Even in a town as prosperous as Oak Harbor there are still many families who need help making ends meat.   The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) is tasked with helping those families based upon need.  DSHS helps by providing cash assistance, food stamps, and access to medical help.  These services can be invaluable toward helping a family get back on their feet.  Unfortunately this means that special times of the year such as Christmas can still be very lean for these families who just don’t have the extra money for Christmas gifts.  Seeing this need, Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor stepped in and started the Tree of Hope program.  Tree of Hope is a service project designed to help needy families provide Christmas gifts to their children.  DSHS starts by sending their clients information on the Tree of Hope program that includes a wish list for parents to complete  for each child.  The wish list includes the child’s first name, age, clothing and shoe sizes and a list of items the child would like for Christmas.  These lists are given to the Soroptimists who issue a control number for each child, then the hard work begins.  Every Soroptimist Club member goes out into the community asking people to take the name of a child and purchase gifts for that child.  In an average year there will be 300 to 500 children on the list but this Christmas season there were over 800 children in need.

“What do you see under there?”  That is the first question I get when people find out I SCUBA dive on Whidbey Island.  The cold water is a breeding ground for a very diverse and dynamic ecosystem. The Pacific Northwest is rated the number one dive location in the United States and Whidbey Island is centrally located to a collection of exciting northwest dive sites.  The king of northwest marine life isthe Giant Pacific Octopus; the largest octopus in the world.   He can be found hiding in a den under the rocks, his front door littered with scraps from dinner, mostly crab shells.  You will also see many fish like kelp greenling and ling cod.  The invertebrates are the most numerous and can range from very small colorful nudibranchs (sea slugs) to purple, orange or red sea stars to giant white plumose anemones that stand over a foot tall. 

 Whidbey Island has many dive sites from Deception Pass to Possession Point but the most popular are the Keystone Underwater Park and the Langley Tire Reef.   The Keystone Underwater Park is located next to the Keystone/Port Townsend ferry dock.  It consists of two dives; “The Jetty” and “The Pilings.”  The jetty dive is the most common dive and consists of a long rock jetty that separates the dive site from the ferry lane.  Keep the jetty on your right as you enter the water and descend.  Take your time and look closely in the bull kelp that grows near the shore, this is where you will find the [Read more...]