Rufus Woods: A compelling vision emerges for Wenatchee PAC
When Executive Director Rita Brown talks about her vision for the future of the Wenatchee Performing Arts Center, her enthusiasm and passion are infectious — akin to drinking a latte with six shots of espresso. Last week, I sat down with Brown and Sarah Wilkins, the PAC’s marketing and outreach director, to learn where the PAC is headed following a year of financial challenges. The two were still flying high after the rip-roaring success of a sold-out performance on Jan. 25 of Arrival, a band that played the music of the iconic pop group ABBA. The place was really rocking.
Neither side has realistic solutions
After suffering through President Obama’s State of the Union and a healthy portion of the Republican debates, it’s painfully clear to me that neither party has a realistic approach for dealing with the economic issues facing our country in a world that is being radically transformed by technology and globalization. Both parties are held captive by special interests and following the extreme positions of either one will lead us farther astray rather than toward a brighter future. Polarization has paralyzed both parties.
Common Ground: Neighbors prove they still care
We held a small gathering at our office last week to celebrate the conclusion of our 11th year of the Neighbors Care Fund, in which readers of this newspaper contributed funds to support four local causes. This year, the fund raised money to support The Literacy Council of Chelan and Douglas counties, the YMCA’s After School Program, the YWCA’s Cafe AZ’s, and to AmeriCorps to provide tutors in three local elementary schools.
Steve Robinson to step down as World’s general manager
Thirteen years ago, I recruited Steve Robinson to be general manager of this newspaper with the belief that his expertise and leadership could help us transform the company and be a valuable asset in the community. He has certainly accomplished those goals and so much more. During his tenure, he has been instrumental in The World’s success and he has also earned great respect in the community for his integrity and public service. Our industry has been in the midst of significant change in the last few years, and he has been the steady hand at the helm when the seas have been rough. Having someone you can trust completely is invaluable in times of rapid change and uncertainty.
Suicide rate increases, Grief Center steps up
The suicide rate in Chelan County for the past two years is more than double the national average, and the folks at the Grief Center are raising the alarm about the problem and also providing some critical support for families who are dealing with the loss of loved ones. This Thursday, they’re beginning a six-week series of group session to help people who have lost a loved one to suicide. The sessions will be held at the organization’s newly remodeled space at 1610 Fifth St. in Wenatchee.
Voorhis helps students express creativity
Leavenworth videographer Charley Voorhis finds inspiration in mixing images and music in a way that takes viewers on a “journey of emotions.” He looks for clients who “are as passionate about their area of expertise as I am about mine,” Voorhis told me as we sipped tea at Tastebuds in Wenatchee this week. That approach translates perfectly to his job at the Wenatchee Tech Center, where he’s helping high school students discover their own passions through film.
Common Ground: Haglund brings new energy to downtown Wenatchee
The Wenatchee Downtown Association is taking some impressive steps forward under new Executive Director Linda Haglund. The downtown business and property owners are seeing a much more driven and aggressive organization thanks to the efforts of Haglund and her assistant, Elisabeth Holt. They are going out of their way to engage individuals to understand the opportunities and challenges faced by the members.
We need to find creative solutions
The pace of change in our society sure seems to be accelerating. Here at The World, we are acutely aware of how dramatically the information age is shifting the needs of consumers and businesses we serve and we’ve been scrambling to adjust to all the changes But we are hardly alone. Every time you turn around, another legacy organization is facing similar challenges, from the U.S. Postal Service to bookstores, movie theaters and medical facilities, to name just a few.
Common Ground: Time to build an ownership mentality
It’s been fascinating to see how the community has responded to the Wenatchee School District’s effort to begin transforming its approach to education. The project, Wenatchee Learns, has engaged a broad cross-section of community members in identifying shared expectations by getting input from students, teachers, parents and community members. Getting the community involved is key, because if we’re going to build a better approach to help kids succeed in the 21st century, we’ll need to have a common understanding of what success looks like. More than 2,000 people have shared their views thus far.
Rufus Woods: Naturalist program builds community
If we are serious about building stronger communities, a great place to start is by encouraging people to think of themselves as owners of the community who are invested in its long-term success. Imagine what could be accomplished if we were to foster an ownership mentality that inspires people to find ways to make contributions to their community by taking responsibility and finding ways to help that go beyond just writing checks to charity. That’s a far healthier approach of the consumer mentality that seems to be prevalent, in which individuals feel a sense of entitlement and little or no responsibility.
The magic of learning to read
Grant Elementary School teacher Jenni Bishop’s eyes light up when you ask her what she finds most satisfying about her work. It’s that magical moment, she said, when the light bulb goes on for a struggling student and he realizes that he can read. That singular achievement has an enormous impact on how students engage in school and how they feel about themselves. It’s a success that opens up a world of possibilities. What could be better than that?
A chain reaction of kindness
The outpouring of support for Dave Shaul, the Wenatchee musician who was incapacitated in a car crash and was on the brink of losing his family home to foreclosure this week, has been stunning. But that shouldn’t surprise us. For when it comes to generosity, no region beats North Central Washington.
Common Ground: ‘Alternatives’ that offer opportunity
Haley Whitehall gets a little annoyed when she tells people she’s a graduate of WestSide High School and they give her a sidewise glance. There are still some people in the valley who aren’t aware that an alternative school meets the needs of a wide range of students, not just those with troubled backgrounds. WestSide students, in other words, are just like students in any other school.
Former bandmates still fast friends
Wenatchee natives Ted Hanson and Dave Shaul spent the better part of 17 years traveling all over the country playing music at rodeos, fairs and casinos. Hanson says he considers Shaul to be like a brother. The band was called Ted Hanson and the Country Express and they shared the stage with an amazing array of country and rock bands in a career that lasted until the early 1980s. They played with the Drifters, the Platters, Lawrence Welk, Three Dog Night, as well as an array of country stars.
Even the rich (in experience) need a little help sometimes
WENATCHEE — David Shaul lives modestly in a small, dilapidated house on Delaware Avenue in Wenatchee. He makes do on $710 a month in Social Security payments, which means using a portable heater because he can’t afford to pay for oil for the furnace. The 67-year-old Wenatchee native may be poor in monetary wealth, but he is rich in life experience. As a musician, he has performed on the same stage as some big-name entertainers.
Today's update: Nov. 28
Publisher Rufus Woods offers a quick look at some of the stories we're working on the week of Nov. 28
Don’t forget the little shops
Black Friday has become quite a tradition in the American economy, with big retailers enticing crowds of consumers with special deals the day after Thanksgiving. But a new tradition has emerged — small business Saturday — that encourages community members to shop at small businesses the day after Black Friday.
Rufus Woods: Giving thanks
In contemplating a subject for a Thanksgiving Common Ground column, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to find out what people are thankful for in the community. I did a scan through my email list and came up with a small group of individuals and decided to pose that question in a heartfelt manner. I found it inspiring and hope you will, too. Since I asked others to share their views, here’s my reaction: “I’m thankful for my family, my friends, and my co-workers who make life interesting and worth living. Beyond that, I’m grateful for the many people who choose to view their fellow human beings with a strong sense of humanity — ‘There is no They, only Us.’” Here’s how others responded.
NCW health care gains a new vision
The vision of how our regional health care system may evolve when Central Washington Hospital and the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center join forces is beginning to emerge. On Monday, the medical center’s Dr. Peter Rutherford and Dr. Stu Freed shared the framework of an approach that they hope will put North Central Washington in a position to become a national model for high-quality, low-cost health care.
Common Ground: The Hat Project’s hands-on magic
This is the season of giving thanks for the many blessings we have received and the best way I can think of to honor that spirit of gratitude is to share the story of an amazing local project that is destined to change the world for the better. I’m referring to the Hat Project started by retired social worker Aïda Bound of Wenatchee.
New venue for Festival of Trees
The Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee is putting on its annual Festival of Trees gala Saturday night to raise funds for the organization. For the first time, the event will be held in the Performing Arts Center. They’ve pulled the seats out of main floor of the performance hall, which will be used to display the trees, the lobby will be set up for a silent auction and dinner will be served on the stage. It should be quite a show.
Rufus Woods: Summit shows the art of what’s possible
There’s something about focusing on strengths and successes that inspires great creativity and a sense of possibility. In a culture dominated by focusing on problems and what can’t be done, I find the former approach to be far more helpful. We saw a perfect example of that philosophy at the North Central Washington Success Summit at Bridgeport on Wednesday, put on by the Initiative for Rural Innovation and Stewardship, a tiny non-profit dedicated to bring together people and ideas.
PUDs shouldn’t sell broadband
The lure of enormous government grants or similar funds is almost impossible for local agencies to resist. Call it the curse of free money. It’s easy for public servants to come up with lots of compelling reasons to accept funds. When tens or hundreds of millions of dollars are available to spend, rationalizations come easy, but what seems like a great deal can turn into a nightmare down the road if the dollar signs get in the way of clear thinking and good public policy.
Common Ground: Documentary shows how The Follies build community
Jaime Howell, Jeff Ostenson and the crew at Howell at the Moon Productions have done it again. They’ve created a documentary that goes beyond merely telling a story and engages the audience in an exploration of what it means to be a community. This latest project, “The Last Director,” is a film about New York director Jaime Donegan and the magic of the Wenatchee Follies, a beloved tradition in our valley that dates back to 1948. The film premiered Saturday night at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center and the crowd gave it a standing ovation. Donegan made the trip from New York for the showing.
Rufus Woods: New hospice effort building
An effort is under way to create a hospice facility in the Wenatchee Valley and it seems logical that North Central Washington needs such a facility. Mary Signorelli is leading the charge on this effort. She has a personal interest in this subject, since her partner, the late Joyce Stewart, was in need of hospice care but ended up passing away at the hospital in the spring of 2009. They weren’t set up for hospice care in their home, she told me.
Service providers press local lawmakers
WENATCHEE — An overflow crowd of more than 75 social service providers jammed into a Fire District No. 1 conference room in Sunnyslope Wednesday afternoon to brief 12th District legislators on the impact of expected cuts in the state budget. The group is called the Partnership for Children and Families and it’s been meeting regularly for more than five years to share ideas and find ways to collaborate to maximize the services that their agencies provide.
Common Ground: WHS students get a say on improving education
Wenatchee School Superintendent Brian Flones stood in front of the student body Wednesday morning at the Wenatchee High auditorium and asked for their input on how to create a better educational system. He admitted that it was the first time in his 25 years that students had ever been asked for meaningful perspective. Serious public engagement is new territory for the school district, which hasn’t always been open to outside input. To their credit, Flones and the board have been walking the talk of community dialogue.
Common Ground: Hospitality Heights housing project receives $75,000 match
One of the inspiring things about the leaders of Hospitality House Ministries is that they are undaunted by significant financial challenges. They view these as opportunities to put faith into practice, and the community has never failed to step up to the challenge. Now the Christian-based organization that helps provide transitional housing for the homeless has a $150,000 challenge to meet by the end of the year. That’s how much they need to cover the rest of the costs for developing the Hospitality Heights housing project, which will provide a place to live for four families.
Entiat group makes a big civic impact
If you want to see an example of a community that is caring for those in need on a miniscule budget, look no further than Entiat. What is being done in that rural community is nothing short of amazing. With an annual cash budget of roughly $4,000, a committed group of volunteers is running more than two dozen programs to meet the needs of low-income, elderly and disabled community members among a host of other civic needs. They provide meals, have a food bank, dispense clothing, provide yard maintenance and snow plowing, and myriad other services.
Common Ground: Foundation awards grants
The charitable foundation started by the North Central Educational Service District is only in its second year and has only modest resources to provide grants for teachers, but those contributions are ever so meaningful to those who receive them. Wednesday night, ESD Foundation Chair Jan Cetto and board member Cathy Meuret gave out nine grants to teachers in schools throughout North Central Washington to fund a variety of unique educational opportunities, including a web cam to be placed near an osprey nest in Okanogan County to monitor birds.
Another milestone for WestSide High
Something remarkable has happened in the Wenatchee Valley in the past nine months. WestSide High School, which for the first 25 years of its existence was underappreciated and undervalued, has come out of the shadows and a growing number of people view it as an important part of the local educational system.
Face to face with grief that doesn’t go away
The vast majority of us will never know what it is like to lose a child or grandchild and the lifetime of grief that accompanies such a tragedy. Still, I think it is vitally important that we take time to reflect on what some members of our communities are going through. In the grand scheme of things, the issues most of us deal with pale in comparison to what they are experiencing on a daily basis.
Common Ground: Leaders must foster hospital cooperation
North Central Washington community leaders must do everything possible to see that the strategic restructuring involving Central Washington Hospital and the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center comes to fruition. So much is at stake.
Time to rise to the challenge
The Wenatchee City Council and mayor must quickly come up with a solution to the Town Toyota Center financial conundrum or the Public Facilities District that was created to operate the facility will end up in default. With the Dec. 1 default deadline looming, time is of the essence. No matter which scenario plays out, the impact to the city budget is going to be profound and the community will be making substantial payouts for decades. Money will have to be diverted away from important services and the city’s ability to complete new projects will be vastly curtailed. We don’t know is how catastrophic the budget impact will be, but it’s likely to range from $1.7 million to $3 million a year. If a deal gets done to avoid default, the city will begin paying in 2012. If default occurs, the impact will be delayed.
United Way moves to strategic approach to meeting needs
The United Way of Chelan and Douglas counties has embarked on an effort to discover the most important issues that are confronting our communities and how the organization can evolve to meet those needs. They’ve started holding a series of focus group conversations throughout the two counties to understand the opportunities. Alan Walker, executive director of United Way, said the organization needs to shift from simply raising and distributing money to “convening and solving problems.” That means being more strategic about how it uses its resources. Understanding what issues the community feels are most important is an important first step.
Rufus Woods: Community Health expands services
The Wenatchee valley’s health care system just received a major upgrade. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Thursday for the expansion of the Columbia Valley Community Health.
Trail project should go ahead
Douglas County officials are getting some push-back from folks who are opposed to straightening out a hazardous portion of the Apple Capital Recreational Loop Trail. The opponents argue that the work to reroute the trail to eliminate two hairpin turns shouldn’t be a priority and the money ought to be used for something else. Furthermore, there are questions about whether it makes sense to spend money on a project that enhances safety on the trail.
Common Ground: Serve Wenatchee Valley — 10 years of amazing support
It’s been 10 years since Serve Wenatchee Valley was launched, and the growth and impact of that organization on the community has been remarkable. With the needs increasing because of the difficult economy, it’s organizations like this that provide a significant support for struggling individuals in our midst. I sat down recently to learn about its evolution with Bob Shepard, who helped found the organization and is its executive director, and board president Pat McElroy of First Presbyterian Church in Wenatchee.
Common Ground: Community Foundation — Helping us give and do good
The Community Foundation of North Central Washington is celebrating its 25th year of encouraging and facilitating philanthropy in Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties. This week, the foundation is launching a “Silver Linings” celebration during which the board will give $1,000 surprise grants to 25 nonprofit organizations over the course of the next five weeks. You can read about the recipients of these grants in The Wenatchee World in our next 25 editions.
Common Ground: Eastmont’s Christensen has transformed school district
There’s been a remarkable transformation in the Eastmont School District since Dr. Garn Christensen was hired in 2007. At the time, the district was in serious financial difficulty and there was a lot of internal turmoil. It is a far healthier and effective district today, thanks in large part to Christensen’s leadership and the work of the School Board. I hope the citizens of East Wenatchee appreciate what has been accomplished in a short period of time.
Common Ground: Updates on efforts to improve schools, homeless shelter
Recently, I wrote columns about the Wenatchee School District’s public engagement process to chart a new course for education in the community and the effort by Hospitality House Ministries to increase the supply of transitional housing for the homeless. Here are some new developments to share on those projects.
Common Ground: Annual school supply giveaway was a big hit with kids
There were a lot of happy smiles on the faces of kids and parents in the parking lot of the Wenatchee Staples store Thursday morning for the 15th annual school supply giveaway, organized by the North Central Educational Service District with the help of other civic organizations. Ed Michael, who manages the Staples store, said the first person arrived at 3:15 a.m. Hundreds of bags of school supplies tailored to elementary, middle school and high school students were given out over the course of a few hours.
Common Ground: Remembering six-man football with Marc Rasmussen
A former Wenatchee bank executive and civic leader has published an interesting book about the origins of six-man football and an amazing coach who formed a team in a South Dakota prairie town and won 61 consecutive games, setting a national record. Folks around the valley will remember Marc Rasmussen as the manager of what was then Central Washington Bank (now Wells Fargo). He was active with the United Way and also the YMCA.
Common Ground: Wenatchee Schools launch audacious initiative
Superintendent Brian Flones and the Wenatchee School Board are launching an ambitious initiative aimed at rethinking the district’s approach to education. At the heart of the Wenatchee Learns initiative is a unique public engagement process that seeks to find common ground in the community about what the education system should accomplish. The hope is that citizens will have a strong sense of ownership in education, Flones said. At a time of very limited resources and a need to transform the education approach to meet the needs of the 21st century, Flones envisions tapping the resources of the community in new and unique ways.
Common Ground: NCW’s wines have a bright future
North Central Washington’s wine industry is beginning to make a significant splash and that bodes very well for not only our economy but also for developing a greater sense of community. On Saturday night at Wenatchee’s Performing Arts Center, a crowd of wine enthusiasts showed up to celebrate the great wines and wine makers of our four-county region. World Publishing Co. and Foothills Magazine sponsored the first-ever North Central Washington Wine Awards competition and the winners were announced at that event.
Mangalee nears end of Mongol Derby race
Peshastin-native Sophia (McKee) Mangalee has completed 760 kilometers of the 1,000-km Mongol Derby horse race, according to her father, Charlie McKee. She had a mishap with her horse, as reported on the Mongol Derby race website. Here’s what was reported on Thursday:
Common Ground: We depend on westside transportation
Two executives from the Port of Tacoma made the trek to Wenatchee yesterday to begin forging stronger relationships with North Central Washington. Chief Executive Officer John Wolfe and Julie Collins, the port’s external affairs officer, met with agricultural groups as well as the downtown Rotary club to talk about the common interests we share in freight mobility and facilitating international trade.
Common Ground: Honoring the best wines NCW has to offer
Saturday night marks a significant milestone in the history of North Central Washington’s wine industry. Foothills Magazine is sponsoring the North Central Washington Winemakers Invitational, part of a competition to determine the best wines in the region. The magazine is a sister publication of The World and Wenatchee Valley Business World, all of which are produced by World Publishing Co.
Common Ground: Let’s find local solutions
We are in the midst of troubling times. Recently, we’ve witnessed the turmoil in Washington, D.C., over the nation’s debt limit and the resulting downgrade of our credit rating and the drop in the stock market. Yesterday, we learned we can anticipate further cuts in our state budget. Unfortunately, we’re only seeing partisanship and division on the national political stage. Our system has devolved into a blameocracy in which the goal of beating the other party is far more important than the long-term health of the country. Both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for this state of affairs and we, the citizens of this country, have for the most part been sitting idly by and watching this perverse and unproductive soap opera.
Common Ground: A bicycle theft and cycling art
My network of Common Ground contributors has been busy feeding me ideas and updating me with additional information about previous columns. I sure appreciate the assistance. Here are a few examples:The ink was hardly dry on Sunday’s Wenatchee World in which we featured a farewell to the Performing Arts Center’s Don Fox when a thief made off with his bicycle. Fox, who’s staying with friends, woke up Monday morning to find that someone had cut the chain that secured the bike to a post on the back porch.
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