What happens when we create art together? A whole lot! Join us in Hamllik Park on Nov. 11 to brainstorm a design for the mural we’re planning there. All ages welcome! Plus, there will be pizza ;).
For me, it was a Wednesday morning commitment where I mentored/tutored individual or small groups of students. In all, I ended up working with eight different students at various times during the year. Without exception, the kids were cooperative, polite, and seemed to appreciate that there were people in the community stepping up to help…
Why do I pick up trash? Why don’t I just let somebody else do it? Well, let me start with this quote by Margaret Mead, the well-known social anthropologist, which I include with every email I send. It’s a quote by which I try to live: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed…
My father died at the age of 72. I had just turned 30 — my parents were in their mid-forties when I was born, no small feat for the late ’60s. Dad was healthy and active, and had the blood pressure and cholesterol of a 25-year-old. He was a WWII vet who enlisted in the…
It was out there last spring that I thought, why don’t we do more than just pick up litter? Why don’t we plant a beautiful swath of purple lupin or orange California poppy here? How about some sunny coreopsis? Or all of those and more — a lovely, eye-catching, curving patch of native wildflowers that…
The decline in local journalism results in higher costs for running local government, greater public health challenges, a reduction in the number of candidates seeking local office, lower voter turnout, less community engagement and growing political polarization.
By Nancy Turner In 1223, Saint Francis of Assisi created a nativity scene to help children understand the true meaning of Christmas. He wanted to remind the world that the season was about more than giving and receiving gifts, but rather about celebrating the birth of a special baby. His depiction of the baby Jesus,…
A couple of months ago, as I was waiting with about 50 people outside the Washougal School District main office to go into a school board meeting, I looked across Evergreen Way and saw a group of about eight young people stepping over the railroad tracks on foot. […]
Eric and Fiona Engebretson, long-time educators in the Washougal and Battle Ground public school systems, decided in 2018 to hop off the work treadmill and live their dreams — in France. Below is a Q & A with Eric about how and why they made the move, and the country farmhouse they are lovingly restoring.
If you’re new to the ivy issue, you may be wondering what all the hysteria is about. After all, English ivy is beautiful and elegant; it covers the halls of major universities and estates back East and gives our country’s most learned institutions their famous nickname: the Ivy League. But ivy has become “a major…
As a mother and a teacher of preschool children — and as a dance teacher to people of all ages — I have come to see the importance of acknowledging distress before you can “get to the positive.” This is a vital truth, for both adults and children, and I was reminded of it recently…
The large variety of birds found at Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge is due to a natural feature not found anywhere else on the West Coast south of the Frasier River in Canada. That feature is the Columbia River Gorge. […]
“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union….” With those four little words in the Preamble to the Constitution, the founders set an incredibly high bar for us. It is likely they, even given their extraordinary intellect, could not conceive of the doors those four words would open.…
As I write this, a couple hundred seniors are preparing for this evening’s graduation ceremony at Washougal High School. Reflecting back on the past couple of years as a paraeducator there, my thoughts have vacillated between gratitude that we all came through it and good riddance to an astounding difficult school year. […]
Pickleball is booming in Washougal, and Lynda Boesel, president of the Camas-Washougal chapter of the Columbia River Pickleball Club, knows why — it’s really, really fun. […]
here’s been a lot of debate in our society lately about what schools teach students, and how. But as a paraeducator at Washougal High School for almost 10 years, I know that learning goes both ways — our students teach us, too, and when they do, we become better at our jobs. […]
I discovered the Cape Horn Trail long ago, when I learned from a fellow hiker that there was a new place to hike in the Gorge. This was around 2004, before the trail was “legal.” I found the unmarked trailhead and headed out. […]
After being closed for two years for a major restoration project, the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge reopened to the public on May 1. In this essay, Wilson Cady, who has been working to reclaim and preserve Steigerwald since the 1970s, reflects on what it’s taken to arrive at this moment. […]
I’m a middle school teacher, and have been in the classroom since 1997. In that time I’ve shepherded my students through a lot of challenging situations, both universal and personal — 9/11, the loss of family members, the gladiatorial combat that is the social media landscape, and the […]
OK, I expected something, but not this. A few weeks ago, on a cold but blessedly dry Saturday afternoon, I asked my husband to drop me off on Rte. 14 with some trash bags and a trash picker. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go — just somewhere with lots of trash I…
Refugees from Aghanistan are making new homes in the United States, and Ukranains fleeing war will be coming soon. Local radio show host Barb Seaman conducted this interview with Janet Grove, a member of the Friends Church in Camas, about her church’s work with a newly arrived refugee family from Afghanistan. […]
As anyone who’s a routine reader of blogs knows, blogs are a forum where one or more people, usually insiders in some industry or field of study, ruminate on topics of interest to a specialized audience. Financial bloggers explain the inner workings of the Federal Reserve Board or predict which way mortgage rates will go.…
As an American, I watched the run-up to the 2008 presidential election with great interest. Either of the front runners for the Democratic ticket promised to make history if elected: Hillary Rodham Clinton would be our first female president, and Barack Obama would be our first African-American one. Of course, we all know how the election went,…
Last weekend, on a rare day without rain, I planted an arborvitae to hide the view of the house next door. (There’s nothing objectionable about the house next door; I just like a sense of privacy.) Ever since, though, I have wrestled with my conscience. I know how stupid that sounds, but sometimes I cannot escape…