Freeland, Callahan’s to float people’s boats at revived sea glass scavenger hunt

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 6, 2026

By PATRICIA GUTHRIE

Special to The Record

A South Whidbey seaside hide and seek tradition is being revived at a new location with a new host. March 28, the Greater Freeland Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a Sea Glass Float Scavenger Hunt & Scoop at Freeland Park with the aim of making it an annual event.

Callahan’s Firehouse Studio and Gallery in Langley is the event’s co-sponsor, contributing 600 or more of the hand-size dazzling and delicate orbs. The event is free and open to the public.

Although the float scoop is being held in Freeland for the first time after a 10-year annual run in Langley, it’s proving to be more popular than anticipated, said David Garber, Freeland chamber executive director.

“March 1, on the first day of online registration, 700 people signed up,” Garber said. “We were a little bit shocked, to say the least.”

When the number hit just over 1,000 participants, registration closed. However, it will most likely be re-opened.

“People signed up from Canada, from Oregon,” he said “About 50% are from off island.”

Those registering online list the number of people coming with them; about 400 are children, he said.

Although the event is similar to an annual sea float scramble run by the Langley Main Street Association, changes have been made to try and make it a gentler, kinder experience all aimed at a one-float-per person outcome.

For instance, they’ll be no mass start mad scramble for the precious orbs, which sometimes led to hard feelings and hoarding. Instead, people will line up in three “waves” starting at 10 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Dividing people into three groups should make the experience less chaotic and more equitable, Garber said. If a person doesn’t find a float in the first or second wave, they can try again.

“It will be one float per person,” he said. “Not one float per wave, per person. We really want to stress that. They’ll be volunteers monitoring. We really want to make sure people are not hiding floats in their purses or pockets.

“As crazy as that sounds, that’s what I heard happened before.”

The floats are also etched with numbers. People finding their glass prize will be asked to register the number and name with one of 25 volunteers. McVay will also be on hand to etch his signature on the float.

The floats — which are tributes to Japanese glass fishing floats once used to float nets— are one of McVay’s top sellers. The old fire station where he’s fired his craft since 2009 is a kaleidoscope of color and shapes both functional and fun: drinking glasses, pumpkins, fish, flowers, plates, snowmen, jellyfish and jewelry.

Outside, garden art glistens in the sun and/or sparkles in the rain.

All winter in front of the roaring furnace, McVay and glass blower Angeline LeLeux have sculpted and fired floats for the Freeland event. They a precise and practiced assembly line of two.

“Three days a week in the morning we devote to glass floats,” said McVay as he dipped and clipped another globby red-hot mess into a finely-crafted and collectible piece of art.

“Working together, we can make one every three minutes, about 20 an hour,” added LeLeux. Working with McVay the past year, LeLeux described the process “as terrifying but therapeutic.”

Langley’s sea float scramble, held the first weekend of January, stopped because of Covid in 2021 and never started back up.

Held at Seawall Park below the town, it was getting a little too popular, McVay admitted.

“To tell you the truth, it was getting out of hand,” McVay said. “The last year I made 1,000 floats. There was like 1,200 people in that park and it was just too small.

“I thought someone’s going to get hurt, something’s bad is going to happen. One day I was driving past Freeland beach and I thought, ‘There’s a lot of space there, there’s lots of parking. Maybe I’ll ask the (Freeland) chamber if they’d be interested.”

Garber, who was hired in October, said the sea scramble is just one of many initiatives planned to bring neighbors and business owners together and to highlight the unincorporated community beyond its “commercial center of Whidbey Island” reputation.

New events of late include a Halloween trunk and treat and a holiday parade that attracted some 500 people. In the future looms an Earth Day event and a ramped-up Third of July celebration, which has been Freeland’s biggest attraction.

To further float people’s boat about the March 28 main event, Garber added a a scavenger hunt. Clues will lead to McVay’s popular small glass treasures called wishing stones placed around Freeland businesses. They are made from the leftover snippets of the floats and contain McVay’s signature shell stamp on the back.

Clues to the wishing stones will be released on the chamber’s Facebook page every day from March 23 to March 27. The glass tokens can then be turned into the chamber for additional prizes.

At the main Saturday event, local restaurants and other vendors will be on hand. Garber said he’s not worried about too people showing up or that they’ll violate the one-float-per person rule.

“The more people, the better,” he said. “I think people understand this is supposed to be fun.”

For more information, check out freelandchamber.org or call 360-331-1980.