Cooler days and crisp orange leaves along Peace Portal Drive welcome the changing season. Here are a few activities in Blaine, Birch Bay and Whatcom County to celebrate autumn.
Grace Lutheran’s Fall Festival
Grace Lutheran Church will celebrate its annual fall festival on Saturday, October 1.
The festival will start at 4 p.m. at the 702 G Street church, with crafts, a bouncy house, ping pong and bingo. A chili cook-off will take place at 5 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. pie-baking contest and line dancing at 7 p.m. People who want to participate in the pie or chili contest need to register their entries by 3:30 p.m. For more information, call Grace Lutheran at 360/332-6589.
Semiahmoo Resort movies
From Halloween movies to trick-or-treating, Semiahmoo Resort hosts several activities open to the public in October. The resort will host Hitchcock Happy Hour with themed drinks and movies at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in October. A Halloween movie will be played at the resort 7 p.m. Sunday, October 30, with tickets $5 for the public and free for guests. Costumes are encouraged for the October 30 movie showing. Community members and resort guests can also dress up to trick-or-treat through the resort 5-7 p.m. October 30 and Monday, October 31.
Christ Episcopal Church’s Harvest Festival
Families will be able to harvest pumpkins and learn about gardening during Christ Episcopal Church’s annual harvest festival.
The free event will be held noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, October 8 at the church and its garden, at 382 Boblett Street. Event organizers are expecting 42 pumpkins, nine mammoth sunflower heads and endangered squash to be harvested at the festival. The event will have something for everyone in the family from harvesting produce, playing vegetable-themed games, educational opportunities, mulled cider and live music.
The 10th anniversary of the church’s Children’s Giving Garden, where the produce will be harvested, coincides with this year’s harvest festival. The church started the garden in 2012 to foster collaboration through growing community food. The garden has expanded five times from its original 10-foot-by-10-foot garden, according to the church’s website. The garden has produced over 1,200 pounds of produce in its 10 years, donating most of the grown vegetables to the Blaine Clubhouse of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County. The garden is funded mostly through member donations as well as a $50 Community Food Co-op donation and a Growsource topsoil donation.
Blaine scarecrow contest
Hay bales, spider webs and pumpkins will soon decorate Blaine businesses in anticipation of Blaine Chamber of Commerce’s scarecrow contest. Any Blaine business can put up fall-themed decorations and enter the contest by Saturday, October 15, chamber executive director Sheila Wood said. The winner will receive a 4-by-4-inch color ad in The Northern Light.
Businesses can participate regardless of their location in Blaine. Businesses outside of downtown can also contact Wood if they would like to decorate a vacant space downtown. To enter, email Wood at info@blainechamber.com or call the chamber office at 360/332-6484. Wood will then take photos of the displays for a group of volunteer judges to vote on.
“A theme is always good,” Wood recommended. “Last year, Stafholt did a Charlie Brown theme and that was really neat. Another business did Minions and it was really cute.”
Bellewood Farms Harvest Festival
Bellewood Farms is celebrating autumn with its harvest festival, which started at the beginning of September and will run until the end of October. The Lynden farm offers an apple bin train ride and a free corn maze, according to its website. The pumpkin patch opens Saturday, October 1. Cider, caramel apples and apple pie are available to purchase, and cider donuts and kettle corn will be sold in October. The farm will have u-pick apples until mid-October.
Bellewood Farms is located at 6140 Guide Meridian Road and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
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