Growing Valleyfest needs growing ranks of volunteers

Short some 130 volunteers, Valleyfest needs help.

The annual celebration relies strictly on volunteers to pull off the large community celebration held in late September at Mirabeau Point Park in Spokane Valley.

“We need people to make it happen,” said Valleyfest Chairwoman Peggy Doering. “We need the support of everyone in the community.”

Each year the event is growing larger, making it more of a challenge for the private nonprofit organization to plan and organize. The organization has 15 committee members – all volunteers.

“We have a great festival with community identity,” Doering said. “But the identity really is all of us. It’s all of us working together.”

This year, Valleyfest is expanding to a three-day event. With an extra day’s worth of events, Doering anticipates needing more than 200 volunteers. Currently the organization has an estimated 70 people committed to work.

“The event is growing every year,” said longtime volunteer Lynnette Heidenreich. “We need more people. It’s getting bigger than us.”

Doering and Heidenreich started volunteering at Valleyfest in 1990. Today both women continue to volunteer in different capacities. Heidenreich’s husband and two daughters also volunteer for the event.

“Once you volunteer and see the need for it, it becomes a way of life,” said Heidenreich. “It’s a wonderful thing to pass on to your children. To teach them to give back to the community is real important.”

Initially, the organization is in need of 15 to 20 key people to help preplan and organize the event. Doering hopes to have most things in place by end of July.

“We’re hoping people will join us and help take on the leadership,” said Doering. “We need fresh ideas and responsible people who can be in charge of things.”

Valleyfest offers opportunities for involvement with committees such as children’s activities, pancake breakfast, parade, fun run and Logging Fest. Currently each committee operates with only one or two people. “This year we are trying to develop it so those committee chairs have more people working with them,” Doering said.

Besides planning, the event relies on volunteers to help the day of event. One key area is unloading and setting up barricades along the parade route the afternoon before the event. “We need people with pickups and strong backs,” Doering said. “Two years ago, our parade chairman put the parade barricades up by himself. He needs help.”

The free festival began as a community neighborhood party at Terrace View Park in 1990 with an estimated attendance of 4,000. Now in its 17th year, Valleyfest is one of the Valley’s largest community events. Last year’s estimated attendance on Saturday was 30,000.

Doering’s vision is to eventually grow the event similar to Seattle’s Seafair with monthlong activities incorporating other parts of the region. Her long-range goal is to bridge the Valley, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene together having events happening in all three cities, as well as having sanctioned tournaments at area golf courses and tennis courts. “I have a lot of ideas,” said Doering. “But it takes both volunteers and money to make those ideas happen.”