||| FROM HILARY CANTY for ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION |||
Fall certainly arrived with a splash! The Eastsound trees are starting to show their fall beauty. I am so grateful for Robin Kucklick and his crew for planting these decades ago. He had a vision to bring beauty to our town and we are here to enjoy its fruition. Thanks to all who made this happen.
We are gathering the pledges for the Pea Patch property and awaiting the final clean up by the Seller before we close. The vision for the Pea Patch property is to create a true community campus, where all can feel welcome and find activities and services of interest. Imagine a place to learn and teach, to garden and gather, to share and meet. It will be a place to grow connections and build networks. I hope those who are here in the coming decades will be grateful that the community invested and took the steps to create a beautiful and vibrant campus.
This weekend is the Farm Tour, featuring 9 beautiful farms all across the island. It is a fun adventure, rain or shine. Take a bag or two if you go, as this is peak harvest time for an amazing array of produce. Saturday is also the Farmers Market Harvest Festival, marking the end of a great season and celebrating the harvest. Hoedown at the Hangar is also Saturday and proceeds will benefit the Funhouse, Sail Orcas, the Orcas Community Resource Center and the Orcas Wrestling Club. Plenty of ways to celebrate this Harvest season!
OICF has launched the Holiday Give Orcas Campaign application process. If your organization is interested in participating, the application can be found here. Applications are due October 13th. Please give us a call or swing by if you have any questions. The Campaign will run a little earlier this year- November 20th to December 6th. It will be here sooner than we can imagine!
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
The many trees and shrubs along North Beach Road in town were planted in 1994 by over a hundred island volunteers. When Michael Budnick, a fellow landscape contractor, and myself realized that the county was going to do major roadwork and side walks for North Beach Road we came forward and asked the county if we could do the landscape design and installation as volunteers. The county accepted and we formed a committee, the Eastsound Beautification committee, to organize the project.
The large maple trees along the street are Acer rubrum ‘Celebration.’