Benefit BBQ March 13 Supports Near-100-Year Baby Island Saratoga Club

A $15 benefit barbecue on Friday, March 13 at 5:30 PM will raise funds for the Baby Island Saratoga Club, the near-100-year neighborhood organization that operates a public assembly hall on Saratoga Road. Organizers ask guests to RSVP on or before March 9 to ensure timely meal planning and provisioning, and to bring spirited beverages for the BYOB event.

Tickets are $15 per person and the dinner menu includes pulled pork, vinaigrette-based coleslaw, scalloped potatoes, cornbread, baked beans and sweet potato pie for dessert. The March dinner will be prepared in the club’s commissary kitchen, whose design was updated and upgraded in 2016. For more information or to RSVP, contact David Stenberg at 425-269-7999.

The Baby Island Saratoga Club sits at 3616 Saratoga Road in Langley and occupies four forested acres on Saratoga Road. "In 1952 they built the first version of the clubhouse, where it now occupies four forested acres on Saratoga Road," Tom added, describing the property footprint and the clubhouse location.

Tom also traced the clubhouse's physical changes, noting its interior improvements over time. "The clubhouse has gone through several transformations, adding a kitchen and even inside toilets." The building's evolution underpins the club's current role as an affordable venue for education, family gatherings and other community purposes.

The organization formalized its mission and structure in 1982 when it changed its name and tax status. "In 1982 they became a charitable organization, a 501(c)3. They dropped the Baby Island Saratoga Improvement Club name, and became the Baby Island Saratoga Club. The mission was twofold - to raise scholarships for deserving students, and second, to provide a public assembly hall for the community to use for its purposes - such as education and family gatherings - at an affordable cost."

Volunteers led the kitchen and bathroom renovations that made the commissary conversion possible. "The original kitchen was just awful," recalled interior designer Cathe Mueller, who redesigned the kitchen and the club’s two bathrooms. "Several of us got together and remodeled it to not only be more useful, but it met the requirements to become a commissary kitchen. It was my first design project on the island. It’s very basic, but it works."

Proceeds from the March 13 dinner will benefit the club, which has served as a neighborhood gathering place for nearly a hundred years and continues to fund scholarships and maintain affordable community space. Event organizers stress the RSVP deadline of March 9 and encourage anyone seeking details to call David Stenberg at 425-269-7999. Article by Kate Poss; photos by David Welton.