East Vancouver, Cascade Park, Fisher’s Landing and Evergreen

East Vancouver, Cascade Park, Fisher’s Landing and Evergreen

Hearthwood: Germ City has been in high demand during the flu season, making stops at local elementary schools, including Hearthwood, Orchards, Harmony and Riverview, as well as the Fisher’s Landing Fred Meyer store. Germ City is a 10-foot tunnel that shows off pretend germs that Sandy Brown, from Washington State University Extension, and volunteers put on the children’s hands. After seeing all those germs under a black light, the students wash their hands and then return to the dark to see if they got them all off. Volunteers from the Columbia Crest Lions Club, Fred Meyer and individual school volunteers have been helping run the events along with Brown. “Clean hands are the number one way to stay healthy, followed by keeping your hands off your face,” Brown said. In order to properly wash your hands, you need to get your hands wet, put on soap and scrub them for 15 seconds outside of the running water. If you scrub under the water, it washes the soap off before it’s had a chance to do its job.

Airport Green: The Airport Green Neighborhood Association was awarded a $60 matching grant from the city’s Office of Neighborhoods to buy a Head Immobilization System for the neighborhood’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The Head Immobilization System consists of two molded foam blocks with straps that attach to an aluminum stretcher to stabilize the head and neck of a victim during transport. The stretcher was purchased last year by the neighborhood’s CERT team with the aid of a similar grant.

Fisher’s Landing: The neighborhood is home to 140 new trees thanks to a Nov. 7 tree-planting session. Friends of Trees and Vancouver Urban Forestry organized the event, and 75 volunteers helped out despite the torrential rain that drenched them all from head to toe. The planting also doubled as a training event for 30 new Friends of Trees crew leaders who will be the backbone of future planting events. Vancouver Urban Forestry plans to plant about 500 trees with Friends of Trees this year on private property in Vancouver neighborhoods. The next plantings with Friends of Trees will be on Jan. 16 in east Vancouver, Feb. 27 in west Vancouver and March 20 in central Vancouver.

North Clark County and Woodland

Fargher Lake: More than 200 children enjoyed games, the cake walk and a spook house during the Halloween Carnival at Fargher Lake Grange on Oct. 31. More than 100 pounds of canned goods were donated to the community food bank. “We had a lot of thank you’s from parents for a safe, fun and entertaining environment for the family. The children left with candy, toys and excitement. Our local community is learning Grange means caring, sharing and volunteering,” Bianca Elmer wrote in an e-mail.

Ridgefield and Fairgrounds

Fairgrounds: The neighborhood association’s annual survey of residents drew 147 respondents on a variety of local matters. Most timely was the question about tolling a new I-5 bridge, an issue that overshadowed all others in Vancouver’s recent mayoral election. It may be controversial in Vancouver, but Fairgrounds respondents were strongly in favor of tolls, with 41 percent OK with $1 per trip and 17 percent accepting $2.50 per trip. Respondents also said that they continue to like being unincorporated county (67 percent), but if they must choose a city to be absorbed into, it would be Ridgefield (37 percent) over Vancouver (29 percent). Forming a brand-new city got just 12 percent.

Ridgefield: Bruce Wiseman from the Tree Wisemans Christmas Tree Farm was recently elected to the board of directors of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association. The group also chose Gary and Evelyn Casella from Christmas Creek Ranch in La Center as the winners of the decorated wreath contest during the group’s annual tree fair.

Hazel Dell, Felida and Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek: Local middle school students got a dose of high-tech fun during Washington State University Vancouver’s annual Math and Science Day on Oct. 30. Businesses, schools and other community organizations brought exhibits, lab activities and more to emphasize the relevance of science and math to students’ everyday lives and help them envision themselves as future engineers and scientists. More than 100 students from Jason Lee, Hockinson and Cascade middle schools turned out; presenters included Vancouver’s own Water Resources Education Center, the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, Oregon Health & Science University, the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Orchards, Sifton and Brush Prairie

Brush Prairie: The Silver Buckle Ranch raised more than $10,000 at its fall festival Oct. 17. Some 500 visitors enjoyed a petting zoo, hay scramble, pony rides, and a hayride to pick out a pumpkin, plus demonstrations of ranch roping, team roping, calf roping and breakaway roping. There were also competitions in barrel racing, poles and ranch sorting, with Jace Thompson coming in first in both the barrel and pole racing, and Ava Cozetto and Megan Newton taking first in team sorting. The day ended with a barn social and a live and silent auction, with Don Hanley providing auctioneer services. Music was provided by Lu’s Band, and several speakers shared their experiences at the ranch.

Sunnyside: Every day around the world, approximately 25,000 children die from preventable causes: a lack of clean drinking water, immunizations, medical care, and nutritious food. Covington Middle School students Dana Cosovan, LaQuoya Tyler, Alycia Saenz and Bethany Saey worked to help reduce that number by trick or treating for UNICEF on Halloween. The young adults raised $43 on behalf of Covington and sent it to the U.S. fund for the United Nations International Emergency Fund.

East Clark County: Camas and Washougal

Camas: Chad Peterson recently returned from a trip to Biloxi, Miss., as part of a group that helped construct new homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The team included 11 other volunteers from the Northwest who traveled under the auspices of Thrivent Builds Worldwide, a program of the Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity alliance. The trip was special for Peterson, because he knew all of the other volunteers on his team prior to the trip — including many who were clients of his in his business as a financial consultant for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Vancouver. “Six members of our team were Oregonians and six were from Washington, all living within an hour’s drive of Vancouver. We had a great time traveling and working together,” Peterson said in a press release.

West Vancouver and Downtown

Esther Short: The Princeton Athletic Club closed at the end of October after more than 24 years in business in downtown Vancouver, according to the company’s Web site. Owner David Lawson bought the club, located in the Bank of America Financial Center at 805 Broadway, in 2007 from longtime owner Russ Dyer. In the past year, the club saw many members drop out due to pay cuts or layoffs, especially among downtown professionals, The Columbian reported in July.