima bluegrass group Catch and Release performs two one-hour sets beginning at 7 p.m. Monday.
For more information, access the coffeehouse's Web site at http://www.georgecoffeehouse.com/PresidentsDay.