By Cali BagbyWeekly editor

It all started with a dream inspired by an article read on an airplane. Now 23 years later that vision is get-ting shined up and turning into a reality.

Linda Di Bona and Patt Moore are launching their business Green Gables Natural Home Interiors on Nov. 1. Green Gables features cabinetry, counter tops, tiles, textiles, flooring and paint and architectural finishes, all with a green focus. The products are a combination of materials that are organic, natural and recycled content. For instance, they only use wood and bamboo that comes from sustainable resources. As for what product is her favorite, Linda said that it is impossible to choose.

“I love it all,” exclaimed Linda about their products. “It’s exciting to me to have a whole line that fits into that original vision.”

The origin of that vision goes back to that airplane ride, which was a flight to Lopez Island for her brother Alan Di Bona’s wedding to Patt. The article she picked

up was called “Home safe home” by Jo Brown and out-lined the dangers of chemi-cals used in homes - every-thing from insulation to flooring. For Linda, reading that article changed the way she felt about the home.

“It scared the bejesus out of me,” said Linda. “There are so many chemicals in standard building products … it was a wake up call.”

After the wedding Linda went back to Southern California and hatched a plan to get into the green business. At that time there was no degree she could get for green interior design so she started reading and educating herself.

After many years of work-ing as a green design man-

ager and then working in a flooring store, she decided to move to Lopez.

“I fell in love with the island,” she said.

Despite her passion for green living, her plan to move to the island had noth-ing to do with wanting to work on homes.

She recalls her brother Alan telling her this may be a good time to revive her business plan for a green business. Linda responded by saying, “I just want to

work at a restaurant.”Yet, the conversation had

piqued her interest again and she started exploring the Internet about green liv-ing. Soon she was talking to Patt and they decided to go into business together.

“Linda has been fighting this front for a long time,” said Patt. “We are just reig-niting her original vision.”

Linda originally wrote up a business plan 17 years ago. The fact that she and Patt are not taking that plan and running with it makes sense.

“We are a perfect fit,” said Linda because of her experi-ence and because Patt is a computer and books wiz as well as an artist.

What is most important

for both of them is creating homes that have a connec-tion with the planet.

“I think we need to get back there to that connec-tion,” said Linda. “If we build using natural products and have a connection to the earth we inhabit then I think it brings more hope that we can take care of her.”

The Islands’ Weekly • Women in Business • www.islandsweekly.com • October 28, 2014 – Page 2

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(Right) Linda Di Bona and Patt Moore. (Above) Green Gables’ products are a com-bination of materials that are organic and natural and recycled content.

Fulfilling the dream of green living

The Islands’ Weekly • Women in Business • www.islandsweekly.com • October 28, 2014 – Page 3

By Cali BagbyWeekly editor

Lori Honeywell took over the Southend General Store and Restaurant almost two years ago.

“The community was so welcoming,” said Lori.

Lori and her husband Scott have been visiting Lopez since 1979 and Scott’s par-ents have been camping at Odlin Park since 1967. The couple purchased a vacation home in 2005 and started planning on how they could move to Lopez. Lori made the move from Kirkland two years ago and Scott is still commuting from his job in Seattle.

When they saw that the Southend General Store was for sale they knew they wanted to purchase it.

“We thought it had a lot of potential,” said Lori.

Lori spent 22 years as an escrow officer and though it’s a much different business, Lori says her time in the real estate world has helped her run the Southend.

“With both jobs you have to think on your feet and multi-task,” she said.

Her first goal was to beef up groceries and fresh produce sold at the store.

“We are still moving forward to becoming a full-service grocery,” Lori said.

Lori made sure to not make any major changes to the store when she took over.

Instead she kept the same staff and installed a suggestion box by the cashier. She waited to see what Lopezians wanted to see at the Southend first.

People asked for gluten-free food, good produce and overall better selection.

Other improvements included the open-ing of the restaurant in 2013. The dining area has been a successful endeavor run by Lori’s son JK and his wife Mariah.

A small and cozy bar opened last year in the back of the restaurant with beer and wine. Lori installed a large TV screen so people could come for sports games.

‘The World Cup was insane,” said Lori with a laugh. “A lot of die-hard fans were here.”

Other improvements include an upcom-ing holiday section and home items like candles. The Southend also now has wine tasting events on every third Tuesday of the month.

“It’s really a hub for this part of the island,” said Lori. “People come here to meet and greet.”

Lori said islanders enjoy coming into the store not just to peruse the aisles but to chat with her friendly staff. The majority of staff at the store are female. There are five female employees and three male workers.

“The women work really well together and collaborate,” she said. “The guys work well together, too. Everyone is enthusiastic, hardworking and generous.”

Southend General Store and Restaurant – a community hub on the island

Contributed photo

The ladies of the Southend General Store and Restaurant

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By Ande FinleyFormer LIHS President

When it came to making a living, women on Lopez were a busy group.

In 1873, Irene Weeks moved to Lopez with her husband, Lyman, and son, Oscar, to run the fledgling Lopez store for her brother, Hiram Hutchinson. When the store doubled as a post office in 1880, Irene also became the island’s first post-mistress. Out at Richardson in 1887, Mary Mann followed her example to run the soon-to-be-busy postal operation and Elisa Sperry had a brief tenure as the first Edwards (later changed to Otis) post-mistress in 1894.

Port Stanley’s Tumble Inn was operated by Frank Kilpatrick’s daughters, Dorothy and Patricia, in the 1920s and ‘30s. Earning the nickname, “The Stagger Out,” it was an inn and a restaurant as well as the main office for the Kelp Plant.

Female settlers in the early years worked as equal part-ners with their husbands to build up their farms and sell produce. Amelia Davis and

her husband, James Leonard Davis arrived with livestock, planks and 40 cents in 1869. Amelia carded, spun, knitted and dyed wool, made clothes for the family and produced butter of such fine quality that it earned a 10 cents pre-mium per pound.

Mary Lundy became proprietor of the Hodgson-Graham Store along with her husband, Ira, when William Graham sold them the store, cannery and other Richardson enterprises in 1916. Later, the store rebuilt on this site became the

beloved Richardson Store that lasted until its final fire in 1990. In the late 1930s, Edna Mueller gillnetted with her husband, Carl, on their boat based in MacKaye Harbor.

In 1922, the Pickering fam-

Lopez Island’s hardworking women

SEE WOMEN, PAGE 4

By Cherie SarrettJournal of the San Juans Sales Manager

From 1964 to 2014 the changes for women in busi-ness has been significant.

When I first started work-ing in 1967, women made up a very small part of the

total workforce. Although the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was in place at that time, women only made 66 per-cent of the income that their male counterparts made.

Yet we were happy to be working. Who were we? Were we the ladies from

“Mad Men”? Were we the beautiful wives who could survive on their looks, the voluptuous secretaries with benefits or the naïve, well educated, driven women who wanted to work in a man’s world and be treated as an equal? We were all of these women. We wanted to bring home the bacon and still be the best mother and wife possible. Now that we had the chance, we wanted to do it all.

My experiences in the workforce in the 1960s were much like you see on TV. The term “being hit on” was evident daily. We were attractive, we wore skirts, therefore we were free game.

There was no lack of dodging the hands that lin-gered a little too long or the ever-present sexual remarks and innuendos. I remember making $1.89 an hour and being told I was lucky to be making that “as a woman.” In part, we believed it. But in our hearts we knew our value, and we were willing to wait it out and prove our worth as pro-ductive employees no mat-

ter how long it took. We instilled in our daugh-

ters the need to have a career, to be able to take care of ourselves and our families. My father died when I was 8 years old, and I watched my 8th grade-edu-cated mother struggle to support two children while working two jobs: grocery clerk and cook at the school cafeteria. I didn’t want that for me or for my daughters. I couldn’t see taking the chance at being blindsided by the loss of the bread earner and not be able to recover.

By 2008, 56 percent of women were in the work-force up from 42 percent in 1975. But the pay for full-time working women in 2008 was still only 82 percent of a man’s income. Statistics show that it will be 2085 before we actually make the same as our male equivalents.

Even today the glass ceiling is hard to break through. Women comprise

only 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. We have made strides, but not great strides. I believe part of this is still the “good ole boy net-work” along with the “work-life” struggle that women contend with. It has been

a struggle. But from some-one who has been a part of this struggle for almost 50 years, we are still strong and we are still women of substance and passion.

The Islands’ Weekly • Women in Business • www.islandsweekly.com • October 28, 2014 – Page 4

Come in and check out our new shelves

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Michele Smith has 35-plus years of small business experienceAfter running Tanbark Marine in Friday Harbor she now manages

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are what make her a successIf you stop by Spencers to see Michele you’ll be greeted by

her two friendly dogs August and Shelbyher two friendly dogs August and Shelby

(360) 468-4391 • Lopez Island

Taking a look back at women in businessContributed photo / Scott Rasmussen

Journal of the San Juans Sales Manager, Cherie Sarrett.

ily moved to Lopez, bought the phone system and people remember that Mrs. Pickering ran a “telephone office” out on Fisherman Bay Road. Islanders shared party lines, and each family had a distinctive number of rings.

In the early decades of the 20th century, Lydia Richey, a col-lege graduate and a talented musician, taught piano, mandolin, guitar, violin and banjo to her many students. Amelia Davis and her husband also loved music and reading, spending half of their farm income on books and magazines. Their home

became the first (unofficial) lending library as well as a post office, Sunday school, hotel and dispensary.

Unmarried women looking to support themselves had few options. The more traditional route, of course, was teaching. Ella Cousins taught on Lopez from 1883 to 1891, Florence Johnson at Port Stanley School in 1897, Florence Allen and Louise Wakefield at Center School around 1905 and Miss Leonard became the first to teach at the new Lopez little red schoolhouse (now our library) when it opened in 1901.

Here on Lopez, at the two canneries built at Richardson in 1913, women hand-packed the salmon and lived dormitory-style at the Wander Inn.

Two retired teachers, Dort Horne and Helen “Louie” Lewis, bought 63 acres following a dream in 1945 and developed the legendary Sea Ranch Resort on a shoe string.

And Mary Jane Brown (Eaton), as an unmarried woman, homesteaded 40 acres at the corner of Mud Bay and Aleck Bay Roads and built her own house, before consenting to bring on a husband in 1893.

WOMENCONTINUED FROM 3

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