LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY

Welcome to Local Whidbey Podcast, where we share the stories of the people who live, work, and make a difference on Whidbey Island, Washington. I’m Magsy, and today I’m continuing the conversation within the series Creative Economy Builders.

What happens when an old school stops being a school — but never stops being a place where people learn?

Just uphill from downtown Langley, the South Whidbey Community Center has become something difficult to define with a single word.

It’s home to artists and educators.

Youth programs and social services.

Theater, recreation, wellness programs, nonprofits and small organizations.

Today, more than 30 campus and community partners operate within this shared space, offering hundreds of programs and events to the South Whidbey community.

And perhaps the most interesting part is that this isn’t a traditional taxpayer-funded community center.

The property belongs to the South Whidbey School District, but the Center itself is sustained through tenant rent, grants, donations and volunteers.

That makes it a fascinating example of what I mean by a Creative Economy Builder.

Because sometimes building a creative economy isn’t about launching the next big thing.

Sometimes it’s about creating affordable space where lots of small things have the opportunity to become something bigger.

Today I’m joined by four people who see that from very different perspectives.

Gail Lavarro the Campus Director, Marli Jenkins and Clyde Monma are co-presidents of Campus Stewards, the nonprofit helping sustain and revitalize the South Whidbey Community Center.

And Peggy Taylor is co-founder of Create Space Langley, a volunteer-run community arts project located right here on the campus, offering affordable art and music experiences designed to make creativity accessible to almost everyone.

So today we’re talking about shared space, affordability, collaboration — and what can happen when a community gives ideas somewhere to grow.

Gail, Marli, Clyde and Peggy, welcome to Local Whidbey Podcast.

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Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

Welcome to Local Whidbey Podcast, where we share the stories of the people who live, work, and make a difference on Whidbey Island, Washington. I’m Magsy, and today I’m continueing the conversation within the Creative Economy Builders.

When we talk about a creative economy, it’s easy to think about artists, restaurants, theaters, makers and entrepreneurs.

But there’s something all of those people need before they can build a life—or help build a community.

They need a place to live.

And on Whidbey Island, that’s becoming increasingly difficult.

So, for this episode of Creative Economy Builders, I wanted to start with someone working on one of the most fundamental pieces of our island’s future.

Amy Wheeler is the Executive Director of Home on Whidbey, a community land trust with a mission to create permanently affordable homes and thriving communities on Whidbey Island.

Amy is no stranger to building community here. Before taking on this role, she spent years leading Hedgebrook, helping grow the Whidbey-based writers’ residency into an internationally recognized organization.

Now she’s turning her attention to a very different challenge—and one that ultimately affects nearly everything else we talk about on this podcast.

Who gets to call Whidbey home?

How do teachers, artists, healthcare workers, restaurant employees, entrepreneurs and young families build lives here when home prices continue moving beyond their reach?

And what if there’s another way to think about homeownership altogether?

Amy Wheeler, welcome to Local Whidbey.

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Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

There are towns you visit because of the scenery, towns you visit because of their history—and increasingly, there are towns you visit because you know you’re going to eat really well when you get there.

Coupeville might just be becoming all three.

Over the last several years, something interesting has been happening in this little town overlooking Penn Cove. A collection of restaurants, bakeries, farms and food entrepreneurs has begun creating what feels less like a group of separate businesses and more like a culinary ecosystem.

And three of the people helping make that happen are sitting with me today.

Sophia and Chef Ben Jones are the owners of The Oystercatcher, the beloved Coupeville restaurant they took over in 2023, and Osprey Fish Co., its considerably more casual—and maybe slightly mischievous—younger sibling.

And then there’s Tyler Hansen, who knows The Oystercatcher very well because he once owned it himself. Today, he’s one of the people behind Little Red Hen Bakery, where a bread-making experiment that started with eight Dutch ovens grew into a business built around locally grown grain.

Then their worlds connected again.

Sophia and Tyler, along with their partners, helped create Goldie’s and The Roost, bringing pizza, pasta, natural wine, cocktails and another gathering place into Coupeville’s growing food scene.

What fascinates me isn’t simply that all these businesses exist.

It’s that they’re connected.

The baker works with the farmer. The grain grown just outside town becomes flour, bread, pizza and pasta. Former restaurant owners become collaborators with new restaurant owners. And rather than competing for the same diner, they seem to be creating more reasons for people to come to Coupeville in the first place.

So for Creative Economy Builders, I wanted to ask a bigger question:

Can a handful of food businesses actually help change the identity—and the economy—of a small town?

Sophia, Ben and Tyler, welcome to Local Whidbey.

LITTLE RED HEN | OYSTERCATCHER | OSPREY | GOLDIES

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

When most of us hear the word port, we probably picture boats, docks and shipping.

But on Whidbey Island, the Port of Coupeville is something much more interesting.

It is responsible for two of the island’s most recognizable public assets: the historic Coupeville Wharf and Greenbank Farm.

 One sits over Penn Cove and has been part of Coupeville’s waterfront identity for generations.

 The other encompasses farmland, trails, wetlands, businesses, art, food and gathering spaces in the middle of the island.

 And both have something important in common:

 They’re public assets that also have to work economically.

 That makes the Port of Coupeville a fascinating Creative Economy Builder.

 Its job isn’t simply to preserve historic buildings or maintain property. It’s to think about how these places can support entrepreneurs, attract visitors, host events, create opportunities for local businesses and continue serving the community for generations.

 And there’s a relatively new person leading that work.

 Marisa Michaud became Executive Director of the Port of Coupeville this past year, bringing more than two decades of experience in logistics and transportation leadership along with ten years of experience serving on a public school board.

 She also happens to be someone who was already spending time walking Greenbank Farm, biking around Coupeville and enjoying Penn Cove long before it became her job to help steward them.

 So today I want to talk about something bigger than buildings.

 How do you preserve what people love about Whidbey while still allowing places to evolve?

 How can publicly owned spaces help small businesses grow?

 And what could Greenbank Farm and the Coupeville Wharf become next?

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

This episode of Creative Economy Builders is a little different.

I’m reaching back into Season 2 of Local Whidbey to revisit a conversation that, looking at it now, was really a Creative Economy Builders story all along.

Every Labor Day weekend, downtown Oak Harbor transforms. Streets fill with people. Musicians come in from across the country. Food trucks roll in. Local businesses see crowds they might never see on an ordinary weekend. And the public gets to experience all of it for free.

The Oak Harbor Music Festival is obviously about music. But it’s also about what happens when creativity becomes an economic catalyst. A great event gives people a reason to come downtown. Then they stay. They eat. They shop. They discover businesses they may not have noticed before. And for one weekend, the energy of an entire city changes.

My guest is Larry Mason, one of the driving forces behind the Oak Harbor Music Festival. When we originally recorded this conversation, we talked about moving to Oak Harbor as a toddler, his musician journey, Island Trollers, the festival, the musicians and what it takes to put an event of this scale together.

Listening back now, I hear something else too. I hear a story about how culture can create foot traffic, community pride, tourism and economic activity — all while remaining accessible to everyone. That makes it a perfect fit for Creative Economy Builders.

Here’s my conversation with Larry Mason.

WEBSITE OH MUSIC FESTIVAL | WEBSITE ISLAND TROLLERS | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

When we talk about Whidbey’s creative economy, we often talk about the people who live here and build something.

 But there’s another piece of a creative economy that may be just as important:

 Can you create something compelling enough that talented people choose to come here—and then choose to come back?

 Every year, Island Shakespeare Festival brings professional actors, directors, designers and theater artists to Whidbey to create work alongside local talent.

 They live here. They eat here. They shop here. They become part of the community. Some return year after year. And sometimes, the work they create here begins to belong to Whidbey itself.

 Today I have three people who can tell that story from very different perspectives.

 Olena Hodges is the Executive Artistic Director of Island Shakespeare Festival. She grew up on Whidbey, left the island for professional theatrical training, and ultimately came home to help build professional theater in the community where she first discovered it.

Davion Brown is an internationally nomadic freelance artist originally from Australia. This is his third season with Island Shakespeare Festival. This summer he played Robin Hood—and now he’s moved from interpreting someone else’s story to writing one of his own. He’s the playwright behind ISF’s current project, Marcellus Andronicus: The Curse of House Andronici. an-dro-NEE-sigh

 And Brandon Gregory is originally from Atlanta and now lives in Baltimore. He returned to Whidbey for his second season with ISF and is directing the current project.

 So today, I don’t just want to talk about putting on Shakespeare.

 I want to talk about something bigger.

 Why do professional actors come to a little island in Washington to make theater?

 What makes them come back?

 What happens when an arts organization moves beyond presenting existing work and starts creating new work here?

 And what would it take for Whidbey to become not simply a place that appreciates artists—but a place where artists come specifically to create?

ISF WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

When people hear the words arts commission, they may picture a committee that chooses murals, reviews public art, or helps organize cultural events.

But an arts commission can do something much bigger.

It can help shape how a city sees itself.

It can influence what our public spaces look like, which stories get told, where creativity shows up, and whether residents feel like they live in a place with its own cultural identity.

That’s why I wanted the Oak Harbor Arts Commission represented in this season of Creative Economy Builders.

Oak Harbor is the largest city on Whidbey Island, and it’s also a city in transition. There are conversations happening around downtown, public spaces, arts access, cultural identity, events, tourism, and what kind of community Oak Harbor wants to become over the next decade.

Today I’m joined by JR Russell, Chair of the Oak Harbor Arts Commission.

JR brings an interesting perspective to the role because creativity isn’t just something he advocates for — it’s part of his own life. By trade, he’s a magician.

So today I want to talk less about JR’s résumé and more about the work: what the Arts Commission is responsible for, what it wants to accomplish, where Oak Harbor’s creative opportunities are being missed, and why arts and culture matter to the economic future of a city.

JR Russell, welcome to Local Whidbey.

SUBMIT AN IDEA TO THE ARTS COMMISSION

JR RUSSELL MUSICIAN | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

Today's guest is Catherine Markel, who moved to Oak Harbor with her husband in late 2024. They didn't know anyone here, and they weren't moving because of the military. They simply found Whidbey, fell in love with it, and decided to make a very different kind of life.

Catherine came from a career as an attorney handling child abuse case—a job that left her angry at the world and frustrated by what she saw happening around children and the people responsible for helping them.

She knew she didn't want to work full time anymore. She wanted to do things she had never had the opportunity to do before.

Then she Googled "volunteering on Whidbey Island."

And that's where this story takes an unexpected turn.

She found HOPE Therapeutic Riding Program, rediscovered a love of horses she'd had as a child, and found something she wasn't necessarily looking for: a community of women who supported one another while helping riders with very different needs find connection, confidence and joy.

Today, Catherine isn't just a volunteer. She's an instructor and a board member.

And she says that the women and volunteers at HOPE became her family—and helped her become less angry, less wary, and more hopeful.

I was particularly interested in Catherine's story because sometimes reinvention isn't about finding another career. Sometimes it's about finding the people and the place that allow you to become a different version of yourself.

So let's talk about leaving one life behind, finding a new one on Whidbey, and what horses—and a remarkable group of women—have taught Catherine along the way.

CATHERINE'S WEBSITE | HOPE INSTA | HOPE WEBSITE

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

Today's story is a reinvention story, but with little different perspective on Oak Harbor a lot of us do not have.

Sometimes reinvention means leaving. Sometimes it means starting over. And sometimes, after years away, it means coming home.

My guest grew up right here in Oak Harbor. After high school, she left and spent the next 20 years building a life in Lake Stevens. Along the way, she created Honest Chatter, a blog that became a place for real conversations about life, wellness, style, and the things that matter to us beneath the surface.

Eventually, she and her high school sweetheart made the decision to return to the place where they grew up—and together, they took over a business in Oak Harbor.

But coming home hasn't simply been about returning to what they knew.

She's looking at Oak Harbor with fresh eyes. She's reconnecting with people, building community, and using her voice and her growing presence on Instagram to encourage people to see this town not simply as a place where they happen to live, but as a place worth loving.

And I think that's particularly interesting in a Navy town like Oak Harbor, where people are constantly arriving, leaving, putting down roots, or wondering whether they should. There's a fascinating space between the longtime residents and the transient military community—and she's interested in what happens in that space.

So today we're going to talk about leaving home, coming back, what changes when you see your hometown through adult eyes, and what it takes to help create the kind of community you want to live in.

VISIT MELODY: INSTAGRAM | BLOG | FACEBOOK

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.

What if the next great agricultural story in Washington isn’t wine, apples or berries—but tea?

That may sound improbable. Washington has never exactly been known as tea country. But on Whidbey Island, a group of farmers, entrepreneurs and culinary professionals are betting that the Pacific Northwest could become home to something entirely new: a thriving tea-growing region.

The ambition is enormous. Vale, a matcha-making company, has acquired 365 acres on North Whidbey, plans to plant tea across roughly 200 of those acres, and ultimately hopes to grow one million tea plants. The goal isn't simply to produce matcha. It's to see whether tea can take root here—and whether an industry can grow around it.

If Walla Walla can transform itself into a destination defined by wine, could Cascadia one day be known for tea?

I was at the Vale Farms unveiling on Wednesday, August 26, and recorded presentations from Luke, Fife, Eva and Chef Jeffrey. The outdoor setting made recording challenging, so you'll hear some of their story through those presentations and some through interviews they recorded afterward specifically for this episode.

You'll hear how a health scare changed Luke's direction, how a global matcha shortage sent the Vale team to Japan, how tea plants made their way from Hawaiʻi to Whidbey, why this team believes the Pacific Northwest could one day become known for exceptional tea—and what they're hoping to discover about the flavor of tea grown right here.

Because they're not trying to recreate Japan on Whidbey Island.

They're trying to discover what Whidbey Island tea might become.

I hope you enjoy this special presentation, which I'm calling “The Next Walla Walla? Make It Cascadia Tea on Whidbey Island.”

VALE FARMS WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM 

Follow LOCAL WHIDBEY WITH MAGSY at @LocalWhidbeyPodcast ... Link: INSTAGRAM and on Facebook.

You may also get to know Magsy and subscribe for invites to her supper club, at https://withmagsy.com.

PODCAST SPONSORED BY THE OAK HARBOR CREATIVE ARTS FOUNDATION. Click on link to show your support for the Oak Harbor Performing Arts Center.