Washington Voices

Jolly came to the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service shelter Sept. 12. She’s an adult female calico. Shelter workers say she’s very talkative and sweet natured. She likes being picked up and sitting in laps, but also enjoys exploring independently. Shelter workers say she’d be a great cat for a first-time owner, but she would also enjoy a home with other cats.

The pain in my rib cage jabbed with startling ferocity. I squirmed in my seat in the crowded auditorium, trying to get comfortable. I was learning a painfully expensive lesson about the high cost of vanity.

A hot and sunny morning welcomed hundreds of United Way Day of Action volunteers to the Northeast Community Center on Sept. 12. Janice Marich, vice president of community relations at Spokane County United Way, had her hands full helping everyone find their spot on the sprawling community center campus, nearby Shaw Middle School and other locations. “We have way more than 400 volunteers here today,” Marich said. “This is also our campaign kickoff day.”

Is there a garden anywhere in Spokane as meticulously kept and as beautiful as the formal Duncan Garden at Manito Park? During the warm weather months, this gem of the city parks is alive with color and busy with visitors. And it is also an interesting part of Spokane’s history, beginning in the early years of the 1900s when Charles Balzer, first superintendent of what was then Montrose Park, discovered that the site where the garden now stands was filled with rich loamy soil. He had 42,500 wagon loads removed for gardens in parks throughout the city, leaving behind a sunken space the length of two football fields. In 1910 John W. Duncan, assistant park superintendent for the Boston Park System, was hired to improve and operate this fledgling park on Spokane’s South Hill. He did that for the next 32 years.