New Summer Event Planned

DAYTON—Representatives from the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the Port of Columbia and Southeastern Washington State Parks are preparing a new event for Columbia County.

In July and August, the New Old Time Chautauqua is teaming up with the Washington State Parks System to bring live entertainment and workshops to State parks and nearby rural communities, for the purpose of connecting the communities to their parks.

Washington State Park Program Specialist for the Blue Mountain Area, Clara Dickinson-McQuary said, “We want to bring more people to the parks. We have so many cool parks in rural areas close to smaller communities.”

According to Dickinson-McQuary, New Old Time Chautauqua will be camped at Lewis and Clark Trail State Park on July 18 and July 19, following their first encampment in the Washington State Park System, at Fields Spring State Park on the 14th.

Dayton Chamber of Commerce Director Andrew Holt explained that the NOTC is based on the old time circus movement of the 1880s.

Holt said that on Monday, July 18, the community can expect to join with the 60 to 70 NOTC troupe members in workshops, service projects, and hands-on art projects such as juggling, ukulele, magic, song sharing, mask-making, dancing, hula-hooping, and more.

Later in the day, a potluck is planned at Lewis and Clark State Trail Park, he said.

Holt said that on July 19 there will be an old-fashioned parade, complete with a 30-piece band, and that evening there will be a main stage show featuring a vaudeville act and the Flying Karamozov Brothers, who are trapeze artists.

Dickinson-McQuary said the project is paid for through donations, and is heavily volunteer-driven. The NOTC community has roughly sixteen committees for the event, and the local community is expected to create around the same number of committees. The committees will collaborate on ideas for a service project, and activities of local interest, she said.

Brad McMasters, the Economic Development Coordinator for the Port of Columbia, said that NOTC follows the Dayton Alumni Weekend, and that there could be some positive economic benefits to the local community from the NOTC event.

According to the NOTC website, the company was founded in 1981 by educators and health care practitioners, including Dr. Patch Adams. NOTC is made up of talent from across the United States and around the world with performers as old as 94, and as young as 6. Their chief aim is “to delight, educate, amaze, and provoke the imagination of adults, and children, alike,” the website says.