Opening Welcome:

President Nathan Twining called the meeting to order at 6:00 and commented on the packed house at the Holiday Inn at Bellingham Airport.  He then asked for a volunteer from each table to show off their bowling skills to earn the right to have their table go to the buffet first. Doug Cole knocked down all the plastic pins and defeated all comers!  Eventually, all got dinner who wanted it.

Monty introduced Anna Booker, WCC History Professor and instructor of Salish Seas Studies Interdisciplinary Program in conjunction with Western Washington University. 

Anna and her husband are California transplants who came here to the Bellingham area for family support in raising their family.  They immersed themselves in the culture, focusing on local food through U-Pick Farms, gathering apples and pears in alleyways, and harvesting wild blackberries.

In 2018 the concept of Salish Seas Studies as an interdisciplinary program was proposed.  Several professors of various subjects got together to design the innovative class, and they began at Peace Arch Park so that the students could see in person how the governmental imposition of borders cut across Native American tribal divisions and migratory paths for both land animals and ocean dwellers. During their first field trip, they overnighted in the San Juans and had a chance to practice being stewards of the land, weeding a camas patch.  They learned how the Lummi stopped the construction of a coal terminal by citing the Army Corps of Engineers’ treaty and how their fishing rights would be impacted. Fully half of class time was spent outside of the classroom gathering samples, photos and videos, and evidence to support theories. 

Booker applied for a $100,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant and received it two months before the COVID-19 pandemic set in.  The grant had a two-year lifetime.  So, the hunt began on how to carry this out while confined to online learning. The program’s emphasis on Place Based Learning persisted through COVID with students focusing on their own homes and neighborhoods to carry out the curriculum.  They chose activities from a gameboard and documented themselves exploring their very small environments.  Leading questions such as “What’s in my neighborhood?” and “Where will this take me?” guided them to formulate questions of their own.

Over the past several years, seventy students have graduated with a Salish Seas minor from Western Washington University.  The university students often mentored the two-year students during the class, which inspired many of them to see themselves carrying their studies further.  This influential and innovative interdisciplinary class will be taught again this Spring.

President Nathan Twining informed us that next week’s meeting will be an internal focus session.  He thanked all the Rotarian helpers for this evening’s meeting, led us in a recitation of the four-way test, and rang the bell to adjourn at 7:30.

The Four Way Test:

• Is it the TRUTH?
• Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
• Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

September Birthdays -
Celebrate in Style!

• Ward Naf
• Herb Ershig
• John Harris
• Nancy Jordan
• Jan Marchbanks
• Steve Gray