Gig Harbor Community Member

Guest editorial: YMCA helps foster open and honest dialogue

May 23, 2023

The YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties Bridge of Hope initiative sponsored two community dialogues on the topic of “Exploring the Complexity of Homelessness in the Gig Harbor Key Peninsula Community.” The Bridge of Hope‘s purpose is to “gather people within Pierce and Kitsap Counties who desire to increase civility, understanding, hope, and trust by

In the Margins: Bruce the boat whisperer keeps history afloat

May 17, 2023

Ask those who have owned an old wooden boat, and it’s likely they will tell you a story involving family lore, lessons learned, and a few blissful moments on the water. In the 1920s and ’30s, when the Skansie brothers were building commercial fishing boats in Gig Harbor, another pair of boatbuilding siblings — the

Wellness Wednesday: Mental Health Awareness Month

May 10, 2023

The Wellness Wednesday column is written by Scot Fleshman, an advanced registered nurse practitioner and board-certified family nurse practitioner. Fleshman and his wife, Jessica Hopkins, own Gig Harbor Primary Care. Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in the U.S. for 73 years, and the need for awareness has only grown since then. Throughout the month of May,

Guest editorial: Midday Rotary delivers $4,000 worth of goods to Food Backpacks 4 Kids

May 01, 2023

Gig Harbor Midday Rotary initiated a project to provide extra food for Food Backpacks 4 Kids, a local food bank that provides essential food items for families with food insecurity on the Key Peninsula. The project’s objective was to mitigate food insecurity in the region, particularly during the months of March and April, which are

Guest column: Can you be your own general contractor?

Apr 26, 2023

Recently, when discussing budgeting for a residential addition and renovation project, I casually mentioned that general contractor profit and overhead is around 20 percent. My client asked the obvious follow-up: “If we are the general contractors, and do some of the work ourselves, can we save 20 percent?” Unfortunately, the math is not that simple.

Letter to the editor: Community donated nearly 900 teddy bears

Apr 26, 2023

Kiwanis Club of Gig Harbor’s Key Club members at Peninsula High School, would like to express their appreciation to the entire community for generous contributions of teddy bears and money towards the Operation Teddy Bear project. Key Club members wanted to collect 600 new or gently-used teddy bears and enough money to ship the bears

In the Margins: Live your life like Hurley did

Apr 19, 2023

Christopher Phillips, a Gig Harbor community member since 1981 and former managing editor of The Peninsula Gateway, is a retired journalist and communications executive who worked for Russell Investments, the Port of Tacoma, and the Washington State Investment Board. His column, In the Margins, explores our community’s people, places and experiences, some of which might

Wellness Wednesday: Risks, symptoms and preventative measures for colorectal cancer

Apr 12, 2023

The Wellness Wednesday column is written by Scot Fleshman, an advanced registered nurse practitioner and board-certified family nurse practitioner. Fleshman and his wife, Jessica Hopkins, own Gig Harbor Primary Care.             Did you know that “colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the U.S.,” according

Inside Gig Harbor Real Estate: Let’s talk about first-time home sellers

Apr 05, 2023

Paige Schulte, founder of the Neighborhood Experts Real Estate office in Gig Harbor, writes a monthly column for Gig Harbor Now about the local real estate market. This week, she is joined by Neighborhood Experts agent Alison Paoli.     When we think of first-timers in the real estate market, we often think of first-time

Guest editorial: Adding context about Arts Commission deliberations

Apr 03, 2023

Submit guest editorials or emails to Gig Harbor Now by emailing to [email protected]. In response to “Spring Market planned for mid-May near Civic Center” (March 28, 2023): Your article proclaimed that the Gig Harbor Arts Commission “granted nothing” to the Local Makers Festival and I’d like to help explain why that was the case. I