In your neighborhood

Ridgefield & Fairgrounds

Ridgefield: American Legion Post 44 from Ridgefield is accepting applications from high school juniors from Ridgefield and Woodland to attend Boys State and Girls State at Central Washington University in June. Girls State is June 13-19, and Boys State will be June 20-26. The program offers hands-on experience in forming city, county and state governments. Applications should be submitted as soon as possible; participants will be selected April. General information on the programs is at http://walegion-aux.org/programs.htm or http://evergreenboysstate.org. For information, call Mark Burton at 530-329-1489 or Priscilla Ford at 360-518-7829.

Battle Ground, Meadow Glade & Hockinson

Battle Ground: Kaylee Kordosky, a seventh-grader at Maple Grove Middle School in Battle Ground, is a special needs student with an artistic talent. She practices and improves on that talent by participating with her peers in the school’s art program. Her teachers describe Kaylee as an enthusiastic and positive student who does not let her challenges get in her way. For the untitled piece shown behind her, her art teacher, Jan Trevarthen, said Kaylee used acrylic paints to create papers with beautiful colors and textures. From these, she traced flower, leaf and step shapes from templates made by her aide, Pam Kisor. With some assistance, Kaylee cut out the pieces and arranged them onto the background. The visual appeal and joy of Kaylee’s artwork inspired the Associated Student Body to fund the matting and framing of her work to be permanently installed in the hallway near the office.

Hazel Dell, Felida & Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek: Erica Castro and Claire Latham were honored by Washington State University Vancouver on March 31 as recipients of the Distinguished Woman of the Year awards. Castro, who won the student award, is president of a new student organization on the WSU Vancouver campus, the Women’s Empowerment Coalition. Latham, an associate professor of accounting at WSU Vancouver, works hard for her students and they, in turn, work hard for her. Latham’s accounting students pass their certified public accountant exams at a high rate and go on to have successful careers. Elena Mahrt and Alexandra Terrill received honorable mentions in the student category. Cara Cottingham, Rebekah Juhala, Tamara Kuratli, Beaudie Stroebel and Kathryn Tijerina were also nominated. Lindsay Allais, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Leilani Russell and Karyn Schimmels received honorable mentions in the nonstudent category. Debbie Abraham, Teresa Ashford, Maria Brown, Lorrie Lee Massie, Michelle McIlvoy, Paula Moore, Maili Morrison, Pavithra Narayanan, Erin Nolan and Rebecca Parker were also nominated.

Salmon Creek: Two Boy Scouts passed their Eagle Scout Board of Review on March 14. Robert Fletcher of Venture Crew 511 and Caleb Starbuck of Troop 310 both attend Skyview High School. Fletcher, 18, built and placed duck boxes in cooperation with Stream Clean and Clark Public Utilities for his Eagle project. His parents are Glen and Marsha Fletcher. Caleb Starbuck, 16, of Troop 310 reconstructed handicapped access and developed a handicapped parking area for the lodge at Camp Currie for his Eagle project. Caleb is a son of Nate and Lucy Starbuck.

West Vancouver & Downtown

Esther Short: It’s been a long, slow slog for the Dream Big Community Center, a startup nonprofit aimed at improving the lives of children in need in Clark County. But Dream Big mastermind Nathan Webster passed a major milestone recently as he celebrated the grand opening of the place’s new headquarters — which happens to be some surplus county office space at 500 West Eighth Street that’s being used as a rent-free “nonprofit incubator.” Mayor Tim Leavitt and County Commissioner Steve Stuart spoke during the festivities. To learn more about Dream Big, visit http://dreambigcc.org.

Shumway: Concluding a weeklong focus on the novel “The Heartsong of Charging Elk” by James Welch, Washington State University Vancouver moved festivities downtown March 26 for a grand finale at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics’ Royal Durst Theatre. Seattle jazz musician and composer Wayne Horvitz Jr. presented his musical adaptation of the novel, arranged for four voices and chamber instruments. Welch’s historical novel relates the tale of a Lakota Indian who becomes stranded in France while traveling with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1889. Lecture topics during the week included the Wild West Show, Black Elk’s European travels and a conversation with the author’s widow about the research and writing of the celebrated novel.

Lincoln: Do you know where your saplings are? If you live in Lincoln you do — just take a peek at the latest neighborhood association newsletter. The April edition of The Lincoln Voice includes a detailed map of every tree planted by neighborhood volunteers and Friends of Trees, a Portland nonprofit that has been working for years to green the region by bringing discounted street and yard trees to neighborhoods. Lincoln and Friends of Trees have planted 54 trees in recent years, and the map can help you stroll about to admire them — and maybe pick a species for your own yard. Take a look at The Lincoln Voice at http://www.cityofvancouver.us/upload/contents/415/Lincolnapril2010.pdf. All trees can be viewed from the sidewalk or street; please be respectful of private property.

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

Evergreen: Louise Beckman spent a year and a half working on her quilt titled “The Island of Romance,” in honor of her late father-in-law, John Gabriel Beckman. Judges from the American Quilter’s Society say it was time well-spent. Beckman’s quilt was chosen as one of about 400 semifinalists in an International quilting exposition in Paducah, Ky. Her quilt features two monkeys that appeared 80 years ago in a mural painted by John Gabriel Beckman on the walls of the Casino on Catalina Island, Calif. Beckman used a technique she describes as painting with a thread. “It’s kind of like wrestling, because you have all that material to move around,” she added. Beckman is already hard at work on a second quilt based on her father-in-law’s work and said there may be a few more in the coming years.

Riveridge: Fran Rutherford was selected to serve as neighborhood chair of the Riveridge Neighborhood Association. According to the association’s latest newsletter, several neighbors expressed their gratitude at her willingness to continue to serve.

Mountain View: On March 20, Dilshan Mendis, Arnikan Baleswaran, Jonathan Wu, and Arranan Baleswaran of Mountain View High School placed first in the MESA Day Wind Energy Design Challenge. Mendis and the Baleswarans are from Sri Lanka and have been in the United States less than two years. Wu moved to the states two months ago from Taiwan. The students dedicated time after school and on the weekends to design a windmill to perform 3 specific tasks: lifting an unspecified mass, pulling a 200-gram vehicle and using mechanical energy to generate electric power. The team will go to the state competition in Seattle in May.

East Clark County: Camas & Washougal

Camas: Kevin and Kim Giel are taking a much-needed break from holiday decorating. Their home at 2707 N.W. Leadbetter Parkway is spruced up with holiday lights from Halloween to Easter. This time around they had pastel-colored C9 lights lining the gutters and driveway, 21 lighted Easter rabbits and eggs and an Easter Flag and a driveway. They swapped out the lens on their outdoor projector — which said “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” up ’til March 17 — for a lens that projected “Happy Easter” onto their fence.

Camas: Skyridge Middle School students have been looking for creative ways to raise money for Haiti relief. Their efforts proved fruitful as they brought in more than $1,300 through several fundraisers in the past few months. Teacher Jeanette Manwell’s Service Learning class connected with the Mercy Corps for Haiti Web site, and created a link where the Camas community electronically donated $350. The library collected around $140 in cash in February. Direct checks to Mercy Corps from the Camas community added up to another $300. Skyridge Middle School ASB organized a school social on March 19. The hour-and-a-half event featured music games and food and raised $555.