Blog
Welcome home!
There is plenty to celebrate this week as the first 10 households moved into April’s Grove. The plan is to have all 45 units filled by the end of November. Thank you to OPAL and all those who supported this effort. It could not have come at a better time. It feels...
School goes online and outside
Labor Day is just around the corner, marking the traditional start of a new school year. The Orcas Island School District is ready to launch, but this year will be like no other. After months of preparing a plan for in-person classes, the district received the...
Back to school online, outdoor programs need your matching donations
From the Orcas Island Education Foundation and the Orcas Island Community Foundation The new school year is just around the corner. Like so many aspects of our lives in the new COVID world, school will be different for our public school students. While having hoped to...
Rested and ready
Happy Friday! I returned after a restful and rejuvenating break. Hank and I enjoyed a week sailing around the San Juan’s and then a few days in Pt Townsend. Home now, trying to figure out what to do with all these cukes and zukes! Send recipes.... OICF received great...
Orcas Island CCC now accepting applications
With funding through OICF, the San Juan Islands Conservation District is excited to launch the Orcas Island Civilian Conservation Corps certificate program. This 10.5-month pilot program will begin in the fall of 2020 and could serve as a model countywide. This unique...
Step up and be counted
I saw two numbers that concerned me this week. One was that San Juan County has so far only had 37% of our community complete the census. That puts our County near the bottom of the list Statewide. We can do better! I did not have a census id number (apparently they...
Looking Ahead
New track at Orcas Island School District Even in these difficult days, the work of the community continues. Several of our nonprofits and elected boards are working on plans to help move us forward. It is so challenging to plan next steps when the baseline continues...
Update on Economic Resiliency
The Economic Resiliency project was launched to expand the conversation about how this community could learn and grow through this crisis. We held a multitude of virtual meetings over the last 10 days with over 200 participants who together generated a remarkable...
Join an Economic Recovery and Resiliency conversation
What ideas do you have for the Orcas Community to recover and move into the future? During the past four months, the San Juan County unemployment rate has grown to 38%, the Food Bank and the Senior Center nutrition program have seen the number of clients quadruple,...
ALL IN WA matches donations 100% through July 8
Due to our incredible partnership with All In Washington, all donations from now through July 8th to the Orcas Island Community Foundation Emergency Response Fund will be matched 100%. All In WA is statewide campaign working to address COVID recovery and racial equity...