President of Big Quil - Liz Hodgson interview

Big Quil Enterprises earns $100,000 award as entrepreneurial 4-H club growing aquaculture business

Big Quil Enterprises members include (from left) Charlie Baker, Quilcene High School science teacher; Joy Baisch, Big Quil Enterprises co-coordinator; students Brandan Schleich, Josh Irwin, Chelsea Wong, James Roden and Marissa Suarez; and Joe Baisch, big Quil Enterprises co-coordinator.

Representing one of the biggest student-business success stories ever to come out of Jefferson County, the education and business partnership that sponsors Big Quil Enterprises has won a $100,000 award.

The Northwest Area Foundation announced Feb. 2 that the Jefferson County towns of Brinnon and Quilcene won its "Great Strides Award" and the $100,000 grant intended to help the student-based Big Quil Enterprises prepare young people for living-wage jobs and community success.

The award officially goes to the Quilcene/Brinnon Connecting Schools and Communities program, and many people share the credit. Details are yet to be worked out, but the money is intended to support Big Quil Enterprises, an official 4-H club that is part of a partnership project among Washington State University Cooperative Extension, the Quilcene School District, and Taylor Shellfish Farms.

"The sustainability of this project is really important as a model of youth entrepreneurship," said Pam Roberts, 4-H coordinator for Jefferson County. "Big Quil Enterprises has got to become a profit-making venture at some point. They're not there yet, but I think the Northwest Area Foundation sees the potential for it to get there, and that's why they are investing the funds."

"We are so thankful for being recognized by the Northwest Area Foundation with the Great Strides Award," said Joe Baisch, co- coordinator of Quilcene/Brinnon Connecting Schools and Communities. "There are many in the community who contributed to this success. The award money will allow us to continue our work building a youth-directed economic engine in South Jefferson County." (Read More)

Winona Prill writes Quilcene heritage history book

By Mari McGrady, Leader Contributing Writer

How does one single-handedly compile a regional nonfiction book of 374 pages? Winona Prill, in her straight-ahead way, has a straightforward answer.

"The [Quilcene Historical] museum has had interest from visitors looking for information on their ancestors and also any books we might have on the history of Quilcene," said Prill. In 2002, she explained, George Green, the grandson of Walter Green who owned Green's Shingle Mill, and some of his family came to the museum "all the way from Maryland looking for information on the mill, and we really didn't have much to show them. It seemed like it was time to do some research. More

4-H Big Quil Enterprises a Hit at Shrimpfest!

5/30/2007 7:25:00 AM
Dale Lane of Port Angeles relishes his plateful of shrimp, coleslaw and garlic toast. Photo by Allison Arthur

Whale of a ShrimpFest

ShrimpFest organizer Karen Sickel literally sold the pearl-shrimp necklace off her neck Saturday. The popular plastic necklaces and the oh-so-very-popular raw shrimp were flying out of the Brinnon ShrimpFest.

"It was like nothing we've ever seen," said Sickel on Monday, admitting she was tired but happy it was a busy, sold-out weekend. "We're all just delighted."

Even before ShrimpFest opened on Saturday, there were 47 people lined up to buy some of the tasty local morsels, she said. Presumably they all had coolers. More

WSU at Pike Place Market

This video features Washington State University researchers and their community partners at the Pike Place Market for a special evening of food and conversation, exploring innovative food products, organic farming practices, environmentally friendly pest control and more.

Featured are WSU researchers and WSU Extension staff, including Rich Hines (WSU Extension Development Specialist), Linda Fox (WSU Extension Director), John Winder (WSU Extension Associate Director ), Kim Patton (cranberry research), Dave Muehleisen (Small Farm Team), David Ganatstein (WSU Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources), Jay Bruner (Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center), Carey Roos (4-H Military Kids Program), Megan Reibe (Washington State 4-H Foundation), Richard Daugherty (WSU Food Safety Specialist), Rob McDaniel (WSU Learning Centers), Andrea Meyer (WSU King County Extension), Mercy Olmstead (WSU Viticulture Specialist), Chris Feise (Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources), Bob Simmons (WSU Mason County Extension), Mike Hackett (WSU Snohomish County Extension), and Daniel Bernardo (CAHNRS).

Community partners include Glen and Sharon Thompson (cranberry growers), Mike Brownfield (apple grower), Joe and Joy Baisch (Big Quil Enterprises youth-run oyster business), Chad Sheldon (Army Reserve Child and Youth Services), Maria Brenneman (berry farmer), Drew Zimmerman (NW Cider Society), Leslie Zenns (formerly Dept. of Agriculture), and Zachary Lyons (WA State Farmers Market Association).

4-H Shellfish Club Wins $100, 000 Award

By Evan Cael
Reporter/Photographer
Peninsula Daily News



QUILCENE - A $100,000 grant has been awarded to the communities of Quilcene and Brinnon to help stimulate the economy and invest in the youth.

The Northwest Area Foundation, based in St. Paul, Minn., announced this week that the economically struggling communities had won the organization's Great Strides Award in recognition of an innovative approach in attempting to reduce poverty in the area.

The grant money will go to the Quilcene School student-owned shellfish business Big Quil Enterprises, said Jim Hodgson, a board member of the business and teacher in Qulcene School District.

"We are so thankful for being recognized by the Northwest Area Foundation with the Great Strides Award," said Joe Baisch co-community coordinator and business manager of the enterprise.

"There are many in the community who contributed to this success. The award money will allow us to continue our work building a youth-oriented economic engine in South Jefferson County."

The business got off the ground about three years ago with a Bill and Melinda Gates grant, but those funds will expire this year, which makes the grant so important, said Hodgson.

The eventual goal is to make the business self-sustaining, which it currently is not.

"The grant will give the corporation the money for operating capital for two years," Hodgson said.

The money the students make through the business "provides funds for students in terms of the activities they want to do at the school," he said.

He suggested school-related travel, school expenses while attending Quilcene School or tuition for college as possibilities for how the business will help the students financially.

Not only that, Hodson said, but the Big Quil Enterprises is teaching the 50 students involved valuable skills in the profitable shellfish industry of which Quilcene in international known for.

With the down-turn of the timber industry in the area in past years, a new developing business, aquaculture, began to find prominence and provides more than 400 jobs that pay up to $25 an hour, said Hodgson.

Taylor Shellfish Co. has is the primary aquaculture business in what has grown to be a $73 million-per-year industry in the state.

Big Quil Enterprises works in partnership with Taylor Shelfish Co.

The student-owned business leases a beach on Quilcene Bay and harvests oysters there. It them sells them to Taylor Shellfish for processing.

Three other communities received the grant.

They were Independence, Ore., White Earth Indian Reservation, Minn., and Westhope, North Dakota.

The winners were chosen because of steps they've taken to date to reduce poverty over the long term.

Representatives from the Northwest Area Foundation visited Quilcene in December to interview those involved in the aquaculture projects.

Each of the winning communities were were evaluated against five criteria.

Those included inclusiveness, regional impact, asset-based perspective, economic engines and leadership.

Hodgon said the he hopes the grant and Big Quil Enterprises will make the students want to go to college and then "come back and be contributing members of our community."




February 5, 2007 - Joy Baisch, Big Quil Enterprises 4-H Leader Jefferson County WA, shows an Oyster cluster on the Quilcene marina beach.

Brinnon/Quilcene 4-H Club Wins $100,000 “Great Strides Award” from The Northwest Area Foundation

Big Quil Enterprises, a Jefferson County 4-H club, has landed a $100,000 award from the NW Area Foundation to support its work establishing a youth-run oyster business in Quilcene on Hood Canal. Big Quil gives students the opportunity to apply their skills in ecology, business, and entrepreneurship in a real world setting.

In the video above you can hear Liz Hodgson, president of Big Quil Enterprises, as she shares her experiences helping lead this unique 4-H initiative. Click Here to learn more about this exciting entrepreneurship program.


Read Northwest Area Foundation Press Release.

Gates grant makes a difference in South County

Connie Gallant
Port Townsend Leader

Joe and Joy Baisch are making a difference in South County through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the past several years, the Baisch's, who are residents of Brinnon, have been involved in a project to improve the chances of success for our young students. Through an innovative and entrepreneurial process, they have helped students in forming Big Quil Enterprises (BQE), a business run by the students with mentoring from community leaders and educators.


On Friday, Dec. 8, the Baisch's, along with Pam Roberts representing WSU Extension, shared a power-point presentation showing the many successful projects that our young students have undertaken. Hosting the event at the Brinnon School, the community was well-represented by a cross-section of business people, teachers, and grant foundation evaluators. Among those attending included Commissioner Pat Rodgers, Tom and Sue Bettinger, Brady Blake, Jim Watson, Ken Dressler, J.D. Gallant, Bud Schindler, Denise Williamson, Jim Hodgson, Charlie Baker, Karla Miller, product development manager for the Northwest Area Foundation, and Diane Morehouse, President of QED. Students Jake Murray, Nathan Hood, and Sam and Pete Dressler represented Big Quil Enterprises. (Read More)

School of hard knocks involves shellfish for Quilcene students

by EVAN CAEL

QUILCENE -- It's a Tuesday afternoon in a Quilcene High School classroom, and students sit circled around their entrepreneurial mentors, Joe and Joy Baisch.

The students, most of them freshmen and sophomores, are hearing a lesson plan that most 15 and 16 year olds won't hear for several years, if ever.

``We didn't do too bad money-wise,'' said Joy Baisch of a recent shellfish dinner hosted by the Quilcene School student-run shellfish company, Big Quil Enterprises.

``We were down $300 from last year. But $300 is $300.''

The atmosphere in the room is like that of a board meeting led by a chief executive officer except that people are wearing frayed jeans and T-shirts rather than business suits.

For the past three years, with help from a $220,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Baisches have been shepherding Quilcene School District students through the dollars and cents of operating a shellfish company, coined Big Quil Enterprises.

The two act as business managers, working from their life experience.

In 1967, Joy Baisch was an original stockholder and general manager of Red Robin Restaurant, which now has locations up and down the West Coast.

The Baisches started a document shredding company in Seattle in 1981 called America Data Guard and sold it in 1992 when they moved to Brinnon.

They now own and manage a bed and breakfast in Brinnon.

About 50 students

Big Quil Enterprises, comprised of about 50 students, operates in partnership with the Quilcene School District and the 4-H Club, which is an extension of the Washington State University Learning Center.

The business leases a beach on Quilcene Bay where the students harvest oysters and clams.

The harvested shellfish, of which Quilcene is nationally and internationally famous for producing, are processed by Shelton-based Taylor Shellfish Co.

The students prepare and sell the shellfish at various festivals throughout the region, such as the Brinnon Shrimp Fest and the Quilcene Fair.

Pamela Roberts, 4-H coordinator and former principal of Quilcene School District, works closely with the business.

``We're hoping that through this initiative, that these kids who live in a remote location realize they can be players on an international scale,'' said Roberts.

Because of the partnership with Taylor Shellfish Co., many of the shellfish make it to the far reaches of the globe.

``It's been pretty cool because our oysters that we harvest get shipped around the world and to Europe and stuff,'' said Big Quil Enterprises worker Shelbi Thompson, 15.

Like at any business, the students are paid for the time they put into harvesting and working on the operation.

The Baisches wouldn't say how much Big Quil Enterprises makes in a year, but they said the goal is to make the business self-sustaining and profitable. (Read More)

Jefferson oyster harvesters hurt by state ban

by JEFF CHEW
Peninsula Daily News

QUILCENE -- A state-imposed commercial harvest ban on Hood Canal, Dabob, Quilcene and Thordyke bays means thousands of dollars lost to longtime small-scale oyster harvesters such as Rick Olsen and Joth Davis.

Normally, they cater to the thriving Seattle-Tacoma restaurant market for raw oysters on the half-shell.

Not since Wednesday's closure.

With the outbreak of shellfish poisoning from raw oyster consumption reaching a record high, the state has closed down all of Hood Canal to oyster harvesting.

State officials also added four new areas in the Puget Sound region to the list of closed harvesting sites.

The number of people sickened from eating raw Washington oysters this year now stands at 86, up from 70 cases confirmed just days ago.

State Department of Health officials renewed their warning to people that oysters should only be eaten after cooking to a temperature of 145 degrees.

The villain is vibrio parahaemolyticus, a naturally recurring pathogenic marine bacteria found in uncooked oysters.

It surfaces when shallow water temperatures rise to 59 degrees -- and it can make raw-oyster eaters deathly ill.

Wednesday's complete shutdown of Hood Canal and Jefferson County commercial oyster harvests comes nine years after the last such action.

Employee layoffs

The situation means about $2,000 a week in losses for Olsen and Davis.

In Olsen's case, employees had to be laid off.

``Last week we had seven people working. This week we have none,'' Olsen lamented Thursday.

``It basically has us out of business until the weather cools or water cools in September. That's at the peak of our harvest.''