Thank you to all our great tourism businesses for doing a great job to keep everyone safe! We are now compiling a list of all the places where the public can buy masks in Whatcom County. If you have masks for sale, please contact us at media@bellingham.org, to let us know where they can be purchased and for what price.

Also - Keep sending us your mask images! We are utilizing these throughout our website, social media and email channels to let locals and travelers know your business is committed to safety.

Please add to your calendar our quarterly Cultural Heritage Tourism Stakeholders Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 18, 3 - 5 p.m. Specific details will be sent in a separate email. If you would like more information, please contact Annette Bagley, annette@bellingham.org. 

The Employer Support Task Force (ESTF) was formed by the Public Health Advisory Board in mid-May to help businesses and organizations share best practices for operating safely in the face of COVID-19. Join the ESTF on August 13 at noon for a presentation, culmination, and celebration of all the ESTF has accomplished over the past three months. Sign up for this forum here.

Whatcom County Health Department, in partnership with Whatcom Unified Command and researchers at Western Washington University, has released an online survey regarding practices to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Local COVID-19 response partners are seeking community member engagement in the survey in order to better understand people’s choices to adopt personal prevention practices such as limiting social gatherings or wearing masks in public or social settings.

This article recently appeared in AAA Journey by Harriet Baskas

Sculpture Northwest recently opened the David Marshall Sculpture Gallery in Bellingham’s Big Rock Garden Park. The permanent outdoor exhibit has nearly 40 works by local and international artists. It is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Western Gallery at Western Washington University in Bellingham is temporarily closed because of COVID-19, but the outdoor sculpture collection spread across the 205-acre campus is accessible all the time. Look for work by Richard Serra, Isamu Noguchi and more than 30 other artists.

A new Eat Local First Washington Directory helps to connect Washington State residents with local farms and farmers markets in one place. The Eat Local First WA Directory is a project of the Eat Local First Collaborative, a group of food system organizations from around the state working together to merge various online farm finder tools into a single easy-to-use platform; the Eat Local First WA Directory is the first step in that process to find local farms and food.

Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen celebrates Eat Local Month in August this year. Using 50% local products in many of the items at the Kitchen, in 2020 Chuckanut is highlighting local Cairnspring Mills flour in the pizzas and calzones on the menu. Bellingham Pasta will be highlighted as well in various options on the specials menu too.