By Jenn Reidel
For The Beachcomber

Vashon islanders Pete Welch and Allison Shirk met four years ago through music. She is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and grant writer. He says he can’t sing or play music, but he loves being around it, and that is how he got into booking shows at many island venues like the Red Bicycle, the island’s Strawberry Festival and Concerts in the Park.

Both dream up a lot of projects. One of their projects is Vashon Events at vashonevents.com, a poster-driven website listing arts and cultural events and charity fundraisers happening on Vashon.

Jenn Reidel: What is at the heart of Vashon Events?

Allison Shirk: It is all about building community. We have had people write to us about Vashon Events, and they said, “I have just moved here and want to thank you for your site, because I already feel way more connected to the community.” People who come to the island can see they are part of something. We love that.

Pete Welch: Allison hit on that pretty directly. We are welcoming new people to the island, but we are also welcoming our community to get together and get out and enjoy some of the great events going on here. So come out. Quit sitting on your couch and enjoy life. Life is short.

Reidel: You say the website takes a lot of your time. Why are you basically volunteering your time to organize and share the information?

Welch: We do it because we love it and there is a need for it. Doing something for the community feels good.

Shirk: I am from a really small town in Texas. When I moved here, I wanted to feel connected to the island. I feel more connected here than I did in Texas in a lot of ways. That drives us. We want to know who our neighbors are. We are raising young kids and we want this to be a safe community.

Welch: I have met so many people through music, and now Vashon Events. When I first meet them, I meet them for what they do. They may play a guitar or they may paint watercolors, but then you start building a relationship with this person, and all of a sudden they are your friends and all of the other stuff takes a backseat. We have made some really great friendships with people, and that is important to us.

Reidel: What other ideas do you have for Vashon Events?

Shirk: It is not hard to draw a connection to the fact that there is a drug problem on the island with our youth because there are no places for our youth to go. One of our goals in the future for Vashon Events is to figure out a way to highlight the events that are kid friendly and especially for young adults under 21. We also want to expand the site to include civic activities.

— Jenn Reidel is a freelance web designer, fine art photographer and writer who lives on Vashon. To read more of her Welcome Vashon interviews, see  www.welcomevashon.net.