Catholic Teens Pray in Taizé Tradition
June 30, 2008
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Fontana is the father of Unleashed reporter Colleen Fontana, who co-wrote this column. Colleen Fontana and Mia Walsh both attend the Taizé youth group at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church.
By COLLEEN FONTANA and MIA WALSH
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL
The lights are off. Only the dim, flickering glow of candles illuminates three icons, each depicting a significant person in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Twenty teenagers sit nearby, each holding an unlit candle in their hands. Quietly, they start to sing hymns. Then, one by one, they light their candles and kneel near the icons to pray.
In preparation for the sacrament of confirmation, these teens meet once a week at Yakima’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to pray and discuss issues facing the church. They come from different schools, both public and private. And leading their Wednesday night meetings is Robert Fontana, 50, who has been the youth group leader at the church for eight years.
Fontana uses prayer in the Taizé tradition as a way to help strengthen teens’ faith.
After visiting the Taizé (pronounced Teh-ZAY) Community in France in 2000, Fontana says he thought it would be beneficial to use this method with teenagers in a youth group. In 2001, he began to invite young people to participate in the Taizé youth group, which continues today.
Hannah Kaluzny, a 16-year-old sophomore at Davis High School, has been attending the Taizé youth group at St. Joe’s for almost two years.
“It gives me a lot of time to reflect and think about my own life,” she says.
Taizé prayer services involve the use of candles, icons and short, repetitive songs.
For Frank Sziebert, a 16-year-old junior at Davis, the Taizé aspect sets this youth group apart from others.
“Most youth groups have discussion time, but Taizé is something new and different,” he says.
Taizé is not new. The monastic community was founded in 1940 by the late Brother Roger. Since the late 1950s, the Taizé Community has become a symbol of reconciliation between Christians and other groups. It’s made up of more than 100 brothers of Catholic and various Protestant backgrounds from more than 25 countries. And that’s part of its appeal for young people, who have popularized pilgrimages to the community as well as Taizé prayer services around the world.
Fontana explains: “Candles create a beautiful but soft lighting that helps the person praying to get out of their head and get more into their heart and simply be present to God.”
Kaluzny says she finds it easier to do that at the Taizé youth group than during Mass on Sundays.
“This is much more personal,” she says. “Mass is traditional, and it is hard to get stuff out of it, where as here it is more personal and (relevant) to your life.”
Thirteen-year-old Christina Foley, an eighth-grader at St. Joseph-Marquette School, agrees.
“There is a lot of talking in Mass, but Taizé is silent, and we spend more time with God as well,” she says.
Once the Taizé prayer has finished, the teens get to eat a quick snack before regrouping for discussion. Every week there is a new topic to discuss; some pertain to current events and others to church history.
“We don’t just sit there,” says 16-year-old Chris Wilson, a freshman at Eisenhower High School. “We get to ask questions if we don’t understand something.”
And, says 18-year-old Minerva Perez, a senior at La Salle High School, “I can actually be with people my own age.”
These weekly discussions and reflective prayer services create an atmosphere in which students can come together and share their faith.
“Taizé is very relaxing,” Kaluzny says. “And since life is usually busy, it is hard to find time for my faith.”
For these teens, Taizé gives them that time.
BreAnna Jones: Local Student, National Poetry Finalist
June 30, 2008
By MIA WALSH
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL
Sitting in the computer lab last winter, 16-year-old BreAnna Jones, a sophomore at West Valley High School, indifferently searched through hundreds of poems — from William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” to Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Recuerdo.”
Not finding any particular poem that spoke to her, she decided on a humorous poem, “Beautiful Black Men” by Nikki Giovanni. As she sat in class memorizing it, she thought only of one thing: Perform well and get a good grade.
However, BreAnna, who loves to dance, ended up turning a classroom assignment into a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The classroom activity — memorizing and reciting a poem — was for Poetry Out Loud. The competition’s goal, starting at the classroom level, is to interest youth in poetry through recitation.
BreAnna won her classroom contest, then performed at the school level, competing against students of all grades at West Valley. For this part of the contest, she had to recite two poems in front of an audience of parents, teachers and students. For her second poem, she chose another humorous one: “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins.
“It was nerve-wracking to do it in front of my peers,” says BreAnna, who was chosen to continue at the regional level.
But she told her parents she didn’t want to perform again.
“She didn’t want to go on because her plate was already filled, but her teacher wanted her to, so BreAnna did,” says her mother, Debbie Jones, 47.
The regional contest was held at Yakima’s Allied ArtsCenter, 5000 W. Lincoln Ave. There, about a dozen students from Yakima Valley schools competed against each other by reciting three poems. BreAnna recited “Forgetfulness,” “Vita Nova” by Louise Glück and “The Old Swimmin’ Hole” by James Whitcomb Riley.
“After I heard her, I realized that she had a naturalness about her,” her mom says.
And that “naturalness” enabled her to win again. BreAnna and two other high school students advanced to the state competition in Tacoma.
And, says BreAnna: “The skill level went way up.”
Ten teenagers from high schools across Washington competed at the state event — and BreAnna won again, earning a spot at the national contest in Washington, D.C.
“I am not a stage mom whatsoever, and I rarely see my kids compete, so when she won I started to cry,” her mom says.
BreAnna started practicing for the national competition a mere two weeks before the event. Many of the other students, however, had personal coaches with whom they practice all year.
“I didn’t want to over-practice. I wanted it to be fresh,” says BreAnna. Her father, DeNard Jones, 45, helped her with precision and accuracy.
“I gave her only a little feedback and critique,” he says. “She found her voice very quickly.”
There were 52 students in the national competition, one from each state plus the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.
BreAnna was one of the top 12 contestants. She didn’t make the final cut, but she isn’t going to give up.
“I really want to compete next year and maybe the year after,” she says with a grin.
Meantime, BreAnna is in New York City on another adventure, this time through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to young people with life-threatening conditions.
Early last year, BreAnna felt a pressure in her chest whenever she bent over. Two days later, she felt a mass on her left clavicle; she told her parents, who took her to the doctor.
A CAT scan showed tumors in her chest and left clavicle, and in February 2007 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, the part of the body that fights infections.
BreAnna’s cancer has been in remission for about a year.
Last November, 44-year-old Sherrie Leavitt, a local Make-a-Wish volunteer, met with BreAnna and asked her what her wish was.
After doing research on the Internet, BreAnna decided on her dream: to participate in a two-week program at the School of Cinema and Performing Arts in New York City.
Leavitt made BreAnna’s wish come true.
On June 20, she and her parents flew to the Big Apple to see a Yankees game, the Empire State Building, and other New York City sites. Two days later, they dropped BreAnna off at a camp to do what she has always loved to do: dance.
Studentpainters.net: A Summer Job to Dye For
June 30, 2008
By ALYSSA PATRICK
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL
Andrew Hoge and Jessica Miller are two students who have added a whole new tint to the term “summer job.”
They are painting houses this summer — but not with their own hands. Instead, they are hiring other college students to work for their house-painting businesses.
“We don’t want to have to pick up a paint brush this summer,” Miller said. “It is our job to give (our employees) the skills to paint and line up enough houses to keep them busy.”
Hoge, a 2007 Davis High School graduate, and Miller, a 2006 Bellevue High School graduate, are managers with a company known as Studentpainters.net, which for the first time has a branch here.
This summer, though, the pair are “pioneering” the Yakima Valley.
The greater Yakima territory, which includes Selah and Union Gap, will be managed by Hoge, an 18-year-old Seattle University sophomore.
Miller, a 20-year-old sophomore at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, will manage the Ellensburg and outer Yakima territory, which includes Terrace Heights and Naches.
Studentpainters.net is a “painting company and student development company,” Hoge said. Production-wise, employees paint houses; career-wise, the company creates entrepreneurs.
“The philosophy is to find those individuals who are leaders, ambitious and entrepreneurial, and let them manage a region,” Hoge said. “We are given all the tools we need to start our own business training on paint technology, sales techniques, production management and crew management.”
The business began in 1981 in Toronto, according to its Web site. In 2000, two University of Washington graduates and longtime veterans of the program, Dwayne and Jessica Bishop, took their entrepreneurial passion to the next level and made the Northwest division an individually owned and operated company. Hoge and Miller work for them.
“We both worked our way through college with the student painting business,” said 37-year-old Dwayne Bishop of Seattle. “It paid for all of Jessica’s schooling, so we really appreciated the company. And now we enjoy giving that experience to others.”
Hoge has been returning home to Yakima on weekends — about 360 miles round trip — to start gaining a clientele in his territory. Miller has also been traveling to sites in her territory.
Although they aren’t reimbursed for gas, they are paid a salary — roughly $8 an hour — for a nine-hour work week in the spring and a 40-hour work week in the summer.
Said Miller, an aspiring business owner: “Not everyone can delve into the career they are interested in before they graduate from college.”
And she and Hoge are definitely delving in deep. Gaining clients is just the first part of their job requirements, and it involves more than just a long car ride.
“We perform a detailed and free estimate that is tailored directly to a client’s home. The exact paint job the customer is looking for is usually established after two hours, and then we come up with a contract,” Hoge said.
Because the estimate and painting plan are written into the contract and a two-year warranty is provided, Studentpainters.net, affiliated with the paint company Sherwin-Williams, works at a high standard, Miller said.
“Ninety-seven percent of our customers do not use the warranty, and we immediately followed through with that 3 percent that did use it. We keep the promises that we make,” she said.
Building clientele is only half of the responsibility these managers carry. The other half is to hire painters and maintain their payroll and expenses. Since their employees are often their peers, this is the side of managing that can often produce the most pressure.
“I promise my employees 40 hours of painting a week, so I have to make sure I have a constant lineup of jobs for them. It creates more than just a personal risk in running the business. These people are depending on me to deliver work, so I have to follow through,” Miller said.
Six to eight CWU students are working for Miller this summer. Five students from Washington State University, the University of Washington and Western Washington University will be working for Hoge.
Tegean Coward, a 19-year-old CWU junior and Miller’s friend, is excited to be a first-time painter this summer.
“Judging how (Miller) handles everything business-wise, (working for her) will be just like working for any other established company,” Coward said.
Miller’s aspiration is to one day run her own nonprofit organization. She has a double major in business administration, with an emphasis on marketing, and English literature.
Hoge has a double major in bio-chemistry and political science, and wants to be a pediatrician.
“Studentpainters is one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life,” he said. “It is teaching me what I can do, how I can handle juggling many activities at once while giving a serious amount of focus to my business.”
Both Miller and Hoge point out another perk of their summer job: meeting people who are just as motivated as they are. A recent training session in Seattle allowed all of the managers and district managers to share successes and discuss solutions to difficulties.
“It’s so rewarding to be in a room full of people who work as hard as you,” Hoge said.
Fruitful Fest Connects Past, Present
June 26, 2008
By ELISSA BERNSTEIN
INTERLAKE HIGH SCHOOL
Eighty years ago, Bellevue was characterized not by urban shopping centers and reflective skyscrapers but antique corn grinders, old-fashioned canning machines and small, family-owned farms.
These two Bellevues seem almost completely unconnected. That is, of course, except for the stirring smell of shortcake, brightened with red strawberries, melting in the sun and oozing vanilla ice cream.
In the 1920s and 30s, the Bellevue Strawberry Festival was meant to put the small, agricultural community on the map. Today, metropolitan areas like Bellevue Square have replaced the strawberry fields, but the festival is still held every June to celebrate Bellevue’s agrarian past and heritage.
“You would never have expected Bellevue to be covered in farm land when you see the city today,” says Heather Trescases, co-coordinator of the festival and director of the Eastside Heritage Center, or EHC, the non-profit organization that hosts the celebration. “[The festival] is a way to celebrate that heritage, and tell the story of the Japanese American farmers and all the other diverse cultures which have come to Bellevue.”
The festival, which took place June 28 and 29 this year, started as a dream. Jennie Ethel Bovee, the wife of Bellevue’s first mayor, Charles W. Bovee, wanted an event to bring both visitors and recognition to Bellevue. The abundance of fresh strawberries, grown mostly by local Japanese farmers, seemed like the perfect way to commemorate the town’s spirit and draw in visitors.
The first festival was held in 1925 at what is now known as the Old Main Street School. According to the EHC’s Web site, a committee of 10 men and women organized the festival on a budget of $40.
Despite these modest figures, the fest enjoyed startling success, attracting visitors from Renton and Kirkland, and even Seattle-ites, who crossed Lake Washington by ferry to attend.
Bellevue’s population hovered around 2,500, and the festival drew about 3,000 visitors. It featured fresh produce and “Strawberry Queen” pageants, and generated a real estate buzz around rural Bellevue.
By 1938, the event drew in crowds of five times the original amount. Four years later, however, the festival was stopped due to the Japanese internment during World War II.
It took 45 years to revive. In 1987, the Bellevue Historical Society brought back the event. Today, it’s still going strong – on a larger and more casual scale.
This year’s event, which cost more than $80,000 to put on, is expected to bring in 40,000 visitors. It will be held at Crossroads International Park on Saturday and Sunday. The celebration is sponsored by the City of Bellevue and local businesses, with many products – strawberries and shortcakes, for example – donated or sold to the EHC at discounted prices. The revenue from the festival funds the EHC.
“[The festival] just grew and grew,” says Trescases. “People came to the event to socialize … to see their neighbors and spend time together as a community, to enjoy the good food.”
With respect to previous traditions, the event includes historical exhibits, antique artifacts, old farming and dairy equipment, and even a classic auto show displaying cars that families might have used back when the festival began. Other old-time activities are three-legged races, sack races and contests in which participants balance strawberries on spoons.
The festival still sells strawberry shortcakes and holds an ever-popular strawberry shortcake-eating contest.
Along with a love for strawberries and the City of Bellevue, the desire to come together as a community is one of the only aspects of the current festival which remains unchanged.
“We stay true to the original purpose of the festival, and the basic elements of shortcake and entertainment are the same,” says Trescases. “But in order to make it a modern-day festival, we have added many things that would not have existed,” such as henna tattoos, yoga supplies and blown glasswork.
These products – arts and crafts, clothing and jewelry, home improvement items – are available at more than 80 vendor booths. Special guests, like Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, are also expected to stop by.
One of the festival’s most popular activities is a family fun center, which features clowns, face painting, puppet shows, inflatable play areas, a rock climbing wall and miniature golf.
Two stages offer eclectic entertainment, including performances from the Northwest Junior Pipe Band, Ugandan Children’s Choir, and the Y’chessa Dahli Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble.
Another characteristic which has not changed in more than 80 years is its dependence on volunteers, most of whom are teenagers and young adults.
“We’ve always relied on volunteers,” says Karen Klett, volunteer coordinator of the EHC. “Without volunteers there would be no Bellevue Strawberry Festival.”
The festival’s 155 volunteers work in three- to four-hour shifts and help prepare the park, greet visitors, answer questions, run booths and clean up. Despite the workload, the number of teen volunteers increases every year.
“There are a lot of kids working together, and they all enjoy that,” says Klett. “Lots of kids work in the shortcake booth. Everybody loves strawberries. It’s a nice way to spend the afternoon.”
Twenty-year-old Michelle Liu began volunteering at the festival in 2006 to gain high school community service hours. She enjoyed the experience so much that she’s returned every year since, and she’s not alone. Twenty of her Bellevue Community College classmates have responded to her posters promoting volunteer work at the festival.
“It’s a very good opportunity to meet local people from the community,” Liu says. “I am an ESL student and this helps me learn American culture. Every year when I go, I can discover some new things.”
Meantime, Trescases is gearing up for this weekend’s event.
“It’s only two days in the year, but we touch 40,000 people in the community,” she says. “We give them an opportunity to discover and participate in local history. It’s going to be the biggest and best ever.”
For more information: Call 425- 450-1049, or visit www.bellevuestrawberryfestival.org
Elissa Bernstein, 16, is a junior at Bellevue’s Interlake High School. She has interned at the Bellevue Reporter and the Kirkland Reporter. She wrote this story at the Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University. Unleashed coordinator Adriana Janovich served as her mentor.
YH-R Welcomes 10th Unleashed Team
June 23, 2008
By SARAH JENKINS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Here’s today’s reflection on how fast time can pass by: When the original Unleashed team was gathering to create the first weekly section “by and for teens in the Yakima Valley,” many of the kids who would make up the 2008-09 Unleashed team were getting ready to start kindergarten.
Time does indeed fly …
This year’s group of 31 teenagers from throughout the Yakima Valley is the 10th Unleashed team. And their responsibility in the coming 52 weeks will be to report, write, photograph and illustrate the same quality of journalism as their predecessors.
Since the 2007-08 team captured a big national honor this spring — first place for “program excellence” among all youth sections published by newspapers with circulation up to 60,000 — that’s quite a responsibility.
Of course, the chore will be made somewhat easier by the return of 18 “veterans” to the Unleashed crew, as well as the continuing work of student editor Alyssa Patrick, an Eisenhower High School senior who is in her second year helping to lead the team.
And reporter Adriana Janovich is continuing as the staff coordinator for Unleashed, a role she has enthusiastically tackled for the past five years.
The photographers on this year’s team will have Sara Gettys as their mentor.
Each year, we assign a Yakima Herald-Republic staff photographer to help coordinate the teens’ work, and to mentor them in the process. This year, it’s Sara’s first shot at that responsibility.
But she won’t be the only neophyte.
There will also be 13 teens who are new to the team, and together they will all be intent on making this 10th year of Unleashed something special.
The veterans will help the newcomers understand that Unleashed is not a school project; we expect team members to view it as a job, as professional journalists facing deadlines, standards and editing.
As the program excellence award shows, they embrace that responsibility. It’s a fun thing to watch.
This year’s 31 team members represent 10 high schools stretching from Wahluke to Bickleton.
They are listed below by their class level, with an asterisk (*) noting those who are veterans returning to the team:
BICKLETON HIGH SCHOOL
Jessica Cummings*, junior, reporter.
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL
Hannah Besso, freshman, reporter; Alex Braman, freshman, photographer; Colleen Fontana*, junior, reporter; Georgia Gempler, freshman, reporter; James Hibbs, sophomore, photographer; Samantha Knittle*, senior, artist; Catherine Maier, freshman, photographer; Hannah Naughton*, junior, reporter; Sean Nagle-McNaughton, freshman, reporter; and Mia Walsh*, junior, reporter.
EAGLE HIGH SCHOOL
Sharon Reyna, graduated this spring, reporter.
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL
David Brinkman, senior, Webmaster; Lety Clark-Olivero*, junior, reporter; Kacie Cross*, sophomore, reporter; Kami Cross*, senior, reporter; Janessa Mains*, junior, photographer; Jasmine Okbinoglu*, junior, reporter; and Molly Scofield*, senior, reporter.
LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL
Andy Carroll*, senior, reporter; Jessica Serrano*, junior, reporter; Kateri Town*, junior, photographer; and Libby Young, sophomore, reporter.
NACHES VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
Lisa Garrigues, freshman, reporter.
RIVERSIDE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL
Loren Button, senior, reporter; and Hannah Kivi, freshman, reporter.
WAHLUKE HIGH SCHOOL
Veronica Quintero*, senior, reporter.
WAPATO HIGH SCHOOL
Samantha Wofford-Hall, junior, reporter.
WEST VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
Ashley George*, senior, reporter; Evalyn Suarez*, junior, reporter; and Ariel Villaseñor*, junior, reporter.
* Sarah Jenkins is editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic. If you have a question or concern, you can reach her at 577-7703; P.O. Box 9668, Yakima WA 98909; or sjenkins@yakimaherald.com.
Bar Mitzvah Marks Passage To Manhood
June 19, 2008
By HANNAH BESSO
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL
Proud family members, expectant friends and curious acquaintances filtered into the Great Hall of the Yakima Valley Museum.
It was a milestone, a day for joy.
While many boys might have been playing video games, running around competing in sports, or doing other things 12-year-old boys normally do, Gabriel Lugh Borrello-Seltzer, a seventh-grader at Yakima’s Discovery Lab School, took center stage.
He was becoming a man. Saturday, June 7, was his bar mitzvah.
A bar mitzvah for a boy and bat mitzvah for a girl are the rites of passage for young Jewish people becoming adults. The ritual includes the young honoree leading the regular Saturday morning service, reading a portion of the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, giving a speech about that reading, and thanking everyone who has helped him or her along the way.
“Before the bar mitzvah, the Jewish gifts, honors and responsibilities of the child are up to the parents … but after the bar mitzvah, it is up to the Jewish 12- or 13-year-old to decide to take on the Jewish community,” said Student Rabbi Samantha Orshan. She attends Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles and travels to Yakima once a month to lead services at Temple Shalom.
Gabriel, or Gabe, trained with Orshan for about a year in preparation for his bar mitzvah. But he had been learning Hebrew and taking Sunday School since he was 7 years old.
He met with Orshan once a month when she was in Yakima. He also attended weekly meetings with Paula Vornbrock, a member of Temple Shalom who mentors local bar or bat mitzvah hopefuls. He learned what to do when he saw certain symbols, or trope marks, used in chanting the Torah.
And all his work culminated in what many people, including Gabe’s maternal grandparents, called “a very exciting experience.”
It was the first bar mitzvah for Eugene and MB Munnings of Chico, Calif. They aren’t Jewish and said they didn’t know what to expect at the event.
But, both said, “We’re really proud of him.”
The service started with Gabe’s dad, Shalom Daniel Seltzer, and his mom, Tasha Borrello-Seltzer, joining him at the bema, a podium the rabbi stands behind while giving the service, and blessing him with his first talit, a Jewish prayer shawl. It continued with the call-response technique that is common among Jewish prayers.
Orshan told the story of Moses parting the Red Sea: “The Israelites were impressed,” she said. “For about 45 minutes. Then, they were tired and thirsty again.”
She explained how a flashy miracle is akin to a fancy meal vanquishing hunger; the fulfillment never lasts.
Later, Gabe chanted a portion of the Torah and gave his D’var Torah, a speech about the relevance of his Torah portion to the present day. A little nervous, he stuttered at first, but as he gained confidence, his voice grew stronger.
Gabe stressed the importance of unity, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
“Regardless of our specific religious beliefs, let us try to achieve unity with our neighbors,” Gabe said. “Let us remember the Israelites and their moment of awe when a group of individuals became us.”
Before ending the ceremony, Orshan showed the congregation her prayer book full of sticky notes and explained how, when leading a service, you need reminders of what to read, where to stand, when to pause.
Then she held up Gabe’s empty book, explaining how his master book had disappeared that morning, but even without all his reminders, he still knew the service backward and forward.
“I can tell it’s in your heart, and you know it,” she told him.
A murmur spread through the crowd of about 100 people, showing the audience agreed.
“This is a very important part of his life - for both religion and maturity - and I’m proud of him; I know it means a lot to him,” said Gabe’s friend, 13-year-old Ben Hohman, also a seventh-grader at Discovery Lab School.
Said Gabe’s fifth- and sixth-grade teacher, Cindy P. Rockholt: “It is such a joy for a teacher to experience that special, intimate relationship of being able to see all the facets of a kid. You only get to know part of them at school, and being invited to as special an occasion as a bar mitzvah or a family event brings out pride at a deeper level for that kid.”
Instead of going with the customary song to end the service, Orshan decided to have Gabe do a special prayer that tied in with his D’var Torah.
Following the service, a luncheon - including traditional New Orleans food, like jambalaya and red beans and rice - was served at the museum. A bottle of hot sauce sat in the middle of each table. The meal was kosher, with no shellfish or pork, and without mixing dairy and meat. Challah, a Jewish braided bread served on Shabbat, was also served.
New Orleans is a special place to the Borrello-Seltzer family, which moved to Yakima from the Louisiana city in 2005, escaping the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The fare wasn’t the only reference to New Orleans.
Gabe’s mom, an artist, made the invitation to the event, and it was filled with hidden meanings. For example, the bridge represented the GNO, or Greater New Orleans, Bridge as well as the bridge to adulthood.
Gabe’s sister, Lucia Borrello-Seltzer, a 16-year-old junior at Eisenhower High School, and her band, Fire in a Crowded Theater, played while people danced.
But Gabe said his favorite part of the ceremony was the chanting: “It was like trying to memorize your favorite song,” he said.
Forgoing the traditional personal gifts, Gabe opted to accept donations for Yakima Valley Pet Rescue. His bar mitzvah raised more than $900 for the nonprofit organization.
Even though the ritual marks the beginning of manhood, Gabe and about 15 of his friends escaped the grown-ups for awhile, heading outside to play a game of hide-and-seek tag in 
Franklin Park.
Sandwich Sundays at St. Joe’s
June 19, 2008
By LETY CLARK-OLIVERO
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL
What makes the perfect sandwich?
I say it’s bread, cheese, meat and mayo — along with a little love and friendship. And all of these ingredients are readily available on an assembly line of care every fourth Sunday at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Yakima.
The fourth Sunday of the month at St. Joe’s is Sandwich Sunday. Sandwiches are made, donations are given, and gifts are brought — all to benefit the homeless.
Production started slowly. In 2005, volunteers made only 5,475 sandwiches. But by 2007, they were making 14,660 a year.
“We now make over one thousand sandwiches a month,” says 69-year-old Alice Nevue, the coordinator of Sandwich Sunday at St. Joe’s
Plus, she says, volunteers have “been able to give extra funds for blankets, caps socks and water almost every month.”
The project started with former parish member Sue Romzek. She had traveled to Alaska, returning with the idea in 2005. She shared the idea with Nevue and the Rev. L. Michael Pope, the pastor at St. Joe’s.
Nevue loved the idea and, with Pope’s support, immediately started working on the project, which has been a success for four years now.
Nevue says her goal is to expand Sandwich Sunday to other local Catholic parishes in order to better reach the homeless.
Meantime, production continues once a month at St. Joe’s, located at 212 N. Fourth St. All supplies are donated. With money collected from donations, Nevue buys whatever else is needed at local stores.
She arrives at the church the Saturday before each event to make sure everything is in order. The Sunday of the project, she arrives at 8 a.m. and brings up supplies from the basement refrigerator, arranging them on tables in the parish’s Schoenberg Hall.
Volunteers begin arriving and assembling peanut butter-and-jelly and ham-and-cheese sandwiches.
Among the volunteers are families from the parish, including teens, single members of the church, walk-ins, and even occasionally a few homeless people that have heard of the project and want to help out.
I attended a recent Sandwich Sunday. And upon arrival I was shocked. There was a whole assembly line with tables covered to their the edges with cheese, meats, condiments, peanut butter, jelly, and bags.
Mike Emerson, a member of the parish, and his daughters Kya and Alyesha, were working the first station, arranging slices of bread on a paper towel.
“It makes me feel so great,” he says. “I also got my girls to understand that they have so much compared to these people that have nothing.”
Emerson has been volunteering with the project for about three years and occasionally donates breads and cheese.
When the bread is properly arranged, he slides the paper towel to the next station, where a volunteer adds cheese and meat, stacking turkey, ham or pastrami, depending on what has been donated or purchased.
Then, they’re topped off with bread and bagged by 16-year-old Hannah Kaluzney, a sophomore at Davis High School.
“I think it’s really cool,” Kaluzney says of the project. She’s volunteered here about five times so far.
“People always talk about helping, and here people are actually doing it,” she says.
Kaluzney puts condiments — like mayonnaise, relish and mustard — in the sandwich bags, then stacks them for distribution.
At another table, I met Janet Moser and Ashley Blain, making peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches
“There is a lot of sadness and a lot of hunger in the world, and you can do a little and it will help,” says Moser, a parish member.
Blain, a 17-year-old junior at Selah High School, heard about the project from her mom. She’s been volunteering since last October.
When the sandwiches are completed, they — along with donations — are distributed by 50-year-old Steve Gaulke, a long-time homeless advocate who supervises mental health outreach services for Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health.
He drives around town to places where homeless people live, giving away sandwiches, hygiene items and other supplies. He visits streets and alleyways, the underside of highway overpasses, cheap motel rooms, parking lots and the riverbank.
“Many (homeless people) have a mental illness,” Gaulke says. And they’re “all ages,” says Gaulke, who has encountered entire families living on the streets or looking for shelter at the Union Gospel Mission.
The sandwiches and other donations are “a beam of hope,” Gaulke says. They give local homeless people “a community connection.”
The outreach, he says, “develops trust, companionship and a feeling of respect.”
Following Her Dream From T-Ball to Fastpitch
June 19, 2008
By KIRSTEN FORD
SELAH HIGH SCHOOL
I’ve had the same dream since I was 7 years old.
It started with my father asking me to watch a women’s softball game on TV with him. That game changed my life forever. Central Washington University’s fastpitch team was playing a doubleheader. They were tied at 3, and it was last bats.
I was on the edge of my seat, wanting to be on that field yelling at the umpires and making the diving catch that finally won CWU the game. I looked at my dad, and he looked at me. Then, somehow I knew we had the same idea.
From that moment on, I wanted to be the best softball player in the world.
I started out with T-ball, two wonderful years of hitting the ball right to the infielders and running to the wrong base. I never could find a mitt that fit me quite right. Back then, it really wasn’t about competition or being the best player. We just played to have fun.
As the years went by, I continued to play. And each year, the game — and the competition — got harder than the one before. Sometimes it seemed politics ran the field. And sometimes it seemed parents were playing instead of the kids.
My dad has always been my coach — on the field and off. He pushed me and helped me more than anyone ever could. He helped make sure the path to my dream was a clear one.
While the other girls hung out, I played catch with my dad. When they were gossiping about boys or who they were dating after practice, I was hitting balls into the net. When they went to the mall for shopping, I was running.
I was always a loner. It wasn’t that there was something wrong with me; it was just that I wanted to be the best.
My dad pushed and pushed. He pushed until I hated him for it. He would always ask if I wanted to be pushed, and I would always answer yes, so it wasn’t his fault.
When I learned what he wanted me to learn, I was rewarded. When I failed, I was lectured and told to go do more until I got it right. There were times when we would have a doubleheader, but I wouldn’t do very well, so he would have me run extra drills.
But, at the end of the day, I felt better about myself for the extra training and happy that my dad cared so much that he would go to any length to make me a better player and — even more important — a better person. My dad is my hero.
I will do anything to reach my goal of becoming a fastpitch player at the college level. Playing at this level will be difficult, but I really want to play.
With that goal in mind, I entered high school and tried out for softball. That first year found me on the “C” team. The coaches all said it was “a very tough decision.” But it totally deflated my desire for the game I loved.
My sophomore year I couldn’t even muster the energy to work out during the off season. I didn’t even try out my junior year. But not playing softball had a negative effect on my life. I want so badly to change and get my motivation back.
So when I had a chance to play with Coach Chuck Bodeen, I jumped at the opportunity. Bodeen coaches the Yaks, Yakima Valley Community College’s fastpitch team. He also coaches the 18-U Yakima Pepsi Stealers fastpitch team.
“We would love to have you,” he said, adding the cost can be overwhelming for some.
I told him I would play at any cost, but that was before I realized it would cost as much as $1,200 for gear, uniforms, travel and other expenses.
That is all of my life savings for a chance of a lifetime. When I told my father the cost to play, he — like me — was shocked.
“With gas prices being the way they are, I just don’t think I will be able to give you the money you need,” he said.
My father had done so much for me already. I knew all of the money would have to be raised myself.
So I set out one day, stopping by about 30 local stores. Everyone was very nice. At some places, the bosses just weren’t in. At other places, people just said no thanks, but good luck.
During the six hours I spent trying to get sponsors to make my dream come true, I made $50 from a small espresso shop in Yakima.
I’ve never been good at asking for money from other people. Growing up, I was taught you earn it yourself.
When I get out of high school I want to become an engineer, just like my dad. I want to succeed in life.
To get to college, I need a scholarship. To get that scholarship, one option is the opportunity of a tournament team to maybe get noticed for what talent I have. I’m not banking on fastpitch as my only option. But I really want to play.
And I will continue to work hard at everything I do, not just fastpitch. I play the flute, piccolo and saxophone in the school band. And my grades — although not perfect — are very good. I was just accepted into the National Honor Society.
I am exploring all my options, but softball is still in my heart. And I don’t want $1,200 to get in the way of my dream.
Ike Students Perform at Benaroya Hall
June 19, 2008
By KAMI CROSS
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL
SEATTLE — This year, my school’s drama department entered the 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards.
In February, a group of people from Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre traveled to Ike to judge us on our performance of “Disney High School Musical On Stage!”
Other groups traveled throughout the state to judge other schools. And the competition culminated at a ceremony June 9 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.
A few weeks before the event, nominees for the various awards were posted online. Our school was honored with several nominations, including Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Orchestra, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, and two in Outstanding Performance by an Actor of Actress in a Non-Singing Role.
It was an honor for our school to be recognized on a statewide level. And while I wasn’t part of these awards, I did get to attend the ceremony for a different purpose.
The Ike Players, our drama club, annually puts on our own drama awards. Club members vote on various awards, like Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Chorus Girl, Best Chorus Boy and Biggest Faux Pas, just to name a few.
This year, after the normal awards, our director, Janey Peterson, announced she had something special to present.
Apparently, every school that gets nominated for the 5th Avenue Awards gets to send two students to perform in the ceremony’s opening number. I was sitting in the audience while Peterson was presenting this information, and I just assumed she would choose the people who had been nominated for the awards.
I was shocked when I heard her call my name.
She also called my friend Mackenzie Karn. We were drama club officers, and she said we were always there for her, so she was choosing us. We gave her a hug and celebrated together.
June 2, my friend and I headed to Seattle with my mom for a rehearsal. The entire way we blasted the show tune “Show People” from the new Broadway musical “Curtains.” This was the song we would be performing at the ceremony.
The rehearsal was two hours long and consisted of four dance steps and a tricky walking formation. While this may sound simple, it was quite complicated considering the number of people, almost 150 students from around the state.
When the big event finally arrived, I was excited. My friend and I felt very special, 17 and entering Benaroya Hall through the “Artist Entrance.”
Next thing we knew, it was 15 minutes until the show. Soon we were bolting on stage and parading around. It was exhilarating.
And almost over.
We completed the song, then headed back to our seats. The rest of the show was incredible.
Whether or not our school participates in the competition next year, it was an awesome experience for me and definitely a night I will remember for the rest of my life.
Governor Chris Gregoire Visits Yakima’s Front Street
June 19, 2008
Governor Chris Gregoire shakes the hands of local government officials on Yakima’s Front Street June 18, 2008, for the dedication of the of the Downtown Futures Initiative. JAMES HIBBS/Davis High School.
