Port Angeles – Every year, Black Ball’s Coho ferry, which connects Port Angeles to Victoria, dry docks for up to six weeks, temporarily cutting off transportation between our two communities.
Anyone who attended last year’s Welcome Back event on the waterfront knows that it was a raucous and happy affair, with some 250 people coming together to celebrate both the ferry’s reopening and the return of Canadian citizens to the Olympic Peninsula.
This year the Welcome Back Coho event is going to take place on Thursday February 19, and Sam Grello, Director of the Port Angeles Waterfront District, says it will be bigger and better than ever.
“We’re getting the high school marching band to be out this year. We’re able to pay them some money that’s going to go towards their funds. They’re trying to go to, I believe it’s Anaheim, so… And then we’re gonna have a bunch of elected officials. Port commissioners, county commissioners, city manager, city mayor, a bunch of city councilors will be there, as well. And then, it looks like we’re also going to have a representative from the Governor’s office, as well as a representative from Representative Randall’s office. The two of them, themselves, can’t make it, but they’ll have people from their offices coming.”
Grello knows first-hand what a big story this was last year in Canada.
“This is an important event. Just…Canadians are very receptive to it. They see that, you know, we care about how they are perceiving us as a community, which has been landing pretty hard. So, seeing that there are some of our elected representatives at this event is important for Canadians. You know, it was a, it was a story from like, Newfoundland all the way west to the Yukon territories. Like, it hit all of Canada. You know, I’m still, regularly, they’ll call me. Like, CTV, based out of Toronto, will call me up, and they want to talk, just about, you know, Port Angeles. Right? Because of that event that we did last year.”
The relationship between our two communities has a long history, and so does our reliance on the economic activity that comes as a direct result of the COHO ferry route to Victoria. Black Ball Ferry Line commissioned a study in 2019 about the economic impact of the Coho on our community, which estimated that the ferry line pumps about $64 million into our community annually and supports the employment of over 600 people in Port Angeles.
Organizers are asking that people wear red, white or black shirts and tops.
“The red and white obviously goes towards the Canadian flag. But red, white and black, you know, that’s the Black Ball flag. And this event is not just celebrating our relationship with Victoria. We’re also celebrating the Black Ball Ferry. Really, the the folks at Black Ball do such an amazing job. So, as much as we are celebrating Victoria, we’re also celebrating Black Ball and the staff, that are able to just, kind of, keep this boat going that is so important to our community.”
Folks are expected to start congregating around the Blackball Ferry terminal around 11:30 on the 19th in anticipation of the boat’s arrival at noon. Along with the live music and dignitaries, there’ll be funny signs, an “Ask an American” booth, and some specialty items delivered from Canada right off the boat, such as poutine, Tim Horton’s double-double coffees, and more.