More than 30 businesses — from Amore to Wiitamaki — will participate in WinterFest, a new two-day event to celebrate the holidays and attract more shoppers to downtown Aberdeen. It will be held the evening of Dec. 2, to coincide with First Friday, and throughout the day on Dec. 3.
Bobbi McCracken and Bette Worth created the event and are its co-chairs. The two women are known for their efforts on the Aberdeen Beautification Committee, which partners with others to hang flower baskets downtown. McCracken and Worth, along with community members involved with the Aberdeen Revitalization Movement, intend for it to become an annual celebration.
“We wanted to get people excited about the holidays and promote downtown businesses,” Worth explained. “We want to get people down here to shop.”
WinterFest was originally conceived with a portable ice-skating rink being set up in the City Drug parking lot. Raising the $30,000 needed for the rink proved elusive, but McCracken and Worth knew the concept of a WinterFest was still viable without it.
An array of participants, donors and volunteers have been brought together to make this event happen. Home Depot, Windermere Foundation, Aberdeen Lions Club, World Class Scholars and the Grays Harbor Community Hospital Foundation are among them.
A Friday night tree lighting ceremony in Zelasko Park begins at 5:30 p.m. There will be choir performances by singers from local schools and churches. Also planned is caroling, plenty of cocoa and cookies, and, later in the evening, an ugly sweater contest. Late night hours will be kept at businesses throughout downtown and an old-time local transit trolley will run for a couple of hours so people can move around town and shop or just go for a ride.
Of course, Santa will be there. He’s expected to arrive in a vintage fire truck.
F Street, between Wishkah and Heron, will be closed Friday from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for Winterfest activities.
The second day of WinterFest will focus on activities at the D&R Events Center. Breakfast with Santa begins at 9 a.m. Children through sixth grade will be able to eat for free. Others are asked to donate to help pay for the food. Cost of this event is being offset by Windermere and the price for the food was reduced by the Swanson’s Foods in Aberdeen. Breakfast is being prepared by the Aberdeen Lions Club and served by World Class Scholars.
The big-bellied bearded one will continue his busy Saturday schedule during Pictures with Santa. The $10 cost for these photographs go to the hospital foundation to use for pediatric services. Children can also write letters to Santa and participate in a Home Depot Kid’s Workshop.
Businesses participating in WinterFest are offering products to be given away in gift drawings on Saturday as well.
“It could be as small as a gift certificate for a cup of coffee. Selmers has put in a recliner,” McCracken said about prizes being donated for the drawing. “The drawing is free and encourages people to enter the businesses.”
Participants are going to receive bracelets during the tree lighting ceremony Friday to wear during WinterFest so those businesses know which customers are participating in the drawings. The tickets will be different colors each day, which will allow organizers to determine what day does the best and why so they can plan for next year’s festivities.
There will be WinterFest specials at the various restaurants involved, too.
McCracken and Worth have taken advantage of every opportunity to let people know about WinterFest. A uniquely local way is Alder Grove Gallery’s Douglas Orr decorating the windows of the old Selmers building. This will inform people about the event traveling over the Chehalis River Bridge or otherwise making their way through the area. The gallery, in turn, will get help promoting its new exhibit, “Black &White or Spot of Color,” beginning Dec. 2.
For details about this event, visit the WinterFest 2016 Facebook page.
Bette Worth ties Bobbi McCracken’s apron in the downtown office of Aberdeen Revitalization Movement. They are co-chairs of WinterFest, a local holiday event which debuts Dec. 2-3. (Terri Harber|The Daily World)
