Sandhill crane festival takes wing in Othello

City, chamber: Event puts community 'on the map'

OTHELLO - The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival puts Othello on the map.

So said both Jan Arriola, executive director of the Greater Othello Chamber of Commerce, and Ehman Sheldon, city administrator for the City of Othello.

"It increases our tourism activities by quite a bit, by bringing in bird lovers from all over the United States," Arriola said. "It fills our hotels, restaurants and it gives people the opportunity to visit Othello, see what a great little town we are."

Arriola compared the cranes and the festival in Othello to the swallows returning every year to the mission of San Juan Capistrano in California.

"It helps people know our town is here and get to know our merchants and our citizens," she said. "It's something unusual."

The opportunity arises for festival participants to learn about the other things available in the area.

"It shows them we have a lot of activities," Arriola said.

"This festival is one of the most popular events in Othello," Sheldon said. "It certainly puts Othello on the map, and we encourage everybody to come and see the sandhill cranes and experience the sandhill crane festival."

The city supports the festival in every fashion possible, Sheldon added.

"We spruce up the city, we have some trash picked up, we make sure facilities are available and our parks for the number of people that are here," he said. "We try to put our best face on to show the world Othello has something special to offer."

Othello is going to be on the map this weekend, as the sandhill crane festival gets under way.

"We're right on schedule, in fact I think we're a little bit ahead of schedule this year," said festival spokesperson LuAnn Morgan.

There are more volunteers coming to work on the festival than ever before, she said.

"We couldn't do it without those volunteers," she said. "We have certain people that guide people to the rooms when they're lost in the school, helping people get on the buses, taking tickets and just all kinds of different things."

Morgan expected the 1,500 people who typically show up at the festival will be matched, and maybe even surpassed.

"We've sold out the banquet, the tours - we're really doing well on registrations this year," she said. "Of course, then we always have the people that just show up and walk in that day."

Walk-ins are encouraged, Morgan added.

Lectures begin tonight at 8:15 p.m. in the Othello High School music room. Chuck Gibilisco presents a visual narrative about the cranes of Bhutan. The event is free and does not required festival general registration.

The high school's classrooms house a large variety of presentations Saturday. Topics include Ice Age floods, wildlife photography, Washington ground squirrels, burrowing owls, bats, rattlesnakes, insects, wildlife and sporting optics, pygmy rabbits, raptors, whales, penguins, historic trails and cranes.

Lectures begin at 10 a.m., with successive lectures beginning at the top of each hour. The last period begins at 4 p.m.

Attendance at these lectures requires a general admission ticket, which is $7 for adults, $5 for people aged 65 and over. Children under the age of 12 enter for free when accompanied by a paying adult.

The Othello Rotary Club serves a full breakfast at the high school from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

"One thing we'd like people to understand is you don't have to go to the festival to attend the Rotary breakfast," Morgan said. "The money this year is going toward a project they're working on with the Othello Food Bank. They want to get a freezer unit in there for the food items, and it's quite a spendy item, from what I understand."

Othello High School Music Boosters provide a continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and other refreshments throughout the day.

Children's activities begin Saturday at 10 a.m. and conclude at 4 p.m. Craft activities in the high school gymnasium include cereal box birdhouses, pygmy rabbit pencil holders, pine cone owls, beaded origami cranes, crane puppets, pinhole creatures and binoculars along with crane bingo and other wildlife games. Activities in Room 531 include mask making and clay creatures. Mask making ends at 3 p.m.

Children are issued a passport which is stamped as each activity is completed. Visiting all the stations requires several hours, so festival organizers encourage making plans accordingly. Parents and grandparents are encouraged to accompany their children through the activities.

Throughout the day on Saturday, entries to the festival art contest will be on display in the high school gymnasium, sponsored by the Old Hotel Art Gallery. The gym will also be the site of dozens of displays and exhibits about wildlife, area refuges and other public lands, wildlife related commercial offerings along with other Columbia Basin-related displays.

The Old Hotel Art Gallery, located at 33 E. Larch St., hosts a wine tasting Saturday afternoon from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Foxy Roxy Wine Company is the host winery, Arriola said.

Free horse-drawn wagon rides to and from the Old Hotel will be available Saturday afternoon.

The featured and concluding lecture will be on Saturday evening at the festival banquet beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the high school corridor. Mike Denny speaks on "Owls of Eastern Washington."

"That's not necessarily new because he's been here since the very first year, but this is the very first time he's been highlighted as a keynote speaker," Morgan said. "He's got a huge following. He's very well-liked, very knowledgeable."

The meal's entrees include Ahi tuna, roast duck and bison Wellington presented by chef Lance Wells. A silent auction featuring numerous wildlife items will precede the meal.

Tours begin at the high school, and most activities take place there. Reichert's Showhouse is showing a movie, "Arctic Tale," following the life cycle of walruses and polar bears, at 4:30 p.m.

"That's another good opportunity for people who, after a full day of lectures, go over to the theater, kick back, have a bag of popcorn, watch a good movie and then come on back and enjoy the banquet if they're signed up for that," Morgan said.

Festival program brochures can be requested by calling 1-866-SANDHIL or viewed at the festival's Web site at www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org.

Registration is also available at the high school on Saturday with doors opening at 7 a.m.