PORT TOWNSEND — Andy Mackie, the man who in 2005 set a world record by leading 1,706 harmonica players who were mostly children, saw the beginning of his ninth music festival — his last before he leaves his longtime home.
The three-day Family Music Festival and Children’s Scottish Highland Games continues today and Monday, beginning at noon each day at the Jefferson County Memorial Field at Washington and Madison streets in downtown Port Townsend.
After a birthday celebration on Sept. 19 to raise funds for his life’s work, the Andy Mackie Music Foundation, Mackie plans to leave in October to live with one of his daughters in Michigan.
Mackie, however, nearing 72 and walking gingerly as he fights severe illness, gently vowed at Jefferson County Memorial Field on Saturday morning to take the Andy Mackie Music Foundation to a global level.
It is part of his 10-year effort to give every child a chance to learn music and play an instrument.
Known as the North Olympic Peninsula’s “music man,” Mackie has taught more than 12,000 children to play harmonica and has made more than 4,000 wooden “music sticks” in his Chimacum shop for young ones to strum and learn chords.
He drew national attention to the foundation in 2005 when he led 1,706 harmonica players at the annual Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center.
They played “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in unison, and were noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest and longest harmonica-playing band.
“I physically can’t do it again,” Mackie said of the festival, as it opened Saturday under grey, drizzly skies.
Mackie, who has suffered heart problems for many years, said he is dealing with a major heart blockage and an aneurism in his leg that could burst at any moment.
“When that goes you have about two minutes left,” said Mackie, who has been left wheelchair-bound at times to stay off his feet.
“My last surgeon said ‘I can’t believe you haven’t had your legs amputated by now.'”
When he leaves his longtime home in Chimacum later this year, Mackie will move to Concord, Mich., to live with his daughter, Laurie, who will take care of him.
“I am hoping there will be enough people who will continue to raise money in Jefferson County,” he said, saying his work needs volunteers to continue.
Indeed, Mackie’s foundation has huge support in Jefferson County, with 50 performances were scheduled through the Labor Day weekend, including Monday, and more than 80 sponsoring businesses showing their support in the event’s program.
The main sponsor was Jefferson County Parks and Recreation, which provides the use of Memorial Field to stage the event.
The festival will run until 8 p.m. today and until 5 p.m. Monday. Admission is free, with donations requested.
Mackie’s foundation is his life.
“I don’t do anything else,” said Mackie, who leads an organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children through music, inspiring them to perform for foundation fund-raisers to build self confidence and keep the scholarship money coming in.
A major anonymous benefactor, who Mackie declined to identify Saturday, came forward after seeing a recent CBS-TV interview of Mackie and offered to endow his foundation to keep it going forever.
Mackie has put together a board to take over running the foundation, which includes members Jack Reid, Robert Force, Dallas Jasper, C.J. Berelson, Joann Butcher, and Mackie’s son, Andrew Scott Mackie, who lives in Ohio, as well as his daughters, Laurie Wolford and Julie Rector, who both live in Michigan.
In addition to providing lessons and instruments to thousands of children, the Andy Mackie Foundation has awarded more than 60 musical scholarships to graduating high school students.
High School wood shops in Jefferson, Clallam and Kitsap counties are teaching young students how to build instruments.
Mackie spends most of his time in his Chimacum workshop building instruments that have gone to the far reaches of the nation — Georgia, South Dakota, Idaho and California — and have even been sent to England.
He also sends out kits for the instruments and wood tools, most recently to an 85-year-old man in Missouri to help him make stringed instruments for children.
Mark Cole, owner of the Upstage Theatre & Restaurant has a Mackie Foundation fundraising evening event planned for Mackie’s birthday on Sept. 19.
“It’s pretty remarkable to live in a community when you have a person like Andy,” Cole said Saturday morning, dropping by to greet Mackie.
The festival raises money any way it can, including through a silent auction that allows people to bid on anything from chain saw carvings to paintings to other arts and crafts and donated items.
Mackie Music Foundation board member Jack Reid, who was running the sound equipment for the festival, said he was confident the foundation would carry on.
“There are a lot of people in this area who believe in what Andy has started,” Reid said. “My hope is that we band together and try to keep it going.”
Reid said he joined the foundation four years ago after musician Robert Force introduced Reid to Mackie.
“I met him, that’s all,” Reid said. “He’s such a lovable guy. I just love him.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.