MARYSVILLE – The Marysville Museum is closer to having a future along with its past, after receiving $50,000 from the City Council Jan. 25.
That, plus $25,000 raised the past few months, still leaves the museum $75,000 short of its “Over the Top” fund-raising goal, historical society president Ken Cage said.
“We were doing good for awhile, but it has slowed down,” Cage said.
Cage had hoped the museum would be done by the city’s 125th anniversary March 19, but now it looks like that won’t happen. Sheetrock is being put up in the building on Armar Road this week.
“It won’t be ready for the open house, but we will still have speeches and a little program. People will have to imagine the rest,” Cage said.
He added that later in the year, when all the exhibits are ready, the museum will have a real grand opening.
In exchange for the city’s $50,000 donation, it will receive 750 hours in use of the museum over five years for classes, meetings and events.
Council Member Jeff Vaughan voted against the funding, saying it would set a precedent for other groups with worthy causes to ask for funds. He said the historical society used the wrong process. It should have asked for hotel-motel tax money.
Also at the council meeting, candidates for the Marysville Strawberry Festival royal court were judged by some council members.
Among those judged on the topic of “Honor Traditions, Future Visions” were: Abraham Lopez, Kirstin Lindblom, Emily Gregg, Kennedy Doty and Callie Burkett.
Lopez, a Marysville Getchell High School junior who wants to be an engineer, talked about the festival meeting an honored tradition for 85 years.
Gregg talked about her grandma who died two years before she was even born, and how she feels her every year around the tradition of the family Christmas tree.
Lindblom, a senior at Marysville-Pilchuck, talked about the festival being important to her since she was 6. She recalls the shortcake and the parades. She envisions a public service project to be part of it in the future.
Doty, an M-P junior, wants to be a middle school political science teacher. The festival is a tradition for her as her family has been very involved in Maryfest for a number of years.
Burkett linked the tradition of origami in Japan with picking berries in Marysville. She talked about how the festival got its start when there were 2,000 acres of strawberry fields in town. She mentioned how the festival has kept some of its traditions, but has changed with the times, too.
The junior court candidates are sixth-graders: Savannah DeMello, Mikyla Shumway, Isabella Raynaud, Kerragyn Heacock and Amelia Belmont.
