FOCI’s Create, Connect and Conserve series

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) summer programs have long been popular with tourists and summer. This year FOCI wanted to offer something for the year round community. 

“ The inspiration is partly wanting to make sure that more members of the community know about FOCI. We do a lot of projects, but they’re not really shiny and we don’t really advertise them. They're on our website, but if people don't go there and read about them, they don't know that they're happening,” explained Soma Feldmar, the society’s Administrative Assistant.

Executive Director Helen Hall came up with the idea for the ‘Create, Connect and Conserve’ series.

:Yes, we need to” responded Feldmar. “We take so much for granted from the natural world. Especially working at Foci the last couple of years, it's really much more in my face how in trouble the natural world, and therefore us, really is.”

She used a simile to complete that thought, “This is our home. This is like housekeeping, but our house is falling into pieces.”

Soma Feldmar became the project coordinator of ‘Create, Connect and Conserve.’


“I spent most of January planning the series and getting the events set up. There's still one that  I have to do a lot of work on, which won't be happening until June, so there's time.  Once I had the first three events set, I started advertising.” 

CC: Where did you advertise them?   

Soma Feldmar: On social media, in terms of the two Facebook Cortes groups, as well as on Tideline. Then I put the poster with the three events in Whaletown, at the Cortes Natural Food Co-op, at Bertha’s Cortes Market, in the Squirrel Cove General Store and the Klahoose Multipurpose Building. Now I'm talking to you about it, so it's going to get up on Cortes Currents.