Events

With over forty years of conservation accomplishments in the region, Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) is a trusted leader in our community. We work in collaboration with local governments, tribes, landowners, and community groups, providing the tools and expertise to preserve the special landscapes in the Great Peninsula region of Kitsap, north Mason, and west Pierce counties. We commit to caring for the lands we protect to ensure wildlife and people enjoy the many benefits of nature well into the future, and we enrich lives by offering opportunities for people to experience the natural world up close. 

The mission of GPC is to protect forever the natural habitats, rural landscapes, and open spaces of the Great Peninsula of Washington’s Puget Sound. We do this by creating nature preserves, partnering with public agencies to create local parks, and by placing conservation easements on private land that help sustain family farms and forests through generations. Each year, GPC’s nature walks, youth education programs, and land stewardship activities get hundreds of people out on protected lands with the goal of fostering an enduring land conservation ethic among people of all ages.

https://greatpeninsula.org

Etta Projects improves water, sanitation, and health in rural Bolivia. Empowerment, education, improved infrastructure, and local partnerships are key ingredients that Etta Projects implements to promote vibrant, healthy communities. Empowering women in these communities is essential to the success of our programs.

Etta Projects was created in 2003 to honor the life and legacy of Etta Turner, a teenager who believed in the power of the individual to effect meaningful change. Though Etta Turner's young life ended tragically in November 2002 while she was in Bolivia as a Rotary International Exchange student, her vision of helping transcend poverty by creating deep friendships and harnessing the power of community participation lives on in our work today.

https://www.ettaprojects.org

Amber Caldera was elected Chairperson of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (PGST) and was sworn in during a special session of Tribal Council on October 25, 2023. Her term lasts until July 2025. Caldera has served on Tribal Council as Council Person IV since 2020 and holds a Master of Legal Studies specializing in Indigenous Law from the University of Oklahoma. Before being elected Chairperson, she also worked for the PGST Children and Family Services department, which she credits as providing “a deep understanding of the unique needs and challenges facing our community.” As Chairperson, Caldera is a fulltime employee and will focus her time and work efforts on the role.

Michèle Laboda, Community Services Specialist, heads NKF&R’s non-emergent public services that include prevention, public education and public information.

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue serves 46 square miles that are largely forested and rural with pockets of suburban density around communities such as Hansville, Kingston, Miller Bay, Indianola and Suquamish. The district is situated on the long and narrow northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water and 34 miles of shoreline. Areas served by NKF&R can be reached by land through Poulsbo from the south and west via Washington SR 16 from Tacoma or SR 3 from Shelton and Olympia. Seattle lies about 12 miles southeast of Kingston, and is accessible most directly by Washington State Ferries‘ Kingston – Edmonds or Bainbridge Island – Seattle routes. To the west of the district and across Hood Canal is the Olympic Peninsula, via the Hood Canal Bridge. Bainbridge Island is immediately south of the district, across the Agate Pass Bridge.

D.D. Black writes crime fiction set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the International Bestselling Thomas Austin Crime Thrillers and the FBI Task Force S.W.O.R.D. series. Like Thomas Austin, he lives in a sleepy beach town an hour from Seattle, loves to cook, and is part-time servant to a wonderful corgi.

https://ddblackauthor.com