Owen Smith is excited for the Children’s Fest – Contributed photo

Island Rec is pleased to announce that the 28th Annual Children’s Festival is Saturday May 5, 2018. Dozens of community organizations will be providing all kinds of hands-on activities: create your own passport with Rotary, Solar System exploration with Lighthouse Preschool and many more.

This year we will also be joined by the Flight Museum with their traveling planetarium. The Argyle Street Jazz band is coming to perform, and Island Rec is providing inflatable fun including a bungee run.

Come join us for some free family fun at the Fair Building – Starry Starry Night! Saturday, May 5th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

For more information, please call 378-4953 or visit www.islandrec.org

Lainey Volk is April’s EMT of the Month – Contributed photo

Congratulations are in order for Senior EMT Lainey Volk. Not only is Lainey heading up the newly formed community paramedicine program but every 3 years she organizes the program called Every 15 Minutes.

Lainey is an active EMT responding on 911 calls and follows up with patients referred to her by physicians and paramedics for the community paramedicine program. The Every 15 Minutes program coordinates with the San Juan County Public School District, San Juan County Sherriff’s office, Emergency Medical Services, Fire, Airlift NW, Island Air Ambulance, Evans Funeral Home and local courthouse officials for the two day event that focuses on the perils of drinking and distracted driving.

Lainey is also in charge of the Community Outreach Programs offered through San Juan EMS. These include car seats and safety checks, helmets, home safety checks for elders and CPR/ First Aid classes. Lainey writes grants for many of the programs she offers to the public.

San Juan EMS would like to congratulate Lainey on all her years of service and dedication. We love that you love what you do Lainey – Thank you!

Join the SJI Grange for a “Dudley Dance” at the Grange Hall in Friday Harbor on Monday April 23rd.

Dudley Laufman is a legendary contra dance caller and musician who has spent a lifetime calling and playing dances throughout rural New England. His influence and popularity created the wave of interest in old-time dancing and music that has spread through the USA. For his role in preserving traditional music Dudley has received a National Heritage Fellowship award, our country’s highest honor in the folk arts.

We are proud and excited to have Dudley here in Friday Harbor to play and call for our Monday night dance, which is in keeping with the traditional events that he has championed for decades.

The dance will be free, taking place at the Grange Hall in Friday Harbor, from 7 till 9. Along with Dudley will be our local Organic Contraband, joined by guest musicians from Seattle. Contra dance is easy and fun for all, each dance is taught, no need to bring a partner, everyone is welcome.

This will be a special opportunity experience a real national treasure in our folk heritage, plus having a really good time!

What’s in the mailbag this morning? Here’s a letter from the SJI Museum of Art…

The board of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) would like to thank the San Juan Island Community Foundation for its support. Working with the many island nonprofits helps keep the Community Foundation current in community needs and projects. Because of their contribution, SJIMA can address issues of database coordination and upgrading and technology renovation. These needs do not sound exciting, but are core infrastructure ones we have wanted to address and the Community Foundation understands this.

The SJICF supports our island in scholarships, grant making, and nonprofit and donor support to help improve the health, wellness and quality of life of San Juan Island residents.

We are all blessed to live in a beautiful environment. At SJIMA we work to bring visual art, arts education, exhibitions and events and their many benefits to our residents, students, families, artists and visitors. SJIMA contributes to the local economy and vibrance of our community.

We are grateful to the Foundations’ Women’s Fund, Healthy Community Fund and private donor advised funds for moving SJIMA forward to better serve our island.

The SJICF likes to say, “It’s always the right time to be philanthropic!” And we at SJIMA gratefully agree.

Sincerely,

Diane Martindale and Karen Woldtvedt
Co-presidents of the Board of Trustees

Dan Burke, SVP of Sales & Operations with Rock Island shares this update with you…

Please be aware of the communications outage TONIGHT due to construction in Anacortes. New release attached.  

Please help spread the message! This will affect all communications providers using a physical path back to the mainland, not just Rock Island.

• Any business open tonight will be affected. They may not be able to process credit cards or take/make phone calls.
• It is critical for everyone in the county to stay of their Internet and phones during this outage to allow critical services to be delivered. Just a few Internet users could interfere with 911 traffic and other vital services.
• Read a book, play board games, but do not stream a movie, surf the web, scan Facebook, watch YouTube or do anything else on any device if possible.

Every 3 years SJIEMS offers The Every 15 Minutes Program aimed at helping high school students resist the pressures to drink and drive in a real-life experience without the real-life risks.

This emotionally charged program is an event designed to dramatically instill teenagers with the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol, using Marijuana or even texting especially when in control of a vehicle. This powerful program challenges students to think about drinking, personal safety, and the responsibility of making mature decisions when lives are involved. Currently, the program is in its 14th year and this is the 6th crash event held on San Juan Island.

The program takes place over the course of two days. The day of the simulated crash is April 17th at 2:00 PM and is held at San Juan Island High School track and field. In the following hours participating students will experience fire and EMS rescue and aid, an arrest by law enforcement, and a court trial at the county courthouse. Continue Reading

Just heard this news from Richard at FH School of Massage…

Friday Harbor School of Massage can now provide massage therapist training to people who have been injured while working on the job and who need to be retrained for employment in a different occupation.

For information contact Richard at 360-378-3637 or your caseworker to start the process.

The Friday Harbor high school sailing team is hosting Island Cup the weekend of April 14 and 15. Racing starts Saturday at 12:30 and continues til around 5:30 pm, and then again on Sunday from 10 AM until 3 PM.

The best 18 high school teams from around the northwest will be here competing, including a team from both Friday Harbor and Orcas Island. Each race will be around 15 minutes, and run throughout the day in two fleets.

The general public is welcome to come out to Roche Harbor to watch the racing. Race Official Scott Boye has promised, wind permitting, to set up a course that brings the sailors in close proximity to the spectators’ pier, which will be the outer-most pier.

Per Black, the Friday Harbor team captain, after practicing at Roche on April 7, is looking forward the “dynamic near-shore conditions” and feels that the Friday Harbor team is capable of a top three finish. They certainly will be gunning to win on their home island, but also look for Orcas to also make the podium, as they have been sailing very well all season.

This event would not be possible without the support of Roche Harbor, San Juan Island Brewing Company, Friday Harbor High School, and the San Juan Island Sailing Foundation.

The fields and seas are coming back to life after a long winter – it’s the perfect time to refresh your community connections at the Green Drinks Spring Party. All are welcome to join us at Brickworks (150 Nichols St., Friday Harbor) on Thursday April 19th from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.

This is an upbeat, informal gathering for anyone with an interest in agriculture and environment. Mix and mingle over delicious local food, wine and beer. Green Drinks regulars know the purpose of this event is to meet new people, so first-timers will always find it easy to start a chat!

Community announcements will take place at 7:00pm and offer a great opportunity to learn about events, initiatives and services throughout the county. The April 19 party is an extra-special Green Drinks which celebrates Friday Harbor chapter’s third birthday with food from Rolling Sushi and Deb Nolan Catering plus beverages from San Juan Vineyards wine and San Juan Island Brewing Co.

Food vendors can accept cards but bring cash for the bar! Green Drinks is grateful to the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild for generously hosting the Spring Party at Brickworks. Continue Reading

Do you love a Smart Car? Do you love a Parade? OK, well it’s not exactly San Juan Island, but some of you may be San Juan Islanders that own a Smart Car and might be interested in this. Bob and Becki Taylor in Bellingham are sponsoring a smart car rally for the Bellingham Ski to Sea Parade and would love for you to join them. Here’s Becki with more…

Bob and I have offered to sponsor a smart car rally for the parade coming up on May 26th. This will be the 98th year of the parade during Ski to Sea.

We would love to have you all come and join us in this Parade Run. Then maybe after for whomever can we can rally down through Chuckanut and have lunch in Edison. If there are others you know of that have not received this email, please feel free to invite them!

Check this date, and RSVP back to us. The more in the parade the merrier. We did this a few years back with about 7-8 smart cars and it was so fun – I’d love to double that this time!

Don’t hesitate to call or text me for more details or questions.

Becki Taylor (360) 303-4788

The Friday Harbor Film Festival, is very excited to announce; world class Composer Alex Shapiro will attend our screening and participate in the Q & A for Score, a film music documentary; our 2017 Audience Favorite.

Tuesday April 17, 7 PM at the Grange.

Alex’s compositions have been featured in many films so she will be able to speak about the process from first hand experience.

Alex Shapiro (b. New York City, 1962) aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Her persistence at this activity, as well as non-fiction music writing, public speaking, arts advocacy volunteerism, wildlife photography, and the shameless instigation of insufferable puns on Facebook, has led to a happy life.

Drawing from a broad musical palette that giddily ignores genre, Alex’s acoustic and electroacoustic works are published by Activist Music LLC, performed and broadcast daily, and can be found on nearly thirty commercial releases from record labels around the world. Alex is a familiar advocate for other artists through her speaking appearances, published writings, and volunteerism.

Educated at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. Alex moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles and in 2007 relocated to Washington State’s remote San Juan Island, where, surrounded by wildlife, she composes in her home perched on the water’s edge. An award-winning nature photographer, Alex’s images and music can be experienced on her blog, www.notesfromthekelp.com and her website, www.alexshapiro.org.

The Friday Harbor Film Festival is so honored to have Alex participate in our Q & A; we hope you will join us.

Rock Island boom truck to the rescue – Contributed photo

Agency cooperation and resources sharing helps our community stay strong.

Rock Island responded to a call from Orcas Island Fire on Saturday morning, April 7, 2018, to assist in rescuing a cat. “Bea,” an 8-month-old kitten, had been stuck in a tree for three days. By Saturday morning, he had climbed nearly 70 feet up the tree, and out of the reach of OIFR ground ladders.

“Bea looked like a little Christmas-tree ornament swaying in the wind. That’s when we called Rock Island. They told us personnel would respond with a 114-foot articulating boom truck,” said Patrick Shepler, Battalion Chief and Paramedic for Orcas Island Fire and Rescue. “Rock Island’s Alan Smith and Chris Arp arrived within the hour, and safely returned a cold and hungry Bea to her grateful owner.”

Bea is united with her owner – Contributed photo

Safety is a top priority for OPALCO and Rock Island, and both organizations have a long history of pulling together with other island organizations to meet the needs of their members and customers.

“Delivering gigabit Internet and saving cats from trees are just a few things we do around here,”

said Dan Burke, SVP of Sales and Operations for Rock Island. “We all play multiple roles in our small island community, and that’s what makes living here so great. We love helping our safety agencies and other islanders whenever we can. We are grateful to get the call.”

Fire Chief Scott Williams was happy to see the successful outcome. “This is a great example of inter-agency operations working together to help our community,” said Williams.

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About Rock Island Communications
Rock Island Communications provides modern, scalable and reliable Internet services to homes and businesses in San Juan County. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orcas Power & Light Cooperative. For more information, visit rockisland.com.

WSF wants you to know about this upcoming open house…

Mark your calendars! Washington State Ferries is developing a Long Range Plan to better understand and plan for the changing needs of the system through 2040.

Join us at an open house this spring to learn more about the plan, meet the project team, and help us identify priorities and considerations that should be included in the Long Range Plan.

• Wednesday, May 2, 3:30 – 6 p.m.
• Brickworks, 150 Nichols Street, Friday Harbor

For the full open house schedule and more information, visit this link.  

“Mary Janes: Women of Weed” directed by Windy Borman and “Be Good Now”(short) directed by Tyler Roberts

Join filmmaker Windy Borman as she explores the movement to end marijuana prohibition, her own relationship to the plant, and the stereotypes surrounding it. Through a series of empowering and educational interviews with a broad diversity of women leading the industry today, Windy’s own assumptions are transformed as she discovers cannabis liberation intersects with the most urgent social justice issues of our time. She learns how this green revolution has big effects on environmental sustainability, ending the War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex, and the destructive domination of Big Pharma.

Not only does ‘Mary Janes: The Women of Weed’ promise to be one of the best documentaries addressing social injustice, gender inequality, and marijuana you’ll ever see, it promises something much more important: hope for real, tangible, attainable change.” – Massroots

Join (local) Tyler Roberts’ presentation of his award winning short film “Be Good Now”.

Monday, April 16th at Brickworks

• 6:30 — Meet & Greet Filmmakers
• 7:00 — Start Time: “Be Good Now” RT 13 min. followed by Q & A with director Tyler Roberts
• 7:30 — Start Time: “Mary Janes: Women of Weed” RT 85 min.
• 8:55 — Q & A with director Windy Borman

Merri Ann Simonson shares another SJI Lifestyle Video. She says this one shows you some telltale signs to recognize an islander.

While waiting for the ferry home this afternoon on Lopez, I saw some otters doing what otters do, and got some video with my iPhone. Comments welcome.