Jamaica Vandolah Stays Busy Making Positive Things Happen
Word to Spokane school officials thinking of canceling spring break to make up days lost to the ice storm: Jamaica Vandolah won’t stand for it.
“I’ll fight it, I’ll call up my connections,” said the Rogers High senior, laughing.
Better listen to her. Everyone else does. The Chase Youth commission, the police, her peers. And the YWCA, which last week honored the 17-year-old as the city’s top young woman of achievement.
The Timex Indiglow watch the group gave her will be well used. Her day planner is as dense as rush hour traffic, filled with appointments for the dozen volunteer activities Vandolah attends.
When it’s not a Spokane COPS meeting, it’s an honor society fundraiser. When it’s not a neighborhood advisory committee, it’s a night helping at the food bank.
Other resume nuggets: ASB secretary, 3.57 gpa, Future Business Leaders of America, job at Trentwood Elementary day care, sweet-as-pie smile.
“I just like helping other people out. I like seeing positive change,” said Vandolah.
The Spokane native feared she was going to have to leave all of it behind, when her parents moved this summer to Pullman. Instead, she moved in with family friends.
“Sometimes my friends have to ask me why I act so grown up,” said Vandolah.
She already has that mapped out, too - Washington State University, a career in architecture or education counseling. Next up is another fund-raiser for the Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood, then a school meeting, then off to work…
“I hate when people complain about things, but don’t take action,” said Vandolah. “I guess I get to complain a little.”
Books benefit Lakeside
Don Scott was a quiet man of words. As a wire editor for The Spokesman-Review, he picked the words each day that hundreds of thousands read.
Lakeside High students are the latest beneficiaries of Scott’s words. His personal library of more than 3,000 books was donated last week to the high school.
“This is a librarian’s dream come true,” said Bev Schlosser, Lakeside library technician.
The massive donation took two burly linebackers to move. It doubles the school’s holdings, and according to Schlosser, transforms the library from paultry to princely selections.
The complete works of Dickens, Austen, Fitzgerald, Kipling, the Bronte sisters.
The histories of jazz, Vietnam, Mormons, philosophy.
“The Lance and Shield: The life and times of Sitting Bull.” The dictionary of Napoleonic wars.
At least 100 boxed sets of Time/ Life’s series on great music, donated to the Lakeside music department.
Six videotapes of landmark Supreme Court decisions. “Law and government classes have been crying for court cases and now have transcripts of supreme court decisions,” said Schlosser. “Amazing.”
The collection was donated by Betty Hartford, Scott’s sister, after a Spokesman-Review employee who lives in Suncrest suggested the school.
Schlosser’s first trip through Scott’s Indian Trail home was a shock. “We were dumfounded, walking through the house with our mouths open,” said Schlosser. “The man didn’t read junk. He must have been a really intelligent man.”
The cash-strapped district has slowly increased the Lakeside library budget. But the shelves of cavernous, vaulted room jutted empty, like orphans’ hands in Oliver Twist.
Now the shelves will be full.
“I wish I had met the man,” said Schlosser.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Deadline is Monday. Write: Jonathan Martin, Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. E-mail: jonathanm@spokesman.com. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.