The City of Woodland held its last Hot Summer Nights event at Horseshoe Lake Park on Aug. 19, as the band Senior Moments played among a variety of vendors.
City of Woodland Public Works Director Tracy Coleman was happy to see the crowds that came out to cap off the last event of its kind this summer.
“I like the fact that the community gets involved and are utilizing the services that the city and the other organizations that contribute to this event have to offer,” Coleman said.
She said Downtown Woodland Revitalization organized the event to raise funds for the city’s parks. Other businesses that helped sponsor the event included Gibbs & Olson, Advanced Signs, Taylor Trucking, Fiber Federal Credit Union and the Port of Woodland.
“Basically, all the businesses come together to make this event happen,” she said.
Coleman also serves as the president of Downtown Woodland Revitalization, which is a nonprofit organization that plans to make changes in the city.
“Downtown Woodland Revitalization is an organization that’s within the city of Woodland that tries to revitalize the downtown,” she said. “So about 15 years ago, they did a revitalization of downtown, they put in new sidewalks. They did it in conjunction with the city of Woodland. They did Hoffman Plaza, they helped with the sidewalks … so they basically give guidance to the city in order to help them when they do a project as far as how they want the revitalization to go.”
She said the organization is currently trying to raise money for phase two of its revitalization, which will include construction on the corner of Park Street toward Exit 21 in Woodland. It’s in the planning stages at this time.
One vendor that appeared at the event was the Association of Rapscallion River Rats, which is a group of pirate enthusiasts in Kelso who showed off swords and guns from that historical era.
“We try to educate people a little bit about what pirate life was like, the tools they might use, how they would dress,” said secretary, treasurer, and co-chair Jeffrey McAllister. “We do it while also doing fundraising, toy drives for Christmas, food drives for the VFW (and) do supply drives for the Longview women’s support shelter. Pretty much trying to bridge the gap between charities and what they need in order to function.”
Laverne Robbins was another vendor who hosted a booth for her business, Happier Blaze Candle Co., which had a number of homemade candles. Many of them were in the shapes of skulls.
“I make these in my studio in my house,” Robbins said. “I’m a Woodland local business, woman-owned business. So I have all different kinds of molded candles, I have container candles in several different kinds of jars and wax mounts, and will be offering room sprays pretty soon.”
She said she was inspired to start the business after she was laid off from her job in the financial industry and “wanted to do something that was creative and something on my own.”
The event then concluded with a screening of the movie “Ninjago.”
