.com
NEWS | Violence Prevention Coalition meets, sets goals for future [2]
VOL. 18, NO. 33
MIRROR
F E D E R A L WAY
DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
OPINION | Intro column: Meet new Mirror reporter Jerod Young [8] Roegner: Democratic sweep looks possible [8] PHOTOS | Images from FUSION’s Bollywoodthemed summer fundraiser [3] BACK TO SCHOOL | Sending your scholars back to class [13-24]
SPORTS | Federal Way’s Kuhnly FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2016 | 75¢ finds joy in being first [6]
COMMUNITY | Dawson creating bright future at Gonzaga [31]
Federal Way receives application for seafood warehouse to occupy portion of former Weyerhaeuser property BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@fedwaymirror.com
T
he city of Federal Way has received a notice of master land use application to construct a 7.2-acre warehouse for Orca Bay Seafoods on the former Weyerhaeuser property. If approved, the 68-foottall, 314,424-square-foot building would include office and food processing space with parking for 310 cars and 35 truck-trailers. There will also be “associated site work including wetland filling” on the 19acre site. Currently, the acreage
is home to a forested area to the east of the former Weyerhaeuser building. The proposed site is located on two parcels with the addresses 33700 32nd Ave. S. and 3120 S. 344th St. in Federal Way. “I think that it’s hard to give up the trees, and I’m hoping [the applicant will] develop the property with minimal impact by preserving some trees that will shield the property,” Federal Way City Councilman Mark Koppang said, stressing that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the City Council. “To clear-cut and put in a parking lot and
a building would not be a good thing.” Koppang said it’s a matter of redeveloping the land with the least amount of impact, as he’s positive about the opportunity to bring new jobs to Federal Way. “Hopefully they’ll buy lots of food and commerce will be good,” he said. “It’s one of those things: Things are going to change, we just didn’t know how.” Mayor Jim Ferrell said the proposed development falls under current zoning uses, and any new construction on the property will follow the normal permit[ more ORCA, page 12 ]
The former Weyerhaeuser campus. JASON LUDWIG, the Mirror
‘BFF Club’ promotes inclusion, looks to expand Beamer grads,
others, make app for stroke survivors
BY EVAN ELLIOTT
eelliott@fedwaymirror.com
In September 2014, Gwen Gabert and some friends came to Juliana Martin and asked if they could take Martin’s self-contained special education class to the Homecoming dance. In just two years, that gesture has evolved into a 60-plus member “BFF Club,” a club designed to promote inclusion among the special education and general education students at Federal Way High School. Gabert and Martin aren’t satisfied, though, and they want to see their message of compassion and friendship spread like wildfire to other schools. “I think you want every child to grow up feeling liked, loved, having friends, being included,” Martin said. “The earlier you can start that, the easier it will be. Our goal would be, by the time you get to high school that it’s no big deal there’s a BFF Club because you’ve always been friends with someone that’s different than you.” Martin and Gabert each had lifechanging experiences, or circumstances, that separately led them to their vision and the creation of BFF Club. For Martin, meeting with Devin from the special education department as a senior at Kentridge High School was about getting Starbucks once a week — until it wasn’t. Martin and
Students to release 3rd app this month
Students from Juliana Martin’s class embrace Gwen Gabert, who helped start Federal Way High School’s “BFF Club.” Photo courtesy of Gwen Gabert Devin became fast friends, enjoying every Friday after school with one another. The duo’s friendship paved the way to Martin’s calling in life working as a Functional Core Teacher — but Devin was the real teacher, teaching Martin about unconditional love. Gabert found the meaning of unconditional love through her brother Joe, who’s affected by a mitochondrial disease that delays his development and makes it so he’s unable to swallow, speak or move voluntarily. But the infectious smile on his face on a daily basis suggests he’s no different from anyone else, and Gabert looks to him
for sunshine in her life. The desire to take Martin’s class to homecoming came from Gabert wondering where Joe would fit into the fabric of high school life and a desire to make sure he was just as included as she was. “I realized when Joe gets to high school he’s not going to get to go to homecoming. It made me want to take [all] the special education students because they don’t get to go to homecoming,” Gabert said. “Joe doesn’t get to play soccer or do [ more BFF, page 25 ]
couldn’t even say ‘yes,’” she said. “He could say ‘yes,’ but sometimes he meant ‘no,’ so it was just… nothing was BY RAECHEL DAWSON working for him.” rdawson@fedwaymirror.com Her father would become frustrated because “his Dee Rogers’ dad can’t mind was and is totally say his wife’s name, but there,” Dee Rogers he can recite his said. children’s. But then the “With aphasia, family discovered practicing is the that pictures resomain therapy,” nated with him. she said. He could point to In November, what he needed on the Rogers family a chart that depictMaddie Rogers was hit with an ed about 40 tiny unexpected tragpictures, which the edy when Dee hospital staff provided. Rogers’ father had a stroke. Still, the pictures were According to the Navague and the amount of tional Aphasia Association, them overwhelmed him. 25-40 percent of stroke Dee Rogers’ daughter, survivors acquire aphasia, Maddie Rogers, who’s which is a “communicastudying computer science tion disorder that impairs at the Colorado School of a person’s ability to process Mines, and her husband, language, but does not afwho works at a software fect intelligence.” company in Seattle, scoured “When my dad was in the hospital, he really [ more APP, page 11 ]