Army Sgt. 1st Class Dave Sivewright needed a special partner to teach him to love running.
He didn’t find it amongst his fellow soldiers at the 104th Training Division in Vancouver. When he took up the sport in 2008, he instead picked a running partner that was flying over the barracks.
It’s the American flag, and no matter where the 50-year-old Ridgefield man runs today, he takes it with him.
“I used to hate running,” said Sivewright, who was reassigned to Salt Lake City, Utah, last summer. “But while I was in Vancouver, some friends kept trying to get me to go and build up a group. So I decided to make it more interesting, and I got a flag and a pole and I started running with the flag.”
Sivewright’s wife and the couple’s seven kids remain in Ridgefield, where he hopes to return after his two-year stint in Salt Lake. He keeps a flag and a pole at the house so that every time he visits, he can run with it.
“When I started doing this, the country, the economics, there was just a lot of negativity around, and I thought it was important to promote something positive,” Sivewright said. “People always stop me and they think it’s great. The response has been phenomenal.”
Sivewright took the flag along with him for the Salt Lake Half Marathon on April 17, and he says he’ll be running with it along the streets of Clark County when he returns for a brief visit on April 28.
“My whole thing is just to remind people that we have an awesome freedom,” he said. “We live in a great country.”
Vancouver artist part of landscapes show
“Range,” the current exhibit at Clark College’s Archer Gallery, explores various representations of landscapes. Among those whose work is included in the show is Vancouver artist Harrison Higgs.
Higgs, who teaches fine arts at Washington State University Vancouver, has contributed an installation titled “Albedo” that combines photography and sculpture. “Range” continues through April 30. For more information, go to http://www.clark.edu/archergallery.
Higgs, 45, likes to consider the interplay between constructed and natural landscapes in his work, as well as the relationship between what is machine-made and what is man-made.
“That’s important to me,” he said.
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