A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Steven Wright

Paddle for Dinner!

My friend Amy sent me this nice writeup for the new paddling series that starts on Tuesday:

Kayak and Canoe Race-for-Dinner Series

The San Juan Island Outrigger Canoe and Kayak Club is thrilled to announce an island-style race series for all human-powered boats. The races will take place at Jackson Beach on the first and third Tuesdays of every month from May to August. Canoeists, kayakers and rowers will take off from the Net Shed at Jackson Beach and race around Dinner Island. Every race is sponsored by a different local restaurant and each week a lucky participant will win a gift certificate to that restaurant.

“This series is intended to be a low-key fun set of races to encourage community participation in kayaking, canoeing and rowing. The community support has been terrific,” said David Halpern, who founded the club less than two years ago. “We asked a few restaurants if they’d sponsor a dinner for people racing around Dinner and they all said sure!”

Sponsors of the event are Blue Water, China Pearl, Golden Triangle, Hungry Clam, Pazzo Vivo, Pepper Mill and Rocky Bay Café. “Hopefully you’ll work up an appetite at the races,” Halpern says. “Win or lose, you know where to eat afterwards.”

And don’t think you have to be a former Olympic Kayaker, as Halpern is, to win a dinner. The race series has been set up to give all participants a shot at the prize. Everyone racing gets a raffle ticket. The fastest male and female each get three extra tickets. Placing second earns you two extra tickets and one extra for third. The winner each week is drawn from all the tickets submitted. In addition, if you win the race in a two-person kayak or a six-person outrigger canoe, everyone in the boat gets the extra tickets.

All human-powered boats are welcome. If you don’t have a boat but want to participate, the club can likely squeeze you into one of its six-person Hawaiian-style outriggers canoes. “We also have a few kayaks that might be available,” Halpern said, “but you’d need to let us know in advance if you’re coming without a boat.”

Though there is no entry fee, there is registration from 5pm to 5:15pm. People are encouraged to get there early and get the boats ready as the races will start promptly at 5:30. Every boat must have a lifejacket on board for each person and everyone should carry a whistle.

The club does not have a safety chase boat but racers are required to assist anyone who happens to capsize. Safety first. Fun second. Then Dinner!

Grand Banks, all lined up...

Chuck and Margaret came the last few days with their Grand Banks boat, and had a great time at Roche Harbor. Here’s more, from their blog (http://mairead1.blogspot.com/)

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
Gerald Jampolsky

The Open House is this weekend....

You know, this is really fun if you’ve never been. My family has been going to the Labs for nearly 16 summers now, and we’ll go tomorrow, too.

It’s from 11am-4pm. There’s food (and popcorn, prepped by Dennis Willows) & experiments & sea animals (left) and…well, it’s fun. See ya there! -oo-

Angie & Johannes & Pete & Erin aboard the Odyssey

The good folks at San Juan Excursions (Pete & Erin Ancich, along with Johannes & Angie Krieger) hosted a celebration of the season starting Wednesday night aboard the Odyssey. (Here’s a 20-photo gallery of everyone who came that night!)

Guests included Lynn Danaher, who started the business in 1993, and various b&b & guesthouse owners, taxi business owners named Bob, graphic designers, whale nuts, sea captains, kayakers, ace chefs, more whale nuts, and a couple of university students who thought they were going to Sidney.

Jennifer got a picture of your photographer....

Michele Mayer

People help out with Relay for Life for different reasons. Over the next few weeks, let’s hear from some of the folks who are doing the Relay this year. Let’s start with Michele, who is on the committee this year as Team Development-Recruitment Chair:

Why I Relay: I relay for the far too many people in my life who have lost their battle to cancer. Grandparents, parents, and both young and old friends are not with us any longer because the cure hasn’t been discovered…YET!  The least I can do is bring about awareness and help find a cure, even if it’s just in a small way.

Michele Mayer

The new sign at what was Hawley & Nicholson CPAs...

Went by the other day – you probably heard Sandy Hawley & Beth Nicholson sold their accounting firm (Hawley & Nicholson) to Bob Hilsinger of Burlington, but they still work with Bob & now have a new sign out front of their place.

The purchase took place at the first of the year, and the business is now under the name of Hilsinger & Co. Bob has a place here (he gets over here a couple of times a week) & his son Rob works with the company on the island, too. He got to know Karla Gulke here (he works with her, too) and that led to him expanding his operation to the island.

The areas of critical need...

Lately, the Community Foundation has been gathering the info they need to help address what’s going on in this community (click here for a larger version of the chart above) – here’s more from the SJICF’s Pamela Gross:

SJI Community Foundation’s Critical Needs Task Force Tackles Community Hot Spots…..

Friday Harbor, May 15, 2009: What began with an idea from the San Juan Island Community Foundation to actively address the local impact of the global economic downturn on the island community has blossomed into the formation of community-wide conversations among dozens of people, each of whom pivot around a particular area of interest but may have never thought to connect with someone else doing similar work.  These conversations among a varied yet parallel group of people are generating new points of contact, stimulating novel ideas, and joining people together to define and address the most critical needs of our community and its citizens.

Eleven workgroups, based on general areas of need (illustrated in the organization chart) have been created with over 300 people from nonprofit and public sectors, local businesses, and individuals talking about topics ranging from how to best help feed a friend who has never before needed help putting food on the table to how to create jobs in a plummeting economy.  Short-term needs are being documented and ways we can create an extended safety-net for our friends and neighbors are being devised and explored.

All of these groups have chosen to expand the initial task and address long-term local infrastructure with a vision to create a community that is more sustainable and less dependent on future economic fluctuations.

“The premise of the Critical Needs Task Force is to reach out to those whose lives have been most displaced by our economic times while bringing control of our community’s future back to a simpler and more sustainable model,” said Charles Anderson, Chair of the Community Foundation.  “We hope that these area-of-need community conversations will continue on a permanent basis, providing a platform for informal forums that foster and ensure cooperation among our many service providers.”

“We are also working with the other islands in this process. Although each island has its unique needs and solutions, there is a great deal of overlap among us.  Shared solutions will benefit us all and make us a stronger overall community,” said Pamela Gross, SJI Community Foundation Board member.

The Community Foundation’s Healthy Community Fund will be used to specifically address immediate critical needs with the first grant awards planned for late June or early July.  Recommendations for grants will come to the San Juan Island Community Foundation Board from the Critical Needs Task Force Steering Committee, a group of 20 community leaders with a “30,000 foot” perspective.  Grant requests will be channeled from all eleven workgroups to the Steering Committee which will correlate and prioritize the project ideas.   Please contact the Foundation office or the Chair of a respective work group (see organization chart) to join the process.

The Foundation wishes to recognize and thank the organizations that have provided meetings space at no cost for the myriad meetings that have occurred over the last four months: Key Bank, Friday Harbor House, Whidbey Island Bank, Friday Harbor Library and Windermere Realty.

The Community Foundation serves as a non-profit philanthropic umbrella organization helping donors, non-profits and public organizations to achieve their goals through direct grants, organizational assistance and philanthropic resource management.  The Foundation office is located in the Technology Center, Mullis St., phone 378-1001.

The areas of critical need...

Lately, the Community Foundation has been gathering the info they need to help address what’s going on in this community (click here for a larger version of the chart above) – here’s more from the SJICF’s Pamela Gross:

SJI Community Foundation’s Critical Needs Task Force Tackles Community Hot Spots…..

Friday Harbor, May 15, 2009: What began with an idea from the San Juan Island Community Foundation to actively address the local impact of the global economic downturn on the island community has blossomed into the formation of community-wide conversations among dozens of people, each of whom pivot around a particular area of interest but may have never thought to connect with someone else doing similar work.  These conversations among a varied yet parallel group of people are generating new points of contact, stimulating novel ideas, and joining people together to define and address the most critical needs of our community and its citizens.

Eleven workgroups, based on general areas of need (illustrated in the organization chart) have been created with over 300 people from nonprofit and public sectors, local businesses, and individuals talking about topics ranging from how to best help feed a friend who has never before needed help putting food on the table to how to create jobs in a plummeting economy.  Short-term needs are being documented and ways we can create an extended safety-net for our friends and neighbors are being devised and explored.

All of these groups have chosen to expand the initial task and address long-term local infrastructure with a vision to create a community that is more sustainable and less dependent on future economic fluctuations.

“The premise of the Critical Needs Task Force is to reach out to those whose lives have been most displaced by our economic times while bringing control of our community’s future back to a simpler and more sustainable model,” said Charles Anderson, Chair of the Community Foundation.  “We hope that these area-of-need community conversations will continue on a permanent basis, providing a platform for informal forums that foster and ensure cooperation among our many service providers.”

“We are also working with the other islands in this process. Although each island has its unique needs and solutions, there is a great deal of overlap among us.  Shared solutions will benefit us all and make us a stronger overall community,” said Pamela Gross, SJI Community Foundation Board member.

The Community Foundation’s Healthy Community Fund will be used to specifically address immediate critical needs with the first grant awards planned for late June or early July.  Recommendations for grants will come to the San Juan Island Community Foundation Board from the Critical Needs Task Force Steering Committee, a group of 20 community leaders with a “30,000 foot” perspective.  Grant requests will be channeled from all eleven workgroups to the Steering Committee which will correlate and prioritize the project ideas.   Please contact the Foundation office or the Chair of a respective work group (see organization chart) to join the process.

The Foundation wishes to recognize and thank the organizations that have provided meetings space at no cost for the myriad meetings that have occurred over the last four months: Key Bank, Friday Harbor House, Whidbey Island Bank, Friday Harbor Library and Windermere Realty.

The Community Foundation serves as a non-profit philanthropic umbrella organization helping donors, non-profits and public organizations to achieve their goals through direct grants, organizational assistance and philanthropic resource management.  The Foundation office is located in the Technology Center, Mullis St., phone 378-1001.

Lime Kiln Lighthouse, in the other part of the other century....

Erin Corra tells me something like 100-125 folks showed up last weekend for the History of the Lighthouse deal at Lime Kiln State Park. She’s the interpretive specialist there, and she offers lighthouse tours each weekend and more at the park. She’s funny, engaging, and nice to learn stuff from – check it out!

The picture above doesn’t have a year, but it was before all the trees grew in (as you can see) and sometime after it was built in 1914

Ready for the summer season - drop by Island Studios

Have you been by Island Studios lately? I had to get a card for someone the other day, and dropped in & got lost in all the new stuff… the new photographs, the glasswork, the new books & CDs, the paintings. Wow… drop in & check out what a super job Claudia’s doing with the place. -oo-

An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs produced in this country are used for non-therapeutic purposes such as accelerating animal growth and compensating for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on ‘factory farms.’ This translates to … almost eight times the amount given to humans to treat disease.
Union of Concerned Scientists

The islands in question....

If you’ve ever hear Boyd Pratt speak, you know he thinks before he speaks & feels before he puts it into words, and the result is usually memorable. I’m looking forward to dropping in on his talk next Wednesday… here’s more from Town Historian Sandy Strelou:

Local History Talk: The Disputed Islands
The Interdependence of Culture, History, and Landscape
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 7pm, San Juan Historical Museum
405 Price Street, Friday Harbor

Local architectural historian Boyd Pratt concludes the Preservation Month lecture series with a new talk about the historical events, people, and changing demographics that have, and continue to shape, the economic, political and social dynamics of San Juan Island. This event is being co-sponsored by the Town of Friday Harbor Historic Preservation Review Board and the San Juan Historical Museum. There is no charge for this event. For more information: [email protected].

The islands in question....

If you’ve ever hear Boyd Pratt speak, you know he thinks before he speaks & feels before he puts it into words, and the result is usually memorable. I’m looking forward to dropping in on his talk next Wednesday… here’s more from Town Historian Sandy Strelou:

Local History Talk: The Disputed Islands
The Interdependence of Culture, History, and Landscape
Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 7pm, San Juan Historical Museum
405 Price Street, Friday Harbor

Local architectural historian Boyd Pratt concludes the Preservation Month lecture series with a new talk about the historical events, people, and changing demographics that have, and continue to shape, the economic, political and social dynamics of San Juan Island. This event is being co-sponsored by the Town of Friday Harbor Historic Preservation Review Board and the San Juan Historical Museum. There is no charge for this event. For more information: [email protected].

Here is the agenda for the school board meeting this Saturday (tomorrow!) to interview candidates & select finalists for the interim superintendent position:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
A G E N D A

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