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Pia Hallenberg

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News >  Washington Voices

Skeffington-Gretsch retires after 29 years at Spokane Public Schools

When Peggy Skeffington-Gretsch was growing up, in Spokane and later in California, she somehow always knew she wanted to be a music teacher. And when Cooper Elementary School’s bell sounds for the last time this school year, Skeffington-Gretsch is retiring after 34 years of teaching in the state of Washington, with the majority of those years spent in Spokane schools. “When I first started teaching here it was back in the time when a music teacher went to three schools,” said Skeffington-Gretsch. Among her first schools were Adams and Longfellow, and she hauled all her stuff with her from school to school.
News >  Washington Voices

Skeffington-Gretsch retires after 29 years in Spokane schools

When Peggy Skeffington-Gretsch was growing up, first in Spokane and later in California, she somehow always knew she wanted to be a music teacher. And when Cooper Elementary School’s bell sounds for the last time this school year, Skeffington-Gretsch is retiring after 34 years of teaching in the state of Washington, with 29 of those years spent in Spokane schools. “When I first started teaching here it was back in the time when a music teacher went to three schools,” said Skeffington-Gretsch. Some of her first schools were Adams and Longfellow, and she hauled all her stuff with her from school to school.
News >  Washington Voices

Learn Browne’s Addition history

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture has a free Web application, “app” for short, for the Historic Browne’s Addition Walking Tour. The walking tour has been available as a printed booklet, but local information systems developer Bob Hansen came up with the idea for an app, which is available through the museum’s website. Hansen said he’s been working on it for some years, and was looking for a project to showcase what his app can do.
News >  Washington Voices

Celebration planned at Polly Judd Park

It all began when a $500 check showed up in Pam Deutschman’s mailbox. It came from the Associated Garden Clubs of Spokane, and it said simply “for Polly Judd Park”; and it left Deutschman puzzled about why she got it. Little did she know that the check was the beginning of a $30,000 fundraiser to pay for a shelter in Polly Judd Park – a shelter that’s now completed and will be celebrated with a potluck and neighborhood meeting tonight. “I can’t quite believe we pulled it off,” said Deutschman, standing in the almost finished shelter on Monday. “It’s taken about a year.”
News >  Washington Voices

Trike races help cancer organizations

Bill Heitner was just stopping in for a beer on his way home from work a couple of years ago. He had just moved to the Minnehaha neighborhood, and a friend suggested he stop at Big Sky’s Tavern on Market Street. Heitner instantly liked the place, and he really liked the ongoing fundraising Big Sky’s was doing to help cancer organizations. “My sister Anne Heitner died from cancer, so it was kind of funny that this was the tavern I walked into,” said Heitner. Anne Heitner was a staff artist for The Spokesman-Review, where she drew caricatures and made illustrations until she got sick. She died in 1996 at age 46.
News >  Washington Voices

Web app, eBook provide walking tour, photos of area near MAC

The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture has a free Web application, “app” for short, for the Historic Browne’s Addition Walking Tour. The walking tour has been available as a printed booklet, but local information systems developer Bob Hansen came up with the idea for an app, which is available through the museum’s website. Hansen said he’s been working on it for some years, and was looking for a project to showcase what his app can do.
News >  Washington Voices

Mead Developmental Olympics give students chance to shine

The sun was peeking out now and again when 96 students from Mead School District’s Developmental Learning Center got together recently to celebrate the Mead Developmental Olympics for the 10th year in a row. “This is the best attendance we have at the Mead DLC Olympics,” said Ken Russell, Mead High School principal, during the opening ceremonies. “We are so fortunate to have a school district that’s small enough that it feels like we are all one community.”
News >  Washington Voices

Developmental Olympics give students chance to shine

The sun was peeking out now and again when 96 students from Mead School District’s Developmental Learning Center got together on Wednesday last week to celebrate the Mead Developmental Olympics for the 10th year in a row. “This is the best attendance we have at the Mead DLC Olympics,” said Ken Russell, Mead High School principal, during the opening ceremonies. “We are so fortunate to have a school district that’s small enough that it feels like we are all one community.”
News >  Washington Voices

Weekend Festival of Speed will showcase race cars, sports cars

In a nondescript storage building somewhere in Spokane County sit a few vintage race cars that could make grown men cry. They could actually make grown women cry, too. And starting Friday the cars will get a rare chance to see some daylight and heat up the racetrack with their sleek tires during the 2011 Spokane Festival of Speed at Spokane County Raceway in Airway Heights. The cars belong to vintage race car enthusiast Bill Simer, who will be racing in the jewel of his collection: a 1962 Lotus 23.