PORT TOWNSEND — Jim Ferris has come up with a new way to help fight cancer: brew and barbecue.
Ferris, the owner of Edensaw Woods and founder of the Edensaw Community Cancer Foundation, is inviting everyone to Port Townsend Brewing on Saturday to enjoy a beer, feast on some Dos Okies Barbecue and listen to music.
In the process, he hopes people will also donate a little to a good cause.
“When you get a drink, you get a raffle ticket,” Ferris said.
“And when you get a drink, a little bit of that will be donated to the foundation.
“With raffles running throughout the day, it works out so the more beer you drink, the more chances you have to win and the more you donate to help people in the community.”
The Port Townsend Brewfest begins at 1 p.m. Saturday at Port Townsend Brewing, 330 10th St.
There will be live bands playing and raffles going until 8 p.m.
Ferris hopes to make it an annual event.
The idea is a different way to raise money for a different type of charity — which, in all honesty, is run by a different kind of man.
Ferris doesn’t go by the name that prints on his birth certificate or runs in the newspaper. If you are looking to contact him, you better ask for “Kiwi” — the name he is known by in Jefferson County.
But beware that the man known as Kiwi has a penchant for unique ideas, and he’s not afraid to share them.
Twenty-six years ago, Ferris brought a specialty product to Jefferson County with his company Edensaw Woods — which supplies exotic wood to builders and craftsmen in the area.
And as Ferris stands in his warehouse, you can watch how his brain works as it prods new ideas.
“We could hang some of the product on this wall,” Ferris said, talking to a member of his sales team, Jim Argites.
“That big piece of redwood would look great here, show it off to the customers.
“Or a giant map of where we get everything from. Something, anything, on that wall.”
Argites said this is how Ferris came up with the idea of the cancer foundation — he found a way to fill a blank space in the area surrounding him.
“We aren’t looking to prevent cancer or solve the problem nationwide,” Argites said.
“We want to help people here in this community who have it, however we can.
“It was Kiwi’s idea to do this, to help people locally, and he found a way to do that.”
Ferris said the foundation was an idea he came up with at a dinner after participating in the Relay for Life in Port Townsend in 2006.
“I realized that the money we were raising wasn’t coming back into the community at full force,” Ferris said.
“I said out loud to everyone there, including Jim [Argites], that there had to be a better way for us to do it.”
So Ferris made something better.
Ferris created the nonprofit group Edensaw Community Cancer Foundation and found unique ways to raise money and distribute it back into the community.
“Almost everyone here on staff donates a small amount of their paycheck to the foundation,” Ferris said of Edensaw Woods.
“On top of donations from them and the community, we raffle off handmade wood products every few months and we sell bundles of fire kindling from the leftover wood products we have here.
“On top of that, the company donates all the overhead, all the operation costs, so that 100 percent of the money that is donated gets to people in the local area to help them with their cancer treatments.”
After he found unique ways to raise the money, Ferris found unique ways to distribute it as well.
“It’s not just bills we help with,” Ferris said.
“We had a woman who was fighting cancer and had spent all her money on the doctors but she needed a new roof. We got the wood, the shingles and me and my guys went there and put on the new roof.
“We had a guy who was driving to get treatment in Seattle and hit a deer. His car was totaled and he had no money to pay for it, so we figured a way to help him out.”
The foundation has done everything from giving out gift cards for gas and groceries to sending employees of Edensaw Woods to set up sheds, chop wood and find transportation for those in need.
Since 2007, the foundation has helped more than 39 individuals battling cancer and has given out more than $85,000 worth of financial assistance.
“We get donations through individuals and United Good Neighbors and have no trouble giving that back out into the community,” Ferris said.
“But the best part is donating time like that roof to someone in the community.”
Ferris said he wanted to bring the community together again with the Brewfest.
Kim Sands, owner of Port Townsend Brewing, said she was happy to jump aboard and host the festival.
“Several people I know have battled cancer,” Sands said.
“On top of that, the fact that it stays in the community is such a good thing.
“You can really see what the foundation does for people. It’s a great deal all around.”
For more information on the Port Townsend Brewfest, contact Port Townsend Brewing at 360-385-9967.
For more information on Edensaw Community Cancer Foundation, contact Ferris at 360-385-7878. Ask for Kiwi.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
