It’s that time once more — Strawberry Festival is nearly here.

This annual event is the island’s biggest party, crammed with events, food, and things to do. Check pages 11 through 14 of this week’s Beachcomber to learn everything you need to know.

This is a special weekend for Vashon. At Strawberry Festival, islanders dance to music, shop and dine local, jaunt up and down the closed main drag of town, make new friends, and greet old ones they haven’t seen in a long time.

But putting on Strawberry Festival is no small feat. It is a massive undertaking organized by the Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event, its partners, and local businesses and nonprofits — all of whom must collaborate on a tight time frame amid constantly changing circumstances.

And this celebration is a true community event. It is largely composed of island vendors of food and gifts; island musicians and bands; island organizations throwing their doors open or setting up shop on the street; and a small army of island volunteers and workers who keep the wheels on the whole thing rolling.

In the last few years, Strawberry Festival has transformed into a more explicitly island-centric event. It’s more than just a big party. It’s a public affirmation of everything we’re proud of in this community.

So while we’d never begrudge anyone the right to constructive criticism, we hope that this Strawberry Festival brings you happiness and light-hearted frivolity.

It’s always easy to point out what a celebration should have, or what it should be, or — especially — what it was like when you were a kid.

But we like to think in terms of what “could” be — what could we each add to Strawberry Festival this year and next? What creative talents or leadership skills could we offer to this community celebration?

That’s a mindset of collective ownership, a way of putting some of our own skin in the game rather than just asking: “What’s in it for me?”

This moment in time — the summer before a presidential election — brings us no lack of heart-wrenching, stress-inducing, polarized debate about the future of the island and our country. That debate is crucial, and it’s not going anywhere. Just read our Letters to the Editor if you have any doubts.

But Strawberry Festival also reminds us of all we have in common in our shared lives on this small, quirky island in the middle of Puget Sound.

So it’s important that we take the moments we can to enjoy each other’s company — to relax and look around during the sometimes beautiful chaos of Strawberry Festival and see all the familiar faces that make the day brighter on this isle.

That’s how we rediscover our shared humanity and recharge ourselves to face the hardest issues in our lives.

Join us in one of the island’s sweetest ways to do so this weekend. We’ll see you at the Fest.