Wednesday, August 6, 2014 • Whidbey News-Times
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Family shares talents in Highland Games By RON NEWBERRY Staff reporter
Whenever Grayson Akins returns to campus at Western Washington University and talks about her summer athletic endeavors back home on Whidbey Island, she’s often met with a blank stare. New friends are dumbfounded, yet curious, to learn more about tossing logs, stones and hay that are part of the athletic segment of the Whidbey Highland Games. “Explaining it is always really interesting,” said Akins, 20, who lives in Oak Harbor and will be a senior at Western in the fall. “It sounds like you’re standing in a field wearing something weird and throwing heavy things.” Wearing a Scottish kilt and tossing large objects across a field is not something Akins would have ever envisioned she’d be doing after graduating from Coupeville High School. Yet, Akins, her older sister, Jordan, and their dad, Andrew, all tried it out several years ago and got hooked, and the trio will compete in the 16th annual event at Greenbank Farm Saturday, Aug. 9. “I think it’s great,” said Andrew Akins, who’s been at it the longest in the family, guessing about six years. “It took me a while to talk them into it. They were a little bit resistant.” “We didn’t know this existed,” Jordan Akins, 22, said. Athletic competitions such as the caber toss, stone put and sheaf toss are only a part of the Highland Games, which is a celebration of Scottish culture. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, the event also will feature Highland piping, drumming and dancing competitions. A variety of Celtic performances will take place on the main stage. There also will be food vendors and a beer garden. Cost to attend is $10 for adults, $7 for children, seniors and military and kids 4 and under are free. The Highland games are played out in various communities around the United States and Canada as well as in Scotland, where the Cowal Highland Gathering, held in Dunoon, attracts thousands of
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Arts and Crafts Festival celebrating 50 years By MEGAN HANSEN Co-editor
Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News-Times
The Akins clan of Andrew, center, and daughters Grayson, left, and Jordan will be part of the Whidbey Highland Games athletic competition Saturday. competitors. The state’s largest event is the Pacific Northwest Scottish Highland Games, which took place for the 68th time last week in Enumclaw. In 2013, that event drew 30,000 spectators. Whidbey’s version is played out on a much smaller scale yet is one of the most anticipated annual events at Greenbank Farm, taking on more prominence this year with the suspension of the Loganberry Festival. About 50 people from Washington, Oregon and Canada are signed up to compete in athletics with seven participants from the island. Athletics consists of a variety of different tosses with each competitor partaking in every event. In the caber toss, participants lift and attempt to flip over a log or pole with the degree in which it lands carrying more significance than distance. Best tosses flip over and land at 12 on an imaginary clock. Other tosses involve a hammer, weight and stone. There’s also the sheaf toss, which involves chucking a bundle of straw with a pitchfork. Athletes compete in different classes, including novice, amateur A and B and masters. Whidbey’s Highland Games don’t typically draw any professionals in athletics, said Jordan Akins, who is
helping organize the athletic portion of the games. The Akins family, which is Scottish, became exposed to the Highland Games after Belle Akins attended the Skagit Games in Mount Vernon several years ago and reported her findings to her husband and daughters. The family started attending events together and the competitive drive took over. “It’s just cool,” said Andrew Akins, who played soccer and was a pole vaulter on the track and field team at Oak Harbor High School. “It’s cool being on the field the same time as them.” The Highland Games community also impressed Andrew Akins, adding competitors don’t have to be Scottish to participate. “As far as sports go, I’ve never been involved in one with this amount of camaraderie and sportsmanship,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “It’s a little family,” Grayson said. Andrew Akins has grown accustomed to wearing a kilt during competitions. He said at some Highland games, athletes aren’t allowed to compete without one. He’s convinced a kilt allows him to throw farther. “Once you start wearing it, there’s no going back,” he said.
Arts and crafts vendors will fill the streets of downtown Coupeville this weekend as the Coupeville Festival Association rings in its 50th anniversary. Roughly 250 volunteers aid in the execution of the festival, which is a big draw for people from all over. The festival will feature more than 200 vendors, live music, food, activities and more. It runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. A juried art gallery and wine reception will serve as the kickoff to the festival 7 p.m. Friday at the Coupeville Recreation Hall, 901 NW Alexander St. Advance tickets may be purchased for $20 at bayleaf, Coupeville Chamber of Commerce, Coupeville Arts Center and Lind’s Pharmacy in Coupeville. Tickets are $25 at the door. One thing that is changing this year is there won’t be an Artists in Action area. Festival Association President Mike Dessert said the location they normally used was unavailable to the festival this year and there were no other suitable locations. Not only does it take 250 volunteers to execute the festival each year, but over
CITY OF
the years several partnerships have been formed. The Coupeville Chamber of Commerce is running the wine and beer garden as well as the information booth. All of the proceeds from the festival go back into the community in the form of grants and scholarships. Since the 1980s, the association has supported Coupeville High School’s History Day program. In exchange, History Day students help the festival by picking up garbage over both days. The Coupeville Boys and Girls Club runs the parking on the community green and will receive 60 percent of the proceeds from that. One change this year, Dessert said, is that parking will be $5 instead of the previous $3. Last year, nearly 2,000 cars paid to park in the designated festival parking, he said. The festival will feature live music both days. The stage will be located near the food court in the municipal parking lot. A variety of artists will perform, including a mariachi band and a family band offering traditional American music. For the full list of vendors and entertainment, go to www.coupevillefestival.com
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