A lot of people in town have asked what the Point Reyes Good Luck Fund is all about. The short answer is we’re buying and preserving key buildings so they stay in local hands, funding projects that honor the town’s past while shaping its future, and ensuring the spaces that define Point Reyes aren’t turned into something locals don’t need or want. Most of our resources will go toward acquiring important properties and placing them under nonprofit ownership. 

But this isn’t about owning everything. It’s about keeping a few anchor sites aligned with the spirit of the place. We’re also supporting smaller efforts that encourage local participation and protect the details that give the town its character—the kinds of things you only notice if you’ve been here a while. Lately, a lot of those places are either sitting empty and boarded up or being renovated in ways that feel like they’re no longer for us. What’s missing is the normal, everyday stuff that used to make a small town feel like a small town.

People often say they feel lucky to be from here, and I agree. Point Reyes has always felt different. But it’s also clear that things are changing. Some of that is natural, and every generation complains about the one that comes after it. But there are also real shifts: Longtime ranches are closing, housing is harder to afford and some locals have said, flat out, that they’re thinking of leaving or giving up. That’s not nostalgia. That’s erosion.

I’ve felt it, too. At times, it’s been easy just to accept that this is how places change, to feel like the changes are out of our hands. But I don’t want to do that. I want to take the luck I’ve had and do something with it. And I think a lot of people around here feel the same. We’ve all had some version of good fortune tied to this place. The real question is: What kind of luck have you had here, and how might you use it to give something back?

For me, that luck started with timing and geography. I got into tech at the right moment and, unlike most people in that world, I didn’t have to move far away to chase it. That turned into financial luck, which I’m now trying to pay forward. Point Reyes is in a rare spot—just close enough to Silicon Valley to be part of the action, but far enough to stay remote, grounded and unlike anywhere else. Any closer and it wouldn’t be Point Reyes. Any farther, and I wouldn’t have had the same shot.

The work has already started. We’re closing on the Old Western on June 10, and we’ve also acquired the vacant property that used to house the Station House Café. We’re exploring additional sites now.

This isn’t just about owning buildings. It’s about what we do with them. We’ll be asking the community to weigh in on how these spaces should be used. We’re also working on a model that allows locals to hold long-term ownership stakes in the downtown core—not just as tenants or customers, but as investors.

This effort isn’t about charity. It’s about continuity. About holding onto something that’s easy to lose and hard to rebuild.

The boundary between self and place is thinner than we think. What happens to a town happens to its people. Caring for Point Reyes isn’t separate from caring for yourself. It’s the same act, seen from a different angle.

So that’s my version of luck. Yours might look different. It could be time, skills, relationships, land, memory or something else tied to this place. But if Point Reyes has shaped you somehow, the question is worth asking: How can you turn your version of luck into something that gives back rather than giving in?

We’ll be hosting a happy-hour Q&A at the former Station House building. The date is still T.B.D., but if you sign up for the mailing list at www.goodluckfund.org, we’ll notify you when it’s scheduled. The website is basic for now, but we’ll keep updating it. And while the name says Point Reyes, we see Inverness, Olema and Marshall as part of that story, too.

Chris Hulls is a longtime local and founder of the Good Luck Fund. He lives in Point Reyes Station.