All Along the Riverwalk Festival to be held July 27

The All Along the Riverwalk Festival Arts, Education, and Entertainment Festival will be returning to the Puyallup Riverwalk Trail on Pierce County Trails Day – July 27! Born from the inspiration of Art Along the Riverbank on the Isle of Wight, All Along the Riverwalk had its inaugural event in 2020.

“I visited a friend on the Isle of Wight in 2018 and saw people really enjoying art along the river and thought it was something that would really help the Friends of the Puyallup Riverwalk raise awareness about the trail and increase its use,” said John Hopkins, founder of the event.

The Friends had made attempts at event organizing in the past to draw people both near and far to the trail – most notably Families in Motion – which didn’t achieve the goal of getting people to experience the trail.

“There were probably around a dozen vendors, mostly near the entrance of the Trail, so people came to explore the vendors, but didn’t really venture onto the trail itself, so we realized we needed something along the trail to interest people, and art was a great way to do that,” Mr. Hopkins said.

The planning for a wonderful, busy, community gathering began in 2019 to take place in the spring, but unfortunately 2020 had different plans. Like many events (and much of the world) things turned virtual, so the event was scaled back to feature things that “attendees” could participate in online.

“Now we look back on that event as a ‘soft launch,’” Mr. Hopkins said. “We thought it would give us plenty of time to regroup and plan a great in-person event for 2021, but unfortunately we weren’t able to bring it to life in 2021 either, again due to the pandemic.”

But finally, in 2022, the All Along the Riverwalk Festival made its first in-person debut. The event was modest but featured live entertainment, vendors, and most importantly art spanning the trail from the Puyallup Goodwill to Veterans Park.

“It was small, but we were proud,” Mr. Hopkins said. “Thanks to the participation of many local artists, we were able to achieve our goal of drawing people out on the Trail, and it stirred up a lot of ideas of what we could do to build and improve the event.”

One of the first big changes was shifting the date to Pierce County Trails Day – an day with goals in full alignment with those of the All Along the Riverwalk Festival. Others included getting partners to sponsor the event, and creating incentives for artists to enter their work. The changes worked and in 2023, there were more than 40 artists and 1,000 attendees. 

The event organizers expect this year’s event to be bigger and better, and the list of artists entering is very promising. Thanks to a grant through ArtsWA, the Festival is able to offer artists free booths and a handful will even be eligible for a stipend for participating.

“When you reduce the barrier to entry, it really opens up the people who are willing to participate,” Mr. Hopkins said. “For some, this may be the first time their art has been publicly displayed and that’s a valuable opportunity for so many who may not have the chance to show their work at a gallery or pay to show at an event.”

While the event is a great opportunity for artists and an attraction for those from out of town to see what Puyallup has to offer, it’s also the perfect chance for locals to discover what great resources are available right in their backyard. While the Riverwalk Trail is used by many for leisure, it’s also a practical option for car-free transportation!

This year’s All Along the Riverwalk Festival Arts, Education, and Entertainment Festival will offer art installations along the whole trail, with live music and a central hub located at Veterans Park. The event will be on July 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. More information is available at allalongtheriverwalk.org.

Partners for this year’s event include the Foothills Coalition, ArtsWA, Arts Downtown, Pierce Conservation District, City of Puyallup, Puyallup Parks & Recreation, Daffodil Valley Volkssport Association, 1st Security Bank, and Puyallup Towing.

Board Member Spotlight – John Hopkins

The Foothills Coalition was happy to welcome John Hopkins as one of our new board members earlier this year. Originally from England, Mr. Hopkins planted his roots in Puyallup more than 30 years ago and has since become a strong advocate for the City of Puyallup, its residents, and the surrounding area.

The journey that brought Mr. Hopkins from the U.K. to Washington wasn’t a short one. In the early 1970s Mr. Hopkins was looking for a complete change of pace from his life teaching in London and decided to pay a visit to his sister in Alaska – a visit that turned out to last 15 years. He became an electrician and began teaching the trade until a downward turn in Alaska’s economy  spurred by plummeting oil prices led Mr. Hopkins south to Puyallup in 1987.

Starting his life in Puyallup at a property purchased from his boss in Alaska, he decided to continue his career on his own terms by founding an electrical business of his own which eventually led to purchasing property in downtown Puyallup. His increasing integration into the local community led to him becoming a member of the Puyallup Main Street Association.

“I really loved it here – the summers in Washington are unbeatable,” Mr. Hopkins said. “So after I established myself and my business, one thing led to another and I continued to get more and more involved in local organizations and government.”

Mr. Hopkins first became involved in local trails through the Friends of the Riverwalk while serving on the Puyallup City Council, and what began primarily as a duty to his constituents, quickly turned into a passion project. Before he knew it, Mr. Hopkins was a regular of the group, attending its weekly meetings and advocating for both improvements on and expansion of the Puyallup Riverwalk Trail on behalf of the group to the city government. 

At the time, there was a large overlap between members of the Friends of the Riverwalk and members and founders of the Foothills Coalition. Mr. Hopkins and other Riverwalk members saw the value of working together with the Foothills Coalition to achieve the groups’ common goals.

“It made a lot of sense to work with the Foothills Coalition and the Friends of the Riverwalk and the two have formed a great partnership,” he said. “One of the biggest steps in recent years was in 2020 when we planned to hold the first All Along the Riverwalk Festival and they came in with a lot of support.”

The All Along the Riverwalk Arts, Education, and Entertainment Festival was an idea Mr. Hopkins brought back to Puyallup after a trip to the Isle of Wight in 2018. More can be learned about the festival on p. XX of this newsletter.

The trip to the Isle of Wight is one of dozens of adventures Mr. Hopkins has embarked on since retiring 21 years ago. Upon his retirement, he leaned into his passion of exploring the outdoors, mostly through challenging mountainous hikes, many alongside his son. 

“I’ve found the best way to travel the world is through climbing and hiking,” he said. “I also love spending a lot of my time with locals to not only get a sense of the culture, but because they’re the experts and can help you truly make the most of your time.”

His accomplishments include summiting Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) twice, Mount Elbrus (Russia) once, and even reaching Mount Everest Base Camp (Nepal). To date, some of his most memorable hikes have been through Peru and Guatemala, while Patagonia is on his short list for future plans.

Despite his worldly travels, Mr. Hopkins chooses to spend the beautiful Pacific Northwest summers locally, hiking Mount Saint Helens (almost annually), exploring Washington’s volcanoes, and of course, spending time on the Foothills Trail.

The Foothills Trail plays an important part in Mr. Hopkins’ active lifestyle with his weekly half-marathons (each Saturday) and participation in Trail events including the upcoming B&O 10K & Half Marathon.

Mr. Hopkins hopes that during his tenure the Foothills Trail continues to grow and improve to best serve the residents of Pierce County and the surrounding area. 

“I foresee the Coalition growing into a bigger, stronger organization in the coming years. We’ve already begun a transformation from a mostly volunteer group to one that’s very professional,” he said. “The Coalition made a huge step in hiring our Executive Director Shayla, who has done so much to move our efforts forward.”

Mr. Hopkins hopes to play a role in attracting new, younger members to ensure the Foothills Coalition continues to thrive and advocate for local trails for decades to come.  

Photo: John Hopkins hiking Mt. St. Helens

Rainier to Ruston 2024 – A Great Success!

By Dan Bucci

The Foothills Coalition held the 22nd annual Rainier to Ruston Relay on Saturday, June 1st, 2024. The event is always held on the first Saturday of June to celebrate National Trails Day. This event has become a hallmark of the Pacific Northwest Running community, and is one of the biggest races held in the South Sound area. This year saw a huge increase in participation, with 325 teams, and 20 solo runners. With just around 1,600 runners participating in the event, this was the 2nd largest Rainier to Ruston in the event’s history, only behind 2019 which had just under 2,000 participants. This year’s event however did take in the most revenue ever, which is fantastic as this is the single largest revenue source for the Coalition’s operating budget every year!

Participants in the race cover about 53 miles, running from the Carbon River entrance of Mount Rainier National Park and finishing along the Tacoma Waterfront in Cummings Park along Ruston Way. Participants may choose to tackle the distance as 6-person, 4-person, 3-person, or 2-person teams, with each team member taking on multiple “legs” of the event. A few hearty souls (we had 20 this year) chose to run the entire length by themselves! But it’s not just the runners doing lots of work on race day! In the days leading up to the event, there are hundreds of hours poured into marking the course, getting the race equipment cleaned and staged, putting together race packets, and making sure we are prepared to host 1,600 runners. On race day itself, there are somewhere around 100 volunteers that help out at the start line, along the course, and at the finish line to make sure the event goes off without a hitch!

This year we also had extremely generous sponsors, with cash sponsorships from the Port of Tacoma, and Par Pacific, a donation of beer for the beer garden from Silver City Brewing and Athletic Brewing Company, and cookies donated by Farm 12 for all runners at the Meeker Exchange. 

The goal of the event is not to simply raise funds for the coalition, but also to showcase the existing trail, and the corridors where we are working to extend the trail. Participants begin the race running along the Carbon River, and through the Carbon Canyon through the communities of Carbonado and Wilkeson. They then pick-up the completed portions of the Foothills Trail in South Prairie, run through Orting, and into Puyallup. After Puyallup, runners navigate the levee trail and various roads as they traverse through Fife and Tacoma until they arrive at the Museum of Glass in Downtown Tacoma. They then complete the race mostly on park paths and sidewalks along the Tacoma Waterfront and finish on Ruston Way. The race path largely follows the path where we envision having a completed, non-motorized trail, connecting Mount Rainier to the Puget Sound.

Teams are encouraged to decorate their vehicles, come up with creative team names, and run in costumes to add more fun to the day. After finishing the race, runners are treated to a beer garden, and some light refreshments at the finish line while a DJ spins tunes. This year, we also had massages and sno-cones available for purchase! It was great to walk around and see so many people supporting our trail and running for a good cause. The 2024 event felt to me like the most organized, well executed R2R we’ve had to date. I’m looking forward to carrying that momentum into the 2025 event and making that the BIGGEST and BEST R2R in the event’s history!

 

Photo by: Fast Focus Photography NW