Happy May Day!

April has been a busy month both for me and Seabeck. We started the month by celebrating the 45th anniversary of Gloria (Campbell) Tesch joining the Seabeck Staff. It is unbelievable to think about the changes she has seen around here. Most of which she had some part in implementing. One of her first days here included the opening of the brand-new Colman Craft Center. That was the last thing Mr. Colman built on the property. A few years later, the office was moved from Seattle to the campus and Gloria became the first office worker. She had to learn or invent every single policy, filing system/computer system, and report, most of which we still use today. No one has changed Seabeck more than Gloria. We are the professional organization we are today because of her leadership. Congratulations Gloria!

I spent a week in Hawaii in early April. As I get older, I appreciate sitting in the warm weather more and more. I see why many of our Seabeck friends winter in Hawaii. I also went to a Trailblazer game in Portland, picked up Buster in Yakima, and caught a couple of other Mariner games. It was a good month!

The swim dock has been replaced. We are working on upgrading the beach and the intake pipe to make that area even better. I also ordered one more walkway pontoon to extend the dock a little further into the deeper water. It is incredibly stable and very low maintenance.

The solar panels have produced $60.21 in electricity according to my tracking website. It also says we have saved 1 ton of CO2. Not bad for twenty black panels on Firs.

We have updated Reeser 8. Gloria, Bethany, and Freddie did a great job using a space theme. That completes all the rooms in that building. We hope to replace the water heater in the next month and tackle the bathrooms this fall.

I want to thank all of you who thought of us during the Kitsap GreatGive. Over $2,000 was donated. There is another chance this month during Washington Gives on May 7-8 (https://www.wagives.org/organization/seabeck-conference-center). That was formerly the Seattle GiveBIG. If you are wondering why I don’t promote these events as hard as other charities do, I have a reason. I waver back and forth on these events. It used to be unique opportunities with lots of matching money here and there. Now I feel like there are so many of these events like Giving Tuesday in November, etc. that I think we are over-saturated. I never want to wear out our supporters. On the other hand, there are donors who like to do these events and expect to be available on various sites, so we continue to participate. I am grateful for your support whenever, and wherever it comes. THANK YOU!

Have a great month. Summer is coming. It’s time to order salmon!

Thanks for everything,

Chuck