Organizers making plans for Hoquiam Loggers Playday Sept. 12

If all else fails, fireworks will light up the sky above Olympic Stadium

By Dan Hammock • June 23, 2020 4:30 pm
DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Ed “Mooch” Smith of Eatonville expertly dropped a top on a watermelon and a Volkswagen Beetle at the 2019 Loggers Playday.
DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Ed “Mooch” Smith of Eatonville expertly dropped a top on a watermelon and a Volkswagen Beetle at the 2019 Loggers Playday.

Plans for the 2020 Hoquiam Loggers Playday celebration are going ahead, including a competition featuring only local loggers, the Hoquiam Elks Grand Parade, the Lions Club salmon barbecue and — if the pandemic throws all that out the window — at least there will be fireworks over Olympic Stadium.

“If for some reason we can’t put on the show this year, we’re still going to light up the sky with an amazing fireworks display on Sept. 12,” Don Bell, one of the event organizers and emcee of the annual logging competition, said in a recent Facebook post.

In a report to the Hoquiam City Council Monday night, fellow Playday Committee member and Hoquiam City Councilman Paul McMillan said Monday they “are still going on with the parade and the show. The show will just be local loggers this year, but there will be fireworks and everything else, so we’re planning on having a great show and see how it goes.”

The event hinges on what phase of the governor’s county-by-county safe start program Grays Harbor County is in when the event rolls around Sept. 12. Currently in Phase 3, organizers are hopeful that the county will be well into Phase 4 by September, when large sporting events and gatherings of more than 50 people would be allowed.

“It’s easier to plan for it and stop it if need be, rather than try to start it up later,” said McMillan.

While the prize money events in the competition at Olympic Stadium will be open to local loggers only, Bell is hopeful some of the pros who have been such a fixture of the event for many years will still attend.

“(The pros) are like family to us,” he said. “We’re hoping you come to the show and bring some amateurs to coach and get into the money.” Bell said this is a great opportunity for local amateurs who have never competed to break in to the event, with enough lead notice to practice up on some of the events that are staples of the competition.

Another change this year, and this year only: there will be no printed program for the competition.

“”We’re not going to do a program this year just because we don’t want to ask businesses for money,” said McMillan. “Some have been working all this time, some have not, we didn’t want to embarrass anybody by asking for money right now.”

There will be buttons, of course, with classics like “Hooker” and “Chaser,” and new for this year, “Masticater,” a follow up to last year’s “Snoose” button.

“There will be one specialty button this year, ‘Together We Can,’” said McMillan, in reference to the community being in the same boat when it comes to getting through the challenges of the current pandemic.

Buttons will be available in most local businesses in July. Bell is currently working on a t-shirt design and those will be available some time in August.

Parade

McMillan said the annual Hoquiam Elks Grand Parade is in the planning stages and was discussed at an Elks Lodge meeting June 10.

On June 4, the lodge’s Exalted Ruler and Parade Chairwoman Helen Olsen posted on Facebook, “After much deliberation and consideration, we have decided to proceed with caution and move forward to put together our Hoquiam Elks Grand Parade on Loggers Playday. We are optimistic that our county will be in Phase 4 and as the last parade, aside from the Montesano Festival of Lights, we feel that folks will be ready and happy to enjoy and celebrate with appropriate precautions.”

As Loggers Playday organizers decided, Olsen said in her post, “It is far easier to cancel a parade closer to the day of implementation than to want to have one held and have not been prepared at the last minute.”

McMillan said Olsen has been reaching out to parade participants to tell them it’s happening.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilwoman Brenda Carlstrom asked McMillan about vendors at the event. The city deals with vendors, and city community services coordinator Tracy Wood said she has had discussions with some vendors expressing their concerns about booth spacing and social distancing. She said she’s had only a few vendors say they might be interested in participating, and several who have said they will not be setting up at the parade route.

Salmon barbecue

The annual Lions Club salmon barbecue is in the planning stages as well. McMillan said the club is meeting Saturday to further discuss plans for 2020.

DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Plans are underway to hold the annual Loggers Playday competition with local loggers at Olympic Stadium Sept. 12.

DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Plans are underway to hold the annual Loggers Playday competition with local loggers at Olympic Stadium Sept. 12.

DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Plans are underway to hold the annual Loggers Playday competition with local loggers at Olympic Stadium Sept. 12.

DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Plans are underway to hold the annual Loggers Playday competition with local loggers at Olympic Stadium Sept. 12.

KAT BRYANT | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Local logger Lee Pickett saws a log during the 2019 Playday. In the foreground is the limbing tree setup, which was new last year.

KAT BRYANT | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP Local logger Lee Pickett saws a log during the 2019 Playday. In the foreground is the limbing tree setup, which was new last year.