Camas, WA — Join Camas Parks and Recreation for the 32nd annual Easter egg hunt, “The Camas Egg Scramble!”  This special event will take place at Crown Park, on Easter Sunday, April 9 at 1:30 pm.

All egg hunting areas start at the same time, so don’t be late! Candy and prize-filled eggs will be hidden in designated egg hunting areas color-marked for age groups 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12.  This Easter egg hunt is unique in that all ages start at the same time from their designated areas.

Please provide supervision, as all kids must be accompanied by an adult. Participants should also bring a basket or bag in which to collect their eggs. Adults are not allowed in the hunting areas, except the area for ages 2-3, or to accompany a participant with special needs.  

All abilities are welcome to join us for this fun event. A designated “Egg Stroll” has been developed to prioritize accessibility and enhance this inclusive activity for all ages. If you have needs that the city may help accommodate, please contact Krista Bashaw at 360-834-5307.

Prizes in the eggs will include candy, toys and prize tokens which can be turned in at the event to claim a prize. So, make sure you open all the eggs at the event, and please return the empty eggshells so they can be used again next year. The Traditional Easter Bonnet and Contemporary Hat contest will take place at 2 pm, at the covered shelter. This event will be hosted and sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Cascade Park. And the Easter Bunny will make an appearance at Scout Hall in the park for photographs between 12:30-2:30 pm.

No registration is required for the egg hunt or the bonnet/hat contest.  But please note, this is one of our most popular events, so please allow time for parking, as spaces are limited. In addition, an accessible parking and a drop-off area has been arranged along NE 15th & NE Dallas St. Crown Park is located at NE Everett & NE 17th Ave.

The city could not do this without sponsors, which includes Kiwanis, VFW Post 4278, VFW Auxiliary, and WinCo. 

For details and an event map, visit https://www.cityofcamas.us/parksrec/page/camas-egg-scramble-0 or contact Krista Bashaw at 360-834-5307.

One Stop
Let the cool furniture at One Stop Home Furnishings transform your home or office. 2140 SE 8th Avenue, Camas, WA 98607. 360-834-1234.

Camas, WA — 100 never looked so good, and the Camas Library is in celebration mode.

On April 4, 2023, the Camas Library will officially turn 100 years old, and you can help this Camas gem celebrate all-day and into the evening.

On April 4, 1923, the Women’s Club of Camas formed what is now the Camas Public library and since that date, it’s been bringing joy to this community. Now, 100 years later the Camas Library is hosting a full day of events that will include goodies, treats and a scavenger hunt for kids.

In addition to the festivities, every 100th person to enter the library will receive a special prize in honor of the momentous occasion.

At 4 pm, swing music and dancing will kick-off the evening portion of the festivities, which will also include a free raffle at 6 pm.

According to Camas Library Director, Connie Urquhart, this is a great opportunity to invite the whole community to visit the Library.

“It’ll be a fun time, plus it’s a great chance to look back at history,” said Urquhart. “It also gives the community a chance to remember the good times, and to also think about what the future could hold!”

More information at https://www.cityofcamas.us/library

Washougal, WA — The Washougal Art Festival is pleased to announce a call for artists for its annual event, August 12, 2023. The festival will take place in beautiful Reflection Plaza, nestled in the heart of historic downtown Washougal.

The Washougal Art Festival is seeking artists of all mediums, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, glass, textiles, jewelry, and photography. The festival is open to both emerging and established artists, and applications will be accepted through May 1, 2023.

All entries will be juried based on originality, creativity, craftsmanship, and professionalism. Judging will also consider the expression of a unique vision and style, and the mastery over the artist’s chosen medium. Artists are selected for festival participation by a jury of local artists and gallery owners.

“We are thrilled to invite artists from all over the Pacific Northwest to showcase their talent at the Washougal Art Festival,” said festival organizer, Janice Ferguson. “This is a wonderful opportunity to share your work with art enthusiasts, make connections with fellow artists, and enjoy the vibrant arts community of Washougal.”

In addition, the Washougal Art Festival will collaborate with the Washougal Songcraft Festival, featuring regional songwriters. There will be performances in Reflection Plaza during the Washougal Art Festival, concerts at 54-40 Brewing on Friday and Saturday evenings, and workshops with an open mic on Sunday.

Please visit their website for more information and the Artist Entry Form at https://washougalarts.org/ . Entries must be received by Monday, May 1, 2023.

Washougal Art

Vancouver, WA – Local restaurant chain Burgerville is partnering with a team of local breast cancer survivors to help the team travel to New Zealand next month where they will represent the Pacific Northwest and the United States at the International Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Festival. 

The team, called Pacific Northwest Pink Lemonade, is comprised of twenty-six women – all breast cancer survivors and fighters – ranging in age from 40 to over 80-years old, who are reviving and thriving through the ancient Chinese sport of dragon boat racing. 

Survivors from the Vancouver dragon boat team Catch 22 and Portland team, Pink Phoenix are usually competitors on the water, but they have joined forces to create one team and represent the PNW at the international competition. 

One paddle at a time, this intense sport helps those who have experienced breast cancer feel empowered, build self-confidence and take back control of their lives thanks to the healing power of water, community and the unique camaraderie of connecting and competing with other survivors. 

Ways to support the team  

  • When: Join them on Wednesday, March 8, from 4 to 8 pm.
  • Where: Burgerville, 11704 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. Vancouver (Mill Plain, just east of I-205)
  • Details: Burgerville will donate20 percent of the sales from guests who mention they are there to support the team. 

Funding for these survivors to participate in the international event is made possible through sponsorships, special team fundraising efforts and the generosity of individual donors. 

You can also support the team by making a donation online. Please indicate that the donation goes to the PNW Pink Lemonade New Zealand Team. 

Cancer

Camas, WA — Artists and art lovers will gather to admire and purchase original small-scale works of art at the Little Art Camas event on March 24th and 25th in Downtown Camas. This two-day community exhibition features “little” works of art created by artists of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels, from local professional artists to promising art students. 

Each participating artist has created 3 individual pieces that can each be purchased for $20. Little Art Camas is hosted by the Downtown Camas Association (DCA) and is a fundraiser to further public art efforts.

Local art collectors will also enjoy the new silent auction featured at this year’s event. The auction will be comprised of works in multiple mediums, all generously donated by local artists and galleries. Among other offerings, event goers will have the opportunity to bid on a hand painted and hand thrown stoneware bowl with a Downtown Camas theme by artist Anna Norris, a classic Corvair painted by artist Keith Russel, a patriotic piece of copper artistry by David Gerton, and a hand painted ceramic cat by budding 8 year old artist Lexie Keels.

Tickets to the event are $5 at the door and good for both Friday and Saturday. Children 12 & under are free. The ceremonial ringing of the cowbell Friday evening will kick off the art buying excitement. Art sizes include 5×5, 5×7 and 8×8. The event will be hosted in the beautiful Fuel Medical Building lobby in Downtown Camas, 314 NE Birch.

“Little Art Camas is a special event that makes art collecting and appreciation available for everyone!” says Jan Carter, Marketing & Volunteer Coordinator for the DCA. “The artists truly put their passion and heart into their artworks, and it brings us so much joy to see someone walk home with a new piece of art that speaks to them. The silent auction will be a welcome addition, and we are thrilled about the pieces that were donated to us. This event truly celebrates the diverse and thriving art scene in Downtown Camas!”

The event on Friday, 5-8pm, will have live music by jazz guitarist Bret Malmquist and appetizers and wine will add to the fun. The event continues Saturday, 12-4pm, with an “Art Refresh”. Patrons are encouraged to attend both days, as many new pieces will be added on Saturday. Purchased art can be picked up after the exhibit on Saturday or on Sunday so that all art can be enjoyed both days. See details in the Event Schedule below.

Event Schedule

Friday, March 24th, Exhibit Opens

5-6 pm Art Preview

Preview art and register for your Buyer Number and buy up to 5 “Buyer’s Buttons”. Your Buyer’s Buttons are stickers with your Buyer Number on them. The silent auction will run the entirety of the event on Friday and Saturday.

6 pm The “Cowbell” Rings

The bell rings and buying starts.

6-8 pm Exhibit Browsing and Buying

Use your Buyer’s Button stickers to mark your chosen treasures by replacing the Artwork Number sticker with your Buyer Button. That signals other browsers that this work is taken. You may start placing your Buyer’s Buttons when you hear the “cowbell” ring at 6pm. Return your Buyer’s Card with the artwork numbers on it to the registration desk before you leave for the evening.

Saturday, March 25th, Exhibit Continues with “Art Refresh”

12-4 pm Exhibit Browsing and Buying

Many new art works will be added to the exhibit that were not displayed on Friday.

4-5 pm Art Pick up (continues Sunday).

Both buyers and artists of unsold works can pick up their artwork during this time.

Sunday, March 26th

12-2 pm Art Pick up continues

Please pick up purchases and/or unsold works by the 2 PM deadline. If unable to make these times, please send a friend.

Camas, WA — Artists Liz Pike and Blue Bond are exhibiting new works at Pike Art Gallery in uptown Camas, located at 302 NE Sixth Avenue. The public is invited to an upscale First Friday Art Walk Reception on March 3rd from 5-8pm featuring delicious appetizers and beverages. The new gallery space opened last month at the corner of NE Sixth and Birch Street.

“In addition to my own works of art, I’m honored to feature beautiful oils on canvas by the talented Blue Bond at Pike Art Gallery,” said Pike. “The public is invited to a welcoming First Friday Art reception each month.” Pike and Bond both work in oils on canvas and have been painting throughout their respective lifetimes.  This new setting is a second location for Pike Art Gallery which opened a few years ago inside a stand-alone building at Pike’s organic Shangri-La Farm in Fern Prairie.”

Bond is known nationally as a prize-winning portrait artist. Pike has been juried into Clark County Open Studios Tour each year since 2017. Pike also shows her work at several regional art festivals including the Fern Prairie Art Fest, Washougal Art Festival, Battle Ground’s Art in the Park, and Camas Vintage and Art Faire. Pike Art Gallery can be reached at (360) 281-8720. Visit LizPike.art on the web.

Pike

Camas, WA — The Readiness Group is officially opening its doors on Friday, February 17 with a major Grand Opening event and ribbon cutting from 5-9 pm.

The facility, which is located at 3316 NE 3rd Ave next door to Walgreens and Grocery Outlet, is a store that helps people prepare for emergency and disaster planning. 

The store offers the following services:

  • Emergency preparedness and disaster planning.
  • Smokeless range training
  • Classroom for firearms
  • Taser training
  • Self defense classes
  • Laser training
  • Community classes on first aid and fire safety, trauma, surviving a car accident, how to pack a go bag.
  • Foraging class

The veteran-owned and operated business offers a variety of products, as well: 

  • Ammunition
  • Cleaning supplies
  • Range supplies
  • Eye protection
  • Targets
  • Target stands

The Readiness Group also offers medical supplies, which include first aid, trauma kits, a la carte features with individual kits that are customized. 

They will also sell gun holsters and conceal devices like purses, as well as firearms parts, apparel, body armor, carriers, range bags, sunglasses, watches, belts, etc.

“We are getting in with a lot of phenomenal product,” said co-owner Daniel Stanton. “We have a couple distributors that are new to the Pacific Northwest. We’re not trying to be a run of the mill store. It’s a high quality store. We have a custom holster manufacturer that makes holsters for us. We put a lot of thought in the knives and equipment we sell.”

The company is a partnership with multiple entities, with a division that offers defensive construction, such as safe rooms, home security camera systems, bars on windows, and landscaping to deter criminal activity. 

“Criminals look for ease of access for the haul,” said Stanton. “Make your ease of access look difficult and ensure your appearance deters criminal activity. Keep an eye on your neighbors, which is part of security training.” 

Their Gun Fighting Systems division offers consulting. Their training classes run at night: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

And they plan to offer some self defense and weapons detection courses. It’s really the whole gambit of defense, preparedness and security. 

Website: TheReadinessGroup.org

Find them on Facebook: The Readiness Group

The Clark College Orchestra performs their Winter Concert of the 2022-2023 season under the baton of Music Director/Conductor Dr. Donald Appert on Wednesday, March 8, 7:30 pm at Skyview High School Auditorium, 1300 NW 139th St, Vancouver, WA. 

The program features soloist Brett Deubner performing Dr. Appert’s Viola Concerto and Eric Whitacres’ The River Cam, and the orchestra also plays Shostakovich Symphony 1. The admission is free and open to the public. Donations to the Orchestra General Fund accepted at the door.

For complete information about all the Clark College Music Department concerts including the orchestra, concert band, jazz ensemble, and choirs, please see http://www.clark.edu/campus-life/arts-events/music/music-concerts.

American violist Brett Deubner has established himself as one of the foremost violists of his generation. As a sought after soloist who has performed with orchestras on five continents, Deubner has redefined the role of “solo artist” and given the viola a new standing in the world of classical music through his virtuosity, commitment to championing new music and dedication to fostering the next generation’s young artists.

As a concerto soloist, Deubner’s debut with the Grammy award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra premiering Lalo Schifrin’s Triple Concerto resulted in numerous subsequent engagements throughout the U.S. and abroad. Deubner went on to perform worldwide as one of this century’s most important viola soloists appearing with more than 80 orchestras in 11 countries to unanimous approval for “the warmth and sparkling” quality of his playing. (Doblinger Press, Vienna) To date Deubner has received over 50 viola concertos composed and dedicated to him and he has made 20 CDs on various labels such as Naxos, Centaur, Innova and Albany to critical acclaim and glowing reviews.

In 2017, Deubner received the United States Congressional Certificate of Recognition for his commitment to music and education. In 2019, Deubner received a Latin Grammy nomination for “Best Classical CD Recording” for his recording of Houston Dunleavy’s Concerto “A Kiss Before the World’s End” with the Orquesta de Heredia of Costa Rica. He is a recipient of the 2022 Global Music Awards Silver Medal for his recording “Transfiguration” an album of works by Stanley Grill for two, three and four violas of which he recorded all the parts.

In 2022-2023, Deubner will perform 10 viola concertos with orchestras in North and South America as well as Europe. In addition to recording with Deubner’s piano partner Allison Brewster Franzetti in a highly acclaimed debut album “Mother Earth,” this season he will release his debut “Solo” album featuring works composed for him. In the fall of 2022 he will make concerto recordings in Prague with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic and in Estonia with the Laanesaarte Kammerorkester.

A devoted and passionate chamber music collaborator Deubner has performed with Pinchas Zukerman, Joseph Kalichstein, Andre Michel-Schub, the Tokyo Quartet, Vermeer Quartet, Colorado Quartet clarinetists Guy Deplus and Alexander Fiterstein, as well as flutists Ransom Wilson and Carol Wincenc. Brett Deubner makes his home in the New York Metropolitan area where he is currently on the string faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York. He is on the faculty of the Round Top Festival in Texas. He plays on a viola made for him by Alejandro Bacelar and is officially endorsed by D’Addario, the world’s largest strings manufacturer, as a solo artist who uses the Kaplan Amo strings exclusively.

Donald Appert has appeared as a guest conductor in Japan, Australia, Central America, and throughout Europe.  In Italy La’ovadese wrote, “…the performance of the ‘Serenade in C Major’ of Tchaikovsky, under the exceptional direction of Appert, was in such a style that it brought out the elegance and grace of the melodic lines with Mozartian inspiration.  …The L’Orchestra Sinfonica Città di Grosseto… performed the Barber ‘Adagio’ with rare effectiveness, emphasizing its intrinsically rich melody.”  Giornale di Sicilla praised his interpretation of Nielsen’s First Symphony as “lyrical with an airy freshness,” and his conducting as “precise, painstakingly accurate, and diligent.”  In the United States, he has appeared as a guest conductor of the Vancouver (Washington) Symphony, the University of Texas – Arlington Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Washington University Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Central Arkansas Symphony.He currently serves as the Music Director/Conductor of the Oregon Sinfonietta and the Jewish Community Orchestra of Portland.

Dr. Appert was awarded the 2020 Winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Programming. He won this same award in 2011 and in 2015 was named an Honored Artist by The American Prize Competition.

Camas, WA — The Camas Washougal Businessperson and Citizen of the year applications for nomination are now available. Your participation in the nomination process is necessary in order to honor individuals who truly deserve this honor within our community, said Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce today.

Here are the specifics:

Who: Citizen of the Year must live in the 98607 or 98671 area codes and have performed volunteer services in the community, which have contributed to an overall positive impact on Camas and/or Washougal. Business Person of the year must work in the 98607 or 98671 area codes and have shown a positive business influence on the Camas-Washougal area. Also, the businessperson must promote the community through any combination of the following: length of service, image, reputation, activities, promotions, growth, or participation in the business organizations. 

When: Application deadline is May 1st at 5 pm in the CW Chamber office at 422 NE 4th Avenue. Email to [email protected]   A banquet to honor the recipients will be held the first week in June. Date and Location to be announced.

Where: You can pick up applications at either the Camas or Washougal Riverview Community Bank branches, or at the Chamber Office. They are also available for download at www.cwchamber.com 

Camas, WA — Following a 15-year hiatus, local artist Liz Pike is reopening Pike Art Gallery next month in downtown Camas in a shared space with Minuteman Press, located at 302 NE Sixth Avenue. The public is invited to an upscale ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Pike Art Gallery on Thursday, February 2nd at 4:30 pm featuring sumptuous appetizers and beverages.

The ribbon cutting will be conducted by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce. The new gallery space is at the corner of NE Sixth and Birch Street and will be open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm and on Saturdays by private appointment. 

“I’m thrilled to be going back to my roots as a downtown gallery owner,” said Pike. “I’m also looking forward to hosting a welcoming First Friday Art reception each month at this new location to unveil my new works of art with the public. I appreciate this unique opportunity to share space with my good friend Jason Young, owner of Minuteman Press.”

Upon implementing efficiencies with the latest technology in full service printing, Minuteman Press has made prime square footage available to Pike for use as an art gallery showroom. 

This new setting is a second location for Pike Art Gallery which opened a few years ago inside a stand- alone building at Pike’s organic Shangri-La Farm in Fern Prairie. She operated the original Pike Art Gallery in downtown Camas from 2005 to 2008 on Dallas Street. 

“Art galleries bring more visitors to Camas which boosts economic activity for our downtown restaurants, retail shops and service merchants,” said Pike. 

Her new gallery adds to the vibrancy of NE Sixth Avenue’s existing businesses which include a popular retail bike store and salon located directly across the street in the Clara Flats building, one of Camas’ newest eco-friendly mixed use buildings with spacious views. 

Pike has been painting in oils on canvas since 1984. Her work has been featured in restaurants in Honolulu where she lived for ten years and most recently at Camas Gallery, which has represented Pike’s original art since 2016. She has been juried into Clark County Open Studios Tour each year since 2017. Pike also shows her work at several regional art festivals including the Fern Prairie Art Fest, Washougal Art Festival, Battle Ground’s Art in the Park, and Camas Vintage and Art Faire. 

Pike can be reached at (360) 281-8720.


Pike