Applause

Published 8:44 pm Wednesday, May 19, 2010

GIVING

Helpers put in plants at senior center

Volunteers potted plants outside on May 14 on the Carl Gipson Senior Center’s north patio.

The effort involved eight senior citizens and six AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers. They planted flowering shrubs, evergreens, petunias, geraniums, daisies, alyssum and azalea plants.

Packer Backers back Christmas House

Christmas House recently received a $1,500 donation from the Northwest Packer Backers.

The Northwest Packer Backers is a club that supports the Green Bay Packers football team and area philanthropic endeavors.

Christmas House, a nonprofit charity that was formed in 1981, provided Christmas joy to 10,985 children from more than 3,891 low-income families throughout Snohomish County last year.

VFW present flag set to senior center

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 1040 Lynnwood, recently presented a United States flag set to Northshore Senior Center in Bothell.

The VFW Post gave the center the set after learning that they only had a small flag that was used at their functions. VFW Post 1040 member, Bill Miller, volunteers each month at the center.

Preschoolers visit L. Stevens elders

The students at Lake Stevens Co-op Preschool visit the senior residents of Ashley Pointe Community in Lake Stevens twice every month.

Led by activity director, Debbie Cooper, and preschool teacher, Joan Pigott, the students and seniors regularly meet to play volleyball, have show and tell or share time with each other.

The students trick or treat at the doors of the residents for Halloween, exchange cards for Valentine’s Day, and deliver baskets of flowers door to door for May Day.

Senior residents have played games and sang songs with the preschool students and crocheted finger puppets for them.

Stevens Hospital awards scholarships

Fourteen graduating high school seniors are receiving financial assistance to continue their education, and medical help is on the way to care for the sick in Tanzania — both thanks to donations from the Stevens Hospital medical staff.

Students from seven local high schools each received $1,000 scholarships during the annual Stevens Hospital Medical Staff Hail and Farewell banquet on May 13.

The students were selected by a committee of medical staff members based on academic achievement, leadership qualities, financial need, community service and a subjective assessment of academic performance.

The scholarship winners are Wai (Ken) Poon and Raymond Yap of Edmonds-Woodway High School; Reiko Kobayashi-Wagner and Balkarn Thind of Henry M. Jackson High School; Yoo Jung Kim and Colin Orr of Kamiak High School; Lyann Trang and Alyssa Woodard of Lynnwood High School; Julia Clement and Annalicia McDougal of Meadowdale High School; Suzanne Cho and Franco Yip of Mountlake Terrace High School; and Maria Ambrocio and Wade Mendisabal of Scriber Lake High School.

In addition to awarding college scholarships, Stevens medical staff also presented donations of $2,500 each to the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation, a Seattle based charity providing prosthetics to people in underdeveloped countries, and to Glenn Knight, a certified physician assistant at Stevens Hospital.

Knight and two other medical professionals went to Tanzania on May 15 to treat patients. The $2,500 donation from Stevens will pay for medicine to treat a number of diseases, primarily malaria.

HONORS

Lynnwood officer named Top Cop

Lynnwood Police officer Cole Langdon was recently chosen as the gold medal award winner of the Washington State Veterans of Foreign Wars Top Cop in the State award.

As a recipient of the state award, his nomination was forwarded to the National Gold Medal Committee.

The Lynnwood VFW Post 1040 and Auxiliary recently honored Langdon as the VFW Gold Medal Officer of the Year for 2009. Langdon, who is also one of three Lynnwood Police canine handlers, was recognized for his dedication to providing a safe environment for residents of Lynnwood. Langdon was chosen from about 132 VFW Post nominations from around the state.

Langdon and his canine partner, Buddy, are cross trained for narcotic detection as well as being certified as a patrol dog generalist. This year, the duo has had 89 canine-unit applications; 59 were searching for suspects and 30 were for narcotics searches.

Langdon is also a master K9 trainer. He has trained and certified five other K9 teams including teams from the Everett and Redmond Police Departments.

He was the 2009 Chief’s Award winner for the Lynnwood Police Department and named the 2009 Officer of the Year by his peers.

Langdon will be honored with his state level award at the VFW’s annual convention in June.

Soccer mom wins national award

Manager of the BU13 Evergreen Soccer Club team Tammy Davis recently earned a national award from Cuties California Citrus as the Ultimate Soccer Mom. Davis received her award on May 6 during an awards ceremony at Kasch Park in Everett.

Joy Fawcett of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team attended the ceremony to present the award. Fawcett led a clinic with the team Davis’ son is on and presented her with $5,000 from Cuties to help cover team expenses.

Davis is part of the group of volunteers that helps the Evergreen and Washington Rush Soccer Club operate. She acts as the team manager for her son’s team, handling the administrative jobs of running a high level soccer team.

The Evergreen Soccer Club is a select soccer club that is based in Everett.

Sheriff welcomes new employees

Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick gave the oath of office to several individuals on May 4 at a ceremony on the Snohomish County Campus in Everett.

New sheriff’s deputy Richard Griner received the oath of office as did volunteers Greg Domingo, Amy Lombard, and Ricky Richey. Lovick also conducted the oaths of office for corrections Sgt. Justin Lothyan, patrol Sgt. Keith Rogers, corrections Lt. Randy Serfass, and corrections Capt. Harry Parker who were promoted May 1.

Lovick also honored corrections Lt. Randy Finsen during the ceremony for 35 years of service to the citizens of Snohomish County.

Finsen began his career in 1975 as a corrections officer at the Snohomish County Jail and now serves as lieutenant in charge of community corrections and classifications.

Arlington volunteers honored

Cheryl Boatman and Carl Gabrielson were honored for their volunteer service at the May 17 Arlington City Council meeting.

Boatman served nine years and Gabrielson served 11 years, both on the Library Board.

Boatman now is among the volunteers who staff the front counter for the Arlington Police Department.

In addition, volunteer Carsten Mullin resigned his longtime seat on the Cemetery Board and now serves on the Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission.

Machinists honors Everett worker

Chris Louie, who works for Boeing in Everett, was recently honored for volunteer work by his fellow members of the Machinists Union.

Louie is the winner of the Bill Johnson Trade Unionist Award, which is given annually by Machinists District Lodge 751 in Seattle to a member who demonstrates his or her commitment to the union through either their volunteer efforts or their job performance.

Louie, who is a union steward and an alternate to the union’s District Council, gave 164 hours of his own time to volunteer activities in 2009. He was also named the union’s top volunteer in the Puget Sound area for 2009.

The award was announced in April as District 751 held its annual MVP banquet in Seattle, which honored members of the Machinists Volunteer Program for their community service in 2009.

Along with Louie, the union honored Stewards Thong Trang and Michael Cummins, and members Dee Dee Oen, Debbie Anderson, Jude Kuberka and Stephanie Slusser for their outstanding contributions to community service. All six work for Boeing in Everett.

In all, 464 Machinists Union members took part in 103 different community activities in 2009. They gave a total of 3,721 volunteer hours to projects that ranged from food drives and bell ringing for the Salvation Army, to building 10 wheelchair ramps for people around the Puget Sound area.

Indians visit county on Rotary exchange

Members of the South Everett-Mukilteo Rotary Club recently hosted a Group Study Exchange team from India for several days.

The visitors toured the Boeing factory, visited with local business people in similar vocations, delivered a presentation to the local Rotary Club, and participated in other local activities.

Rotary’s Group Study Exchange is cultural and vocational exchange for professionals between the ages of 25 and 40. The Rotary Foundation provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries for a period of four to six weeks.

The visiting GSE team from India consisted of team leader and Rotarian Arun Jain, a development officer for Life Insurance Corporation of India; Dr. Divya Sharma, a gynecologist specializing in infertility; Anita Sharma, a facilities inspector for India Railways; and Rashmi Maury, an educational adviser at Mangalayatan University. The GSE team members stayed with local Rotarians. The GSE team also participated in the Rotary District conference May 14-15 at the Tulalip Resort Casino.

School bus driver honored for actions

Arlington School District bus driver Julie Davidson was honored May 10 at an Arlington School Board meeting for her quick thinking and fast action.

Among those honoring Davidson were Superintendent Kris McDuffy, Washington State Patrol trooper Keith Leary and the school district transportation department.

No one was hurt when an empty logging truck hit a school bus around 4 p.m. April 9 near Oso.

The truck crossed the center line, but Davidson saw it coming and moved as far as possible to the right of her lane on Highway 530 to avoid a head-on collision.

There were 28 students on the bus at the time.