Snoqualmie Valley Hospital earns high marks in stroke care
May 23, 2012
Snoqualmie Valley Hospital earned a Level 2 Cardiac Care and a Level 3 Stroke Care category under the state’s new care coordination system.
At those levels, emergency departments are required to have protocols in place and meet several performance goals.
Goals include having EKGs completed within 10 minutes and transferring to a higher level facility for a heart attack within a half-hour.
Hospitals must have a full range of specialists, like neurosurgeons, and highly sophisticated equipment available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to earn Level 1 status.
“Snoqualmie Valley Hospital has effectively developed strong collaborative relationships with area hospitals,” Director of Nursing Rachel Weber said in a press release, “to assure that patients receive the right care at the right time regardless of where that care occurs.”
Middle Fork-South Fork Snoqualmie invasive weed project needs volunteers
May 23, 2012
Plant enthusiasts, hikers and others who want to help natural areas are encouraged to join the effort to locate and control invasive plant species in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley and the Snoqualmie Pass Gateway trails.
The Middle Fork-South Fork invasive weed project trains volunteers to survey along the trails of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley and in the upper South Fork Snoqualmie watershed.
Help survey the area’s trail system for invasive weeds to stop them before they get entrenched. Workers are surveying trails from Mount Si near North Bend to Dutch Miller Gap in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Upcoming orientation:
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 23
Where: North Bend Ranger Station, Back Conference Hall,
902 S.E. North Bend Way
What: Training and orientation for volunteer weed surveyors including a survey hike in the Middle Fork Valley
Details: Bring water, lunch, hiking shoes and other hiking essentials.
Attendees will carpool from the ranger station and return by 5 p.m.
Sign up or learn more by contacting Sasha Shaw at sasha.shaw@kingcounty.gov or 206-296-0290.
Meeting the pet food need in the Snoqualmie Valley
May 23, 2012
In economic downtimes suffering is commonplace. Jobs are lost. Hours are cut. Money is scarce. When put in a tough financial position it’s hard to think about anything besides just getting by. So it’s no wonder that when people suffer, their pets suffer, too.
But good things are happening in the Snoqualmie Valley thanks to dedicated volunteers at the Snoqualmie Valley Pet Food Bank.
For the past four years the Pet Food Bank, inspired and started by Snoqualmie resident Louis Oien, has been handing out donated pet food at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank in North Bend the first Wednesday of every month to low-income pet owners in need.
By Sebastian Moraga Tracy Skylstad, of North Bend’s Pooch Play, loads bags of dog and cat food into her truck at The Humane Society for Seattle/King County warehouse. The bags will be donated to the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank so food bank customers can feed their pets.
“I’m just thrilled to be part of it,” said Dusty Cavaliere, the current Pet Food Bank director.
Nicknamed “the pet food lady,” Cavaliere took over the program last August and has seen a steady increase in donations and need.
What began in 2008 with just 17 bags and 300 pounds of food has ballooned into 300 bags and roughly 2,300 pounds of food last April.
And the numbers continue to rise.
Fishing helps breast cancer survivors cope
May 17, 2012
Toss the line into the water. Wait. Pull the line out. Nothing.
For a fisherman, that’s a frustrating evening.
For the ladies in Casting for Recovery, it’s a step forward.
By Sebastian Moraga Judy Graham, left, trains cancer survivor Jane Gutting how to cast a line on the Snoqualmie River. Graham helps run Casting for Recovery, a fishing-based therapy group for breast cancer survivors.
Casting for Recovery uses fly-fishing as therapy for women recovering from breast cancer.
On April 28, women practiced the casting motion with no hook, but that was almost beside the point for these ladies.
“We use casting as a way to cope with the treatment and the recovery,” said Judy Graham, the coordinator of the Washington chapter of the Vermont-based program.
“The casting motion is also really beneficial” to breast muscles, she added.
On this day, Graham and cancer survivors like Jane Gutting met in Fall City for a casting clinic as part of a two-and-a-half day retreat.
“We talk about how we deal about different aspects of breast cancer,” Graham said.
“Mental and emotional” as well as physical, she added.
Snoqualmie Valley residents protest Bank of America policies
May 17, 2012
This time it was personal for Luz Krieger.
With her son’s home risking foreclosure, she said she felt a responsibility to take herself to the street, sign in hand, and protest the corporate policies that hurt her child.
“He’s gotten the runaround, he’s gotten a lot of harassment,” she said, later adding, “They just don’t want to work with him.”
Her son’s mortgage was with Wells Fargo, but there Krieger stood, outside the North Bend branch of Bank of America with other supporters of MoveOn.org.
By Sebastian Moraga Christopher Chapman, Megan McInnis and Luz Krieger demonstrate outside the North Bend branch of Bank of America. The demonstration, organized by area members of MoveOn.org, sought to protest the corporate policies they see as favoring large companies to the detriment of citizens.
The difference did not seem to bother Krieger, a resident of Duvall. The two banks’ policies, she said, look a lot alike, and Bank of America’s have hurt a lot of people, too.
“I decided it was time to let people know what’s happening to other people and try to affect some change,” Krieger said.
The protest (“demonstration,” Bonnie Lawlor, an organizer of the event, corrected), occurred as a show of solidarity with those demonstrating in North Carolina, site of Bank of America’s shareholders’ meeting May 9.
Hundreds of people protested in Charlotte. On Bendigo Boulevard in North Bend, about 10 showed up. Still, they said, the support was palpable.
Girl Scout tradition turns over a tea leaf
May 10, 2012
Dozens of people filled the room, but it was still a tea for two.
Two groups of longtime friends, Mount Si Senior Center members and the area’s Girl Scouts, renewed their friendship with an annual afternoon tea in North Bend on April 20.
It was the 11th edition of the tea, where the Girl Scouts prepare and serve food for senior citizens, including B.J. Libby, the center’s director, who is also a Girl Scout.
“Some of the best years of my life,” Libby said of her time as camp counselor for the Girl Scouts.
By Sebastian Moraga Girl Scouts from the Valley hosted the 11th annual Girl Scout Tea with the members of the Mount Si Senior Center. Natalie Brookes and other older Girl Scouts began the tradition more than a decade ago and as they prepare to graduate high school, they passed on the teapot to younger Girl Scouts like Lindsey Flanagan.
Reminiscences aside, a mixture of joy and melancholy reigned during the tea. The first generation of girls to serve the tea 11 years ago is graduating high school this year. This was their last tea.
“They were in the second grade when they started,” said Jo Ann Brookes, troop leader for Girl Scout Troop 41784.
Taylor Wiles, one of the graduating seniors, has participated in the last five teas. She said she likes the camaraderie that builds between women and women-to-be, sometimes standing decades apart.
Lemon coconut pancakes with cream cheese syrup
May 10, 2012
If you make these, Mom will feel especially special. And then add cream cheese syrup. And a sprig of mint. These are the makings of an exceptional family brunch or a surprise breakfast for Mother’s Day.
Place ingredients for icing in a medium-large bowl and set aside while butter and cream cheese come to room temperature.
Syrup ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese
4 tablespoons butter
Lemon coconut pancakes with cream cheese syrup
3 cups powdered sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of lemon (optional)
Dash of salt
Few drops of water if needed to reach the consistency you would like
Fishermen in training catch big ones
May 10, 2012
Things weren’t looking too good for Hamed Mokrani at the 63rd annual Mount Si Fish and Game Club’s Kids Trout Derby.
“So far, I’ve only caught rocks and seaweed,” said the 7-year-old from Kirkland.
Two of the three ponds behind the Snoqualmie Police Department on Douglas Avenue were lined with young anglers trying their luck at the May 5 derby.
At stake were prizes, like poles and fishing gear — not to mention bragging rights.
By Michele Mihalovich Doug Turnure (left) watches his son D.J. Turnure, 6, practice casting at the 63rd annual Kid’s Trout Derby in Snoqualmie. The Mount Si Fish and Game Club put on the derby.
Ruby Richter, 9, of Issaquah, came with the goal of winning, like she’d done in years past. But it wasn’t to be.
Prizes were awarded for the four fish that weighed the most for each age category from 5- to 14-year-olds, and her fish got bumped off the board.
The competition began at daybreak, and organizers who showed up at about 5:30 a.m. to set things up found children already casting lines.
Ericka Scholz of Normandy Park, one of the early birds, brought her twin, 6-year-old daughters.
By 9:30 a.m., not one fish had hit the girls’ Barbie and princess fishing pole lines.
A classic pastime gains a foothold in North Bend
May 2, 2012
Brandon Comouche wonders: Why have “Words With Friends” when you can have words with friends?
Yes, the “capitalized” game is an Internet craze, with people playing several games at once.
Comouche, an information technology specialist with the Sno Falls Credit Union, said the real charm lies in the “lowercase” version: talking with a friend and playing a game live and in person. No wi-fi, just the occasional high-fives.
Comouche and the North Bend-based Sallal Grange host Community Games Night at 7 p.m. the last Wednesday of every month.
By Sebastian Moraga Tiani Blakely tries to cure Peter Griffin from “Family Guy” of his latest ailment, during a round of “Operation” with her best friend Stephanie Turner. The Sallal Grange has started Community Games Night to get people away from the computer screen and the handheld phone and get them talking face to face again.
April 25 saw about a dozen people show up. Tables, chairs, snacks and a huge pile of games awaited.
“Every game has been donated by the community. That’s pretty awesome,” Comouche said, as teenagers and adults took their seats.
One room was almost full, the other one was almost empty.
“We’re the cool kids,” said Tiani Blakely, sitting with her best friend Stephanie Turner by themselves in the room, playing a “Family Guy” version of the game Operation.
Blakely said she liked the idea of a games night.
Pioneer Coffee to open retail location in North Bend
May 2, 2012
Pioneer Coffee, a Cle Elum-based company with more than a decade of coffee roasting and retail café experience, will bring its special blend of artisan coffee to North Bend.
The family-owned café, at 202 North Bend Way just west of Bendigo Boulevard, will open its doors May 12.
Pioneer’s Wholesale Manager DeAnna P. Haverfield will oversee the opening and direct the daily operation of the café. Haverfield, a longtime North Bend resident, said she believes the new retail location will have a mature feel to it, but will be an enjoyable location for families, as well.
She said that plans for a comfy couch as well as laptop tables and community board are in the works.
