The Orcas Food Co-op, the San Juan Island Food Co-op and Orcas Power and Light Cooperative have joined forces to bring the National Co-op Month celebration to San Juan County.

During the month of October, they will be cooperatively offering family activities, co-op talks, film showings, goodies and a “gold star co-op member” checklist with prizes and a raffle drawing.

“We are celebrating all the perks of our local, independent and democratically-governed businesses such as voluntary and open membership, concern for community, sharing education and information and cooperation among cooperatives,” said co-op organizers. “Our co-ops improve our quality of life in San Juan County, and we want to appreciate and share the bounty with our members.”

Get the Gold Star Co-op Member checklist at the San Juan Island Food Co-op, or download from their websites.

The checklist includes five areas of co-op member engagement: join, voice, participate, inform and contribute.

Check off all five and return the checklist to your local co-op for an immediate prize.

Three raffle prize winners will be drawn from all completed checklists to win some great co-op prizes such as the board game “Co-opoly,” local foods gift baskets from our food co-ops and energy savings gizmos from OPALCO.

There are more than 29,000 cooperatives in the United States with more than 100 million members.

See the full calendar of events this month.

See more information at the San Juan Island Food Co-op.