When the Kingston Middle School choir won a silver medal at Seattle’s Heritage Festival last spring, Director Toby Kemper was pleasantly surprised. The festival is a juried competition with many high school competitors, and he and his middle school students hadn’t expected to win anything: they went primarily for the experience.
Take a moment to reflect on the image of beach pebbles: what comes to mind? Seagulls? Sailboats? Saltwater? Now, imagine walking on a North Kitsap sidewalk adjacent to an artful, geometric arrangement of those same beach pebbles, intermixed with drought tolerant plants. Throw in the aromas of pizza, roasting coffee and garlic toast wafting by on the late afternoon air, and the occasional baritone solo of a ferryboat. Sound like anywhere you know?
When Yvonne Meyer and her husband, Michael Gollub, lived in Anchorage, Alaska, they found it nearly impossible to connect with their neighbors.
Dr. Eugene Medina, superintendent of the North Kitsap School District, will retire this month after a 40-year career in public education. His nine-year tenure in the district began with a capital program and community-based “Creating Our Future” process in 2000, and culminated with the opening of Kingston High School and a district-wide transition to a K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade level configuration in 2007.
If you look closely at Derek Gundy’s salmon paintings, something interesting happens: the off-canvas world recedes and in its place a vibrant, watery world expands. Follow the brushstrokes with your eyes, let the intensity of color invite you in and you’ll find yourself swimming in salmon dreamtime, the place these fish go when the sun sets and the water darkens. Stay as long as you like. Return as often as you can. In the dream, the salmon will always be there, waiting.
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if the power in your neighborhood went out … permanently?
Uncovering the costs of auto dependency
