Mary Kate Panaro

Mary Kate Panaro moved here to the island in 2000 after hearing great things about it from her good friend Sharon. As many of us do, she worked in a number of different places before getting a job with By Design (yes - a number of us have worked at By Design ;-) which is where she discovered her calling. After 7 years of gaining experience with print and web design, and with the owner wanting to reorganize and downsize, she took over a portion of that business and opened her doors at MKate Design. Three years later, here she is working steadily, pumping out great websites for locals and some non-locals as well. She is great to work with and she does great work.

Cotton Cotton Cotton

Gail and Randy Schnee moved to Friday Harbor in 2009 to escape central Florida where they had been living for most of their lives. Enough was enough after 3 hurricanes in one month. Gail was working dilligently at her Corporate America career job when she saw the tickertape style advertisment across the top of her screen (on the important work stuff she was researching on the internet), that said "GO KAYAKING WITH WHALES", so she called Randy and by the time she arrived home from work, they had plane reservations. Long story short, they fell in love with Friday Harbor, sold the house and bought Cotton Cotton Cotton with no business experience whatsoever. "How hard can it be, right?". And the rest is history - they've been successfully running their shop at 165 First St. since 2009. Go check them out - they're some wonderful folks with a great store.

Wendy Pinnow

Friday Harbor's only full service car dealership, M&W Auto offers quality used cars, sound systems and vehicle rentals. It is owned and operated by longtime islander Wendy Pinnow (Williams). Wendy first came to the island in 1972. And you may remember her family's grocery store, Whitey's Food Center which has since had several other owners before being destroyed by the big fire of 2002. M&W Auto opened its doors in 1989 over by the library on Guard St. The current location at 725 Spring St. was built in 1996.
Check out her website at www.sanjuanauto.com or give her a call at (360) 378-2794.