Letters

Proud mama

As I was hanging up my son’s Garfield-Palouse Letterman’s jacket this morning and washing his basketball jersey for the last time this season, I began to reflect on how much time and effort not only he, but his family, friends and fellow community members have invested into this basketball season.

Starting back in the early fall, as the leaves began to turn and the football games were coming to an end, my son and his teammates were gearing up for another season on the court; planning their approach to the game, ordering their team shoes and attire, and excitedly anticipating new play strategies.

It wasn’t long before all I heard at home was a ball bouncing on the floor and “Mom, did you wash my practice jersey? I have to be in at the gym in an hour!” Then the games began and the excitement surged.

Our boys have been a team for many years, both on and off the court. They have been complimented many times by folks with regard to their respect and congeniality, both toward each other, and to those whom they encounter.

I have always been proud to wear my Garfield-Palouse colors and state that I am a basketball player’s parent, and I have never been more proud of that fact than at 8:20 p.m.

on Saturday night, February 22, 2014.

While our boys did not win their final game against Colton, who played one heck of a good game, our Vikings played their heart out and the Garfield-Palouse community was behind them all the way.

It is always disappointing to end your season on a loss (although every team does, except for the state champions), but what I observed after the game ended is what made me the most proud of “my” team.

A large crowd of family and supporters waited outside the locker room door for the team to exit.

The boys slowly emerged, one at a time, and were met with a powerful sense of community pride and support. Each player was personally greeted by virtually every member of that group, and more impressively, several players of the Pomeroy team, who had won the District Title the night before (against Gar-Pal) and had come to watch this game.

The greetings were tearful and heartfelt.

I think each player was truly moved.

I know each of these boys has touched my heart, and I stand proud to be a Garfield-Palouse basketball supporter and parent.

To those graduating seniors, you will be missed; and to those players who will continue the tradition next year, I say “We are with you all the way, Garfield-Palouse Vikings, both on and off the court! You did NOT let us down.

You make this Mama proud!”

Sandy Jamison,

Garfield

Truly amazing

You may have seen recent photos and articles in the Gazette about the local robotics teams. One of those teams, comprised of five Colfax grade school and middle school students, accomplished something truly astounding last Saturday - they won the Champion’s Award at the state finals competition in Ellensburg. Before I explain why that is astounding, I’ll give you a bit of background on the robotics organization that hosts the competition.

FIRST, an acronym for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway scooter, and several lesser-known but equally innovative and important medical technologies. From the FIRST website,

“Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”

FIRST offers programs for three different age levels. FLL is the program for kids from fourth through eighth grades. For more information on FIRST, I encourage you to visit http://www.usfirst.org.

The Colfax FLL robotics team earned their slot at the state finals with a decisive win at the regional FLL competition in Spokane on January 26th. There are 591 FLL teams in Washington and British Columbia. At the state finals, the field is narrowed to 54 teams, or roughly the top 10%. So just going to the state finals is a terrific achievement!

The competition is tough.

Teams are comprised of kids from schools of all sizes.

There is no distinction for school size.

Teams from the smallest towns compete on equal footing with teams from the biggest cities.

And the teams from the biggest cities are led by coaches, mentors and parents from every big tech company you can think of in Washington, including Microsoft, Boeing and Amazon.

Many of these teams are long-established and well-funded.

They present a polished and professional image.

The Washington State Champion’s Award has never been won by a Washington team east of the Cascades.

Our little team just completed its second year.

It is organized under and primarily funded by 4H. Some funding also comes from local donors and their own fundraising efforts.

They meet in classroom space provided by JES on their own time, separate from their school and other extra-curricular activities.

The judging is structured and thorough. competition day starts early in the morning. All morning, the kids make presentations to judges. They present their research project and problem solution, their robot design, their programming, and their teamwork and other core values. They are given a challenge to solve and observed as they work out a solution as a team. All of these presentations are done without the assistance of the coach - the kids make their presentations on their own. The judges work from scoring templates to ensure that judging is thorough and consistent. In short, you don’t win any awards by fooling the judges. You have to know your stuff.

At the end of the robot competition in the afternoon, there is an awards ceremony where trophies are awarded for every category on which teams are judged. The final and most prestigious trophy awarded is the Champion’s Award. This is, in essence, all of the other awards rolled up into one. It is granted to the team that has dazzled the judges in ALL categories judged. The team that earns it has basically gotten everything right. The Champion’s Award is given to the most exemplary team. Saturday, it was earned by our Colfax team. It wasn’t a fluke - they really earned it.

The five members of this team are eighth graders Dylan Nails and Connor Johnson, sixth grader Hayden Fulfs, and fifth graders Johnny Szwast and Kierstyn York. Now, when you meet one of these extraordinary kids, you’ll have a little better understanding of what they’ve achieved. Ask them about what they’ve taken away from the FLL program. They’ll tell you all about it. They really know their stuff.

Aaron Johnson,

Colfax

One phone call

Hot off the press? I understand that news is a hugely competitive business in New York City, but in a small rural town with only one newspaper, wouldn’t it be “refreshing” to see the facts reported accurately and compassionately, rather than hurtful and hot off the press? Many times an article can add to the initial trauma itself.

My friend Charmaine Despain lost her entire family and home in a fire 2 months ago. If there are no “fur people” living in your homes, this article will fall on deaf ears, so you might as well stop reading now, you won’t get it.

The paper wrote, “three dogs and three cats were believed to have been in the house at the time” and firefighters found the remains of one dog and the cats.” If those had been people, no one would have reported, “the remains of one boy and three girls were found.” Charmaine had eight cats, all from the shelters at different times, many were black as they are the last to be adopted and the first to be euthanized as most people choose the colored ones.

This is a fact, just call any shelter.

She lost Andrew, Olive, Jiggy, Lowell, Stock and Yard, and Big Yellow, each with their own unique personality.

Two days later, she found Roy, who must have escaped, through the garage, when that door was opened by the volunteers.

The one blessing in this whole ordeal.

How often have you seen a dog, that has unfortunately found its way onto the freeway, cars whizzing by and some idiots even honking, and you don’t stop because you are in a hurry to get to your appointment, or you are dressed up and it is raining, or you are afraid you might be hit if you stop, or you already have a dog, or you think “surely” someone will stop and help that poor dog, you care, but you drive on.

Well Charmaine is that someone who does stop and gives Freeway a home.

Have you ever seen a cute spotted puppy tied up with a slip knotted piece of orange baling twine, in an obscure area of the sale yard on a Friday night at closing, where most people don’t look, with no food or water on a very hot day and you drive away hoping someone will take that puppy and do the right thing? Well Charmaine does stop and inquire about the puppy and Speckles goes home with her to join Norton, Boomer, Lucky, Red Dog and Spencer, many who have their own rescue stories or were inhumanely dumped off in the country and found their way to her home.

She is not a hoarder of animals, they were all well cared for, just call Randy McGraw DVM.

Charmaine has a heart as big as all outdoors and it was certainly traumatic to come home and find your entire family, your life and loved ones, gone in a blink of an eye, which added insult to injury, for her Mother Laverne had just passed away days earlier.

Put yourself in her shoes. That is a huge loss all at once, a lot to wrap your head around, a lot to mourn and say goodbye to all at one time. A life event no one ever really gets over, but some how you get around it.

If someone, anyone, had taken the time to make one phone call to interview her, they might have uncovered a heartfelt interesting story, than the rather cold, insensitive one, which was more about the firefighters and the way they extinguished the fire, than the person it happened to and her personal loss.

This is not to diminish in any way the appreciation she felt for all the people who came to fight the fire, but that being said, her personal privacy was also invaded by someone who repeated things they saw at her home, that should not have been revealed at all.

This is just one story about one person I am confident that with the rush to print the news, there are more people than not, that would have appreciated a simple phone call, being interviewed and their truth be what ends up in print.

I asked Charmaine’s permission to write this article.

Jo Kissler,

Honolulu

Road gold

I would like to take a moment to commend all the wonderful county road maintenance workers who have strived to keep us all safe. During the recent floods, my husband and dog each had surgeries, and it was imperative that I get home to care for them and our other critters. I made it home through the snow storm but could not get out the next day to get needed medication.

Along came the grader late that day to open the road enabling me to get to the pharmacy before closing. Then came the floods. The road washed out, and I hiked in after work. The crews came out within a couple of days and fixed the road so I could once again get in and out safely.

You are all gold medalists!!!!

Robyn Tramposch,

Colfax