The annual fall Clothing Bank sponsored by the Orcas Adventist Fellowship will be held on Sunday, Oct. 12 at the Orcas Christian School gym from noon to 4 p.m. Men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, along with outerwear and bedding, will be provided at no cost. Donations of gently used items are greatly appreciated and can be dropped off at the Orcas Christian School from Oct. 6 to 11. Contact Dawn Parnell at 376-4595 or OCS at 376-6683 with any questions.
On Sunday, Oct. 5 at 10:15 am, there will be a Blessing of Pets and Animals at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in downtown Eastsound.
On Saturday, Oct. 4, St. Francis Catholic Church will hold the fifth annual Columbus Day Spaghetti Dinner at the Orcas Center from 5 to 8 p.m.
The Orcas Island Historical Museum and Poppie’s Yarns are looking for adventurous knitters. Volunteers will knit one or more “patches” that will be pieced together to form a woolly coat for a near life-size mockup of the museum’s famous Orcas Island ice-age Bison antiquus.
Now celebrating its 14th year, the San Juan Nature Institute continues to offer science education through local schools, field workshops for youth and adults, as well as cutting edge lectures and classes for the public. As an official affiliate of the University of Washington and in partnership with the Friday Harbor Labs, SJ Nature Institute’s offerings enrich the lives of several thousand islanders every year, said Farhad Ghatan, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the San Juan Nature Institute.
Savor the San Juans: Food, Art & Culture festival throughout the onth of October, reported last week that Rosario Resort would be participating in “3 Courses/$30” special. Rosario will not be participating in this special.
Orcas Island’s Weight Watchers “At Home” Support Group is back and in action on Wednesday nights in the conference room at the Senior Center.
Looking to the past to see the future by exploring the works of 20th Century writers who imagined the future and alternative realities will be the subject of a class on the works of Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Jorge Luis Borges, and Margaret Atwood.
The lecture series Crossroads: Ideas for a New Century will continue on Friday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at Orcas Center, when David Domke, an award-winning professor of communications and political science, will speak on Religious Politics in America: Why the 2008 Presidential Election May Change Everything for Everyone.
The public Cemetery District meets from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Library Meeting Room.
Whitworth University senior McLane Stone, an Orcas Island High School graduate, had planned to work rather than attend school this year to save enough money to finish his undergraduate education. Postponing his senior year meant he wouldn’t have been able to walk with his class at Commencement in May, and he would have had to put his graduate school aspirations on hold. But recently, Stone learned that he will graduate this spring after all, thanks to a $28,037 scholarship from the Woodrow Foundation. The scholarship covers tuition and books for the 2008-09 academic year.
The San Juan County Council’s Stormwater Subcommittee has drafted a plan to finance a county-wide stormwater utility. Next week, meetings will be held on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands to provide information and receive public input on its proposal to re-establish and fund a stormwater utility. The ordinance establishing the previous Stormwater Utility was overturned in a referendum election last November.
