Grandview to capture 100 years on camera

GRANDVIEW, Wash. -- Consider it a big family reunion, specifically the part where dozens of far-flung relatives check their hair, huddle up next to grandma and say, "cheese!"

Now imagine your whole city is there.

That's what organizers of Grandview's Centennial Celebration are going for with a community portrait next Saturday.

"We're hoping people just show up with smiles on their face," said Mike Carpenter, the Parks and Recreation director.

At 10 in the morning, all past and present residents of this Lower Valley city, and even those living in the surrounding areas, are asked to gather at the downtown intersection of Second and Division streets for what's hoped to be a group photo for the ages.

Organizers don't know what turnout to expect. They have published announcements in school and church newsletters, posted it on reader boards and passed out fliers at other community events.

Grandview police will close the roads while amateur photographer Theresa Kollmar climbs to the top of the Grandview Fire Department's Ladder 18 engine. She will point the lens of her cameras north, with Division Street's historic buildings as a backdrop.

Kollmar has been practicing scaling the ladder. She plans to sling three different cameras over her shoulder -- a digital Nikon D-300, a film Nikon N70 and a Canon digital loaned to her by a friend.

"It'd be my luck," that something would malfunction, she says.

Kollmar, 40, occasionally shoots weddings and senior portraits, as well as 4-H photos, but she spends most of her time on landscapes and close-ups of flowers.

A mother of three who grew up in Sunnyside, she's lived in Grandview since 2000. She works as a special education teacher at Harriet Thompson Elementary. Her late grandmother Ardis Emery once took photographs for the Grandview Herald.

The city isn't paying Kollmar but will allow her sell prints. She will give a few to the city to display in city hall, the fire station or the library.

The idea came from Port Townsend's Main Street Program, which takes group photos in front of historic buildings every few years. A few hundred people typically turn out for those, said Kate Driehus, administrative assistant for the organization. Some wear bright clothing or unique hats to stand out in the crowd.

The photographer climbs up a fire truck ladder and uses a police megaphone to direct the subjects below.

"People love it," Driehus says.

As far as local historians can tell, Grandview has never taken such a group portrait, though many historic pictures show crowded parades making their way through the same intersection.

The group photo is one of several activities aimed at celebrating the 100th anniversary of the city's incorporation on Sept. 20, 1909. Oral history presentations are held at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of every month at The Vineyard, 150 Division St. Volunteers have published commemorative cookbooks and sold T-shirts.

They may even cut a birthday cake in September.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.