Hockinson Fun Days are hopping

Things are hopping in Hockinson.

New housing is going up. So is school enrollment. Voters recently approved a levy measure to pay for replacing the aging middle school with an entirely new building. The high school is undergoing major renovation too, with the addition of a new band room and new bleachers. And, to remedy what the Hockinson High School Boosters website calls “the mud bowl that is our football and soccer field,” there’s a movement afoot to install clean, green, synthetic turf there.

“It’s a pretty exciting time in Hockinson,” said head booster Julie Atchley, a chief organizer of the annual Hockinson Fun Days festival and parade, which gets underway today and continues on Saturday.

Hockinson is a spread-out community with a modest center, Atchley said: “We don’t have a lot of businesses. We have a four-way stop and the Hockinson Market.” And yet, the community has been coming together for many years to make Fun Days something pretty special.

“It has grown and evolved,” Atchley said, from something launched by the students at Hockinson Elementary School to something gladly adopted by the students (and parents) at Hockinson High School and its auxiliary boosters group. The downtown fire station and the nearby Elim Lutheran Church have gotten into the act. So has a sheriff’s deputy who lives in the neighborhood, Atchley said.

“Everybody just kind of comes together. It’s mostly run by the boosters, but when I do a meeting, there are so many people from the community who have been involved in the event for a long time,” Atchley said. “It’s an awesome community event.”

Fast mattresses

In fact, it’s going to be a “Carnaval.” That’s the 2016 theme. Spelled Brazilian style.

Hockinson isn’t exactly Rio, but it’ll pull out all the stops tonight and Saturday. Tonight features fun runs at the high school for both children and adults that Atchley hopes people will do in costume. Saturday starts with a 7 a.m. open house and all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Fire District 3 station. A bazaar and county fair carnival will follow at the middle school.

Then come the main Fun Days attractions. One is the traditional parade, featuring floats, marching bands, vintage cars, illustrations of the “Carnaval” theme and more — all starting at the high school at noon.

The other is even more uniquely Hockinson: the third annual bed races. Get a team of five together — don’t forget a pillow and blanket, standard racing equipment — and get a couple of specially made “racing beds” going as fast as you can around the middle school track. Four teammates push while one dons pajamas and rides (or sleeps) in the bed as it zooms along, until they stop to switch roles — and pajamas — so somebody else can take a nap for a change.

Rest easy, NASBED crews: This year’s beds have been “repaired and reinforced,” Atchley said, so there’s little likelihood of last year’s tragic single-vehicle crash. (Our inside scoop is that wounded race veteran “Grateful Bed” is back and ready to roll.)

And in the midst of all that noisy marching and fun and games — sandwiched in between the two big events, after the parade and before the bed race — one serious moment will be observed: a groundbreaking ceremony for the new middle school building that’s about to rise here.

Because things are really hopping in Hockinson!