Sammamish could be better, but many residents are happy with its autonomy
August 18, 2009
The second part of a two-part series reflecting on the founding of Sammamish.
By J.B. Wogan
In the beginning
Ten years ago, the Sammamish Plateau became a city. The thought had percolated through the community for more than seven years, gaining steam in a failed creation effort in 1992. But by 1998, residents said they were ready for a change, ready to assume command of their high property tax revenues and steer funding to local needs. A second incorporation ballot measure passed with 66.85 percent of the vote.
Seven residents found themselves in charge of making a city out of thin air.
“It was pretty interesting becoming a new city,” remembered Don Gerend, one of the original City Council members in 1999, and current mayor. “I found it very exciting, very stimulating … You were drinking from the fire hose of educating yourself on municipal government.”
“We really didn’t understand where we were going to meet and how to get things started,” said Deputy Mayor Jack Barry, also part of the original City Council.
The council’s first public meeting was held at then-Mayor Phil Dyer’s home, Barry said.
“We mutually all agreed that we were all prepared to work countless hours until we got the city up and running,” Barry said. “It seemed exceedingly overwhelming.”
City Hall wasn’t as it is today. City staff worked in an office at the Sammamish Highlands Shopping Center. Instead of today’s 69 full-time employees, the city had 10 temporary employees.
“I thought the first City Council had a lot of the expertise to put it together,” said former Councilman Ken Kilroy. Kilroy pointed out that the council had a former fire chief, a former law enforcement officer, an accountant, a former high school administrator and a land-use attorney.
“The challenge was getting off to a sound start with your city services,” he said. The city needed to establish fire and police protection, and then it would need to turn its attention to road improvements and adding more parks, he said.
Change came slowly. The city acquired 120 acres of parkland within the city limits, plus another 178 acres at Evan Creek Preserve (outside the city limits). Through partnerships with the Issaquah and Lake Washington school districts, it gained access to seven acres of school ballfields, available to the general public when the schools weren’t using them. The Parks Department added trails at Llama Lake and Beaver Lake Preserve.
The City Council issued a key permit that allowed King County to open the East Lake Sammamish Trail in 2006. In the same month, Sound Transit opened a Park & Ride lot on 228th Avenue.
The city also purchased the Sammamish Commons site, which now houses City Hall, a skate park, a basketball court, a climbing wall and a playground in the lower Commons area. The city jumpstarted community events such as the Sammamish Farmers Market, park concerts, and the annual Fourth on the Plateau fireworks display.
“I don’t regret supporting the incorporation. I think it was really important to draw some political boundaries around our community,” said Leslie Kralicek, who ran and lost in the 1999 City Council election. “It really shined a light on this area to get some significant investments.”
Kralicek said it wasn’t perfect though. She wished the City Council had adopted a different form of government with a strong mayor. Kralicek said the current form of government consolidates too much power in the City Manager position and what’s more, residents can’t vote that person out of office.
“I’m not exactly sure that’s in the residents’ best interests,” she said.
Phil Dyer, part of the original City Council, said he thinks Sammamish of today is “fine.”
“I think the council is a little generous with its spending right now,” he said. He added that he wished the council positions were divided into different districts, an idea he pushed early in his council tenure.
“Right now, the neighborhood doesn’t have any voice,” Dyer said. “Politics is best when it governs closest to the people.”
In spite of those misgivings, Dyer said the situation is far better than if the plateau were still fully under King County’s jurisdiction.
Vicki Baggette, another candidate in the original 1999 election, said she initially had fears that the new city would facilitate growth, and growth in the wrong ways. She imagined strip malls and loads of cement.
“I kept worrying that we were going to turn out like Spanaway,” she said.
She said she was pleased with some of the road projects, like widening 228th Avenue and giving it sidewalks. She also appreciated the city’s work in installing more walking trails in the area, she said.
“It’s still been a long process to see it happen,” she said.
Bob Brady, who also ran in the first election and now sits on the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District Commission, said he’s relatively pleased with how things turned out.
“I was envisioning a bedroom community. That was really the key, which was unlike Issaquah and Redmond,” Brady said, explaining that the city should have enough businesses to reduce people’s trips off the plateau, but not so much that the character of the area would change.
“It’s hard to get people to envision a city that’s different from any other city they’ve ever seen and hang on to it,” Brady said.
Sammamish of today comes pretty close, he said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
The second part of a two-part series reflecting on the founding of Sammamish. Follow the link for Part I.
Ten years ago, the Sammamish Plateau became a city. The thought had percolated through the community for more than seven years, gaining steam in a failed creation effort in 1992. But by 1998, residents said they were ready for a change, ready to assume command of their high property tax revenues and steer funding to local needs. A second incorporation ballot measure passed with 66.85 percent of the vote.
Seven residents found themselves in charge of making a city out of thin air. Read more
Air guns in Trossachs raise alarm
August 18, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
Toy guns or not, parents in the Trossachs neighborhood were alarmed after a spate of air gun incidents in June.
Miho Reed said her daughter was walking across the street one day when a boy intimidated her with a BB gun.
One boy aimed the gun at Reed’s daughter and asked if she wanted a piece of him, according to the report. He also asked if “she wanted to go.”
Reed was worried by the confrontation and called police.
“I’ve had neighbors where their windows were broken,” Reed said, adding that neighborhood children have dressed in camouflage, playing war games. “It was really getting out of hand.”
Alyson Cathro, another Trossachs resident, said she was disappointed by the way some parents responded to her neighbors’ concerns about the air guns.
“A lot of people take it very, very lightly, like they’re harmless, and they’re not,” she said.
Reed agreed.
“There were some neighbors and homeowners that were totally apologetic, but there were some neighbors who were very flippant about the whole thing,” she said. “That’s where you have to point to the law and say it’s actually illegal. We can press charges.”
Sammamish’s municipal code classifies the unlawful use of air guns as a misdemeanor, something that the King County District Juvenile Prosecuting Attorney’s Office could enforce if the suspect was older than 8 and younger than 18.
The city’s code defines “unlawful use” as any person who points or shoots an air gun at another person or another person’s property; the definition also allows that the shooting or pointing must occur at a close enough distance that the shot would cause harm to another person or another person’s property.
Lynn Moberly, the city of Sammamish’s prosecutor, said the maximum sentence for a gross misdemeanor is one year in jail or a $5,000 fine.
“That would not normally happen on a first offense,” she added.
Sammamish Police Chief Nate Elledge said his department was trying to avoid charging the children involved with a crime.
“My preference is to handle this with pressure from the HOA,” Elledge said. A representative from CDC Management, which runs the Trossachs Homeowners Association, sent out a mass e-mail to residents explaining that possessing air guns was against the association’s policy, Elledge said.
“The goal is to get it to stop,” Elledge said. “Do I really want to expose these kids to the juvenile system? I was hoping to go this without going the enforcement route.”
For the moment, the e-mails appear to have worked. Reed and Cathro both said that the air gun incidents had subsided.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
Toy guns or not, parents in the Trossachs neighborhood were alarmed after a spate of air gun incidents in June.
Miho Reed said her daughter was walking across the street one day when a boy intimidated her with a BB gun.
One boy aimed the gun at Reed’s daughter and asked if she wanted a piece of him, according to the report. He also asked if “she wanted to go.”
Reed was worried by the confrontation and called police. Read more
Kathy Huckabay, a city founder, retires from council
August 18, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
The announcement came May 28 at the tail end of a flurry of e-mails from would-be Sammamish City Council members: Kathy Huckabay would not seek re-election.
“I think after 10 years, it’s time to move on and give some other people the opportunity to step up,” Huckabay said in a later interview. At the time that she was making her decision on whether to run for a third term, U.S. Bank offered her a job in Seattle as a regional financial planner, and she decided to take it.
Huckabay is one of the original City Council from 1999. Her tenure spans the road widening along 228th Avenue, the creation of City Hall, the East Lake Sammamish Trail opening, and the drafting of all municipal master plan documents to date.
“It was a surprise to me,” said City Manager Ben Yazici, who credited Huckabay with helping to start the Sammamish Kiwanis Club and for laboring over Sammamish’s need for more public transit.
Huckabay, married to Warren Huckabay with three adult children, moved to Sammamish 24 years ago.
“She’s a part of that institutional memory of the beginnings of the city,” Mayor Don Gerend said. “We’ll miss her.”
Gerend, who has been on the council with Huckabay since 1999, said Huckabay played a major role in pushing for more transportation options for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as bus riders. He added that one of Huckabay’s more interesting contributions was an experiment in 2004 when, as mayor, she wanted to build in more interface between the public and the City Council.
“She felt very strongly about the connection between the council and citizens,” Gerend said.
Huckabay had the council set up a table in the Pine Lake QFC once a week, where people could have an informal dialogue with their government representatives.
As mayor in 2009, Gerend has revived that practice — but with some modifications — by having council office hours at City Hall once a week.
Former councilman Troy Romero said Huckabay made an impression on him from the beginning of their time on the council together.
“Kathy had a challenging situation in that she was the lady and there was all these boys,” he said. She was the only woman on a seven-person council.
Romero and Huckabay drafted the city’s land-use code, adopting the bulk of it from King County. They met on Saturday mornings at one of the local elementary schools, he said.
Romero guessed that Huckabay spent up to 100 hours, and perhaps double that, working on the first city code.
“Kathy was very good at land-use stuff. She had a passion. It was her baby,” he said.
Huckabay supported the failed effort to form a city on the plateau in 1992. Still lobbying for eventual incorporation, Huckabay spent three years learning about land-use policy as an Issaquah Planning Commissioner during the mid-1990s. One month before the residents voted in favor of incorporating, Huckabay seemed poised to run for the first Sammamish City Council.
“This is not the most important vote,” Huckabay told the Sammamish Review in October 1998. “The most important vote is when we pick our City Council.”
When she ran (and won), she sold herself as a fiscal conservative. She told the Sammamish Review in 1999 that she supported a six-month moratorium on building, but did not want to litigate against King County for poor growth management in the Sammamish area.
Phil Dyer, the city’s first mayor, remembered Huckabay as the colleague who best represented a balance on the King County East Lake Sammamish Trail issue. Dyer fell on the side of protecting Sammamish residents’ property rights while other council members were more focused on the need for the trail.
Huckabay tried to balance those perspectives, Dyer said.
“She was relatively measured in that,” he said.
Ken Kilroy, another colleague from the original City Council, said he sometimes disagreed with how Huckabay wanted to spend city funds. What sticks out in his mind was a mansion she thought the city should purchase for a civic use.
“We didn’t always agree, but she was always professional about how she conducted her business,” he said.
Huckabay’s civic career almost extended beyond the city level when she ran for the state Senate in 2004, picking up 40 percent of the vote as the Democratic candidate in a defeat to Cheryl Pflug.
On a council that touts itself as fiscally conservative, Huckabay has been especially frugal in the last two years. She was the rare dissenting vote against projects and contracts that she identified as insensible, poorly timed or too expensive. The latest example was a 1-6 vote in which she was against paying $75,000 to an out-of-state consultant to advise the city on road connections. She also opposed the 2.5-mile East Lake Sammamish Parkway design in January 2008, which led to a related “no” vote on the 2009-2010 biennial budget, which included funding for the first phase of that design. In June 2009, Huckabay also helped vote down (3-4) the relocation of the Freed House, which the city estimated could cost more than $600,000.
Huckabay is one of two council members not running in the upcoming election, leaving at least two seats open for newcomers. She said she didn’t have advice for those who replaced her, but perhaps a hope.
“What we accomplished were some major capitol projects. Now that that piece of work is almost complete, I would hope that the next council would begin to focus on the community itself and begin to respond to the demand for more community services.”
She suggested the next council tackle a community center, a pool, more parks and more activities for seniors, teens and family groups.
“I would hope that we would start to make investments in those quality of life activities,” she said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
The announcement came May 28 at the tail end of a flurry of e-mails from would-be Sammamish City Council members: Kathy Huckabay would not seek re-election.
“I think after 10 years, it’s time to move on and give some other people the opportunity to step up,” Huckabay said in a later interview. At the time that she was making her decision on whether to run for a third term, U.S. Bank offered her a job in Seattle as a regional financial planner, and she decided to take it. Read more
Festival celebrates Indian culture, Independence Day
August 18, 2009
By Christopher Huber
Vedic Cultural Center director Hari Vilas Das had such a tough time procuring a house-size inflatable cow for the Kumbha Mela Festival of India that he had to look all the way to Southern California.
The company he found shipped it in time for festival volunteers to put it on display in front of the Sammamish facility along 228th Avenue Southeast Aug. 13-16.
“That’s a happy cow,” Vilas Das said during festivities Aug. 14. In Vedic culture, cows are treated like a member of the family.
After it was all said and done, close to 12,000 people from around Washington, and some from India, visited the Vedic Cultural center to celebrate the birth of Hindu deity Krishna and the Indian Independence Day, among other celebrations.
Visitors partook in cultural dances, songs and deity-bathing ceremonies and enjoyed free Indian food with family and friends.
The center buzzed inside and out with children in traditional garb and women wearing vibrant saris.
Krishna followers and curious community members alike experienced the jovial chanting, music and colorful deity dressing late into the night throughout the weekend.
They also perused the replica Vrindavan village outside. The village depicts what followers believe are some of the immortal pastimes of Krishna when he appeared in Vrindavan, India 5,000 years ago.
“I thought it went wonderfully. The message got through that we’re all part of one family,” Vilas Das said. “I think it was a really enriching experience for most people.”
The Kumbha Mela festivities featured many of the center’s students, including Sammamish resident Ayush Sharma, 11, who led much of the devotional singing portion in the temple Aug. 14.
The festival finished Aug. 16 with a 60-person Broadway-style Indian cultural dance performance, Vilas Das said.
“It was spectacular. It was like a Broadway performance group,” he said. “People were howling it was so good.”
More than 30 volunteers worked for two months to prepare the Vedic Cultural Center for Kumbha Mela, organizers said. It was the largest Indian cultural festival in Washington, they said.
Harini Goea, of Bellevue, spent much of the festival giving tours of the Vrindivan village. She said she simply wanted to show the community the rich cultures and traditions of India.
“We just want to share our culture with everyone here,” she said.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
Vedic Cultural Center director Hari Vilas Das had such a tough time procuring a house-size inflatable cow for the Kumbha Mela Festival of India that he had to look all the way to Southern California.
The company he found shipped it in time for festival volunteers to put it on display in front of the Sammamish facility along 228th Avenue Southeast Aug. 13-16.
“That’s a happy cow,” Vilas Das said during festivities Aug. 14. In Vedic culture, cows are treated like a member of the family.
A two-story inflatable cow greeted visitors to the Vedic Cultural Center. For more, see Page 10. Photo by Christopher Huber
Local youth turn city streets into speedways for a day
August 18, 2009
By Christopher Huber
To local special-needs children like Brett Allen, the annual Rotary Challenge Gravity Race means a lot. For one day, dozens of Sammamish youth gather with their parents, local business owners and Sammamish Rotary volunteers to race soap-box cars.
For parents like Allen’s mother, Kris Allen, seeing the smile on their face as they fly down Southeast 24th Street is worth everything.
“This is the best day of the year for him,” Kris Allen said of Brett being able to race. “He looks forward to racing every year.”
Racing lasted nearly three hours Aug. 15 near Discovery Elementary School as area children with disabilities, coupled with able-bodied 11- to 13-year-olds, steered and pedaled hard to be the first across the finish line.
Sammamish leaders, such as city manager Ben Yazici and the Rev. Bill Heric, of Eastside Catholic, led off the beginning heats.
Members of the Eastside Catholic football team received the racers as they glided across the finish line.
The high schoolers got a good workout by pulling the seven-foot-long cars back up the hill. The Skyline cheer squad lined the racing strip and spent the morning cheering the children on. Volunteers with Athletes for Kids also helped with racing.
“It’s really good to come out and support,” said Crusader football player Connor McCormick.
The event benefited Issaquah-based Life Enrichment Options, a special-needs outreach organization that works to provide housing, recreation and employment options for people with developmental disabilities. Throughout its 20 years as a non-profit, Life Enrichment Options has partnered with housing contractors and local outreach organizations to increase awareness about people with disabilities. It helps special-needs youth transition from home to life as an adult.
The Sammamish Rotary Challenge Gravity Race is one of two soap-box derby-style events held each year for the children. Local companies and organizations built and funded each of the racecars.
As racing wound down, just before the community barbecue Aug. 15, the sun came out. Brett Allen won the 11th heat and smiled with gladness.
“You can never pay enough to see his smile,” Kris Allen said as she helped Brett from the car. “The smile is worth it all.”
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
To local special-needs children like Brett Allen, the annual Rotary Challenge Gravity Race means a lot. For one day, dozens of Sammamish youth gather with their parents, local business owners and Sammamish Rotary volunteers to race soap-box cars.
For parents like Allen’s mother, Kris Allen, seeing the smile on their face as they fly down Southeast 24th Street is worth everything.
Sam, right, and Hannah Taafe, get ready to zoom down Southeast 24th Street during the Sammamish Rotary Challenge Gravity Race Aug. 15. Photo by Christopher Huber
A fond farewell
August 18, 2009
By Sarelyn Radecke
This week, I am heading off to the land of overpriced books, overextended bedding and overachieving students: college.
My mom told me I had to choose my bedding before I could buy any other dorm supplies. She told me this in June.
I kid you not; I have actively been looking for bedding since June.
All potential dorm bedding fell into three categories for me: weird, kiddish, or stupid. Observe the following conversation between my mother and myself.
“What about this one?”
“Weird.”
“This one is nice…”
“Kiddish.”
“Well, what do you think about this?”
“Stupid.”
The more I looked at bedding, the more I considered not sleeping in a bed. Either that, or just not sleeping in general. I wondered how much money I could get for a bed frame and a mattress, or even, how much a hammock would cost me.
I don’t think people understand how much of a dilemma this bedding issue was for me. I mean…I fantasized about being that one girl that everyone talked about from the moment I set foot on campus.
Student 1: “Hey—you see that girl over there?”
Student 2: “Yeah?”
Student 1: “She’s the one—the one who doesn’t even have bedding!”
Student 2 faints.
Finally, I found it. A fourth category of bedding existed: perfect.
It was as if a light were shining down on it as I walked into the store (actually, a light was shining down on it because it was on display) because it just felt perfect.
To say that it’s eclectic would be an understatement – it’s made up of six different fabric textures, ten different colors, and looks like it exploded out of the factory in which it was made. I think it fits me.
That being said, I am heading to the land of overpriced books, overextended bedding, and overachieving students this week. So, I have to bid you Sammamish Review readers farewell as I move on to the next phase of my life.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing for the Sammamish Review, and I hope you have enjoyed reading it!
Hopefully, I will get the chance to update you on the battle between me and the Freshman 15 in December!
Just remember, readers: Life is funny. Don’t forget to laugh every once in a while.
Oh, and always go for the obscure dorm bedding. Life’s more fun that way.
This week, I am heading off to the land of overpriced books, overextended bedding and overachieving students: college.
My mom told me I had to choose my bedding before I could buy any other dorm supplies. She told me this in June.
I kid you not; I have actively been looking for bedding since June.
All potential dorm bedding fell into three categories for me: weird, kiddish, or stupid. Observe the following conversation between my mother and myself.
“What about this one?”
“Weird.”
“This one is nice…”
“Kiddish.”
“Well, what do you think about this?”
“Stupid.”
The more I looked at bedding, the more I considered not sleeping in a bed. Either that, or just not sleeping in general. I wondered how much money I could get for a bed frame and a mattress, or even, how much a hammock would cost me.
I don’t think people understand how much of a dilemma this bedding issue was for me. I mean…I fantasized about being that one girl that everyone talked about from the moment I set foot on campus.
Student 1: “Hey—you see that girl over there?”
Student 2: “Yeah?”
Student 1: “She’s the one—the one who doesn’t even have bedding!”
Student 2 faints.
Finally, I found it. A fourth category of bedding existed: perfect.
It was as if a light were shining down on it as I walked into the store (actually, a light was shining down on it because it was on display) because it just felt perfect.
To say that it’s eclectic would be an understatement – it’s made up of six different fabric textures, ten different colors, and looks like it exploded out of the factory in which it was made. I think it fits me.
That being said, I am heading to the land of overpriced books, overextended bedding, and overachieving students this week. So, I have to bid you Sammamish Review readers farewell as I move on to the next phase of my life.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing for the Sammamish Review, and I hope you have enjoyed reading it!
Hopefully, I will get the chance to update you on the battle between me and the Freshman 15 in December!
Just remember, readers: Life is funny. Don’t forget to laugh every once in a while.
Oh, and always go for the obscure dorm bedding. Life’s more fun that way.
Sammamish teen leads adoptees back to China
August 18, 2009
Group goes to help in Chinese orphanages
By Christopher Huber and Lauren McLaughlin
Sammamish teen Tian Kisch made her first trip back to her birthplace in China four years ago. As a 12-year-old, the visit to the Guangzhou orphanage she lived in until she was eight months old brought her full-circle and answered some of the questions she had growing up.
She faced the questions many adopted children have: ‘Who are my birth parents? Where are they? Why could they not take care of me?’
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m so lucky to be in the U.S. and to have opportunities,” Kisch said, reminiscing about the first trip. “There are so many things that could’ve been different.”
Kisch saw what her life could have been like had her parents not brought her home to Washington. Even though she toured the country and stayed in nice hotels with her parents Ken and Linda and younger sister Moli, the experience changed her outlook on life. It helped her see how much she has here; how easy it is to give back to orphans and the disadvantaged in China.
“It’s amazing what you can do with so few resources,” Tian Kisch said. “The importance of giving back is really taken for granted.”
That idea resonated with her and some of her peers at Families with Children from China and eventually led to the group’s first service trip in July. For many of the 11 Seattle-area teens and nine parents, it was the first time back, but for a few, it was a chance to serve in orphanages and expose themselves to the real China.
The group volunteered in five orphanages and child-care facilities across China for 17 days.
Kisch and fellow organization board member Julia Tombari, 13, of Seattle, organized the trip virtually on their own, Kisch said. The trip took more than a year to plan, as the two teens worked with the adult board members to procure a travel company, sign-up travelers and approve itineraries, among other things. The organization hosts various gatherings throughout the year, Kisch said, but the older children didn’t have many opportunities to learn about their heritage.
“There wasn’t really anything for the older kids. It was our idea and we brought it to the board and they said, ‘alright,’” Kisch said. “They thought it was pretty ambitious.”
While she and her friends were volunteering their time in the orphanages, Kisch said she realized, “this could’ve been me 16 years ago.”
Since China opened its adoption program in 1992, more than 100,000 children have come to the United States, said Lara Peterson, president of the organization’s northwest chapter.
“I think it’s going to be eye-opening, because for many of them it was their first time back to China,” Peterson said. “For many of them it reopened questions about their adoption story. They spent a lot more time thinking about the impact, and what were their lives like, when they were in the orphanages.”
Families with Children from China is a loosely organized group of parents and their adopted children from China, with chapters in most major cities in the United States and some international chapters.
The organization provides information to parents of adoptive children on how to deal with issues that may arise and also provide support to form playgroups and connect with other parents who have gone through the same things. They also help with the adoption process by providing advice on local adoption agencies and information to prospective parents.
They organize events such as a Chinese New Year celebration, Autumn Moon festival and a Chinese-American heritage camp every year, said Peterson.
“In the past we’ve arranged symposiums where adult adoptees have come to talk to our members about their experiences, and we’ve had Chinese dance or language classes,” Peterson said. “We do a lot of activities that the children and their parents are interested in.”
The 16-year-old Northwest chapter is unique in the fact that it has teens on its board of directors.
“The biggest impact is we’re a lot more in tune with what the kids want,” Peterson said. “Now they’ll tell us what they’re interested in, what they want to do, like the China trip. Now we really try to listen.”
The group originally existed as a small group of parents, Peterson said. It currently serves about 250 families in Puget Sound, but its reach extends to more than 500 families. Approximately 50 percent of member families live on the Eastside.
“(The trip) actually got families that had not been active for a while to come back and be part of the organization,” she said.
Peterson said about a quarter of the adoptive parents in the Puget Sound area are involved with the Families with Children from China.
“In an ideal situation everyone with children from China would be involved, but due to the economy the membership is actually down,” Peterson said. “A lot of families rejoined just for the trip.”
Kisch and Peterson said they hope to make the China service trip a biennial tradition for teens in the Northwest Chapter.
“For so many it’s sort of the closing of the loop – that circle that started 16 or 17 years ago,” Peterson said. “Hopefully they’re able to go back and answer some questions. Across the board the girls said, ‘we have so much’ and, ‘what can we give back?’ and I hope this trip fulfilled that.”
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
Sammamish teen Tian Kisch made her first trip back to her birthplace in China four years ago. As a 12-year-old, the visit to the Guangzhou orphanage she lived in until she was eight months old brought her full-circle and answered some of the questions she had growing up.
She faced the questions many adopted children have: ‘Who are my birth parents? Where are they? Why could they not take care of me?’ Read more
Sammamish youth is a top translator
August 18, 2009
By Christopher Huber
Skyline High School graduate Daryl Hansen earned an honorable mention for his performance in the seventh annual International Olympiad of Theoretical, Mathematical and Applied Linguistics July 26-31 in Wroclaw, Poland.
He was one of eight high school students representing two teams for the United States. Eighty-six students from 17 countries competed at the event.
“I did alright,” he said. “I’m not regretful about what I did, but I didn’t do great.”
The students had practiced together online for weeks leading up to the late July competition, said Hansen’s father, Barry Hansen in an e-mail to the Review.
The event involved individual and group competition where students solved complex language translation problems. They were given a few key phrases in a language they don’t know which were translated into English. Using those phrases as a key, the students had to translate other phrases and passages in the foreign language.
The languages in each test problem included Sulka (an East Papuan language), Bamana (from Mali, Guinea and west Africa), Burmese and Nahuatl (from Aztec Mexico). The problems used languages not known to participants, so as to avoid giving anyone an advantage, Barry Hansen said.
The team test was in Vietnamese and lasted four hours July 28.
“The first time you see (the problem) you think it’s virtually impossible to do it,” Daryl Hansen said. “By the end of it you could read Vietnamese … it was still really cool to be able to read the sentence like you knew Vietnamese.”
Daryl made the national team after finishing in fourth place out of 135 at the third annual North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad March 11.
See the problems and final results at http://www.math.uni.wroc.pl/~msliw/lingw/iol/index.php?s=home.html.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
Skyline High School graduate Daryl Hansen earned an honorable mention for his performance in the seventh annual International Olympiad of Theoretical, Mathematical and Applied Linguistics July 26-31 in Wroclaw, Poland.
He was one of eight high school students representing two teams for the United States. Eighty-six students from 17 countries competed at the event. Read more
Greg Gallagher wins 16th Beaver Lake Triathlon
August 18, 2009
Johnna Koenig of Sammamish is tops in the race’s women’s
division
Johnna Koenig of Sammamish is tops in the race’s women’s division
As he prepared for a dip in Beaver Lake Aug. 15, Skyline High School rising senior Jamie Eide chuckled as he thought about taking a nice long nap once he got home from participating in his first triathlon.
Eide is an avid cyclist — he’s pedaled the Seattle-to-Portland three times — but he had stayed up until 6 a.m. the morning of the Beaver Lake Triathlon.
Johnna Koenig, of Sammamish, muscles her way toward the transition (from the cycling leg) to the running portion of the Beaver Lake Triathlon, on the way to her victory in the women’s division. Photo by Greg farrar
36 miles of exploration in Cougar Mountain wildlands
August 18, 2009
By Christopher Huber
If you’ve ever been to a jungle in Latin America, taking a hike in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park will likely remind you of that experience.
Actually, the park, located in the Issaquah Alps on Cougar Mountain, feels a lot like the rainforest in Monte Verde, Costa Rica, minus all the noisy bugs, giant tarantulas or the strangler fig trees.
Especially after a light drizzle, the forest emanates a freshness only found in the Pacific Northwest. And with well-maintained trails throughout, hikers should enjoy every step of the way.
Anyone with a few hours on their hands should consider exploring the park from the Sky Country trailhead, elevation 1,188 feet.
The network of trails throughout the wilderness area leads to numerous historical sites, such as Anti-Aircraft Peak, and geographic features like waterfalls, caves and high-up vistas.
But if you want an easy-going, relatively quick trek, head to the mineshaft and clay pit.
From the Sky Country trailhead, take narrow Old Man’s Trail to begin. A few minutes in, outside noises will fade away, but for the occasional bird chirping.
Take a right onto the Cave Hole Trail — signposts help hikers navigate easily — and follow it for about .1 mile. Then you’ll take a left onto the By Pass Trail and walk among the tall ferns and mossy trees for another .2 miles.
Hang a right onto Fred’s Railroad Trail. After about half a mile, you’ll hit the East Fork Trail. Turn left and the trail eventually takes you around Jerry’s Duck Pond.
(Pssst, geocachers, there’s a cache hidden near the pond.)
Take a left at the sign for the Mine Shaft Trail.
The grate-covered opening to the Coal Creek Mineshaft is located at the end of the short trail, in a small clearing. See if you can hear your voice echo down the mineshaft, or if it’s just bouncing off the trees.
To return to the car, continue on the trail for about 100 yards and take a left on the Clay Pit Road. If you want to explore some more, go right on the road and you’ll momentarily reach the clay pit.
The wide-open view of the surrounding forest and blue sky is wonderful, but be careful not to slip on the slick clay — it accumulates on your shoes and you’ll lose traction.
About the park
With more than 36 miles of trails, Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park is considered the gem of King County’s 25,000-acre park system, according to the county’s Web site.
In 2005, the park was ranked No. 19 in the Trails.com Top 100 trails in North America.
There’s something for everyone on Cougar Mountain. It offers ample space and variety for the avid trail runner, but much of the terrain is flat enough for families with children to enjoy the scenery.
Recreational strollers should be able to navigate the trails. Although much of the park’s trails prohibit horses, there are 12 miles of trails open to equestrians.
At approximately 3,100 acres, Cougar Mountain Wildland Park connects to Squak Mountain State Park by the Cougar-Squak Corridor and creates a 5,000-acre protected public land area. It’s located in the Issaquah Alps, between Issaquah, Bellevue and Newcastle.
Many animals, such as bobcats, black bear and a variety of birds, call the park home.
Cougar Mountain played an important role in the area’s history. The lush forestlands provided rich gathering and hunting grounds for Native Americans.
As people settled in the area through the mid-20th century, the mountain provided resources in coal mining and logging, according to the King County Parks Web site.
The park was even home to two Nike missile sites, in the 1950s and 1960s, which were designed to protect the Puget Sound region from Soviet bombers.
King County took over ownership of the land and turned it into the protected wildland park it is now.
Getting there:
From Interstate 90 westbound, take the Lakemont Boulevard Southeast (Exit 13). Head south (turn left) for about 2.5 miles on Lakemont Boulevard Southeast. Turn left onto Southeast Cougar Mountain Way.
Go 0.6 miles and then turn right onto 166th Way Southeast. Follow the road through the gate and look for the parking lot on your right.
The Sky Country trailhead is at the back of the parking lot, at the King County Parks kiosk stand. Be sure to grab a map.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.sammamishreview.com.
If you’ve ever been to a jungle in Latin America, taking a hike in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park will likely remind you of that experience.
Actually, the park, located in the Issaquah Alps on Cougar Mountain, feels a lot like the rainforest in Monte Verde, Costa Rica, minus all the noisy bugs, giant tarantulas or the strangler fig trees.
Especially after a light drizzle, the forest emanates a freshness only found in the Pacific Northwest. And with well-maintained trails throughout, hikers should enjoy every step of the way.
Stop at the clay pit to play in the gooey clay and take in a wide-open view of the surrounding forest. Photo by Christopher Huber
