Pia Hallenberg

When Tom Belknap was growing up, two things ruled his life: a love of fishing and an expectation that he’d grow up to become a dentist in the Spokane Valley, just like his dad and his uncle. He went from Gonzaga Prep to Carroll University in Wisconsin, and all was going well for nine semesters – until he got a job in Alaska. “My first year in Alaska was 2006, and I knew on the spot that was what I wanted to do,” said Belknap, sitting in the kitchen of his parents’ home in Greenacres. Belknap had gotten a gig as a fishing guide on the Kenai River, and there was just no turning back to drilling in people’s teeth.

Electric car much loved by owner

Musicfest Northwest is all about performing arts, and next week is the 65th time young musicians and dancers come to Spokane to challenge each other onstage. They compete in nine different divisions, from ballet to piano to brass, while judges from all over the country grade the smallest details of their performance. It’s a hectic week, but it’s also a reunion of sorts. “All the young performers, they really end up growing up together,” said Bev Rhodes, a local piano teacher who’s been accompanying performers in Musicfest since the late 1970s. “Some come back year after year in the same division, and some switch to a different division, but you see them walk around together on campus and they are just so excited.”

When five teachers and staffers and 20 students from Havermale Alternative High School wake up with tender legs the morning after Bloomsday, they’ll know to blame Bob Chadduck. He’s a math teacher at the school who came up with the idea that they should have a Bloomsday team this year. “I have run something like 20 Bloomsdays in a row,” said Chadduck. “My last big run was the Sacramento Marathon on Dec. 6 last year. I qualified for the Boston Marathon by six seconds.”

It’s Monday evening after dinner and Nancy Klingman is getting her choir students together. This night there’s one unusual problem: about half the choir is missing. Why? Because Klingman is teaching choir at Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women, and in preparation for the closure of the prison, inmates are already being transferred to other facilities. “We’re just going to have to make up for them,” Klingman said to the four remaining women. And then the group started warming up their voices with breathing exercises and loud “woos” and “zoos” followed by some stretches.

When Greg Terhaar graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 2007, one of the classes he completed was Advanced Placement European History. Early in life, he decided that the fact that he has Down syndrome wasn’t going to slow him.With his family’s support, he excelled in school while also competing at the regional and state levels of Special Olympics. He was chosen as one of five graduates who would change the world by The Vox, a teen-produced newspaper that was published by The Spokesman-Review. Terhaar is fulfilling his part of the deal: He’s traveled to Olympia and Washington, D.C., as an advocate for people with disabilities, and now he has been appointed to the Spokane Human Rights Commission. “I met Mayor Mary Verner at City Hall, and I explained my mission to her,” said Terhaar. “My mission is for people without disabilities to get along with people with disabilities, even when it comes to employment.”

When it comes to youth baseball, Dan Peck isn’t easily deterred. Last year, as president of Spokane North Little League, he was one of the main advocates behind a project that would turn the old Northside Landfill by Indian Trail Road into a $4 million baseball park with seven fields for baseball, two for softball and three smaller fields for disabled players. That project never got off the ground because neighbors in the area were opposed to the development.

Many a homeowner knows the feeling: there’s a cold draft sweeping over the floors, wrapping its icy fingers around warm feet under the dining room table. And during winter months the heating bill arrives burning a smoldering hole in the budget. Yes, something must be done – but where to begin?

The Spokane River runs beautifully just a few steps behind the Peaceful Valley Community Center on a recent afternoon. A hazy spring sun warms the playground and a few dog walkers enjoy the trails on the wooded slope up toward Main Avenue. Down the sidewalk comes a group of after-school-tired kids, talking and laughing, headed toward the little community center on Cedar Street. “We meet them at the school bus,” said Gwen Rushing, youth director at Peaceful Valley Community Center, which is operated by the Spokane Parks Department. “We usually let them run and play a bit, we have snacks and we do homework. We also have groups like the Boy Scouts come visit.”

William Horatio Lewis was born in Manlius, N.Y., in 1855. He headed west as a stagecoach driver and was one of the first civilians to arrive after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. There, he picked up a flute made from the barrel of a Springfield rifle, before he traveled along to his new life as a police officer in Helena. By 1887, Lewis had married Catherine Linebarger and moved her and their two children to Spokane Falls, where he took a job as a guard at the town jail. Lewis held many positions with what became the Spokane Police Department including that of detective and as the SPD’s first police photographer he began keeping pictures on file, effectively starting SPD’s first identification unit.