Granite Falls soon to have new store

Published 10:50 pm Thursday, September 25, 2008

It was buzzing Tuesday at Rite-Aid in Granite Falls, with lots of cars and workers scattered about.

The store opens at 8 a.m. Thursday, said manager Katrina Rooks.

Here is an interesting job: Several folks were on hand from around the Northwest, traveling employees who help open new Rite-Aid locations and remodel older stores.

Rooks, from Marysville, said the new store brings 14 jobs to town, and 12 new employees live right in Granite Falls.

She helped deliver flowers around the neighborhood Monday, just to let everyone know the store is soon to open.

“The town is excited,” she said.

There is always room for new members of the Camano Island Quilter’s morning and evening groups.

Janice Pacheco said they usually have more than 100 folks at meetings and are always happy to see new faces.

The group tackles many projects, including making hero quilts and quilts for premature babies. The morning group plans to meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Odd Fellows Hall, 96 S. Camano Ridge Road on Camano Island, and the evening group meets at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Stanwood United Methodist Church, 27128 102nd Drive NW in Stanwood.

Kathy McNeil will speak about easy applique at both meetings.

For a kid, there are few things more exciting than standing on the bay, with pole and fishing hook loaded with bacon bait, casting for bullhead.

At Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island, the Center for Wooden Boats hosted a Kids’ Fishing Derby recently with more than 35 children dropping lines.

Fishing from the rocky shore, the catch of the day was bullhead.

“It could not have gone better,” said Greg Reed, the wooden boat center’s Cama manager. “Often there were two or more children in a family taking part, with their parents and grandparents all getting involved.”

One kid reeled in a small rock crab. Rumor had it one unlucky fish got caught a few times, swimming from one line to the next, apparently quite hungry. In the end, more than 20 little fish were landed.

Prizes, more than $600 worth, were awarded in categories such as largest fish caught in each age group and demonstration of good marine stewardship. The latter prize went to a family who ingeniously kept their bullhead alive and well in a bucket of seawater until their entry could be recorded by a volunteer beach steward.

The wooden boat center’s development and operations assistant, Sara Gosnold, said every child was a winner.

A wonderful gift for children, the gift of words, was recently delivered to third-graders at Silver Lake Elementary School in Everett, by members of the Silver Lake Kiwanis.

That is the tip of the iceberg, as the group plans to donate dictionaries to third-graders all around the county, from Stanwood to Edmonds.

Kiwanis aims to improve our world, one child or family at a time, said member Darrol Bemis, who helps raise money for the group.

“There are no administration costs, so every dollar goes to our projects,” Bemis said. “We also paint faces at Camp Patterson and we go to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island and work all day serving meals, cleaning up and washing dishes for the handicapped kids.”

They would love to see new faces at meetings at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month and at 7 a.m. all other Wednesdays at Patti’s Eggnest, 6720 Evergreen Way in Everett.

Fun Fact: Doug Buell helped volunteers make improvements last weekend to Strawberry Fields for Rover, a soon-to-open dog park in Marysville. He helped dig holes for 187 fence posts and got more than 100 posts set in cement.

The water line is ready to go when they put in a drinking fountain for people and dogs, donated by HomeStreet Bank in Marysville.

Doug and Leslie Buell will take a Patterdale terrier named Lucky to the park. Lucky is a street-savvy Everett dumpster dog they rescued a few years ago.

And they’ve added a new member to the household, from NOAH Animal Shelter in Stanwood, Skip, a 4-month-old Jack Russell terrier.

“Not surprisingly, we’re big supporters of responsible pet adoption,” he said.

Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, [URL]oharran@heraldnet.com.[/URL]