Like any community, North Kitsap is a community of people from different cultures and different faiths. And yet, as members of this community, there is much that binds us together as one.
We mourned together. As the new year dawns, we carry with us the memory of those who are no longer with us.
We shared the experience of struggling to pay bills. Kitsap County’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent in November. That means 113,481 had jobs, but it also means 6,616 of our fellow Kitsap residents did not. And wages are not keeping up with increases in the cost of living. At North Kitsap Fishline, each household that moves off the client list is followed by another. Escalating housing costs are putting rents and home ownership out of reach for many.
Poulsbo’s businesses are having a good year — sales tax revenue generated in Poulsbo could surpass last year’s total, resulting in the best sales-tax year of the last five years. But several businesses that opened at the beginning of 2016 did not see the year’s end.
We saw need and responded. Members of our community gave to the Poulsbo Lions Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund and ShareNet Neighbor Aid, and opened a severe-weather shelter at the Village Green Community Center in Kingston. And yet, more volunteers are needed so that Gateway Fellowship in Poulsbo can open its doors as a severe-weather shelter — it would be one of four in this county of a quarter-million people.
Churches continue to open their doors for community meals every week all year long. Hundreds of families received food for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year thanks to the Poulsbo Lions Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund, North Kitsap Fishline, St. Vincent de Paul, and local churches.
We’ve met a lot of challenges together. We don’t know what 2017 will bring, but we do know this: We each have a role in keeping our community strong, in making sure no one falls through the cracks. When times are tough, our community will survive — but we will only do so together.
Yes, our community is comprised of people of different cultures and different faiths, but we all share one thing in common: Commitment to make tomorrow better.
We wish you all the blessings of the season, and a happy and healthy 2017.
