Origami Penguins – Contributed photo

Origami Workshop: Twist Fish and Penguins

 Join programming Librarian Bethery von Dassow for an afternoon of folding. This month learn two one-sheet designs. Twist fish are fun to mass produce in every color and size, and penguins can be given different personalities with minor changes. Paper will be provided. Children are welcome if accompanied by an adult, and registration is not required.

Saturday, May 23, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm
San Juan Island Library, free.

Rikki Swin shares this note with you about a new local installation at the Sculpture Park…

Stir’d Up – Danielle Napier photo

The San Juan Islands Sculpture Park proudly announces the installation of a magnificent new sculpture by Jason Napier entitled STIR’D UP.

It is a truly striking 1200 lb bronze life-size running stallion created by the world renowned San Juan Island artist. The work took two years to create. The patina glimmers and gleams in the sunlight. Don’t miss its exhibition at the 20 acre park located at Roche Harbor. The non profit park is open every day from dawn to dusk, an entry donation is appreciated.

For additional information see the website www.SJISculpturePark.com

Left to right: Sculpture Park Board Members Cyrilla Torres, David Jenkins, & Farhad Ghatan and Artist Jason Napier and his wife Danielle – Rikki Swin photo

Boyd Pratt – Louise Dustrude photo

National Historic Preservation Month! Meet architectural historian, Boyd Pratt, to tour the Nichols Neighborhood and Sunshine Alley. Learn how we grew from a short string of wood-framed buildings lining Spring Street to a ‘downtown’ of fireproof masonry buildings surrounded by neighborhoods.

We will focus on the Brickworks and its part in the development. Meet at the Brickworks with suggested parking at the Courthouse parking lot.

• Distance: 1 mile
• Rating: easy with possible upslopes
• Terrain: sidewalk and pavement
• Well-behaved dogs on leashes okay
• Wheelchair accessible
• Rain or shine

Saturday, May 23 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
For more information contact: info[@]sanjuanislandtrails[.]org

Animal Shelter photo

Animal Shelter Announces $25 on the 25th Special!

The Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor has announced it will be open from 11:00 to 3:00 Memorial Day, May 25. Adult Dog and Cat adoptions will be just $25 all day to approved applicants. Don’t miss this great opportunity to meet your new best friend!   The Animal Shelter is located at 111 Shelter Road in Friday Harbor.

San Juan Community Theatre’s next presentation of National Theatre Live in HD features acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard’s drama, The Hard Problem on Monday, May 18 at 7:00 pm.

Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), brings to the London stage Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain science institute, who is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness?

This is ‘the hard problem’ which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the MRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask?

Meanwhile, Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.

Tickets for The Hard Problem are $20 for adults and $10 for student reserved. Purchase then online at www.sjctheatre.org or at the door.

Left to right: Jackie Hamilton, Trish Fenstermacher, Dan Bacon, Larry Wall, Ash Gosselin and Craig Bailey – Contributed photo

Chamber Chat is a monthly column written by Lauren Cohen, Co-Owner of San Juan Canvas & Chamber Board President…

Thank you Island Air
Will and Jackie Hamilton hosted the Chamber of Commerce members for a fantastic social this month. After an awesome barbecue, Will shared a short history of aviation on San Juan Island and everyone in attendance was invited into their hangar to look at their new air ambulance. Island Air offers charter flights throughout the area. Jackie and her crew along with San Juan Island EMS also serve our community with a fixed wing air ambulance. This is an amazing, lifesaving service that those of us, choosing to live the rural, island life are SO lucky to have. Check them out at www.sji-islandair.com.

New Members
We would like to welcome some new members to the Chamber of Commerce who joined recently. Some new businesses and some familiar. We are happy to have them join in as part of our cohesive community of merchants. Be sure to visit.

Pardon Our Dust
The remodeling of our Chamber of Commerce Visitor’s Center and Offices are moving along….of course, not as quickly as we would like. The current mess will all be worth it in the end. We are almost done painting and will now have to wait until the new carpet goes in mid June. We will have some beautiful artwork showing off San Juan Island talent as well. Our plan is be all done with our beautiful new Chamber of Commerce and ready to welcome our fifteen plus thousand visitors to a space all San Juan Islanders can be proud of by the weekend of June 20. Members and visitors, thank you for your patience.

Featured Business
Beginning in June and monthly thereafter, we will be featuring one Chamber business chosen randomly from our almost 300 member businesses & organizations. We will contact you if selected to let you know. Our featured business will be included in a press release, mentioned in this monthly newsletter, noted on our Chamber website and highlighted on the large bulletin board outside of the Visitors Center. Just an idea to give a little extra recognition to our Chamber of Commerce members.

Summer Planning
The Chamber of Commerce will now be sponsoring the Friday Night Art Market at Brickworks. Come check out some great arts & crafts and local food every Friday from 3:00-7:00 pm throughout the summer. The Summer Art’s Fair is July 11-12 and will also feature the Library Book Fair on site. Contact Becki if you would like to participate. We would love showcase every talented artist on our Island and beyond!

Make sure all of the July 4th festivities are on your calendar too.

Rob Simpson sends over this note about tonight’s Conscientious Projector show at the library…

Tree Trimming Crews at Work to Clear Utility Right of Way

OPALCO maintains the clearance between trees and shrubs and our power lines on a regular schedule. It’s that time of year again. Professional tree trimming crews will be making their rounds beginning the week of May 18^th. Please look for the crews along our roads on each island:

• Week of May 18th San Juan Island – Cattle Point and Pear Point areas
• Week of May 28th Orcas Island – from the Orcas Substation to the Eastsound substation,
  Montgomery Lane and Crow Valley areas
• Week of June 3rd Shaw Island – All overhead lines
• Week of June 8th Lopez Island – Schoolhouse Road and Airport areas

Their scope of work is limited to the established Right-of-Way boundaries to protect the trees from our power lines and protect our system from interruptions of power that can occur when tree limbs come into contact with our lines. If hazardous trees are identified, the land owner will be notified and a local certified arborist will be contracted to remove them with land owner permission.

Learn more about OPALCO’s Right-of-Way program at: this link.

Clearance is important throughout the system. Members can help by leaving room for the OPALCO crew to work safely on the devices in the field and on members’ property. Please keep landscaping, shrubs and structures at least 10’ away from the front side of electrical devices and at least 3’ away from the other sides. OPALCO crews must be able to safely access field devices (those green boxes in particular) at all times.

Save the date for the Shred Event

You’re invited to our FREE Community Shred Event in the Islanders Bank parking lot on Friday, May 22nd, 2015 from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm or until shred truck is full.

Paper documents will be destroyed for FREE. Watch as it is shredded live by our secure vendor.

Donations for Relay For Life are gladly accepted

The filing period for the off-year election ended Friday, except that if no one signed up for a particular office there will be an extended three-day filing this week. We vote in odd-numbered years for the smaller, more local offices — and in even-numbered years for county, state, and national offices.

There will be a primary election in August on San Juan Island, it appears, for just one race. The only seat for which three candidates have filed is  #2 on the San Juan Island Public Hospital District #1.

Barbara Sharp, Michelle Loftus, and Daniel Miller filed for the seat. One will be eliminated in the August 4 primary, and two will continue to the November 3 general election.

The other two hospital district seats have two candidates each: Monica Harrington and Jenny Ledford for seat #3, and Bill Williams and William E. Hancock for seat #5. They will not face off until November. Continue Reading

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

I’m Benji, and as you can see from the photo, I love to snuggle. Of course, I would prefer having my own somebody to snuggle with, but for now, this cozy bed will have to do. Aside from cuddling, I also enjoy guided meditation, espionage, fine dining, re-runs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and classic literature. The writing of Ernest Hemingway defines me. We should meet, you and I. Stop by the animal shelter soon. I’ll be waiting.

And… Guess what else?
The Animal Shelter Announces New Hours.

The Animal Protection Society – Friday Harbor has announced new operating hours will take effect June 1. In an effort to provide better service to the community, the animal shelter will be open to the public 11:30 am to 4:30 pm, Tuesday through Sunday. The shelter is closed Mondays.

Animal Shelter
111 Shelter Road
(360) 378-2158

Hang out the banners – it’s Island Stage Left’s seventeenth season and “Shakespeare Under the Stars” is on its way with “Cymbeline”!

Once upon a time… “Cymbeline” a Shakespearean folktale, set in an ancient kingdom, complete with a wicked stepmother, her doltish son, a beautiful sleeping princess, an evil suitor, deadly potions, true love and reconciliation! With music throughout, in Island Stage Left style, played under the moon and stars.

Performances:

• July 8th – Orcas Island at Doe Bay
• July 10th and 11th – Lopez Island Vineyards
• July 12th – Shaw Island Community Center
• July 16 thru August 2, Thursday thru Sunday – Roche Harbor Outdoor Stage
• August 7 through 23, Friday thru Sunday – 1062 Wold Road

All performances start at 8:00 pm. Dress warmly and bring a blanket.
Admission free – Donations appreciated.
Check out the event poster here

Gertrude Evelyn Maude Kreps Kinnaman passed away peacefully May 1, 2015. She was 101 years young. Gertrude’s strong-willed, unfailing character was one of love and grace, coupled with an abundant sense of humor and pure devotion to her Lord. Family always came first for our matriarch.

She was born Nov. 16, 1913 to Jennie and George Washington Kreps in Centralia, Wash., the youngest of five children. She developed into a beautiful, tall, and talented young lady. She was always first choice for the basketball team – commencing her family’s passion for the sport.

Gertrude was raised in the same social circle as the very large Kinnaman family. It wasn’t until she was a teenager that Harold Kinnaman finally took notice of Gertrude and asked her to go to a football game. As the rain started to fall they put a newspaper over their heads, and from that moment on they were a couple. They married in 1934 during the Great Depression. Gertrude often remembered fondly how several years later, being ever the resourceful young couple, they once converted a chicken coop into their home. Continue Reading

Casey, Jenn and Kerry have an inspiring weekend for writers for the third year in a row with Write Doe Bay on the last weekend of May – Contributed photo

A note from San Juan Update editor emeritus Ian Byington:

Whoa! I can’t believe it! There are still a few spots open in the Write Doe Bay writers’ workshop over the weekend of May 29-31. Directed by San Juan Island’s Jennifer Beck Furber, Kerry Andrews, and Casey Sjogren, I’ve heard nothing but great (and inspiring!) things about the workshop. Here’s the official press release from Jenn:

Press Release:
Doe Bay Resort and Retreat on Orcas Island is known for its rustic charm, world-class farm-to-table café and its annual music festival, Doe Bay Fest. For the past two and a half years, something else has grown on the resort’s pristine 38-acres: a boutique writing workshop drawing first-class talent. Write Doe Bay unlocks narratives and opens creative paths, uniting artists of every genre along a common thread: the story of it all.

A few tickets remain to Write Doe Bay’s May 29-31 Spring Workshop. Continue Reading

Affect / Effect
One hundred of San Juan Island’s most impassioned TEDx enthusiasts will come together on Saturday, September 19, 2015 from 10am-4pm for a day of networking and dialogue around the theme Affect / Effect. The event will take place in the Friday Harbor Middle School Auditorium on Blair Street.

The conference is built on the model and under license from the TED Conference, an annual gathering of some of the world’s most fascinating and influential people. This local event will encourage attendees to celebrate remarkable ideas of all kinds. The program will feature short talks, music and conversation breaks where audience members and speakers will enjoy the opportunity to network and exchange ideas. In addition to internationally recognized presenters, the day will also feature island residents with ideas worth sharing.

“TEDxSanJuanIsland is designed as a platform for ideas, where local individuals share the day with world-class speakers and thought leaders,” said Gary Franklin, curator of TEDxSanJuanIsland and member of the organizing committee. “The annual TED Conference stands out as a confluence of fascinating concepts and we are excited to bring this local event to our island.”

“The combination of a diverse group of speakers and high calibre artistic performers will engage attendees throughout the day. The event will celebrate the gift of the imagination; like a Cirque du Soleil of ideas! By recording the presentations, our island community will share our passions and perceptions on a global scale.” Continue Reading

Load up the car for a Drive-In THIS Friday, May 15th, at the Fairgrounds!
Movie 9:20 pm, parking at 8:15 pm.
Admission: $5/person, Family of 5/$20, Age 5 & under FREE.
Like us on Facebook; www.sjcfair.org.