Washington Voices

Spokane Valley firefighters will ditch their traditional blue uniform shirts for three days this week in favor of bright pink T-shirts in order to raise breast cancer awareness. The “Cares Enough to Wear Pink” program for emergency responders was started by a Phoenix firefighter several years ago and has been spreading across the nation.

It’s a spectacular fall afternoon at Plantes Ferry Park. The air is warm, but you can set your watch by when it will turn crisp. The trees are in the midst of their magical transformation from green into the full fall palette while the manicured lawn remains lush and thick. West Valley High School cross country coach Bob Barbero dubs it “a perfect Spokane fall day – feels like summer now, but when 5:30 p.m. gets here, it will get chilly.”

Say cheese, Voice readers The days are getting shorter, children are back in school and fall sports are under way. We’d like to see your best seasonal photographs for Picture Perfect, our community scrapbook of photos from Spokane Valley readers. We want the type of pictures that show why this season is one of the best in Spokane Valley. Share photos of family feasts, children in their favorite outfits and teammates on the field. Think of holiday gatherings, special milestones and outdoor fun. Send us your party pictures and candid photos. We’ll publish your slice-of-life photographs for free. Just send them in via e-mail and include caption information, such as names, ages and locations, and provide a daytime phone number in case we have questions. Send your submissions to pictureperfect@spokesman.com

At an outdoor summer art show this year, a man entered Pat Boyd’s booth, looked around and said to her, “I like the way your mind works.” Others might wonder where in the world she comes up with her mixed-media assemblages that include “whatchamacallits” – odds and ends found in junk drawers, garages and shops that specialize in fixing obsolete items that have given way to more modern tools.

A piece of paper randomly drawn from a basket sparked a relationship that has spanned 69 years and counting. Walter and Laura Stewart met at Fort Wayne Bible Institute in 1940. Each month, students drew scraps of paper with a table and seat number written on it to find out where they’d sit for meals in the dining room. “Lo and behold, after a few months, Walter was assigned to my table,” recalled Laura. He made quite an impression. “He pulled my chair out for me. Most of the boys were farm boys, but Walter was from Detroit – he was a city boy,” she said.