BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
August 31, 2017
There are lots of nonprofits competing for donations on Whidbey Island, but only Friends of Friends raises funds by crowning someone “Mr. South Whidbey.” At the annual pageant, fashion and talent might be entertaining, but it’s the man who raises the most money for Friends of Friends who wins.
The organization supports South Whidbey residents who have medically-related expenses they can’t afford to pay. This year, retired cardiologist David Welton is in the running. Welton has lived on Whidbey for 12 years, and you may know him as the talented and prolific photographer who has taken many photos for Whidbey Life Magazine.
Welton serves his community by taking photos and donating them to organizations such as the Whidbey Island Garden Tour, Clinton and Langley chambers of commerce, the South Whidbey Parks and Aquatics Foundation, Whidbey Island Nourishes, Hearts and Hammers, Goosefoot, and others. Organizations use the photos for promotion on their websites and in printed publications.
David Welton has stars in his eyes when he thinks about running for Mr. South Whidbey. (Photo by David Welton)
“Photography is the way I’ve chosen to give back,” Welton says. “I was pleased to be asked to run for Mr. South Whidbey and look forward to my continued involvement with the community for as long as I’m able.”
There are four ways to donate to Friends of Friends and cast votes for David Welton. Every dollar donated brings Welton one step closer to being crowned Mr. South Whidbey:
Have Welton take your photo. He will donate all proceeds from family portrait and event sessions, taken between now and October 7, to Friends of Friends. To book a photo session, call him at 360.579.1030.
Donate online by entering the amount of your donation under David Welton’s name here.
Make out a check to Friends of Friends Support Fund. Be sure to write “David Welton” in the memo field, and mail it to Friends of Friends, P.O. Box 812, Langley, WA, 98260.
Attend the October 7 Mr. South Whidbey Pageant at 7 p.m. at Freeland Hall and cast your vote for Welton in person. (Event tickets are $30.)
Welton is running along with Brook Willeford, Victor Ramos, Rod Stewart, Daniel Goldsmith, and Anthony Molinero. Regardless of whom you “vote” for with your dollars, you can take pleasure in knowing that your donation will help a neighbor in need pay for medical costs.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville libraries before retiring last year. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. Poss was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle!
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Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
August 17, 2017
The great American solar eclipse will cover our nation like a sash on a beauty queen on Aug. 21. The last time this phenomenon extended from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast was in 1918. Oregon is expecting an overload of visitors to view the eclipse in its totality, but on Whidbey Island, only 90 percent of the sun will be blocked by the moon. Nonetheless, it’s worth observing to see the sun’s corona, the part of the sun that Earthlings get to see only during solar eclipses. The celestial show begins at 9:08 a.m., will reach maximum darkness at 10:20 a.m., and ends at 11:38 a.m.
Roger Kennedy, a retired space scientist and NASA volunteer, talks about the need to safely view the eclipse, being mindful not to burn your retinas. With approved glasses, the sun looks like an orange ball, he says. Unsafe glasses show the sun as a white or green ball and shouldn’t be used. Kennedy and his wife Linda are touring Sno-Isle Library sites in Snohomish and Island counties and educating the public about the upcoming solar eclipse and the science of the sun. (You can view a schedule of eclipse-related programs hosted by Sno-Isle Libraries, here.) On Aug. 12, Kennedy spoke to a crowd of about one hundred who were gathered in Clinton at the invitation of the Freeland, Langley, and Clinton libraries.
Participants at a program hosted by the Freeland, Langley, and Clinton libraries practice wearing protective glasses. (Photo by David Welton)
“Here in Washington, you’ll see a black circle on the sun and a little edge of the sun, like a crescent moon, but it will be really bright,” Kennedy says. “It’s dangerous to look at with binoculars or through an unfiltered telescope. That’s where blinding comes in. As the moon moves further off, you get more sunshine. You can keep looking, but all of a sudden, you’ll see white dots, and within ten seconds, you’ll be permanently blinded. We want to tell people it’s safe to look, but be prepared.”
At Saturday’s event, Kennedy said the glasses can be worn over prescriptive lenses. He stressed the importance of wearing them when looking at all phases of the eclipse.
Freeland Library patron Lori Joyce looks forward to viewing the total eclipse in Madras, Oregon, where an estimated 2.5 million people are expected to see the day turn to night for about two minutes.
Retired scientist and NASA volunteer Roger Kennedy demonstrates wearing eclipse glasses over prescriptive lenses. (Photo by David Welton)
“I happened to see an astronomy magazine donated to the Freeland Library eight months ago, and the astronomy buffs sounded so excited,” Joyce said. “At that point, nobody in the general public was talking about it, so I did a little research. I had associated eclipses with the childhood experience of viewing a partial eclipse silhouette through a pinhole in a piece of cardboard—a very unimpressive experience. So, my enthusiasm is secondhand, and maybe astronomy buffs are overly impressed by these things, but I hope for great conditions in Madras, Oregon, unless wildfires create smoke. I hope to see a colorful corona and to be impressed by the experience of day turning to night. I think I also am prepared psychologically for a crazy, crowded environment!”
Science is one lens through which to view an eclipse, but there are others. Eclipses are associated with important shifts in history.
“Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse,” wrote Victor Hugo, author of “Les Miserables” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He said, “All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.”
A participant in the Sno-Isle library program improvises a sun visor and dons her eclipse glasses at the Clinton Progressive Hall. (Photo by David Welton)
Few could argue that our nation is undergoing shifts that sometimes feel like an eclipse. The upcoming national eclipse is “A call to bring out the shine within each of us,” says Gretchen Lawlor, an “experiential” astrologer who has practiced for more than 25 years and is well-known in certain island circles. “Eclipses have been recorded and studied since at least 1200 B.C., especially their influences over the fates of countries and their rulers.
“Astrology says we are part of this bigger thing, we’re not separate. We are not going to continue as we were. It means a radical reorganization; we have an opportunity to function from a heart-centered consciousness. You could say this holds a potential if millions of people are in conscious alignment.
This young man could see the next total solar eclipse in the United States, which will take place on August 12, 2045. (Photo by David Welton)
“In the moments of witnessing this eclipse, both as individuals and as a nation, we are being invited to let go of old stories, habits, or involvements that no longer serve us. It’s time to take up a fresh relationship with the light and the sun; to consciously reset the course of our lives. And to reclaim our own sovereignty—our right to govern ourselves.”
Wherever your beliefs lie, Kennedy says the upcoming light show “Could go down in history as the most-watched eclipse ever.” He estimates that about 236 million people have access to watching as it travels along its path. “We’re part of the NASA team in Madras and will be broadcasting on the NASA livestream channel,” he adds.
Roger Kennedy shows how to take a photo using eclipse glasses held over camera lens. (Photo by David Welton)
Eclipse events
Langley: There will be an eclipse party on Monday, August 21, at 10 a.m. along Cascade Avenue above the Langley Marina. Bring protective glasses (some will be available at the event).
Oak Harbor: The Oak Harbor library will be handing out eclipse glasses on Monday, Aug. 21, and will be running NASA’s livestream coverage all day. The Island County Astronomical Society will meet at the Oak Harbor Library at 6:30 that evening and may share some photos.
If you know of other eclipse events on Whidbey Island, please add them in the comments.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville libraries before retiring last year. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. Poss was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle!
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
July 19, 2017
Like classic cars, two-cylinder John Deere tractors hold their appeal, and men with farming blood running through their veins, such as Bob Engle, collect them. Engle’s family farm on Fort Casey Road dates back to the 1850s, when his ancestors arrived to claim land as part of the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act.
The tractor that inspired this story: a vintage 1947 John Deere for sale on Maxwelton Road. (Photo by David Welton)
The Cascade Two-Cylinder Club (C2CC) approached Engle and asked him to hold a rally at his family farm. The club serves nearly 200 members throughout the northern part of the state, including Lynden, Sedro Woolley, Anacortes, Bow, and Whidbey Island. The nonprofit club, formed in 1993, is made up of collectors who restore and preserve antique John Deere farm equipment and who gather throughout the year for parades, plow days, festivals, and tractor pulls.
C2CC is named for its dedication to preserving the legacy of two-cylinder John Deere tractors, which were built until 1960. Paul Hieb, president of C2CC, says it was the club’s first visit to Whidbey Island. He trailered his 425 Hi-Crop from his farm outside Sedro Woolley, where he still grows potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli.
Nearly two dozen members of the Cascade Two-Cylinder Club (from as far away as Lynden) towed their antique tractors on trailers and flatbeds to the Engle family farm in Coupeville. (Photo by David Welton)
“Every year, we go somewhere,” he says. “We’ve gone to Lopez Island several years in a row … had to get on the ferry. I restore my own tractors. I still have a farm and use some of my John Deeres. It’s a great hobby.”
John Deere, a blacksmith, revolutionized the Midwestern farming world in 1837 by using a broken saw blade to create a self-scouring steel plow that the heavy clay soil of the prairie wouldn’t stick to. He went into production, and the company has since grown to become an international manufacturer of equipment used in agriculture, construction, forestry, and landscaping.
Standing tall in the seat of his antique John Deere tractor, a C2CC member heads slowly through Ebey’s Prairie. (Photo by David Welton)
Between the late 1920s to 1960, the John Deere company built more than 1.25 million two-cylinder tractors that were sized for the needs of small family farms. Then the industrializing of agriculture called for larger equipment, and two-cylinder tractors gave way to four-, six-, and eight-cylinder tractors, as well as turbo-powered machines.
C2CC member Aldon Boon owns two two-cylinder John Deeres and co-owns a third with his son Zach who owns another on his own. The Boon family ran a dairy and chicken farm in Oak Harbor for years until they sold the property in 1999. Like Bob Engle, Aldon Boon never got tractors out of his blood.
Between them, Zach (front) and Aldon Boon own four John Deere tractors. (Photo by David Welton)
“When we were married in 1979, we milked 300 cows a day,” says Corinne Boon, who married Aldon right after high school. For Aldon’s 50th birthday, she bought him a 1940 John Deere tractor, which he restored to pristine condition. Now, living in the suburbs of Oak Harbor, Aldon, who works for the City of Oak Harbor, keeps his pristine collection housed in sheds and takes them out for club events.
Zach Boon drove one of the tractors as part of the parade, towing an antique wagon on which his wife Miranda and baby daughter Anabeth sat. Corinne rode in the wagon, too, with her good friend Amy Hauser and their pair of smooth collie dogs, who lifted their noses at the scents that rolled by. Along the way, visitors stood on the side of the road and waved at the spectacle.
Miranda and Anabeth Boon ride in an antique John Deere trailer pulled by Zach Boon. Even pacifiers are green and yellow to celebrate the occasion. (Photo by David Welton)
Corinne says that another of their four sons works on a large-scale dairy farm in Arizona, which milks 10,000 cows daily. Ironic, she mused, that big operations, such as the one where her son works, are the ones that put the family farms owned by her parents and the Boons out of business.
Loren Dahl, C2CC vice president, reminisced about the simpler days of easy-to-fix two-cylinder tractors, which he used when he farmed for years in the Skagit Valley raising beef cattle and growing hay. He pulled out his phone and proudly showed photos of old potato harvesters he collected that looked like pole diggers. Then he scrolled to a photo of a red monster machine that his son drives to harvest potatoes all at once and shook his head at how times are changing.
Club vice-president Loren Dahl has one vintage tractor for each of his five acres. (Photo by David Welton)
He jokes that he now has five tractors for his five acres in Bow, but the truth is, he enjoys tinkering with and polishing the old gals. Dahl talked with photographer David Welton, who had recently lusted after a 1947 John Deere Model M, parked beside a barn near the Maxwelton Slough. Welton fantasized about restoring the tractor, which was listed for sale at $1,400. But Dahl warned him that restoration costs would be expensive: “Most people think they will economize by doing the job themselves, but they always learn that it’s easier and cheaper in the long run just to buy the finished product.”
Heib weighed in on the conversation, saying he buys old junker tractors and scavenges their parts to keep his collection of beauties up and running.
Bob Engle, a member of the Cascade Two-Cylinder Club, tows a vintage John Deere people mover owned by Dale Sherman in the club’s parade in early July. (Photo by David Welton)
After club members drove their tractors in a parade around the Ebey’s Landing Historic Reserve, they gathered for lunch and talked good-naturedly while balancing their paper plates piled high with ham, baked beans, and potato salad. Then they headed out for another tour, this time to the Sunnyside Cemetery, which would have delighted many of the old farmers buried there who once used tractors just like them to till the prairie.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville libraries before retiring last year. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. Poss was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle!
Nearly two-dozen antique John Deere tractors paraded through Ebey’s Landing Historical Reserve on a fine July day. (Photo by David Welton)
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
July 12, 2017
Start the day with a cup of coffee and drewslist, and it could turn out much different than you expected. You might find an event or class you want to attend, snag a replacement for a lawnmower that just died, score a deal on a used car, get a new job, or find your lost cat.
Drew Kampion launched the eponymous service in 2009 with a little more than 150 names. Today, drewslist is delivered via email six days a week to more than 6,750 subscribers and has knitted together a uniquely tailored community. It’s the resource that realtors recommend their clients subscribe to as soon as they move to South Whidbey.
Drew Kampion with some of the books he’s written. (Photo by David Welton)
Those who sell items are asked to donate five or ten percent of the amount they receive, but it’s an honor system, and some folks are “honorably dishonorable,” says Kampion. Even though some don’t pay their way, Kampion’s perspective remains upbeat, as noted at the end of each of his messages: “Life is a wave. Your attitude is your surfboard. Stay stoked & aim for the light!”
A former editor of surfing, windsurfing, and New Age magazines, author of eight books (with more in the works), and former publisher and founder of the Island Independent newspaper, Kampion has worked in journalism and publishing for nearly 50 years. These days, he works six days a week in partnership with his son Alex, who lives in Finland.
Drew Kampion in 1968 as editor of Surfer Magazine. (Photo courtesy of Drew Kampion)
“There are very few people on this island that compare to Drew,” says Jerry Millhon, co-creator of Thriving Communities. “His unique perspective is sublimely integrated within drewslist. The man is still surfing, still looking for the big one to ride, and taking us with him. He is a bright light of connectivity on Whidbey Island.”
Surfing shaped Kampion’s life from the time he was a teen. While he doesn’t surf as much as he would like to these days, he joined in a memorial paddle in Santa Cruz on July 8 for legendary surfer Jack O’Neill, who died at the age of 94 last month. Kampion’s 2011 book “Jack O’Neill: It’s Always Summer on the Inside,” documents the life of one of the world’s most renowned surfers, one credited with creating the wetsuit and expanding surfing internationally.
Kampion at Cotton’s Point circa 1968. (Photo courtesy of Drew Kampion)
Another significant voice in the surfing world was publisher John Severson, a friend and mentor of Kampion’s, who founded Surfer Magazine in 1960. Kampion started as an associate editor in 1968 and was promoted to editor after three weeks. Severson’s home in San Clemente was next door to some fine surfing at Cotton’s Point, Kampion recalls. Unfortunately, the sweet days of catching waves were complicated when Richard Nixon moved in next door with his security posse.
Kampion was born in 1944 and grew up in Buffalo, New York, far from the surfing scene. His dad found work with Lockheed and moved to California, where the family lived in Burbank for a while. Kampion was “anti-surfer” until he started dating a girl who liked the sport, which led to his buying his own Dave Sweet surfboard (Sweet is credited with pioneering polyurethane surfboards, which helped revolutionize the sport and culture in the late 1950s).
“I rode my first wave in Malibu in ’62,” Kampion recalls, saying the guy who sold him the surfboard taught him to how to look at the ocean and its waves, its rhythm, and its sets. “It was an honor to get pushed off the board by surfing gods like Miki Dora.”
Kampion’s work in surf publishing took him on beats covering surfing championships in Australia and Hawaii. He married in 1978, and he and his wife Susan had two children, Alex and Alana, who began their education in Waldorf schools in Southern California. In the early nineties, he and his family moved to Whidbey and became involved in the Whidbey Island Waldorf School community.
Kampion interviewing Robby Naish, the greatest windsurfer of all time, circa 1985 (Photo courtesy of Drew Kampion)
While riding the Ferris wheel at the county fair that first summer of ‘91, Kampion viewed Camano Island and learned it was the other significant part of Island County. He was struck with the notion of creating a newspaper that connected local island communities. The fortnightly Island Independent was born and served Whatcom, Skagit, and Island counties, Anacortes, the San Juans, and Port Townsend. One of the paper’s regular contributors was Jim Freeman, who is known as “the conductor of fun,” and an emcee of poetry slams.
Freeman said it was Don Zontine, one of the early founders of the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, who networked the cast and crew of the Island Independent together when it began. “Don knew all the locals,” Freeman says. “Drew, Chris Crotty, G. Armour Van Horn, Chris Adams, Lorinda Kay, and I were in there.”
The Island Independent was first published on April Fools’ Day in 1993 and ended its run on the last day of March in 1996 – three years to the second. “Computers were younger then, and there were issues,” says Kampion. “Our intrepid ad man and business manager, Chris Adams, suffered a series of hard-drive wipeouts that simply took the wind out of our sales. We were doing well, otherwise, until an attempt to go from a free to a $1-a-month publication failed. A buck, it seems, was just too high a price to pay.”
The creation of the Island Independent was inspired by a ride on the Ferris wheel at the county fair. (Photo by David Welton)
Elliott Menashe, who promotes working with nature by saving old-growth forests and using natural shoreline buffers, says, “He teaches by example. He inspires. Drew has a far-reaching feeling for phenomena and a childlike sense of wonderment. His curiosity is boundless. Drew is without pretension or artifice and has an utterly unique ‘elationship’ with the universe. He actually likes people.”
One of the criticisms of drewslist is that it’s overwhelming: Up to thirteen email messages could land in your inbox around 4 a.m. each morning, with subjects such as “For sale, wanted, and free,” “Art, artists, and galleries,” and “Boats, kayaks, and other hulls.”
To the often-voiced refrain that there are more categories than an individual may want to read, Kampion says, “I run all the listings because there is a synergizing effect of the email. I don’t want to lose the (community’s) incentive to participate. People will see what they want to see.” Kampion adds that a long-neglected web page exists and invites a volunteer webmaster to step in and update it.
Drewslist is a ‘reboot’ of the Island Independent, Kampion says. “As the website develops further, it will allow us to truncate the daily emails, which should be far less irritating to fraught islanders.” Ever since the paper folded, he has looked for ways to revive its spirit, and drewslist is the closest he’s come to replicating it.
“All I know is that Drew has been in the forefront of creating community on Whidbey for years,” says Kampion’s long-time friend and hometown hero Nancy Waddell. “I still have my “Island Independent” t-shirt and loved the paper; now drewslist brings us together in so many different ways. It’s the go-to place to find almost anything here! He had an idea and brought it to life.”
Christine Tasseff, owner of Roots Landscaping, says, “It has been my great fortune to have Drew as a central player in my human family. He is brother, father, and friend, and fills each of these with infinite generosity of spirit. Drew is a weaver, binding threads of heart and culture and humanity in all he does. He works to connect us, unite us, and always to wake us up!”
To subscribe to drewslist, email drewslist@whidbey.com and ask to be added. To learn more about Kampion and his world, visit his website.
Drew signs off each email message with “Life is a wave. Your attitude is your surfboard. Stay stoked & aim for the light.” (Photo by David Welton)
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville libraries before retiring last year. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. Poss was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey, Island where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle!
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
June 28, 2017
There are only 322 drive-in movie theaters left in the United States, and fortunately for Whidbey Island, one of them is south of Oak Harbor. The Blue Fox Drive-In opened in 1959 and, since the eighties, it has offered the latest movie releases, a video game arcade, go-karts, and good movie food, including pizza, nachos, hot dogs, candy, and popcorn.
At their peak in the ‘40s and ‘50s, there were 3,775 drive-in theaters in the U.S., but then the numbers started to decline. The Blue Fox Drive-In continues to thrive, thanks to community-minded owners Darrell and Lori Bratt, who maintain a family-friendly atmosphere and have diversified in a way that sustains them during the off-season.
The box office opens at 4 p.m. The lot fills up on weekends, so get there early to get the best parking. (Photo by Kate Poss)
“They bought it in ’88, and they’re the ones who put in the arcade, built the track, and made it more family-friendly,” says Kelsey Bratt, daughter-in-law of the Bratts. Kelsey helps with publicity and social media, along with the many other tasks that are required to run a movie theater and party venue seven days a week during the summer. “Back then, kids would come out and drink and get rowdy. The Bratts put a kibosh on that. They made it more family-oriented. We keep our prices low and offer lots to do. As far as rowdy partiers, we have signs posted ‘No alcohol or drugs.’ People realize that it’s for families.”
Elizabeth Saenz, a central Islander with three children, says she and her husband find the Blue Fox Drive-In a way to get out and have quality family time. “It’s the only way my family of five can afford to go see a new movie together,” Saenz says. “We have great family memories there. Love the curly fries and nachos!”
After you’ve found your parking spot, you can enjoy the go-karts and arcade, and play Frisbee or catch in front of the screen. (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Drive-In)
During the longest days of summer, features start at dusk, and if it’s a triple feature, you might find yourself staying until 5 a.m. the next morning
“Right now, movies start at 9:40 p.m.,” Bratt says. “June 21 is the solstice and after that, we will start the movies earlier as the nights get longer. We’ll be running a couple triple features because of how the movies fall. We want the new releases and want to get the crowds.”
Waiting for the show to begin. During long summer days, double and triple features start at about 9:40 p.m. (photo by Kate Poss)
The Blue Fox Drive-In is fortunate to attract first-run films, which bring the crowds, Bratt explains. “We get first-run movies because we have such a good following. We’re up there with the averages (required by distributors). We can get 390-430 cars in a night, depending on how well we manage the lot when they are coming in.”
On a mid-May night, my friend and I drove in to see a double feature: “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” and “Beauty and the Beast,” two films that had been recently released. The lot was full. Most cars and trucks parked with their back end facing the screen on a raised berm. Families opened the hatchback and cuddled in sleeping bags while munching popcorn.
The snack bar offers movie munchies and fresh pizza. (Photo by Kate Poss)
Inside the snack bar, we bought fresh buttery popcorn and were caught up in the friendliness and good energy of the employees. The pizza looked delicious, and those who ordered one received pizza-shaped pagers that buzzed when their pizza was ready.
“We make our own pizza dough and use a family recipe for the sauce,” Bratt says. “We grate two different types of cheese, cut our own veggies.”
The show begins at dusk. (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Drive-In)
Outside the snack bar, apparel with the Blue-Fox logo is for sale. The Bratt family runs a print shop on the premises that does screen printing, banners, and embroidered logos for the community. “The print business keeps us alive during the winter,” Bratt says, adding that the drive-in is open Friday through Sunday from fall to mid-June.
To find out what’s playing now, visit the Blue Fox Drive-In website. Bring blankets and pillows, open the hatch, enjoy a double feature, and expect to head home past midnight.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville Libraries before retiring last year. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with her friend Fred Bixby.
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
June, 14, 2017
Which do you think is a better way to teach kids about music: having them listen to an orchestra concert or giving them an opportunity to performwith an orchestra? The folks at Carnegie Hall believe that giving kids an opportunity to play with professional-caliber musicians is so important that they created the “Link Up” program, and more than a thousand Whidbey Island third- through fifth-graders participated this year.
Larry Heidel takes a break from playing trombone at the Orchestra Rocks concert. (Photo by David Welton)
A few hard-working members of the Saratoga Orchestra brought the Link Up program to island schools. Larry Heidel, who plays trombone with the orchestra and is executive director of its board, became enamored with the program when he and his colleagues learned about its benefits four years ago. Since then, he and the orchestra’s board of directors have set about raising funds to buy recorders and get the program set up island-wide.
“We’re lucky to have a community that stepped up to help purchase recorders for the kids,” Heidel says. “Grants from the South Whidbey School Foundation, Island Thrift, and the Tulalip Tribes Charitable Funds also helped fund the recorder purchase and enabled us to produce two concerts for the students.”
Magnus Christensen, Emmet Racicot, and Grady Davis learn recorder through Carnegie Hall’s Link Up curriculum. (Photo by David Welton)
Heidel adds, “We had to get buy-in from the schools and music teachers last fall and brought everyone together for a professional development workshop. We trained the music teachers on the material, including those from South Whidbey and Oak Harbor. We are only one of 90 participating orchestras who were selected to use this curriculum worldwide. It’s not meant to replace the existing music teacher’s program but enhance it. This year we did ‘The Orchestra Rocks,’ one of four programs offered by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.”
Island students learned that rhythm is a universal element of music. They learned what timing is, how to create patterns of sound, and how important silence is. The program is organized in a way enables students to fully engage regardless of their skill level.
The Orchestra Rocks repertoire culminated in two performances last month. Performing in Oak Harbor and South Whidbey, the Saratoga Orchestra played to a full house of elementary school students who sang and played recorders with the orchestra during the Link Up theme song, “Come to Play,” and three other classical orchestra pieces.
Caleb Hunt tunes in to playing the recorder. (Photo by David Welton)
Anna Edwards, a conductor of the Saratoga Orchestra, introduced students to the strings, wind, brass, and percussion sections. Locals Karl Olsen (music minister at Trinity Lutheran Church), Eva Nelson (who starred and sang in “Into the Woods,” a performance at the Whidbey Playhouse earlier this year), and Mara Bush (a South Whidbey High School senior who took a first-place award in clarinet at a regional ensemble last February) acted as emcees and good-natured performers for songs such as Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus” from “Il Trovatore” and “Mars, the Bringer of War” from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst.
“Listen closely to how Holst uses repeating rhythms and find the patterns of music,” Olsen explained. During the performance of “Mars,” students viewed projections of their own planet-inspired art on a screen behind the orchestra.
Chris Harshman teaches band at South Whidbey High School and believes in the power of music. The bassoon player has taught thousands of students over the years, and his jazz bands have won national awards.
“The Link Up program is an exceptional opportunity for students to experience the performance of classical music as musicians in a professional orchestra,” Harshman says. “I enjoyed our students’ enthusiasm and excitement at the performance, and their pride of being a part of such great music-making. Most of all, I loved performing with these wonderful students. Music is at its best when it serves the community, and this was a very sweet collaboration of children and adults coming together in a joint effort to make great music. Bravo to our next generation of musicians!”
1. Vern Olsen leads Calyx School students on the recorder. (Photo by David Welton)
Students from the Calyx School also participated in the program and attended the May concert.
“The Link Up program was a welcome surprise addition to our nature- and arts-based curriculum this spring,” says Lisa Kois, creator of the school. “I was excited by what I read about the Carnegie Hall program, the opportunity for our kids to begin to learn an instrument, and to have a hands-on classical music experience with the Saratoga Orchestra. How cool is that? Learn to play the recorder and then go watch, learn from, and play with a professional orchestra. The entire experience was so positive for everyone, and the culminating concert was amazing. Our kids were very inspired. At the end of the concert, one of the students sitting next to me turned and asked, ‘Do we get to do this again next year?’ Another student dreamily walked up to me and reported, ‘I am all about music.’”
Rose McCord, background, and Sandra Lund Olsen practice recorders at Calyx School. (Photo by David Welton)
Frances Kenney teaches music at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School and plays oboe in the Saratoga Chamber Orchestra. She found that teaching the Link Up curriculum raised her students’ awareness for music.
“The materials from Carnegie Hall are well chosen and presented in an age-appropriate way,” Kenney says. “My students enjoyed the drama of ‘O Fortuna’ and especially enjoyed learning about the piece ‘Mars.’ I am so grateful to the Saratoga Orchestra for giving my students an opportunity right next door to see a professional live orchestra. There is nothing else that can come close to this experience, and I am sure it was inspiring to many budding musicians in the audience.”
Anna Edwards, a conductor with the Saratoga Orchestra, takes a bow following the Orchestra Rocks concert. (Photo by David Welton)
Holly Brown, music specialist at Broad View Elementary School in Oak Harbor says Link Up was enriching for both her students and herself.
“The students were exposed to classical music (some of which they would never have had the chance to hear/study) through the Orchestra Rocks curriculum, and were provided with engaging and fun composition activities, worksheets, and performance rubrics that went along with each song they performed,” says Brown.
Students gather at South Whidbey High School to participate in the Orchestra Rocks classical music concert. (Photo by David Welton)
Does Link Up make a difference in student interest in music?
“I believe it does,” Brown says. “Students were definitely excited to come to class to work on the Link Up music and learn about instruments and composers. Many students went above and beyond, practiced the music at home, and transferred it to other instruments they had at their house. One student said, ‘Mrs. Brown, I learned how to play (Orchestra Rocks songs) on the piano. Want to hear it?’ During this time, students also became more aware of the music that is used in movies, commercials, TV, and the radio, and were able to classify genres and reported back about what they sounded like. After performing with the orchestra and hearing the orchestra live, students definitely gained an appreciation and interest in classical music and were inspired to learn an orchestra or band instrument in fifth grade. This was an amazing opportunity for all involved, and I hope this program will continue in the Oak Harbor School District for many more years!”
Heidel says he was happy to be part of a program that brings music into children’s lives. “Music can be a lifelong experience, and I’d like to impress this fact on every student, whether they play an instrument, sing, or just become an educated listener.”
Kate Poss enjoyed her work as a library assistant at the Langley and Coupeville Libraries before retiring. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle!
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
June 7, 2017
Three women who dreamed of seeing their own plays performed on stage one day will see that dream come true as actors bring their stories to life during the third annual One-Act Fest Northwest at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, which takes place June 9-24. The work of playwrights Aleah Stacey, Dianna MacLeod, and Teresa McElhinny embrace the festival’s theme, which is “Off-Kilter.”
Aleah Stacey
“We need to stop being so afraid of sex and see more storylines reflecting women’s sexuality in a healthy way,” says Aleah Stacey, who wrote the play “The Oyster” and is directing for the first time. “I believe in romance. It’s interesting when it’s unconventional.”
Aleah Stacey wrote and directs “The Oyster.” (Photo courtesy of WICA)
Unconventional and off-kilter describe “The Oyster,” in which we meet a middle-aged woman dressed to the nines in the late 1950s. She connects with a prostitute as they exchange meaningful eye contact at an upscale brothel.
“There’s a level of comfort in this story with sexual undertones,” Stacey says. “You know when intimacy is real. Touching someone’s arm can be more romantic than sex scenes. I say (to my actors) ‘Stop acting.’ They end up speaking with flow. It’s most important to me that the audience feels the realness of emotion.”
“The Oyster” is a love story between two women. “I wrote the part for an older woman, a 62-year-old actress is playing the part,” says Stacey.” I think that generation is under-represented. Older women are beautiful, and you don’t have to be young to be gorgeous. I often don’t identify with actors my own age, but with older characters.”
Seasoned WICA director Shelley Hartle is mentoring Stacey, who is 20.
As a teen, Stacey found that she liked acting and was impressed by the spirit of collaboration between actors and directors at WICA and at the Island Shakespeare Festival. From her earlier theater experience, she learned how to talk to actors and is channeling that skill into directing with Hartle’s guidance.
“Shelley sometimes steps in to help,” Stacey says. “She’s respecting my coming into my own. This play is a good balance of us working together. It’s a lesson in self-confidence.”
Dianna MacLeod
“When a narcissistic orange cat meets a determined cleaning lady who refuses to sweep dirt under the rug, the claws come out, and the fur flies,” is how Dianna MacLeod describes her one-act play, which she wrote last October.
Dianna MacLeod wrote “An Interview with Krump’s Cat.” (Photo by Michael Stadler)
One of nine “Off-Kilter” plays presented during the one-act festival, MacLeod says her tale is about journalism and President Trump; about the fate of journalism in the current climate.
“The play has humorous moments, as you might expect in a play about a talking cat, but it also has a point,” MacLeod says. “It’s important for artists and writers, no matter their political leanings, to hold a lens up to the moment and try to put that moment in context, to link it to moments that have gone before.”
MacLeod said she was a news junkie prior to the November 2016 presidential election and had to do something with the energy that built up.
“We cannot afford to be cynical,” MacLeod says. “Cynicism leads to apathy. Apathy leads to half our country failing to show up for our most recent presidential election. These non-voters, these non-participants, have led us to this moment as surely as those who were passionate about the outcome. The fewer who participate in selecting our government, the less representative our government will be. Yet, we all have to live with the consequences.”
Enjoy “The Oyster” and “An Interview with Krump’s Cat” on June 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m. Each show will be followed by an opportunity to ask questions of the writers and directors. You can find more information on the WICA website.
Teresa McElhinny
Teresa McElhinny’s “Schools of Thought” ponders our purpose in life and how it evolves over a lifetime.
McElhinny adapted the story from one that was originally written by Jim Freeman for the “Whidbey Weekly.” Freeman is known as a “conductor of fun,” columnist, and emcee of events such as Bayview Corner’s annual Mutt Strut.
Teresa McElhinny turned Jim Freeman’s column, “Schools of Thought” into a play (Photo by Jim Carroll)
“One minute you’re a senior citizen taking a philosophy class at a local community college on South Whidbey,” McElhinny says, describing the play, which she also directs. “The next minute, you find yourself in the afterlife, swimming around in a giant aquarium. Because you are now a fish. And you are told by an angel fish that you have twenty minutes to discover which of seven schools of thought you wish to swim with for all eternity.”
Working with 14 actors over the course of six, four-hour workshops, McElhinny used improv and reader’s theater techniques to present the play. (Reader’s theater involves actors reading an adapted script, requiring no memorization of lines.)
“With this show, I wish to honor the combined wisdom of all the ‘life-experienced’ individuals whose diversity of philosophies and thought process have so enriched my own,” McElhinny says. “I hope this play causes us all to think about why we might choose to behave the way we do.”
Enjoy “Schools of Thought” on June 14 and June 21 at 2 p.m. in Zech Hall. You can find more information on the WICA website.
In the following video, Teresa McElhinny discusses “Schools of Thought” with Jim Freeman.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley Library until last June, when she retired. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with her friend Fred Bixby.
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Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
May 17, 2017
Although Hearts and Hammers is an event organized for Whidbey Islanders by Whidbey Islanders, this year’s event attracted volunteers from off the island.
Ahren Bader Jarvis drove up from downtown Seattle with his girlfriend Mary Pat Murphy to volunteer for the day. Hearts and Hammers helped him when he was a boy, living on Whidbey Island with his brother and single mom years ago. “Hearts and Hammers came to our house and helped us,” he says. “Now it comes full circle.”
Ahren Bader Jarvis and his girlfriend came from Seattle to volunteer. His mom received help from Hearts and Hammers when he was a boy, and he wanted to give back. (Photo by David Welton)
Seattle resident Beryl Fernandes learned about Hearts and Hammers last February, after attending a Thriving Communities conference at the Whidbey Institute. “I’m originally from Zanzibar, and we had this kind of community, which I miss living in Seattle,” she says. “I would love to see this model replicated.”
Hearts and Hammers began as a simple notion. Noticing that some women of her church needed help with house repair and gardening, Lynn Willeford, a self-described “serial starter-upper,” organized people to gather and help their neighbors. With initial sponsorship by the Langley United Methodist Church, Hearts and Hammers began as a pilot program in 1994 to help repair and rehabilitate homes for those who were either unable or couldn’t afford to do the work alone. The group is now a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of time or trouble to make someone happy,” Willeford says.
Organized like a military unit, including military titles, this year’s event was headed by a new “general,” Matthew Swett, who runs Taproot Architects.
“We share the load — that’s the benefit of a team,” Swett said at the morning breakfast where volunteers gathered with their captains in the cafeteria of South Whidbey High School. A crowd of about 330 gathered to help out at 35 homes.
Sarah Birger, Hearts and Hammers president Baz Stevens, and Birger’s husband, “general” Matthew Swett, enjoy a moment before everyone heads out. (Photo by David Welton)
Joining the army of volunteers was Helen Price Johnson, an Island County commissioner. “We’ll be doing siding on a house,” she said. “I’ve been doing this every year. It helps to have a contractor (Dave Johnson) as a husband. This is a tremendous event.”
By 8:15 a.m., participants gathered outside for a group photo by David Welton before heading off to their assignments. Welton has photographed Hearts and Hammers for the past five years and now leads a team of photographers who help him document the day.
About 330 volunteers helped with home repair and gardening for the 24th annual Hearts and Hammers work day. (Photo by David Welton)
“By the time I get there, residents are so in love with their crew,” Welton says, describing the alchemy between those who give and those who receive. “The community is like a quilt involving different personalities stitched together by love and respect.”
I joined Welton for the day, which was filled with meeting people who volunteered their time and those who received much-needed help.
Mary and Clarence Conkey
Our first stop was in Freeland to meet Mary and Clarence Conkey, a couple that has been married 60 years. Their garden reflected Clarence’s artwork with handmade stepping stones, birdhouses, and whimsical mermaids. Mary is 87, Clarence is 92, and Mary says she doesn’t want Clarence up on ladders to trim the trees and bushes anymore. So a crew from Hearts and Hammers comes to the Conkey’s half-acre property, which overlooks Holmes Harbor, equipped with pruners and clippers.
“We love these people,” says Claudia Cox, team captain for the Conkey’s garden. “We’ve been coming here for four years.”
Mary Conkey leads a Hearts and Hammers volunteer over hand-made stepping stones made by her husband Clarence. (Photo by David Welton)
Margaret Schultz
Next was a visit to a log cabin in Freeland. Hearts and Hammers volunteers planned to make structural repairs for Margaret Schultz, a retired Metro bus driver from Seattle.
“What we’re doing here is repairing the second story deck, replacing joists,” said team captain Dave King, who was overseeing a team of eight volunteers. “Inside we’re strengthening the upstairs railing and installing a grab bar in the bathroom.”
Schultz says it’s hard for her to get around these days. Though she has new hips and knees, which work fine, her foot doesn’t work so well.
“A neighbor told me about Hearts and Hammers,” she said, while sitting downstairs with her feisty black cat Riley. “I’ve volunteered in the past and wound up needing help.”
Don Boram and Declan King help repair Margaret Schultz’s log cabin home. (Photo by David Welton)
Wood Chucks
Our next stop was a quick visit to the “Woodchucks,” at Mary Jane and Kevin Lungren’s home overlooking Holmes Harbor.
“We do wood chucking every year at Kevin’s,” says Harriet O’Neal, who has volunteered the past 10 years for this post. They’ll deliver split wood to eight neighbors who need wood to heat their homes during this cool and wet spring season. The wood ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church donates much of the wood.
John Welsch is one of the hard-working woodchucks who helped load pickups for delivery of firewood. (Photo by David Welton)
Gayle Six and Gary Dronen
At the home of Gayle Six and her brother Gary Dronen, a Hearts and Hammers team planned to install a ramp using a railing salvaged from home repairs in the past. Dronen suffered a heart attack last October and needs assistance getting around.
“We thought having a ramp would make it easier for Gary to get in and out,” says Six, her dog Bandit at her feet. “My daughter has MS and uses a walker. Hearts and Hammers is doing a great job. Last year, they put in railings for our stairs and in the bathroom.”
Bandit inspects the work while his owner Gayle says how much she appreciates Hearts and Hammers. (Photo by David Welton)
Leonard and Linda Good
Our next stop was Leonard and Linda Good’s hand-built home. Linda is a renowned strings teacher to hundreds of island students. Leonard, a retired and beloved science teacher, resisted getting help in repairing a leaky roof until his friends persuaded him to let Hearts and Hammers help.
“I asked the roofer to give Hearts and Hammers a slight break in the cost,” said Larry Rohan, “colonel” for the Good’s reparation team. “He said he’ll do it for free. That’s unheard of. It’s like me (a builder) giving someone free kitchen cabinets. This (Hearts and Hammers) is the best thing! I’ve been doing it for 20 years.”
While Bill Taylor, of Freeland’s AB Custom Roofing, and his crew were busy tearing off old roofing material, Leonard sat on the bed of a pickup truck to rest. “We needed a roof — our utility room rug was soaking wet, and there were two rotten places on the roof,” he said. “I’m flabbergasted by this show of kindness. Lynn Willeford started all this. She’s living proof that one woman can change the world.”
“Colonel” Larry Rohan and Leonard Good admire the free roof donated by AB Custom Roofing. (Photo by David Welton)
Jim and Jo Shelver
Jim and Jo Shelver, long known and loved for their volunteer work at the Whidbey Institute, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, South Whidbey Commons, and Hearts and Hammers, also found themselves on the receiving end this year as a crew of friends made repairs at their Langley home.
“This is the first year we’re getting the full treatment,” says Jo. “I’ve been involved with Hearts and Hammers for years, working in the kitchen. I feel so blessed to be in a community like this. I never expected it would be us that needed help because we were always on top of home repairs. But we needed the help now.”
Jim Scullin captained the team at the Shelvers’ home. “We’re putting in a wheelchair ramp, railings, a concrete sidewalk, and doing some garden mulching,” Scullin said, taking a break for lunch provided by volunteers on the Shelvers’ front porch. “The Shelvers are huge service contributors.”
Jo Shelver and “captain” Jim Scullin take a break while building ramps, laying concrete, and gardening. The Shelvers are beloved community volunteers who received repairs to their home. (Photo by David Welton)
As the day came to a close, members of the Open Circle Singers stood outside the front door of the high school, welcoming volunteers and homeowners as they returned for dinner. Faces reflected smiles of contentment for meaningful work done and received.
“I’m still up in heaven about this,” Leonard Good beamed as he walked in the door with Linda.
Year after year, Hearts and Hammers makes possible the synergy of neighbors helping neighbors, proving that there is far more power in unity than any of us can harness alone.
The Open Circle Singers welcome hungry volunteers and homeowners back to the high school for dinner. (Photo by David Welton)
To view the photos below full-size, click them.
Peggy Rasmussen holds a support to shore up a balcony at Margaret Schultz’s cabin. (Photo by David Welton)
Lynn Willeford, whose idea for helping women get help with home repair grew into Hearts and Hammers, helps out at the Six and Dronen home to install a railing. (Photo by David Welton)
House captain Blake Willeford uses a circular saw and Dean Enell prepares a recycled railing. (Photo by David Welton)
Open Circle Singers welcome volunteers and recipients back to the high school. (Photo by David Welton)
Open Circle Singers (Photo by David Welton)
Linda Good thanks Hearts and Hammers for its repair and cleanup of the home that she and Leonard have lived in for more than 50 years. (Photo by David Welton)
Sarah Hess bids for a wheelbarrow load of firewood and a bottle of sparkling apple cider at the Hearts and Hammers dinner. (Photo by David Welton)
Lynn Willeford receives a bouquet in thanks for founding Hearts and Hammers 24 years ago. (Photo by David Welton)
Dez Rock, owner of Useless Bay Coffee Company, prepares food in the kitchen for a dinner thanking the volunteers. (Photo by David Welton)
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley Library until last June when she retired. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with her friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, nonprofit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle!
__________________
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
May 17, 2017
“It was at this spot, Memorial Day weekend, that the co-op gallery was started,” said Tom Hanify, who met with members of the original Whidbey Art Gallery at the Braeburn restaurant in Langley.
“Except it was called the Raven Cafe then,” said Christi Shaffer, who was also there, along with Mary Ellen and Ron Ward and Moses “Moe” Jerome. Shaffer joined the co-op a year after it first began. She’s a ceramic artist whose work incorporates impressions of lace, leaves, and stamped letters into functional plates, teapots, and bowls with driftwood handles.
“It started with a meeting of interested artists who showed their work at the Raven Cafe on Memorial weekend 1992,” continued Shaffer. “Then a group decided to form a gallery starting in the back and moving to the front. The gallery remained here three years, and then we wanted to expand. We went to the Jones Department Store, which is now Music for the Eyes.”
Original members of the Whidbey Art Gallery co-op 25 years ago. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Art Gallery)
“Paul Schell was instrumental in getting us in,” added Jerome, an oil painter whose poster of a mermaid kissing a mortal was chosen to illustrate the poster for the 2012 Choochokum summer art festival in Langley. The late Paul Schell, a former mayor of Seattle, developed the Inn at Langley with his wife Pam and was known for his can-do-ness in the community. “He wanted his guests…”
“… to see our art,” finished Shaffer. “Paul loved us! He bought gifts for the hotel employees from our artists.”
“We were at the ‘rug’ shop for five or six years and then moved to Second and Anthes (where Whidbey Telecom’s the Big GIG is now housed),” Shaffer continued.
Jerome jumped in: “We moved to the corner, an interesting space to merchandise in. As we moved through the years, the economy went bad. In 2008, we closed.”
Some of the founding members of the Whidbey Art Gallery 25 years later. From left, front row: Mary Ellen Ward and Christi Shaffer; top row: Ron Ward, Moe Jerome, and newcomer Tom Hanify. (Photo by Tom Hanify)
Mary Ellen Ward said that before the 2008 crisis, the co-op members tried an idea that paid a month’s rent.
“We produced a nude calendar…” said Shaffer.
“…with 12 different people,” added Mary Ellen Ward. “I’m encouraging them to do it again. The first calendar was good.”
“Rated R, not X,” joked Shaffer.
“More like PG-13,” said Hanify. “They closed the storefront, but the group kept going.”
“In ‘98/‘99, we had 13 galleries in Langley,” Jerome said. “By 2008, only Brackenwood and Museo remained.”
Moe Jerome’s painting of salmon. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Art Gallery)
“They can squash us, but they cannot stop us,” said Ron Ward, a sculptor and painter.
Paying monthly dues, the group continued meeting each month.
“We were closed two years,” said Mary Ellen Ward. “We looked around for a storefront and found what is now the vet’s (Animal Hospital by the Sea). The building needed lots of work. Everyone pulled together. We painted and fixed doors. When we got it set up and beautiful, they sold the building and we moved to where we are now. We got re-established and are stronger than ever.”
“We’ve been through the fire,” adds Ron Ward.
Ron Ward’s sculpture in a natural setting. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Art Gallery)
The friends sit around the table, crack jokes, finish each other’s sentences, and remember the various buildings that housed their art, along with the perseverance to carry on in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Hanify, a photographer, has been with the co-op for three years. His work reflects his interest in nature, landscapes, and travel. He now chairs the gallery’s marketing committee and manages its website and Facebook presence.
“Mary Ellen runs the gallery now,” he says. “She’s the CEO. I call her the empress.”
Christi Shaffer’s signature pottery with a driftwood handle. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Art Gallery)
“Ann Sayvitz used to run the co-op,” Mary Ellen Ward says. “Ann helped us tighten and review policies through her expertise. She gave us structure. When we lost her (she passed away last October), we struggled with having different people take her place, and it occurred to me how the world has changed and how we’re still a group dedicated to sharing our art. It’s like music. It’s a dimension.”
“It is the soul of life,” adds Jerome.
“We’re trying to move forward in step with our times and hold on to what we value,” Mary Ellen Ward continues.
“We have 37 artists now with an emphasis on local art,” Hanify added. “We no longer emphasize the ‘co-operative’ part and say rather that it is an artist-owned gallery. We’re looking for more artists to join us.”
Tom Hanify’s photo of a dinghy on reflective water. (Photo courtesy of Whidbey Art Gallery)
At the monthly Langley Art Walk on April 29, the gallery was packed with visitors. Ron Ward gave a personalized tour of the gallery after sitting outside for a moment, enjoying time with his grandchildren in the early evening sun.
The artists now have a well-lit art-filled gallery at 220 Second Street in Langley. It’s filled with paintings, sculpture, jewelry, photos, collages, fiber art, pottery, drawings, and cards. This month’s guest artists are Declan Travis, a photographer who specializes in bird photography, and Hank Nelson, a sculptor who likes working in bronze. The month’s featured artist member is oil painter Nancy Anderson.
The gallery at its current location on Second Street in Langley. (Photo by Tom Hanify)
Come celebrate the gallery’s 25th anniversary at a party hosted by the artists on Saturday, May 27, from 5 to 8 p.m. There will be live music and refreshments, and Artists in Action will be painting and demonstrating artistic skills.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley Library until last June, when she retired. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
__________________
Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.
WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.
BY KATE POSS Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
May 3, 2017
It’s springtime, and lambs are being born at the Glendale Shepherd dairy farm. Their mamas, about 60 ewes, are milked twice a day to produce milk for yogurt, soft brebis frais, and hard cheese. The ewes are a cross between European and North American breeds, and owners Lynn and Stan Swanson have been making award-winning cheese from their milk for the past five years.
The family runs a Grade A dairy in Clinton and is committed to practicing sustainable agriculture with artisan sheep milk cheeses and pasture-raised lamb. With forest, pasture, ponds, and meadows, the farm provides a diverse landscape for livestock and wildlife alike.
Lambs that are weaned are called “weaners.” This group of young rams and ewes eat special blends of organic grains and grasses. (Photo by David Welton)
“Lynn and I have been here for 30 years,” says Stan Swanson, his loyal dog Cocoa on his lap. Since he was injured cutting a tree in December of 2015, his motorized “hot rod” gets him around the family farm. After the accident, which crushed his back, Stan was flown to Harborview Medical Center, where he says he was fortunate to have excellent care and doctors who put him back together with nuts and bolts. The retired dentist and former rock climber says the community held fundraisers to help offset the cost of medical care. He remains upbeat and cracks jokes as he leads a tour of the rolling hills of his family farm. “The community was awesome. Everyone pulled together,” Swanson says. “Now all I need is a computer to convert my brain waves to my legs. (Meanwhile) you should see me rod around Costco!”
Stan Swanson and his sidekick Cocoa. (Photo by David Welton)
Lynn Swanson, also a talented clothing designer and sculptor, ran a summer horse camp for years before the couple became interested in making sheep milk cheese after buying the flock from another island artisan cheese maker nearly 10 years ago. These days, the Swansons are the only commercial cheese makers on the island.
“We put together the milking barn and got certified as a dairy,” Stan says. “Then we put in a pasteurizer. It was a lot of work.”
Lynn popped out of the super-clean kitchen, where she was preparing fresh yogurt and brebis frais, the soft cream-cheese-like pasteurized cheese sold locally at the Star Store in Langley, Bayleaf in Coupeville, and the Bayview Farmer’s Market.
Lynn Swanson has won top awards for her sheep cheese varieties. (Photo by David Welton).
At the Ballard Farmer’s Market last Sunday, business was brisk at the Glendale Shepherd booth. Regulars such as chiropractor Gary Moskowitz stop by each week to return empty jars and buy new ones full of fresh yogurt. Moskowitz says he’s been coming by for years. He was greeted as a regular as he approached the counter.
“We were looking for some new yogurt. My wife tried their sheep yogurt, and it was the best yogurt she’s ever had,” Moskowitz says. “We get it all the time for smoothies. My wife can’t do cow’s milk, so she does goat or sheep milk. The cheeses (from Glendale Shepherd) are unbelievable. I don’t even eat cheese, just never have, and I come here all the time to buy cheese for my wife and yogurt for us. Their people are incredible, too.”
Back at the farm, Stan rods over to the barn where a newborn baby ram calls out. The newborn is nestled with other lambs in a bed of straw under a heat lamp. Lambs are separated from their mothers at birth and fed formula, a common practice in working dairies to minimize the stress of separation.
Anna Magnuson, who once attended summer horse camp at the Swanson farm, now helps run the dairy business with the Swansons and their son Erik.
Anna Magnuson holds a ram born early that morning. (Photo by David Welton)
“My history here is a long, 20-year story,” Magnuson says. “I’d come here as a kid for horse camp. Then I went to school and worked in Manhattan with Beecher’s Handmade Cheese and later in Seattle, with artisan cheeses at Whole Foods. My parents said I should talk to the Swansons, and I moved out here on a whim.”
Stan says there were about 120 lambs born this year. Some will be used for dairy and some for meat. All wear ear tags: right ears for rams and left ears for ewes.
Holding the newborn ram with his short buds of wool and his long legs, Magnuson says he resembled his mama and grandma with their “freckles” of black dots sprinkled amid the white wool.
Magnuson, Becca Shim, and Erik Swanson milk the ewes twice a day. This season is the first time she has helped midwife some of the lambs at birth. After about a month, the lambs graduate to “weaner” status, meaning they no longer need milk. They grow strong on their diet of organic hay from Wilbur Bishop’s Ebey Road Farm and their diet is supplemented by a special organic blend of grains made just for these sheep. The ewes are fed grain and allowed to go in the pasture for about an hour a day. They’ll graze more as the pasture dries up and is not so muddy.
Erik and Lynn Swanson on opening day of this season’s Bayview Farmers’ Market. Erik is Stan and Lynn’s son and helps run the dairy with his parents. (Photo by David Welton)
Over in the store and kitchen, Lynn finishes filling sterilized glass bottles with fresh yogurt. She points proudly to a wooden board, which announces that Glendale Shepherd’s Tallulah cheese took first place in 2016 at the Washington Artisan Cheese Festival. Tallulah is soft, ripened, has a creamy interior and a smooth, mild, and nutty flavor. The award joins many others displayed in the farm store.
Chef Jess Dowdell runs the island’s gastropub Roaming Radish with her husband J.P., and as a farm-to-market food devotee, she gives high marks to Glendale Shepherd’s cheeses.
“I love their products from cheese to yogurt to meat to wool.” Dowdell says. “The Tallulah is my favorite with some chicken liver pate and herb crostinis.”
Some of the cheeses made by Glendale Shepherd that are sold at the Bayview Farmer’s Market. (Photo by David Welton)
Lynn Swanson says that she is in full compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act, which requires certification and university classes to meet its strict standards. The legislation was a considerable reform of our nation’s food safety laws and was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure that the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it. The small farm has also earned an Animal Welfare Approved designation, meaning the animals are well-treated and cared for. Indeed, the sheep appear to be in a Zen state of mind.
“We need the same level of certification to operate as does a bigger dairy like Tillamook,” Swanson says. “I want to take no risks when it comes to protecting the public’s health.”
If you’re in Seattle, you’ll find the farm’s cheese, yogurt, and meat at the Ballard Farmer’s Market, University District Farmer’s Market, and Kurt Farm Shop. As for restaurants, you’ll find the cheese on the menu at Orchard Kitchen and Roaming Radish locally and at Bar Ferdinand, Salare, and Mkt. in Seattle.
The farm store is open Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm. Farm tours are available by reservation.
Kate Poss worked as a library assistant at the Langley Library until last June, when she retired. She worked for three summers as a chef aboard a small Alaskan tour boat from 2008 to 2010. She was a newspaper reporter in Los Angeles for many years before moving to Whidbey Island, where she likes cooking for new and old friends, hiking, reading great fiction, and writing her second novel with friend Fred Bixby.
David Welton is a retired physician who has been a staff photographer for Whidbey Life Magazine since its early days. His work has also appeared in museums, art galleries, newspapers, regional and national magazines, books, non-profit publicity, and on the back of the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle!
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