A Place to Call Home

A Place to Call Home

This week is the Annual Point in Time Count (PIT) for Washington State. The goal is to count the number of folks living in substandard housing (meaning without access to plumbing, heating, and/ or other utilities), in vehicles, or outdoors altogether. The past two...
Read On!

Read On!

When I first started at OICF, I met with Bob Henigson. Bob had read about the Dolly Parton Imagination Library — a program that mails a book a month to children from birth to five years old. He wanted to see if that was possible to launch on Orcas. We looked into the...
Time for Reflection and Renewal

Time for Reflection and Renewal

  Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to reflect, renew, and recommit. I was a young child when Dr. King was murdered. We lived in Washington, D.C. I remember being so completely shocked and so saddened that someone would commit such a horrible act and...
And Away We Go

And Away We Go

Indian Island in the winter   2023 is off and running. High winds and high tides continue to keep us on our toes and our flashlights and candles on hand, just in case.  OICF continues negotiations in pursuit of the purchase of the Lavender Farm Property. We...
Our Cup (and Our Sound) Runneth Over…

Our Cup (and Our Sound) Runneth Over…

Crescent Beach crosses the road due to wind and the king tide   Happy (almost) New Year! The end of the year is always an exciting time at the Orcas Island Community Foundation and this year it is even more so. On top of all the year-end grants and contributions...
The Longest Night

The Longest Night

Improvisation when the power goes out   This week brought WEATHER to Orcas. A foot of snow, temperatures in the teens and below, a north wind that created massive drifts, and then a power outage to top it all off, making last night feel very much like the longest...