Ruth Baldwin
Here we are -- living in a tiny community in a small community tucked away on the tip of a peninsula that’s on the tip of another peninsula.  We’re out there – literally and figuratively.  What brought a city girl (okay, girl is a relative term) out here to the end of world?  Hmmm …. people, community, big trees, old brick buildings, electric cars, radical ideas, fresh veggies, sandy beaches, coyotes, great restaurants, old hippies, an indie movie theater, festivals and parades.  But mostly, it was an idea that a group of people could come together to build a community in love and trust.  We could love the earth and its creatures and do our best to take care of these gifts and we could trust each other enough to take a giant leap into the unknown.  How’s that working for us?  We learn and struggle, make mistakes, love and help each other and have faith.  I couldn’t ask for more. 

Before joining Port Townsend EcoVillage in mid-2005, I had been a member of Winslow Cohousing Group on Bainbridge Island for nearly 7 years.  I learned so much about working in community there, especially gaining skills in consensus.  The community and people at WCG are still near and dear to my heart. 

The move to Port Townsend was not away from WCG, but towards the more rural setting of Port Townsend and the opportunity to have a hand in shaping a way of life from the ground up.  Learning about permaculture, participating in natural building workshops, non-violent communication skill-building and diversity training are just a few of the opportunities I have experienced in the past couple of years.   Looking back on my start in a large family living in a one-mile square section of Boston, I don’t think there have been many times I have not lived in community.  And since my WCG experience, there’s no way I would ever consider anything but a community life. 

So to get back to that “city girl” comment.  It’s been a while since I could reasonably be called a girl.  I do remember seeing the Beatles live in Boston when I was 13 years old, but I’m young at heart and full of mischief.  I have two wonderful daughters in their late 20’s who are the pride and joy of my life.  I have fulfilling work in a great town full of interesting and lovely people.  I am in good health.  I have a community.  I am blessed beyond all reckoning.  I am full of gratitude. 

Bekka Bloom

There being plenty of east coasters here in PT, Bekka's north-of-Boston accent isn't as out of place as it was in northeast Missouri where she lived in an income-sharing community for six and a half years before moving here. Bekka showed up for a tour of the PTEV in July 2005, stayed for the meeting and was drawn by the group's welcoming friendliness. Shortly it was clear that this group is committed to clarity in consensus decision making and communication. She's been involved ever since. Her biggest passion in life currently is singing in the PT Songlines Choir where she has discovered, after a lifetime of believing she couldn't sing, that indeed she can and it feeds her soul. When she's not providing employment services to low-income parents and individuals with disabilities, you'll find Bekka taking long walks around town and on the beach. She is also a seamstress, gardener, and braider of wool rugs.

Helen Kolff
Helen is an educator and environmental activist.  She has taught high school Sociology, been a family planning educator with Planned Parenthood, helped organize the Beyond War peace movement in Seattle, volunteered as a mediator, planned conferences, written a book on wildflowers of the Peruvian Andes, and spent a lot of time with her husband, Kees, raising their two children.  Currently, she spends her time painting, biking, hiking, doing environmental education through the Northwest Earth Institute, serving on the board of her Unitarian Fellowship, teaching Nonviolent Communication, and working to make the Port Townsend EcoVillage a reality.   

Kees Kolff
Kees is a retired Pediatrician, with experience in public health.  After serving 17 years as Medical Director for an Hispanic Community Health Center (SeaMar) headquartered in Seattle, he and his wife Helen volunteered in the Peruvian Andes for over a year.  They returned determined to live more sustainably and bought the 7 acres that is now the Port Townsend EcoVillage.  Kees loves to sing, hike and backcountry ski.  His greatest passion now is exploring how we can reduce our ecological footprints, both individually and collectively, through intentional community development.  He has served as President of Jefferson Land Trust as well as Mayor of Port Townsend.  In 2000, Kees and Helen lost their son Adam, who built the first earth-bermed passive solar “bedroom” at the ecovillage. Their daughter Adri and her husband Randy live in Seattle, fortunately not too far away.  Kees was born in the Netherlands, and his first name (pronounced “Case”) is the official Dutch nickname for Cornelis.

Terri Miller
Terri moved 12 times between the ages of six and seventeen (and she was not a military brat).  She has lived in four states and a foreign country.  She eventually had a houseboat built so she could take her home with her.  On her first visit to Port Townsend in 1984 she felt like she was coming home.  It took Terri over 20 years, but she has finally made it home.  As an adult, she has lived in numerous shared housing situations, including a co-housing community for about five years.  Terri thought she had died and gone to heaven when she read the PTEV’s vision statement and saw the words consensus, social justice, nonviolent communication, and permaculture.  Some of her other passions are children, poetry, garlic, walking/hiking, reading, dancing ...  Maybe she is quietly passionate about too many things to list.  One of her favorite pastimes is laughing with her partner, Jim.  She is the extra Momma to Clara and the back me up parent for Raven (Jim’s daughter).  Terri earns money as a Family Educator with Head Start, though she has had a number of career incarnations over the years.