• What: Hockinson Fun Days.
o Where: At these Brush Prairie locations: Hockinson High School, 16819 N.E. 159th St.; Hockinson Middle School, 15916 N.E. 182nd Ave.; Fire District 3, 17718 N.E. 159th St.; Hockinson Meadows Community Park, 10910 N.E. 172nd Ave.; and Elim Lutheran Church, 15815 N.E. 182nd Ave. Free shuttle buses available between the middle and high schools.
o When: 6 to 9 p.m. today there’s family bingo at Hockinson High School; 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday events include a pancake breakfast, vendor bazaar, noon parade, bed race, cruise-in and carnival; 1 p.m. Sunday there’s a Hockinson alumni picnic.
o Cost: $1 for two bingo cards. $5 per person or $15 per family for the pancake breakfast. Carnival game and market prices vary. Parade and other events are free.
o Info: hockinsonboosters.com.
With a small-town parade, carnival games, a pancake breakfast and family activities, Hockinson Fun Days almost seems like a throwback to another, simpler time.
• What: Hockinson Fun Days.
o Where: At these Brush Prairie locations: Hockinson High School, 16819 N.E. 159th St.; Hockinson Middle School, 15916 N.E. 182nd Ave.; Fire District 3, 17718 N.E. 159th St.; Hockinson Meadows Community Park, 10910 N.E. 172nd Ave.; and Elim Lutheran Church, 15815 N.E. 182nd Ave. Free shuttle buses available between the middle and high schools.
o When: 6 to 9 p.m. today there's family bingo at Hockinson High School; 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday events include a pancake breakfast, vendor bazaar, noon parade, bed race, cruise-in and carnival; 1 p.m. Sunday there's a Hockinson alumni picnic.
o Cost: $1 for two bingo cards. $5 per person or $15 per family for the pancake breakfast. Carnival game and market prices vary. Parade and other events are free.
o Info: <a href="http://hockinsonboosters.com">hockinsonboosters.com.</a>
The celebration of the unincorporated community began in 1989 with Fire District 3’s charity pancake breakfast, and it has grown into a three-day community festival that draws thousands each year.
“It’s a good chance for everybody to come out and connect and get a sense of that small town Americana,” said DeeAnn Jurgens, parade chair and member of the Hockinson Boosters. “And it’s absolutely open to the public.”
Fire District 3 Chief Steve Wrightson, who’s been involved since the event was founded, said it started as a way for the department to reach out and meet people in the community.
“We thought, in those early years, we should have a parade with (our breakfast), so we put one together,” Wrightson said. “And in around 1993, the middle school had a carnival and wanted to join it to the event, too.”
Now the event is very much a homecoming for kids who grew up in the area and a celebration of small-town life, he said.
“I just love the community connection,” Wrightson said. “Throughout the day you see people you haven’t seen for a year. You see neighbors, you see kids coming back from school. My daughter is 23 and she will not miss Fun Days. You hear that a lot from the kids who grew up here.”
The weekend kicks off tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. with family bingo at Hockinson High School.
Saturday’s packed roster starts at 7 a.m. with the long-standing pancake breakfast at Fire Station 3, paired with helicopter, car and fire rescue demonstrations, followed by the noon parade.
“The breakfast always draws about 2,500 to 3,000 people,” Wrightson said. “We have a recipe and a quantity that our people stay on top of. And we have volunteers that help us cook in case we get called out on an emergency.”
So far, the department hasn’t been called out during fun days, although they were called out once during a spaghetti dinner they hosted.
“We went out, and the community just took it over when that happened,” Wrightson said. “It’s typical small town community. We came back and everything just kept going.”
Saturday’s events continue from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Elim Lutheran Church will host a classic car cruise-in and rock music show. And the carnival, which consists of a variety of games run by volunteers, will run at Hockinson Middle School from 10 a.m. to noon and resume from 1 to 4 p.m. after the parade.
New after this year’s parade will be a “bed race,” with teams that will have to switch roles between pushing the bed and lying on it in pajamas, Jurgens said.
“It’s like a relay race,” Jurgens said. “You have teams of five — the beds are decorated by the teams, and they run a course. This year it’s new for us, so we have four hospital gurneys to keep it simple. We hope things get more complex next year.”
Silly, fun things like that are a longstanding tradition at Fun Days, Wrightson said.
“We’ve had all different kinds of events,” Wrightson said. “In 1997 we had an all-American soap box derby that was officially sanctioned. The winner of that race went on to Canton (Ohio) for the national race.”
Saturday’s festivities also include a marketplace with local goods and food. And Sunday the weekend wraps up with a Hockinson High School alumni picnic at 1 p.m. and Hockinson Meadows Community Park.
“It’s good old hometown America kind of stuff,” Wrightson said. “We hope people will come out and enjoy the fun.”
