By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It's a familiar refrain on Orcas. This is a community of fiercely independent individuals, with widely discrepant beliefs. There are Roman Catholics and Buddhists and atheists, the radical left and radical right. Public debates can be long and contentious, and spill over into checkstands at Eastsound's Island Market.

Get 10 people together on Orcas, the saying goes, and you'll get 11 different opinions.

"Everyone has their own opinion here, and they don't hold back. We get into some pretty heated discussions at times," says Wareham.

Yet these rugged individualists hold dear the island's strong sense of community.

Volunteerism and activism are ramapant on Orcas. At the airy 6,000-square-foot, 34,000-volume Orcas Library, Director Victoria Parker has a remarkable 80 volunteers to help her sort, mend, cover and shelve books, or assist on the library's 14 computers.

"It's the reason we're open so many hours," she says. If an elderly person needs firewood cut, they call The Odd Fellows, an offbeat chapter of the national brotherhood that includes drumming and incense in its initiation rituals and has a marching "Fools on Parade" kazoo band.

Even many well-heeled newcomers soon find themselves writing checks for good causes and volunteering for boards.

"For the most part, people come here to get away, but once they're here they connect with each other. The rich people and poor people are all riding the same boat, all appearing at the same places, all doing the same things," says James Hardman, a painter whose evocative landscapes capture the glimmering waters and soft light of the island.

This is an island where voters pack the polls. "We have the highest number of people who vote in elections in Washington state," says John Evans, the San Juan County commissioner from Orcas. "It's well over 80 percent."

And no matter how much debate precedes an election, islanders can be counted on to approve school levies.

"Islanders can be rough on teachers. They have high expectations. But when it comes time to pay for the schools, there's never a question. The wallets come out," says Barbara Kline, principal of Orcas Island High School and Middle School.

Kline compares the problems at the school to problems typical of any suburban school -- with one exception. "We have to prepare our kids to leave the island, which can be very painful. Sometimes we have to peel their fingers off the doorknob," she says. "This is not a place with many long-term career opportunities. You can come back and be our doctors, our lawyers, our store owners, but first you have to leave."