community
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MARCH 22, 2012
North Bend Community Church celebrates 115 years of faith By Sebastian Moraga In 1914, a windstorm blew through North Bend, almost taking a church with it. Seventeen years after its inception, wind blew the North Bend Community Church off its blocks. An ironic twist, considering that since then, windstorms have come and gone, but the church has remained. “Back when they platted the city, a man who owned a lot of the land around here, Mr. Taylor, he designated this spot for a church,” said Peter Battjes, the church’s pastor for the past 13 years. Battjes’ Mr. Taylor is Will Taylor, the man state historians point to as the founder of North Bend. Now that once-windswept house of worship is a matriarch that has aged well, better even than Mr. Taylor, who died at age 88 in 1941. The church turned 115 in late February. So far, it has survived a fire in its schoolhouse in the 1910s and a change from American Baptist to general Baptist in 1997. “There was so much liberal-
By Sebastian Moraga
The hand of North Bend Community Church pastor Peter Battjes (above) holds a picture of the then-schoolhouse at his now-115-year-old church. The church steeple (right) is part of the fabric of North Bend. ism in the American Baptist that they made the change,” Battjes said. Those are but a few of the many changes the church and its centenarian building have seen. At one point, it had pews facing east. Now it has chairs facing north. The chairs are easier to remove, so the congre-
gation may host banquets and Valentine parties, Battjes said. “Plus, the chairs are so much more comfortable,” he said. The erstwhile women’s bathroom is now the janitor’s closet. The onetime men’s bathroom is now the storage room. The See CHURCH, Page 9
Relay For Life 2012 is one step closer By Sebastian Moraga
By Sebastian Moraga
Sarah Yelenich, community relations manager for the Snoqualmie Valley Relay For Life, said this year’s goal is to have 28 teams at the midsummer event. So far, 14 have signed on.
People in the Valley have many ways to know spring is coming — sunset arriving a teeny bit later than it did a week ago, baseball bats going ping! at the diamond by Mount Si High School, more people wearing Mariners jerseys. And the folks with the pink ribbons kicking things into high gear. Relay For Life, the annual fundraising event for breast cancer awareness, had a second kickoff March 10 at the Snoqualmie Valley YMCA. The actual relay will happen July 7-8 at Centennial Fields. But until then, there’s plenty of work to do. It’s not always easy, not even for a well-known event like Relay For Life. Event chairwoman Wendy Nesland said some still have misconceptions about the relay. “People think it’s a walkathon,” she said. “A walkathon is where you ask someone to sponsor you per mile. Here, we have everyone on the track for every hour, representing the 365 days a year and 24 hours a day someone with cancer has to live with it.” At the same time, Nesland
Get involved q PartyLite Relay For Life authentic German dinner q May 5, time and place to be determined q Tickets are now on sale, and cost $15. q Call Beverly Jorgensen at 922-8645. said, many people fear the relay is too large of a commitment for them to make. Not true, she said. “It’s just fundraising until the event and then the event, which is a lot of fun,” she said. Beverly Jorgensen is a member of the PartyLite team for Relay For Life. She said people from places like Federal Way and Kirkland have joined the team. PartyLite donated 720 tea lights for the Relay For Life’s Luminaria ceremony, she added. Tea lights lit inside plastic bags line the track during the relay as a tribute to people who have succumbed to breast cancer. Besides PartyLite, other teams are organizing dinners, garage sales and bake sales. The goal
for this year is to have 28 teams, and $92,000 in money, said Sarah Yelenich, the event’s community relations manager. Of the 28-team goal, the 2012 relay has 14 so far. The event wants 60 breast cancer survivors for the relay’s first lap, known as the Survivors’ Lap. So far, 17 have signed on. Besides survivors, those in charge of the relay said they want another group to have a strong presence during the relay. “Caregivers,” Anne Loring, a 12-year cancer survivor, said. “Caregivers are totally, totally important.” While folks count the days until the relay, they keep busy selling tickets and toppling stereotypes. The PartyLite fundraiser is an authentic German dinner, so you would think holding it on Cinco de Mayo might hurt ticket sales. Not so, Jorgensen said. “I even sold two tickets to two Mexican guys the other day,” she said. Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.