Just as tulips begin to turn color each spring, three local Kiwanis clubs unite to bring barbecue connoisseurs a taste of a Northwest specialty — alder-grilled salmon.

“It’s cooked over the open fire over the alder wood and we have 20 years of perfecting it,” said Meredith Baker, co-chair of the event.

Kiwanis members use a special sauce over the salmon that Baker said gives it a “wild, magical flavor.”

The annual barbecue is a fundraiser sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon, The Skagit-Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club and the South Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club. The three clubs combined membership of about 120 contribute the cooks and servers, said Tony Flynn, who co-chairs the event with Baker.

“We also enlist the assistance of volunteers from many of the organizations to which we contribute, as well as any available family members and friends, making this a true community event,” Flynn said.

The clubs served more than 12,000 meals in 23 days during the 2007 event, netting more than $82,000, he said.

Proceeds from the event are contributed to more than 20 local agencies, including the Oasis Teen Shelter, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Skagit County, Maternity Lending Center, Welcome Baby!, Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County, the Skagit Valley Hospital Foundation, the Skagit Valley Herald and Argus funds, Youthnet, Emerson School, Skagit County Community Action Agency and Skagit Symphony.

The clubs also contribute some of the funds to international efforts, Flynn said. The Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon donated money to help with the Dunga Orphanage Project in Africa and another orphanage in the Ukraine.

Local students are also beneficiaries of the barbecue funds each year, Flynn said. Depending on how much money is raised, the clubs are able to provide scholarships to six to eight seniors in Mount Vernon.

The clubs’ barbecuing efforts started in 1953 at the Skagit County Fair. In 1986, the clubs united with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and moved their efforts to Hillcrest Park in Mount Vernon.
“There is an urban legend that we started out selling chicken before switching to salmon,” Flynn said. “But actually the first Kiwanians to barbecue did begin with salmon.”
Flynn said records show the clubs switched to chicken for one season while the event was held at the fair, but found it messy and unprofitable so they switched back to salmon the next year.
“We’ve been selling it ever since,” Flynn said.

Since the clubs started working in conjunction with the Tulip Festival, they have raised almost $1 million, Flynn said.