Guemes Island Community Center Association
Enriching and Connecting Our Island Community
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Ferry Cams
⛴ Catch the Ferry
Ferry times are provided as a courtesy and without guarantee.
Ferry departs from Guemes approximately 8 minutes after the listed times below. Crossing time approximately 5 minutes. Round-trip time approximately 20-25 minutes.
*Wednesday 9:15 AM to Guemes and 2:00 PM from Guemes are hazardous materials runs only. No other vehicles or passengers may travel on these runs.
Community Messages
NW History Day Contest, Mar 7
Judges Needed
March 7 is fast approaching and judges are needed for the 2020 Northwest Region History Day Contest at Anacortes Middle School. A number of Guemes Islanders have volunteered in the past.
History Day is a nation-wide competition for public, private and homeschool students who compete at a regional level with winners progressing to a state then a national contest. The contest is a challenging and fun event that encourages students to become historians by developing research, analytical, presentation, and social skills. Working individually or in groups, Junior Division (grades 6-8) and Senior Division (grades 9-12) students select a topic related to an annual theme. The 2020 NHD theme is Barriers In History. Students conduct extensive historical research using primary and secondary sources and then distill their research and analysis into one of five presentations: a dramatic performance, a multimedia documentary, a museum exhibit, website, or historical research paper.
Eight regional contests are held around Washington State in February and March. The Northwest Region Contest serves Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties. Regional winners advance to the Washington History Day State Contest tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at Central Washington University. Students who finish in first or second place at the State contest in each category qualify for the National Contest, held June 14-18 at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Judges are needed to read papers and evaluate websites in late February and early March. Judges work independently but confer briefly once as a team of three to assemble results. Papers will be sent to judges electronically as pdfs; websites will be sent as URLs. Judging begins after February 10 and completed evaluation forms are mailed in at least one week before March 7.
Judges are also needed to evaluate exhibits, documentaries and performances at Anacortes Middle School on Saturday, March 7. These judges also serve on teams of three. Most judges will serve only in the morning.
Please consider joining other volunteers for this very heartening exposure to young people doing good things. You may also learn a little bit of history.
Contact Randy Schnabel
Coordinator, NW Region History Day
206-465-0317, randyschnabel@mac.com
Seeking 9th to 12th Grade Students
The Salish Sea School in Anacortes is an outdoor marine conservation school that helps create leaders in marine conservation by providing innovative college prep and purpose-driven leadership experience. In the summer of 2020, the School is launching its first marine conversation program, Guardians of the Sea, for rising 9th to 12th grade students. This program is a four day, daily boat-based program out of Skyline Marina. Sessions are available throughout the summer.
The Guardians of the Sea program equips students to become leaders to help restore the oceans through:
- increased ocean connection and knowledge through hands-on learning
- student involvement in citizen science projects for local scientists and organizations (microplastic sampling on the water, tufted puffin survey, forage fish survey and dissection, and more)
- creation of a take-home action plan to stay involved
- leadership development through recognizing innate gifts
- mindfulness practices for every day stress-reduction
There are a limited number of student scholarships available for any interested students to apply for a seat in the program! Scholarship applications are available here and must be submitted by April 1, 2020.
Contact Amy Eberling, Executive Director, 703-477-7432 for more information or go to thesalishseaschool.org.
Meet Your Neighbor

Photos and narrative provided by Don Bird
Born and raised in Seattle, Don Bird started learning to read and write music before he learned English. Those lines, dots, and squiggles and the sounds they produced fascinated him. With a mother classically trained on piano and pipe organ, and an uncle who was a semi-professional trumpet player, Don grew up surrounded by a wide range of music and styles and learned to play numerous instruments including trumpet, fluegelhorn, guitar, bass, piano, and organ. He turned professional upon graduating high school and enrolled in UW School of Communications (Radio/TV). Working his way through college, he played for the Bellevue Symphony, various Seattle shows/musicals, and local acts like the New Deal Rhythm Band, Shots, Gabriel, and his own progressive rock band, Ears, voted Seattle’s best band in KZOK’s 1977 contest.
Composition was Don’s first love, and he spent his days in local studios composing and producing jingles and music beds. Some notable local projects included Wayne Cody’s KIRO Sports radio theme, a jingle package for KZOK-FM, and the locally produced (Kaye-Smith Studios) nationally syndicated “Fantastic Four Radio Program” starring a very young Bill Murray as the voice of Johnny Storm. His studio work and search for unique sounds led him to work with some of the first commercially available synthesizers – programming and playing ARP, MOOG, and OBERHEIM instruments which eventually opened a door to the technical side of the media and entertainment industry.
In the mid-’80s, Don left Seattle to work in LA for Roger Linn who designed and built the first sampled-sound drum machines (LinnDrum, used by artists like Phil Collins/Genesis and Stevie Wonder), then he entered the broadcast technology industry where he helped to design, develop and market the “DigiCart” for 360 Systems. This was the first commercially successful digital audio player utilized by every major network broadcaster for audio playback. The David Letterman show used them to fire off sound effects like breaking glass when Dave would randomly toss pencils from his desk!
After 12 years in broadcast, Don joined a startup company in the film/cinema industry and participated in the development and marketing of the first digital mastering and playback systems that enabled the movie industry’s transition from distribution of film prints to digital media. He spent several years running the cinema business for public company DTS (Digital Theater Systems) which was initially funded by Universal Studios to produce a more authentic sound experience for Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. (Remember those first T-Rex footfalls?) During his time in LA, he continued playing, mixing live sound, and developing his own musical projects.
After a decade in the film industry, he formed his own consulting company and returned to the Northwest and to broadcast, providing business development services for Lawo, (www.lawo.com) a German-owned company that provides large format mixing consoles, video routing, processing, and monitoring solutions used by a majority of global networks and content providers, and for major sports events like the Olympics, World Cup, NFL, MLB, PGA and more. If you are a late-night TV fan, you’ve experienced Lawo’s technologies in use for virtually all the late-night talk shows and Saturday Night Live, as well as providing the backbone for NPR, SiriusXM, local affiliate KIRO-TV, Root Sports, and many of the major tech companies’ production facilities in Seattle, Redmond, and Silicon Valley.
At the young age of 24, Don met and married Guemes artist Loalynda, who owns Paper Birds Studio and founded the Guemes Island Earth Day Luminary Parade. Loalynda introduced Don to her family cabin on west beach when they started dating as kids, and he fell in love with the island, returning with their family every year for vacations until they were finally able to realize their dream of moving full time to the island in 2014 where Don has continued his consulting business and now enjoys developing his various music projects alongside Loalynda’s many artistic creations, classes, and events. They’ve come full circle as a musician and artist who started out creating side-by-side in their own studios in Bellevue, to now supporting the local music and art scene on Guemes Island and throughout the Skagit Valley.

Don has recently released a solo album of new-age orchestral compositions, “Floating On Moonlight”, as well as forming his own original band, Children of the Blues, which released their first album “Space Lounge” in October and are now playing a psychedelic blend of jazz and blues in venues from Anacortes to Seattle. You can catch their next gig Saturday, March 26th at the Rockfish Bar and Grill. In Don’s own words, “I’m very grateful and blessed to be able to participate in and support the strong artistic and musical community on the island, grateful to Mark and Willie for giving us an awesome local ‘pub’ and bringing great music to the island, and now to have the addition of the new park stage venue to perform and mingle with neighbors, fellow artists, and musicians—not to mention the support of the AMP organization.”
You can find Don’s music on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and other digital platforms. Just scan the QR code in the business card at the top of this post or search the online music streaming services for "Don Bird" and/or "Children Of The Blues".
Love of Place
You may have recently received a fundraising appeal letter from GICCA. The Community Center Association depends on your financial support to keep our doors open and our facilities available to everyone. A donor envelope was enclosed for your convenience. Every tax-deductible donation makes a difference regardless of size.
Donations can also be made through this website. If you wish, your donation can be directed to the General Fund, the GICCA Stage Project, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the myguemes.org website, or Groundfloor Guemes.
Thank you for your support.
GICCA Stage Project Update
Work is progressing at the GICCA Stage Project, although safety concerns prohibit the crew from working in wet and slippery conditions.
Read more & view latest photos
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Reality Check
The movers and shakers on our planet, aren't the billionaires and generals, they're the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing and revitalising. — Bill McKibben
Helpful Links
CERT - Community Emergency Response Team
- Household Preparedness
- Neighborhood Procedures
- Resident Questionnaire
- Volunteer Contacts, and more
Emergency Preparedness - 'do1thing'
- Schedule Hall Facilities
- Hall Rental Agreement
- Volunteer Waiver
Guemes Island Ferry Committee (GIFC)
Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee (GIPAC)
Guemes Tide and Evening Star Archives
On Deck
Weather Map
Mobile? Click 'Rain/Snow' tag for options
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How does it work?
- Click on the AmazonSmile box (right) which brings you to the AmazonSmile GICCA page
(you might want to bookmark that page to easily find it again). - Sign in to Amazon as usual.
- Then, just shop as you normally would!
Click here to see how much you have made GICCA smile. Thank you!