The story of how a local outdoors nonprofit acquired a ukulele once owned by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder starts with a canoe beached on the shore of the Salish sea.

While frolicking around the Puget Sound in 2007, local resident Bobby Whittaker took a photo of his friend Vedder, ukulele in hand, on a canoe inscribed with the words “I Heart Ferry County.”

Eighteen years after that photo was taken, Vedder called Whittaker and asked whether he wanted the canoe, as Vedder was getting a new boat. An avid boater, Whittaker said yes, but with one stipulation: Instead of lying dormant in his garage, Whittaker wanted the seacraft to go to the Lands Council for them to auction off.

When Vedder received a picture from Whittaker of the canoe on top of a Lands Council member’s Toyota, he texted

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