Cindy Hval

It all started with a cradle. Pat Murphy, owner of Home Environments in north Spokane, had drawn his niece’s name for Christmas. She was expecting her first baby. As he pondered gift ideas, he spied an old teak hot tub a customer had brought in when he purchased a new tub. An avid woodworker, Murphy took the teak home to his workshop and crafted a beautiful cradle for his niece’s baby. Then he began wondering what else he could make out of the wood from old hot tubs.

Justin Vinge, Josephine Davis and Mariah Hottell have a lot in common. They’re bright, articulate and successful college students. They’ve also been called disposable, unwanted and told they’d never succeed. These Spokane Falls Community College students are former foster youth who are proving their detractors wrong. Recently, the three shared their stories at a College Success Foundation storytelling workshop in Issaquah, Wash. The foundation funds and administers several scholarship programs like Passport to College Promise, which makes it possible for foster care youth to attend college.

He tossed his head and his shaggy blond bangs shrouded his blue eyes. “How’s this?” he asked as he flashed an oversized grin. “The girls call this my Joker smile.” I sighed and squirmed, trying to get comfortable on the beige plastic chair at the Department of Licensing. “I like it. It’s cute,” I replied to my son.

You could say June Rust fell for her future husband, Cecil, in a big way, but in truth he tripped her. The couple met at a roller rink in Farmington, Minn., in 1947. Cecil showed off his moves in the middle of the rink. “He was going backwards and doing twirls,” June recalled. “And I could barely get around.”

Justin Vinge, Josephine Davis and Mariah Hottell have a lot in common. They’re bright, articulate and successful college students. They’ve also been called disposable, unwanted and told they’d never succeed. These Spokane Falls Community College students are former foster youth who are proving their detractors wrong. Recently, the three shared their stories at a College Success Foundation storytelling workshop in Issaquah, Wash. The foundation funds and administrates several scholarship programs like Passport to College Promise, which makes it possible for foster care youth to attend college.

A business model that began with three Mt. Spokane High School students wanting cool hats to wear on the ski slopes has gone global – first to Uganda and now Peru. Krochet Kids International (KKi) is expanding its operations to Lima, Peru. Executive director Kohl Crecelius said, “We’re so excited to implement our unique model of empowerment in a new region of the world.”

Closing my eyes I took deep cleansing breaths, inhaling semifresh recycled air and exhaling anxiety and dread. “C’mon Mom!” Sam urged.

The warm wood floors gleamed under the soft glow of strategically placed table lamps. Oak bookcases brimmed with textbooks and leafy green plants flourished in decorative pots. John Hagney sat in a rocking chair at the back of the room, and listened thoughtfully while student Adam Moyer presented his research paper. This Lewis and Clark High School classroom could easily be mistaken for a college classroom.

It’s not always the first person who catches your eye that matters. Take Melvin Hayes, for example. More than 70 years ago, he spotted his future wife Dorothy at a sledding party in Garden Springs. “Somebody else caught my eye first,” Melvin recalled. He grinned at his wife. “But then I saw her.” A group of young people had built a big bonfire and spent the day sledding, and after Melvin saw Dorothy, no one else could hold his attention.

As a restaurant reviewer for several local publications, Kevin Finch thought he’d found a recipe that combined his greatest passions. “I love food and I love to write. I also love people,” he said.

It’s not always the first person who catches your eye that matters. Take Melvin Hayes, for example. More than 70 years ago, he spotted his future wife Dorothy at a sledding party in Garden Springs. “Somebody else caught my eye first,” Melvin recalled. He grinned at his wife. “But then I saw her.” A group of young people had built a big bonfire and spent the day sledding, and after Melvin saw Dorothy, no one else could hold his attention.

If you think opera involves highbrow harmonies sung in Italian by temperamental tenors, Spokane’s newest opera company would like you to think again. At a recent rehearsal, members of Northwest Opera Works practiced a lighthearted Gilbert and Sullivan tune. “We are dainty, little fairies … “ chorus members sang. But these fairies weren’t supposed to act delicately or sprightly. “Think clunky!” instructed stage director Tim Campbell. And the singers obliged, stomping through the comic number with gusto.

The sprightly, upbeat melody of “Side by Side” echoed down the halls of Rockwood South on March 29, as members of Tremble Clefs serenaded residents and guests. Tremble Clefs is a singing ensemble composed of people with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers. The program is one of the services offered by Parkinson’s Resource Center of Spokane. The center also sponsors a dance group and several support groups.

It’s not every day that you sit down to lunch with a couple of screenwriters, a 12-year-old piano prodigy and a special effects/makeup artist, but that’s what I did recently. My friend, local author and attorney, Beth Bollinger, had invited me to the monthly meeting of kNIFVES. “Will I have to throw them?” I asked.

If you think opera involves highbrow harmonies sung in Italian by temperamental tenors, Spokane’s newest opera company would like you to think again. At a recent rehearsal, members of Northwest Opera Works practiced a lighthearted Gilbert and Sullivan tune. “We are dainty, little fairies … “ chorus members sang. But these fairies weren’t supposed to act delicately or sprightly. “Think clunky!” instructed stage director Tim Campbell. And the singers obliged, stomping through the comic number with gusto.

There’s an interesting phenomenon in Spokane with the six degrees of separation theory – you really don’t need all six degrees. Usually two or maybe three will do. The theory itself is based on the concept of the human web, that everybody on earth is just six steps away from being connected to everybody else on the planet. You know how it goes – you meet someone at an event and in talking discover that your aunt comes from the same town in the Midwest as his mother does and that the two women were in Girl Scouts together and are now unknowingly both retired in the same city in Arizona – or something like that.

On a recent afternoon, members of Pattison Inline Racing team prepared for an upcoming competition. Clad in snazzy red and black uniforms, they hit the hardwood at Pattison’s North, and skated by in a blur. As they picked up speed and leaned low in the turns, the wheels of their skates created a buzz that echoed across the rink. Their coach, rink owner Shaun Pattison, is a two-time Northwest Coach of the Year and offers 25 years of skating expertise. He grinned and said, “I was born wearing skates.”

‘He followed me home, Mom. Honest!” Sam, 11, fidgeted, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as words tumbled out. Wide-eyed and earnest, he continued. “I saved his life. He was just sitting in the middle of the street and a car was coming. I threw my bike down and called, ‘Here, kitty, kitty!’ ”

Under a canopy of twinkling white lights at the Sons of Norway hall on Feb. 27, a crowd gathered to celebrate the creation of four new families. “This is our first-ever adoption celebration,” said Carol Plischke, Olive Crest’s eastern Washington area director. “We’ve had 12 adoptions this year already.”

One evening in the spring of 1943, Betty Ratzman received a phone call that changed her life. An 18-year-old college freshman she’d never met was on the line, and he asked her for a date. Dean Ratzman explained, “I was a pledge in a frat at WSU and a few of us rented a room in Spokane at the Davenport Hotel.”

When my husband called to tell me he’d just ordered a Roku box I thought he was bringing home Japanese takeout for dinner. Wrong.