Thank you, Camp Orkila | Letter

Published 10:56 am Tuesday, October 28, 2014

To Dimitri Stankevich and all the staff at Camp Orkila…Thank you so much for everything you do for the community at your annual fall festival. We’ve only been here a little over two years, and your hard work, generosity, hospitality and genuine friendliness are a perfect example of why we moved to Orcas Island.

Last year we barely made it to the festival before it was over and were kicking ourselves for not getting an earlier start because we were blown away by the kindness it embodied – hay rides through the fields, pumpkins galore for carving, tall pots of homemade soup and chili, big cups of fresh-pressed cider, trays of man-sized brownies and an overall fall-y feeling with slightly ominous clouds above. Not to mention the fact that it drew so many people together like a big extended family. This year my mom, who turned 80 this summer, decided she’d love to try the zip-line, so we started off the festivities with a glide through a light rain. Experiences like this just don’t happen anywhere else.

Everything that happens here on Orcas makes us pinch ourselves. It’s like a little heaven on earth. So thank you tractor drivers, hay-bale stackers, brownie bakers, soup puree-ers, chili concocters, zip-line harness-checkers, apple mashers, food buyers, pumpkin haulers, scary barn interior decorators, etc.! And thank you, Dimitri, for putting a lot of time and money into the people of the island. It is truly beautiful of you all. Is this place for real? Amazing.

Mike and  Edee Kulper

Orca