Central Vancouver, Minnehaha and The Heights

Central Vancouver, Minnehaha and The Heights

Ellsworth Springs: A group of boys and adults who are part of the Mentors of Boys program honored veterans on Veterans Day by saluting them from the freeway overpass on Interstate 205 at 10th Street and McGillivray Boulevard. This was the third year the group celebrated Veterans Day with a salute. “This year we spent two hours out there before dark set in. It was a cold day with the rain coming down for about 45 minutes. Not one of our boys complained, but rather kept up their energy for the honking cars passing by,” Mentors of Boys Vice President Zach Long wrote in an e-mail. The group consisted of 10 boys and seven mentors. “We also had a soldier who in 11 days is going to be deployed to Iraq come up and shake our hands, saying thanks,” Long wrote.

Orchards, Sifton and Brush Prairie

Brush Prairie: Students from Prairie High School’s Junior ROTC Awareness Presentation Team and health sciences and careers classes joined students from Stevenson, Longview’s R.A. Long and Toledo high schools for a workshop by the American Cancer Society’s SpeakOUT Youth Initiative on Nov. 4 at the Educational Service District 112 offices. The students learned how to encourage young people to fight cancer by building healthy, active and tobacco-free communities. The training focuses on assisting youth leaders and their adult advisers in building strong youth coalitions that work to prevent cancer through tobacco education and school health advocacy.

Maple Grove: Kelly Backous, a third-grade teacher at Maple Grove Elementary School, is the newly-crowned 2010 Miss Queens for a Cure. She competed against 80 people in the pageant in Renton on Nov. 7, an event that raised more than $10,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and she will lead the Queens for a Cure Team at the 2010 Race for the Cure event in Seattle next June. She also won “Best Dress” and “Best Introduction” awards. Backous has held other titles, including Miss Clark County 2005 and 2007 and Miss Vancouver USA 2009.

Brush Prairie: The Prairie High School Boosters raised $20,371 at the Oct. 24 dinner auction at the Hilton Vancouver Washington. Gary Hoyt of the Boosters said the net was down from $23,006 in 2008 and attendance was down from 285 last year to 232. But the average expenditure per guest, including dinner, was $87.81 compared with $80.72 in 2008. The money raised will go to various clubs and athletics at PHS as well as district projects. The upgraded sound system at District Stadium is a result of money from past PHS Boosters’ dinner auctions.

North Clark County and Woodland

Yacolt: The students in Amy Vaughn’s third-grade class at Yacolt Primary School enjoyed a fine-dining experience Nov. 5, thanks to Sodexo, Battle Ground Public Schools’ food service provider. The students were given a lesson on etiquette and table manners Oct. 29. A week later, Sodexo chef Dave Williams served them a menu of Italian wedding soup, Caesar salad, five-layer lasagne, with green beans and breadsticks, and chocolate mousse for dessert. The meal was served on fine china with tables decked out with linens, flatware and glassware.

Ridgefield and Fairgrounds

Fairgrounds: The Vancouver developer who wants to build a $95 million retail center with department stores and six restaurants at the southeast corner of Interstate 5 and 179th Street is asking for permission to fill a 3.2-acre wetland on the site, according to a county document released Nov. 16. Killian Pacific LLC wants to mitigate the environmental damage by improving wetland along Lake River in Ridgefield. Public comments are due Nov. 30; for details, contact county planner Vicki Kirsher at 360-397-2375, ext. 4178, or vicki.kirsher@clark.wa.gov.

Battle Ground, Meadow Glade and Hockinson

Battle Ground: Rusty Grape Winery recently won a bronze medal for its 2007 Pinot Noir and a silver medal for a 2006 Sangiovese at the Northwest Food and Wine Festival in Portland. Owners Jeremy and Heather Brown operate the winery and tasting room at 16712 N.E. 219th St. in Battle Ground, open Friday through Sunday. For information and hours, visit rustygrape.com.

Hazel Dell, Felida and Salmon Creek

Northeast Hazel Dell: Jackie Spooner has a new wheelchair ramp at her home, thanks to the generosity of the Rotary Club of Greater Clark County and its long-running wheelchair ramp program. Spooner was put in touch with Rotarians Red Gilbert, Dorman Holcomb and Rich Irvine, who assessed her needs and rounded up volunteers. A group of 11 volunteers, including one Rotary exchange student from Argentina, completed the work in just five hours on Oct. 31. The Rotary Club builds approximately three ramps a year through its ramp program, in addition to several other community service projects they participate in as part of the club’s motto, “Service Above Self.”

Hazel Dell: Members of Clark County Fire District 6 picked up a large donation of stuffed animals from Columbia Motorcycle Harley-Davidson on Nov. 5. The toys were collected during the “Teddy Bear Run,” a charity motorcycle ride last month. Columbia Harley-Davidson also made a monetary contribution to the district’s “Firefighters Assistance Fund,” which helps families displaced by fire. The stuffed animals will be distributed to needy families during the annual Santa’s Posse event on Dec. 20. Santa’s Posse is a collaboration between Fire District 6 and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and other community partners. This year, Santa’s Posse hopes to distribute toys and food to 400 needy families in Clark County. People wanting to donate to Santa’s Posse can bring a new, unwrapped toy or nonperishable food item to any Fire District 6 station.

West Vancouver and Downtown

Columbia Way: The Confluence Project, which includes the Vancouver Land Bridge, received the top honor in the Waterfront Center’s “Excellence on the Waterfront” Awards, which were presented Oct. 23 in Seattle. The Confluence Project also includes waterfront artworks at Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco and a bird blind in Troutdale, Ore. The Waterfront Center launched the awards in 1987 to recognize high-quality waterfront work of varied kinds to encourage communities, developers and design firms from around the world to strive for well-designed projects.

East Vancouver, Cascade Park, Fisher’s Landing and Evergreen

Mountain View: Mountain View High School’s American sign language class is practicing sign language in a real-world setting. The high school students are involved in an after-school program at Cascade Middle School. They serve as peer math tutors for Julia Fritz, who teaches students who are deaf. Mountain View student Brian Estes also helped create a software program that third-year ASL students can use to make a visual library of signs on CD to assist younger students in practicing sign and taking quizzes.

North Image: The Clark County Family YMCA recently received a $5,000 donation from the Firstenburg Foundation. The money will be used to provide scholarships to children and older adults from low-income families to participate in YMCA programs.

Mountain View: Mountain View High School students Jing Xue and Liya Mo have been named National Forensic League Academic All-Americans. The NFL is a national speech and debate honorary organization that has enrolled over 1 million members in all 50 states since it was founded in 1925.

East Clark County: Camas and Washougal

Washougal: A group of fifth-graders at Gause Elementary School was treated to a fine-dining experience by the district’s food service provider, Sodexo, on Nov. 6. To select the 30 students who would participate, all fifth-graders were given a “golden ticket” and allowed to keep their ticket if they abided by school and classroom rules. All of the students who kept their tickets entered into a lottery, and 30 tickets were drawn at random. The winners were treated to a four-course meal of soup, bread, salad, chicken parmesan and dessert. They sat at tables with nice tablecloths, fine china, glasses and silverware. The purpose of the event was to reinforce good manners and teach children how to eat with others in a formal social situation.

Washougal: The Boy Scouts from Troop 314 and the Cub Scouts of Pack 314 held their annual Veterans Day breakfast Nov. 8 at American Legion Post 122. The boys served 40 VIP breakfasts to veterans and active military members and another 50 meals to guests. The breakfast was “a way for us to thank our veterans and active military personnel,” organizer Molly Krabbenhoft wrote in an e-mail.

Camas: Nick Jaech, a junior at Camas High School, chose to organize a “Run For Your Life” run/walk fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association as part of his duties as the vice president of the school’s Key Club. The event on Nov. 14 at the Camas School District Offices raised $350 for the American Diabetes Association and attracted 38 runners and 15 walkers despite the cold, rainy weather. “As a regular and passionate athlete, I know that one way to prevent type 2 diabetes is to just exercise, so I wanted to mix service to the American Diabetes Association with the joy of fitness,” Jaech wrote in an e-mail.

Camas: Second-graders at Grass Valley Elementary enjoyed a career fair on Oct. 14 as part of a unit on communities. Parents came into school for the event to share details of their jobs as students rotated from one worker to another. Participants included police officers, a dental assistant, a city councilman, a nurse, a scientist, a bike shop owner, a worker from Home Depot, a Navy officer and a home business owner.