Adam Gorski, a landscape architect from North Bend, has created “Grunge Garden,” a leafy display of evergreens, willows, sequoias and other greenery reminiscent of the music that captured Seattle’s and the world’s attention in the early 1990s.

The plants and trees have been shaped to look like a guitar, a set of drums and a pair of grunge-y boots.

By Sebastian Moraga A drum set doubling as a water feature is the centerpiece of ‘Grunge Garden,’ a leafy tribute to the music that dominated the 1990s. Its creator, Cornell grad Adam Gorski, graduated from high school in 1994, and paid tribute to the tunes of his youth with this garden, which includes amplifiers and a Pearl Jam song.

Gorski reached in and reached out when producing this piece. He reached out to friend Davey French, guitarist for Everclear and Snoqualmie resident, for advice.

And he reached in to his memories of high school in the 1990s.

“I remember graduating high school in 1994,” said Gorski, owner of Gorski Landscapes, who attended high school in Rochester, N.Y. “Everywhere in the whole country, Seattle music was at the forefront.”

When Kurt Cobain died in 1994, Gorski said, many classmates took the day off. Looking back, he added, classmates may have used the rocker’s death as an excuse to skip class.

Gorski said his friend French suggested which instruments to emulate.

“He said, ‘When I was young, I would have used these drums, these amplifiers and this guitar,’” Gorski said. “‘I would have found the ones that were the cheapest, just to start out.’”

Gorski said he wrapped tables in the piece with flannel because that’s what grunge rockers would have worn back then.

The piece took about two and a half days to create, 20 hours of work. He got the idea about 10 months ago.

Gorski said he wanted strong colors in the plants he used: sequoias, four different types of rhododendron in bloom, dwarf needle-leaf evergreens and willows.

“If I was to close my eyes, and to imagine what music would look like, music that is faster paced would have been lots of color,” he said.

The 20-by-30 piece will be on display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show from Feb. 8-12 at the Washington State Convention Center, 800 Convention Place, Seattle.

The piece will have a QR code, which if activated will play a Pearl Jam song. The song, of course, is “The Garden.”

As much as he loves gardens and plants, Gorski owns a business. So, he may be excused if he’s thinking of a different type of green, too.

“About a third of my business comes from the garden show,” he said. “About 50,000 to 70,000 people come through the show every year.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Work at the Si View Community Center will follow a complete overhaul of Tollgate Park worth more than $3.5 million.

“We are in the process of putting a new roof on the center, and then we will do the siding,” said Travis Stombaugh, executive director of the district. “Two-thirds of the siding of the building has been taken off.

The last part of the work on the community center will entail retrofitting the building’s seismic standards.

Map courtesy Si View Metropolitan Park District The rendering above shows what Si View Park might look in the future. Work on three different locations will start this year. Both the park and the Si View Community Center, along with Tollgate Park, will undergo changes in the months ahead.

“We are going to brace the foundation to where it connects to the joints,” Stombaugh said, “so that it’s stronger structurally and more able to withstand earthquakes.”

The work should be complete in six weeks, he said.

The second project happens at Si View Park, this summer.

Bidding will happen this May and work will start this summer on the rehabilitation of the park.

“If you ever walk our park you see two-foot swells,” Stombaugh said. “The project would level the entire park.”

It will also entail moving the bathrooms and concession stands to the middle of the park, create two new playground areas, an outdoor basketball court and a walking path around the park.

Then in 2013, the district will develop Tollgate Park, nestled between North Bend Way and state Route 202.

Developing the park will cost about $3.5 million in hard costs. Between contingency and taxes the total cost will reach $4 million.

“At Tollgate, there will be a trail around the perimeter,” Stombaugh said. “New cattle fencing to keep cattle in the middle, a parking lot, bathrooms, picnic areas, play structures and trail links so you can go all around there but also go downtown.”

The park district approved a master plan in 2007, and in 2010 voters approved a capital bond for the projects, Stombaugh said. According to the website for King County, the 2010 bond proposal passed with a 62.29 percent of the vote.

“You have 36 months to spend 85 percent of the proceeds of the bond,” Stombaugh said. “We sold the bonds in December of 2010, so we have to spend it by December 2013.”

The timing of it was one reason why it all happens now — interest rates are low; it’s a buyer’s market in the construction trade.

“We are following through on what we said we were going to do,” Stombaugh said.

Carol Gong, 3 (left) and Clair Adams, 3, hold up rhythm sticks and prepare to mark the beat to a storytime song.

Young Toddler Story Time, ages 6-24 months with an adult, is Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. Preschool Story Time, ages 3-6 years with an adult, is Mondays at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. The Read to Me reading challenge currently going on rewards young readers up to once a month with a paperback or board book of their choice, when a parent and child take a form and check off 20 minutes of reading for 20 days in a month.

Davey French, guitarist with the internationally known band Everclear, teaches a Rock Star class at Big Star Studios, where he shows students the ins and outs of being in a band. This includes jamming as a team and setting up and taking down equipment before and after a show.

“It’s real-world experience of what it’s like,” said French, who lives on the Ridge but still tours with Everclear. “You have nine weeks to get a set together and after the nine weeks, you have a show.”

Contributed Davey French, a resident of Snoqualmie Ridge and a guitarist with Everclear, teaches the Rock Star class at his neighborhood’s Big Star Studios.

Students have to audition to enter the class. Once they get in, they split into three groups, according to age.

The class for students ages 10-12 is called “Local Band.” The class for teenagers is “Opening Act.” The class for adults is called “Headliners.”

Having an actual professional rock star as the teacher “is a huge draw for us,” said Kathy Gehrig, co-owner of Big Star Studios.

Gehrig graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa with a degree in music.

“I don’t have Davey’s experience,” said Gehrig, who pokes fun at her French horn-playing days at Grinnell. “But I know what it’s like to be in dirty, dark studios, drinking semi-warm beer and loving every minute of it.”

Programs similar to Rock Star exist in Seattle, but not in the Valley, said Corey Mosley, co-owner of the studio.

“We saw the Valley needed this,” she said.

French said he wanted the class to be as realistic as possible, so the studio holds auditions instead of charging a fee to get in.

He said he does not want the class to become an American Idol-esque shortcut to a career — instead, he wants to see stardom get built from the ground up.

And if someone wants in, but isn’t quite ready, he or she can take a Pop Star class, a Glee class or a Pre-Rock Star class.

“Some of the kids wanting in Rock Star need to strengthen their vocals before they audition for Davey,” Mosley said.

After the first nine-week session of the program, the children and grownups look pretty good.

“It’s already a success, just seeing the kids,” French said.

Their first show was Jan. 29 at Finaghty’s Irish Pub in Snoqualmie, and “the crowd was just going nuts,” Gehrig said.

The founders of the studio, ensconced on Center Boulevard, said they dream of having a place where they don’t have to worry about irritating their neighbors.

A warehouse, perhaps, with an entire building dedicated to the Rock Star classes. Sort of like the Ridge’s larger version of “School of Rock,” a movie starring another musician with Northwest ties, Jack Black.

French said he wants to see the Rock Star program expand into other arenas, such as acoustic music and songwriting. For now, he seems happy watching the first fruits of the studio’s work.

“Little successes are seeing kids’ parents say, ‘This is the happiest I have seen this kid,’” Mosley said.

A child’s success in the class translates into a newfound swagger elsewhere, Gehrig added.

Accustomed to seeing people either have or not have what it takes to perform, seeing students improve over nine weeks has surprised French.

“I see now that you can learn it and through hard work make up for certain things,” he said.

Wives of members of Knee Deep, the band from the “Headliners” class, approached Mosley during the Finaghty’s gig. They thanked her for making their husbands’ rock star dreams come true.

“Knee Deep actually booked a gig,” Gehrig said. “They are going to play the Georgetown Brewery in SoDo.”

If with time the Georgetown Brewery turns into an arena or a theater or the Super Bowl halftime show, French said, he only has one request.

“I tell them ‘The only thing I ask is, I want to be on the guest list.’” He said. “Don’t make me buy a ticket.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Do you have a great recipe? Want to share it with Snoqualmie Valley? Email the recipe and a photo of the finished product to editor@snovalleystar.com.

Adorable and simple, these sweethearts are a perfect gift for friends and family this Valentine’s Day.

Cream together:

2/3 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

Contributed Chocolate almond heart cookies are great for Valentine’s Day.

Add and beat together well:

2 eggs

2 tablespoons almond extract

1 tablespoon milk

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup Hershey’s Cocoa — Special Dark

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven at 350 degrees and roll out dough. Use cookie cutters to make desired shapes. Small hearts are perfect for Valentine’s Day. Bake 6-8 minutes. Don’t overbake, because cookies will turn dry and crunchy instead of soft. Allow hearts to cool completely on a rack. Frost cookies using this royal icing recipe, and the flooding method.

Royal icing:

3 tablespoons Wilton Meringue Powder

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

6 tablespoons warm water

Instructions:

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (about 7-10 minutes at low speed) NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency. For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned royal icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

Place stiff icing in decorating bag to outline cookies. Using a different decorating bag, fill with thinned icing and use to fill in outlined cookies. Use tip to spread out thinned icing as you go so you don’t overflow.

Decorate top of icing after it has hardened enough with your desired design.

Deanna Morauski owns, operates and cooks at the Old Hen Bed and Breakfast near North Bend with her husband, John. She also blogs about food and cooking at www.theclever- culinarian.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/clvrculinarian.

The Dining Room at Salish Lodge & Spa has earned the award for 21 consecutive years, according to a Jan. 24 press release from AAA.

AAA added three lodgings to its list of AAA Four Diamond properties in Washington state. Willows Lodge (Woodinville), Sea Cliff Gardens Bed & Breakfast (Port Angeles) and Colette’s Bed and Breakfast (Port Angeles) have all earned the AAA Four Diamond Award for the first time in 2012.

A total of 32 lodgings and eight restaurants are represented on the AAA Four Diamond Award list in Washington and northern Idaho this year.

For the 10th consecutive year, The Herbfarm Restaurant (Woodinville) earned a AAA Five Diamond Rating, the only establishment in the Pacific Northwest to be awarded the highest rating in 2012.

The Westin Seattle continues to be the longest running AAA Four Diamond establishment in Washington, celebrating 31 years.

“Four and Five Diamond hotels and restaurants are committed to providing every guest with a high level of personalized service in comfortable, luxurious surroundings,” said Jennifer Cook, senior manager of corporate communications, AAA Washington.

Achieving a high caliber of service within the hospitality industry, the 2,245 AAA/CAA Four Diamond and 179 Five Diamond establishments make up just 3.8 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, of the total 59,000 AAA Diamond Rated lodgings and restaurants throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Besides City Hall, the Snoqualmie Community Center will have a station and the downtown business district will house a third one. ECOtality, a San Francisco-based, green- technology company will install the stations through a public-private partnership alongside the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Snoqualmie’s goal in providing this service is to build upon King County’s charging station initiative and expand it into the Snoqualmie Valley,” Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson said. “Without charging stations in Snoqualmie, owners of electric vehicles would be less likely to visit our city, and as electric vehicle popularity grows it will be important for the city to provide this service to residents and tourists alike.”

Learn more by emailing nsanders@ci.snoqualmie.wa.us or calling 888-5337.

Unclaimed property includes unclaimed paychecks, utility deposits, bank accounts, uncashed refunds, life insurance proceeds, stocks and bonds, and contents from safe deposit boxes.

During the past fiscal year, the Department of Revenue added 750,000 names and a record $102.5 million to the searchable online database of unclaimed property at www.claimyourcash.org.

Or maybe Vincent Van Gogh, who painted “Starry Night” based on his memory of the view from his sanitarium room, would have loathed having 17 children make their own version of his masterpiece using egg whisks and construction paper.

Nah.

Snoqualmie graphic designer Brent Cook, and Lizzy, an Encompass preschooler, along with teacher Kathy Klausing display Van Gogh-like “Starry Night” creations. By Clay Eals

He would have loved it. And even if he didn’t, at least the children at Encompass did.

Using blue, yellow and green paint, 4- and 5-year-olds imitated the Dutch painter’s masterpiece, turning the whisks to create the circles in the painting’s sky.

The paint and the rest of the implements came to Encompass thanks to a $800 donation of art supplies from Front Row Giving, an art-focused community partnership program started last year by Snoqualmie graphic designer Brent Cook.

“What a great time I had,” Cook said in an Encompass press release.

Encompass was the first recipient of help from Front Row Giving.

“Front Row Giving is dedicated to ensuring that children in the Snoqualmie Valley have the opportunity to participate in hands-on art programs,” Cook said in the press release. “Each year, we give a portion of our proceeds to purchase supplies that can be used to deliver quality programs for kids.”

Businesses and individuals must step in to ensure art programs and opportunities remain, even as funding for art programs shrinks, Cook added.

Gregory Malcolm, executive director of Encompass, thanked the donation from Front Row Giving, calling the organization a model for the community.

Cook said he will name a new beneficiary for Front Row Giving every six months.

Learn more by calling Cook at 749-7045 or emailing him at info@frontrowgraphics.com.

“Being a volunteer firefighter is a big commitment,” EFR Chief and former volunteer firefighter Lee Soptich said in a press release. “But the rewards for helping your community and your neighbors are even greater.”

The communities for which EFR seeks volunteers are North Bend, Preston, Wilderness Rim, Carnation, Issaquah, Lake Joy, Maple Hills, May Valley, Sammamish and Tiger Mountain.

Applicants must be at least 18 years old, drug-free and reside within five driving miles of the nearest EFR fire stations.

They must have a valid Washington driver’s license, a good driving record and be fit for duty.

David Misakian, volunteer program coordinator at EFR, said volunteer firefighters need to be able to carry 100 pounds for short distances and be in good shape aerobically.

A typical volunteer firefighter stays with EFR for two to three years, Misakian wrote.

Soptich was a volunteer for 11 of his 37 years as a firefighter, the press release added.

Volunteer firefighters receive all of the equipment and training needed for the job.

EFR will cover the costs of volunteers’ initial training and equipment and their participation in disability and pension programs, Misakian wrote.

Misakian highlighted two things as rewards of being a volunteer firefighter.

“Two feelings jump out at me,” he wrote in an email. “The satisfaction of a job well done that made a positive impact in someone’s life, because people typically do not call us when they are having a good day, and the camaraderie of working and training as a team.”

Duties between volunteer and career firefighters differ, he wrote.

Both respond to emergency and nonemergency calls, such as fires, medical calls and vehicle accidents.

Both groups help with station and equipment maintenance and both participate in community service and public education functions.

Career firefighters, though, have more advanced training and will respond to hazardous-material calls, swift-water rescues and technical rescues. Career firefighters will lead major events and have additional responsibilities with fire inspections, he wrote.

“What I tell people is that being a volunteer firefighter does not guarantee you a career position with our agency or any other agency, but being a volunteer improves your odds of getting the job,” he wrote.

He added that EFR expects to complete the testing and vetting stages of recruits by May 1 and complete the internal training by Aug. 1.

A second recruitment drive may happen later this year.

“We welcome folks who are curious to reach out to the crews at one of our stations,” he wrote, “to ask and see what volunteers do.”

EFR provides fire suppression, medical aid and rescue services to nearly 120,000 citizens throughout northeast King County.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Now, the state’s park system is grappling with a revenue shortfall that could be as high as $30 million.

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission officials adopted a plan Dec. 7 to cut $11 million from its existing budget by laying off or reshuffling 160 employees.

The plan will keep parks open, but “users will be somewhat effected,” agency spokeswoman Virginia Painter said.

Some services could be limited as the agency moves it’s staffing to a more seasonal model, she said.

Underwhelming results

The Discover Pass has not performed as state officials expected it would when the state Legislature created it earlier this year. The pass is required for almost 7 million acres managed by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state Department of Natural Resources and Washington State Parks and Recreation.

But it hasn’t been able to make up for the severe budget cuts that the parks agency has endured in recent years.

In 2009, the agency got 66 percent of its operating funds from the state general fund. Legislators cut that to 30 percent in 2010 as part of efforts to close the state’s massive budget gap.

This year, parks receive only about 12 percent of their $133.6 million operating fund from the state.

“We expect it will be zero in 2013,” Painter said.

During the last legislative session in spring 2011, lawmakers set aside $17 million in “bridge” funding to transition the agency off of general fund dollars, and they created the Discover Pass, a parking fee for state parks and state-managed recreation lands. Users could either buy a $30 annual pass or a $10 daily pass.

“It’s not been meeting projections set for our budget by the Legislature,” Painter said.

Sales had been projected at $65 million during the first 24 months that the pass, which became available in July, was sold.

After four months, the Discover Pass has brought in $7.2 million.

That puts it on pace to raise $43.2 million in its first 24 months.

Money raised from sales of the pass is split between parks, DNR, and Fish and Wildlife. The parks agency gets 85 percent, while the other two departments split the remainder.

“The situation would be bleak if Discover Pass and other revenues do not increase,” State Parks Director Don Hoch said in a statement. “Our goal is to keep parks open, but we need the help and support of the public to do that.”

The agency operates the Iron Horse and Olallie state parks in the upper Snoqualmie Valley.

Parks officials are hoping the pass can generate more money in the future.

“We’re continuing to do public education, but we’re really at the beginning,” Painter said.

The agency is also considering ways to change the pass to boost sales, like making it transferable between vehicles.

Officials also urged Washington residents to purchase a Discover Pass to shore up funding for state parks and public lands.

“The Discover Pass is a vital funding source for state parks,” commission Chairman Joe Taller said in a statement. “We are asking the public to support and protect state parks by purchasing the Discover Pass.”

Reporter Warren Kagarise contributed to this article.

Roberta McFarland, director of Camp Waskowitz, stands next to a story pole children at the camp built last summer. Children helped local artist Bob Antone carve symbols that had special meaning to them. By Sebastian Moraga

Look around, you see China. Look up, you see Mexico.

Look over and you see the Snoqualmie Valley.

The totem poles at Camp Waskowitz, near the southeast edge of North Bend, tell the story of the hands who built them.

High school children from immigrant or difficult backgrounds gathered at the camp two summers in a row to make the poles, with the aid of Valley sculptor and wood carver Bob Antone.

“I don’t think about what I’m doing,” said Hogan, who added she lets the wire take her where it wants to go.

Hogan works with looped wire that, in her finished pieces, almost looks as if it had been crocheted or woven. It wasn’t.

Hogan said she uses the same method as famed artist Ruth Asawa, that the wire sort of becomes a “loop inside a loop” and that she uses a single strand for most works. Hogan learned the technique at a Los Angeles workshop

taught by Asawa’s daughter.

“I was hooked very quickly,” Hogan said.

Kathy Hogan shows off her technique for creating wire sculptures, a technique she describes as an “organic, natural evolution” of her thoughts. Contributed by Frances Greet

She attended that workshop after seeing the elder Asawa’s work on display.

“I was just so enamored with it, I could barely leave the museum,” Hogan said.

Today, besides attending various art shows in the area, Hogan has items displayed in Larry Jeffers’ Semantics Gallery in Edmonds.

Hogan receives good exposure at Semantics, as Jeffers said he keeps two of her larger works in his front window.

“She’s in there with some top of the line artists,” Jeffers added. “I like her work… Actually, I’m surprised I don’t sell more of it.”

Prior to her coming across Asawa, Hogan had been working with crocheted or knitted wire.

“I’ve always made things,” Hogan said.

She recalled sneaking off to school art camps and returning with items such as a sculpture made from a milk carton mold.

Actually, creativity runs in the family, Hogan said, adding her mother was a florist who was always very creative, making her own clothes and other items. Still, for Hogan, it took that trip to an L.A. museum to really jumpstart her artistic career.

At that time, Hogan was living in L.A. She began displaying her knitted wire at a shop known as the Melrose Trading Post.

In about 2005, she went to see that fateful Asawa exhibit.

Hogan describes her art as “meditative or contemplative,” a state she says she gets into herself when she is creating a piece.

“I’m not focused on anything except what the wire is doing,” she said, adding she learned that both from another artist and from lessons learned while completing one particular work, one she considers her favorite.

“I learned a lot from that piece,” Hogan said.

The average work takes Hogan about 20 to 30 hours to finish and runs about three feet long. She’s never tried a room-size piece hung from a ceiling as Asawa did. (The investment in wire alone would make the undertaking a little challenging, Hogan said.) However, when her pieces are hung in the right light, she said they cast shadows that she thinks of as part of her creations.

“They are kind of their own separate little art show,” Hogan said.

A former journalist, Hogan works full time in the fundraising arm of the cancer charity City of Hope. The job is, she added, very fulfilling and while she said she would love to work on her art full time, that isn’t a goal right now.

For the immediate future, Hogan said she hopes to begin creating functional light fixtures made of her wire creations. She also makes jewelry pieces, mostly necklaces and most recently was producing small ball-like pieces meant as Christmas tree ornaments.

In terms of shows, Hogan recently took part in November’s Fall Best of the Northwest show in Seattle, put on by the Northwest Art Alliance. Another next step includes getting items into the artEAST gallery in Issaquah.

Learn more about Katherine Hogan’s art at www.etsy.com/shop/TokulCrafts.

Tom Corrigan: 392-6434, ext. 241, or tcorrigan@isspress.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

“Wanna feel it?” 95-year-old Nova Reed, of North Bend, asked. “It’s granite.”

The visitor reached out a hand, tentative, as if he doubted his arm could be match for the impressive formation that hung from a wall.

Then he lifted, and heard the chuckle.

By Sebastian Moraga Nova Reed, who once had an owl on her property, stands next to her motionless friends serve as a reminder of her erstwhile pet.

The “rock” was made of plastic and foam, no more granite than a hot dog or Dolly Parton’s legs.

And Reed should know — she’s got rocks shaped like both.

A rock hound for almost 30 years, Reed acquiesced to age and gave up her hobby five years ago. Still, one look around her home and one can tell that this lady still rocks.

Not only can she trick visitors with fake rocks, but she can wow them with real ones. Flowers, children, pets, flying saucers, even Fred Flintstone powering his car, Reed has depicted them, one rock at a time.

Even more impressive, she never carved rock one, she said. She just looked for rocks of a certain shape, stuck them in a tumbler with sand and then began gluing them together.

“Every year, we would go up to the river and we would find more and more and more,” she said. “It got to the point that we had all we needed.”

Her son Joe agreed.

“You would not believe how many rocks she has,” he said.

Five years ago, Reed had to stop working the rocks. Her dexterity around the glue was not what it once had been.

She also had to stop attending gem-and-rock shows, the first of which she attended in 1981.

“I enjoyed the people,” she said. “Nothing more friendly than the rock lover.”

Along with rocks, Reed collects figurines of owls, as an homage to a feathered friend her late husband, Ed once brought home years ago.

“It was a little bald something-or-other,” she said. “Turned out to be an owl.”

The family raised it in a coffee can for a while. And when time came for the owl to fly away, he decided he liked it better on 71st Street than in the wild.

“He stayed with us for a year.” Eventually, the Reeds had to put a “beware of owl” sign on their yard.

The owl is gone, sort of. One of the trees has a huge owl on it, but much like the rock hanging from the wall, it’s not quite the real thing.

For Reed, surrounded by years and years of her art, it’s not quite the real thing either, the intelligent give-and-take between her and the rock lovers admiring her creations.

“I miss it,” she said. “It seems like people enjoyed them.”

Entries must be submitted by March 31. Themes of suspense and mystery should come into play in the design.

The 2011 logo featured a crescent moon, a leafless tree, a raven and a jack-o-lantern.

The event featured things like a haunted trail, a hay maze and a dance performance.

The winning designer will receive $15 from the SnoFalls Credit Union, which co-sponsors the event.

All entries will become property of “Night on a Dark Trail,” for use and promotion.

Contestants must email entries to info@ridgeroa.com. Entries must be transferable to websites, Facebook pages, banners, posters, T-shirts, newspapers and other advertisements.

Call Mark Hennig at 466-6158 or Stacy Caiarelli Brown at 396-5430 to learn more.

Sallal Grange is helping to revive that face-to-face competition and fellowship with a monthly game night.

The Grange will host a game night from 7-9 p.m. the last Wednesday of each month. The inaugural event was Dec. 28.

Game nights will include board and card games, and are open to the public.

Games will be provided, but people are also encouraged to bring their own.

Food and drinks will be available.

Donations are encouraged, but not required.

That is what Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark warned in November when he announced a Tier Two Forest Health Hazard Warning. At the same time, he called for the formation of a technical committee to advise him on which areas face the greatest threats and preventive measures to take. The committee will consist of foresters, scientists and other experts.

“The trends are alarming and the environmental and economic threats of deteriorating forest health are substantial,” Goldmark said in a public statement. “I am therefore taking action under the state’s Forest Health Law to address these threats.”

Goldmark’s declaration marks the first use of a 2007 amendment to the law enabling him to form a committee to recommend corrective actions.

Forests in Eastern Washington “are suffering high stress due to an unnatural overcrowding as a result of past management,” especially limiting natural forest fire, Kevin Zobrist, a faculty member with Washington State University’s Extension Puget Sound Forest Stewardship Program, wrote in an email to the Star.

During the next 15 years, projections show trees will die at a higher rate across 2.8 million acres in Eastern Washington, according to a news release from the state Department of Natural Resources. That is about one-third of the state’s forests.

The Evergreen state’s forests have already suffered heavily in the past 30 years. Between 1988 and 2004, Western Washington lost 17 percent of its nonfederal forest land to other uses, according to a 2007 study by the Department of Natural Resources.

Since the 1980s, insects and diseases have been taking a heavier toll as well, according to the news release.

Damage from insects and diseases in the past decade was 150 percent greater than it was during the 1990s, and 200 percent greater than during the 1980s.

Public meetings will be held in affected areas to gather input. The group will release its recommendations this spring.

What happens with the recommendations remains to be seen, though.

“When it comes to forest health issues, what actions get taken in the PNW aren’t determined by science so much as political will, economic constraints, judicial activity,” and so on, Zobrist said.

In 1989, the Legislature set a statewide recycling goal of 50 percent. The national average was 34 percent in 2010.

Washington residents are recycling more and throwing away less. The total amount of municipal waste recycled by state residents increased by more than 540,000 tons in 2010.

Meanwhile, the amount of waste disposed from households and businesses has been dropping in the wake of the recent recession. That trend continued in 2010, decreasing by about 65,000 tons — or 1 percent — from the previous year. At the same time, the amount of waste diverted from landfills declined slightly from 54.8 percent in 2009 to 54.3 percent in 2010.

“Our program has increasingly focused on keeping these materials out of landfills by following the statewide solid and hazardous waste plan that’s called Beyond Waste. However, we continue to struggle with declining staff resources to carry out our state plan,” Laurie Davies, Ecology’s Waste 2 Resources Program manager, said in a news release.

Ecology’s data showed that recycling rates increased for organic materials, plastics and electronics. Organic materials, such as wood waste, yard debris and food scraps, accounted for half of the increase in recycling. Less aluminum and paper were collected for recycling in 2010 than in previous years.

Recycling in Washington continues to result in important environmental gains, according to the news release.

Sending materials to be recycled rather than put in landfills prevented the emission of 3.1 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere last year. It also saved the equivalent of 1.3 billion gallons of gasoline, according to Ecology.

Barbie Collins Young received a plate of homemade cookies this year for Christmas from her friend Beverly Jorgensen.

The way Jorgensen saw it, it was the least she could do.

Beverly Jorgensen sports her new specs. A friend built a makeover for Jorgensen, including new shoes, new outfits and the glasses. By Sebastian Moraga

Young, who works with Jorgensen, saw her friend of 11 years needed a pick-me-up this holiday season.

So she started asking around. By the time she was done asking, she had scored three outfits, a pair of shoes, a new hairdo and free eyeglasses for Jorgensen.

“She gives and gives and gives,” Young said of her buddy Jorgensen, a fellow sales consultant at PartyLite. “And she kind of loses herself in that. She needed a lift of her spirits.”

Jorgensen is a very humble woman who otherwise would not have let her do the makeover, Young said.

“But she knew that she needed it,” Young said. “So she let me do it.”

Jorgensen said she was struggling a little bit when Young came around with her idea.

“It wasn’t a rough, rough time,” she said, “but there were things I could not afford to do for myself.”

One such thing was the glasses. Jorgensen has no vision insurance and Young said she had not been to an eye doctor in about 10 years.

Snoqualmie Valley Eyecare gave Young a really good deal for Jorgensen to have a doctor’s visit, an eye exam and glasses. Young paid $100 for that.

“They were amazing,” Young said of the eye clinic. “The glasses were a really big deal.”

The rest of the makeover was a pretty big deal, too. Jorgensen already has a favorite outfit out of the three she received.

“I feel pretty grateful, pretty humbled and very appreciative,” she said.

It’s not the first time the friends have done something for each other.

In 2007, Young nominated Jorgensen for PartyLite’s Alumna Honors award, a nationwide prize.

When Jorgensen won, she received a new deck for her home. Now her deck is four years old, but her look is brand new.

“I have been very blessed,” Jorgensen said, “to have Barbie as my friend, in more ways than one.

In love with the theater since age 2, the Mount Si High School graduate entered the Central Washington University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program less than three years ago.

This fall, her career as a thespian hit a high mark as she was cast in “A Christmas Carol.” All the while pulling 18 credits, and rehearsing until 10 p.m.

“Looking back, though,” she wrote in an email, “I wouldn’t have had it any other way because of the progress that I have made.”

Natalie Copeland in her natural habitat. An actress since age 6, the Mount Si High School graduate follows her dream studying theater at Central Washington University. Contributed

It has been anything but easy, she wrote.

“Really acting is hard,” she wrote. “Unbelievably hard. I realized that I had been onstage my entire life that I’d almost never actually been acting.”

She started pleasing crowds at age 2, when she would jump atop the boat in Bellevue Square to sing “Surfin’ U.S.A.” for onlookers.

In Ellensburg, Copeland wrote, she learned something every high school actor with dreams of college theater has to learn. There’s no room for egos.

“A high schooler going into college theater has to be ready first and foremost to be humbled,” she said.

Gaining access to a program like the CWU bachelor of fine arts makes it easy for egos to inflate, but that lasts about 15 minutes, she said.

“No matter what, you will always be better at something than somebody, but somebody else will always be better than you, and that’s OK,” she wrote. “You have to forget about your ego and surrender yourself to the work.”

The university is the only state institution offering a bachelor of fine arts degree with programs in design and production, performance and musical theater, according to Valerie Chapman-Stockwell, with CWU’s public affairs office.

Copeland is typical of the outstanding students in the program, said Scott Robinson, chair of the university’s Department of Theatre Arts.

The product of what she called “a brainy family,” Copeland said her clan has supported her from the start.

Her mother is a former finance professor and her father is a computer engineer. One of her three siblings is a National Merit Scholar semifinalist.

“She considers herself the dumb one because she was a commended scholar,” Lisa Copeland said of her daughter.

A commended scholar is the level right below semifinalist.

Copeland said Natalie was always smart, always good in math and science, but always headed in the direction of the stage.

“We knew from a very young age she was going to do this,” she said.

The Copelands have been to all of Natalie’s shows but one, a one-night performance in December.

“Of course we have had the infamous ‘Nobody makes money in the arts’ talk that you see on ‘Glee’ once per season,” Natalie wrote. “But all arguments disappeared completely after I got into the BFA program.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008, the median hourly wage for an actor in the performing arts was just under $15. Copeland refuses to fret.

“From what I’ve seen with the graduates at CWU, almost all of them are fully employed doing what they love,” she wrote. “I’m not going to worry about money until it’s an issue.”

Lisa said Natalie got her first acting paycheck at age 8.

If a break comes along, Natalie wrote, she will welcome it.

“I would love to be extremely prepared at a lucky audition,” she said. “and be exactly what somebody from the big white way is looking for.”

Whether that happens or not along the way, she will enjoy the view.

“Life is too short to cheat yourself out of an experience that could change everything you know,” she said.

Besides, she wrote, she does not mind nontheater jobs if they keep the dream alive. Her biggest fear is not unemployment. Jobs come and go. Loved ones don’t.

“I’m a very social person and I tend to make strong connections with others,” she wrote, later adding, “I’m afraid of moving around so much that I will lose the opportunity of keeping people very close.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

The state Department of Labor & Industries calculates the state minimum wage each year.

The recalculation is required under Initiative 688, a measure passed by Washington voters 13 years ago.

The increase reflects a 4.258 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers since August 2010.

The calculation is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and services — such as food, clothing and fuel, and services, such as doctor visits — purchased by urban wage earners and clerical workers.

The minimum wage applies to workers in agricultural and nonagricultural jobs, although 14- and 15-year-old workers may be paid 85 percent of the adult minimum wage, or $7.68 per hour, starting next year.

Private First Class Johnson successfully completed 13 weeks of intensive basic training as one of 78 recruits in Training Platoon 2149.

While in basic training, the 25-year-old Johnson earned a sharpshooter marksman award and served as his platoon’s scribe. After 10 days home on leave, he reported to Camp Pendleton for one month of Military Combat Training. His next assignment will be Avionics Specialty Training in Pensacola, Fla.

Johnson is a 2004 graduate of Mount Si High School and a 2008 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University.

Karolyn Grimes, Zuzu in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” reads “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” to children at the Salish Lodge and Spa. After years living in the Valley, the 71-year-old Grimes is moving to Kitsap County. By Sebastian Moraga

The two women who had never met hugged like old friends.

The only connection they had was love and loss. That, and a movie.

One was Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The other one was Kathleen Randolph, of Issaquah, a fan of hers.

“I had never watched ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ until 10 years ago,” said Randolph, standing inside Snoqualmie’s Salish Lodge and Spa Dec. 22. “My brother said I had to watch it.”

Randolph fell in love with the movie. She watches it several times a year, and sometimes she just plays it in the background.

Her brother Matthew died in Indiana this month.

“I wasn’t going to come,” Randolph said of Grimes’ meet-and-greet with fans at the lodge. “My mom said ‘Matthew would have liked you to come.’”

Psychologist Chris Brunell watched the exchange. He knows and loves how Grimes connects with people, generation after generation.

“She wears that mantle very well,” said Brunell, Grimes’ husband. “She says it’s an honor. She gets to see the best side of humanity. People just bare their souls.”

To Grimes, it’s more than an honor.

“I am just so fortunate to have been chosen,” Grimes said. “I feel like it’s a mission to do what I do. Like that lady who lost her brother, saying she felt better because she talked to me.”

Fans have loved Grimes’ character for years, but only since 1993 has Grimes traveled to return some of that love.

After years with few public appearances, Grimes became the face of Target’s Christmas campaign in 1993.

Since then, she has started an “It’s a Wonderful Life” festival and a museum, in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and appeared across America to talk about the movie and her life.

In one of those appearances, she met Brunell, at a suicide prevention conference in Tennessee.

Grimes, who lost her 18-year-old son to suicide, was a speaker.

Brunell had never seen the movie and could not understand why someone named “Zulu” was white.

After the speech, they talked. Until 3 a.m., the next day.

They have been together for 15 years.

“The Zuzu journey,” Brunell said, “is very similar to the magical journey we have been able to take together.”

That journey will separate Grimes from the Valley after years of living in Carnation and Fall City. Brunell found a job in Bremerton and he and Grimes will move there in January.

She has sold her Fall City house, but will keep a mailbox in Carnation, she said.

Fans will likely follow her, like they have followed her until now.

Jim and Janet Piontkowski came from Des Moines, to the lodge. Janet said when Jim met Grimes 10 years earlier in Des Moines, “You would think he hit the lottery.

“He’s nuts about the movie,” she added.

Bailey Wilkerson is not nuts about the movie.

As a child, the Mount Si High School sophomore loved seeing Zuzu on the screen and crowing to her friends about it.

As she grew, she said, she became more humble. People’s reaction to her grandmother’s fame puzzled her.

“I found it ridiculous that people paid so much attention to her,” Wilkerson said. “Given that it is such a small role.”

Then, she started paying more attention to what people said to Grimes, she said, and began seeing her in a whole new light.

Now she goes with Grandma to events when she can. She helps pack and unpack, and handles the credit card sales of souvenirs.

“It still feels weird when people say ‘Oh, I saw your grandma,’” she said. “Because to me she’s Grandma, not Zuzu.”

The change from Grandma to Zuzu is “a bit like magic,” she said.

“She becomes a whole different person,” she said.

Grandma can be strict. Zuzu is more fun-loving. Grandma is very nurturing. Zuzu is as nurturing as a 6-year-old girl from a movie can be. (In the film, she uttered the now-famous line, “Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings”.)

Both Zuzu and Grandma love sparkles, Wilkerson said.

“She won’t admit it, but if you look at her closet, lots of sparkles,” said Wilkerson, who has performed in plays at Mount Si High School.

Wilkerson said she wants to be in the entertainment industry, but not because of who her grandmother is.

“She introduced me to it, she took me to plays,” Wilkerson said, “but it’s not Zuzu that inspired me.”

Grimes said Wilkerson and Brunell understand she is trying to make a difference by reaching out to fans.

After 18 years in the public-speaking circuit, Grimes said she has not finished. The festival at Seneca Falls thrives, but the museum struggles.

“We started it on a leap of faith and that’s the way it’s being run,” she said. “I would like to see it be a success.”

Regardless of how the museum fares, Grimes said the movie’s message will live on in people’s hearts, including her own.

“For people who lost loved ones, it feels so good to know that there are angels,” she said.

Besides her son, Grimes lost two husbands, one to cancer and another to a hunting accident. The tragedies taught her to have compassion, she said.

“That was the lesson I was meant to learn,” she said. “It built my character and made me who I am today.”

The movie, 65 years old this month, still has something to teach, she added.

“There’s magic in there,” she said. “It makes us all feel like we matter. That’s important.”

On Dec. 22, Grimes made Randolph feel like she mattered.

The two held hands, talked, listened and hugged. They reminisced about the character Grimes once played and the brother Randolph lost. And they did it all on Randolph’s birthday.

“He told me about this movie and now she’s here,” Randolph said. “On my birthday. A movie my brother loved so well, there’s a character here from the movie and she hugged me.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

The ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Fall City Masonic Hall, 4304 337th Place S.E., Fall City. RSVP by emailing FCMH-fjsiv@trashmail.net.

The slate of 2012 officers for Fall City is:

-Worshipful Master: Frank J Schumacher IV

- Senior Warden: Henry Fletcher III

-Junior Warden: Corey Birch

- Senior Deacon: Mathew Meyers

- Junior Deacon: Ken Dods

-Senior Steward: Russel George

-Junior Steward: Chad Petrakis

-Tyler: Virgil Scott

- Marshal: Warren Oltmann

-Secretary: David Harris

- Assistant Secretary: Nick Michaud

- Treasurer: Dick Meredith

With the sponsorship of two Seattle lodges, Freemasons founded the Fall City lodge in 1890. At the time, the lodge had to borrow $50 from one of the Seattle lodges to cover the registration fee.

As its membership grew, the Fall City lodge sponsored a lodge in Issaquah and in North Bend.

Learn more about the lodge at www.fallcitylodge.com.

The Bellevue Arts Museum and The Westin Bellevue are among the first businesses to participate in PSE’s Building Energy Optimization Program. The program offers building owners low-cost, energy- efficiency recommendations to improve energy performance without capital expense.

“How buildings are operated rather than the equipment in a building has the biggest impact on energy use,” Holly Townes, senior energy management engineer for PSE, said in a release.

Matthew Mortier can’t help but smile as he sits on his brand-new bicycle, a month after he lost his in a Thanksgiving fire in North Bend. Compass Outdoor Adventures, Singletrack Cycles and Specialized Bicycles contributed to buy Mortier a new bike. Brandon Schmid, store manager of Singletrack, stands next to Mortier. By Sebastian Moraga

Nine-year-old Matthew Mortier had his reasons.

He approached his new bicycle the way one would approach a newborn kitten — barely touching it, as if to convince himself it was real.

The Thanksgiving fire that destroyed his home in North Bend also destroyed his bicycle, less than two months after his grandma had given it to him.

Worse yet, he had to see his bicycle burnt to a crisp — on TV.

So although his buddy Luke Talbott had told him about a new bike almost a week ago, Mortier could be excused if he kept quiet about it.

Not saying a word is Mortier’s M.O.

Cate Reynolds, his grandmother said she wished he were more loquacious, but she could tell the shy child caressing the bike’s black seat as if he waited for it to purr, was excited.

“This is very much a blessing,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds had approached Talbott, a mountain biker like Mortier, and told him about the burnt bike.

Talbott is Mortier’s instructor in a leadership class for elementary school students.

Talbott’s company, Compass Outdoor Adventures teamed up with Brandon Schmid of Singletrack Cycles. Schmid then approached Specialized Bicycles and among the three, they got Mortier a new ride.

“We just wanted to help out anyway we could,” said Schmid, who added a kickstand and a water bottle to the brand-new, 21-speed mountain bike. “Wanted to make sure he’s ready to go.”

The bicycle is valued at $359.99.

“It’s the same, if not comparable to the one he had,” Schmid said. “He had just gotten it when he lost it in the fire.”

The new bike looked the way a new bike is supposed to look. Shiny and immaculate. Mortier looked the way his grandma said he usually looks.

Silent, with the slight hint of a smile on his lips, staring at his new toy.

Once he strapped on the helmet, Mortier’s feet spoke volumes.

He took his new speedster and zoomed up the street behind the store and back. When grown-ups told him to take it easy, he spoke his longest sentence of the afternoon.

“I want to do a burnout,” Mortier said.

Talbott and the other adults advised him to instead save his tires and brakes. He might just do that.

After all he’s a leader and leaders are supposed to do the right thing, no matter how hard.

Like days after the fire, when Mortier and other members of Talbott’s class showed up to make brown bag lunches for homeless people.

Talbott did not know it but at that time Mortier’s home was charred and burned.

“He did not say a word about being in the fire,” Talbott said. “He went to downtown and fed the homeless.”

Now that he was no longer bikeless, Mortier kept his silent ways.

His grandma asked him if this was “the most awesome thing.”

Mortier responded “uh-huh.”

Mortier is a leader, though, and leaders know when to dole out the praise.

Sitting on his bike, he lifted his left palm for a high five and without waiting for a response, he thanked Schmid.

“You rock,” Mortier said.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

Gene Pollard

King County Elections has declared Gene Pollard as the winner in the race for a seat on the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District’s Board of Commissioners.

The department’s Canvassing Board verified Pollard’s win over Karyn Denton by six votes after a manual recount. The Snoqualmie resident garnered 4,613 votes.

The close outcome of the initial results triggered an automatic recount. In the final results, both candidates lost one vote, leaving Pollard’s lead unchanged.

Denton had been appointed to the position this past summer following Fritz Ribary’s resignation from the board. Ribary left to take a job as the hospital’s communications director.

Since Denton had been appointed rather than elected, Pollard takes over the position immediately, according to King County Elections officials.

He took the oath of office, which was administered by King County Judge Peter Nault on Dec. 16 in Issaquah.

The election’s outcome could have lasting effects for the district, which is getting ready to break ground on a $37 million facility.

Pollard ran on a reform platform, and has been critical of the district’s executive leadership and its decision-making process.

He has called for increased transparency and a refocusing on providing basic health services.

Denton supports the administration, which she used to belong to as the district’s former chief operating officer.

During the campaign, Denton said she would work for improving services and keeping costs down.

In a statement, Pollard thanked voters for participating.

“Our democracy clearly depends upon such participation. Each vote was very important, since my final margin of victory was only six votes,” he said. “I believe the outcome expressed the concern many voters have about the management of Snoqualmie Valley Hospital.”

Sugar, spice and everything nice… We could all use a little more of these things in our lives.

Start celebrating today with these cookies, which win in the category of “Most likely to make someone smile.”

Cream together:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

Add:

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon ginger

2 teaspoons Jamaican allspice (or allspice will work fine)

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

Slowly add:

3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Roll out dough onto a floured surface to about 1/4th of an inch thick. Bake for about 8 minutes. Allow gingerbread boys to cool completely. Decorate with simple powdered sugar frosting: Add a few teaspoons of water to about 2 cups of powdered sugar. Stir well and pipe with a decorating bag onto gingerbread boys. Allow to dry overnight or for several hours before plating or wrapping.

On Dec. 1, two Sammamish residents, speaking on behalf of their neighbors told Valley school board members that they liked the education their children received, but the schools were too far from their homes. Schools like Eastlake High School, they said, were much closer.

Members from both districts met Dec. 12 and decided that the petition hurt more than helped both districts.

The three Valley representatives who attended the meeting said Dec. 15 that they feared a domino effect if they allowed these neighborhoods to move.

“It’s just a matter of time until another neighborhood asks,” said Snoqualmie Valley School Board member Marci Busby.

Busby said that if the neighborhood were to leave, the hit on the district’s revenue would be substantial. The properties have a total assessed value of about $39 million.

It would cost the Lake Washington district about $35,000 to create a new bus route to the neighborhood, which sits on the northeast end of the city of Sammamish.

Furthermore, Busby said, Lake Washington schools near that neighborhood are full and that part of Sammamish has a long history of belonging to the Snoqualmie Valley district.

Superintendent of Valley schools Joel Aune said he understood the neighbors’ complaints about the distance from their home to Valley schools.

However, he added, many families in the district have the same issue.

“We have a number of routes where our kids get on the bus at 6:20, 6:25, 6:30 in the morning,” Aune said.

Snoqualmie Valley School Board President Dan Popp said he could empathize with the neighbors but that he supported the district’s decision.

“I am probably farther than they are from the district,” said Popp, who lives near Redmond. “But that’s not an incentive for me to rally my neighborhood to leave the district.”

The neighbors still wanting to join Lake Washington schools may still petition that district to transfer on an individual basis, but may not get a spot in the schools nearest their homes, board member Scott Hodgins said.

Busby said the Lake Washington School District’s decision will not become official until Jan. 9, but that district representatives had agreed with Valley board members during the Dec. 12 meeting.

“It looks like our board is not supporting the transfer,” Lake Washington Communications Director Kathryn Reith said.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Christopher Huber, 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

For his Eagle project, Thies led a crew of volunteers in the construction of stairway railing and installation of pathway lighting at Valley Camp in North Bend. The planning and completion of the project took almost 125 hours.

On the road to Eagle Scout, Thies earned 28 merit badges, hiked more than 350 miles, spent 75 nights camping and provided more than 160 hours of community service.

He also earned the Triple Crown of National High Adventure award after completing a 110 mile backpack trek at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, a 63-mile canoe trek out of the Northern Tier Canoe Base in Atikokan, Canada, and being a crew member aboard a 57-foot racing catamaran from the Bahamas Sea Base.

Thies is a senior at Skyline High School, where he is the co-community liaison for the Associated Student Body, and is a four-year team member of the state champion Skyline High School football program.