Everyone Welcome at Celebration on September 10

We all want to feel welcome and to think of ourselves as being welcoming. But how do we do it? Welcome Vashon is putting that question front and center. "Welcome Vashon is about how to build a community that responds to the urgent desire in all of us to feel like we belong", says Bruce Anderson, organization and community development consultant for Community Activators.

Welcome Vashon offers itself as a creative hub for projects to make Vashon a welcoming place for everyone. Dan Kaufman, leadership coach, consultant, and Welcome Vashon co-founder, sees it as "a gathering of energy from people who are moved to do good work in their community around welcoming--a container that provides structure so people can tap into their passions and energies."

Welcome Vashon kicked off in February. Anderson and author and consultant Jim Diers led activities to generate ideas for projects designed to create the kind of community islanders want to see. Anyone with an idea for a project was welcome to share it and take responsibility for getting it started. Twenty projects materialized, including Breakfast at Sally’s, Life Dollars, Shape Up Vashon, Amigos en Vashon, and Hire Vashon.

"We’ve been surprised by the momentum," says Anderson. "We guessed that fifty people would show up at our first gathering, but 165 people showed up. Welcoming is important to our community."

Janie Starr, community activist, writer, and Welcome Vashon co-founder, appreciates the group’s tagline, We All Belong. "We spent a long time coming up with We All Belong and creating a process that gives people a voice. I feel that the first event really fulfilled that vision. There were people there I’d never seen before, people from different race and ethnic backgrounds, great age diversity, differently abled people, socioeconomic differences. That, to me, is what We All Belong is about. People are bringing their gifts and their talents and their passions and having the space to speak and have people join them."

How can you belong? Opportunities abound on Welcome Vashon’s web site, www.welcomevashon.org, a place for us to post project ideas, gather supporters, and advertise events and activities.

Another way is to take time to celebrate. "I don’t think people do that enough", says Starr, "celebration that inspires more visioning, more projects, more action, and keeps looping around. I see the celebration as supportive, giving opportunity for new ideas to work."

The Welcome Vashon Celebration on September 10 is a chance to celebrate, connect, and create together. We will honor what we’ve done, give voice to new ideas, and design a mural to express our goal of making Vashon a welcoming place for all. Starr emphasizes that this celebration is a calling to each one of us. "We need all this diversity. We need people who don’t feel like they belong, and people that do. We need people to bring all their gifts to creating this mural and demonstrating that we do indeed all belong."

Welcome Vashon Celebration
Saturday, September 10, 9am-noon
Open Space for Arts & Community
18870 103rd Ave SW

A complimentary breakfast will be served, and free childcare will be provided.
For more information: Dan Kaufman at dan@integralpotential.com.

Welcome Vashon web site at
www.welcomevashon.org.