In your neighborhood

North Clark County & Woodland

La Center: University of Idaho senior Samuel Spence of La Center was a member of an engineering design team honored during an innovation showcase. The seven-member team won a Booth Award for its remote wildlife camera system, which automatically takes pictures of animals entering and leaving tree cavities. The camera was on display during the 17th annual Engineering Design Expo on April 30.

Amboy: More than 100 guests enjoyed a lively birthday party for the North Clark Historical Museum on May 22. The Fern Prairie String Band played and the Vancouver Heritage Ambassadors portrayed Amboy’s great citizens of the past — including Dora Young, organizer of the Amboy United Brethren Church (which became the museum), and architect and builder Emanuel Jensen. Ringing of the old Amboy School bell signaled the unveiling of a bronze plaque noting the building’s entry on the National Register of Historic Places. A congratulatory letter from Gov. Chris Gregoire was read, and a fried chicken luncheon was served in the basement. A commemorative postcard designed by Dan Gerges is available at the museum during open hours, Saturdays noon to 4 p.m. The museum is at 21416 N.E. 399 St.

Ridgefield & Fairgrounds

Fairgrounds: It’s been open for business since Christmas, but neighborhood leaders, park planners and county dignitaries threw an official dedication party for Fairgrounds Community Park on May 22. About 100 people, including dignitaries, parks staff and neighborhood leaders, braved intense weather to attend the dedication. Approximately 30 of the park’s 88 acres were developed as part of the Greater Clark Parks District; there’s a master sports fields plan for the rest, too, but wetlands and other environmental issues may block it — leaving the landscape pristine. The developed eastern acreage now features paved walking trails, a large playground, two covered picnic shelters with tables, basketball courts, open lawn play areas, restrooms and a parking lot. The park project was completed three months early and more than $1 million under budget. It’s at 216 N.W. 164th St.

Battle Ground, Meadow Glade & Hockinson

Battle Ground: Cherry Grove Friends Church recently held its 30th annual Mother-Daughter Tea for Prairie High School senior girls. More than 75 senior girls and their mothers, grandmothers and aunts gathered in the sanctuary-turned-tea room. The luncheon speakers were Trey Doty of George Fox Evangelical Seminary, followed by Prairie High School seniors Kayla Reed and Taylor Bear. Prairie junior girls acted as servers. Music was provided by Debbie and Grace Skinner, mother and daughter from Cherry Grove.

Hazel Dell, Felida & Salmon Creek

Salmon Creek: After she read our “What’s Up With That?” item a couple weeks ago about the abandoned trailer hidden in the woods along the Salmon Creek trail, neighbor Anne Moyers called with a little more information. When she moved into her home just above the trail in 1973, she said, most of the adjacent land was owned by Chuck Scherer and Elmer Heerman (it was eventually bought by Clark County and turned into the Salmon Creek Greenway we know and love today). The two men grazed cattle there but maintained “not much of a fence,” Moyers said, and the trailer was placed across a gully by Scherer and Heerman as a barrier to keep cows from climbing up to neighbors’ lawns — which they did anyway, Moyers said. Since then, the trailer — it is definitely an automobile trailer — has been shoved to the side where it’s easy for passers-by to miss.

Felida: Jennifer Rhoads won the grand prize, a Tulalip Resort getaway, during a fundraising casino night May 14 at historic Pickering Barn in Issaquah. The beneficiary was Encompass, a nonprofit agency that provides a variety of services to children in Issaquah, Sammamish and the Snoqualmie Valley. The event drew more than 200 people, and proceeds totaled $65,000. Rhoads’ niece, who lives in North Bend, receives therapy from Encompass.

Orchards, Sifton & Brush Prairie

Brush Prairie: Youths at the Rocksolid Community Teen Center recently sold some old stuff and scrubbed some vehicles to raise money. The annual gymnasium sale and car wash on May 1 raised more than $3,000, with a matching grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bringing in an additional $1,200. Rocksolid, 12919 N.E. 159th St., is a place where kids can go after school to play games, work on homework and be safe.

West Vancouver & Downtown

Downtown: P.J. Fisher loves football — playing it, watching it, talking about it. So when his new Little Brother began their friendship by asking whether he liked football, Fisher knew it was a great match. Fisher was a featured speaker during a Big Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest luncheon called “Little Moments Big Magic” at the Hilton Vancouver Washington. This chapter of BBBS serves Clackamas, Washington, Multnomah, Clark, Skamania, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties; in 2009 it served 730 children in Southwest Washington. To learn more, visit http://www.bbbsnorthwest.org.

Esther Short: The Esther Short Neighborhood Association and Vancouver’s Downtown Association swept through the area around Esther Short Park on May 15 to clean up. Volunteers installed 24 cigarette butt receptacles that were manufactured by Columbia Cascade Company of Vancouver.

Central Vancouver, Minnehaha & The Heights

Central Park: The Central Park Neighborhood Association’s revised and updated neighborhood action plan has been accepted by the Vancouver City Council. Neighborhood action plans are official statements of a neighborhood’s aspirations and priorities that city officials can consult when developing projects and assigning funding. Top priorities for Central Park, according to the new plan, are cleaning up and developing the Old City Cemetery, encouraging homeowners to renovate and rejuvenate their properties, growing the local tree canopy, slowing traffic and increasing pedestrian safety and staying on top of neighborhood nuisances and code violations.

Central Park: On May 14, Clark College hosted more than 130 participants in Teens Care Too, a substance abuse prevention leadership summit. Workshops and activities included police briefings, stress management techniques, brain studies, youth suicide prevention, healthy relationships and using the arts for prevention. Jeanne Harris, a member of the Vancouver City Council, joined in for a discussion about underage drinking in Clark County. The day ended with a collective art project that will be displayed in the Clark College library and an improv comedy performance by Comedy Sportz.

Van Mall: The students at Skinner Elementary Montessori are tres francais. Every year they participate in a single-day, coast-to-coast National French Contest, which involves answering recorded prompts at first; the top 20 percent of students in all levels and divisions then advance to a conversation portion. Twelve Skinner students made it to the top 10 in the nation in their grade level, and two more placed 11th. Comment merveilleux!

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

Mountain View: Mountain View High School students Bloor Redding, John Russell, Cody Laughlin and Brent Eastes all qualified for finals in the recent DECA International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Ky. About 13,000 students from the U.S. and Canada attended. Redding and Russell qualified in the Financial Analysis Team Decision Making Event, while Laughlin and Eastes qualified in the Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making Event. Redding and Russell emerged as the national champions in their event — that’s a first for Mountain View.

Fisher-Mill Plain: Computer clubbers at Pacific Middle School made some impressive showings — and showed off some awesome team names — during the Oregon Video Game Design Competition 3.0 in Salem on May 1. They competed with 20 other middle schools from the region and won two of the top three middle-school trophies. Team Banana Smoothies took second place in the overall championship division for their game “Run For Your Life,” and Rookie Team of the Year went to Team Edible Invaders for their game “Food Fight.”

Fircrest: According to Joe Beaudoin of Joe’s Place Farm on Northeast 112th Avenue, a new invasive Asian fruit fly is threatening many crops on the West Coast. It’s the spotted wing drosophila; females cut into the flesh of the fruit and lay eggs there. “This species of fruit fly reproduces faster and many more times in its life cycle than a normal fruit fly,” making it harder to combat and quicker to spread. Berries, cherries and peaches are all susceptible. “Because of this new threat, Joe will need to be spraying more often and at odd times of the day. He will do his best to keep neighbors informed and assured the association that the pesticides are not toxic to humans,” the Fircrest Neighborhood Association newsletter says.

East Clark County: Camas & Washougal

Downtown Camas: Dorothy Fox Elementary School showed solidarity with the family of Krista Colvin — whose battle with cancer is being chronicled by The Columbian and whose children attend Fox — by wearing pink ribbons and supporting Girls Night Out. That was the Downtown Camas Association’s May 14 breast cancer awareness event. Some children at the school also painted clothes pins pink to hang up the courageous “big girl panties” that were hoisted aloft during the Friday night street festival in downtown Camas.

Grass Valley: In honor of their new school and its striped, four-legged mascot, more than 100 fourth-graders at Grass Valley Elementary worked with artists Anne Lukas and Mishele Mays to create a life-size papier mâché zebra. Papier mâché is a great medium for kids, according to the artists, because it’s inexpensive, easy to make, “sculptural and messy” — the sort of project kids love. According to teacher Patricia Erdmann, the zebra is of impressive size but not too heavy to be carried up some stairs to its permanent home, the school library. See more of the process at http://www.annelukas.com.

Camas: Cheerleaders, band members, leadership students, football players, parents and others came together May 18 at Chipotle restaurant to raise $2,200 for Camas High School’s athletic programs. It will help pay for regional and state competitions that will cost far more, according to Principal Steve Marshall.