In your neighborhood, Feb. 24

North Clark County and Woodland

Woodland: The City of Woodland will start taking applications for community garden plots on March 1. Applications are available in the City Annex Building. Plots cost $30 for city residents ages 62 and over, $35 for residents under 62 and $40 for nonresidents. Each person may reserve two plots. The garden will be ready for use April 1.

Woodland: Punxsutawney Phil wasn’t the only one to see a shadow Feb. 2. Students and faculty at Green Mountain School saw 34 at the fifth-annual Shadow Day. Parents and grandparents visited their K-eighth-grade students and were able to attend classes, recess and have lunch in the school cafeteria. Turnout was best with younger students, specifically third- and fourth-graders, PTSA member Mary Eavenson said. “It’s a great way to get parents to school,” she said.

Ridgefield & Fairgrounds

Ridgefield: A 48-foot putt stood between Rick Rush and a six-night, six-round golf vacation package. Rush, a Ridgefield resident, was one of two finalists that qualified for the final round of the three-day Dick Hannah Acura Putting Challenge at the Portland Golf Show on Feb. 14. He and the other finalist had one shot to prove themselves, but Rush wasn’t worried. “There were two of us and two prizes, so I knew I was going to win something,” Rush said. “If there were three people, I would really have to compete.” After the first contestant overshot his putt, Rush relaxed and calmly took his shot. His ball stopped a few feet away from the hole, but it was enough to secure first place. He walked away with a new putter, two rounds of golf and a two-night stay at three resorts: The Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls, Ore., Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, Ore. and Brasada Ranch in Powell Butte, Ore. Rush golfs on most Fridays — when the weather allows.

Battle Ground, Meadow Glade & Hockinson

Battle Ground: Ask food service employees at Battle Ground school district what they think about the culinary abilities of students in their district, and they’ll tell you: “Kids Can Cook.” Sodexo, the food service provider at Battle Ground, sponsored the fifth annual recipe competition/cook-off on Feb. 5 at Battle Ground High School. Twenty-five third-, fourth- and fifth-graders from Battle Ground and Hockinson were assisted by seven school lunch service employees to prepare four or five recipes. At the end of the day, parents and guests joined students at an awards ceremony where four grand prize winners were selected from more than 100 student-submitted entries. The winners were: Brittany McGuire won the Health Conscious category for her veggie pizzas; Ethan Tawwater won the Kid Friendly Prep category for his Banana Barbells; Jeremy McCabe won the Fun Foods category for his Peanut Butter Owl Snack; and the Judge’s Choice award went to Beth Tapani for her Swedish Pancakes.

Battle Ground: Four students in the Air Force Junior ROTC program at Battle Ground High School have won honors. Brothers Matthew Gindhart, a senior, and Myron Gindhart, a sophomore, won state championships in the Junior Olympic Open Air Rifle competition. Matthew won top honors in the Sporter Open Class for experienced shooters at the recent competition in Olympia, and Myron won the state championship in the “E” class Sporter Air Rifle competition for new shooters. The brothers earned the opportunity to attend the U.S. Junior Olympic National Championships at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the spring. In addition, BGHS seniors and ROTC members Dylan McShane and Alex Arlint have been awarded University of Portland Howard Vollum engineering scholarships for $56,000 each over four years. McShane plans to major in computer science and Arlint will major in electrical engineering.

Hazel Dell, Felida & Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek: Nearly 800 people packed the auditorium at Skyview High School to watch Misty River perform at the sixth annual Salmon Creek Kiwanis winter concert on Valentine’s Day. After expenses, the club raised $14,789 from the event and an additional $1,253 from a raffle after the concert. All proceeds will go to Bridge the Gap, an organization that supports local foster children. Salmon Creek Kiwanis holds breakfast meetings at 7 a.m. every Wednesday at the Salmon Creek Holiday Inn Express. For information about the club, call Gregg Herrington, 360-574-3747, Ron Deibert, 360-699-1234 or Darrell Brandenburg, 360-693-7981.

Hazel Dell: Donations for Haiti and local food banks totaling $20,000 recently came from the Vancouver chapter of the 40 et 8 veterans organization. Members voted to donate $10,000 to Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian medical organization that’s now taking a major role in Haiti disaster relief. And, during the holiday season, 40 et 8 donated $10,000 to local food banks. “It was a difficult holiday for a lot of people this year,” said member Jerry Keesee. The funds were generated by the 40 et 8 bingo parlor on Northeast 78th Street.

Orchards, Sifton & Brush Prairie

Sunnyside: FISH of Orchards Inc. received $5,000 from Safeco Insurance to support its work feeding and clothing disadvantaged residents in the community. The contribution was presented by Cheryl Whittington of Nicholson and Associates, who nominated FISH for a grant through Safeco’s Agent Giving Program.

West Vancouver & Downtown

Fruit Valley: Plans for McCallister Village, a housing complex named for longtime Fruit Valley neighborhood leader Lee McCallister, are moving forward. The project is aimed for the west side of Fruit Valley Road, north of the elementary school and just south of Firestone Lane (across from 37th Street). It’s planned as 48 units of subsidized rental housing, a community room, a little commercial space and an office. The city isn’t expecting any significant environmental impact and won’t hold a public hearing — but comments can be sent to city planner Greg Turner at greg.turner@ci.vancouver.wa.us until March 2 for inclusion in the public record. The developer is Affordable Community Environments.

Central Vancouver, Minnehaha & The Heights

Central Park: The InterFaith Planning Committee hosted its first day of service Jan. 18, in conjunction with widespread volunteerism on the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. Things got under way at the Luepke Center, where Rabbi Elizabeth Dunsker and local Muslim youth leader Subeeh Siddiqui welcomed 175 volunteers and led interfaith activities. Breakfast was provided by Loaves and Fishes. Volunteers then scattered to sites all over the area to undertake projects as diverse as environmental restoration in Burnt Bridge Creek, homeless shelter beautification in Oakbrook, home remodeling for the elderly in Rose Village and food deliveries for Loaves and Fishes.

Central Park: Camp Fire USA, Mt. Hood Council members visited the Veterans Health Center, 1601 E. Fourth Plain Blvd. on Feb. 13 as part of the group’s national project, “Saluting Veterans.” Visitors made banners, hand-crafted Valentine cards and talked with veterans.

Bagley Downs: The Free Clinic of Southwest Washington appointed two new board members on Feb. 8. Diana Beult, director of clinical and support services at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, and Barney Speight, director of the Oregon Health Authority, will serve three-year terms. The clinic’s mission is to provide and facilitate access to free, compassionate, quality health care for children and adults who are unable to access such services.

Hudson’s Bay: Cookies can be more complicated than one might think. “You never really know (how complicated) until you are behind scenes,” said Grace Ann Luczek, Girl Scout service unit product manager for West Vancouver. Luczek has been working with others since December to prepare for the Girl Scout cookie season, which lasts from Feb. 19 to March 14. She said sales are off to a great start this year. Her unit, which represents 52 troops, ordered 17,000 boxes of cookies to fill door-to-door pre-sales the Scouts made between Jan. 9 and 16. Each of the 52 troops had a 15-minute slot scheduled to pick up their cookies on Feb. 12. Luczek is already working on the second order, which will go towards booth sales, which started Feb. 19.

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

Camas Meadows: Business consultant, clinical psychologist and author Al Bernstein brought his message about prehistoric behavior and stress management to a luncheon meeting of the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 18. His talk was called “To Manage Stress, You Must Understand Dinosaurs.” Bernstein, based in Vancouver, has made a cottage industry of writing and speaking about dealing with difficult people in business and in personal lives. Two of his books are “Dinosaur Brains” and “Emotional Vampires.”

Fircrest: A release form seems like a reasonable solution to what became an ugly predicament. Regular Neighbors readers will recall that the Fircrest Neighborhood Association got sued last year after volunteers accidentally collected the wrong pile of debris from a neighbor’s property during an annual cleanup day. Undaunted, Fircrest is preparing for its next cleanup day — with the following new wrinkle, as per the February Fircrest newsletter: “New this year will be a release form that residents will be required to sign before any items can be picked up. This service is for senior citizens and residents with disabilities. Absolutely no items will be picked up without a resident present at the home. No exceptions will be made. Sorry we cannot be as flexible on this as we have been in the past.” This planning is happening way in advance; the cleanup day is set for May 29.

Fircrest: Last week we reported on a chili cook-off during the Fircrest Neighborhood Association meeting Feb. 6. Since then, a few more tidbits have trickled into our inboxes and shed more light on the competition. Councilwoman Jeanne E. Stewart was joined on the judges’ table by Jerry Keene, Greg Whitsom and Jason Whitsom. Judges’ choice award went to Jesse Magana, hottest chili went to Vickie Disparte and the committee’s choice went to Becky Archibald. Alice Glessner, Fircrest fundraising chairwoman, said she plans to challenge other neighborhoods to a chili cook-off later this year and use the event to raise funds for a local charity.