The Everett Chorale recently returned from a trip to China.
The chorale performed in mid-July at the 2007 Beijing International Choral Festival.
Under the direction of Lee Matthews, the chorale sang in the Forbidden City Concert Hall and also in the city of Tianjin and at the Great Wall of China.
The chorale joined other choirs in singing American folk songs and spirituals, among others.
The trip included visits to the Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses Museum and other attractions.
Also participating in the festival were numerous youth and adult choirs from China, along with U.S. choirs including some from Florida, New Mexico and Tennessee.
The 40-year-old chorale is a 90-member voice ensemble that attracts singers from throughout Snohomish County.
Members of the choir also have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, Benaroya Hall in Seattle and in Vienna, Austria.
Involved in the trip to China were Joe Krause, Karen Kelly, Margaret Harvey, Amanda Niemeyer, Jennifer Steinke, Diane Collins, Steve Collins, Roberta Tremblay, Mei Yang, Jeannie Miller, Rita Kramer, Mark Kramer, Diane O’Neill, Maureen Doherty, Jack Kelly, Kathy Krull, Marilyn Krause, Art Krull, Sharan Schaming, Art Chittick, Sandre Geyen, Susan Lind, Janet Duvardo, Eldon Bond, Mary Bond, Jim Schoenecker, Sharon Schoenecker, Eldon Hegstrom, Jane Barry, Pat Goodsell, Linda Hegstrom, Denise Colleene, Lee Mathews, Carol McDonald, Dale Chambers, Teri Chambers, Shane Tuck, Debra Hegstrom, Connie Westover and Jim O’Neill.
Kiwanians provide playground, helmets
A new playground at College Place Elementary is being funded by a $25,000 donation from the Kiwanis Club of Lynnwood and a matching grant from the Edmonds School District.
The club hopes to complete the playground construction project before school starts and the College Place Elementary PTA plans a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Kiwanis Club of Lynnwood also recently presented the Concern for Neighbors Food Bank with 80 bicycle helmets in a variety of sizes.
The food bank had been given 80 refurbished bicycles for children from families served by the food bank. The club stepped in and provided the bike helmets.
The Lynnwood Kiwanis Club meets at 7 a.m. Thursdays at he Lynnwood Fire Station, located on the corner of 188th Street SW and 44th Avenue W. Visitors are welcome.
Citizens earn award from coalition
Mark Mahnkey of Everett and Todd Hogden of Bothell are among several citizens to be honored by the Washington Coalition for Open Government in recognition of their work to “make government entities in Washington to be open and accountable to the public.”
Mahnkey and Hogden will be given a Key Award at the organization’s meeting Friday in Seattle.
Mahnkey, director of public policy for the Washington Civil Rights Council/Washington Shared Parenting, and Hogden, a fellow member of the group, waged a campaign to compel the Snohomish County court system to properly record electronic transcripts of all court proceedings and archive them for the required six years.
Fire District 1 adds volunteers to ranks
Three new recruits recently completed training to join the ranks of volunteers at Snohomish County Fire District 1.
Jon Dickson is a 2005 graduate of Cascade High School. He earned his associate’s degree in fire science at Everett Community College.
Aaron Keller lives in Mountlake Terrace where he teaches physical education. The 1998 graduate of Shorecrest High School earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education at Whitworth College.
Bobby Pomper is a Brier resident and a 2003 graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School. He attended Shoreline Community College.
Fire District 1 provides fire and emergency medical services to more than 150,000 residents in the neighborhoods of Silver Firs, Eastmont, Mariner, Lake Serene, Picnic Point, Martha Lake, Lake Stickney, Norma Beach, Hilltop, Hilton Lake, Pioneer Trails and the cities of Mountlake Terrace and Brier.
Marysville Rotary buys beds for kids
The Snohomish County Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been awarded $3,000 from the Marysville Rotary Club for the council’s Beds for Children program.
The money will be used to help Snohomish County children whose families don’t own enough beds.
Groups help out at Braille camp
Edmonds Boys and Girls Club members were among those volunteering time at the Louise Braille School’s summer Braille camp at the school in Edmonds.
Also helping to make camp fun for the school’s blind or visually impaired students were local Lions clubs, the Fred Meyer Foundation, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Woodland Park Zoo staff, musicians Curley Cooke and Annette Taborn, Swedish storyteller Ruth Pirie, Edmonds firefighters and the Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drum Line.
The Louis Braille School is enrolling students for the 2007-08 academic year. For more information or to register a child, go to www.louisbrailleschool.org or call 425-778-2384.
Golf tourney benefits YMCA program
YMCA of Snohomish County benefited when Kirtley-Cole Associates recently hosted its sixth annual charity golf tournament at Harbour Pointe Golf Club.
Kirtley-Cole was the general contractor for the new Monroe/Sky Valley Family YMCA.
The event, also sponsored by the Everett Clinic, Providence Everett Medical Center, Frontier Bank and Rogers Electric, raised nearly $65,500 for a YMCA of Snohomish County’s Strong Kids/Strong Teens.
The program helps kids stay active and adopt good eating habits. The funding will allow the YMCA to expand the program to all five YMCA facility branches and serve more than 300 young people during the coming school year.
More than 140 golfers participated in the tournament.
Christmas House gets foundation grant
Christmas House 2007 recently was awarded a grant of $8,500 from the Everett Clinic Foundation.
Christmas House is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization established in 1981 in Snohomish County. In 2006, Christmas House provided gifts to 7,238 children from 2,510 low-income Snohomish County families.
Of the money raised by Christmas House in 2006, 99.6 percent went directly to purchase gifts for qualifying families, Christmas House organizers said.
Christmas House 2007 will operate Dec. 7-22 at the North Everett Boys &Girls Club.
Since 1994, the Everett Clinic Foundation has donated more than $2 million to charitable organizations in Snohomish County. Each year, Everett Clinic staff and physicians collectively contributed more than $125,000 through personal contributions to support the ongoing work of the Everett Clinic Foundation.
Snohomish student to serve on council
Tucker Davis Cholvin, 14, of Snohomish, a student at Skyview Junior High, is interested in youth activism.
So Tucker was pleased when Lt. Gov. Brad Owen appointed him, along with 12 other Washington teenagers, to serve on the Legislative Youth Advisory Council.
The council was established to advise the Legislature on issues related to education, health and fitness, test reform and school safety.
The 13 new appointees to a council of 22 were chosen from a pool of 100 applicants statewide, representing 37 of the 49 legislative districts.
Owen said members of the youth council “have an important voice in speaking for Washington youth and at the same time get a great education about civic involvement.”
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