Encore May 2019

ENCORE

A Guide to a

Fulfilling Senior Life

in Whatcom County

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

What’s Inside....

Karen Coleman brings energy to new Lynden Community Center job — D3 Friends of the Ferndale Library help fund essential library programs — D8 Yarn tour stopping in Lynden — D10 Senior trips start locally, go global — D12

A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Karen Coleman is new office assistant at senior center She also helps nephew Randy Small with his Whatcom Weather website

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN ­— Karen Young Coleman brings youthful energy to the new job of administrative assistant at the Lynden Community Center.

Coleman had lived all of her 70 years in northern California until migrating to Whatcom County a year ago.

She came primarily to help her nephew Randy Small with his photography and very popular Whatcom County Weather website. Then in February she saw the senior center job advertisement listed in the Lynden Tribune, applied and was hired.

Don’t call Coleman a retiree. She has never let that word apply to her.

“That word is not in my vocabulary — never,” she asserts. “I want to work eight days a week, but they don’t let me.”

Coleman is the main person to greet anyone walking into the Lynden Community Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Monday through Friday. Then she will go home and put in another two to three hours each day handling the five-day forecast and doing a helpful community almanac on the Weather website.

“When I’m not sleeping, I’m in front of a computer,” she said.

One could say Karen has another reason to be in Whatcom County. Randy Small’s father, Gary, is her twin. (By priSee LCC on D4

Karen Coleman at age 71 is happy to be in the new role of Lynden Community Center office assistant. (Calvin Bratt/ Lynden Tribune) Inset: Coming to Lynden from California, she is able to be around twin brother Gary Small.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

LCC Continued from D3

mary calling, both Randy and Gary Small are pastors.)

Coleman said she has been in various versions of an administrative assistant job in businesses and a bank for most of her career life. She came most recently from being with a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company in California, although she also was an assistant manager at a senior facility in her home town of Woodland as well.

Lena Brink strong at 97

Karen Coleman is proud of this shot taken at Silver Lake by and with her nephew Randy Small. Together they operate as “The Whatcom County Weather Team.” (Courtesy photo/Randy Small)

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LYNDEN — Being 97 doesn’t slow down Lena Brink much.

At least twice per week, Lena will walk the nine blocks down Grover Street to the Lynden Community Center to partake of the noon meal and see about the program of the day.

Sometimes someone will offer to take her back home, but she is otherwise willing to walk the distance again.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

Lena Brink walks to the Lynden Community Center several times per week.

(Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

Lena is a striking figure when she is out in public, always dressed colorfully and stylishly and made up and coiffed to a T. She keeps up the large aqua house that she has lived in for more than 60 years. Her husband, Gordon, who died in 2008, operated a downtown Lynden tire and bike shop and was also Lynden’s fire chief for 13 years.

Bocce season has started, with about 16 in practices for Lynden LYNDEN — Bill Humphrey was in

a wheelchair last August when Lynden teams swept the top three spots in the annual bocce competition of the county’s senior centers.

Humphrey was determined to play even though he had just recently gone through surgery to remove part of his right leg.

This year, as the bocce season starts up again, Humphrey is on hand at the Bender Field practices, now fitted with a prosthesis on the leg. He is able to get up out of the wheelchair and stand on that artificial support, determined as ever to keep playing.

“He came to the tournament weeks See LCC on D6

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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LCC Continued from D5

A Lynden bocce player winds up for a toss to try to get closest to the target “jack” ball or knock opponents’ balls away. (Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

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after he got out of the hospital last year and played. He was not going to let it keep him from doing things,” said fellow player Jan Turner.

Jan’s husband, Frank Turner, is now the coordinator of the Lynden participation in this popular and easy sport for seniors — rolling a two-pound bocce ball down a 60-foot grass court. It has the feeling of being a little bit of a mix of croquet and bowling.

Practices are at 10 a.m. each Tuesday and Thursday.

For years prior, it was Sophie Van Wyk in charge. The 96-year-old sees bocce out in Bender’s fresh air as great exercise for seniors, but eventually her eyesight declined enough that she had to give up the sport — along with driving.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

ENCORE The Lynden players this year are: the Turners, Bill and Cathy Humphrey, Ken Feller, Dixie Scheffer, Ruth Tiersma, Vicky Dykstra, Betty Folkertsma, Bonnie Bass, Greg LumHo, Freida Groen, Chuck and Audrey Velotte, Enid Davis, Dale De Boer, Tina Dykstra, Wayne Goodard, Betty Hillis, Richard and Ann Honstein, Gary Love, Joan Smits, Janet Steiger, Denise Storteboom, Marie Van Rooyen and Ken Riley. Possibly Les Molenaar, in spite of sight challenges, will play.

They compete among themselves on the two days a week.

“We always want to win,” clarified Jan Turner. “We keep a score. We like going home winners.”

Membership in the center, which is required, is only $25 a year and includes a parking lot sticker, use of indoor exercise equipment and voting for the board of directors. A donation of $6 is asked of all who come for the daily hot noon meal.

Ferndale is having several people practice bocce outside its senior activity center each week.

The Bellingham Senior Activity Center has bocce ball at 10 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays at the Civic Field Sportsplex.

Frank Turner oversees the action on the bocce court, with portable perimeter markings, at Bender Fields of Lynden.

(Calvin Bratt/Lynden Tribune)

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Volunteer group helps keep Ferndale Library running

Muriel and John Leibrant routinely drive to the Ferndale Library from Lynden to browse the Friends of the Ferndale Library used bookstore selection. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)

Friends of the Ferndale Library sell donated books to provide funding for library programs

By Brent Lindquist brent@lyndentribune.com

FERNDALE

—

Every

Monday,

Wednesday and Friday morning, a group of volunteers can be found working away near the entrance to the Ferndale Public Library.

They are members of the Friends of the Ferndale Library, and they run the used bookstore located within the library. Three times per week, they check the condition of the bookstore, restock it and price new donations. About a dozen volunteers help maintain the store.

“We’ve been doing this for five years

in this spot year. We’re heading into our fifth-year anniversary in this building,” Friends member Norine Amend said.

The bookstore run by the Friends was a longtime dream of the group, and they made it happen with completion of the new library about five years ago.

“The concept of a self-serve bookstore was something that the Friends of the Ferndale Library really wanted when we got to take part in sort of dreaming of the new library, and this is what

emerged,” Amend said.

The store offers free and budgetpriced books for people of all ages and in a wide variety of genres. A donation box located adjacent to the shop allows people to donate their used books. The donation box is available anytime during library hours.

Twice each year, the Friends host a book sales corresponding with Ferndale Continued on the next page

Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

ENCORE events. On May 2, the group hosted their combined plant and book sale in conjunction with the Ferndale Community Garage Sale. Each holiday season, the Friends host their weekend sale corresponding with the annual Olde Fashioned Christmas event at Pioneer Park.

The sales made at the Friends’ bookstore all go to fund a variety of library activities, including the Issues that Matter discussion series, Books for Babies, Books Unbound, summer reading programs, Whatcom READS!, the Ramona Villani Memorial Fund for Teen Services and field trips to the library for local schoolchildren.

Ferndale Library branch manager Sarah Koehler said the Friends are essential to these programs because the Whatcom County Library System is not actually allowed to use its own funding to make them happen.

“The friends are our core volunteer group who provide funding for things that the library can’t pay for,” Koehler said. “We can’t gift public funds.”

At the end of the WCLS’s annual summer reading program, the library gives each child a brand-new book.

Those books are paid for by the Friends See Friends on D14

The donation box is open for donations whenever the Ferndale Library is open. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Into yarn? Your event starts today Wear on Earth is Lynden stop on five-day regional tour with 24 shops

By Calvin Bratt editor@lyndentribune.com

Wear on Earth proprietor Elva Eisel, center, was getting ready for the LYS Yarn Tour in her store with yarn dyer Maryanne Funk, right, and volunteer Deborah Alderliesten. (Hailey Palmer/Lynden Tribune)

LYNDEN ­— For those who are into this realm of hobbying, a big deal is happening for the next five days, and the start of all the adventuring is Lynden.

The Puget Sound LYS (stands for Local Yarn Stores) Tour is May 15-19, involving 24 shops stretching from Lynden to Kent, Port Townsend to Carnation.

Specifically, the northernmost of the True North stops on the schedule is Wear On Earth of Lynden, at 8150 Guide Meridian Rd. in Lynden Towne Plaza.

Elva Eisel, Wear on Earth proprietor, in her sixth year of being on the tour, is used to truly being the place where plenty of people do start out at 10 a.m.

Wednesday morning and then make their way south from Lynden. She counted 33 participants within her first hour of business last year.

“It’s a huge deal,” Eisel said of the overall five-day tour.

Who is this for? Well, if you’re into locally hand-dyed yarn, crocheting or knitting, patterns for such and products from such, it’s for you. Online, see maps, directions and details on every shop at www.lystour. com.

This year is the tenth for Wear on Earth — which is also a consigned clothing shop — in Lynden, first downtown and now westside.

Eisel says she has to really gear up with her staff, her husband and any other volunteer help that is available — she will bring her sister up by train from Oregon! — to be prepared for Continued on next page

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the rush that is the LYS Tour. She has to be ready with patterns, yarn, souvenir buttons, tote bags, daily gift certificate drawings, and stamps on the “passports” of those who visit.

Two other tour participants in Whatcom County are in Bellingham: Apple Yarns at 1780 Iowa St. and Northwest Yarns at 1401 Commercial St. Each shop has created an exclusive knit and crochet pattern just for the 2019 LYS Tour. Yarn for that pattern is 10 percent off. And a visitor each day gets a bag full of yarn and goodies worth at least $50. A “trunk show” allows the featuring of four vendors in yarns and accessories.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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The person interred in the Lynden Cemetery who lived the longest was Ellen Bodman-Nelson. She lived to be 108 years old. (1892-2001)

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Day trips or longer travel, by local arrangement

This is the happy entourage enjoying a boat trip of the past among the islands of the Georgia Strait. (Courtesy photo)

BSAC Travel Program works with proven tour operators WHATCOM ­— Are you interested in

travel and tours with other seniors? Then the BSAC Travel Program is for you.

Here’s the lowdown: “Our goal is to find trips and tours for our senior community. We work with independent licensed travel companies to coordinate trips that stimulate, entertain and take

the work away from you, the traveler, so you can enjoy your getaway adventure.”

The options are day trips as well as extended trips within the United States and internationally. Actually, you do not need to be a member of the Bellingham Senior Activity Center or any senior cen-

ter to take advantage of these trips.

When you sign up, here’s what you get: • One-on-one consultation with the tours coordinator, who answers any Continued on next page

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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• Trips operated by licensed travel companies. Many of these companies have proven, with 10-plus years working with BSAC, to be the “best in the business.”

• A dedicated tour director who manages the trip, passionate and eager to work with guests to ensure a great guided travel experience.

• Relaxation. Let the tour operator worry about transportation, hotel and many of your meals. You simply show up for your planned daily activities.

• Meeting fellow senior travelers from throughout Whatcom Country. You may also meet other seniors from other parts of the country when you do “extended travel.”

For more information on any of these trips, contact Darcie Romero with the Whatcom County Council on Aging at 360-746-3457 or dromero@wccoa.org.

See Tours on D14

An extended international trip through BSAC Senior Travel could be to as far away as Ireland. (Courtesy photo)

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Friends Continued from D9

of the Ferndale Library.

A recent women’s self-defense program was also funded by the Friends. Koehler said they can always bring in free presenters for these kinds of events, but they have found that paid presenters tend to put on better and more informative events. The Friends are essential to that, she said.

The Friends were also crucial to getting Ferndale’s new library built.

“When we built this building, they were out helping fundraise. I think they ended up raising about $100,000 for this building, and that’s all selling books in their little bookstore,” Koehler said. “When we built this building, they created a political action group to help get that information out.”

The Friends have also helped with the library’s bonds and levies in the past, Koehler said. The Friends help fill in the gaps that regular library staffing can’t tackle. The group has taken on these kinds of duties since it was incorporated back in the early 1980s.

“They are our supporters and advocates,” Koehler said.

“They fill in all of those places and all of those things that we otherwise can’t do. They’re great, and we could not survive without them.”

Friends of the Ferndale Library volunteers Meredith Jacobson, Jutta Vanderheyden, Judy Kelsey and Norine Amend peruse books donated by the community to the group. (Brent Lindquist/Lynden Tribune)

Tours Continued from D13

Day trips coming up with Bellair: • “James and the Giant Peach,” June 30, $96 • Tillicum Excursion, July 3, $147 • Grouse Mountain in Brit-

ish Columbia, July 17, $141 • Bellevue Square/Botanical Gardens, July 31, $58 • “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Aug. 1, $145 • Diablo Lake, Aug. 15, $113 • Seattle Waterfront/Lake Union, Aug. 25, $86

These are extended United States trips: • Colorado Rockies and National Parks, Sept. 8-16, 2019, $3,025 – $4,025 • Great Trains and Grand Canyons, Sept. 15-20, 2019, $2,495 – $3,195 • America’s Canyonlands,

Sept. 19-26, 2019, $2,975 – $3,900 • Cape Cod and the Islands, Sept. 22-28, 2019, $2,695 – $3,445 • Fall Colors/LighthousesGreat Lakes, Sept. 26-Oct. 4, 2019, $3,295 – $4,195 • Historic South, Oct. 13-

19, 2019, $2,825 – $3,675 • Music Cities, Branson, Memphis and Nashville, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2019, $3,095 – $3,945 • Canyons of the Southwest, Nov. 3-9, 2019, $2,250 – $2,800 • Music Cities Christmas, Dec. 6-11, 2019, $2,595 – $3,245

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, May 15, 2019 | Ferndale Record

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