I want to publicly thank the Orcas Odd Fellows for their support for a project my daughter, Elli Blaine, was involved with. Elli, a 2009 OHS graduate, recently returned from a 10-day spring break service trip to Nicaragua, sponsored by a New Hampshire group, Compas de Nicaragua. There she and nine other young women from Wellesley College assisted (and, Elli emphasizes, learned much from) a women’s cooperative in Managua. In a village, they helped a farmers’ co-op to set up a bio-gas digester to make methane from manure, which will help alleviate the health (and other) problems of burning firewood for cooking. The Odd Fellows donation of $300 towards the group’s airfare helped all the students afford to go share their energy and skills.

I also want to thank the FEAST program (Farm Education & Sustainability for Teens), which Elli attended and assisted with in high school, for helping her understand such issues and want to be part of a solution. Your donations to the many groups that fund student scholarships, your support of Odd Fellows events, the Funhouse, and FEAST, your attendance at Olga Symphony concerts (they give their proceeds to our community) – all this helps young islanders become informed and caring members of society. I’m writing this to honor all those who help Orcas students; I want to remind you that your acts of generosity, small and large, ripple out into good effects for the world beyond our island’s shores.

Anita Holladay

Orcas Island