PSE opens the newest Up & Go EV charging station in Bellingham.
Students in East Whatcom County’s Mt. Baker Head Start program will travel to and from school in a brand-new electric school bus, provided to the Opportunity Council’s East Whatcom County Regional Resource Center (EWRRC), part of PSE’s Up & Go Electric pilot program focused on equity in transportation electrification.
This bus, which PSE purchased from Blue Bird, comes with a dual-port level 2 charging station that PSE installed on the resource center property. The charging station will power the electric bus while the extra charging port will be available for other invited guests of the resource center.
“PSE is working to advance the equitable adoption of transportation electrification in our region, but we can’t do it alone, said Andy Wappler, PSE Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. “Partnerships with community-based organizations like Opportunity Council’s East Whatcom Regional Resource Center enable us to build a robust EV ecosystem and ensure that everyone, regardless of income and geographic location, can access the benefits of electric mobility.”
The resource center is a critical community hub for its Head Start preschool, community meetings, community gardens and basic needs resources for East Whatcom County residents.
“We are immensely grateful for PSE’s generosity in support of our electric bus initiative,” said David Webster, Director of the Opportunity Council’s Department of Early Learning & Family Services. “To us, it’s not only reliable transportation for our children but also a step forward in reducing air pollution in an area that is frequently assessed as a “non-containment area” by the Northwest Clean Air Agency. Fossil fuel bus fumes are an irritant for children with asthma, too, so this investment will pay many dividends for our kiddos and our entire service area.”
PSE’s transportation electrification programs aim to provide direct and measurable benefits and to reduce health and financial burdens for the communities it serves. Partnering with community organizations like the Opportunity Council is part of PSE’s commitment to working together to create a cleaner energy future for all and achieving its aspirational goal to be a Beyond Net Zero Carbon company by 2045. PSE is targeting reducing carbon emissions to net zero and going beyond by helping other sectors enable carbon reduction across Washington state.
To learn more about PSE’s Transportation Electrification Plan, visit pse.com/upandgo.
It’s the last Monday of the month, and the regular crowd shuffles in at 6 p.m. Talk about your City of Subdued Excitement: here’s a crowd of 20 to 30 writers, greeting one another in hushed voices, with delighted smiles and waves. Virtual attendees wave from the large television screen at the front of the room. Village Books’ Open Mic, hosted by Seán Dwyer, is about to start, and writers ranging in age from teens to seniors have brought their work to read out loud.
There’s a combination of anticipation and dread as the writers wait for their names to be called. They all signed up for this, but there’s still that terror of public speaking and the fear that the piece you’re about to share won’t land the way you want it to.
“This is a safe place,” says emcee Seán Dwyer, who joined as a reader in 2012 and stepped up to lead the group in 2018. “The first time I attended this open mic, the quality of the readers struck me. I was so intimidated that I didn’t read there for a year, despite my prior reading experiences in other cities. It’s impossible for me to keep my readers’ inner critic from undermining them before they make their debut, but I try to make it clear that the atmosphere is supportive.”
Seán Dwyer emcees Village Books’ Open Mic group. Photo credit: Kristin Noreen
Open mic means open; readers bring everything from poetry to opinion pieces, short stories, chapters from novels in progress, memoirs — anything goes. There have even been performance pieces: sung poems and slam poetry (spoken to a beat). The diversity of content comes from the group. People of different ages, ethnicities, and walks of life connect with one another through their work. One young member read a short story using characters from a video game, and after the session, a senior reader and fellow gamer talked with her about her use of the game’s object to drive the story.
The Open Mic group has become a supportive community for its regular members. Caity Scott celebrated earning her MFA (Master of Fine Arts) with cake for all. Other readers share major life events with the group through their writing. Published writers promote their work, and writers in the pre-publishing stage find “beta readers” within the group — readers who offer general feedback rather than specific editing. Reading out loud is a skill in itself, and over time readers develop comfort with public speaking.“It wasn’t so long ago that I was pretty nervous getting up in front of strangers,” says regular reader Jean Waight, “but not anymore.”
Thomas Prosser reads at a recent gathering of the group. Photo credit: Kristin Noreen
The Open Mic group has grown so large that it’s often hard to fit all the readers into the two-hour time period. Recently, Carla Shafer came to invite people to her Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater Open Mic group that meets mid-month. The group is named for the local stone, which, Shafer says, “looks hard from the outside, but breaks open easily and is full of grit.” Readers have up to seven minutes there, which allows for longer pieces. That group also allows the option to attend via Zoom.
One of Village Books’ three owners, Paul Hanson, tells me about the many writing groups hosted by Village Books where local writers can create content to read at the Open Mic groups. There are currently four groups that gather regularly: nonfiction and memoir, fiction, and newly added groups for children’s writing and environmental themes. The nonfiction and memoir group meets virtually but is looking for a facilitator who is interested in starting a nonfiction and memoir group to meet in person at the store — check with Hanson if you are interested). Most groups are still meeting online from the pandemic days, but some have returned to in-person meetings. The events calendar at Village gives the details for each group.
Group member Carla Shafer shares announcements before the readings begin. Photo credit: Kristin Noreen
Village Books and Whatcom Community College formed a partnership to create the Chuckanut Writers Conference in 2011, with workshops and network opportunities. The conference went virtual during the pandemic and was canceled in 2022, but Hanson says they are busy “reimagining and restarting” the conference for live events in the future. Meanwhile, Chuckanut Writers offers classes year-round at WCC.
Hanson’s involvement with writing groups began on Bainbridge Island at Eagle Harbor Books, where he hosted and facilitated writing groups for 13 years. “I like the motivation and accountability that regular meetings offer,” he says. The group eventually created a story anthology to follow through the entire process from writing to publication. Some of the groups at Village Books have published anthologies, as well.
Paul Hanson is one of three co-owners of Fairhaven’s beloved Village Books — and a staunch supporter of local writers and writing groups. Photo credit: Kristin Noreen
Local writing groups outside Village Books regularly publish anthologies with the help of Village’s Writers’ Corner resources. Open mic reader Jean Waight belongs to Red Wheelbarrow Writers, hosted by writer and teacher Cami Ostman. (Read a previous WhatcomTalk feature about Red Wheelbarrow Writers here.)
“The local loose association of writers known as Red Wheelbarrow Writers — named after the William Carlos William poem — has been the community that so much depends on for me,” says Waight. “I’ve even stretched myself to write a chapter in a day for their quirky and hilarious group novel — 30 days, 30 writers, no outline!”
As an independent bookstore, Village Books strives to build community, “Much like WhatcomTalk,” Hanson says with a smile. “Every writer is in a different part of their journey. Village Books attempts to help writers from generation to publication and beyond.”
The writing group anthologies are all available at Village Books. Pick one up. You might find there’s a whole lot more to your neighbors than you ever knew — you might even realize you have a story of your own to tell.
There’s no question that exercise is one of the most nourishing activities you can do for your body, and an important part of that nourishment is sharing it with others. At Bellingham Training & Tennis Club, fitness and community go hand in hand.
But what happens when a pandemic shuts down the world and forces communities to reimagine the way they live and work together? Bellingham Training & Tennis instructors Kristyn Bitner and Elizabeth Sheinkopf teach fitness classes at each bookend of the day — Sheinkopf in the early morning and Bitner in the midday to evening hours. They’ve seen a shift since the pandemic and recently sat down with WhatcomTalk to spread the word and encourage folks to revisit their workout schedules and keep their self-care a top priority.
“I’ve been here for a year and a half, and have been personal training for eight years,” says Bitner. “At Bellingham Training & Tennis, I do one-on-one personal training and teach exercise, strength training, and cycle classes.” Sheinkopf has been at the Training center for 15 years and instructs small group training classes in all formats including TRX, strength training, and cycle classes. A complete list of classes and descriptions can be found here.
Bellingham Training & Tennis Club is not strictly for tennis players, offering many classes that can augment multiple disciplines. “Originally, it was just a tennis club and Robin and Doug have turned the training arm of it into a more general fitness, balance, and agility program,” Sheinkopf says. “It also really supports the tennis players who are members.”
Morning Classes
Sheinkopf is the training center’s go-to early morning instructor, a role she thrives in.
“I’ve always been a morning person,” she says. “The reason I started to exercise in the early morning is because I had little tiny kids and my day was pretty packed. I would sneak out of the house with my shoes in my hand before they woke up.”
Elizabeth Sheinkopf. Photo courtesy Bellingham Training & Tennis Club
At the club, Sheinkopf teaches class at 5:45 a.m. four days a week, not including her hosting of other group classes. “I teach cycle on Tuesday and Thursday, and then I teach performance on Monday and Friday,” says Sheinkopf. “I teach classes at 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., as well as a couple of other cycle classes at 10:45 and 8:45 and 9:30 — all in the morning.”
When the world is still quiet and waking, those peaceful hours are some of the best times to get in a productive workout, freeing up the rest of your day and setting a positive, energizing tone.
“The great thing about early in the morning is there’s really nothing else going on,” Sheinkopf says. “You don’t have a lot of conflicts at five in the morning. As the day goes on, it’s really easy to let other things be the priority.”
Evening Classes
On the flip side of the coin, there are plenty of benefits to working out at the end of your day, as well. “I’m the one who leans toward evening,” says Bitner. “As much as habits and trends have changed post-COVID — because there’s a lot more people working from home — we’ve seen a shift from super-packed classes in the p.m. time to it dwindling a little bit nowadays.”
Kristyn Bitner. Photo courtesy Bellingham Training & Tennis Club
Bitner teaches performance in strength training classes on Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m., as well as body conditioning and cycle classes. “The best thing about an evening class is the fact you can decompress and de-stress in a healthy way if you’ve had a stressful day at work,” Bitner says. “Or if you have kids, you can take an hour for yourself as a form of self-care. Sometimes we throw medicine balls around and you can take out all your stress on the ball and get aggression out. Then you go home, you’re more relaxed, and you don’t take as much of the stress of your day home with you.”
The Merits of Group Exercise
As the world continues to peek bravely out from under the pandemic rock, exercising as a group is once again gaining popularity. “I think that it is incredibly motivating to be with a group, and I think there’s a lot of positives about it,” says Sheinkopf. “Bellingham Training & Tennis has an incredibly familial feel — people really look out for each other. If people feel like someone hasn’t been in class for a while, they feel like they should check in on them. There’s a lot of that kind of support happening.”
For those nervous about keeping germs away, the club’s environment is small and limited, and they keep the equipment and facilities sparkling clean.
Bellingham Training & Tennis Club has classes that span a wide range of fitness goals, but tennis players will also find a good opportunity to train in their sport. Photo courtesy Bellingham Training & Tennis Club
“As someone who’s worked at small business gyms and also corporate gyms, this is a much different environment, because at those places you really are just a number as an instructor — it doesn’t matter what state your body is in,” Bitner says. “At a club like this, they allow you to be a human being. When things happen, we try and help each other and there’s a lot more community you can build. You can be yourself, which people appreciate.”
The community at Bellingham Training & Tennis Club has made the club a wonderful place for everyone to workout, including folks who have exercised together there for years and are close friends. “I’ve worked in clubs where you have a class full of 50 people,” says Sheinkopf. “People show up, and then they leave — they don’t talk and there’s no accountability or community. Here, I’ve seen people age and they’re just really good friends as the years go by. They love their classes partly because that’s where their friends are.”
Bellingham Training & Tennis Club is not strictly for tennis players, offering many classes that can augment multiple disciplines.
Bitner’s philosophy for exercise perfectly encapsulates the positive and effective attitude Bellingham Training & Tennis Club is encouraging the community to try with the flexibility of morning and evening classes.
“The main component of your exercise should be 80% of something you enjoy doing,” Bitner says. “Your body doesn’t reject exercise if it is less than an hour. Finding something that you love, with people you enjoy, and doing that is what would most benefit you in the end.”
Find a complete list of BTTC classes and descriptions here.
BTTC’s fitness team (left to right): Elizabeth Sheinkopf, Connor Eddy, co-owner Robin Robertson, and Kristyn Bitner. Photo courtesy Bellingham Training & Tennis Club
For decades, an urban legend has persisted in Bellingham. Maybe you’ve heard of it: long ago, several Chinese miners were buried or drowned, accidentally or intentionally, in the old Sehome coal mine.
As a result, the miners’ spirits cursed Bellingham, leaving residents either unable to leave or destined to always return, no matter how they might try otherwise. It’s preposterous, of course. But where did this supposed “curse” originate? Did Chinese laborers really die in an old coal mine?
The answers — though hazy — are both intriguing and shameful.
Working the Black Seam
Coal mining was an important industry in Whatcom County’s early development.
The combustible black rock was first discovered in the mid-1850s at Bellingham Bay by Captain William Pattle, who was told of “black fire dirt” by local indigenous people. It wasn’t long before other claims were staked in what is now downtown Bellingham, and San Francisco investors helped organize the Bellingham Bay Coal Company. In particular, the Sehome Coal Mine eventually became very profitable for the company, to the tune of up to $300,000 a year (over $10 million today).
Like any coal mine of its era, though, it was dangerous. Accidents happened: in May 1863, several miners were hurt in a fire. In November 1866, saltwater was supposedly poured into the mine to put out another fire. In 1867, Dominick Padden — brother of Lake Padden’s namesake, Michael Padden — was killed in the mine. Sehome’s profit margin declined in ensuing years, and the mine was closed for good in 1878.
Chinese laborers of Pacific American Fisheries spent time in the “China House” along the Bellingham Bay waterfront in Fairhaven. This photo is from a 1944 Bellingham Herald article.
As time marched on, the expanding landscape of civilization filled in and paved over aging mine shafts and entrances to where laborers dug. In 1888, a Whatcom Reveille article noted a Mr. Hastings, who was employing a group of 20 men grading Holly Street to connect with 13th Street. Today, this connection point is near Champion Street, about four blocks from the coal mine location at Railroad Avenue.
“They are filling in the old cave hole,” the Reveille claimed, “where six Chinamen were buried in the coal mine a dozen years ago.”
Kolby LaBree, a Bellingham historian and proprietor of “the Good Time Girls” historical walking tours, has looked into this claim. In a 2020 blog post, LaBree says she couldn’t find any newspaper or journal entries from 1876 that support the disaster occurring. But the idea persisted through local media for decades, particularly when old mine shaft stories popped up.
A 1949 Bellingham Herald article’s beginning was particularly elaborate: “Do ancestral ghosts of dead Chinese haunt the sulphureous mine levels that underlie Bellingham? What secrets are contained in the rubble-filled passageways of the Sehome Coal mine, and what treasure? Seventy years have passed since the mine was abandoned, but the legend persists that it is a giant sarcophagus for unnumbered Chinese laborers, each with their life savings strapped to their skeletons.”
The “Chinese Deadline,” which kept laborers from mingling with regular townsfolk, is today marked by a plaque along Harris Avenue, near where Padden Creek meets Bellingham Bay. Photo credit: Matt Benoit
The article goes on to quote Morse Hardware owner Cecil Morse, who explains the second part of the story: the dead Chinese laborers were rumored to have gold in their money belts, and whoever dug deep enough might find their riches.
Jeff Jewell, Whatcom Museum archivist, says he thinks the treasure idea is at least partially why the story maintained staying power through the years.
“This is like the stories of when the Spanish explorers were here and, of course, left behind a chest of gold,” he says. “People really find lost treasure an appealing concept.”
Truth vs. Fiction
In addition to a shortage of historical evidence proving the disaster happened, both historians and old-timers have found the story devoid of validity.
Local author and historian Wes Gannaway points out that while Chinese laborers did work for the Sehome Mine (it was the only county mine that employed them), they did not work in the mine.
“Chinese (employees) worked at the loading dock, cleaning and sorting the coal,” Gannaway wrote in a 2007 Whatcom County Historical Society article. “This labor paid less than underground work, which Europeans took.”
Chinese laborers who worked at Pacific American Fisheries’ Fairhaven cannery around the turn of the 20th century found plenty of discrimination. Photo credit: Matt Benoit
Another version of the legend states that the mine flooded when workers “punched through the bottom” of the mine directly into Bellingham Bay. This is also untrue, as mine flooding to extinguish fires was done by diverting freshwater streams, Gannaway wrote.
Peter Denis, who was the last surviving Sehome miner when he was interviewed at age 89 in 1949, says he’d heard the Chinese mining story shift from nine workers buried in a mine cave-in at one location, to those same workers drowned in another location.
J.H. Pascoe, superintendent of the Bellingham Coal Mines on Birchwood Avenue, north of Squalicum Creek, said he was told by Henry Roeder that the story was made up.
Learning From the Past
A large part of the myth’s existence likely owes itself to something more shameful than tall tales: that of racism.
The 1949 Herald piece quotes an unnamed old-timer who said Chinese laborers were not very popular at the time the mine existed.
“No one liked the Chinese in those days because they worked for practically nothing and lived like misers,” the man said. “They were apart from the community and looked upon suspiciously. It was believed they had every penny of their savings buried under their floor or carried on their persons.”
The story of a curse, placed upon Bellingham by buried Chinese miners, continued to circulate in local media and story-telling for decades after supposedly occurring. This Jack Carver photo is from a 1949 Bellingham Herald article.
And even if the story were true, it was followed by discriminatory laws that had a terrible impact on Chinese immigrants of the era.
In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese immigration to the United States. This was followed by the regional Chinese expulsions of 1885 and ’86, where laborers were systematically driven from Seattle, Portland, and other towns — including those that would eventually become Bellingham.
As LaBree points out, the very paper that seems to have publically instigated the Chinese curse also blatantly promoted xenophobia: “For every Chinese employed,” the paper wrote, “an American home is destroyed.”
It even introduced a boycott of Chinese and their businesses, and residents who refused to sign had their names published in the paper to be shamed.
From 1898 to 1903, when Chinese laborers worked at the Pacific American Fisheries cannery in Fairhaven, they labored not far from the “Chinese Deadline” — a boundary rule to keep them from crossing Padden Creek and mingling with the rest of town. In 2011, Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike issued a formal apology for Chinese expulsion, and a new historical marker noting the deadline was placed where Padden Creek meets Harris Avenue.
While LaBree posits that Bellingham possibly deserved a curse for its treatment of Chinese people, she also sees the legend as a way of remembering and processing past treatment of local laborers.
Whether the “curse” has any sway on modern Bellingham, the mines from which it sprang still do. Jewell says maps of Bellingham Bay Coal Company mines were allegedly lost during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, leaving none to be consulted for modern construction concerns. As a result, test drillings must be done to see if part of, or how far, a mine is below a building site.
As someone who has long called the city home and understands the reasons for its growth, Jewell sees the idea of Bellingham being cursed as nonsense.
“I don’t see how always having to return to Bellingham is a curse,” he says. “If you could never return to Bellingham, that would be a curse. You could never go home again.”
‘It was a dark and stormy night when the first train roared into Fairhaven Station in 1890. As torrential rain turned muddy streets to rivers of chocolate milk, the townspeople drank and danced at a lavish gala welcoming the railroad. No one imagined that at midnight, when the train left the station, it would roll over the town’s most prominent man, leaving only his bowler hat floating in a puddle.”
Join your fellow gumshoes as you solve the crime! The Fairhaven Association brings back the popular Dirty Dan Murder Mystery Weekend for its third year. Award winning author Jes Stone has created a fun and clever story line featuring characters such as; London Jack, Miss Pearl and Myrtle Buttinski. Who killed Mr. Nelson Larrybees?
The event kicks off at the Fairhaven Train Station on Saturday, April 29th at 10:30 a.m. The “whodunit” will be announced Sunday, April 30th at 1 p.m. on the Fairhaven Village Green. The is a fun event for the whole family. Collect clues, question suspects, gather information and make your accusation!
Tickets are on sale now through www.enjoyfairhaven.com with early bird pricing until April 15th, although you can purchase tickets up until the day of the event.
Thank you to our event sponsor Fairhaven’s Village Books & Paper Dreams and the 25 local business that serve as clue locations.
Dirty Dan Day will immediately follow the reveal on Sunday with entertainment and games on the Fairhaven Village Green. This is a FREE event that celebrates Fairhaven Founder Dirty Dan Harris.
The members of Los Chicos del 512 came together back in 2014 for one reason only. The one reason was to bring the magic of Selena to both old and new fans worldwide. They will be bringing this magic to the 2023 Northwest Washington Fair on Sunday, August 13 at 7 p.m. as part of the Bank of the Pacific Grandstand Entertainment Series.
Having sold out venue after venue, and most recently performing for the Chicago Bulls and the Marines in Okinawa, Japan, Los Chicos del 512 – The Selena Experience are on fire! Their shows are astonishing experiences and the closest one can get to a live Selena concert. It is truly the greatest Selena tribute production out there. Now, get ready to sing, dance and relive Selena!
Tickets for the grandstand show go on sale to the public at 9 a.m. on March 17. Grandstand reserved seats, preferred seats, and preferred chairs are available. Tickets do not include gate admission, which is required. The show is presented by Andy Garcia and Luis Herrera, RE/MAX Whatcom County, Inc.
For access to the online pre-sale starting March 15, people can subscribe to the ‘Friends of the Fair’ email here https://www.nwwafair.com/email.aspx.
Tickets can be purchased at www.nwwafair.com, the Fair Office, 1775 Front St. Lynden, and by phone at 360.354.4111. VIP Experiences and group ticketing are also available. The 2023 Northwest Washington Fair will be presented August 10-19.
Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday, March 12, and Puget Sound Energy is here to help you get ahead on your spring cleaning.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) wants to remind customers it has energy saving rebates aimed at keeping project costs low, reducing your carbon footprint, and even lowering your energy bills.
Whether your home improvement needs are big or small, PSE recommends using these energy saving tips:
1. Clear the way for efficient heating and cooling.
Spring is a great time to clean heating return registers and replace furnace filters. Looking to upgrade your heating system? Ductless heat pumps come standard with heating and cooling! Whether you need help deciding which equipment works for your home or are considering specific options, PSE offers rebates on a variety of home heating equipment.
2. Take advantage of the latest home technology.
Devices like smart thermostats allow you to control and keep tabs on home heating usage from anywhere – and this year you can also take advantage of a $75 rebate on select models on the PSE Marketplace.
3. Receive a $500 instant discount on electric hybrid heat pump water heaters.
Heating water is the second-highest use of energy in your home. We’re making it easy to buy efficient heat pump water heaters at participating Lowe’s and Home Depot locations.
4. Seal in the savings with home weatherization and insulation.
Proper insulation can help keep cool air in and summer heat out. You can also lower your energy bill by preventing heating or cooling loss through unseen leaks and seams with air sealing. Bundle and save with a bonus rebate up to $500 when you combine multiple weatherization rebates in one project.
5. Make an energy saving plan.
The more you know, the more you can save. Understanding how much energy your home uses and assessing your home’s efficiency is the first step in staying comfortable year-round. Update your home’s profile in your pse.com account, and use the Analyze My Usage tool to get customized energy saving tips and make an energy savings plan for your household.
Want to learn more? Check out pse.com/marketplace for instant rebates. For additional tips to increase the energy efficiency of your home and learn about PSE’s other rebates, visit pse.com/rebates. To get started on a project today, find a safe and dependable Recommended Energy Professional (REP) at pse.com/rep. PSE is here to help, there are more energy efficiency tips at pse.com/lower.
Nina — and many of her fellow skaters — would love to have a local indoor or covered park, so they can skate even during inclement weather. Photo courtesy Nina Aguilar
If you’re from Bellingham and discover that skateboarding
is your passion, at some point you’re going to have to travel farther afield to
compete in your sport. Local 16-year-old skater Nina Aguilar has gone to
California to skate and has crossed borders into both Canada and Mexico, as
well. In fact, she just returned from Dubai with some exciting news. I sat down
with Nina and her father, John, to learn more.
Born and raised in Bellingham, Nina started skating when
she was nine. “My dad has been skating since he was my age, and he taught me,”
she says. “I just kind of picked it up and stuck with it. The only skatepark
here is at Civic Field, and I go there pretty much every day.”
Nina has found her place in a field that has always been
dominated by men, but she hasn’t let that slow her down — and now she sees more
and more female skaters alongside her. “Growing up skating at the park here,
there weren’t very many girls,” she says. “Some would come and go, but none would
ever really stick with it. Nowadays there are a bunch more and I’m seeing
professionals that are older than me that are really good, and they’ve inspired
me.”
When it became clear that she has what it takes to compete,
Nina launched her skating career by traveling to the Seattle area to take part
in competitions. As opportunities to travel farther away presented themselves, Nina
began winning recognition — and awards — far away from home as well. One of
those events takes place at the southern end of California. “In Encinitas, there’s
a big contest called Exposure, for girls only. There are a bunch of people that
come from all around the world to compete in that.”
Because she enjoys dual citizenship, Nina is able to compete as a member of the Mexican National Team. Photo courtesy Nina Aguilar
Even more opportunities were waiting on the other side of
the border, as well. “Nina qualified to be on the Mexican National Team because
she has dual citizenship,” says her father, John. The national team sends her
to qualifying contests for the Olympics. “We just came back from the first one,
in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and there are more in Argentina and Rome,
and then back to Dubai. And then it’s the Olympics.”
As a skater himself, John sees his daughter’s experience
from a different perspective, and has noticed an interesting phenomenon. “Going
to contests and seeing the same girls she competed with at the local contests
skating in Dubai for other teams — we’re all friends, that’s the thing,” he
says. “It’s an international contest, and it’s pretty cool to see the same
people on the other side of the world.”
Nina recently traveled to Dubia in the United Arab Emirates to rack up points in competition so she can qualify to skate at the Olympics. Photo courtesy Nina Aguilar
If Nina does make it to the biggest stage in the world,
John knows it’s partly because she’s had crucial, long-term support in her hometown
from Zach Garza, the owner of local skateboarding emporium Unknown Board Shop. “He
has helped Nina grow up skating, sponsoring her and giving her stuff,” John
says. “And he gives a lot to the community — he does clinics to really push
skateboarding, and he’s involved with some of the schools in the district, to
let kids try and skate for a day at the beginner level.”
Now back home from Dubai, Nina continues to work on her
craft and meet new people. “I mostly just skate by myself at the park, but
there’s this group of girls that started skating at the park and they started weekly
meetups. Girls only, but very inclusive,” she says.
She also echoes the sentiment of a lot of other skaters in
town. “I wish there was an indoor park here, or something covered so that
people can skate more. We’ve tried to raise some kind of awareness for that.”
As far as long-term plans go, Nina isn’t making too many
predictions. But one thing is clear. “My future is skating,” she says. “Hopefully
that’s what I can keep doing.”
Lorna Gober, MD, has joined PeaceHealth’s Northwest network as chief medical officer.
As CMO, Dr. Gober will work closely with the PeaceHealth Northwest executive team as well as medical staff and medical group physician leadership. Dr. Gober will also be an important addition to the PeaceHealth senior physician leadership team made up of other PeaceHealth hospital and medical group CMOs.
Dr. Lorna Gober. Photo credit: Mark Turner
Dr. Gober most recently served as the Medical Director of Sound Physicians at PeaceHealth facilities in Bellingham, Sedro-Woolley and Vancouver, an expanded leadership role within Sound after leading the hospitalists at PeaceHealth St. Joseph. Prior to Sound, Dr. Gober was with Family Care Network in Bellingham for more than a decade, during which time she held a variety of executive leadership roles. Earlier in her career, Dr. Gober worked at Western Washington University Student Health Center, and briefly as a fill-in physician at Sea Mar Community Health Clinic and Nooksack Tribal Health.
“Dr. Gober’s well-rounded experience makes her ideally suited for the CMO role,” says Charles Prosper, chief executive of PeaceHealth’s Northwest network. “We believe that she will be an excellent leadership partner and mentor.”
Dr. Gober received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon Honors College, where she graduated magna cum laude. She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Washington and completed her residency training at the Tacoma Family Medicine Residency Program.
When someone enters your home and compliments
you on your taste in furnishings, art, or a unique piece, it gives you much
pleasure.
So, too, when a customer enters Assistance League’s Thrift & Gift Shop on Meridian Street and expresses how much they appreciate the friendly, helpful volunteers — the selection of clean, cared for clothing and accessories, housewares, ceramics — it gives us much pleasure. That pleasure was doubly rewarded recently when we were voted by you, our community, in the Cascadia Daily News Readers’ Choice contest as “The Best Thrift Store ” in Whatcom and Skagit Counties.
Not only pleasure in knowing we are serving
our customers, your purchases are directly supporting our philanthropic
programs of Operation School Bell, Teen Team, Books and Beyond, Enrichment
Scholarship and Care Center Support. You are uplifting the lives of others by
shopping at our store while having a direct positive effect on the environment.
Everyday we see evidence of the need to
protect our environment. The Bellingham
community has supported issues to do just that. Assistance League of Bellingham
is honored to be a pathway of keeping
clothes out of landfills, reducing carbon and chemical pollution by clothing
production and lowering water consumption.
Although thrift store buying has remained
constant for many years, the values and
expressions behind thrifting have changed. The pandemic and current inflation
have shifted priorities for our customers. Consciousness of the environment is
growing. Assistance League of Bellingham
is responding by offering local, fair, ethical and sustainable second-hand
goods.
The enticing sales of big name stores most often cannot match the reward a buyer experiences with a thrift store find! With the influence of fast fashion, where micro seasons of clothing are found on the racks of the big name stores, finding a sustainable article of clothing is not only good for your budget but especially beneficial for the environment. While we enjoy a returning customer base, with the rising popularity of thrifting, we are delighted to see new faces .
Join the “thrifting” trend and make a difference for yourself and your friends — and especially for the planet.
Kevin Wiebe is a Ferndale native. Although he graduated from Ferndale High School, he admits he wasn't a model student. His teachers and administrators...
