TONASKET – The Founders Day weekend activities will begin tonight, Thursday, June 3, with the annual barbecue and kids’ games at the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds.

The barbeque begins at 5 p.m. with all-you-can eat barbecued beef, potato salad, baked beans and garlic bread. The kids’ games begin at 6 p.m. with no charge to get in. The lawn games are for children four-years-old to ten-years-old. The children will be split into three groups: Pee Wee for children four- to five- years-old, Middle for children six- to eight-years-old and Juniors for children nine- to 10-years-old.

The games are a three-legged race, a sack race, an egg toss, a stick horse race and a sawdust game.

The weekend activities will continue into Friday, June 4 with the first night of the Jeremy Ives Memorial Bull Riding at the Tonasket Rodeo Grounds. Fifty bulls will be bucked, beginning at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, June 5, Founders Day begins with the Tonasket Freedom 5K, sponsored by the Girls on the Run program, at 8 a.m. beginning at the Tonasket High School track. Registration can be done at 7:30 a.m.

The annual Founders Day Parade then begins at 11 a.m. down Whitcomb Ave. Parade entrants need to beginning lining up by 9 a.m. with float judging beginning at 10 a.m. During the parade, the American and Canadian National Anthems will be sun by Cierra Williams and the parade will begin with the Kids’ Parade and the color guard. Once the parade ends, games will begin at the Day Park by the Tonasket Visitor’s Business Resource Center. There will be water games in small wadding pools for children to play and a dunk tank with local leaders as the dunkees.

Beginning at 12 p.m., Tonasket High School Principal Jeff Hardesty will be in the tank followed by Vice-Principal Kevin Terris at 12:20 p.m. Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers will take over in the tank beginning at 12:40 p.m. with Tonasket Police Officer Darren Curtis taking over at 1 p.m. Tonasket City Council Member Connie Maden will be in the tank at 1:20 p.m. and the dunking will end with Mayor Patrick Plumb, beginning at 1:40 p.m. The cost to dunk is $1 for three balls.

Also occurring at the Day Park will be the Carrot Cake Bake-Off. Entries should be dropped off at the TVBRC between 9 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Throughout the parade and Day Park activities, there will be vendors up and down Third Street between Whitcomb Ave. and Western Ave. There will also be popcorn, jelly beans, water, hot dogs and pop available at the Day Park. Finally, there will be demonstrations by the Shine and Show Car Show at OK Chevrolet.

During the Founders Day weekend, there will also be sidewalk and other sales from II Sisters, who will be doing a balloon and video sale, Aspen Body Works, who will be doing a free raffle at the door and the Tonasket Library, who will be doing a book sale on June 4 and June 5.

Founders Day dinner specials will be offered from: the Four Square Church with a barbecue in the II Sister’s parking lot, the American Legion will be offering barbecue hamburgers, hot dogs, chick and Jo Jo’s, the Tonasket Eagles will have a sirloin steak dinner from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., La Ultima will be selling super burritos and super tortas at special prices, LoneStar will have a lunch special, Maverick Bar & Grill will offer rib steak from noon until 10 p.m., the Tonasket Natural Foods Co-Op will offer natural deli salads and sandwiches with the deli window open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Shannon’s will offer a lunch barbeque sandwich with potato salad and baked beans and the dinner will be a Steak Night from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Subway will have eight different foot long subs on special, the Tonasket Saloon and Tavie Café will be selling rodeo burgers and Whistler’s will be selling a half-pound rodeo burger with bacon and cheddar, French fries and pop.

Founders Day will conclude with the second evening of the Jeremy Ives Memorial Bull Riding beginning at 7 p.m., during which another 50 bulls will be bucked for a grand prize of $9,000.