Young parents may gasp in horror.
But 25 years ago, when my youngsters were little, we often took names of teenagers from the local bulletin board at the grocery store, dialed their numbers, and asked them to baby-sit.
We communicated on the wall of the IGA.
Keeping a community together is easier these days, if one is computerized. Ellen Hiatt Watson created a website for the Seven Lakes community south of Stanwood, at www.stillyvalley.net.
I spend a lot of my time on various websites on the job and at home, and will say this one is a dandy. It’s got entertainment ideas, tourist stops and a really fun restaurant map so folks can find Pedeltweezer’s Chinese &Pizza in Arlington.
Chinese and pizza?
Sounds like a place some folks might want to check out. All the necessary information about that and other restaurants is on the Stilly Valley website. It’s got interactive maps showing where to get to lakes and the Stillaguamish River, parks and information about farms to visit.
It’s paid for in part from Snohomish County tourism tax dollars, and is a project of 7-Lakes, a nonprofit working to maintain the rural nature in North Snohomish County.
Watson knows the north county territory. She lives on Lake Howard and graduated from Stanwood High School in 1983. She wrote for her high school newspaper, played in the band and knew every parade route in the region.
She received a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and political science, with a minor in economics, from Central Washington University. Watson worked as a reporter and feature editor at the Skagit Valley Herald and as the feature editor at Whidbey News-Times.
“While on Whidbey, I raised two daughters who graduated from Coupeville High School,” Watson said. “I volunteered with 4-H, taught fifth-grade students to write for the newspaper and served on the board of a low-income health clinic.”
Watson does good work for the community, said Karen Ryan, owner of Lake Goodwin Resort and Store that includes four rental cabins.
“The 7-Lakes site and Stilly site do nice jobs of informing this community about what’s going on,” Ryan said. “The No. 1 way people hear about us is by word of mouth and the No. 2 way is from the web.”
After almost 10 years in journalism, Watson worked a few years in marketing before starting her own consulting business, Hiatt Watson Writing and Design, which she has been doing for the past ten years.
Watson serves on the Snohomish County Tomorrow Steering Committee. In 2009, she ran for the Snohomish County Council. She sent a message to supporters:
“My 2009 campaign for Snohomish County Council was unsuccessful, but was by no means a failure,” she wrote. “We can all hold our heads high knowing that we ran a fabulous campaign, gave it everything we had, and did it with grace.”
Watson gives time to the 7-Lakes group to engage people to plan for growth. She is raising Grace, 7 and James, 5.
She began fiddling, she said, with creating a website several years ago.
“I love the Stillaguamish Valley and think it’s beautiful and has so much to offer,” Watson said. “I also believe in the power of information and the site has the potential to bring together so many resources.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
On the Web
The website www.stillyvalley.net is a project of 7-Lakes, a nonprofit group working to preserve the rural character of North Snohomish County. It has interactive maps showing where to enter lakes and the Stillaguamish River, parks, information about local farms, restaurants and recreational ideas.
For more information, contact Ellen Hiatt Watson at ellen@ 7-lakes.org or call 425-776-3735.
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