I am so excited about our upcoming Purses with Purpose Auction as it nears its April 27 date! Glimpses of purses of all description promise the auction will be another amazing fundraiser for our generous scholarships for university schooling and Tech Trek camping experiences in July. Thank you for your generous donations and chairpersons for their detailed planning and organizational abilities. Georgi Proulx lives and breathes the oxygen of the auction superbly keeping us all on task. Committee members have been thinking of ways to do things in the most efficient ways, perfecting what we hope will be one of our best auctions ever. The book group has been busy adding items to a “banned book” basket which will be a most delightful purchase. Special thanks to Gay Campbell for making a special book -themed quilt to the basket collection. Great imaginations, all! With all the rain we’ve had, that donated condo stay in Hawaii from Jo English is looking more and more enticing!

More seriously, we have to be busy in the community reminding people to vote in the levy election on February 13. February brings the local school levy election for the Stanwood-Camano School District. Be sure you remember to fill out your ballots which you should have already received, and get them in the mail before February 13. This is a replacement levy so you know that if it fails, then many cuts to basic education services and staff are possible. I know I’m preaching to the choir, as many of you are former educators. Those of us who had public school educations know that our generation had community support while we were in school. Then we had support from our communities while our children were in school. It’s up to us to help the next generation. We’re all better off with adequately funded education by our state and districts. In the meantime, let’s keep track of the activities of the legislature and their support of school programs so students have success.

Happy Leap Year on the 29th!