Friday’s announcement that Vashon’s primary health care clinic will close its doors in August sent shockwaves through the island. But while the majority of the island’s 11,000 residents were scrambling for answers and wondering who to blame, a quiet group of islanders, who call themselves the Vashon Maury Health Collaborative, kept their heads and vowed to work to fill the void.

Aware that the island has been existing in a precarious health care situation, members of the collaborative have been quietly working behind the scenes since its formation in 2012. The group, led by islander and former veterinarian Tag Gornall, has been in talks with CHI Franciscan Health and other potential clinic providers in an attempt to address the issue that has just recently been thrust into the spotlight.

The island owes this group a debt of gratitude for getting out in front of this issue and opening up the channels of communication early. While it is still unclear exactly what will happen when the Franciscan system vacates the Sunrise Ridge clinic in August, this group has done, and will continue to do, the legwork and make the connections that could potentially help our health care-starved island.

The work of the Vashon Maury Health Collaborative is ongoing as it attempts to reach a tentative agreement and relationship with a new health care system, but they have made it clear that to move ahead, they will need the island’s help to support their efforts.

Islanders have a rich and reliable history of stepping up when there is nowhere left to turn. When the island’s nursing home was in jeopardy, the community stepped up to fund one; when the high school began crumbling and needed a full overhaul, it was funded. Most recently, a plan for a new arts center came to fruition in large part with the generosity of islanders.

The island today would likely be without all of these things if the community did not recognize a need and then fully mobilize behind it. Unlike an arts center or a high school, the closure of the clinic jeopardizes the most basic need of all islanders: health. Vashon is going to have to step up once again, truly for the good of all who call this place home and fill in where we have been left abandoned.