The winner of this year’s patriotic tie contest went with a slight variation on a familiar theme.
Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle’s concept? Hooray for the red, white and blueberry!
While six competitors sported star-spangled neckwear, McEnerny-Ogle supplemented her scarf with a couple of patriotic pies. They offered two tasty takes on the American flag, including stripes of pie crust and red strawberries.
Her pastry-otic effort was part of Thursday’s Flag Day ceremony at Fort Vancouver.
The 24th annual celebration on the historic Vancouver Barracks Parade Ground, just south of Officers Row, included some other familiar features: The Pledge of Allegiance, an honor guard from the Portland Air National Guard Base and the hoisting of the massive garrison flag up the 80-foot flag staff by National Park Service personnel.
And, fifth-graders from two Clark County elementary schools again participated. The team from Sunset Elementary in the Evergreen district beat the mayors in a quiz about the Constitution.
The team from Vancouver’s Marshall Elementary related the story of the Declaration of Independence. And they did it in costume, which seemed to help the performance.
“It feels like you’re in that time,” Isabel McCauley, a narrator, said before the program.
The class also had a good grounding in the subject matter: “We did a big colonial unit,” McCauley said.
Morgan Edenfield, looking quite colonial in his tricorn hat, portrayed a New York delegate who helped draft the document.
“Robert Livingston was a member of the Committee of Five who were chosen to write the Declaration of Independence,” Edenfield said. Unfortunately, “He wasn’t able to sign it. He was called back by his state.”
The two groups of fifth-graders then teamed up to judge the mayors’ patriotic tie contest. After some consultation, McEnerny-Ogle came out ahead of Battle Ground Mayor Mike Dalesandro, Ridgefield Mayor Don Stose, Camas City Councilor Shannon Turk, Washougal City Councilor Paul Greenlee and Vince Myers, Yacolt mayor pro tem.
The fact that each group of fifth-graders was able to take home a pie was a nice touch. They were home-made, by the way.
“I made them last night,” McEnerny-Ogle said after the event.
Vancouver’s first female mayor was a rookie in this competition, but she definitely had a game plan.
“It’s a little difficult for me, as a woman, to wear a tie. It was time to change it up.”
An alternative came to her when McEnerny-Ogle was running the phrase through her mind.
“Patriotic tie. Patriotic tie … Patriotic pie: That sounds good!”
So, McEnerny-Ogle typed “patriotic pie” into a search engine.
“They’re all over the place,” she said.
The event was presented by The Historic Trust and Davidson & Associates Insurance representing Pemco Insurance.
