Pia Hallenberg

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FIFA at the Checkerboard

The South Perry Farmers' Market is today

Heading west on Fifth Avenue from Altamont Street, you can’t help but see it: like a bright yellow beacon, one of local artist Roger Ralston’s “Liberty Wings” leads the way to the renovated Liberty Aquatic Center. There are two wings, one on each side of the gazebo leading into the new pool. They are abstract wind vanes perched on top of 15-foot-tall support towers made out of galvanized steel. The wings themselves are 10 feet tall – one is bright yellow, the other grayish.

When Thelma and LeRoy Staley move into their new home, they already know their neighbors. Their three-bedroom house is part of a Community Frameworks’ neighborhood development located a good 10 minutes west of Spokane. Part of the deal is that the Staleys work together with two other families finishing their homes at the same time. “It’s two single women,” said LeRoy Staley about their new neighbors, while Thelma Staley excitedly showed off the home on a rainy morning last week.

Every year, Windermere Real Estate looks for a community project, and on June 18 between 150 and 200 real estate agents will descend upon a previously empty lot next to the Ronald McDonald House. When they leave that evening, the Garden of Hope will be a reality. “We had that lot sitting there, and we wanted to do something about it,” said Kathie Vlahovich, development director for the Ronald McDonald House. “We wanted to turn it into a garden for our families, a nice place for them.”

Chicken coop tour this Saturday

Sweet ride

There’s this thing about playgrounds: it’s really difficult to keep children away from them. Last week, Spokane’s first public universal playground was carefully wrapped in red ribbon, yet children found ways to get in and play anyhow while about two dozen grown-ups milled around waiting for the official business. Sandi Laney was one of the people who got behind a grass-roots effort to build a playground that appeals to all children, yet is completely accessible for children with disabilities.

And the market is open

Students plant white oak at Grant Elementary

South Perry Farmers Market opens in an hour

When the going gets tough, real friends stick around. That’s one way to summarize how Keith Tatham, 18, has survived and excelled during his last year of high school. In August, Tatham was diagnosed with a type of abdominal cancer that typically attacks young people.

When Austan Pierce, 17, began searching for a college to attend he wasn’t just looking at the academic programs; he wanted a school with a competitive wheelchair basketball team – and he found that at the University of Texas, Arlington. Pierce is this year’s outstanding graduate from Ferris High School and while he’s always been an athlete, he hasn’t always been in a wheelchair.

It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Manito Park and the Multi-Agency Adolescent Program is on a field trip. Students walk up to the Japanese Garden to take graduation pictures before heading for lunch at one of the picnic shelters by the playground. Among the students is 19-year-old Matt Grenier, this year’s distinguished MAP graduate.