San Juan Islands Healthcare Foundation raises funds for island seniors
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 8, 2025
By Marieke Danniau
Journal contributor
The San Juan Islands Healthcare Foundation was only founded in the spring of 2024, but it has already raised over $100,000 for senior care, and it is just getting started. The organization was founded by a number of people involved in island health care who recognized that island seniors were falling through the cracks when it came to care. Deputy Superintendent of San Juan County Public Hospital District No. 1 and founding member of the SJIHF, Evan Perollaz, explained, “It was heartbreaking to me the number of people that I met through the Village at the Harbor that just had nothing.” With a total population of around 18,600 people in San Juan County as of 2024, over 6,000 of those people are over 65. The Village at the Harbor, recently acquired by the Hospital District in 2022, is the only assisted living facility left on San Juan Island after the Life Care Center closed in 2017. It’s no secret that living on the islands is expensive. Without other options, if an individual ends up needing care, even for a short amount of time, and cannot afford or find it, they have to choose between looking off-island or not receiving any at all.
The foundation’s main goal is to create a fund for senior care, whether that care be building a ramp and making a house more accessible, providing hot water to a building which previously didn’t have it, or paying for medical expenses that would otherwise force an islander off-island. What’s important to them is that the money they raise be ready and actionable when a need arises in the community. “When you’re in crisis mode, it’s so difficult to plan anything because all the needs are really immediate. It takes time to get the ball rolling. And for us being able to just say, ‘Here’s the money right now, we’ve got you.’ That’s going to change people’s lives,” said Perollaz.
Living in such a tight-knit community like San Juan County means that being forced to leave due to financial difficulties is heartbreaking, especially because of the physical divide that defines and isolates the islands. “We did a survey in 2018 of the county as a hospital district and asked people what resources were important to them. And really, the number one message that came back to us was aging in place, support aging in place,” said Perollaz. Being able to cover immediate and critical costs by way of the foundation’s care fund not only solves that one problem a person might be facing, but it also goes a long way in support of their ability to age in place.
Along with its health care fund, a portion of the money the SJIHF raises goes to their “Life Wish Fund.” The foundation also aims to support the emotional needs of seniors on island and make this stage of their life rich and fulfilling. The SJIHF started their wish fund based on a story from a nursing home in Oregon, where the home started a program to fulfill the lifelong wishes of clients, one of which was to see a country star and another to go for a motorcycle ride. The wishes of the foundation’s clients are profoundly meaningful to the individuals and often simple and attainable if only they have the resources. Similar to a client of the nursing home, the foundation has helped one client go for a motorcycle ride, and is planning to help another client reunite with their brother after many years apart.
The SJIHF’s third and long-term goal is to assist in creating housing for health care workers. The foundation’s website, sjihf.org, states, “The initial project intends to provide 32 apartment units near Peace Island Medical Center.” And while it’s not the foundation’s main focus, Anna Lisa Lindstrum, board member of the hospital district and the SJIHF, said, “To create more housing for the people that take care of us is going to be more and more essential.”
The foundation recently celebrated its Wild West Roundup on Sept. 21, a western-themed fundraising gala held at Saltwater Farm. The event featured the Southfork Country Kickers, a mechanical bull and dinner served by PJ’s BBQ. With a stated 100,000-dollar goal, island business rallied behind the cause. With sponsors like Kings Market, Heritage Bank, Banner Bank and Browne’s Home Center, among others, the foundation’s goal was met. Individual community members also contributed significant amounts to the cause.
Further donations can be made through the foundation’s website sjihf.org. Contact information, events, lists of board members and SJIHF volunteers, and frequently asked questions are all available on their website as well.
Often, when an individual faces a hardship without a support system, islanders will come together to help, but sometimes it’s hard to know how to help or when. “The island is about rallying,” Perollaz said. “And the foundation is really a mechanism and a vehicle for us to expedite that process.”
