Kandis Carper

When a dozen Dominican nuns came from Germany to the United States in 1925, their job was to cook and clean for a men's college. Over the years, they and their successors took on more and more responsibility until they eventually founded a state of the art hospital in north Spokane. Holy Family not only was the first air-conditioned hospital in the state but was the first completely air-conditioned building of its kind in the area. At the hospital's grand opening in 1964, traffic was blocked for miles on Division, Francis and Lidgerwood as an estimated 30,000 people poured onto the grounds for a five-day open house. Gov. Albert Rosellini, Mayor Neal Fossen and Bishop Bernard Topel spoke at the dedication ceremony on Aug. 29.

Dario Re, a junior at North Central High School, is racking up tournament wins faster than Tiger Woods. Not in "ball golf," but in the world of disc golf, in which competitors throw discs instead of hitting balls, and aim for baskets, not holes. Re took second place in the 19-and-under junior division at the Disc Golf World Championships held in Des Moines, Iowa, in August, finishing 5 under par. It was the largest disc golf tournament ever held, with more than 900 players from Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, France, Finland, Canada, and the United States.

You may need a road map to figure out who's where in Spokane Public schools and some of the surrounding districts. Students at 16 Spokane public schools saw a new face in their principal's office when they returned to class on Sept. 7. Thirty-four percent of the city's 47 schools — including 11 of the 35 elementary schools, four of the six high schools, and one middle school — began the school year under new leadership. Outside the district, Mead, Cheney and Medical Lake high schools also are being run by new principals. At the Mead Alternative High School, the two programs are being run by Pete Arthur.

Instead of building a better mousetrap, area students built a better mousetrap-powered car. Spokane's MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) team designed, built and improved a multipurpose vehicle powered by just that – a single mousetrap.

According to the National Retail Federation, families with school-age children will spend an average of $483 on back-to-school items, up 7.2 percent from last year. For many Spokane parents it's difficult to provide anything more than paper and pencils for their children.

Spokane architect Kenneth Brooks once said that he wanted "to leave some footprints in the sands of time. A footprint being how a building shapes the site upon which it is built." Brooks did just that.