Letter to Editor | Gratitude for our community GiveOrcas support

||| FROM DIDIER GINCIG for ODD FELLOWS |||

When my family moved to Orcas Island in 1995, one of our earliest experiences with this community took place at the Odd Fellows Hall. Nancy Koenig and her marimba band were playing a dance at the Hall. We were delighted by the music, the dancing, and the feel of the place.

I instantly fell in love with this old building, and that sense of connection to place has increased over the years as we have attended community gatherings, including community Thanksgiving meals, memorials (where we honored my mother, Monique), graduation parties, weddings, dances, including our annual Halloween dances, concerts, potlucks, classes, movies, and enjoying meals downstairs in the kitchen, and having the pleasure to take part in the meetings downstairs in the lodge as one of the Odd Fellows where we have prepared for parades, had deep inner works, created our community service opportunities, and have done the business of keeping the building a thriving place for our community. 

So many of you have your stories of this beloved place that is an integral part of being in community on this island. The widespread community support we received through the OICF GiveOrcas Spring Campaign is an indication of how so many of you care about our community hall.

On behalf of the Odd Fellows Mt. Constitution Lodge #88, we wish to extend our deep gratitude to the Orcas Island Community Foundation, their staff and board, and the outgoing lead of the highly successful organization, Hilary Canty, for all their efforts to make GiveOrcas the success that it is, bringing much-needed funding to so many worthy organizations who were fully funded thanks to the generosity of not only our community but those off-island folks who contributed.

Deep gratitude to all of you who contributed to the upcoming renovation of our Odd Fellows Hall deck so that we can continue to provide a gathering place for the community and for all the events in the future that many of you will enjoy. You are appreciated and are a vital part of the sense of place we all have created on our island. Thank you!