Chelan Taylor, a junior at Friday Harbor High School, is raising $13,000 to replace the fence around the horse arena at the San Juan County Fairgrounds. It’s a sacred mission of sorts. No mere arena, this is a field of dreams, where ambition and courage have been tested for generations, a place where memories have been made, where events have become part of the fabric of our history.
Friday Harbor junior Megan Cuomo won the 1A District Golf Championship, Thursday at North Bellingham. Her title win came one week after she won the league tournament at San Juan. She advances to the Tri-District Tournament May 18 at Eagles Pride in Tacoma. Also advancing to Tri-District: Senior Tyler McKee shot 89 to finish 10th. Junior Quinn Bune shot 94 to finish 15th. Junior Taylor Molloy shot a 97, his best score of the year, to fish 18th.
Rodney Wayne Shippee died around April 29 in Friday Harbor. He was 63.
Born Aug. 10, 1946 in Turlock, Calif. Graduated Turlock High School 1964, attended Modesto Junior College, U.S. Air Force veteran (16 months in Korea), graduated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 1974.
The Whale Museum, built in 1892, is undergoing some improvements. Insulation is being installed under the building (which is seasonally inhabitated by a large river otter). New energy efficient windows are being installed. And the building is being reroofed.
Paradise Lanes now has three 300 games in its record book. On Dec. 7, of course, Jim Cumming bowled the lane’s first 300 game in the second game of the night’s league play. It’s his first perfect game. In early February, Nate Smith bowled a non-league 300. (The game’s governing body, the United States Bowling Congress, records and awards a ring for 300 games bowled in sanctioned league play.) It’s Smith’s first perfect game. Then two weeks ago, lane manager Scott Olinger bowled a non-league perfect game. Olinger now has five league 300 games and four non-league 300 games to his credit.
Thank you, bowlers, for a successful winter season. For those of you not bowling Summer League, I’ll see you after Labor Day. Summer League starts May 17 — 6:15 meeting, 6:30 start. I still have a couple of individual openings.
As the weather warms up, you may find yourself on the ferry going to the mainland but as you get out of your car to go upstairs you are assaulted by a foul odor. Eeeyu, what is that smell? You look around and there is a big truck and trailer with only a canvas cover on the top. The smell is coming out of that truck. Several times a week, your rotting garbage goes on the road — close to 400 miles of a truck-to-train-to-truck journey to a landfill in Oregon operated by the Waste Management Corp. Every year, about 10,500 tons of garbage from San Juan Island goes to that site at a cost of $72 a ton.
Mrs. Perry J. Sandwith — also known as Mrs. Mildred Louise Sandwith — had a marvelous 95th birthday celebration at the Grange Hall on May 2, from 1-3 p.m. About 150 people attended, some from as far away as Roche Harbor and Bellingham. Lots of hometown families were there, including but not limited to Sandwith, King, Guard, Wilson, Lawson, Wade, Buchanan and Jordan.
“Anytime. Anywhere. We’ll be there” is the theme for the annual Emergency Services Week of May 16-20, proclaimed by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the San Juan County Council. EMS Week salutes the services provided every day, under often daunting circumstances, by the 40 EMTs and paramedics of San Juan Island EMS and their 750,000 colleagues nationwide.
On July 25, the Animal Protection Society — Friday Harbor will hold our sixth annual “Wags to Riches” fund-raiser to benefit the animal shelter. Again, “Wags to Riches” will take place at the spacious estate of Bob and Lissa McDowell on San Juan Island and we expect another sellout crowd of 250 attendees. A canine exhibition will provide entertainment, there will be live music and a delicious gourmet menu catered by one of the island’s top chefs. There will be a live auction with some fantastic items and wine service will be skillfully coordinated by shelter staff and volunteers. And new this year, there will dancing under the stars with a live dance band.
Should Gregoire be appointed, it would change the makeup of the 2012 race for governor. It would also contribute to the Evergreen State’s growing presence in the nation’s capital. Former Gov. Gary Locke is secretary of Commerce. Former King County Executive Ron Sims is deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the U.S. “drug czar.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates owns a home on Orcas Island.
Move over Julie Andrews, there’s a new Eliza in town! The San Juan Community Theatre’s production of “My Fair Lady” is hands down the most exciting and professional musical to be seen on the island in at least the past 10 years!
Rebecca Leff is headed back into the lions’ den for the second year in a row. The Friday Harbor sophomore secured a second-straight berth in the Tri-District tournament by dispatching the Wolves’ Lily Doyle 6-3, 6-1, May 8 at the District 1 playoffs in Coupeville.
