Washington Voices

When Madison Elementary School celebrated its centennial on Sept. 30 it wasn’t by planting 100 candles in a cake, it was by having the students spell out “100” on the playground. “It was Bambi Howe, our kindergarten teacher, who came up with the idea,” said Madison Principal Greg Baerlocher. “She made the suggestion to the centennial committee, and everyone liked it.”

What would become the Veradale United Church of Christ began 100 years ago as many others did, with a group of neighbors getting together in someone’s home to discuss forming a church. The neighbors in Veradale, however, had the additional complication that they did not all come from the same denomination. After much discussion, it was decided to form under the Congregational Church. The group began meeting in the old South Trent Grade School and when the school moved to a new brick building at Sprague and Progress and became the Vera School, the church members followed. “They met in the school until they got the church built,” The Rev. Linda Crowe said.

When Dick Carson headed to the Northwest Neighborhood Council meeting in September, he didn’t suspect anything unusual was going on. At 85, he’s cut back a bit on his community involvement but he still goes to the neighborhood council meetings and he’s been a member of the Northeast Spokane Kiwanis Club since 1974. He did notice some people from the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department at the meeting, but he was simply astounded when they announced they were there to name a new park at nearby Dwight Merkel Sports Complex after him.

In 1942, shortly after America entered World War II, Spokane’s Charles F. “Chuck” Gumm stepped away from his studies at Gonzaga University – and into history. Enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Force, he joined the 355th Fighter Squadron’s 354th Fighter Group, the famed Pioneer Mustang Group. Already married to his high school sweetheart Muriel “Toni” Wiley, he was stationed in England, where he became a pilot of the P-51 Mustang, the new long-range, single-engine fighter aircraft which would wreak havoc in the skies over Europe.

Michael Eldred is just a kid; a teenager who has felt his share of angst. He has tattoos, wears his pants a little loose, and, depending on whom you ask, is in need of a haircut. He is at that age where he’s old enough to know better but too young to be considered a voice worth listening to. So, Eldred, 19, found a new way to communicate: through art.

For a little more than a year, Officer Zeb Campbell of the Cheney Police Department has been in training and working with his new partner, Kira. Kira is a 20-month-old, 70-pound American bloodhound assigned to Campbell to help track down missing people, whether they are dementia patients who have wandered off, prisoners who have escaped, missing children or suspects.