While a student points out her artwork, volunteer Nick Babcock hangs others' Gyotaku works to dry. Children transferred paint to paper using a rubber fish in September at the Salmon Festival, which was held this year at Rocky Reach Dam. The event takes the help of a large group of volunteers.
Brooke Bromiley, 8, from Kenroy Elementary School, reacts to holding a salmon heart given to her by Jen Herdmann with Cascade Fisheries Thursday, at the Salmon Festival. Students in this activity learned about the anatomy of a fish.
Students learn about a 29-foot cedar shovel-nose canoe brought to the Salmon Festival by Patricia Sam Porter from Disautel, Washington. Porter says the 315-pound canoe has been tipped over nine times by "men that wouldn't listen." She says the 7-year-old craft is very tippy and only experienced canoers are allowed to use it.
While a student points out her artwork, volunteer Nick Babcock hangs others' Gyotaku works to dry. Children transferred paint to paper using a rubber fish in September at the Salmon Festival, which was held this year at Rocky Reach Dam. The event takes the help of a large group of volunteers.
Brooke Bromiley, 8, from Kenroy Elementary School, reacts to holding a salmon heart given to her by Jen Herdmann with Cascade Fisheries Thursday, at the Salmon Festival. Students in this activity learned about the anatomy of a fish.
Students learn about a 29-foot cedar shovel-nose canoe brought to the Salmon Festival by Patricia Sam Porter from Disautel, Washington. Porter says the 315-pound canoe has been tipped over nine times by "men that wouldn't listen." She says the 7-year-old craft is very tippy and only experienced canoers are allowed to use it.
More than 1,000 third- and fourth-grade students descended last September on the Rocky Reach Dam Park and Discovery Center for the 30th Wenatchee River Salmon Festival. And there were plenty of salmon and smiles while the sun shone.
“It’s connecting people with nature,” said Corky Broaddus, one of the founders and organizers of the festival, on why the event is important.
“It celebrates the return of the salmon,” she said, because it’s right after spring fish swim up the river and before the fall Chinook journey to Tumwater Dam.
The former Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery worker said she and others were watching salmon spawning one year and decided others needed to learn about the salmon story at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. They invited groups like the National Audubon Society and Native American tribes, and the event kept growing, incorporating school kids.
Many third- and fourth-graders from Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties learn about salmon and Native American history, she added.
“Now, it engages schools, helps teachers meet their requirements,” she said.
This was the first year the festival was at the dam. It’s been at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery, she said, but was canceled in 2020 and moved online in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. The hatchery is undergoing construction, she said, and the Chelan County PUD allowed the event at the dam. There was no public event this year.
Numerous stations, including teepees and dissection, were scattered throughout the dam’s park and center. Kettle corn was available.
Dan Nanamkin of the Nespelem tribe said he has been the emcee for the event’s pow wow for five years, though he’s helped bring kids to the event for 30 years. The festival taught kids about Native American culture and science, he said, with “a broad level of education.”
“We honor all life and one another,” he said.
“It’s to remind people that salmon still come up the river, and are still part of our lives and our subsistence … the indigenous people are still here, as well,” said Bernadine Phillips, of the P’Squosa/Wenatchi. Philips has brought her baskets to the event throughout its duration.
She also said the area used to be the summer and fall camping place for her tribe.
“It was a playground for us,” she said.
Another kind of playground, manmade, was covered by children.
Twin brothers Austin and Brady Fisher, third-graders at John Newbery Elementary School in Wenatchee, were near the equipment, readying to leave.
Both said they learned about osprey and Native American fishing at the event, as well as the fish.
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