Opinion | Youth 'Kindness Club' is making a difference, you can too
One thousand acts of kindness. Think about how much good that would mean, how many more smiles, how many fewer frowns.
The teens in Cedarcrest High School’s Random Acts of Kindness club recently set out to do just that many kind acts. Right after the big January storm, the club observed Random Acts of Kindness Week, both at school and in the community at large.
February 17, 2012
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Opinion | Finally, an easy button for Valley Record online calendar
"Where’s the easy button?” I can’t tell you how many times I heard that comment, or one just like it, from the the confused folks occasionally mired in our newspaper’s old online calendar.
One elephant in the room on valleyrecord.com was our Web calendar. It seemed to work fine when it rolled out three-odd years ago. But occasionally, the ghost in the machine got angry.
Today, I can proudly announce that the old calendar is no more. Long live the new one.
February 17, 2012
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Opinion | As city looks at issues in broad strokes, it’s a good time for locals to do the same
By day, Kathi Prewitt is a business manager for a busy bank. By night, she’s a mom and a city council member for Snoqualmie. So the one thing that drives her crazy is to feel like she’s wasting her time.
So when Prewitt started thinking about what she wanted to accomplish at this week’s council retreat, she decided it was time to look at how the council organizes itself.
February 1, 2012
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Opinion | No easy answers for outages, except preparedness, positive thinking
Of all the things we take for granted, electricity is easily the biggest. I never realized how much of my routine depends on Puget Sound Energy’s fragile grid.
For even simple things like hot food, fingers that aren’t icicles or a face free of beard stubble, I’ve come to depend on electrical devices, to say nothing of entertainment or the ability to get the news out.
January 27, 2012
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Opinion | Closure of Cedar Falls recycling is decision some will regret
When I moved to the Valley a couple of years ago, the ease of the blue bin was one of the things I bade farewell. Without curbside service at my new place, recycling now required the drive up to Rattlesnake Lake and the county Cedar Falls Transfer Station.
Many’s the time I procrastinated on that trip, hardly relishing a half-hour trek just to dump my bulging container of tin and paper. During all the cold, wet winter and spring of 2011, one bin turned into two, then three. I was sorely tempted to chuck the lot into the trash, but my wife—a die-hard recycler—and her fierce, no-nonsense reaction prevented this lazy step.
January 18, 2012
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Opinion | There are no easy answers, or typical faces, for the Valley's homeless
Say the city or county wanted to build a homeless center next to your home. Would you welcome it? Or would you head straight to town hall to protest?
Don’t think it couldn’t happen. Right now, there are folks in the Valley who say we need a shelter, as a potential life saver and a tool to help willing people lift themselves out of terrible circumstances.
January 10, 2012
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Opinion | New beginnings are coming for Valley businesses, families—and you
It is human nature to wonder what kind of changes and challenges a new year will bring—including the changes that we undertake for ourselves.
Should we lose 10 pounds… or maybe 20? Start flossing? Walk the dog more often? Make more family memories? Hope to see an economic turnaround?
The above resolutions are courtesy of my interaction with this week’s “Person on the Street” responders (see below). Some ideas make so much sense, I hope to try them myself.
January 3, 2012
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Opinion | Getting ahead of the giving cycle with One VOICE
I had never seen that many toys in a single room before. Even some of the toy and hobby stores that have called the Valley home would have a hard time matching what the big North Bend Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints multipurpose room had amassed for the Kiwanis Giving Tree at the One VOICE Holiday Event.
What’s equally amazing is that all those toys had vanished within a day and a half, collected by local families who need help with the basics to make a merry Christmas for their children.
December 22, 2011
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Opinion | Respect, life and death when elk, people cross paths
He told me about the adrenaline rush, and sure enough, Tom Kemp was right.
Kemp, the chaplain at North Bend’s TA truck stop, has taken part in more than two dozen elk collarings as a volunteer for the Upper Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group. While the job is old hat for veterans like him, it sure was a thrilling way for me to start my day last Thursday. I’ve never been that close to an elk before, and cow no. 38, now known as “Danielle,” probably never had been this close to people, either.
December 14, 2011
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Life lessons from our student athletes
We aren’t all athletes. Not every teen plays on the varsity team, or even plays at all. Few adults ever had the honor of putting on a state championship ring, and some people might never even slip on a jersey.
Yet we as a society, and as a community, pay attention to sports. That’s because there are kernels of local truth, timeliness, triumph and tragedy in athletics.
December 7, 2011
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The Valley Record is going green
The Valley Record is launching an initiative that will enhance our readers’ experience online.
Through the new “Green Editions,” you can now access our community newspaper anytime, anywhere on our website. Starting this fall, the full print edition of the Record has become available on the web as soon as the paper hits the streets every Wednesday. Online readers can now flip through the paper’s pages just like those who enjoy reading the newspaper in a hard-copy format.
November 30, 2011
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