In your neighborhood

Hazel Dell, Felida and Salmon Creek

West Hazel Dell: About 100 people, including Fazio family members, attended the June 19 dedication of Jack Z. Fazio Neighborhood Park, 9600 N.W. 21st Ave. Fazio, a businessman and farmer who died in 2007, sold the property to Clark County for use as a park. The 5-acre park has paved walking trails, play equipment and a sand pit with sand from Vancouver’s Fazio Brothers Sand Co.

Northeast Hazel Dell: Forget cake and streamers. Ramie Scukanec wanted to celebrate her 60th birthday by doing a family 5K. The (mostly) locals — from Redmond, Ore., Monmouth, Ore., and Vancouver — ran on the track at Gaiser Middle School on June 5. Other friends and family ran on the same day in Vermont, Utah, New York, New Jersey, Michigan and California. All of the funds raised from the 5Ks will be donated to the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health and Science University. Ramie’s granddaughter Lucy was diagnosed with retinoblastoma when she was 18 months old. Her left eye was removed a few months later. She is now 4 years old and will continue to be monitored at the Casey Eye Institute.

Ridgefield and Fairgrounds

Hockinson: Kim Abegglen was selected for the NASA Endeavor Fellow Summer Internship. Abegglen will spend two weeks working with airborne measurements at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and develop a plan for K-12 students to study climate.

Orchards, Sifton and Brush Prairie

Sunnyside: Shirley Grabner, second-grade teacher at Silver Star Elementary, said goodbye to the classroom in June. Grabner, who has been a teacher for 38 years, will substitute at the school and work as an interior designer in the fall. She said it “still feels like it’s summer vacation,” but expects things will sink in as the school year begins. She said she’s proud to see what her former students are now doing. She “can’t help but feel real proud” when she hears a former student is now a doctor or another student is a Marine returning from Iraq.

Central Vancouver, Minnehaha and The Heights

Ellsworth Springs: Somewhere around 70 tough guys and gals took their hog, chopper or softail bikes on an hour and a half ride to the beach on June 5. They rode to support the Caring Cabin — a place in Pacific City, Ore. that serves as a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses. Vancouver’s Austin Vellek and his parents, Sharla and Rolf Vellek, formed Team Austin and were able to raise $750 after the ride. It was particularly important not only because Austin had visited the cabin, but also because they wanted to raise awareness of retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer Austin was diagnosed with October. He is now in remission.

Ogden: John Sundt and Kayleigh Thornton, managers of Royal Crest Apartments on Northeast 86th Street, reported they saw a person trying to shoot ducks on a neighborhood trail. The mysterious person was seen shooting at ducks one evening with homemade arrows between 8 and 8:30 p.m. According to notes from the Ogden Neighborhood Association meeting on June 10 — where Sundt and Thornton shared the information — the two were concerned for the safety of neighborhood children after finding one of the arrows lying on the trail.

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

Fisher’s Landing: The Holloway family sure is getting educated. On June 12, 60-year-old Beth Holloway received her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Washington. That’s after 27 years working as a labor and delivery nurse for Kaiser Permanente and making home visits for the Clark County Nurse Family Partnership program. At the same graduation ceremony, Beth’s son Maxwell got his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. The day before, Beth’s daughter Brittany Anderson got her master’s in business administration at Portland State University.

East Clark County: Camas and Washougal

Camas: Sixth graders from Liberty Middle School spent the last few weeks of school going on 10-hour space simulations, five students at a time. Students spend the day in a replica space station that was built by volunteers and sits in the school’s gym. Student teams prepare food, take care of garbage and participate in various space-related activities. The missions are part of a 12-week space program at the school.

Camas: Liberty Middle School and Prune Hill Elementary are the first schools in the Camas School District to earn an Energy Star rating from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Camas: Soggy soil and growing grass created problems for Green Mountain Golf Course this spring. The fairways needed to be trimmed but using the large ride-on mower would ruin the course, Dave Ramsay, head professional at the course, said. On June 9, 29 or so people showed up with their personal mowers to help out. They worked from 6 to 10 a.m. and were able to get the grass playable for the weekend. “It was pretty cool to see that people in the community care enough to give you a hand when you’re hurting because of the rain and the economy,” Ramsay said.

West Vancouver and Downtown

Esther Short: David Alexander said he isn’t sure why his 17-year-old daughter, Angela, committed suicide in December 2008. The Michigan native set out for Blaine in May 2009 to ride a bike down the Pacific coast to raise awareness of teen suicide. On June 16, Alexander stopped by The Columbian on his return trip from Mexico to Spokane to share his story. “I can’t do anything for Angela, but I can do something for someone else,” he said. Alexander’s mission is to encourage parents to talk to and love their kids. He distributes fliers, tells his story and talks with locals every stop along the way. He’s kept journals asking people to leave notes. He plans to head east, meet his other daughter, Ivy, in Spokane and end his journey in Maine later this summer. After he returns home, he plans to write a book about his trip and share the stories people left in his journals along the way.