Arts & Entertainment Community

Harbor Happenings: Earth Day, Emergency Preparedness Fair and more

Posted on April 18th, 2023 By: Charlee Glock-Jackson

Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day, which also means Parks Appreciation Day.

The city of Gig Harbor and PenMet Parks are coordinating clean-up activities at Wilkinson Farm Park, Soundview Forest Park, Grandview Forest Park and Tubby’s Trail. No reservations are required. Just show up between 9 a.m. and noon and lend a hand pulling weeds, clearing trails, pruning trees, spreading compost and with assorted other tuning-up-tasks.

Volunteers pull weeds during a previous Parks Appreciation Day. City of Gig Harbor

Dress for the weather and bring your work gloves. Landscaping tool will be available at each park, but if you’d rather use your own tools, just be sure they’re labeled with your name.

Also on Saturday, Classy Chassis at 6750 Kimball Dr. will donate $1 from every car wash to support the Gig Harbor Land Conservation Fund. The fund preserves critical habitat in the Gig Harbor area.

Emergency Preparation Fair

The Peninsula Community Emergency Preparedness group – PEP-C for short – will host an Emergency Preparedness Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at Gig Harbor High School.

The fair will include hands-on learning activities like how to extinguish a fire, how to administer first aid, how to prepare for a natural disaster and more.

There will also be a presentation about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the major earthquake threat in our area. Admission is free.

Sip ‘n’ Stroll Saturday

The Gig Harbor Downtown Waterfront Alliance’s Spring Sip ‘n’ Stroll is Saturday, April 22, along Harborview Drive.

The event typically brings hundreds of people downtown to drink win and other spirits and visit waterfront businesses. It is sold out.

Creative expression

Spectrum Accord, a new adult singing group, meets Tuesdays and is open to people with little or no singing experience as well as experienced singers. The first session of Spectrum Accord starts April 18 and runs for five weeks, culminating in a live “One World– One People” concert in May. Tuition costs $50 for the five-week session, with some scholarship help available. The group meets at 6 p.m. Tuesdays at Harbor Covenant Church, 4901 Gustafson Drive N.W.
Four local poets will read from their work and talk about what inspires them on Thursday, April 20, at Tacoma Community College-Gig Harbor. Poems will be read by Kristy Gledhill, Allen Braden, Richard Wakefield, and Kate Threat. A question and answer session will follow. The event starts at 6 p.m. and costs $25. Register here.
The Gig Harbor Film Festival presents a screening of “Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb,” as part of Monday Movie Night at 6:30 p.m. April 24 at the Galaxy Theatres Uptown. The documentary explores the lives and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caro and editor Gottlieb. The film gives a glimpse into their long-time relationship and their work on Caro’s biographies of Lyndon B Johnson. Buy tickets here.
This week’s Flashback Cinema movies at Galaxy are “Selena,” at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday (the true story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to stardom); and Mel Brooks’ comedy “Blazing Saddles,” starring Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little, at 12:45 and 6 p.m. Sunday, April 23. Tickets cost just $5.
Award-winning singer-songwriter and “acoustic one-man-band” Carl Tosten plays at Olalla Winery at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 21. Tickets cost $15. Reserve tickets here.

Civic engagement

The city of Gig Harbor will hold an open house on the Crescent Creek Master Plan at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, at the Civic Center. Learn about the project and provide input on improvements or future uses for the park.
Engage Gig Harbor, a new group that seeks to bring people together to share ideas about improving city government, will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, at the Club at the Boatyard, 3117 Harborview Drive. The event will include a conversation with past city council members and community activists.
The City Council will meet for a study session at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Civic Center. Agenda items include discussion of a proposed Crescent Creek annexation, Murphy’s Landing dredging and updating the Council’s Guidelines and Procedures. The meeting is also accessible via Zoom here.