The WhatcomTalk Events Calendar shares things to do around Whatcom County including Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine and beyond. Find fun activities and adventures throughout the region on our comprehensive events calendar. Have an event that isn’t listed? Click the green “Post your Event” button and our editors will review and approve within two business days.
Brigadoon Service Dogs is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide service dogs for veterans, other adults, and children with physical, developmental, and behavioral health disabilities, to promote a more independent and enriched life.
It takes two years and costs $30,000 to raise a service dog. Most people in need cannot afford the cost. Brigadoon’s annual Auction helps us bridge the financial gap so that civilians and children only pay a third of the cost and veterans never pay.
Brigadoon’s week-long online auction begins Monday, September 12 at 8am and ends Saturday evening, September 17, 2021 at 7p. Sign up for our online auction-It’s free! www.brigadoondogs.org/2022auction.
Our In-Person Auction is on Saturday, September 17, 2022, starts at 5:30p and ends at 930pm at the Hotel Bellwether Ballroom located at 12 Bellwether Way in Bellingham. Admission cost is $90 per ticket and includes a delightful dinner with a festive silent and live auction. It will be a night to remember. RSVP by September 7, 2022 by visiting our auction website: www.brigadoondogs.org/2022auction
We’re pleased to welcome Mark Yaconelli to the Readings Gallery for an inspiring event about the importance of stories. In an increasingly fast-paced and fractured world, sharing stories can be a radical and deeply human practice for uncovering the ties that bind us to one another. Story invites us to step into the reality of another person’s existence and instead of judgment feel kinship. Through his work with The Hearth nonprofit, Mark Yaconelli has used personal storytelling to help communities across the United States and United Kingdom bridge divisions, heal trauma, shed light on injustice, and recover hope. Based on his new book, Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, Yaconelli will lead an engaging and interactive presentation inviting participants to experience the power of story to heal our families, our world, ourselves.
Our sin & gin tours explore Bellingham’s history of vice from the early wild-west days through prohibition and beyond.
Two separate tours to choose from – downtown and Fairhaven!
Content warning: sex and adult language Rated mature 😉
SIN AND GIN TOURS run regularly every Sinful Saturday at 7 pm between May and September, and are available as private tours year round!
Space is limited, reserve your spot on our website!
Don’t miss your opportunity to see Rise Up! Featuring an ensemble of top vocalists and musicians that performs show tunes from Hamilton, In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, Rent, Wicked, Waitress, and more, Rise Up is a non-dramatic cabaret ensemble performing a selection of your favorite show tunes. This show is a cultural phenomenon blending elements of hip-hop and R&B with Broadway.
Rise Up’s 10-piece ensemble has performed throughout Pacific Northwest venues like Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Olympia’s Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Portland’s Alberta Rose Theatre, and Tacoma’s Rialto Theater. Rise Up was named Kirkland Performance Center’s ‘2019 Artist of the Year’ and runner-up for Seattle Weekly’s ‘Best of Seattle 2018: Best Musical Act’. Rise Up’s primary inspiration is Hamilton, which won eleven Tony Awards, including ‘2016 Best Musical.’
After a two-year hiatus, the Bellingham Chamber Music Society is excited to return with an exciting lineup of concerts to be performed in the elegant and newly restored ballroom of the Hotel Leo. The society has four concerts planned from September through May at this new venue and guests will be able to enjoy a signature cocktail crafted by Amendment 21’s bartender for each concert.
The opening concert of the Bellingham Chamber Music Society will feature the seldom performed “Sextet in e minor” by Gustav Holst for winds and strings. Influenced by traditional English folksong, this work features wide expansive melodies and intricate sonorities and represents Holst as a young composer, seventeen years before he wrote his famous orchestral work “The Planets”. This will be followed by the Brahms “String Quintet no. 1 in F Major”, also known as the “double viola quintet” as it is scored for two violas creating a very lush sound scape. Brahms once told his longtime friend, Clara Schumann, that this was “one of his finest works”.
Visit our website: Musicinbellingham.com to purchase tickets and have a look at our guest artists and full season.
The Claire invites you to a sweeping gothic musical where murder and chaos are pitted against love and virtue.
StageAgent.com says, “Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic thriller, Jekyll & Hyde is the gripping tale of a brilliant mind gone horrifically awry, set to a powerful pop-rock score by Frank Wildhorn with book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. In an attempt to cure his ailing father’s mental illness by separating “good” from “evil” in the human personality, talented physician Dr. Jekyll inadvertently creates an alternate personality of pure evil, dubbed Mr. Hyde, who wreaks murderous havoc on the city of London. As his fiancée Emma grows increasingly fearful for her betrothed, a prostitute, Lucy, finds herself dangerously involved with both the doctor and his alter ego. Struggling to control Hyde before he takes over for good, Jekyll must race to find a cure for the demon he has created in his own mind.”
Jekyll & Hyde, The Musical
Directed by Kayla Condos
Thursday-Saturday evening shows:
September 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, October 1 at 7:30pm
Sunday matinees: September 18, 25 & October 2 at 2pm
Tickets:
$13 Adult
$11 Seniors/Students
**$ 9 Children (ages 4-9)**
*MATURE CONTENT, this show is not recommended for children under the age of 14*
**Out of respect for your fellow patrons, please refrain from bringing any children under the age of 4 into our theatre as they can be distracting to the actors and the audience. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.**
TICKETS ON SALE NOW: TheClaire.org or by calling (360)354-4425
+Health Protocol: We ask everyone who enters the theatre to comply with current CDC guidelines.+
Join Sustainable Connections for a month-long celebration of local food and those who grow, raise, fish, make, and cook it to share with us! All month long we’ll be highlighting opportunities to meet your chef, farmer, fisher, and grocer and experience the unique flavors of our region. Local restaurants will prepare special Eat Local Month dishes with local produce, and these will be available all month long. One of the biggest events of Eat Local Month is the Whatcom County Farm Tour on September 17 from 10 am – 4 pm.
Bellingham’s premier vegan festival returns for its second year! Bellingham Veg Fest is a family-friendly festival that celebrates plant-based food, products and lifestyles. The festival features food, art, crafts, and demo booths. Everyone from the veg-curious to full-fledged vegans will find delightful things to see, do, and eat.
The City of Bellingham is partnering with the Port of Bellingham and Kulshan Brewing Co. for a free, fun, all-ages event to kick off the City’s annual ALL IN for Climate Action Week, a week of climate-themed events hosted by the Bellingham community between September 19-25.
Join us on Sunday, September 18 between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to celebrate and learn more about Bellingham climate action! Bring your family and friends to the Kulshan Trackside Beer Garden and Downtown Waterfront Portal Village to enjoy these activities and more:
– Live music by The Walrus
– Live circus act and interactive kids zone
– Electric bike demos by Sun-E-Land Bikes
– Educational booths featuring hands-on activities
– Community speakers
– Face painting
– Food trucks
– WTA bus to walk on and practice loading bike on
Kulshan is offering $1 off your first pint of beer if you bike, walk, or take the bus to the event. Let’s Bike Bellingham will provide a bike valet. Visit cob.org/caw-kickoff-2022 to learn more.
Find a full list of Climate Action Week events, happening between Sept. 19-25, at cob.org/climate-action-week.
Interfaith Coalition is a local nonprofit that has helped 200 Whatcom County families with children move from homelessness to housed, acquire job skills, secure employment, receive subsidies for childcare and housing, and dozens of other core needs that break families out of the cycle of homelessness.
To ensure their vital work in the community continues, they’re hosting the Hope Auction on Sunday, September 18, 5:30 pm at Twin Sisters Brewing Company. With a slider and salad bar, made by Twin Sisters chefs, open bar Social Hour with beer, wine, and cocktails, plus the popular live auction that includes items such as an Irish Feast with Whiskey Tasting for 8 and 5 Nights in a gorgeous Whistler Condo, guests will be treated to a spirited celebration with connection that doesn’t involve Zoom or reminding people that they’re on mute.
The week leading up to the event will be an online silent auction that everyone in our community is invited to view and bid from the comfort of their couch.
This September, join the City of Bellingham for its 4th annual ALL IN for Climate Action Week, a week of events hosted by the Bellingham community to celebrate and increase awareness of local climate action. Start the week at our kickoff celebration on Sunday, September 18 from 3-7 p.m. at the Downtown Waterfront and Kulshan Trackside Beer Garden. This free, fun, all-ages event will include live music, a circus act, kids zone, educational booths, e-bike demos, food trucks and more!
Then check out some of the 20+ events hosted by the Bellingham community between September 19-25. Local organizations, businesses and entities have partnered to create virtual and safe in-person events for all ages and diverse interests, including:
– Art contest for kids and youth art display
– Volunteer work parties (Squalicum Creek Park and Whatcom Falls Park)
– Recycled art supply sale
– E-bike demos
– Virtual webinars:
– Climate Emotions Fueling Climate Action
– International Day of Peace
– Embracing Resilience and Igniting Imagination
– Heat Pumps: Save Emissions, Energy, and Money!
– Let’s Talk About Electric Vehicles
– Climate-friendly cooking demo
– Film showings (The Magnitude of All Things and Pom Poko Film Screening)
– Sunset social on the waterfront
– Green Building Slam
– WWU climate tour and Climate StoryWalks®
– Climate action book lists
Find a full list of events at www.cob.org/climate-action-week.
Join Sustainable Connections for a month-long celebration of local food and those who grow, raise, fish, make, and cook it to share with us! All month long we’ll be highlighting opportunities to meet your chef, farmer, fisher, and grocer and experience the unique flavors of our region. Local restaurants will prepare special Eat Local Month dishes with local produce, and these will be available all month long. One of the biggest events of Eat Local Month is the Whatcom County Farm Tour on September 17 from 10 am – 4 pm.
From the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Lima, Peru to the floating villages at 12,500-foot elevation on Lake Titicaca, Peru is a beautiful country filled with courteous and colorfully-dressed people. This Talk concentrates on three distinct features of the country: The Inca ruins located at the higher elevations which naturally includes the improperly-named Machu Picchu; the people, their homes and their colorful clothing; and the area around Lake Titicaca to include the floating island villages. The segment on Panama is brief and focuses on the difference in the instructors’ expectations of what the canal would look like and its actual configuration. At the conclusion of the Talk, all attendees receive, via email, an illustrated document that provides more in-depth information than that given during the PowerPoint presentation. Sorry, Peruvian guinea pig and coca tea is not served during the talk.
Registration ends: September 15, 2022
Instructor: Jeff Eastman
For 42 years Jeff taught overseas for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools (now DoDEA) where students are the dependent children of U.S. military personnel. Although he taught a variety of subjects over the years, one of his favorite endeavors was to help teachers and their students get off-base to see local historical, cultural and geographical features of our host nations. Personally, Jeff had always wanted to visit Machu Picchu and see the reed boats of Lake Titicaca since learning about them in elementary school. The Panama Canal also intrigued him since childhood, especially from the time his grandfather quizzed him about the canal’s geographic orientation, something that fascinated his grandfather during his transit of the canal back in the 1950’s.
Guest Registration: Send email to alltalks@comcast.net with your name, email address and the title of the ALL Talks you want to attend.
This September, join the City of Bellingham for its 4th annual ALL IN for Climate Action Week, a week of events hosted by the Bellingham community to celebrate and increase awareness of local climate action. Start the week at our kickoff celebration on Sunday, September 18 from 3-7 p.m. at the Downtown Waterfront and Kulshan Trackside Beer Garden. This free, fun, all-ages event will include live music, a circus act, kids zone, educational booths, e-bike demos, food trucks and more!
Then check out some of the 20+ events hosted by the Bellingham community between September 19-25. Local organizations, businesses and entities have partnered to create virtual and safe in-person events for all ages and diverse interests, including:
– Art contest for kids and youth art display
– Volunteer work parties (Squalicum Creek Park and Whatcom Falls Park)
– Recycled art supply sale
– E-bike demos
– Virtual webinars:
– Climate Emotions Fueling Climate Action
– International Day of Peace
– Embracing Resilience and Igniting Imagination
– Heat Pumps: Save Emissions, Energy, and Money!
– Let’s Talk About Electric Vehicles
– Climate-friendly cooking demo
– Film showings (The Magnitude of All Things and Pom Poko Film Screening)
– Sunset social on the waterfront
– Green Building Slam
– WWU climate tour and Climate StoryWalks®
– Climate action book lists
Find a full list of events at www.cob.org/climate-action-week.
Join Sustainable Connections for a month-long celebration of local food and those who grow, raise, fish, make, and cook it to share with us! All month long we’ll be highlighting opportunities to meet your chef, farmer, fisher, and grocer and experience the unique flavors of our region. Local restaurants will prepare special Eat Local Month dishes with local produce, and these will be available all month long. One of the biggest events of Eat Local Month is the Whatcom County Farm Tour on September 17 from 10 am – 4 pm.
Online trivia through Zoom, every Tuesday night, featuring a mix of gallery and breakout rooms allowing you to socialize while you play several rounds of trivia including a weekly suggested category.
Zoom link available each week at http://Facebook.com/WorldsBestTrivia.
Teams or individuals can play. To participate in scoring, teams designate a scribe who submits answers using google forms. Players of all ages welcome!
Submit your best photo of your dog and/or enter to win super handy scooping prizes! During the whole month of September, dog owners are invited to take or renew their pledge to “scoop every poop and put it in the trash!” Pledgers are automatically entered in the We Scoop Prize Drawing to win their choice of a Scooping at Home Prize Pack (includes a long-handled scooper and light-up collar) or a Scooping on Walks Prize Pack (includes a pack out waist pack, 20 rolls of bags, and a light-up collar).
Do you think you’re dog’s a cutie? Submit your best picture in our contest. Your dog may star in future We Scoop flyers, posters and ads. There will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards and prizes given for Judge’s Choice and People’s Choice.
Information at cob.org/scooppoop
The outstanding creative history of the Pacific Northwest has inspired Gallery Syre to bring
together four local artists of different generations who, each in their own way, exemplify the rich creative heritage of the region. The goal is to offer a collective portrait of the Pacific Northwest school of art, one that’s ever-evolving, bountiful, and full of character.
Artists: Francis Xavier Donovan, Anita H. Lehmann, Bonnie Smerdon, David Syre
This September, join the City of Bellingham for its 4th annual ALL IN for Climate Action Week, a week of events hosted by the Bellingham community to celebrate and increase awareness of local climate action. Start the week at our kickoff celebration on Sunday, September 18 from 3-7 p.m. at the Downtown Waterfront and Kulshan Trackside Beer Garden. This free, fun, all-ages event will include live music, a circus act, kids zone, educational booths, e-bike demos, food trucks and more!
Then check out some of the 20+ events hosted by the Bellingham community between September 19-25. Local organizations, businesses and entities have partnered to create virtual and safe in-person events for all ages and diverse interests, including:
– Art contest for kids and youth art display
– Volunteer work parties (Squalicum Creek Park and Whatcom Falls Park)
– Recycled art supply sale
– E-bike demos
– Virtual webinars:
– Climate Emotions Fueling Climate Action
– International Day of Peace
– Embracing Resilience and Igniting Imagination
– Heat Pumps: Save Emissions, Energy, and Money!
– Let’s Talk About Electric Vehicles
– Climate-friendly cooking demo
– Film showings (The Magnitude of All Things and Pom Poko Film Screening)
– Sunset social on the waterfront
– Green Building Slam
– WWU climate tour and Climate StoryWalks®
– Climate action book lists
Find a full list of events at www.cob.org/climate-action-week.
Join Sustainable Connections for a month-long celebration of local food and those who grow, raise, fish, make, and cook it to share with us! All month long we’ll be highlighting opportunities to meet your chef, farmer, fisher, and grocer and experience the unique flavors of our region. Local restaurants will prepare special Eat Local Month dishes with local produce, and these will be available all month long. One of the biggest events of Eat Local Month is the Whatcom County Farm Tour on September 17 from 10 am – 4 pm.
Watch the Preview Video for Mastering the Art of Seeing
This class develops your skill and understanding of drawing, as we explore the essential element of line with graphite and pen/ink. Through this introduction to the elements of art – line, shape, space, value, texture and form – our class helps you identify, describe and create a work of art. Learn how simple it is to organize your ideas with thumbnail sketches to design a composition. Drawing from observation, participants experiment with contour lines and basic sketching techniques to develop their own personal style. Each week we explore, critique, compare and discuss different artists’ styles, subjects and mediums.
Materials Needed:
8.5″ x 11″ sketch book (minimum of 20 pages)
White vinyl eraser (polymer/plastic)
#2 pencil
* A 50-page sketch book will be available for $5 purchase in class.
Instructor: Trishia Dawn Coggins
Trisha Dawn Coggins is an art educator, designer, sculptress and photographer with a BFA from West Chester University, Art Teaching Certification from the Moore College of Art and Design and a master’s equivalency in fine arts from McDaniel College. She has designed, developed and instructed classes throughout Whatcom County.
Come learn more about The Borgen Project, volunteering, interning, and doing your part to end extreme world poverty in our lifetimes.
Are you curious about what happens “behind the scenes” at your local animal hospital? Did you know ER services exist for your furry friends as well? Join us as we discuss the day-to-day operations of an emergency animal clinic and explore the role of emergency care in the community as a whole.
The Koma Kulshan Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society hosts chapter meetings on the third Wednesday of every month from September through May. We are excited to announce our first in-person meeting since early 2020! We hope to see you there!
Date: Wednesday, September 21
Time: Meeting starts at 7:00 pm with some events starting at 5:00 and 5:30 pm. See itinerary below for details.
Location: Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA)
NSEA has graciously allowed us to use their facility for this meeting. This is where we had the spring plant sale, and to take advantage of the occasion and venue we’ll be having a few events before the meeting begins:
-5:00 to 6:30 pm: We will be selling the plants remaining from the spring plant sale (about 140 plants; two dozen species). There will be a steep discount with everything selling for $3. This will be a strictly in-person sale, not online. Credit card preferred, but cash or check accepted.
-5:30 to 6:30 pm: The current president of the board of NSEA (and past owner of Bellewood Acres), will lead a tour of the grounds, with a bit of history of NSEA, its mission, and an overview of its operations.
-7:00 pm: meeting begins with a short segment for the annual election of officers and committee chair announcements, and then we will have some fun and games, and enlightenment on all things seed. We will keep it short in consideration of the earlier activities.
Finally, for those interested in trying their hand at growing some of our native plants from seed, we will have a seed swap, although if you haven’t any seeds to trade, there will be lots of species for you to take home.
Important location info: From the Bakerview/Hannagan intersection, head east on East Bakerview Road. Go down the hill, follow the road around the left-hand corner, and make your first left, going through NSEA’s gate at the entrance of the property. Once through the gate, stay right of the wooden fish sculpture. Follow the driveway in, arcing around to the right, and park near the community building. ***Please do not park in front of the garage door as staff will need access to this area while you are here.***
From May 14, 1804, to October 16, 1805 — from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean and back — the Corps of Discovery, as the expedition company was called, traveled nearly 8,000 miles to map the newly-acquired Louisiana territory. We have all learned at least the basics of this remarkable journey of discovery, whose drama and success continues to fascinate historians, educators and travelers.
Now with Bob Vinatieri and his audio-visual presentation we explore “what happened next…” to the members of the expedition, and to the areas they explored. We examine the fate of a few Corps men plus Sacagawea and her baby, Pompey.
Also featured will be the tragic story of the first American group to follow the Corps: The Astorians. Each time the Lewis and Clark Corps reached a potential calamity, they came away unscathed. When the Astorians faced similar predicaments on their journey, the opposite occurred: Drama, hardship and death.
Instructor: Bob Vinatieri
Bob Vinatieri has been to over 60 countries on six continents on a wide variety of planes, boats and trains. He has lectured at Chicago’s City Wide College on both travel and geography. For the last few years, he has been a Road Scholar host and lecturer on several of the Columbia and Snake River boats and online.
