I would like to give a big thank-you to the business community, the City of Ocean Shores and the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino for stepping up and taking on the huge job of coordinating this summer’s Hog Wild at Ocean Shores event. Putting on an event this size in the space of 90 days is monumentally difficult, but everyone worked together to make it happen, and it was much improved over the past few years events put on by an outside promoter.

With this in mind, I am hopeful that the same business owners will make a commitment to work together over the winter to bring the Razor Clam Festival, Sand and Sawdust and Hog Wild at Ocean Shores back to Ocean Shores next summer. Working with the City and the QBRC appears to have been a good combination of resources, so it only makes sense to continue to promote these events “in-house” as opposed to relying on outside promoters to put them on.

While the organizational chart is fuzzy in my mind, I’m not sure exactly what the city did as far as financial support and risk, or what the Convention Center did, I do think they have found a winning strategy. Of course, we have not seen the final profit and loss report, but I suspect there may be an actual profit in all this. My one concern is whether this in-house promotion will take too much away from our current staff and their regular workload.

The obvious success of this event points to the idea that our businesses most certainly can work together, with or without a Chamber of Commerce to unite them. Let’s hope they feel the same way and will continue what they have started!

Lorraine Hardin

Ocean Shores