By BILL WALKER
Change is hard sometimes. And as Dannah McCullough has discovered, change often requires navigating where the playbook hasn’t been written yet. So she leans on her values.
McCullough is six months into her tenure as executive director at the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce. She has a vision for the business community, a vision that sees the Chamber as a “lightning rod for empowerment.” Empowerment starts with respect and inclusion for all at the table, she says, even as our community grows and changes. Even when that means refocusing a festival entrenched in our community’s history.
It’s a tough recipe to get right. Start with a who-got-here-first immigrant legend from more than a century ago, add a few dashes of local flavor with street names and windmills, drop in a dollop of community pride and top it with a crusty old name 50-plus years in the making. Bake it all in, and you’ve got a beloved tradition in Oak Harbor. That’s Holland Happening.
Presented by the Chamber, the Dutch-themed festival has graced Pioneer Way in Oak Harbor’s historic downtown every April since 1970. Community interest and involvement has dwindled in recent years, with lower attendance and a struggle to find enough volunteers to make the festival happen.
The good news, according to McCullough, is that the Chamber exists to serve and promote the business interests of greater Whidbey Island, “so we can allow our values to take the lead on the decision to make this festival more inclusive and, by nature, a bigger success for our businesses.”
McCullough is leading the Chamber’s pursuit of programming that has a direct connection to the Chamber’s mission to support Whidbey businesses.
In other words, the Chamber needs to adapt, to adjust the recipe, garnish the dish with solid community values, make it more palatable.
The Chamber attempted to evolve the event for several years, says McCullough, but the efforts were met with resistance from the community, so Holland Happening remained. This year, she says, the Chamber “opted to push through the discomfort of growth and create a platform for individuals and businesses in our community to have a place they hadn’t had historically.” After years of consideration, she says, “we decided it was time.”
So the Whidbey Island Culture Fest was born, set for the first weekend of May, 2025. McCullough’s excitement is palpable as she spills ideas into our conversation.
“We should reflect the community’s growth, and be inclusive of all the cultures represented here today,” she says. “Oak Harbor is one of the most ethnically diverse rural communities in Washington State, and I’m thrilled that the Culture Fest will showcase that. We want to see people celebrate their own heritage, and enjoy new cultures, new traditions, new people, food, music, dance and arts. We all have so much more in common than not.”
The community reaction has been positive overall. Facebook – “a powerful tool, and a Pandora’s box,” says McCullough – logged 281 comments on the News-Times’ post about the new festival. While many were supportive, some lamented lost tradition, or blamed “the powers that be.” The word “woke” was tossed around like cheap confetti. “The city is turning its back on its founders” was doubly strange because it wasn’t City Hall that made the decision, and our town’s founding white settlers were not Dutch.
“I can empathize with the grief that comes with loss of tradition,” she says. “I hope we see the Dutch community take ownership of their presence at the Culture Fest alongside so many other cultures that are reflected in the fabric of Oak Harbor.”
Amid the rough edges, McCullough found a treasure of diamonds, both online and in person.
“The same day that article was in the News-Times,” she says, “four people walked in the door right here at the Chamber to tell us how happy they were about the Culture Fest. They wanted to know how they could help, and promised to be involved. One even told me, ‘Finally, I now have a place here.’ That felt good.”
As the Chamber’s director, McCullough knows the excitement of a new event brings along with it a ton of pressure on her to get it done right. But she’s confident, and she tries to emulate the great leadership qualities she sees in others.
“My mom used to tell me, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So I try to listen more, and talk less. A good leader should be willing to pivot, learn from mistakes and remember we all have the same ends.” While those ends may be hard to see sometimes, McCullough still emphasizes kindness and understanding: “We’re all human.”
McCullough sees the Culture Fest as a symbol of something bigger. She speaks of a renaissance in the Oak Harbor Chamber. Membership is growing, more small businesses are seeing the benefit of working together for common good and established leaders are handing the baton to a new generation. “That can be scary, wonky and exciting all at once,” McCullough says, and she encourages our community to support change while honoring and stewarding the work of those who came before us.
“Don’t fizzle,” she says of the Chamber’s responsibility to its membership. “We need to stay focused, be accountable to our members and our visions, and adapt in ways that keep us relevant.”
That’s a lot. But if anyone can do it, you get the feeling the Oak Harbor Chamber and Dannah McCullough can make it happen. And, in the near term, how will McCullough know the Whidbey Island Culture Fest was a success?
“I picture a family, heading home after the festival. I’d love to hear what they’re talking about, that they’ve experienced new layers of their own culture, and learned to embrace their neighbors’ culture. And I see them looking at each other saying, ‘Wow, that was amazing! I can’t wait to come back next year!’”
William Walker’s monthly “Take a Breath” column seeks paths to unity on Whidbey Island in a time of polarization. Walker lives near Oak Harbor and is an amateur author of four unpublished novels, hundreds of poems, and a stage play. He blogs occasionally at www.playininthedirt.com.
