Last Wednesday evening — winter solstice — a 4-mile stretch of roadway was lined with luminaries, small candles lighting the longest night of the year.
The event, which happens annually if the weather cooperates, is the brainchild of Karen Biondo, who brought a much smaller version of the event to the island in 1999, when she floated the lights on a neighbor’s pond. Since then, it has grown considerably and this year included 1,100 candles and paper bags, 800 pounds of sand and dozens of volunteers, who helped fill the bags and distribute them on the edges of the roads, beginning on 204th Street and ending 4.1 miles later on Wax Orchard Road.
Before lunch on Wednesday, several people — from young children to older adults — were busy scooping sand into bags and filling a trailer with them at Biondo’s farm. Biondo, taking a break from organizing the event, shared her favorite part of the production.
“This,” she said, gesturing to the people gathered at her picnic table, “and the glow of the candles as far as the eye can see. It is such a quiet tribute to the return of the sun.”
Steph Blomgren and her children Signa, 9, and Felix, 5, were among those gathered to help. Blomgren said she had recently learned that volunteers were needed and decided to help out.
“It’s such a beautiful day,” she said, standing in the sun under clear blue sky, “I am so glad we’re here.”
Throughout the day, a revolving crowd of 15 to 25 people lent a hand, Biondo said, including some people who come each year simply to light the candles.
As dusk gave way to dark, cars began to stream down the dimly lit roadway. The luminaries are most visible in the dark, so cars often travel the route using only their parking lights. This year, some cars did so, but many cars kept their lights on, while others had no lights on at all. And in what Biondo said she believes is a first for the event, a sheriff’s deputy ticketed drivers without lights.
“I am really sorry the sheriff decided to do that,” she said. “This is not the first time I have seen the sheriff out on solstice, but it is the first time I have heard of him ticketing people.”
Just as Biondo relies on volunteers to create this event, she also relies on volunteers to help pick the lights up. This year, that number fell short, and on Friday morning she said she planned to go out and finish picking up those that remained. She noted it was her event and that she is responsible, but added that it would be helpful if those who enjoyed it pitched in to help with clean up.
“If 25 people picked up 20 bags, it would go really quickly,” she said.
Biondo was first inspired to create solstice luminaries in 1993 when a friend suggested her driveway in Oregon would be an excellent place for them. She has been creating and lighting them ever since, she said, and brought the tradition with her to Vashon. After floating the lights onto her neighbor’s pond six years later, she said the next year she lit luminaries from her house to his and lit up the pond again. From there, the endeavor kept growing until 2011, when the lit path stretched 4.7 miles, well down Wax Orchard Road.
The Northwest weather has allowed for the event to happen about 50 percent of the time since she first started, but in the most recent years, it has not taken place. In 2012 and 2013, snow and rain kept it from happening, and last year Biondo’s dog died, making her too sad to take it on. This year, she said her plans for the luminaries went viral on Facebook, and the element of surprise was missing for what was, at times, a crowd of cars passing through.
Next year, she said, she intends to do something different and not tell anyone about what her plans are, bringing the element of surprise back.
“People can look forward to a new evolution of the luminaries,” she said. “I want to recover some of that sweet, quiet peacefulness of it.”
