Our weather may be cool, but all the activity at Penn Cove Water Festival will warm people up.

Saturday, May 11, the streets and waterfront of Coupeville will provide a great backdrop for Native American canoe races, interactive booths for fun learning about water quality issues; a scavenger hunt and a plant sale by Master Gardeners. Crews from the Swinomish, Samish, Nooksack, Lummi, and other tribal groups have been invited.

“The Water Festival is a gift to the residents of Island County,” said coordinator Roxallanne Medley. “Local businesses and governmental agencies pool resources, and Beach Watchers volunteer massive amounts of time. The result is a community-driven festival… a day-long celebration with Native American canoe races, children’s activities, storytellers, music, Indian fry-bread, smoked salmon and lots of opportunities for old-fashioned fun.”

Beach Watcher Lyla Snover adds that the festival is special because of its educational focus. “We live in a beautiful yet fragile place. There are festivals throughout the year here on the islands, and each celebrates some aspect of our life as islanders. But this one, the Penn Cove Water Festival, celebrates the one thing none of us can live without…our water.” Born here on Whidbey Island, to the Libbey family, Snover has observed a lifetime of changes here in Puget Sound. She’s also done a fair amount of world traveling, and has seen the many ways water quality can be degraded.

“People don’t realize that there is no such thing as ‘new water.’ The water we drink today has been recycled countless times and it will be recycled again. The difference now is that we are capable of polluting our aquifers with some very nasty stuff.”

It is about that “nasty stuff” that the Water Festival will try to educate the folks who participate in this year’s event. But in a fun way. Medley, a teacher, says that kids learn best when their lessons have applications in real life and use local examples. The Water Festival easily meets these criteria, and there is no age limitation for this classroom. “Our goal is for people to have fun. If we do our job right, the next time they go for a beach walk with out-of-town guests and begin to point out nearshore critters, they will see that they learned something here. The next time they go shopping and read soap labels, they will remember that they learned something here. The next time they look at their lawn and decide it doesn’t really need to be fertilized in July, they will understand that they learned something here. They don’t have to realize all of that on the day of the festival for us to count it as a success.”

Everyone enjoys watching orcas and the gray whales … we all enjoy walking along the beach … we all like to drink clean water … this is an event for everyone! In addition to all the water-related programs, Master Gardeners will hold a sale of plants selected for their hardiness.

The festival is not about what you can’t do with our water. It shows people how precious those water resources are. They trust that once people value something, they will use all of the available information to make wise choices concerning it.

To learn more about the Penn Cove Water Festival or how you can participate in the Penn Cove Paddle, go to www.island.wsu.edu or call 679-7327.

Be sure to stop at all of the activity booths at the Water Festival … you may find answers to the Scavenger Hunt questions, you’ll probably learn something, and you’ll definitely have a good time!

Penn Cove Water Festival is sponsored by: WSU/Island County Beach Watchers; Island County Marine Resources Committee – Nearshore Project; Island County Health Department, the Salmon Recovery Funding Board; Department of Ecology–Shorelands and Coastal Zone Management; Island County Water Resources Advisory Committee; Island County Public Works – Watershed Program; Whidbey Island Conservation District; Coupeville Festival Association; Town of Coupeville; Port of Coupeville; NOAA..