Around the island.…

Jim Maya reports from out on the water: "There are lots of Dall's Porpoise, the fastest small cetacean in our waters. Today the light was perfect!"

Big day on the nation­al scene, so keep your eye on all that (you know you have till 8pm to vote, right? Or get your bal­lot in the mail.…) and let’s see what’s going on around here:

A friend on the dock...great blue heron, by Kevin Holmes

• Hey, drop by and hear the Steve Keys Trio at The Rumor Mill on Wednes­day night!

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• The Cask & Schooner has an Elec­tion Night going on tonight.….drop by!

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• It’s com­ing this week­end — The Clash of the Chili Titans! (Here’s the Face­book page.) It’s at the Mullis Cen­ter on Fri­day at 6pm:

This is a ben­e­fit for San Juan Soc­cer! Chef Andy and Coach Tom­my are going head to head in a chili cook-off. Andy will be defend­ing his 2012 Brick­works title.

It’s Detroit vs. Cincin­nati. $10 for adults and $5 for kids (12 and under) And don’t worry–we’ve got you veg­e­tar­i­ans cov­ered as well! Come one come all!
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I voted...did you?

• Time to make plans to sit in on the dis­cus­sion — here’s more from Sarah Cros­by at the League of Women Voters:

The League of Women Vot­ers of the San Juans will show “The Health­care Movie” at their mem­ber­ship meet­ing on Mon­day, Novem­ber 12.  The meet­ing will take place at the San Juan Island Library from 12:00n until 2:00pm.  A dis­cus­sion will fol­low the movie.

Begin­ning with essen­tial­ly the same goals, the health­care sys­tems in the U.S. and Cana­da have evolved into two com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent enti­ties.  This movie tells the sto­ry of how that hap­pened over time.  For those inter­est­ed in Health­care reform in this coun­try, this doc­u­men­tary is an essen­tial com­po­nent of your research!  Open to the public.

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• The Sorop­ti­mist Club has this great oppor­tu­ni­ty — here’s more from Kris­tine Odle:

Natalia Lawrence and Patri­cia Tul­lock – two sin­gle moms who had dreams of improv­ing their own lives and the lives of their chil­dren by going back to school — are cur­rent­ly see­ing their dreams become real­i­ty, thanks to the local Soroptimists.

Each year, the ser­vice club choos­es an islander (or as was the case last year, choos­es sev­er­al islanders) to receive its Women’s Oppor­tu­ni­ty Award, a $5000 grant that can be used to off­set any costs asso­ci­at­ed with the recipient’s efforts to enhance her knowl­edge and skills – includ­ing books, child care, tuition, and transportation.

A year lat­er, both Natalia and Patri­cia com­ment­ed that with­out the award mon­ey, they aren’t sure they would have been able to stay in school. But just as impor­tant, they said, was the hon­or of receiv­ing the award.  Hav­ing the suc­cess­ful women of the Sorop­ti­mists acknowl­edge their per­son­al worth, after they had each spent years strug­gling to over­come sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges in their lives, was deemed “very pow­er­ful” and “absolute­ly life-changing.”

The Sorop­ti­mists are anx­ious to get appli­ca­tions for this very spe­cial award into the hands of eli­gi­ble women.  Appli­cants for the awards must be enrolled in, or have been accept­ed to, a vocational/skills train­ing pro­gram or an under­grad­u­ate degree pro­gram, and must demon­strate finan­cial need.

If you are inter­est­ed in apply­ing, or if you know some­one you would like to encour­age to apply, con­tact Kris­tine Odle at 378‑2414 or kodle@rockisland.com; or pick up an appli­ca­tion form at The Toy Box in Fri­day Har­bor. This year’s appli­ca­tion dead­line is Decem­ber 15.

Each year, the inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion of Sorop­ti­mist awards more than $1.5 mil­lion to more than 1000 women, many of whom have over­come enor­mous obsta­cles in their lives – includ­ing pover­ty, domes­tic vio­lence, and/or drug and alco­hol abuse.  Since the Women’s Oppor­tu­ni­ty Awards pro­gram began in 1972, about $30 mil­lion has been dis­bursed to assist tens of thou­sands of women achieve their dreams of a bet­ter life for them­selves and their families.

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• From Sheila at the Red Cross:

The DSHR team of Islands Chap­ter is proud to announce that we are deploy­ing Phil and Nan­cy Schober, res­i­dents of San Juan Island, to work in the response to Sandy in North Jer­sey.  Nan­cy will serve as a nurse in Health Ser­vices and Phil will serve on a shel­ter staff.

We wish them well and thank this cou­ple for their three week commitment.

Lin­da Barn­hart, Ear­lene Rothauge, Alan Roochvarg and Arlin Rothauge
Chap­ter DSHR Adm.Team

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Order by the ninth!

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