We hear from the Soroptimists…

Are you a female resident of San Juan County who is going to college or vocational school? There is a $2,000 award available to help with expenses, from Soroptimist International of Friday Harbor…. and no one has applied yet! The deadline is January 11th so please help us reach the right person.

This award will help women overcome financial difficulties and better their lives through education and training. The recipient may use the cash award to offset any costs of higher education, such as tuition, books, childcare, and transportation. The award goes to a woman who is enrolled in an undergraduate or vocational degree program of study, including on-line educational programs.

To apply, please visit the Soroptimist International of Friday Harbor website at www.sifri.org. You may also pick up an application at The Toy Box located at 20 First Street in Friday Harbor. Applications must be post marked by January 11, 2016.

Merganser decoys caught in the ice at West Side Lake – John Dustrude photo

We hear from Louise Dustrude…

West Side Lake on the Land Bank’s Limekiln Preserve attracts a variety of birds, especially ducks, and so Leslie Veirs came up with the idea of a bird blind along the trail next to the lake where people could watch the birds in an unthreatening way. Doug McCutchen, San Juan Preserve Steward for the Land Bank, and several volunteers built the bird blind and many islanders and visitors have been enjoying it ever since. Recently one hiker noticed a couple of Mergansers that seemed different somehow, and then realized that they were decoys.

It turns out that Leslie’s husband Val put the decoys out there in an attempt to attract the live Mergansers and other ducks to spend some time in front of the blind where observers can get a closer look without alarming them. If you go out there you might let the Land Bank know whether the decoys do indeed attract the live birds. A recent check showed the decoys caught in the ice and temporarily not attracting any other birds.

1916 Calendar – Courtesy of the San Juan Historical Society & Museum

This month’s history column from the San Juan Historical Society & Museum…

While looking randomly in our digital archives for January’s topic, a photograph of a Friday Harbor Drug Co. calendar from January, 1916 popped immediately into view. What better choice for this month, exactly 100 years later, when our same drug store still has its calendars for customers. What is different is that in 1916 a small bottle of cough syrup cost 25 cents and it’s $4.39 today.

Here’s another difference between life 100 years ago and today: The Washington state liquor prohibition law took effect on January 1, 1916, closing down saloons statewide and severely limiting personal possession of alcohol (following Friday Harbor’s own town ban in place since 1910), but islanders could still get a prescription for such spirits — when signed by a doctor for medicinal purposes — or a clergyman for religious purposes. One wonders how many people got religion that year.

We thank the Nash family for safeguarding this calendar artifact all this time, and for generously allowing the Historical Society and the San Juan Island Library to digitize it for posterity. More historical photos from the San Juan Islands can be found online in the Washington Rural Heritage collection, hosted by the Washington State Library at www.washingtonruralheritage.org. You know where to get the cough syrup.

The Food for Thought Program will present the crowd-pleasing Greek Menu. The Community Projects Class will be presenting Student Community Projects in the classrooms. Dinner will start a little earlier to accommodate the evaluators. (We appreciate your understanding as we invite the evaluators to the front of the dinner line so they can get to the presentations by 5:30). Stroll the halls for the Art Walk-a-Bout and check out the works of our talented students of the San Juan Island School District.

DINNER 5:00-7:30 (starts earlier)

PRESENTATIONS 5:30-7:30

ART WALK-A-BOUT 5:30-7:30 (Self-Directed)

Tracy James

You probably remember Tracy James from when she worked here in Friday Harbor as a mortgage lender between 1995 and 2004. We’ll she’s back – and has a new office for Eagle Home Mortgage in the Sundries Court building on Spring Street (better known as the Jeri’s Mall building).

Tracy used to visit the islands with friends back in the ’80s and always had very fond memories of this place. Eventually, in 1992 she moved here. Her daughter Hallie was just starting in Kindergarten at that time. Fast forward 12 years – Hallie graduated from FHHS, and Tracy was ready for a vacation, so off she went to Paris where she ended up staying for 10 years! During that time she had many adventures including leading charter boat tours around the Greek Islands, and leading bicycle tours in Ireland.

In Paris she helped English speaking people find their dream properties in France. Using what little French she knew (she calls it “restaurant French”), she was able to convey to Paris realtors exactly what her clients were looking for, and her boss said she was “batting 1000”.

But in 2014 she came back to be closer to her family. She contacted her old manager who was thrilled to hear from her, and they ended up opening an office for her right here in Friday Harbor again. So in October she opened the office where she can now help with all your Mortgage needs, from refi’s to loan products for first-time-buyers, etc. And she would like everyone to know that in addition to regular business hours, she is also available on weekends if necessary.

Artist Dana Louis at SJIMA – Contributed photo

From San Juan Islands Museum of Art…

The community is invited to watch Dana Lynn Louis create her installation As Above, So Below in the glass Atrium Space of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) from January 4 to January 15, 2016.

SJIMA presents As Above, So Below, a site-specific installation by Portland-based artist Dana Lynn Louis, recipient of the 2016 Contemporary Northwest Art Award. This installation, like many of her previous works, references social and political concerns. For over a decade, Louis worked in West Africa helping to create the Ko-falen Cultural Center in Bamako, Mali. That work had to end in 2012 due to the Mali Civil War. Since then, her work, including her upcoming installation, has been deeply informed by the loss of place. The site-specific response to the San Juan Islands re-places the self within this specific environment, an act in which she invites viewers to participate.

Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, Curator of Northwest Art at the Portland Art Museum states, “Creating spaces with intimate and large-scale drawings, light projections, and sculptural objects, [Louis] uses glass, light, and shadow to achieve a glitteringly magical environment.”

As Above, So Below includes four components: a floor-to-ceiling drawing on the glass of SJIMA’s Atrium Space; suspended glass and mixed-media sculptures; etched mirrors installed on the floor; and video projections. Experiential and multidisciplinary, the installation engages time and light, the changing shadows and reflections constructing a conversation with the materials of the Atrium Space and the environment of the region.

The show opens along with Ai Weiwei: Fault Line and Sleep of Reason: Selected Prints by Francisco Goya on January 23, 2016. For more information go to www.sjima.org

Hours:
Friday, January 23 – Monday, April 11, 2016
11am – 5pm, Friday – Monday

Photo used with permission from Paul Vecsei of Fish As Art

The San Juan County Lead Entity for Salmon Recovery is requesting salmon recovery project proposals for the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB) 2016 and 2017-2018 grant funding cycles.

Private citizens, non-profit organizations, local, state, and tribal governments, and special districts are invited to apply for funding through the SRFB Lead Entity process for salmon recovery.  Projects must be located in the San Juan Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA 2), which is the San Juan Islands and adjacent waters.  Please submit your one-page letter of intent to:

SJC PW Lead Entity for Salmon Recovery
PO Box 729
Friday Harbor, WA  98250

or deliver it to the office located at 915 Spring Street.  The letter of intent must be received by February 12, 2016.  The letters of intent will be reviewed by a technical committee; successful proposals will be asked to submit a pre-application by April 5, 2016.

In 2015, San Juan County received Salmon Recovery Funding for the following projects:  Cascade Creek Acquisition, Orcas Island ($492,500, San Juan County Land Bank); Mud Bay, Sucia Island salt marsh restoration feasibility study ($91,260, Friends of the San Juans); Ecology of resident Chinook in the San Juan Islands ($196,383, Long Live the Kings); and Forage Fish Spawning Habitat Rehabilitation, Shaw and Orcas Islands ($172,176, Friends of the San Juans). Further information on these projects can be found at the Habitat Work Schedule, http://hws.ekosystem.us/.

Please contact the Salmon Recovery Lead Entity Coordinator, Byron Rot, for additional information at 360-370-7593, byronr [@]  sanjuanco.com.

The Friday Harbor FILM Festival is delighted to announce the 2016 Audience Choice Winter Film Series. It will run January through May on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, at 7 PM at the Grange. All the films screened this coming winter are audience selected as their favorites.

The Winter Film Series will be hosted by Theresa Simendinger. She is taking on the responsibility of coordinating this very important event for the Friday Harbor

Film Festival. If you would like to help, please stop by our office to sign up, or write [info @ fhff . org]. Screening fees and venue cost for each of these films are paid for by your donations so your generosity is extremely appreciated.

Our first film on January 5th is Killswitch; a gripping documentary about the battle for control over the Internet. Free speech, innovation and democracy are all up for grabs as the Internet comes under attack for its disruptive and dynamic nature. The filmmakers frame the story of two young “hactivists,” Aaron Swartz and Edward Snowden, whose lives parallel one another as they free information to millions, putting both of them directly into the cross-hairs of the world’s most powerful interests.

This film probes the efforts of big business to control the Internet, the efforts of government to regulate it, and the efforts of hackers to free up information worldwide as well as the consequences of doing this. Will the experiences of Swartz and Snowden be a cautionary tale of what happens when you dare to take on elite power structures? Or could their efforts become the spark igniting a revolution that redefines democracy in the digital age? Winner of the Award for Best Editing of a Feature Documentary at 2014 Woodstock Film Festival.

Frost on Rose Hips – Margaret Thorson photo

There’s snow on the mountains, swans on the lake, and parking spots in town. It must be winter! Island winter has its own beauty whether sparkling and cold or subdued like a wet Japanese brush painting. Thanks to Margaret Thorson for this photo of frost on rose hips.

Bruce Gregory in Tajikstan – Contributed photo

Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington – Bruce Gregory, local farmer and longtime volunteer with the US Aid Farmer to Farmer Volunteer program, will speak on Monday evening, January 4, 2016, at 7pm at the San Juan Library. The San Juan Island Trails Committee, in partnership with the San Juan Library continues its program of presenting journeys on Land, Air, Sea and Space, exploring our world via the experiences of our fellow Islanders.

Bruce just returned from his November 2015 tour of volunteer duty in Tajikistan, working with thirteen districts of the Khatlon Province. Bruce had been asked to come back for a second year with the farmers to assist in identifying and implementing improvements in their orchard management practices; his talk on Monday night will concern the inroads Bruce created with these farmers, and the experience of his journey to this former Soviet country.

Jane Eyre – Courtesy San Juan Community Theatre

Almost 170 years on, Charlotte Brontë’s story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever. This bold and dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfillment on her terms.

From her beginnings as a destitute orphan, Jane Eyre’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles head-on, surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.

This acclaimed re-imagining of Brontë’s masterpiece was first staged by Bristol Old Vic last year when the story was performed over two evenings. Director Sally Cookson now brings her celebrated production to the National, presented as a single, exhilarating performance.

Whittier Theatre
Friday, January 8 7:00 pm
Adult $20
Student Reserved $10
Member $18 (at box office only)

SJCT is in its third year of partnership with National Theatre Live’s award-winning series of live high-definition performance transmissions to theaters around the world. These presentations are made possible through a generous bequest from the late Dodie Gann and underwriting from The McGee Foundation.

Wahoo! This is invigorating! – Rebecca Coffey Smith photo

San Juan Island EMS EMT’s did their annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge yesterday. Here are some photos shared by Rebecca Coffey Smith. Thank you for sharing Rebecca!

Wait… this is… COLD!!!! – Rebecca Coffey Smith photo

Clayton Banry was freezing his tail off too, but was excited to be a part of the EMS Polar Bear Plunge – Rebecca Coffey Smith photo

SJI EMS EMT’s Jody, Karen, Kim, Kaitlyn, Rachel and John. Not pictured: Herb Mason showed up a bit later and plunged in as well – Rebecca Coffey Smith photo

38 bike riders braved the cold and turned out for the 2016 Commitment Ride – John Stimpson photo

This year marked the 29th year of the annual Commitment Ride and 38 intrepid bikers participated this time. Here they are lined up at the Post Office at the beginning of the ride on Friday morning. Click the photo for a larger version.

Organizer John Stimpson says: “The weather could not have been better. Fun was had by all. Keep riding for fitness, peace of mind and above all else – the fun of getting yourself there and back under your own power! 
Keep spinning, John”

Commitment RIde 2016 – John Stimpson photo

Commitment RIde 2016 – John Stimpson photo

New Year’s Motorcycle Ride at South Beach – Greg Hertel photo

Greg Hertel tells us about an Island tradition…

“High speed, cold winds, icy roads… what could possibly go wrong? January 1 and it’s time for the unorganized, unofficial, traditional New Years Day San Juan Island motorcycle ride. We’ve been doing this for around 25 years now. Rain, sun or even snow, we meet around 10 and eventually someone starts a motor and we take off.

Over the years, we’ve settled on The Route: Town to South Beach at American Camp, pose for the required picture, head to Cattle Pass and without stopping, loop the parking lot and head back towards Roche Harbor for donuts.

After that, we drift away to what ever plans we had for this first day of the year. We’ve had close to 30 people on nice years and as few as 5 on one brutal year when there was still snow on the roads.

Drew Gislason with Daughters Eleanor, Lita, and Genevieve – Greg Hertel photo

This year was cold so 14 hardy souls made it all the way to American Camp. The bikes were a mix of makes with BMW leading the count and models of a sporting and touring nature predominating. Cruiser types are fun on a summer day but the wide open riding position  loses its luster in sub-freezing temperatures!

It was 25 degrees when I left my house to start the ride and maybe 33 when I headed home from Roche. This was colder than most rides but the sun was out and it was glorious when we topped the crest of the hill headed to the beach and all of the Straits and the Olympics spread out in front of us. Happy New Year.”