Garfield Second Annual Harvest Festival a success

GARFIELD - Garfield's second annual Harvest Festival, Saturday, Oct. 14, started with a group of ruckers shaking the hands of veterans as they came into town to kick the festival off.

Coordinator Sarah Anderson said the event had quite a good group of people, which went well. "We ended up with 22 vendors, and I got positive feedback from everybody," Anderson said.

Ruck Organizer Marletta Sisak said that the ruck event also had a great turnout, and though they didn't get an exact headcount, she said there were over 40 ruckers who kicked off the event by rucking in. "We went with smaller committed teams for safety," Sisak said, noting that they kept the traffic for Washington State University in mind.

For Sisak, the highlight of the day was how much energy and commitment the ruckers put into showing love for their heroes when they do their rucks and being able to return and shake the veteran's hands. "It was amazing to have all those veterans there to shake their hands," Sisak said.

"I think it's amazing what they do," Anderson said of the ruckers, noting that they had a lot of people doing the ruck. "It looked like their silent auction went really well, too," Anderson said.

Sisak said that the silent auction had unbelievable support, which was very good for the ruck for the Fallen group. "We want to definitely thank the City of Garfield for inviting and hosting us," Sisak said, adding that the city did everything they could possibly do to accommodate the ruckers. "Just amazing treatment and support by those folks," Sisak said.

With the overall event only being the second year that Garfield is working it out, Anderson said she thinks it went great. "I look forward to building this tradition up," Anderson said.

"I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes in the future and just bringing in the community more and more and having a good time," Anderson said.