San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre sends along news about a free work­shop tak­ing place before this Sun­day’s concert.

The Brubeck Broth­ers Quar­tet will per­form a live con­cert at San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre on Sun­day, June 26 at 7:30 p.m. The Quar­tet includes the sons of jazz leg­end, Dave Brubeck, most notable for his chart-top­ping song, Take Five. The Quar­tet is leg­endary in its own right with Gram­my-nom­i­nat­ed albums, a fea­ture on the PBS series Jazz in Amer­i­ca, and inter­na­tion­al tours. Indi­vid­u­al­ly, they are dynam­ic musi­cians. Jaz­zTimes Mag­a­zine referred to Dan Brubeck­’s drum­ming as noth­ing less than jaw-drop­ping and The L.A. Times hailed Chris Brubeck as “…one of the most capa­ble elec­tric bassists, deliv­er­ing imag­i­na­tive solos”.

The Brubeck Broth­ers Quar­tet is also offer­ing a free work­shop at 4 p.m. before the June 26 con­cert. Atten­dees can expect to learn some jazz his­to­ry, enjoy a demon­stra­tion, and ask ques­tions. This project received sup­port from Wash­ing­ton State Arts Com­mis­sion, the West­ern States Arts Fed­er­a­tion, and the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts. To pur­chase tick­ets or to reg­is­ter for the work­shop, vis­it the SJCT web­site or call the box office at 360–378-3210. Tick­ets are $36 for adults and $18 for reserved stu­dent seat­ing. $5 stu­dent rush tick­ets are avail­able an hour before the show. 

APS-FH shares some kind words about their vol­un­teer of the month.

The Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Society—Friday Har­bor is pleased to announce Chelsea Alexan­der as its vol­un­teer of the month for June.

Have you ever vis­it­ed the ani­mal shel­ter and noticed how clean it is? We have many deserv­ing vol­un­teers who work very hard to keep the shel­ter clean and tidy, and Chelsea is one of them. Since August 2021, Chelsea has been vis­it­ing the shel­ter twice a week, fold­ing the moun­tains of laun­dry and stacks of dish­es with­out com­plaint. Chelsea is so enthu­si­as­tic about fold­ing and stack­ing, that some­times she will even re-fold and orga­nize the many blan­kets and tow­els that are already put away to make them look nicer and eas­i­er to access. She is also known to clean the end­less “dog­gie nose print art” off the win­dows as well as sweep­ing and mop­ping the floors, and keep­ing the bath­rooms clean and fresh.

It is always a hard deci­sion to choose just one vol­un­teer to rec­og­nize for their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion, but Chelsea deserves some major recog­ni­tion. Not only is Chelsea con­sis­tent and a con­stant sup­port to the shel­ter, but she also always comes to her vol­un­teer shift with a smile and a cheer­ful atti­tude. She is such a plea­sure to have on the team, and we are grate­ful to be able to hon­or her hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to the shel­ter animals.

If you are inter­est­ed in join­ing an excel­lent team of vol­un­teers work­ing togeth­er in a fun envi­ron­ment, vis­it our web­site and fill out a vol­un­teer application.

Wag­n­er Law Offices is look­ing for a full-time Legal Assis­tant with strong atten­tion to detail and excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion and orga­ni­za­tion skills. Learn more in the Island Jobs sec­tion of the San Juan Update.

The San Juan Island Library shares news about their sum­mer read­ing programming.

Read­ers of all ages will dive into the ocean depths this sum­mer as San Juan Island Library presents their 2022 sum­mer read­ing pro­gram, titled Oceans of Pos­si­bil­i­ties. Reg­is­tra­tion is now under­way at the Library, or online at Beanstack, where you can track your read­ing time while earn­ing badges and prizes.

The sum­mer read­ing pro­gram is open to youth, preschool through young adult, with pro­grams, grand prize draw­ings, sto­ry­times, and pro­fes­sion­al per­for­mances by magi­cians, jug­glers, and come­di­ans, held out­side at 1:30 p.m. on Wednes­day after­noons at Fri­day Har­bor Ele­men­tary School. Our first per­for­mance fea­tures Cow­boy Buck & Eliz­a­beth on June 29. Vis­it the Library’s cal­en­dar of events to view a com­plete list of sum­mer programs.

All San Juan Island Library pro­grams are free to the pub­lic. The 2022 sum­mer read­ing pro­gram is spon­sored by the Friends of the San Juan Island Library with addi­tion­al sup­port and con­tri­bu­tions from local schools, San Juan Coun­ty Fair­grounds, Sweet Retreat, Grif­fin Bay Book­store, Vic’s, Col­lab­o­ra­tive Sum­mer Library Pro­gram, and the Wash­ing­ton State Library.

• The Library is closed today in obser­vance of June­teenth. They’ll re-open tomorrow.
• Here’s the sched­ule for the Fourth of July fes­tiv­i­ties — just two weeks from today.
• The Whale Muse­um needs vol­un­teers Tues­day through Fri­day this week to help mural­ist Lind­say Car­ron repair and refresh the mur­al on the side of the build­ing. Email mural@whalemuseum.org if you can help.
• Fri­day Har­bor Labs is hold­ing their sum­mer speak­er series now through mid-August. Here’s the line­up. Most of the events take place Wednes­days at 7 p.m. in the Com­mons at the Labs.
• This year’s San Juan Con­cours takes place Sun­day, Aug. 14 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at San Juan Vine­yard. Reg­is­tra­tion is $10. Pro­ceeds ben­e­fit the Fam­i­ly Resource Cen­ter, the Fam­i­ly Umbrel­la Group, the mobile den­tal van, and Polio Plus of Rotary International.
• Dead Lee and Don Piano per­form next Fri­day, July 1 at Everelse. The Pou­tine Your Mouth food truck will be there as well.

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

OPALCO sends along an update about a series of incen­tives avail­able to busi­ness­es in San Juan County.

Come to a vir­tu­al work­shop on Tues­day, June 28 at 5 p.m. to learn about the Ener­gize San Juans pro­gram for com­mer­cial and agri­cul­tur­al busi­ness­es. OPALCO was award­ed a grant from the USDA to pro­vide ener­gy audits, tech­ni­cal exper­tise and a pow­er­ful pack­age of incen­tives to help busi­ness­es in San Juan Coun­ty become more ener­gy efficient.

In part­ner­ship with Sus­tain­able Con­nec­tions and the Com­mu­ni­ty Ener­gy Chal­lenge, the Ener­gize San Juans pro­gram includes a dis­count­ed and com­pre­hen­sive ener­gy audit and a cus­tomized ener­gy action plan that out­lines rec­om­men­da­tions for ener­gy-sav­ing improve­ments. The pro­gram can also pro­vide a solar assess­ment to see how much of your ener­gy usage could be off­set by pro­duc­ing your own power.

Once you choose which improve­ments you want to com­plete, the team will help pro­vide access rebates, grants, and exclu­sive incen­tives, including:

• USDA grants avail­able that could cov­er 25% of solar & ener­gy improve­ments for rur­al businesses
• Up to $5,000 in ener­gy sav­ing incen­tives from the Com­mu­ni­ty Ener­gy Chal­lenge – includ­ing up to $1,000 in LED light bulbs
• 26% tax cred­it to off­set solar pan­el cost
• Super dis­count­ed, low-cost ener­gy audit for any size business
• Rebates and on-bill financ­ing up to $100,000 from OPALCO

Reg­is­ter online to attend the June 28 vir­tu­al work­shop.

• Pay extra atten­tion on the roads this week­end. Lakedale’s Three Lakes Triathlon will have cyclists and run­ners on coun­ty roads today, while tomor­row there will be par­tic­i­pants in the San Juan Island Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10K.
• Fam­i­lies and Neigh­bors Sup­port Island Rec are host­ing mag­ic shows every half hour between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Fair­grounds today. They’ll have pop­corn, cot­ton can­dy, sno-cones, and $1 raf­fle prizes.
• The sum­mer fer­ry sched­ule starts tomorrow.
• May­or Ray Jack­son pro­claimed June 19, 2022 as June­teenth Day of Obser­vance in Fri­day Har­bor at the Town Coun­cil meet­ing this past Thursday.
• San Juan Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre presents the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Oper­a’s pro­duc­tion of Ham­let on the big screen at 1 p.m. today. Tick­ets are $20 for adults, $10 for stu­dents, and $5 stu­dent rush.
• The Com­mu­ni­ty Arts The­atre Soci­ety’s annu­al ted­dy bear pic­nic takes place next Sat­ur­day, June 25 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre. There will be sand­wich­es, cook­ies, face paint­ing, and a music show. It’s a free event and no pre-reg­is­tra­tion is required.

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

Photo credit: Brad Pillow

This shot was tak­en from a nat­ur­al blind and the fox was unaware of Brad’s pres­ence. Learn more about Brad’s per­spec­tive on the fox­es of San Juan Island.

The San Juan Coun­ty Con­ser­va­tion Land Bank is hold­ing a vol­un­teer event at Beaver­ton Pre­serve on Tues­day, June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon. Vol­un­teers will work to pull scotch broom, a Class B nox­ious weed that pos­es a threat to frag­ile ecosys­tems, crowd­ing out native plants.

Bring gloves and pruners if you have them and be sure to dress for the weather.

To take part in the event, con­tact Tan­ja Williamson at 360–378-4402 or tanjaw@sjclandbank.org.

Adrian Kilpatrick — Contributed photo

Alche­my Art Cen­ter and the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art share an update about the next install­ment of their Artist Talk Series.

Alche­my Art Cen­ter, in part­ner­ship with the San Juan Islands Muse­um of Art, is host­ing an artist talk series fea­tur­ing vis­it­ing and local artists. Talks will take place in the upstairs work­shop area of the SJIMA (locat­ed at 540 Spring St) from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on select Sun­days through September. 

The next talk in the series, on June 26, fea­tures vis­it­ing artist Maya Noga Dji­ji and local artist Adri­an Kil­patrick. Maya Dji­ji is a visu­al artist from Cal­i­for­nia who loves explor­ing dif­fer­ent medi­ums. On top of her love for explo­ration, she also loves to use a lot of col­or. With her sat­u­rat­ed palette she makes work with ceram­ics, tex­tiles, glass, print­mak­ing, and much more. Her work touch­es on the play­ful nature of mag­ic, the del­i­cate beau­ty of life, and the intri­ca­cies of death.

Maya is liv­ing and work­ing at Alche­my Art Cen­ter in June and July as part of our Artists in Com­mu­ni­ty Pro­gram.  This is Maya’s sec­ond res­i­den­cy at Alche­my Art Center.

Adri­an Kil­patrick is a col­lage and mixed media artist based on San Juan Island. His art deals with mod­ern day alien­ation, sur­re­al­ism, nature, pol­i­tics, fan­ta­sy and dream states. His pri­ma­ry focus is to cre­ate an open dia­logue by trans­port­ing view­ers of his works to realms that par­al­lel our own real­i­ty, and cause us to ques­tion our cur­rent human con­di­tion. Mate­ri­als gath­ered from old pic­ture books, mag­a­zines, and brochures found from var­i­ous thrift stores, flea mar­kets, and yard sales form images that encap­su­late dif­fer­ent moods, cul­tures, and ide­olo­gies found with­in our past and present lives.

Our July talk will take place on Sun­day, July 31. Check the Alche­my Art Cen­ter web­site for more infor­ma­tion. This talk is part of Artists in Com­mu­ni­ty, which is sup­port­ed by the NEA, ArtsWA, the San Juan Island Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion, the Tulalip Char­i­ta­ble Fund, and by gen­er­ous dona­tions from mem­bers of our community.

Here’s the adopt­able ani­mal of the week from the Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Soci­ety of Fri­day Har­bor — Esme, a 20-pound bull ter­ri­er mix.

Don’t let her size fool you, she’s a strong lady who’s seen her fair share in two years. Esme is a young mom who loved tak­ing her daugh­ter out to din­ner at their favorite local restau­rant, but liv­ing on the streets in Mex­i­co was hard.

It has tak­en Esme a lit­tle while to build trust with peo­ple but once you’re in her cir­cle, you will find that she is quite a softy. In fact, it is rumored that Esme might be part otter because she loves to spend time lay­ing on her back. Esme likes to go on walks or is hap­py to stay home and play with her favorite toys. She loves to cud­dle on the couch and will even let you pick what to watch. If you are look­ing for a snug­gle bug with a big per­son­al­i­ty, Esme is your girl.

Learn more about Esme here.

Photo credit: Karen Reagan, USFWS

San Juan Island Nation­al His­toric Park shares news about a fed­er­al plan to help the vul­ner­a­ble island mar­ble butterfly.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice has announced the avail­abil­i­ty of a draft recov­ery plan for the island mar­ble but­ter­fly and a 60-day pub­lic com­ment period.

The island mar­ble but­ter­fly, a beau­ti­ful, medi­um-sized, white but­ter­fly with green ‘mar­bling’ on its wings, was his­tor­i­cal­ly known from south­ern Van­cou­ver Island and the Gulf Islands of Cana­da. It went unde­tect­ed for 90 years until being redis­cov­ered in 1998 on San Juan Island, Washington.

Cur­rent­ly, the only remain­ing known pop­u­la­tion is in the Amer­i­can Camp Unit of San Juan Island Nation­al His­tor­i­cal Park. Despite sub­se­quent ongo­ing con­ser­va­tion efforts, such as cap­tive rear­ing and habi­tat pro­tec­tion, the but­ter­fly is in dan­ger of extinc­tion. The small pop­u­la­tion size of the but­ter­fly makes it espe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble to threats, includ­ing habi­tat loss and predation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice uses a range of con­ser­va­tion tools to recov­er threat­ened and endan­gered species. A recov­ery plan pro­vides guid­ance on how best to help list­ed species achieve recov­ery and is not a reg­u­la­to­ry doc­u­ment. The draft recov­ery plan and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments are avail­able online.

To ensure con­sid­er­a­tion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice must receive writ­ten com­ments by Mon­day, Aug. 8. Inter­est­ed per­sons can sub­mit com­ments on the draft doc­u­ment in writ­ing by U.S mail or email:

• U.S. mail: Tara Call­away, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice, 500 Desmond Dr. SE, Lacey, Wash­ing­ton 98503
• Email: WFWO_LR@fws.gov. Please include Draft Island Mar­ble But­ter­fly Recov­ery Plan Com­ments in the sub­ject line.

Contributed photo

When the nutri­tion­ist at Peace Health asked me what sort of phys­i­cal exer­cise I would be will­ing to com­mit to, I declared bold­ly that I would do yoga three times a week. I had just dug up my old yoga pro­gram that with enough adap­ta­tions I could still man­age to almost do.

What has helped me the most in keep­ing this com­mit­ment, how­ev­er, are the chair yoga class­es taught by Kat­ri­na Wen through the Mullis Cen­ter. It pro­vides a fun way to acti­vate ener­gy while mobi­liz­ing the spine and major joints. It includes stretch­es of the back and legs, both impor­tant in slow­ing down the aging process.

The spe­cial care we gave to our knees in last week’s class made me feel like the class had been cre­at­ed just for me. I’m sure though that I am not the only senior on San Juan Island whose knees could use some extra love.

Besides week­ly live Zoom class­es we are now able to get a video record­ing of the class to use as many times as we want to through­out that week. This is great if you want to use the class more than once and at times that work best for you.

Fit­ness class­es through the Mullis Cen­ter also include a bal­ance and stretch class that pro­vides a gen­tle way for peo­ple to train their abil­i­ty to bal­ance by ton­ing and recon­di­tion­ing var­i­ous mus­cle groups (legs, glutes, low­er back). Nav­i­gat­ing our bal­ance pro­vides a real­is­tic way to strength­en our core; there­fore it also aids our diges­tive health when it is done reg­u­lar­ly. Bal­ance is high­ly val­ued as a means of fall pre­ven­tion. Con­tin­ue Reading