It can be lonely on an island in the Puget Sound — stolid, glacial deposits surrounded by deep, brackish moats, often populated by introverts who just want their space, man.

It can be isolating. For some, that’s the point. But we’re humans, after all. Over time, our collective success has been found in community.

Ironically, islands can also be places of profound connection. On an island, your neighbor isn’t just someone who lives nearby. They might be your water when your well breaks. Your chainsaw when a tree falls. Your ride to the doctor when your car breaks down. On islands, we learn that our neighbors — our communities — are our lifelines.

Sure, we have little boats that ferry us to and from the mainland. More and more, those boats aren’t reliable. More and more, we’re learning that we all need to hang together to have our fundamental needs met. Today, we understand that division — isolation — is disempowering.

Islanders for Ferry Action is learning about neighborly connections and empowerment writ large. This summer, we’ve started collaborating with our Salish Sea and Puget Sound neighbors. One of our newest connections is a relationship with FLOW, Ferry Lovers of Washington, in the San Juan Islands. That simple act of connection has already helped relieve their loneliness in the hard fight to win reliable ferry service.

Through connecting, we’ve told each other stories and shared our needs. We’ve learned that they feel deeply our ferry woes — and our isolation.

Their inter-island service goes down on the regular. Imagine not being able to get to or from Maury for days, even weeks, at a time. Imagine you leave Lopez Island for chemo in the morning, or dialysis — only to discover by the afternoon that you have no way home.

Of course, that’s where your neighbor comes in. In the San Juans, private individuals with their Community Water Taxi service have stepped up to get stranded travelers home via water taxis. It’s a desperate stop gap. It’s something only a really good neighbor would do.

Last year, we discovered once again that on Vashon, neighbors coming together is powerful. We helped fund our water taxi expansion. We helped keep the Triangle route a priority for WSF and legislators. We helped secure more funding for crew recruitment and retention, and funds to reimburse stranded passengers.

This year, Islanders for Ferry Action, your citizen advocacy group, will bring together neighbors from across the Sound. We’re adding our voice with FLOW and Community Water Taxi in the San Juans, as well as the Bremerton Ferry Coalition, to form the regional Fix Our Ferries Coalition. And we’ve begun to build bridges, so to speak, with community in Fauntleroy. We plan to add communities regionally through the 2025 legislative session.

If neighbors are our lifelines, if strength lies in collective action, what can we accomplish in the legislature when many ferry-served communities join together?

Can we secure funding to build enough boats year over year to restore reliable service for the long-haul? Can we get our crews competitive wages? Can we help shape the Washington State Ferries into a transparent, vital public service agency that has the funding and personnel it needs at all levels to restore our critical marine highways?

Those are the goals the regional Fix Our Ferries coalition will pursue. It will take all of us, working together as neighbors, sharing the load and the resources, to get the job done.

Amy Drayer is the director of Islanders for Ferry Action.