Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson will speak at the Vashon Rotary Club’s weekly meeting next Thursday as part of his goal to visit every rotary club in the state.

Ferguson has made headlines recently as his office was the first to file a suit against the federal government in January, seeking a temporary restraining order to stop President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The order was granted and an appeal from the federal government was denied. Ferguson has said the decision was a complete victory for the state of Washington.

He is now turning his attention to educating the state about the Attorney General’s Office, which handles a variety of issues from upholding the Consumer Protection Act and ensuring laws against anti-competitive business practices are enforced to investigating widespread identity theft and fraud.

Ferguson was travelling and unable to be reached for an interview last week, but Attorney General’s Office Communications Director Peter Lavallee provided some answers to The Beachcomber in response to questions about Ferguson’s visit.

Lavallee said Ferguson plans to talk about “the role of the Attorney General, including how it works to protect businesses and consumers against unfair practices, as well as some of the recent matters in the news the AGO is handling.”

He said he hopes attendees will gain a better understanding of the wide range of issues the Attorney General’s Office handles on a daily basis, as well as get their questions answered about the work of the office.

“Attorney General Ferguson finds Rotary meetings to be a great opportunity for informative conversations, both so Rotarians can learn more about our work and, equally important, for the AG to get a sense of what’s on the minds of civic leaders across the state,” Lavallee said.

At Vashon Rotary, member Amy Huggins said the fact that Ferguson’s office reached out to her about the event was “amazing.”

“I believe he’s going to be talking about immigration issues which makes sense given his stance opposing Trump’s travel bans,” she said.

The club meets every Thursday at the Vashon Senior Center, but moved next week’s meeting to the Vashon United Methodist Church in anticipation of a large crowd. Huggins said she does not know how many people will attend, but there has been much interest.

The Rotary Club of Vashon Island is the local branch of Rotary International — made up of 33,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries — which aims to fund humanitarian projects worldwide.

“Our motto is: You can change the world, we can help,” Huggins said.

The Vashon Rotary’s most notable local project is the creation of the Music Mends Minds program at Vashon Community Care. Huggins spearheaded the effort to create the project on Vashon and said she will be making presentations at both the local and international Rotary conferences with the goal of expanding the program.

Internationally, the Vashon Rotary is involved in a clean water project in Guatemala and has recently become the lead club on a project to provide maternal health services in Myanmar.

“This rotary club in Myanmar asking for our help and we’re undertaking this two-year project,” Huggins said.

Bob Ferguson will speak at the Vashon Rotary club’s meeting at 7 a.m. Thursday, April 6, at Vashon United Methodist Church.

The meeting is free and open to the public.