This year’s festival, set for Friday, July 15, to Sunday, July 17, is being billed, as was the 2021 mid-pandemic festival, as “By Vashon, For Vashon”

Islander Ben Stemer, the new executive director of the Vashon Island Chamber of Commerce, arrived for his first day on the job on June 22, just in time to put the final polish on months of preparations by Chamber members and volunteers to present the 2022 edition of the Vashon Island Strawberry Festival.

This year’s festival, set for Friday, July 15, to Sunday, July 17, is being billed, as was the 2021 mid-pandemic festival, as “By Vashon, For Vashon” and promises a more exclusively local emphasis than pre-pandemic festivals.

However, with an improving public health landscape, the 2022 festival will be several steps bigger than the one held last year.

For Stemer, that means catching up fast on all the elements in place — three days of a festival beverage garden and a music stage at Vashon Village, and a return of about 40 locally-affiliated vendor booths in the center of town, with Vashon Highway closed to traffic from late Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

The Festival’s Grand Parade will also be back, for the first time since 2019, with marchers and floats lining up on Vashon Highway just south of town, starting at 10 a.m., for the 11 a.m. parade through town. As always, children will lead the parade, starting at 10:45 a.m.

This year’s Festival Grand Marshal, chosen by the Chamber, will be Miss Marshall Strawberry, a character representing Mukai Farm & Gardens.

On Sunday, a car parade, sponsored by Island Insurance, will roar through town at 10, and then park at Vashon Center for the Arts, where islanders can ogle retro hotrods, roadsters and muscle cars at Tom Stewart Memorial Car Show, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

For Stemer, age 25, the festival days will be full of sweet memories — an islander since the age of three, he grew up attending the festival and knows all about its quirky and sometimes chaotic charm.

This year, though, he’ll have his eyes more on the event’s logistics — a job he is well qualified for, considering his 2019 degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Washington. Having worked for the past two years as a sales engineer for Zetron Inc., a communications technology company in Redmond, he said he was happy to return to Vashon to lead the Chamber, beginning with Strawberry Festival.

He describes his background in systems optimizations, and “making things run faster and better, with fewer mistakes” as applicable to his current task of guiding the Chamber to achieve “incremental changes over time and make positive changes.”

Want to volunteer for the festival, and help Stemer streamline all the goings-on?

He urged all interested islanders to go to thisisvashon.com and follow the link to volunteer. Stemer can also be reached at executivedirector@vashonchamber.com.

Unofficial Mayor’s Race

Who will be Vashon’s new unofficial mayor? Vote with your pocketbook, with every dollar cast going to worthy charities and causes on Vashon. The candidates this year are already campaigning, with boxes placed around town to collect donations.

Buddy, an affable four-legged island dog, running on behalf of Vashon Household and the cause of affordable housing.

The DOVE Project is promoting the candidacy of a quartet of adorable puppies — Sunny, Grandpa Jr., Fern and Phaedra — youthful canines who represent the organization’s aim to ensure dignity, opportunity, voice and empowerment in response who have experienced domestic violence.

Another candidate in the race for unofficial mayor, named Tosho, is The Vashon Reads Bookmobile — a bright red and eye-catching refurbished Japanese fire truck that delivers books to our island’s youth. Vashon Reads is a nonprofit run by volunteers.

Other candidates, announced just before press time, include Ben Conway, for Vashon Island Pet Protectors, Douglas Fir, for Vashon Rotary, and Winston the Goat, for BrambleBryne Farm Rescue Ruminants.

On Saturday and Sunday, Vashon Theatre’s parking lot will be the site of games, activities and inflatable toys for kids. Island Queen will also host activities for kids in its parking lot as well as the parking lot of Recess Lab. An ice-cream social will take place at Vashon Heritage Museum on Friday, July 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Vashon Presbyterian will also host a family rest/play spot in the church front lawn on both days of festival — islanders are invited to fill their water bottles, use restrooms (with changing table), find a quiet place to nurse their little ones in the church building, and/or play games. The church will have Giant Jenga, cornhole, lots of bubbles and sidewalk chalk and the playground will be open. Festival-goers can spread out on a blanket, or picnic on their festival food on the grounds. The church will have garbage and recycling containers out.

The Chamber will present three full days of music on the Festival’s main stage at Vashon Village.

The music, booked by Vashon Events, will open on Friday with the return of a beloved Vashon dance band, Loose Change. Vashon’s own renowned Publish the Quest will headline on Saturday night, and the festival stage will close on Sunday with Poultry in Motion, another favorite island music act.

Almost a dozen other lively local acts and Seattle bands are also set to take the stage.

Visit thisisvashon.org.com/mainstage and vashonevents.org to plan ahead. Other concerts, officially unaffiliated with the festival but presented in celebration of it, are also sure to pop up at other island venues.

The Bill Burby Inspirational Fun Run will return in full at this year’s Festival, after being modified due to COVID for the past two years. This summer’s race will mark the 40th year of the race, which honors Bill Burby, a former Vashon High School coach and teacher of health, who influenced many young people toward healthy living. Mr. Burby died in 1989.

A second aim of the race is to provide funds to be used by island sports programs and scholarships. Another historic feature is the continuation of the “Run for Ryan” program.

This program honors the life of Ryan Krug, a dedicated high school runner who died tragically and suddenly in 2013.

The race/walk starts at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, July 16. Find out more and register at billburbyrace.com.

Reserve a spot for the parade

Vashon Presbyterian Church is offering limited parking and front lawn chairs for the Strawberry Festival parade on July 16. Parking and chairs are by reservation only. There is no fee, but donations for this convenience will be accepted and forwarded to DOVE and Vashon Youth and Family Services. Reservations may be made by sending an e-mail to Bob Spangler at rwspang@centurytel.net, indicating how many parking spots and seats are requested.

Independence Day on Vashon celebrated with hydro race, fireworks.

The Vashon Health Care District announced progress in its goal to build a modern primary care clinic on Vashon in a central, convenient location for all islanders.

Chief Charles Krimmert has been placed on paid administrative leave for two weeks, effective June 30 through July 14.