Spanaway -about the Celebrate! Committee

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	In 1999 Celebrate! Spanaway volunteers cleaned streets, cleared vacant lots, and repaired and painted deteriorating buildings in Spanaway's historic district.

Murals stopped teen-age tagging. The clean-up effect rippled outward for blocks as homeowners and landlords were encouraged to "take a look at your property the way others see it."
Celebrate!Spanaway's initial Safe Streets "neighborhood night out," to rebuild a sense of community and pride in Spanaway's historic district, grew into an old-fashioned fair with artisans coming from as far as Florida and visitors from all over the U.S. By 2007, the fair had outgrown it's original location on Spanaway's historical main street and moved just down the road to Spanaway Elementary playfield, the site of Spanaway's first Schoolhouse. In 2011, the fourth Spanaway Elementary School to be built on the historical school site displaced the Fair, now located on the historic Marymount grounds on Old Military Road (152nd St. South).		Spanaway's first schoolhouse, 1891 New schoolhouse in progress, 2011

Always located on an historic site, the Celebrate!Spanaway Community Fair and Car Show continues to please visitors as their comments attest:
1999: Maryberry Returns, Spanaway-style Remember that old-fashioned, meet your neighbors, Mayberry-style community Fun? It's back! (Parkland Spanaway Post) 2004: Building a Community With Pony Rides, Races "Hailey , 3, of Auburn, has a bubbly good time at one of 80 booths at the Spanaway Street Fair...Meanwhile, at the pet parade, Beth Samuelson of Elbe told why she'd driven to the gathering with Fred, her basset hound, who was dressed in a sailor's shirt and cap..."(The News Tribune) 2007: Spanaway Street Fair Provides Fun For All "Looking for something to do with the whole family? Look no further than the Celebrate!Spanaway Street Fair."(The New Tribune) 2008:Despite Hurdles, Town Fair Prevails: "A ban on roadside advertising and an air show at McChord pose some challenge to the Spanaway Community Fair. But crowds still turn out..."(The News Tribune)
But popularity of the Celebrate!Spanaway fair, which has drawn visitors and vendors from all over the U.S., is best described in the following article.
Ethnic Fest and Spanaway Fair Bring out Community Spirit by Cecilia Nguyen B2 The News Tribune, Sunday, July 29, 2001 With cherry juice-stained faces, Mit Nelson's granddaughters Jamie and Jordon indulged themselves at the fresh fruit stand. Just a few feet away, while admiring the vintage LeMay cars on display, Jampes Gipson reminisced with James Ramos about the 1960- and 1955 Chevy Belairs he used to own. And at a booth one block down from the cars, an artist painted an azure-colored butterfly onto the cheek of Angela Sark's daughter. The Spanaway Historic Street Fair was just one of many community celebrations around the South Sound this weekend. Sark and her three children, who are visiting from Indiana, were all looking for a Saturday activity. After scanning the morning paper, they decided to go to Spanaway's fair. Sark said she and her family found pleasure in the simplicity of watermelon-eating contests, candy dives, face paintings and a bit of dancing - all elements in an old-time country street fair. "It's been surprisingly good." Come join in the fun!

The Celebrate! Spanaway Committee, Inc. is an all-volunteer non-profit IRS Title 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization incorporated in 1999.
Representatives from citizen, business, church, charitable, school, government, and community service organizations
serve on the board of directors and committee-at-large.

Committee Meeting Schedule 2012
All meetings are open to the public. We invite your participation.
Meetings dates and times tba.
To be placed on our meeting notice list, please send your e-mail address to celebratespanaway@earthlink.net.
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Contact Information

Celebrate! Spanaway Committee, Inc.
P.O. Box 1261
Spanaway, WA 98387

For more information, contact us at celebratespanaway@earthlink.net or

General Information: Martin Henry, Chair, 253-444-7342

Entertainment: Martin Henry, 253-444-7342

Vendors, Artisans and Exhibitors: Jim Eggleston, 253-468-7668

Car Show exhibitors: Roger Peterson, 253-537-7363

Business Directory & Special Projects: Jean Sensel, 253-531-8520