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Gone, but definitely not forgotten

by Meg Olson

Ginger Porter moved to Point Roberts 15 years ago, with four children and enough energy and humor for a whole town full of kids. When she moved to Blaine this Christmas she left big shoes and good friends behind.

“We need community events. Without the Ginger Porters of this world no one would ever meet anyone,” said friend Pam Oakley, who worked with Ginger on everything from the Fourth of July Parade to the Arts and Music Festival. “Ginger always had a great idea and was never afraid of the hard work and hours of time it took to make her great idea happen.”

Ginger chose to come to the Point because it was a safe and happy community to raise her children in. “When we first moved here our biggest argument was which beach to go to,” she said. She ran the Chow Hut at Lighthouse park in the early 1990s. “I never made any money but I broke even and the kids got to spend the summer at the beach,” she said.

It was as summers wound down that Ginger started looking for ways to keep her kids happy and busy, and found little here for them. “I had all those boys and nothing for them to do,” she said. She helped get the local Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs up and running and was both a Weblos and a Girl Scout leader for more than a decade. “We had a gas,” Ginger said of time with her girl scouts. They went backpacking with llamas, took a canoeing class, went horseback riding and spent a weekend at Ross Lake. To help pay for their trips Ginger started the annual Girl Scout auction. “We just couldn’t make any money selling those cookies so I started the auction and we had enough money to do fun things,” she said. The girl scouts were also active at home, making centerpieces for senior center events, Christmas caroling and helping with the community cleanup.

The longer she stayed in Point Roberts the more Ginger was involved in, spending years volunteering to help put together the Fourth of July Parade, the Easter egg hunt, the Arts and Music Festival, and organizing events for kids at the community center. She also worked to help raise funds for local organizations like Dollars for Scholars and Trinity Lutheran Church. “I either dreamed up or stole then idea for the Dollars for Scholars kids carnival on the boardwalk on July 4,”she remembered.

Eventually it was the lure of more activities for her high school aged daughter that drew Ginger to Blaine, where her three sons had already moved. “We were driving down two or three nights a week,” she said. “Pearl gets to do more stuff here than she would even ask for in Point Roberts.”

Oakley said she hopes community members will take on some of the myriad tasks Ginger has left behind. “It is time to take her torch and keep running,” she said. “The kids are still here waiting for Santa and the Easter Bunny and for something to do after school.”

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