Here’s a note from David at Saint David’s Episcopal Church…

Saturday, May 3, 2014 has been declared World Labyrinth Day by The Labyrinth Society. The goal is to “Walk as One at 1″ in the afternoon, joining others around the globe to create a wave of peaceful energy washing across the time zones.”

The outdoor labyrinth at Saint David’s Episcopal Church (760 Park Street) will be available for community members to walk in support of this World Labyrinth Day goal. Restrooms will also be available before and after the 1:00 walk.

For more information, check the labyrinth page at www.saintdavidsepiscopal.org or the Veriditas website.

Bill Severson and Eileen Drath – Alice Hurd photo

Leslie Veirs sends this story over on behalf of the Trails Committee…

Feet First, a statewide organization promoting walkable communities, recently honored the San Juan Island Trails Committee with a Walkable Washington Innovation Award, one of three given at a symposium held at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The award cited the Know Your Island Walks created and implemented by Eileen Drath for the Trails Committee. She gave an informative presentation there on the programs which have fostered collaboration, cooperation, coordination, connections and community.

She was accompanied by two members of the Trails Committee, Bill Severson, chair, and Leslie Veirs.

The first Know Your Island Walk was in January 2011 at American Camp, led by Mike Vouri, historian and Chief of Interpretation for the San Juan Island National Historical Park. The most recent, on Saturday, was led by Amanda Azous, Land Bank commissioner, on the Djarf connection at the West Side Preserve. All walks are on trails open to the public.

Over the years since 2011 the monthly walks have been guided by individuals from the community who represent a wide variety of groups, including the Port of Friday Harbor, the Trails Committee, the Youth Conservation Corps and the San Juan Historical Society. Eileen is to be congratulated for her unique idea of promoting walking through community education and engagement.

Sheila Harley checks in with this month’s Volunteer Firefighter introduction…

Peter and Susan Risser – Click for larger image – Sheila Harley photo

Peter and Susan Risser are one of the several couples who volunteer with San Juan Island Fire Rescue. Both work as Tender Operators. Their job is to make sure there is enough water for the fire scene.

Peter started with the Town of Friday Harbor Fire Department in 1985, while Susan didn’t start until 1988. He says a friend guilted him into it. Susan wanted to see why Peter was so hooked on firefighting and after taking fire fighting classes, she got hooked also!

Susan has another year with the District before retirement while Peter has just retired. They were hooked for sure! Susan noted that there is no social classing in the fire department. Everyone has a job and does it like a good family.

The Rissers came here from Seattle. They had been sailing the Islands for a couple of years getting to know the about them before they settled here running San Juan Canvas for 26 years.

As well as volunteering with firefighting, they both have been very active with the San Juan Island Sailing Foundation for many years, the community theatre, the San Juan Island Food Coop, and are just taking on a 4H sheep project. Continue Reading

You’re invited to the annual Open House at the labs on Saturday, May 10. Here’s more from Rachel Anderson…

The Annual Labs open house is an event for all ages – Kathleen Ballard photo

This event offers a fabulous opportunity to meet scientists and students at the Labs and check out the world-renowned research and teaching facilities.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Labs will be open for self-guided tours. Scientists and students will showcase their marine science research, answer questions and provide demonstrations. There will be posters, marine plants and animals, microscopes, plankton sampling and observations, and activities for visitors of all ages.

Venture out to the end of the dock! Visitors can step aboard and tour our 58’ research vessel, the R/V Centennial, and check out its remotely operated vehicle (ROV), oceanographic tools, and high-tech sonar systems. FHL divers will be demonstrating SCUBA. In keeping with FHL tradition, there will be fresh popped popcorn for one and all. (Light refreshments will also be available at the historic Dining Hall)

Scientific Lectures will be scheduled throughout the afternoon.

Sturdy shoes are recommended because the tour route includes rough dock planks, gravel paths and trails.

620 University Road, Friday Harbor. Parking is limited so carpools are encouraged.

Click for larger poster

The League of Women Voters of the San Juans will hold its Annual Membership Meeting at a luncheon on Monday, May 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the San Juan Island Golf Club. Following the business portion of meeting, Cindy Hansen, Education Coordinator of the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, will give a presentation.

Advance registration and $28 payment are required. Send checks to: Steve Bowman, 156 Otter Lane, Friday Harbor, WA 98250

All members and the general public are welcome to attend. For further information, please call Steve at (360) 370-5814.

The League holds monthly membership meetings on the second Monday of the month, from noon to 2 p.m., usually at the San Juan Island Public Library. For local LWV information, go to http://www.lwvwa.org/san-juan/index.html, where you can find past issues of the monthly newsletter, The Voter.

For further information, go to lwvwa.org

There will be a Special Port Commission meeting at 4:45pm on April 29th at the Port Office.

This meeting is scheduled for RESOLUTION to approve ALEA grant application for the Waterfront Walkway Project.

SJ Update photo

Follow the enjoyable story of how two enterprising Friday Harbor High School juniors chose as their Community Project assignment to raise funds to join in the effort to help save our honey bee population. They campaigned for their cause over the winter and purchased a brand new hive set-up along with the requisite bees (with queen). They then installed the hive at the Community Gardens.

Home orchardists, back yard beekeepers and Community Gardens provide haven for our honey bees. Come to the San Juan Island Garden Club meeting and learn simple, yet vital ways to enlarge the impact of this project begun by high school students and “the bees that came to Friday Harbor.”

Please join us for tea and coffee and a wonderful program.

San Juan Island Garden Club
1:00 pm, May 6, 2014
Mullis Community Center
589 Nash Street, Friday Harbor

All are welcome
RSVP to Marguerite Bennett at 378-8524

Kraig Hansen, new owner of San Juan Transit – Tim Dustrude photo

By now you’ve probably heard there’s a new owner down at SJ Transit. Kraig Hansen bought the company from long time previous owner Dan Ward back in October and he has begun operations for the new season this month. He comes here from the City of Everett where has been a Park Ranger and Chief Naturalist for 21 years. However, he is no stranger to the island. He and his wife Cindy have been going back and forth an awful lot, as Cindy is the Curator of Education at the Whale Museum and has been there for the past 6 years.

“The time was right and this was the perfect opportunity for me to finally make the jump and move over here” he says.

For the most part, transit things are not going to change too much, but he will be running 2 Transit routes, 7 days a week on San Juan from May 17th through Sept. 28th, and 1 route each on Orcas and Lopez on weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from June 21st through Sept. 1st including Memorial Day.  He adds, “In order to include and promote San Juan’s Scenic Byway we will continue to make American Camp a destination.”

With 6 busses total, and 1 more on the way, this will leave 3 busses available for daytime charters (and all of them available for evenings).

The website will remain at www.sanjuantransit.com and updated route maps and schedules will be available soon.

L-R: Dan and Callie McKay, Patty Schultz, Mandy Husmann, Darlene Webb, Rachel Stephens, Stacey Smith, Shelley Borahan, Tori Roberts, Tara Hulse, Kim Erickson, and Mike Scott in front (sorry – children’s names not available at press time) – Click for larger image – Contributed photo

There’s a new group on the island, raising money and giving to those in need in our community. However, they’re not exactly a new group – they started out years ago as Team Herb’s and have raised a lot of money, mostly for the annual Relay For Life fundraiser that helps with cancer research. What’s new is, they’ve changed things up a bit, and now have a focus on giving the monies raised to groups right here in our community.

Just recently they gave their first donation to a local 4H Bits & Spurs Horse Club. Imagine the club’s surprise when they saw a $500.00 check as payment for 3 cookies at a bakesale!

4H Bits & Spurs Bake Sale – Contributed photo

A big event they have coming up is the “Rock the Mic” Karaoke Contest – with auditions each Wednesday evening in May and a final competition on June 13th. Lots of fun, and lots of money will be raised for great local causes – prizes will include: HDTVs, Kindle Fires and iPods so if you like to sing, you should check it out. More info will be posted here on that in the next week or so.

But in the meantime, here’s more of what the group is all about in President Mike Scott’s words:

Team Herbs is known for being the highest earning fundraising team for Relay for Life for years. This is our 5th year at it. We do the Rock the Mic (formerly Relay Idol), and Rock the Cause which is a local band concert, (we raised $7k last year at rock the cause).

We do work as the servers for the celebrity golf tournament salmon dinner, we work a booth at the Annual Port of Friday Harbor Fly In. And several other fundraisers that over the course of 4 years have raised over $45k. Continue Reading

King’s Highschool Choir – Contributed photo

King’s High School Choirs to perform at Friday Harbor Presbyterian
On Saturday, May 3rd, the King’s High School Concert Choir and select group, Living Faith, will perform at Friday Harbor Presbyterian at 7:00 PM. Under the direction of Mr. Bobby Olson, the groups will perform a wide variety of music ranging from Classical to World Music, Gospel, and Spirituals. King’s High School has been traveling to Friday Harbor since 1996, and the students are excited to return again this year!

King’s High School Concert Choir
The King’s High School Concert Choir is an elective, mixed ensemble comprised of students grades 9-12. The choir sings a wide variety of music ranging from Renaissance and Classical to World Music, Gospel and Spirituals. Along with performing in concerts throughout the year, students in Concert Choir use their gifts to share the gospel with other King’s students and the surrounding community.

King’s High School Living Faith
Living Faith is a select group with a student rhythm section. They sing all styles of music including jazz, where they have had first place wins at both the Reno Jazz Festival and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Living Faith has been chosen to be featured in a concert for the 2010 American Choral Directors Association Conference. Living Faith is also involved in missions work. This year the group combined with the KHS Live drama troupe to minister to the people of Cuna Maya, Mexico. In the past, the group has traveled to Atlanta, Miami, the Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Japan, Korea, Honduras and Costa Rica.

Time to take a deep breath, grab your calendar and a pencil, roll up your sleeves and get to work – we’ve got a lot to cover here. (or if you really wanted, you could just download the PDF from the link at the bottom…)

American Camp Parade Ground – Click for larger image – NPS photo

Weekly Programs

Weekly programs scheduled below also are available on request. For more information, call 360-378-2240, ext. 2233, or go to www.nps.gov/sajh and click “contact” in left-hand column of our home page. You can also find us on Facebook.

Pig War Story Guided Walk — Park rangers and volunteers describe events leading up to and including the Pig War and the peaceful joint occupation of San Juan Island by English and American troops. Saturdays, 11 a.m. to noon, June 7 to August 30, American Camp.

Captain Delacombe’s English Camp Guided Walk – Join NPS Volunteer Paul Kitchen for this guided walk and learn how the Royal Marines lived during the 12-year joint occupation. Saturdays, 11a.m. to 12:30 p.m., June 7 to August 30, meets in the English Camp parking area.

Wildlife in the San Juan Islands — Puzzled by an animal or bird? Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Education Coordinator Shona Aitken answers questions and uses a variety of media to talk about wildlife in the San Juan Islands. 1 to 3 p.m., Thursdays, June 5 to August 28, English Camp barracks. Continue Reading

Lizzy (colored pencil), by Alaina Scheffer – Click for larger image

Senior Alaina Scheffer impressed judges at the 41th Annual OSPI Superintendent’s High School Art Show. Alaina’s two art pieces both won accolades, including Judge’s Choice Award and the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Choice Award after winning, overall, the Superintendent’s High School Art Show Competition. This is quite a feat when you consider that the judges are selecting the best work from all of the regional winners from the entire state.

Alaina’s submissions, along with artwork by Ellery Von Dassow, were originally selected to represent the Northwest ESD 189 region covering five different counties (16% Washington State’s K-12 public school students). These regional winners moved forward to compete against the State’s other eight districts regional winners. The art pieces submitted were Alaina’s Kerr(i) Economy (colored pencil), and Lizzy (color pencil) and Ellery’s Arrested (charcoal).

Arrested (Charcoal) by Ellery Von Dassow

Friday Harbor High School Art Instructor Andy Anderson said “This is a tremendous accomplishment to win the Washington States biggest student art competition. Alaina is the top winner in the state and I cannot think of a more deserving student. The last four years she has poured her time and talent into becoming one of the finest young artists in our state.”

Kerr(i) Economy (Colored pencil) by Alaina Scheffer

Click for larger poster

It’s a GRAND Canning Day At the Fair. Join certified WSU food preservation advisor Terri Brown on May 17 at 1:00 PM to learn how to preserve that summer crop!

What you will learn in the class:

• Rules and techniques for putting up a grand champion food preservation product for the fair
• The best and safest ways to preserve that summer crop
• Make a jar of counter top sauerkraut to take home with you.

May 17, 2014 from 1-4 p.m.

4-H building at the Fair Grounds

$20.00 per person, payable at the door
(to cover cost of materials)

Sponsored by Friday Harbor Grange #225. Call or email to reserve your spot:

Minnie Knych – 378-4662
Terri Brown  – 378-2876
terribrown [@] centurytel [.] net
Class is limited so reserve early!

The Land Bank is hosting guided wildflower and natural history walks on Cady Mountain Preserve this upcoming Mother’s Day weekend, Saturday May 10th and Sunday May 11th. There will be an “easier” and “more difficult” hike offered on both Saturday and Sunday, meeting in town to shuttle to the preserve at 2pm. Both walks will require ability to navigate uneven ground, rocks, stumps, and other objects as they will not be on developed trails, but will both have little elevation gain/loss.

The “easier” walk will be led by Shaun Hubbard, volunteer, neighbor of the preserve and co-coordinator of the volunteer Oak Team restoration group. It will be approximately .75 miles in length and will explore one of the larger Garry oak restoration zones with a broad diversity of plants and views.

The “more difficult” walks will be led by Land Bank staff members Eliza Habegger (Saturday) and Doug McCutchen (Sunday). This walk will visit a variety of habitats on the upper part of the preserve including five different Garry oak habitat restoration zones, Douglas fir forest, one of the headwaters of False Bay Creek, and wetlands in addition to views off the north and south sides of the mountain. Some light scrambling may be necessary on short sections of this approximate two mile walk.

RSVPs for the walk are required. Space is first-come, first serve and limited to twelve participants in each walk.

– SIMPHONIE –

• Elisabeth Wright, harpsichord (Bloomington, Indiana)
• Susie Napper, viola da gamba (Montreal)
• Jeffrey Cohan, baroque flute

Please come early! Coffee will be provided before the concert, and during a 15 minute discussion of the instruments and music with the artists at the beginning of the program.

1. Jean-Marie Leclair Trio Sonata, Opus 2, No. 8
2. François Couperin Second Concert from Concerts Royaux
3. Jean-Philippe Rameau Cinquième Concert from Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts (1741) for obbligato harpsichord with viola da gamba and flute
4. Jean-Henri D’Anglebert Harpsichord solos
5. Johann Sebastian Bach Trio Sonata for viola da gamba and flute, transcribed for this performance from Bach’s two versions for viola da gamba solo with obbligato harpsichord, and for two flutes and continuo.

Review Excerpts from our Salish Sea Early Music Festival program in February:
” …a world of tender and brilliant magic. …A music so refined, it draws and draws, yet never swamps the senses …virtuosity and technical brilliance … spell-binding … I couldn’t be quite sure I hadn’t dreamed it all.” (“Music in Victoria“, February 22, 2014)

San Juan Island Grange
152 1st Street, Friday Harbor – 378-6632
Saturday, May 3, 2014, 11:00 AM
The suggested donation (a free-will offering) is $15 or $20, and youth 18 and under are free.
www.salishseafestival.org

Additional performances for Simphonie in the San Juans:

• Orcas Island: Saturday evening, May 3, 2014 at 7:00 PM
  Orcas Adventist Fellowship Church
  107 Enchanted Forest Road in Eastsound · (360) 376-6683
• Lopez Island: Sunday afternoon, May 4, 2014 at 2:00 PM
  Grace Church
  70 Sunset Lane · (360) 468-3477

The 16th Annual Family Umbrella Group Luncheon will be held Friday, May 2, 2014 at the Mullis Community Senior Center.

This fun-filled event begins at 11:00 am with a silent auction and social hour. Enjoy a gourmet lunch provided by Tops’l and The Cask and Schooner and be entertained at the ever popular live auction. Both the silent and live auctions include many wonderful items graciously donated by community members and businesses.

98% of the proceeds from this yearly fundraiser go directly to a need-based scholarship fund for preschool aged children.

Trustees from the Family Umbrella Group will be selling tickets for $35.00 at FH Marketplace April 25th from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm. You can also stop by Mystical Mermaid (270 Spring Street) to purchase the tickets.

Since its inception, the Family Umbrella Group has awarded over 245 scholarships to children whose families would not have otherwise been able to afford tuition at a state licensed preschool. Over and over, early education studies have shown how important the preschool years are for the future success of children. Please visit www.familyumbrellagroup.org for additional information.