Solomon Ross is the Indian Island Youth Steward for 2025
Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 10, 2025
Submitted by Russel Barsh, director of Kwiaht.
Orcas Middle School student Solomon Ross has been selected as this year’s Indian Island Youth Steward! Solomon is enthusiastic about marine biology, but he says that his real reason for seeking this particular position is his interest in people. With more than 4,000 visitors every summer on a few acres of beach, Indian Island is an everchanging outdoor classroom as well as a growing crowd-management challenge.
Each year, Kwiaht chooses a local student to meet, greet, guide and inform visitors to Indian Island on about 50 minus-tide days from June through August when the island is easily walkable. Assisted by Kwiaht biologists and adult volunteers, each summer’s youth steward is the face of Indian Island to visitors, and a representative of the Orcas community encouraging visitors to respect the fragile nature of the island and explore it responsibly. Youth stewards truly earn the scholarship that comes with successful completion of the summer’s work.
Solomon was one of an unprecedented 11 middle and high school applicants for the 2025 Youth Steward. “It was not an easy choice,” says Kwiaht Director Russel Barsh. “There are a lot of enthusiastic and principled young islanders out there looking for meaningful work.”
The scholarship, and other costs associated with stewardship, education and monitoring of Indian Island, are supported each year by Orcas islanders through the Orcas Island Community Foundation’s GiveOrcas campaign, which this year runs from May 6 to May 16.
