NEW — 1:28 p.m. Dec. 30, 2009
King County Council members donated 27 retired Metro Vanpool vehicles to provide transportation assistance to local governments, community programs, senior citizens and young adults, including North Bend’s Encompass, a preschool, summer camp, family service center and resource for children with developmental disorders. Read more
NEW — 4 p.m. Dec. 24, 2009
The King County Council has approved donating 27 retired Metro Vanpool vehicles to provide transportation assistance to local governments, community programs, senior citizens and young adults, including North Bend’s Encompass, a preschool, summer camp, family service center and resource for children with developmental disorders. Read more
Cascade View Elementary School fifth-grader Claire Lis showcases food and presents her class donated to the Encompass Respectful Giving campaign. The entire school is participating in the drive. (Photo by Laura Geggel)
Cascade View Elementary School students and staff are filling decorated brown boxes with nonperishable food, gift cards and toys with an extra sprinkling of respect this season for the Respectful Giving Campaign.
The campaign is coordinated through Encompass, a preschool, family service center and resource for children with developmental disorders. Because Encompass helps low-income families, it was able to connect them with the Cascade View community.
The Associated Student Body representatives at Cascade View spearheaded the campaign, telling their classmates about how the holiday drive would assign each classroom an anonymous family.
The drive has an emphasis on gift cards so that the family can choose their own supplies when they receive the donations Dec. 16.
“Our intention is to practice respectful giving,” Cascade View counselor Sandy Smelser said. “Which means, in part, we want parents to be able to make decisions around what gifts are best suited for the children in their family.”
Cascade View participates in the Encompass drive every other year. In even-numbered years, the school coordinates with other local gift and food drives.
During lunchtime one day, students were eager to share why they participated in the Respectful Giving Campaign and tell of their other volunteer work.
Fifth-grader Kayla Rademacher said it was important to help people in need. She volunteered with her Girl Scout troop at the Mount Si Helping Hand Food Bank in North Bend, and encouraged others to follow suit or to get involved with a cause.
“I think it’s fun and good because people that don’t have a lot of money and don’t get enough from the food bank can get more,” Rademacher said of the campaign.
Michael McCall’s whole family gets involved during the holiday season. During a drive last year, he and his little sister Jennifer donated stuffed animals. This year, they’ll be helping even more.
“Some of the Christmas presents we get we’re going to give to the family,” McCall said.
Many in the Cascade View community brought nonperishable food to the Dec. 4 family fun night. By the night’s end, the school had amassed 30 boxes of food.
“My family brought five cans of peas,” said fifth-grader Signe Baekdahl, who said they donated one for each family member.
Like other students, Baekdahl has helped the needy on other fronts. Last year Baekdahl said she and her friends raised money from selling popcorn and cocoa, which they later donated to an animal shelter.
Fourth-grade teacher Marla Eckhart said the drive taught important life lessons.
“Hopefully, if we teach them at a young age, they’ll think about donating for the rest of their lives,” Eckhart said.
Some students could not donate because their families are in difficult financial straits. A few of the families the school is helping live on Snoqualmie Ridge, Smelser said.
“Some kids said they might not be able to give that much, but everyone is trying,” fourth-grader Will Parker said.
Cascade View Principal Ray Wilson commended the students for their dedication to the drive.
“It’s been fun to see how the willingness to give to others is contagious and makes them feel good about themselves,” Wilson said.
Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
NEW — 3:00 p.m. Dec. 10, 2009
Encompass is hosting portrait photographer Carlton Ward to take free family portraits for families in need. Participants will receive a free 8-inch by 10-inch print.
Ward, a North Bend photographer, will be taking photos from noon to 7 p.m. at Encompass, 1407 Boalch Ave. N.W., North Bend.
To reserve a spot, call Encompass at 425-888-2777 or stop by Encompass to sign up.
For more information, visit Carlton Ward’s Web site.
John Roth wears a pair of earplugs as he rototills earth in the preschool playground during the Sept. 11 Day of Caring cleanup at Encompass in North Bend. Roth, of Bellevue, was one of 26 Microsoft staff who spent the day at Encompass trimming hedges, painting rooms and tackling myriad other projects. The Day of Caring is organized by United Way. Contributed by Clay Eals.
By Laura Geggel
The children sat in a circle on the floor of the North Bend Library as Encompass speech language pathologist Kari Weed read them a story. To reinforce the lessons about emotions, Weed read “Knuffle Bunny,” by Mo Willems, a book about baby Trixie, who throws a fit when her daddy misplaces her favorite stuffed animal.
“What is the look on her face?” Weed asked. “What do you think Trixie feels?”
The children, all members of Champ Camp, were learning about social interactions. Designed by Encompass Pediatric Therapy Manager Marsha Quinn, the camp helps children with autism and other special needs learn about and practice their social skills.
Quinn, whose two sons are on the autism spectrum, knew families with special-needs children had to drive to Bellevue or Seattle for summer camps. When she couldn’t get a grant to finance such a camp at Encompass, she worked with Encompass administration to set up a tuition-based program.
Once local families learned about Champ Camp, they enrolled their children in droves. Every Tuesday and Thursday for the month of August, children ages 3 to 6 attended a morning session and ages 7 to 10 participated in an afternoon session, learning about social interactions and going on community outings.
“We needed something that really addressed social skills,” Snoqualmie Valley Schools teacher Kirsten Baxter said. “It’s hard to find camps for these kids that really fit.”
Baxter, who teaches special education children at the Snoqualmie Elementary preschool, partnered with Weed and several volunteers at Champ Camp. Many of the campers had passed through Baxter’s preschool class, and she was familiar with their strengths and areas needing improvement.
She praised the children for learning the names of their Encompass campmates and for remembering important social details, such as looking at someone in the eye and saying hello.
“These kids need to be taught,” Baxter said. “It doesn’t come naturally to them.”
Researchers are still trying to learn the causes of autism, a brain disorder causing people to have challenges with social interaction, communication and repetitive behavior. One Encompass camper would repeatedly ask the same question, but the counselors are using a sign to help the child realize when to stop asking the question.
Baxter and Weed encourage the children to interact with one another, something they can’t get during a private therapy session. When the campers made smoothies, they held a vote about the drink’s ingredients. During another lesson, the campers interviewed each other.
The Champ Camp counselors also wanted their campers to become more familiar with the community, and vice versa.
“It’s important for them to know how to act when they go out of their homes, out of their schools,” Baxter said.
Encompass volunteers — Snoqualmie Middle School sixth-grader Payton Graves and Mount Si freshman Katie McGrath — sat next to the campers at the library. Graves said her younger brother is on the autism spectrum, so she’s used to working with children who have autism.
“They just learn in a different way,” Graves said.
McGrath offered her advice for interacting with people living with autism.
“You should just treat them the same as everyone else,” McGrath said. “When they do good stuff, you should congratulate them and give them positive feedback.”
At the end of the day, the parents were given a syllabus about the day’s activities so they could follow-up with their children and help them practice the skills they had learned.
“You can’t send her to any old camp, so we’re happy they have this camp here,” Carnation resident Kristin Minner said of her daughter, Laura. “She’s ecstatic to be here. She loves any school type setting.”
Not all of the children had autism. Some had speech delays and others, called typical peers, had no development problems and were there just to have fun.
Tracy Marrero, the mother of Justin and Nicolas, said her sons help each other at home.
“They spend so much time together,” Marrero said. “In that sense, Nicolas is a great typical peer, so why not carry it into camp?”
Encompass may continue the camp on a weekly basis throughout the school year. The August camp cost $350 for the entire month, a deal compared to the going rate of a speech language pathologist at $120 per hour.
To learn more about the camp, contact Kari Weed at Encompass at 888-2777 or kari.weed@encompassnw.org.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. To comment on this story, visit www.snovalleystar.com.
The children sat in a circle on the floor of the North Bend Library as Encompass speech language pathologist Kari Weed read them a story. To reinforce the lessons about emotions, Weed read “Knuffle Bunny,” by Mo Willems, a book about baby Trixie, who throws a fit when her daddy misplaces her favorite stuffed animal.
“What is the look on her face?” Weed asked. “What do you think Trixie feels?”
The children, all members of Champ Camp, were learning about social interactions. Designed by Encompass Pediatric Therapy Manager Marsha Quinn, the camp helps children with autism and other special needs learn about and practice their social skills.
Quinn, whose two sons are on the autism spectrum, knew families with special-needs children had to drive to Bellevue or Seattle for summer camps. When she couldn’t get a grant to finance such a camp at Encompass, she worked with Encompass administration to set up a tuition-based program.
Ben Rogers listens to sixth-grader Payton Graves read to him during a Champ Camp field trip to the North Bend Library.
Read more
By Laura Geggel
Safer schools, decreased drug use and better mental health services were just three elements Snoqualmie Valley hoped to improve with a federal grant called the Safe Schools – Healthy Students Initiative.
The federal grant would have given Snoqualmie Valley $1.5 million per year for four years, totaling $6 million. But, on July 10, the federal government announced its grant recipients, and the Valley was not included on the list.
“It would have made a huge difference,” Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Executive Director Kristy Sullivan said.
The network worked with the Snoqualmie Valley School District to apply for the grant and included other stakeholders, including the Riverview School District, Friends of Youth, Encompass, law enforcement agencies and more.
Snoqualmie Valley School District employees had high hopes for the programs they could have implemented with the grant money.
“It was huge,” school district Student Services Director Nancy Meeks said. “It would have been so great.”
“It was a fairly substantial grant,” Snoqualmie Valley Superintendent Joel Aune said. “With the budget challenges we’re facing and resources being so scarce, there are some needs out there we simply can’t address.”
Aune said the grant could have started programs instrumental to the district, such as staff development and training and writing protocols that could be used in the long-term.
Even though the network did not receive the grant, Sullivan said there was a silver lining.
“What this grant helped us do was to start a dialogue with different partners,” Sullivan said. “That community dialogue has helped us move in a better direction.”
Aune agreed.
“It’s helped us to do some thinking, maybe a little deeper thinking, about student needs, staff needs, community needs and how we might go about better addressing those needs,” he said.
Safe Schools – Healthy Students
For the past 10 years, the federal Education, Justice and Health and Human Services departments have offered the Safe Schools – Healthy Students grant, awarding more than $2.1 billion to educational, mental health, law enforcement and juvenile justice partnerships.
Last year, about 60 communities across the country received the grant, a number the government halved this year because of budget cuts.
Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Grant and Program Evaluator Jan-Olov Johansson, Ph.D. said that it is hard to receive such a grant on the first try, especially since the government received 422 applications and only accepted 29 of them. Communities with high rates of violence and diversity tend to have better chances receiving the grant, Johansson said.
If the grant is offered again next year, Johansson said the network would likely work with the Snoqualmie Valley School District to reapply.
The grant would have helped Snoqualmie Valley youth in five major ways. The grant requires recipients use the funds to increase school safety, decrease alcohol, tobacco and substance use, offer behavioral, social and emotional support to students, make available mental health services and collaborate with early childhood development agencies.
Johansson helped Skagit County receive a $7.8 million Safe Schools – Healthy Students four-year grant in 2005.
The grant helped Skagit develop its emergency response to multiple types of emergencies within its 35 schools, from gang violence to natural disasters.
“Each school had a team that could assess any threat,” Johansson said, adding that each team had school administrators, counselors, teachers, law enforcement and emergency responders.
In a four-year period, the grant money provided anti-bullying training for more than 2,000 students. At the upper level, Skagit County used to have only 4.5 prevention intervention specialists who helped students deal with substance problems. The grant money increased that number to about 15 specialists, so now every middle and high school had one.
“What that means in numbers is in 2004, there were 275 youth that received prevention intervention services,” Johansson said. “In 2009, we had close to 1,200.”
Similar programs would have been implemented in Snoqualmie Valley. For instance, the grant could have increased Snoqualmie Valley schools prevention intervention specialists from two part-time specialists to 4.5.
The money would have also helped early-education students at places like Encompass learn anti-bullying and harassment lessons, which would have given the young students the necessary vocabulary to address these issues as they matured.
The grant would have helped the Valley better integrate services to help children who are falling between the cracks because they have emotional, truancy, substance abuse or other problems. Interventions at specific grade levels are not enough — the entire school district and community need to be engaged, Johansson said.
“If we do one-shot deals and continue to press the burden on one of the sectors, like the schools or the law enforcement, the likelihood we will be successful in addressing this is going to be minimal,” Johansson said.
Despite the Snoqualmie Valley School District’s losing bid for the grant, Aune thanked the network for helping it apply for the grant. Larger school districts have grant writers on staff, but Snoqualmie Valley cannot yet afford to fund such a position.
“For us, to be able to form a partnership with the network in terms of pursuing these grant opportunities, that’s a real benefit for the school district,” Aune said.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. To comment on this story, visit www.snovalleystar.com.
Safer schools, decreased drug use and better mental health services were just three elements Snoqualmie Valley hoped to improve with a federal grant called the Safe Schools – Healthy Students Initiative.
The federal grant would have given Snoqualmie Valley $1.5 million per year for four years, totaling $6 million. But, on July 10, the federal government announced its grant recipients, and the Valley was not included on the list.
“It would have made a huge difference,” Snoqualmie Valley Community Network Executive Director Kristy Sullivan said.
Read more
Ladies, get your tiaras. Encompass is hosting its seventh annual Queen for a Day fundraiser at The Westin Bellevue. Women will be pampered silly and have a chance to support local children and families.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Encompass programs and students.
The organization’s staff are still assessing how much it has been affected by state budget cuts, and said any donations would help with the operation of the center.
Encompass serves the Valley in a number of ways. It helps children with developmental problems from birth to age 3, offers preschool services, youth camps, parenting classes and more.
Former ‘Evening Magazine’ TV personality John Curley stopped by Encompass May 13 and will be at the Queen for a Day fundraiser.
Read more
For some people who are already struggling financially, the Jan. 7 flood in the Valley was particularly hard-hitting, and Encompass wants to help.
At a Monday, Jan. 12, Encompass Board Meeting, North Bend City Administrator and Encompass board member Duncan Wilson proposed establishing a special fund to help people affected by the flood. Donations for the Encompass Flood Relief Fund can now be made at any Bank of America branch in the state. A full 100 percent of the money donated will go back to families in need, and donations are tax-deductable. Read more
Times are financially tight for the state of Washington, especially for K-12 education and the Department of Early Learning.
With a $5.8 billion deficit, a newly proposed budget by Governor Chris Gregoire has a string of cuts amounting to about $3 billion in the 2009-11 state budget. If passed by the Legislature, these cuts would impact both the Snoqualmie Valley School District and Encompass of North Bend. Read more
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