Artist Jayne Siroshton — Contributed photo

Orga­niz­ers of the A Bear Called Fri­day event send along news about the fundrais­er tak­ing place this Friday.

Fri­day Har­bor res­i­dents and vis­i­tors alike will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to help save the life of one very spe­cial moon bear on Fri­day, June 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Brickworks.

The event, A Bear Called Fri­day, is the cul­mi­na­tion of the efforts of two island res­i­dents, Jayne Sirosh­ton and Jan Mur­phy. The two, both artists and ani­mal wel­fare activists, hit upon the plan sev­er­al months ago when dis­cussing ways to help the orga­ni­za­tion, Ani­mals Asia, in their efforts to lib­er­ate Asi­at­ic black bears, or moon bears as they are wide­ly known, from cru­el bile farms across Chi­na and Viet­nam. Sev­er­al local artists have joined the project and donat­ed orig­i­nal art­works for the event; an art sale and silent auc­tion fea­tur­ing a wine and cider tast­ing pre­sent­ed by Madrone Cellars. 

The event is free to attend, and all pro­ceeds from the art sale and auc­tion will go towards res­cu­ing and spon­sor­ing a moon bear, who will live out his or her life at one of Ani­mals Asia’s award-win­ning sanctuaries. 

Ani­mals Asia was found­ed over 20 years ago by Jill Robin­son, who dis­cov­ered the hor­rif­ic cru­el­ty inher­ent in the prac­tice of bile farm­ing in many parts of Asia dur­ing a vis­it to Chi­na. Since that time, the orga­ni­za­tion has res­cued and pro­vid­ed sanc­tu­ary for hun­dreds of moon bears and has worked to suc­cess­ful­ly end the indus­try in Viet­nam. Mur­phy, who serves on the Ani­mals Asia USA Board of direc­tors, says, “Sad­ly, thou­sands of bears remain pris­on­ers of bar­bar­ic bile farms through­out Chi­na, so there remains a lot of work to be done. Very soon, we hope to erad­i­cate the bear bile indus­try all together.”

Ani­mals Asia is also mak­ing great strides towards end­ing cru­el cap­tive ani­mal enter­tain­ment venues, includ­ing ele­phant rid­ing parks and inhu­mane cir­cus per­for­mances. The orga­ni­za­tion proud­ly works with res­cue groups, shel­ters and ani­mal wel­fare vol­un­teers across Chi­na and Viet­nam to end dog and cat farm­ing for meat mar­kets as well as rais­ing aware­ness of the val­ue of ani­mal wel­fare in schools and local communities. 

Artists who have donat­ed art­works for the sale are Jaime Ellsworth, Deb­bie Daniels, Tere­sa Smith, Ali­son Engle, Win­nie Brum­sick­le, Kirk Furmeis­ter, Lau­ra Bauer, Pamela Hoke, Eliz­a­beth Farr, Shan­non Borg, Jan Mur­phy, Jayne Sirosh­ton, Bar­bara Duzan, Ray Glantz, David Harsh, Diana O’Brian, Lau­ren Jaw­er, and Lisa Lamoreaux.

Thanks to the sus­tained gen­eros­i­ty of island donors, the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion has award­ed 38 stu­dents more than $169,000 in schol­ar­ships for the 2022–2023 school year. The recip­i­ents include 15 grad­u­at­ing high school seniors – 11 from Fri­day Har­bor High School and four from Spring Street Inter­na­tion­al School – along with 23 stu­dents already work­ing toward an under­grad­u­ate or grad­u­ate degree.

Estab­lished through a gift from the estate of Jer­ry Inskeep, the Inskeep Lega­cy Schol­ar­ship pro­vides need-based fund­ing for grad­u­at­ing high school seniors attend­ing four-year col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties full time. Schol­ar­ships can be renewed for each year of a student’s under­grad­u­ate study. This year’s 12 new recip­i­ents are:

• Gavia Boy­den – Macalester College
• Jazmyn Capron-Graves – Pacif­ic University
• Bren­na Crouse-Smith – Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington
• Luke Finch­er – West­ern Wash­ing­ton University
• Olivia Ger­main – Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boulder
• Isabel Gra­ham – Ari­zona State University
• Han­nah Greene – West­ern Wash­ing­ton University
• Lucy Mar­tin – Uni­ver­si­ty of Puget Sound
• Aiyana O’Prussack – Bryn Mawr
• Cather­ine Pig­natiel­lo – Itha­ca College
• Ava Smith – Ari­zona State University
• Robin Tay­lor – Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington

The 16 stu­dents receiv­ing renew­able awards this year include:

• Ty Ander­son – Gon­za­ga University
• Ela Angevine – Anglo-Amer­i­can University
• Emi­ly Atwell – Port­land State University
• Julian Brown – San­ta Clara University
• Olivia Brown – Savan­nah Col­lege of Art & Design
• Trin­i­ty Cullen – Uni­ver­si­ty of Arizona
• Marieke Dan­ni­au – Colum­bus Col­lege of Art & Design
• Evan Foley – Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington
• Raylee Miniken – West­ern Wash­ing­ton University
• Aida Must – Wash­ing­ton State University
• Stel­la Par­sons – The Master’s University
• Ayla Rid­wan – Stan­ford University
• Thea Seitz – Karolin­s­ka Institute
• Geor­gia Smith – Pacif­ic Luther­an University
• Rachel Starr – Uni­ver­si­ty of Montana
• Fal­lon Tay­lor – Vil­lano­va University

The San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion Schol­ar­ship Fund pro­vides awards for San Juan Island res­i­dents fur­ther­ing their edu­ca­tion at a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, two-year col­lege, four-year col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty, grad­u­ate school pro­gram, or career train­ing pro­gram. This year’s recip­i­ents include six stu­dents who will be uni­ver­si­ty seniors or grad­u­ate stu­dents in the fall:

• Lydia Downs-Williams – Uni­ver­si­ty of Montana
• Isabel Gabriel – Pacif­ic Luther­an University
• Megan Haa­gensen – West­ern Wash­ing­ton University
• Brooke Rad­cliffe – Anti­och Uni­ver­si­ty New England
• Made­line Schroed­er – Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington
• Kiana Woods – Uni­ver­si­ty of Utah

The San Juan Pilots Asso­ci­a­tion cre­at­ed the John Volk Memo­r­i­al Schol­ar­ship to pro­vide fund­ing for stu­dents pur­su­ing a career in an avi­a­tion-relat­ed field. It seeks to encour­age and reward the sort of friend­ship, lead­er­ship, and ser­vice that typ­i­fied John Volk’s pres­ence in our com­mu­ni­ty. This year’s four recip­i­ents are:

• Julian Brown – San­ta Clara University
• Levi Demaris – Embry-Rid­dle Aero­nau­ti­cal University
• Siri Dow – Uni­ver­si­ty of Washington
• Aaron Kahek­ili Vli­et – Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Technology

The schol­ar­ship estab­lished in mem­o­ry of Dr. Mar­cia L. Zakari­son, MD, offers a one-time schol­ar­ship for grad­u­at­ing high school seniors pur­su­ing a career in human med­i­cine and the heal­ing arts, either at tech­ni­cal or trade schools, or two- or four-year col­leges or uni­ver­si­ties. This year’s awards go to:

• Amelia Eltinge – Wash­ing­ton State University
• Isabel Gra­ham – Ari­zona State University

2022 marks the Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s 15th con­sec­u­tive year pro­vid­ing schol­ar­ships to island stu­dents. In the past 15 years SJICF has award­ed $2.15 mil­lion in schol­ar­ships to 175 recipients.

• The San Juan Preser­va­tion Trust has doc­u­ment­ed the rare occur­rence of a West­ern Blue­bird nest­ing in a nat­ur­al cav­i­ty of a Gar­ry oak on San Juan Island. Learn more about the sig­nif­i­cance of this find­ing.
• Fri­day Har­bor Labs’ Sandy Wyl­lie-Echev­er­ria and Isabel­la Brown have writ­ten an arti­cle about eel­grass flow­er­ing for Sal­ish Mag­a­zine.
• The San Juan Islands Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict shares a look at the past and poten­tial future of the West­ern white pine.
• Dai­ly flights from the Fri­day Har­bor air­port to Paine Field in Everett on Ken­more Air start on July 14.
• Reg­is­tra­tion is open for The Whale Muse­um’s vir­tu­al sum­mer marine nat­u­ral­ist train­ing pro­gram, which runs from July 28 through August 3.
• Cin Cin (255 Spring Street) is hav­ing its grand re-open­ing on Thurs­day, June 23 from 5 to 8 p.m. They’ll have snacks, choco­lates, and tast­ings of nat­ur­al wine, port, and amaro.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!

Con­tin­ue Reading

The San Juan Coun­ty Coun­cil will hold a reg­u­lar meet­ing on Tues­day, June 14 at 9 a.m. Items up for dis­cus­sion or action include:

• First 2022 bud­get amendment
• Secu­ri­ty cam­era project update and request
• Tiny homes
• Accep­tance of the deed for the Glen­wood Inn (McPeake) property

You can view the live stream of the meet­ing online or attend in per­son at the Coun­cil Leg­isla­tive Hear­ing Room. To make a pub­lic com­ment, sign up pri­or to 9 a.m. on June 14.

• The San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art is pre­sent­ing Look­ing Into Kab­ul by James Lon­g­ley now through Sep­tem­ber 12. The exhi­bi­tion focus­es on every­day life in Kab­ul, Afghanistan through a com­bi­na­tion of panoram­ic images, por­traits, and doc­u­men­tary films.
• SJIMA is also host­ing Hen­ry Jack­son-Spiek­er’s Lat­tice II instal­la­tion in its atri­um through Sep­tem­ber 12.
• Fri­day Har­bor High School vol­ley­ball is host­ing a camp for cur­rent or prospec­tive high school vol­ley­ball play­ers, includ­ing ath­letes that will be in the eighth grade in the upcom­ing school year. It takes place Mon­day through Fri­day, June 20 through July 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Turn­bull Gym. Con­tact nadinevarsovia@sjisd.org to register.
• Zum­ba class­es at Stu­dio JAMM start next Mon­day. Class sizes are lim­it­ed and you can reg­is­ter online.
• San Juan Coun­ty has revised its nox­ious weed dis­pos­al poli­cies for 2022.
• Tom­my Dale & the Dan­ger­fields are per­form­ing at Everelse on Sat­ur­day, June 25 at 5 p.m. The event will also fea­ture a Spaghet­ti West­ern din­ner pop-up by Glad Acres.

Have some­thing to share with the Island? Whether the news is big or small, let us know!