Ritzville Festival Association set to dissolve

RITZVILLE – The Ritzville Festival Association will dissolve by the end of the year.

The remaining five board members reached the difficult decision at their March meeting.

“We’re old,” Secretary/Treasurer Debbie Balfe said, referring to herself and fellow board members, John and Janis Marshall and Chris and Vicky Johnson, who are all in, or approaching, their 70s.

For decades, the association sponsored the community float, appearing in nearly 20 regional parades each year. The association also sponsored multiple generations of “Ritzville Royalty” for the float, from participants in the Washington Junior Miss program, which was renamed Distinguished Young Women in 2010.

The association also organized the Grand Parade annually on Labor Day weekend, and had fundraisers throughout the year including the annual Penny Auction and a Christmas tree sale.

Aside from a shortage of volunteers, the association is in remarkably good shape for a local non-profit.

It owns a building at 108 W. Railroad Ave., the float chassis, a truck, a trailer and has significant financial assets, as well as goodwill from past fundraising events.

To dissolve a non-profit organization is no small task. Articles of dissolution must be filed with the state Secretary of State’s Office, then assets are conveyed, transfer or distributed, usually to another non-profit, engaged in activities substantially similar to those of the dissolving corporation.

Many parades and festivals in the region have suffered changes and cancellations during the global pandemic.

The Apple Blossom Festival in Wenatchee was canceled in 2020, and a modified version took place in June 2021. On May 7, 2022, the festival returned, but with 116 parade entries, down from 136 in 2019.

In Reardan, where Mule Days is scheduled for June 4, there isn't any Reardan-Edwall Royalty, and according to published information, “won’t until there is a volunteer to run the program.”

In Ritzville, the float made an appearance in 2020, but instead of a crowd on Main Street the float, and royalty, paraded through local neighborhoods.

In 2021, a parade returned to downtown, but the float was absent and royally rode in vehicles.

And this year, no royalty have been chosen, as no girls signed up for the program.

With the fate of the festival association and decades of local history, apparently sealed, there may still be time for a new group of volunteers to step forward and take over.

To avoid dissolution, new board members would have to come forward and take over the non-profit organization, officials said.