The IssaquahPress
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MAGNIFICENT MATRIARCHS Brunch celebrates moms of children with special needs By Christina Corrales-Toy newcastle@isspress.com The sky was gray on a May 10 afternoon, but inside Swedish/Issaquah, where a special group of moms were treated to an early Mother’s Day brunch, it was nothing but sunshine. Look no further than Issaquah mom Kimberley Lane’s Mother’s Day card, signed lovingly by her son Brian Galbraith with the inscription “your only sonshine.” It was just one of the many charming scenes at Life Enrichment Options’ second annual “Mother’s Brunch,” a carefree celebration of the super moms that care for children with special needs. The gifts kept coming for Lane, who also received a potted plant Brian crafted himself at the event’s special arts-andcrafts station. “This is awe-inspiring,” Lane said of both the brunch and LEO organization. “The entire community can benefit from seeing the similarities, not the differences, they share with these young adults.” Swedish/Issaquah hosted the brunch at its Café 1910 restaurant, provided volunteers and ensured the meal was free for families. The event
more than tripled in size this year, thanks to the hospital’s sponsorship. “It’s so in alignment with our mission and the work that we do, being the hospital here to serve and support our community, we wanted very much to open our doors to the organization,” said Nicole Yurchak, a business development and community relations specialist at Swedish. While moms munched on pastries and chicken tenders, their kids crafted special Mother’s Day flowerpots courtesy of the Tavon Center. The Issaquah program helps young adults with disabilities connect with nature and the community. Issaquah mom Debbie Arefi was all smiles as daughter Sofia handed her a potted plant of her own creation. “This is so wonderful,” Debbie said of the brunch. “Getting to share stories and meeting other families is so special. It’s wonderful that they do this.” LEO’s Chris Weber came up with the idea for a brunch while pouring over Mother’s Day advertisements last year. She saw special lunches and breakfasts, but understood firsthand how difficult such a setting was for families that included kids with special needs. These moms deserved a special day out, too, within the comfort of a sensitive environment, Weber said. LEO hosted about 30 people at Blakely Hall during last
Phi Beta Kappa honors music teacher
Photos by Christina Corrales-Toy
Above, Joseph Song, a Swedish/Issaquah volunteer (right), helps Brian Galbraith put together a plotted plant as a Mother’s Day gift at Life Enrichment Options’ Mother’s Brunch May 10. Below, Galbraith gets a hug from his mom Kimberley Lane after giving her the gift.
ON THE WEB Learn more about the Life Enrichment Options organization at www.lifeenrichmentoptions.org. year’s event. This year’s brunch attracted upward of 100 moms and families. “It’s a place to be comfortable with your family and not have to worry about any behavior issues that your kids have,” Weber said. “It’s heartwarming just to feel you’re in like company.” Founded in 1988, the LEO organization advocates for people with developmental disabilities in the areas of employment, housing, recreation and community education. The
nonprofit was formed after a group of parents of children with developmental disabilities joined to fulfill a need within the population. “The work that they’re
doing is so incredible, so powerful and unique, and I think they need a light shined on them,” Yurchak said. “It’s an honor to be able to partner with them.”
Plucky students meet ukulele master
By Alexa Vaughn Seattle Times staff reporter
Riley Frasier’s mother could hardly keep her 7-year-old from popping out of his seat. Every time worldrenowned ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro started plucking a symphonic range of sound few others have ever drawn out of the short, four-stringed instrument, Riley had to stamp his feet, rock his head so hard his glasses could barely stay on his nose and strum the air. And who could blame him? Certainly not other fans of Shimabukuro’s ukulele solos, an eclectic and international audience that includes the likes of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder and the Queen of England (who has shaken Shimabukuro’s hand). On his way to a concert at The Paramount in Seattle, Shimabukuro stopped by Issaquah High School on April 26 to offer a workshop for students and a thrilling afternoon — part instruc-
By Lindsey Wasson/The Seattle Times
Jake Shimabukuro plays ‘This Land Is Your Land’ with dozens of students from Sunny Hills Elementary School, among them Ellie Lindley, Natalie Anderson and Mia Rogers in the front row. tion, part performance — for a roomful of ukulele lovers of all ages. About two years ago, Shimabukuro decided that the stops on his national tours would include free ukulele performances and lessons the morning or afternoon before he took the stage. “I just thought I’m in all these cities anyway and I have the perfect vehicle to promote music education — literally my tour bus. Why not?” Shimabukuro said. “I love sharing my passion,
and I want to inspire young people to find that same passion in something and work hard at it.” That desire is now playing out through Shimabukuro’s Four Strings Foundation and was exactly what Riley and almost 500 others enjoyed. When Shimabukuro invited the audience to join in, more than half had brought their own ukes. Children, teens, parents and seniors followed Shimabukuro’s wrist- and
OPENING THE ARCHIVES AN ONGOING LOOK AT MEMORABLE IMAGES FROM ISSAQUAH’S PAST
2009.006.080.084
Boating on Pine Lake Two young women, Gertrude Goode and Bea ?, sit in the stern of a small boat at Pine Lake; hills and trees are in the background. Handwritten beside photo: ’Bea & Gertrude Goode’ and ’Boating on Pine Lake.’ From Ferol Tibbetts’ album, dated 1911-1921.
Wednesday May 14, 2014
The Issaquah History Museums take requests regarding what people would like to see in the Digital Collection. Roughly quarterly, volunteers have a data-entry day and prep a bunch of records for upload. If there is a particular name, place or item you’d like to see more images of on the website, email Erica Maniez at erica. maniez@issaquahhistory.org. If you have a photo or subject you would like to see in this feature, email editor@isspress.com.
finger-placement directions, and looked up every now and then with dropped jaws at the sound coming from the auditorium. “One of the things I find fascinating about the ukulele is it doesn’t intimidate anyone. It’s affordable. It’s portable,” said Shimabukuro, who hopes to make ukuleles a more mainstream public-education tool. “My own grandma, who’s never played an instrument, started playing in the last year, and she’s 80. Anyone can learn.” After wowing the audience with a few of his favorite songs, he invited about 40 students from Sunny Hills Elementary School to sit with him onstage and strum a background chord for “This Land Is Your Land.” Among them was Riley, who wasn’t supposed to go onstage with the thirdand fourth-graders, but did anyway. Once Shimabukuro asked for budding musicians, there was no holding Riley back, said his mother, Melissa Frasier. She said he’d known
about Shimabukuro and the ukulele for only a couple of weeks, but was already obsessed with picking up the instrument. The director of the Four Strings Foundation, middle-school music teacher Polly Yukevich, said the nonprofit is also concentrating on creating custom music curricula for lowincome districts throughout the country. For schools in Detroit lacking music teachers, Yukevich said they developed lessons that teachers could lead without having any music instruction themselves. Shimabukuro, 37, said he’s been giving free music lessons and performances since he was in high school, and likes how the nonprofit can connect students and an entire community. Friends Wendy Pickering, 59, and Dave Jager, 58, aren’t in school anymore, but the ukuleles they started playing this year have them feeling like new See UKULELE, Page A10
Longtime Issaquah piano/ music teacher Brad Smith will receive the Pathfinder Award from the Puget Sound Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The honor will be given May 15 in an invitation-only ceremony at the Seattle Yacht Club. Smith, his family and friends will be accompanied by his prizewinning chamber Brad Smith orchestra. The orchestra will play the “Serenade for Strings,” by Edward Elgar. “The Pathfinder Award reflects the imagery on the Phi Beta Kappa key — a hand pointing to the stars,” a letter notifying Smith of the award read. “It honors those who encourage others to seek new worlds to discover, pathways to explore and untouched destinations to reach. You were selected for this award due to your inspiration, leadership and powerful impact on the orchestra students at Eckstein Middle School.” Smith teaches at the school in Seattle, but he and his wife, fellow piano/ music teacher Gail Gross, have lived and taught for many years in Issaquah. Some past recipients of the Pathfinder Award are Seattle Symphony Music Director Gerard Schwartz, and Quincy Jones, jazz musician, record producer, conductor, arranger and composer. The Pacific Science Center will be a fellow recipient with Smith this year.
Kids get free helmet at bike rodeo Recology CleanScapes, in partnership with the city of Issaquah and Bike Works, will host a Kids Bike Rodeo from 9 a.m. to noon May 18 at Pickering Barn, 1730 10th Ave. N.W. The event, held during National Bike to Work Month, teaches children bike safety, riding skills and proper helmet fitting. The police department will host a bike safety course and is providing a limited number of youth bike helmets. Staff from Bike Works will fit the helmets for children. Bicycle Center of Issaquah will be teaching the ABCs of bike safety. The Kids Bike Rodeo will also include music, refreshments and raffle prizes. Learn more at http://bit. ly/1mRU9qk.
Liberty’s renovation is the talk of earth-friendly buildings By Neil Pierson npierson@sammamishreview.com Liberty High School students are keenly aware their school is undergoing a major modernization project, but they might not know the intricate details about the new building’s environmental friendliness. Liberty’s renovation was part of a large-scale discussion at the school last month when the school’s Sustainability Ambassadors hosted three assemblies about green-building
practices. The discussions, titled STAR Talks (Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating) were designed to give the student body a taste for what the new wave of building standards look like, particularly in regard to schools. Sustainability Ambassadors is a group that connects students from King County. They focus on a variety of eco-friendly topics, and each student receives about 120 hours of training per year in public speaking, policy analysis,
project management and performance assessment activities. Vincy Fok, a Liberty sophomore, was moved to join the ambassadors after one of the group’s leadership coaches, Peter Donaldson, spoke in her class last year. “I’ve learned the issues on sustainability in our local area, and the solutions that have been proposed,” Fok said. “There’s so much out there that has been See SCHOOL, Page A10