MERRY CHRISTMAS Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2023
Vol. 144 No. 51
$1.00
Christmas services Centerville Community Church - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 5:30 p.m. Church of the Nazarene, Candlelight Service, Christmas Eve 6 p.m. Community Grace Brethren Church - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 4:30 p.m. New Life Assembly of God Church - Christmas Eve morning Family Hour 10:30 a.m.
GHS senior picked as nominee for honor LOU MARZELES EDITOR The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has selected a Goldendale High School (GHS) student as a nominee for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Award in Career and Technical Education, one of the most prestigious award programs in the country for high school seniors. Lexi Molnar’s name was submitted for consideration by teacher Heather Gallagher. The nomination came to Lexi by way of a surprise announcement. “I found out two or three days
CONTRIBUTED
CONTRIBUTED
UP FOR HONOR: GHS senior Lexi Molnar has been nominated for a prestigious honor.
ago,” Lexi says. “It was really recent that she got the email. [Gallagher] announced it to the whole class, and I didn’t even know [the nomination] was for that. It came in a really professional letter.” Lexi won’t know if she’s been selected as one of the Presidential Scholars for a while yet—the process involves culling names
See Lexi page A8
OMNIPRESENT SANTA: Science has finally revealed that Santa is able to visit gazillions of local sites and deliver presents all over the world in one night because he can be in many places at the same time! Saturday night he was at the Community Activity night at the Grange in Goldendale.
CPAKC Community Events gaining momentum LOU MARZELES EDITOR Saturday night saw another Coalition for Preventing Abuse in Klickitat County (CPAKC) Community Activity event that drew 149 people to the Goldendale Grange. CPAKC Coordinator Sunday Sutton says it was great fun for the almost-capacity crowd. “The inspiration behind it is to find ways for families to connect with their youth and to our community,” Sutton states. “One of the higher risk factors we found in our community is that youth do not feel connected to our community. And they also have some disconnect from families, their
own and in general.” Abuse prevention hinges on addressing key factors. “[It] focuses on reducing the risk factors such as low connection to our community and increasing protective factors such as strong family bonds for youth to help them make healthier choices and reduce their chance of early initiation of substance use,” Sutton points out. “Parents are the number one protective factor in youth lives. Their voice matters—that is why we’re focusing on strengthening family bonds and connecting youth to the community. When families have activities they can do together, it promotes bonding and connection.”
Saturday featured a guest appearance by a famous reindeer-sled driver who dresses in red and white and has a long white beard. “Santa’s a busy man this time of year,” Sutton says. The CPAKC events are funded largely through community resources, enabling the organization to provide a wide range of activities. “We’ve done bingo nights, family game nights, a movie night,” she says. The only event that totally bombed was a karaoke night. “Nobody wants to sing in public,” Sutton laughed. The events began twice a month in the summer; in the winter they’re down to once a month.
• As users increase their fentanyl quantities, the risk of lethal overdose increases • Withdrawal from fentanyl occurs almost as soon as the high wears off • Withdrawal can be physically and emotionally unbearable, leading users to immediately seek additional doses to avoid the pain • Narcan will save a life in the event of an overdose, but it also instantly initiates painful withdrawal • Fentanyl is cheap, usually less than the cost of a candy bar—until the addiction has taken root • A steady supply of fentanyl— enough to forestall withdrawal upon the cessation of the high— ends up costing large amounts of money ~ ~ ~ Mike calls it grubbing. His mother, Teresa, says she doesn’t know if the term is widely used
among fentanyl addicts, but she hears it all the time from Mike. He once corrected her when she called it scrounging. “Whatever you call it,” Teresa says, “it’s dehumanizing and evil. It’s the trail of slime people leave when they chase their next fentanyl high.” ~ ~ ~ Grubbing, Mike relates, is a necessary evil. “Once you’re hooked, you stay hooked,” he says of fentanyl. “There’s no way you can take the hook out of your mouth by yourself.” He means the only way out of fentanyl use, as far as he can see, is to take the labyrinthine path of rehab and its messy process—if you can even get into it. Short of that, Mike believes, you’re on fentanyl for the rest of what could be a very short life because an individual alone is incapable of extrication.
Fentanyl 5: our series on first-hand accounts Best decorated for 2023 of fentanyl use The Brighter Goldendale Christmas Committee has announced the winners of this year’s Best Decorated Homes and Businesses and Candy Cane Lane Parade entries. They are: Best Decorated Homes 1st - 623 NE High St. 2nd -1908 Jaxson 3rd - 219 East Collins
Best Decorated Businesses 1st - Traditional Heirlooms 2nd - The Lodge 3rd - Field of Stars Candy Cane Lane Parade Best Over All Parade Entries 1st - Clay & Karri West 2nd - Schaefer Family 3rd - Goldendale FFA
Freeze fans looking forward to Polar Plunge For all looking for a cool (literally), fun, and refreshing way to start the New Year, the Central Klickitat County Parks & Recreation District and Washington State Parks has the answer for you. Come on out to the 17th Annual Polar Plunge at 10 a.m. sharp on New Year’s Day at Maryhill State Park. This annual tradition is a fundraiser for the Central Klick-
itat County Parks & Recreation District. A $15 suggested donation is welcome for participation or for sponsorship. Maybe you don’t want to plunge, but you could always donate to have someone else plunge, or just come and watch the fun and fast event. Whatever you do, don’t be late. The Plunge starts at 10 a.m. and ends a few seconds later.
See Plunge page A8
LOU MARZELES EDITOR Today The Sentinel continues a multipart series of first-hand accounts from fentanyl users. The information is compiled from a variety of sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity either directly with The Sentinel or through an intermediary. To protect their privacy, names and details that could be used to identify the sources have been altered, though the information about their experiences unfold is accurate. Here is a brief recap of key information from previous stories in this series: • A dose of fentanyl small enough to cover the tip of a pencil can cause death • The fentanyl high is brief, typically lasting two to three hours • It takes progressively more fentanyl to get stoned as the body quickly develops resistance to the drug
See Fentanyl page A8