Sunrise on top of Mount Grant – Contributed photo

An invitation from the Land Bank…

Please join us with your vision for the future of Mount Grant. This is just the first step in the planning process and we want to be sure to start with input from the community:

What kinds of trails and uses do you want to see? How often should the road to the summit be open for driving access? What other infrastructure do you envision – benches, picnic shelter, restroom, interpretive signs? What resources are most important to protect and how important is habitat restoration?

Please join the Preservation Trust and Land Bank to share your thoughts and learn what is ahead in developing a plan for the Preserve.

Tuesday, February 28 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at Brickworks (150 Nichols St, Friday Harbor)

There will be more chances to participate in the coming months.

Mark your calendars, folks! San Juan Island’s 27th Annual Children’s Festival is happening Saturday, May 6th, 2017! We are pleased to announce… 

Around the World

Island Rec needs your help to design the poster for this year’s Children’s Festival! Kids of all ages are invited to submit poster designs that incorporate this year’s festival theme.

Artworks must be submitted on an official entry form that will be ready for distribution February 21, which can be obtained at Island Rec’s office or at the Elementary School. Poster designs must be returned to Island Rec, 580 Guard Street, by 5pm Wednesday March 22, 2017 to be considered by our contest judges. In addition to the honor and title of “Official Poster Designer”, there will be 1 first prize and 3 runner up prizes given for the committee’s top choices in poster design. Enter for a chance to win!

This year we have selected a committee that’s been working hard to make our festival come alive:   Kim Fitts, Angela Carlson, Kim Erickson and Morgan Johnston. Inquiries and activity ideas should be directed to Morgan Johnston, Morgan [@] islandrec.org.

         As always, the Children’s Festival will run from 10am-2pm at the Fairgrounds building. For more information, please call 378-4953 or visit www.islandrec.org

Seed Exchange at the Grange Hall, February 15th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

San Juan Island Grange #966 is proud to announce this year’s Seed Exchange, next Wednesday, February 15th.

Here’s an excellent opportunity to swap some of your garden seeds with fellow growers. Come to the Grange Hall from 5 to 7pm with your seeds, bulbs, starts, and cuttings and go home with something new for your garden. Don’t have any seeds? Come anyway! We will be giving away pea and bean seeds for folks who want to get started in seed saving.

We will have educational materials on hand about seed saving, seed storage, and seed libraries.

Open and free of cost to all. For more information, please call Roger Ellison, Overseer of San Juan Island Grange #966 at 370-5795.

Molly is this week’s Pet of the Week – Contributed photo

I’m concerned about you. Yes, you.

To be frank, you look like you could use some excitement in your life. That, my friend, is where I come in. My name is Molly, and I’m a professional Life Coach and Party Planner.

I’d like to help you with your winter doldrums by introducing you to Cuddle Therapy. I’d also like to share some Cat-Treat Party ideas with you.

I think you’ll find that what I have to offer will do wonders for your outlook on life, clear up your skin problems and make you more attractive to the opposite sex. Come on, let’s get to work getting your life back on track!

Call me – I’ve got an office at the animal shelter. 

Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor
111 Shelter Road
(360) 378-2158

Tangled Up & Blue, Kim Bruder

If you have not seen the Artists Registry show, “Spirit Taking Form” at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, I highly recommend you see it this week before the exhibit closes on Saturday, February 18. The San Juan Islands have a high per capita population of artists and over 90 of them are represented in this show. Most of the artists are from San Juan Island but Lopez and Orcas are represented as well.

Ke’ Nu, Phil Tate

The artworks include a broad range of styles from whimsical to classical and from minimalist to neo-primitive. Taken as a whole and considering the theme of the show, Spirit Taking Form, you can almost imagine the spirit of Morris Graves, guru of the mid-century “Northwest Mystic” school of painters, inhabiting the show. The show has a lyrical uplifting quality foregoing the brooding darkness the Pacific Northwest can sometimes evoke. The range of materials and techniques represented is stunning. Carved stone, wood, bronze, paper mache, porcelain, assemblage, mixed medium, photography, pastel, watercolor, oil, acrylic, textiles, gold leaf, leather and glass… are all represented.

September, Becky Kilpatrick

With such diversity it was a challenge to uncover a common theme beyond the elusive spirit of Morris Graves but one thing that serves to unite the work is our state of the art museum and the beautiful job SJIMA staff and volunteers did curating and hanging the exhibit. “Spirit Taking Form” is well worth seeing so please come this week before it closes. The museum is open Friday to Monday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, located at 540 Spring Street. Adult admission is $10, children 18 and under and members are free.

Link to: The Artists’ Registry

Link to: Related story with slideshow “Spirit Taking Form” SJIUpdate 12/12/16

Dream Lake Swan – Mary Kalbert photo

Mary Kalbert shares these photos of swans that she got on Friday morning.

Click below to see more. Thanks for sharing Mary!

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Training for caregivers and new volunteers to be offered by Hospice of San Juan

Caregivers help vulnerable people remain in their homes in the face of conditions that otherwise would obligate them to move off island or into a care facility. These caregivers range from those with formal training (nurses, nurses aides, health care aides) to those who have little to no formal training (home helpers/companions, family members, neighbors, friends), referred to in the industry as “informal caregivers”. Frequently family and friends live far away or work or have other obligations, so people turn to paid caregivers available in the community in order to maintain independence as long as possible. Although some caregivers receive training and certification to perform needed tasks, many are thrust into the job without much warning and are at risk for personal harm.

Hospice of San Juan regularly trains volunteers on issues and conditions that affect vulnerable people, since one of our primary services is caregiver respite. We have witnessed caregivers or companions in homes who need such training in order to protect themselves and their clients from injury. Additionally, we frequently receive requests from families for paid caregivers, which is not within our scope of practice since we are an all-volunteer organization.

In order to address the community need for trained home caregivers/companions, we plan to offer a combined training program this Spring for both new volunteers and on-island caregivers who currently do not have formal training. For the first time ever, Hospice of San Juan will offer caregiver (home helper/companion) training alongside its volunteer training May 6, 20 and June 3 at no charge to attendees. Professional educators from multiple disciplines lead the sessions, and those successfully completing training will receive a Certificate of Completion. Advance registration is required; a registration form is available on our website www.hospiceofsanjuan.org. For further details, call 472-0322 and leave a message requesting that our Training Coordinator contact you.

Hospice of San Juan is an independent, non-sectarian, non-profit organization. Our funding comes from individual donations and locally awarded grants. All services are free of charge.

Wiloma Hinds Harrell 11/9/1928 – 2/2/2017

Wiloma began her life in Crawford, Texas a small farming community west of Waco. She was the youngest child of William Shakelford and Tot “Lot” Hinds. She was named after her aunt Oma and her uncle Will Cooper who played a larger than life role in her development. She often described her humble beginnings by the phrase “I was a child of the depression”. Over time this became the rationale she used for all sorts of behavioral quirks and idiosyncratic beliefs that made all of us who loved her laugh. She remembered the day the Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to her home. She learned to read by the light of the single bulb that illuminated her house. Although the family endured many hardships, including the loss of an older brother, she was surrounded by love and believed that she was never deprived of any of life’s essentials. On the modest farm where she grew up she learned the lessons that would inform her development and shape her into the woman she became.

Wiloma attended Baylor University, where she met the love of her life, Glenn Cameron Harrell. She followed her husband to Texas A&M University as he pursued a graduate degree. Her two daughters were born there. When Glenn entered the work force, they settled in Corpus Christi where her two sons were born. In Corpus, she worked as an aide in an underprivileged elementary school. The principal recognized in her a unique capacity to connect with the students. That educator, Gonzalo Garza (the eponymous founder of the high school where one of Wiloma’s grandchildren would eventually graduate), encouraged Wiloma to continue her studies to become a teacher. Married and raising her 4 children, Wiloma finished her degree and later obtained a Master’s in Counseling. She stayed committed to education and young children well after she had retired.

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The Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor has rescheduled the estate sale originally planned for this weekend. The sale will take place next Friday and Saturday, February 17 & 18 from 10:00 to 4:00, at 689 Airport Center Drive in Friday Harbor.  

The sale will feature beautiful home furnishings, including furniture and decorative items plus several pieces of fine art.  Hope to see you there! All proceeds will benefit the New Home New Hope campaign.

The Town of Friday Harbor is mailing renewal notices early for 2017-2018.

Renewal notices will be mailed to businesses the week of February 13, 2017. The business license year, or the time period that a business license is active, runs from April 1st to March 31st. License renewals for businesses are due by the expiration of the current license on March 31, 2017. A business will become unlicensed if the renewal fee is not paid prior to the license expiration date. The Town will not be sending a second notice to businesses known to be operating in Town that they are unlicensed.

For additional information regarding the Town Business License Program, contact the Town Clerk at (360) 378-2810 or refer to FHMC Chapter 5.04 available at www.fridayharbor.org.

Volunteer tutors needed for United Way Community Pilot Program at Public School 

After School Reading Program: Middle School

Dates: March 7 – May 11, 2017
3:00 to 4:30 pm, Tuesday through Thursday

San Juan Island School District
Grades 3 and/or Middle School

• Must have a desire to work with children and, preferably, experience working with children. Must have strong communication and organization skills.
• Must be punctual and reliable: This is a two-month commitment, approximately 4.5 hours per week.

Deadline to Apply:
March 8

If you love kids and want to volunteer with your local United Way’s afterschool reading enrichment program, please email us at
unitedwaysjc [@] rockisland.com to request an application. (Background check is also required)

United Way of San Juan County is working to improve health, education, and income stability in our island county. Our key initiatives in 2017 are homelessness and wrap-around educational supports for students at risk of falling behind in school.

Rod Turnbull, Athletic Director at FHHS shares this playoff update…

We are moving into the second week of winter playoffs. Many exciting things going on. Hope you can get out and watch some Wolverine Playoff action.

Below is an update on the post season opportunities for our Wrestling, Girl’s Basketball and Boy’s Basketball winter sports teams:
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Penelope teaching kids in 2015 – Contributed photo

A new afterschool class is being offered for experienced island actors in sixth through eighth grades.

San Juan Community Theatre’s Youth and Family Program Director Penelope Haskew is leading the “Intermediate Acting” classes in the Gubelman Theatre on Tuesdays, February 28 through March 28, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The five-session workshop will be concentrating on character, movement, and emotion, while doing scene work in small groups.

The cost for the five sessions is $75 (limited to 10 students). Registration is available on-line at www.sjctheatre.org or through the SJCT Box Office (378-3210). Scholarships are available for students who qualify for the free and reduced lunch program; for more information, contact Bobby Ryan at 378-3211, ext. 29.

Left to Right: Vicky Thalacker, David Eden, Beth Eden, Bill Morrissey, Ron Heeren, Nancy Fusare, Gina Sandwith, Samantha Bryner, Kim Burns, Kelsey O’Day, guest Amanda Flaherty-Wilder, Stephanie O’Day, and Jerry Ball – Contributed photo

Happy birthday! The Friday Harbor Kiwanis Club recently celebrated its 30th anniversary at a recent meeting. Nancy Fusare, club secretary, presented the birthday cake to club president Vicky Thalacker and the members present.

The FH Kiwanis Club puts more than $10,000 a year back into the local economy through our toy drive, the scholarships we give annually and the many local events we participate in that support Island Rec, other local organizations, and our local children.

Friday Harbor Kiwanis meets at noon, the first and third Thursday of the month at the Harbor House. Kiwanis is an organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time. Come join us!

EDC offers free workshop on retirement planning for business owners

Small business owners have many considerations when running their businesses, but often don’t have time to consider future financial requirements. Join the San Juan County Economic Development Council for a FREE workshop on retirement planning for small business owners, entitled Put your Retirement Plan to Work, on February 22nd from 10-11 a.m. on San Juan Island, sponsored by Jonathan Piff of Edward Jones. Advance registration is required.

Edward Jones financial advisor Jonathan Piff will provide critical information to help business owners decide on the retirement plan that is right for them, including information on 401(k)’s SEP IRA’s, solo defined benefit plans, and Roth and SIMPLE IRA’s.

Mr. Piff has been a financial advisor with Edward Jones since 2002; he started his practice that year, after moving to San Juan Island. His office serves all of San Juan County.

Edward Jones is a fortune 500 Company with thousands of associates throughout the U.S. and sophisticated technology to assist clients with making informed decisions. The Edward Jones approach in determining client goals and developing tailored financial solutions has been helping nearly 7 million clients for more than 90 years.

Details: San Juan Island, Wednesday, February 22nd from 10-11 a.m. at the San Juan Island library. Free workshop; advance registration is required: https://EDCretirement.eventbrite.com. Questions: 360-378-2906 or info [@] sanjuansedc.org.

This workshop is not sponsored by the San Juan Island Library.

The EDC thanks Edward Jones, San Juan County government, our ports, the Town of Friday Harbor, Heritage Bank, Islanders Bank, Island Market and the Department of Commerce for their support of this workshop.

Community Forum on Emergency Preparedness for Orcas Island

Hosted by representatives from OPALCO, Orcas Fire & Rescue, San Juan County Emergency Management and San Juan County Sheriff Department, this community forum will share best practices and discuss individual and neighborhood planning to enhance our ability as islanders to ride out emergencies.

• Tuesday, February 21st
• Orcas Senior Center
• 4:00 – 6:30 PM

After short presentations from local emergency responders, there will be an open discussion and invitation to share your ideas for emergency preparedness and organization. When individual home readiness and neighborhood emergency systems dovetail with first responder services we all become more effective, as a community we become a bigger us.

These presentations and discussions will enhance our understanding of how our own individual preparations, skills, resources, quick access to equipment and awareness of community communication can increase the success of emergency response. Participants will take away a sense of the significant part they play and a list of actions they can take to enhance their emergency readiness.