A second chance

When it was announced last February that Unleashed was ending, I was sad knowing that I wouldn’t be able to be part of the program during my last year of high school.
I had been on the team as a photographer for three years, and Unleashed had played a big role in my life. Through Unleashed, I had become a better photographer as well as more involved in the Yakima community.
When the program ended, I had been looking forward to using my new camera on assignments and writing my senior year goodbye column.
It didn’t seem fair.
Now, Unleashed is being given a second chance. And I am so excited to represent Unleashed, as well as La Salle High School.
I plan to continue doing photography. But I’m also looking forward to developing my writing skills in the coming year. Through Unleashed, I have learned important skills for a career in journalism, like time management and the ability to talk to strangers.
Some of my experiences with Unleashed so far have included hunting ghosts in the Capitol Theatre, interacting with amazing kids, watching firefighters drill, photographing members of two local bands, visiting the humane society, and feeding the homeless.
With Unleashed as a starting point, I have done things I never imagined myself doing as a high school student.
Unleashed has also inspired me to apply for and attend high school journalism workshops in Seattle and Albuquerque.
At the 2007 Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University, I dropped into a tunnel wearing a hardhat and vest to photograph a road construction project. I also photographed the Seattle Pride Parade and — my personal favorite — a Mariners’ game from the photo pit at Safeco Field.
That summer, I had my photos published in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
This summer, I participated in Project Phoenix, sponsored by the Native American Journalists Association and hosted by the University of New Mexico. I worked on our student publication, “Rising Voices,” and found myself telling other kids about journalism ethics, things like why it’s not OK to interview your cousin for a news story, things that I had learned from working on Unleashed.
When I joined Unleashed, I was a 14-year-old girl who enjoyed taking pictures.
Today, I start my fourth and final year of Unleashed confident in my future as a photojournalist.
I never realized the places Unleashed would take me until Unleashed was taken away from me. Through Unleashed, I have figured out my goals for the future as well as started developing the tools necessary to succeed in journalism.
Every person I’ve met through the program has had a story that I have been able to share. It is a privilege, and it is also extremely fun.
I am very thankful for the chance to finish my senior year in Unleashed.

— Kateri Town attends La Salle High School.

Calling all high school reporters and photographers

Student reporters and photographers are invited to apply for a free, weeklong, summer journalism immersion program at Seattle University.

The Journalism Summer Workshop, sponsored by The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund as well as other news organizations including the Yakima Herald-Republic, is looking for 15 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to attend its annual journalism summer camp at the end of June.

To apply for this competitive program, students must fill out the application posted on the workshop’s Web site. Applications must be postmarked by April 6, 2009.

Students who are accepted to the hands-on workshop will live in dormitories on the Seattle University campus. They will also interview and photograph newsmakers and receive intensive instruction from professional journalists from around the state.

The workshop is run by Tomas Guillen, an author and former investigative reporter for The Seattle Times who now teaches journalism at Seattle University.

For more information or an application, visit the Journalism Summer Workshop’s homepage at www.seattleu.edu/jsw.

Campus Tours

By SELAMAWIT GEBRETSADIK
Kentridge High School (Kent, Wash.)

SEATTLE — Ian Heilbron sets the tone for the tour.

“Ask a lot of questions,” he encourages the dozen people gathered in the foyer of the University Services Building on a recent Tuesday morning. “My tours are very laid-back.”

The 23-year-old Seattle University graduate has been leading campus tours for prospective students and their families for two years and says he makes a point to be open and informative. He doesn’t want the experience to be intimidating. He wants people to ask questions. Lots of questions.

Frequently, he’s asked:

• Why choose Seattle University?

• Is there a Greek system? (No.)

• Do freshmen have to live in the dorms? (Yes, sophomores, too — unless they live at home with their parents.)

The small class and campus sizes are what drew Heilbron to SU. Plus, he wanted to go to a private institution and get off the island. (He’s from Hawaii.)

Heilbron graduated in June with a degree in accounting and plans to return in the fall for graduate school.

Meantime, he — and admissions counselors from around the state — recommend on-site versus online campus tours whenever possible. Virtual tours, they say, show how a campus looks.

But, Heilbron notes, “You don’t get the feel of the school, you don’t get the smells, you don’t get the sounds.”

And he’s not alone.

“It’s hard to pick up the atmosphere of the campus by looking at a Web page,” says 21-year-old Barbara Seabury, a student admissions representative at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Plus, “Most of the students actually make their decision of where they’re going to actually attend by going on a campus tour,” says 39-year-old Lisa Garcia-Hanson, director of admissions at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. “That’s why I think having good information about the campus and the campus tour go hand-in-hand.”

Heilbron encourages high school juniors and seniors and their parents — “the people who are paying,” he says — to visit five to seven college campuses before making a decision.

There’s just no substitute for an actual campus visit, agrees 30-year-old Mike Rotterfman, assistant director of admissions at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

“I would recommend visiting different types of campuses,” Rotterfman says, also advising students to come prepared for tours and not to be afraid to ask questions, such as, “What are the hot topics on campus?”

Also, “Students always want to know how the food is,” he says.

But, Seabury says, “I think it’s important for students to ask questions about the actual application process. A lot of students don’t understand exactly how to apply.”

Campus tours are typically free and last an hour to an hour and a half. Some schools require reservations, so it’s not a bad idea to call ahead.

University students might also be available to have lunch with prospective students. And admissions counselors might be available to meet individually.

“I encourage students to do a one-on-one appointment with an admissions counselor,” says 24-year-old Jenna Serr, assistant director of admissions at Tacoma’s Pacific Lutheran University. “It’s a great way to get information about what makes the school special or unique.”

Like Heilbron and other counselors, she recommends multiple visits: “They should visit as many schools as possible because they might have one school in mind they think is the perfect fit, but once they visit other schools they might find that their opinions have completely changed,” she says.

At the start of his recent Tuesday morning tour, Heilbron asks folks where they’re from. Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana, Colorado. This isn’t surprising, as about 50 percent of SU students come from out of state, he says.

The first stop is the Albers School of Business and Economics in the Pigott Building, where a piece by renowned Pacific Northwest glass artist Dale Chihuly hangs in the atrium. Heilbron pulls the group into Classroom 100, where he mentions the average SU class size is about 25, the ratio of professors to students is about 13 to 1, and there are about 50 Jesuits living and teaching on campus.

He also explains that SU is on a quarter-based system, and the most popular class is “Hollywood and Jesus.” Then, he leads the group through the Chapel of St. Ignatius, designed by architect Steven Holl. According to SU’s Web site, the chapel was inspired by “seven bottles of light in a stone box.”

Next, Heilbron leads the group past Xavier Hall, the smallest dorm building on campus, and the Quad, the plaza at the heart of the campus that features a waterfall and rock formation reminiscent of a Zen garden.

At Lemieux Library, Heilbron explains that the black-and-white façade is “supposed to look like books on a book shelf.” The library holds more than 250,000 volumes, he says.

After a few more stops, he takes the group to the third floor of Bellarmine Residence Hall to check out a dorm room. By 11:08 a.m., the hourlong tour is back where it started, in front of the University Services Building.

“I was impressed with the layout,” 53-year-old Connie Hector says at the end. “I think it’s nice to see it in person.”

She took the tour with her husband, Richard, 66, and their 17-year-old daughter, Stephanie, a high school senior in Roseburg, Ore.

“I like the campus a lot,” says Stephanie, who’s visited about a half-dozen college campuses.

But “I still have no idea,” she says. “I like so many other campuses,” too.

• Selamawit Gebretsadik, 17, is a senior at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash. She works on her school newspaper, the Fleet Street News.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Reporters Selamawit Gebretsadik and Beth Zainwel and photographer Travis King participated in the Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University last month.

The intensive, hands-on camp was held June 20-27. Fifteen teens experienced journalism during the workshop, which was organized by former Seattle Times investigative reporter Tomas Guillen. Now a journalism professor, Guillen teaches at Seattle University.

Gebretsadik and Zainwel were mentored by Adriana Janovich, a Yakima Herald-Republic reporter and the coordinator of Unleashed, the newspaper’s weekly teen section.

— For more information, visit www.seattleu.edu/jsw.

Creatine: Competitive Edge — But at What Cost?

By BETH ZAINWEL
KAMIAK HIGH SCHOOL (Mukilteo, Wash.)

Bryton Reim, a junior at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, is determined to win.

Throughout elementary and middle school, beating competitors in sports had come easily. Back then, Reim had been among his schools’ top student athletes, receiving trophies for cross-country, soccer and wrestling.

But high school’s different. Competition is no longer just between the neighborhood kids. Opponents show increased strength as they race to compete in state championships.

To keep up with the competition, Reim has turned to creatine supplements.

“I started using creatine to get a competitive edge on the next guy,” says Reim, who started using the supplements in January.

And it seemed to work. Within a month, he could bench press 25 additional pounds. Now, he’s pressing 200 pounds.

“Making a 5-pound jump is normally a big deal,” says Reim, who turns 17 on Saturday.

Creatine supplements, according to WebMD.com, “are believed to enhance muscle mass and help athletes achieve bursts of strength.”

However, they haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, partially because their long-term effects remain unknown. And so far, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, or WIAA, has no policies on creatine or other over-the-counter supplements.

“We leave that to the local school districts,” says Mike Colbrese, executive director of the WIAA. “If a problem arises, we will make a change,” he says. But, “We’re not hearing anything about creatine.”

There are several types of creatine supplements, including creatine monohydrate and creatine ethyl ester. Creatine monohydrate became popular after the 1992 Olympics when The London Times reported Olympic gold medal winner Linford Christie used the supplement. Creatine ethyl ester, a newer product, is said to work even faster than its counterparts.

Reim says he used creatine monohydrate for a month before switching to creatine ethyl ester, and he’s still using the supplements.

“I had a really good season,” he says about winter and spring sports. “Like in wrestling, I lost one match. And, in soccer, I started as a sophomore — which is a big deal.”

Reim says he knows about 20 other student athletes at his school who are also using creatine to boost their physical performance. And he says he plans to keep using the supplements.

He also says he’s happy with the results. When he started using creatine, he weighed 138 pounds; now he weighs 149.

His goals for next school year: Make it to state in cross-country and finish in the top eight in the state for wrestling.

“If I didn’t feel right I wouldn’t have taken it,” he says. “It’s not that big a deal to me.”

But some coaches aren’t so sure.

“I don’t like supplements,” says Reim’s wrestling coach, Dan Hanika. “They’re a waste of time, and we don’t know the long-term effects of them.”

Hanika, a wrestling coach for 28 years, encourages teen athletes to “stick with the proven methods, like working out and eating right.”

Creatine supplements might affect blood sugar levels and cause dehydration, according to WebMD.com. Other potential problems, according to Healthline.com, include heat-related illness, muscle cramps, reduced blood volume and electrolyte imbalances.

Those are some of the reasons why 16-year-old Brandon Upton, another Kamiak junior, doesn’t use creatine supplements — and doesn’t plan to.

“My mom thinks it will mess me up, and my coach doesn’t approve of it,” he says. “(My coach) tells the team that it’s an unfair disadvantage to others.”

Chris Pynch, a 19-year-old 2008 graduate of Yakima’s Riverside Christian High School, played basketball and soccer in high school. He says he considered taking creatine but ultimately decided against it because, he says, “Creatine is hard on your body.”

“I heard it’s bad for your liver and in the long run it’s better just to keep working out and take protein,” he says.

Kamiak’s baseball coach, Steve Merkly, says he doesn’t see many — if any — of his players using creatine. The supplement seems to be more popular among football players and wrestlers, he says.

In Yakima, Sunnyside and Ellensburg, creatine supplements can be purchased at GNC stores. But if student athletes decide to use them, Merkly says, “Make sure you read the label.”
• Beth Zainwel is a 16-year-old junior at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Wash. She’s the sports editor of her school newspaper, The Gauntlet.

Valley Natives Pour Hearts and Souls into Seahawks Jobs

By BETH ZAINWEL
KAMIAK HIGH SCHOOL

SEATTLE — Elisabeth Kanyer steps onto the turf at Qwest Field. Surrounded by thousands of empty seats — which hold 67,000 fans on game day — she marvels, “This is pretty cool!”

This is her “work home.” And she loves to show it off.

“I remember my first time on the field, just thinking, ‘Good grief! This is insane!’” she says, standing in front of the ground-level “Red Zone” suites. “I love bringing people here, giving (them) a players’ perspective, what the players see.”

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, the stadium is quiet, and she’s able to enjoy the view. But during games, her job includes lots of running around.

So, “Comfortable shoes are key,” she says. “I will literally check every suite. All 115.”

Kanyer, who goes by Lis, and co-worker Teresa Morales are Yakima Valley natives who work for the Seattle Seahawks. Both started as interns.

Today, Kanyer is starting her third season with the team; Morales, her fourth. Kanyer works as a suite services coordinator. Morales is an account executive.

Bill Chapin, director of marketing and partnership development, helped hire both of them.

“Teresa is highly intelligent, passionate about working with others and making a superior product, very thorough,” he says. “People enjoy being around her; Teresa is very good at making people feel comfortable.”

And, “Lis is very charismatic and hard working. Immediately when people work with Lis, they want to do their best. It’s perfect that she’s taking care of suite holders. She’s so friendly. It’s hard not to like Lis.”

Morales graduated from the University of Washington in 2006. Kanyer is a 2007 Pacific Lutheran University graduate.

“My first week on the job as an intern, I had to take a ton of stuff to get signed by all the players,” Kanyer says.

But that’s unusual: “We don’t see them on a regular basis,” the 25-year-old adds, adding she “lucked out” getting a full-time job with the organization: “It’s a blessing.”

Her dad likes it, too: “It’s exciting to have her work for the team because it just another reason to root for the Seahawks,” says 50-year-old Doug Kanyer of Yakima.

“She really likes it, and it fits her well,” says her mom, 48-year-old Laurie Kanyer.

Kanyer and Morales both credit their Yakima Valley upbringing with the foundation for their future careers. Each stresses the importance of education and a strong work ethic.

“Grandview gave me the morals that have pushed me through,” says 24-year-old Morales, a 2002 Grandview High School graduate.

“There’s no way would I be here if I hadn’t had the schooling I received at Davis,” says Kanyer, a 2001 Davis High School graduate. “There’s no way I would be here if it wasn’t for the way I was brought up in Yakima.”

Kanyer now lives in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood, but admits she misses Yakima: “I love going home.”

Morales lives in Renton. But her parents travel to Seattle for many Seahawks games. One of the perks of working for the team is a pair of tickets to every home game.

“I think are parents are proud of us, where we are in our lives,” Kanyer says. She and Morales both say they enjoy their jobs.

“When I started as an intern, I was a little intimidated,” Kanyer admits. “But I don’t feel like that now at all. We’re a team off the field as well.”

“Everyone is so humble in this organization,” she says. “Everyone works together.”

Her boss agrees: “We do have a very tight-knit group that works hard together, and we have a lot of fun together,” Chapin says.

Before going to work for the team, Morales had only been to one Seahawks game, and “I can’t even tell you who it was against,” she says.

Kanyer had been to numerous Seattle Sonics basketball games. But, “I’d never been to a (Seahawks) game,” she says. “I was a die-hard Sonics fan … I was really sheepish to admit that in the (job) interview.”

These days, both women work every home game, plus some away games, often arriving at Qwest Field at 6 a.m. and putting in 12-hour work days.

“You’re working every holiday,” Kanyer says. “You don’t get the vacation other people get.”

“We don’t really have an off-season,” she says.

“This is our life.”

• Beth Zainwel is 16-year-old junior at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Wash. She’s the sports editor of her school newspaper, The Gauntlet. Photographer Andrew Phan, 17, is a senior at Tacoma School of the Arts.
h# Having a field day

Little Bit Gives A Lot

By ELISSA BERNSTEIN
INTERLAKE HIGH SCHOOL

Wesley Steeb rode her first horse when she was 18 months old, unearthing a passion that continues to guide her life today.

It was Christmastime, and someone placed her on Ginger, a neighbor’s Shetland pony, to take part in a living nativity scene. She didn’t cry or panic. She didn’t tumble off. She didn’t freeze in fear.

She laughed.

“My parents say my eyes sparkled,” says Steeb, now 16.

“The faster she went, the happier she was,” says Karen Steeb, Wesley’s mother. “She was just a natural. So for Christmas that year, at 18 months old, she started riding lessons.”

After years of riding, however, Wesley Steeb wanted her daughter to branch out and “bless people” through her love of horses.

She loved “everything horses,” her mom says, including horse books, horse models, even horse tack. Eventually, she began to volunteer at Little Bit, a therapeutic riding center near her Woodinville home.

“It’s the most important part of my week,” says Steeb, a senior at Cedar Park Christian School in Bothell. “It isn’t complete until I’ve been at Little Bit. I just get such a great feeling whenever I’m there.”
Little Bit’s roots go back to 1972, when Margaret Dunlap, a rider with multiple sclerosis, founded the center with one horse, a rented stable and five students. Today, the organization is one of the largest therapeutic riding centers in the nation.

Little Bit is a member of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, or the NARHA, a nonprofit that promotes therapeutic riding. There are nearly 800 NARHA therapeutic riding centers in the United States and Canada, including 17 centers in Washington state.

Little Bit uses horses to improve the physical, mental and emotional condition of disabled children and adults. The program relies on community support to pay the high cost of lessons and volunteers to assist in classes, fundraisers, shows and events. The required minimum age for Little Bit volunteers is 14 years old, but Steeb joined when she was 8.

She isn’t a typical volunteer.

“(The staff) knew she was young and said they’d consider her,” says her mom. “During the training, a horse bit her, and it didn’t phase her one bit. She disciplined that horse with such authority that they said, ‘You know what you’re doing. You’re on.’ ”

Since then, Steeb has worked in numerous Little Bit riding lessons, programs and shows with every horse in the barn and too many riders to count. She estimates she has volunteered 1,250 hours throughout the past eight years, and makes an effort to go as often as she can.

She took lessons at the center for a year and was even photographed for a Little Bit advertising campaign. Currently, she’s a volunteer captain, a highly trained volunteer and leader.

The relationships she’s made through Little Bit are “amazing,” she says, recalling a rider with impaired speech whom she witnessed speak his first full sentences, and a former volunteer with whom she still visits. Another rider likes her so much he calls her his sister.

“It’s just a reciprocal relationship of teasing and joking,” she says of their friendship.

As her mother puts it, Steeb initially went to Little Bit for the horses, but keeps going back for the relationships.

“I fell in love with the people and the community and the whole atmosphere,” says Steeb, who stresses the intangible benefits of volunteering. “I really see friendship forming. There are riders that have a favorite horse, and that horse knows their footsteps and the sound of their wheelchair. It’ll come to the door of the stall. The horses expect the relationship, as do the riders.”

Her experiences are intensely personal, but they don’t come as a surprise to the Little Bit staff.

“When someone comes to volunteer, they continue to volunteer for the same class on the same day with the same riders,” says community relations director Pam Coté. “Some work together for years. They become integral parts of each other’s lives, like family. Oftentimes, the volunteer becomes a mentor for the rider and they form very strong relationships.”

Little Bit needs 350 volunteers each week to assist with 19 horses and 230 riders, who encompass a range of about 70 disabilities and special needs. Volunteers attend an orientation and two trainings to learn protocol, then work a minimum of two hours a week for a 10-week quarter.

According to Coté, all volunteers don’t arrive with horse experience, but those that don’t catch on quickly. And many are teens. In fact, some volunteers have grown up with Little Bit, staying for more than 20 years or eventually becoming staff members.

Steeb decided on her future career — hippotherapy, a type of therapeutic riding offered at the center — after job shadowing Little Bit physical therapist Debra Peet-Walker for two summers. After she goes to college, Steeb plans to return and volunteer during breaks and summers, and possibly even join the staff.

“She walks through the barn door and she is a changed person,” her mom says. “The volunteering has given her confidence. It’s been a wonderful focal point for her drive. She knows that she is receiving a very unique experience here.”

Coté understands this dedication: “Volunteers come to Little Bit for an experience that they just can’t get anywhere else. They get to smell the barn, experience the warmth of the horses, experience friendship with other volunteers, and they get to see magic happen in the arena.”

Little Bit is scheduled to relocate into a new, larger barn near its current location in 2010. The staff’s goal is to reach full capacity in 2012, doubling the number of potential horses and riders — and likely shortening the two-year waiting list of 200 riders.

Naturally, this means more volunteers are needed: “We rely very, very heavily on volunteers,” Coté says. “There’s no way we could provide the amount of services we could do without volunteers. No way at all.”

Steeb plans to contribute to Little Bit’s progress and expansion. She doesn’t mind the pressure of the looming volunteer workload. Truthfully, she hardly considers it work.

“Through helping other people, you focus on them, and you don’t realize the return you’re getting for yourself,” she says. “I’m gaining so much more than I can ever give back.”

Closer to Home: Little Bit is only one of 17 therapeutic riding centers in the state to belong to the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

Near Yakima, the Pegasus Project, founded in 2003, also uses horse therapy to help riders with special needs.

Like Little Bit, the Pegasus Project, located at Tumbleweed Ranch, is a nonprofit, NARHA-affiliated center. It relies on approximately 75 volunteers each week to help run its programs. Three volunteers are needed per rider to act as side walkers and horse leaders.

The ranch is located at 4680 U.S. Highway 12. To learn more about the Pegasus Project, call 969-3310, or visit www.pegasusrides.com.

Editor’s Note: Reporters Beth Zainwel and Elissa Bernstein and photographer Andrew Phan participated in the Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University.

The intensive, hands-on camp was held June 20-27.

Fifteen teens experienced journalism during the workshop, organized by former Seattle Times investigative reporter Tomas Guillen.

Guillen, now a journalism professor, teaches at Seattle University.

Zainwel and Bernstein were mentored by Adriana Janovich, a Yakima Herald-Republic reporter and the coordinator of Unleashed, the newspaper’s weekly teen section.

Many of the works in this week’s issue are a result of the workshop, which is partially sponsored by the Yakima Herald-Republic. More student work from the workshop is set for publication in upcoming editions.

For more information, visit www.seattleu.edu/jsw.

Summer: Time to Make a Difference

By ELISSA BERNSTEIN
INTERLAKE HIGH SCHOOL

When my parents — exhausted, sweaty and dusty — stamped their work boots at the doormat and trooped toward my room with a third shovel in hand, I only had one natural reaction.

I closed the door as fast as I could.

No way did I want to spend my summer afternoons renovating our yard under the glaring sun, without my music or phone or friends. But 10 minutes later, I was dressed in old work clothes and sulkily donning itchy green garden gloves as slowly as possible.

I won’t pretend I’ve had the best attitude toward my parents — or our backyard — this summer. We yank out clumps of grass, sift rocks and roots from the dirt like human colanders and dump wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of soil and gravel from one hole to another.

Before long, I mope uselessly around the lawn. My spirits are weary far sooner than my muscles. Perhaps I’m not the best worker. Despite this, though, I can’t say the time spent is all bad.

It’s a summery day in Bellevue, the sunshine makes the whole yard seem splashy and green, and I can already distinguish the beginnings of what is sure to be a beautiful backyard. But the best part?

I’m making a difference. It isn’t a huge difference, granted, affecting only my family and neighbors. But I might have fueled that valuable energy toward YouTubing, chatting online or just hovering hopelessly indoors. I might have fallen prey to the stuffy boredom that always seems to set in two weeks after the school year ends.

Not today. Not this summer.

I’m spending time outside, I’m being active, but mostly I’m showing my family I care enough to help. When I look back on these precious months, when I had utter freedom, I know I’d rather remember completing this project than mindlessly Facebooking.

There are so many ways to make the most of your summer right from your own neighborhood. Besides helping your family with home renovation projects, you can make the most of these three months by volunteering.

Two summers ago, I planned to temporarily volunteer at a therapeutic riding center. But I connected with my four riders, fellow volunteers and the 20 horses so deeply that I stayed throughout the following two school years, unable to quit when September rolled around. By helping out the center and getting to know the riders, my summer felt meaningful and had a purpose: giving back to the community.

Last summer, I also volunteered at a children’s museum, spending all day playing with kids and passing out birthday cake. I came home each afternoon with frosting on my elbows, acrylic paint smeared on my nose, and a radiant smile on my face. The kids never failed to make me laugh and the work was, without a doubt, much more fun and rewarding than staying home alone.

The volunteering possibilities aren’t limited to the organizations your school suggests for your community service hours. Follow your interests and work as a tutor, at a museum, as a counselor at a day camp, or an organizer of an event, just find a way to be motivated and get inspired.

Whether you help your parents in your backyard or volunteer in your community, you’re getting out of the house and effectively breaking open the fortune cookie of possibility. The fortune’s in your palm. Will you unfold it?
• Elissa Bernstein, 16, is a junior at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Wash. She has written for The Kirkland Reporter and The Bellevue Reporter.

Ricigliano Wins Scholarship

An Unleashed reporter recently won a Dow Jones journalism scholarship.

Jordie Ricigliano, a 2008 Zillah High School graduate and two-year veteran of the Unleashed team, was given the $1,000 award last month in Seattle. She received the scholarship at the end of the weeklong Journalism Summer Workshop at Seattle University.

Ricigliano was one of 15 high school students — including Wyatt Kanyer, a 2008 Riverside Christian School graduate and another Unleashed staffer — to participate in the annual workshop, sponsored by Dow Jones, Seattle University and newspapers, including the Yakima Herald-Republic. At the camp, students are paired with mentors from newspapers around the state to write and photograph stories with the goal of being published.

Ricigliano plans to attend Middlebury College in Vermont in the fall.

For more information about the camp, visit www.seattleu.edu/jsw.

— Alyssa Patrick, Eisenhower High School

Fruitful Fest Connects Past, Present

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.