SOUTH BEND - The Sweepstakes Trophy winner for this year's Come and Play on Labor Day Grand Parade was the Raymond-South Bend Cheer squad.

The other parade winners included Mayor's Trophy, Bob Rose; Special Awards, Best Theme, Willapa Harbor Hospital; Ilwaco HS Band, Rhodesia Beach Bandits, Pacific Transit Trolley.

The Salmon Derby winners were: 2-Day Combine, John Simatic (23.24 lbs), Saturday, First place, Simatic (12 lbs, 15 oz); Second place, Devon King (10 lbs); Third place, Leah Heintz (9 lbs, 10 oz); Small Fry, Joelyn Simatic (5 lbs, 13 oz) Sunday, First place, John Heintz (13 lbs, 15 oz); Second place, Simatic (11 lbs, 9 oz); Third place, Chris Wiley (9 lbs,12 oz); Small Fry, King (2 lbs, 6 oz).

Tokeland's Woodfest event, August 14-15, was swarmed by crowds of art seekers and sightseers. A low estimate of the crowd was around 1,500 on Saturday as they caught the events, carving demonstrations, and vendors located around the Tokeland Hotel.

Tokeland/North Cove Chamber of Commerce Secretary Sandy Prosser attributed the crowds to the excellent weather on Saturday and that everyone wanted to be out and about.

"We had six really great carvers this year," she said. "We had about 40 vendors. We were able to debut our event trailer. The pirates came through with a great ship and they had a little train; it gave the kids something to do. Which was a nice addition. The vendors had excellent sales and turn out."

Ethel Slingerland Mullens designed the Henry Hackadoo mascot for South Bend HS. It was on the cover of the 1952 Carcowan. Ethel, who graduated from SBHS in 1952, was called into the superintendent's office and asked to design a mascot. Ethel said she got the idea for Henry Hackadoo from a "squeeky toy that was sitting on the superintendent's desk and the cheerleaders had a cheer that ended with 'hack a doo, hack a doo' and that's how it came to be." Henry Hackadoo T-shirts and crewneck sweatshirts are available by contacting Joyce Kidd on Facebook at Derik Nissell Toy House, and order forms can be obtained at South Bend Pharmacy. All proceeds go to the toy house. Orders will be taken through September.

The Delta variant is hitting Washington hard and has even reached into the smaller counties like Pacific County.

Many medical facilities are shuffling patients around to areas that have more hospital beds for COVID patients.

The Delta variant of COVID is sweeping through the nation, hitting the unvaccinated and vaccinated. The vaccines are offering protection from this variant by generally not putting the vaccinated people in the hospital.

According to Pacific County Department of Health and Human Services Director Katie Lindstrom, "It [The Delta variant] is much, much more infectious than previous variants of the disease; for every one person who gets infected now, around six people are getting infected. Prior it was 1 to 1 or 1 to 2, but now it is 1 to 6, that is what the national data is telling us."

When the pandemic started, the 60 plus age group were infected with COVID the most, but now COVID is infecting younger people.

"The cases are happening in younger people than before," Lindstrom continued. "That has to do with the high vaccination rate in the older population." She also pointed out that COVID cases are still happening all through Pacific County.

SOUTH BEND - The 58th Annual "Come and Play on Labor Day" Festival opens tomorrow and closes out on Labor Day. This years' theme is "Happy Days are Here Again!" This unique gathering of friends, families and visitors offers a variety of kids and adult activities and food and music, and, more than anything, wholesome fun for everyone.

Ron Black Sr., a local veteran, has been appointed to the Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee (VAAC) this spring by Governor Inslee. This is a first for Pacific County since most positions are filled by veterans from more populated areas.

MENLO - The theme for this year's Pacific County Fair is "Celebration". The 125th edition of the Pacific County Fair (100th in Menlo) returns to more of a sense of normalcy after only a couple of displays in 2020. The fair takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Pacific County Fairgrounds.

SOUTH BEND - South Bend Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jon Tienhaara released a comprehensive overview about what to expect as the 2021-22 school year opens in his district.