Encore October 2021

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Wednesday, October 13, 2021 A supplement of the Lynden Tribune and Ferndale Record

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | Ferndale Record

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Kredit’s glass ‘always half full’

Harlan Kredit in the Lynden Christian classroom in which he taught for 40 years. (Courtesy photo/Harlan Kredit)

82-year-old teacher has no plans to slow down

By Connor J. Benintendi connor@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — Among his many skills and experiences, Harlan Kredit is a science guy first.

In fact, the long-time Lynden Christian biology and earth science instructor remembers where he decided to pursue the occupation he has now done most of his life.

At 12 years old, Kredit visited Church

Mountain — a Cascade Range summit just off Mount Baker Highway — and found himself in a grassy meadow just below the peak. There, standing further beyond him, was a black bear.

“I saw that bear, in that setting, and that just seemed like magic to me,” Kredit said. “I kind of decided, at that point in time, literally, I wanted to be a science teacher.”

That expedition was where his infatuation with hiking and exploring the mountains began. Kredit has since brought decades-worth of his students to Church Mountain in hopes of providing them the same opportunity he had to fall in love with the outdoors.

For a time, Kredit was away from the beloved summit that sparked his scien-

tific interest. He moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend Calvin College — now Calvin University — and graduated in 1961.

From there, he attended the College of William & Mary in Virginia where he received a Master’s in teaching science.

Kredit taught high school science in Hudsonville, Michigan, for 11 years before returning to Lynden in 1974.

“One of the big reasons I came back is I missed the mountains and ocean,” he said. “My family was here, that was important, but the mountains and ocean are part of my science curriculum.”

A soccer player in college, Kredit has had high athletic interest for as long as he can remember. He also coached soccer and track & field while he was in

Michigan.

When he started teaching at Lynden Christian, he began coaching the school’s track & field roster almost immediately. He was asked to be LC’s athletic director not long after, then held the position for 30 years.

Kredit has now also been a member of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Board for 15 years. He represents District 1, which houses 55 high schools from North Seattle to the Canadian border.

“I’ve enjoyed the challenges, I love to watch kids compete,” Kredit said.

“That’s very important, I think, in their development that they have some kind of activity.”

See Kredit on C4

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Kredit Continued from C3

He may not be in the classroom full-time anymore, but Kredit still substitute teaches from time to time, helps in fourth-grade science classes and runs the school’s track meets.

Kredit said the highlight of his time as LC’s athletic director wasn’t the wins and losses, but in building connections with the athletes and assisting their development.

“It’s beyond athletics,” he said.

“My main focus has never been on the athletic field. My main focus has been in my classroom. The athletics complement that. I put those together. It’s an outgrowth of that.”

People often ask Kredit if kids are different now than when he began his job at LC 50 years ago. There are big differences in the tools they have access to, technology-wise, which can change some tendencies, he said.

At their core, though, they’re the Harlan Kredit works on one of his vintage cars at his home in Lynden. He owns three cars manufactured between 1930-60. (Courtesy photo/Harlan Kredit)

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“Everybody wants to be loved, everyone wants to be respected, everyone wants to be treated well,” Kredit said. “That part has never changed.

That’s human nature.”

His heavy involvement in the Lynden community and beyond is just the tip of the iceberg that is Harlan Kredit.

He just completed his 49th summer as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park. About 25 different groups of his former students came to visit him there this past year, he said. Kredit enjoys the various scientific projects that are consistently in progress at the park.

When he isn’t at WIAA Executive Board meetings, coaching track & field or eating peanut-buster parfaits with students who just want to chat, Kredit has numerous hobbies to keep himself busy.

He has kept his own beehives for nearly 50 years. Kredit got started in beekeeping by inspecting beehives for the department of agriculture when he lived in Michigan. He works on vintage cars, possessing three that See Kredit on C6

Harlan Kredit works on restoring one his antique player pianos at his home in Lynden. It is one of the many niche hobbies he enjoys. (Courtesy photo/Harlan Kredit)

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Kredit Continued from C3

Harlan Kredit stands at the desk of the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center in Yellowstone while working as a park ranger in the summer. For the past 49 years, Kredit has worked there each summer. (Courtesy photo/Harlan Kredit)

range in manufacture date from the 1930s to 1960s.

For nearly 35 years, Kredit has restored antique player pianos. There is a whole shelf in the living room of his home holding old cameras he’s collected over decades of enjoying photography.

As he approaches 82 years old in just a few weeks, Kredit has no plans to slow down.

“It’s exciting for me to get up in the morning and think ‘so, what’s going to happen today?’” Kredit explained. “I kind of like to live on the edge a little bit, not knowing for sure what’s going to happen.

I don’t like when everything’s so scripted.”

He is thankful for his health and sees no reason to stop when he can continue the things he loves. Kredit’s glass, as he put it, is always half full.

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Helping others, helping oneself Rose Crabtree leads Grief Share group at local church

By Bill Helm bill@lyndentribune.com

LYNDEN — Losing a loved one can be emotionally crippling.

Rose Crabtree was a young woman when she lost her brother. It took her decades to forgive the one she blamed for his death.

Crabtree and her husband lived across from her brother’s farm. She was only 23.

“I received a phone call in the evening that my brother was dead,” Crabtree said. “I was immediately enraged.

Unable to hardly say a word. Our minister was there, and I asked why. I truly have no idea what he said, as my anger was so consuming, I was unable to hear.

How could God allow my brother to die and leave four small children without a father? Within a few weeks I left the church. Why would I bother to go when I could not trust God any longer?”

Eventually, Crabtree would raise children of her own. God-fearing children.

“Both my daughters became women with faith in the Lord Jesus,” Crabtree said. “My daughter invited us to watch our son-in-law play the drums in a worship band. Of course, we supported our kids to the max and went to watch. Only to never stop attending.”

But it wasn’t until Christmas Eve 2001 when Crabtree forgave herself – and forgave God. “Pastor Kim at the end of every message asked us to bow our head and close our eyes and if any wanted to commit to Jesus, they could raise their hand,” Crabtree recalled. “I always respected everyone’s privacy and kept my eyes closed

where living is easy.

See Kredit on C4

,

Rose Crabtree leads a GriefShare group through North County Christ the King Church. (Bill Helm/Lynden Tribune)

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until … I opened my eyes to see my husband’s hand go up. My excuses were gone. I followed in February with giving my all to Jesus.”

GriefShare At 10 a.m. Saturdays, Rose Crabtree and Laurie Palmer lead a GriefShare group at North County Christ the King Church, 1816 18th St. Rose found that by helping others deal with their pain and their loss, she also helps herself.

“In 2010, we were going to retire,” Rose said of she and her husband. “So the question came up: what would get me out of bed each morning?”

Crabtree had decided to volunteer with hospice before she became involved with grief counseling.

“We stopped working in March and hospice would not teach a new class until fall, so I noticed that church had this GriefShare class so thought I’d go and learn what happened after someone died and then when I did hospice I’d know before and after,” she said.

But Crabtree never ended up volunteering with hospice. It wasn’t long after seeking grief counseling that Crabtree began co-leading a GriefShare group. Her co-facilitator, Palmer came to GriefShare three years ago as a participant after the loss of her father.

“Rose helped me realize that no two people grieve the same way,” Palmer said.

“Grief is different for each and every person going through it. As Rose’s co-leader for GriefShare, I have learned even more from her about grief and that it is a journey one must take to heal. Rose is an effective leader who listens and communicates with her heart. She spreads words of hope for all GriefShare participants to hear.”

‘Not alone’ For 10 years, Randy Watts co-led a grief share group with Crabtree. Mourning the loss of two miscarriages and then the loss of his marriage, Watts said that GriefShare “allowed me to share and grieve in a way I previously couldn’t” “Rose helped me know I wasn’t alone,” he said. “She was able to listen, not judge.

She allowed the group to help each other to move forward. It became group healing.”

Although the healing process is not entirely resolved in GriefShare, the program does give people the tools.

A woman known as Edie attended the GriefShare program after her husband had died unexpectedly.

“My world as I knew it was shattered,” Edie said. “I felt broken inside even as I went about daily activities and the business that needed to be taken care of.”

For Edie, GriefShare was a “safe space where leaders and participants alike share the common bond of a life altering loss.”

“Each week we watched a video and worked through a lesson that helped me move forward with the understanding that the journey would often feel like an obstacle course,” she said. “It helped me

realize that all of those feelings were normal, that there is no right or wrong way to grieve, and that there is no appropriate timeline for grieving. I am so grateful that GriefShare was available at a really dark time in my life.”

Letting go At her first GriefShare class not even

five minutes, Crabtree knew “that this class was meant for me.”

“I was able to let go of the anger I carried for so long,” she said. “It was so freeing. I understood that although I still to this day do not know the why, I no longer need that answer. God/Jesus is enough. I trust that all will and does work for good to those who believe.”

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Finding Safe Harbor Phillip and Elisa George’s business provides consolidated retirement planning

By Brent Lindquist brent@lyndentribune.com

WHATCOM — For Phillip and Elisa George of Safe Harbor Legal Solutions, the purpose is in the name.

Safe Harbor provides a welcoming place for people to learn about planning for their future.

Phillip and Elisa George worked at one of the largest estate planning firms in Washington until COVID-19 hit. They had an hour-long radio show and a footprint that stretched all over Whatcom County and beyond.

“We spent our time just talking about everything related to aging,” Phillip George said. “COVID came round and that firm had to reduce their footprint down. My wife and I made the decision that, rather than moving down to Federal Way to stay with that firm, we were going to continue our mission up here in Whatcom and Skagit counties and just do it under our own name.

Their work with Safe Harbor would be just like the work they had been doing for four or five years prior, just under a different name and different ownership.

Their goal? To offer a different way to approach retirement planning. To do that, Safe Harbor keeps fragmentation out of this kind of planning.

Elisa and Phillip George. (Courtesy photo/Safe Harbor Legal Solutions

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“None of the planning really complements one another,” Phillip George said. “What we do that’s different is we talk to people about incorporating all those things into their plan. It’s about health, housing and finances.”

The legal aspect of the business is kind of the highway that connects all three of those components, Phillip said.

It’s about establishing legal documentation so that health, housing and finances work in tandem with one another.

“We bring people together with their families and we go over those plans,” Phillip George said. “That’s really kind of a powerful moment because what we find is that a lot of the time, people don’t want to do that. It can be a tough subject.”

By sitting down with family and talking over planning with them, the situation won’t dissolve into a fight somewhere down the road.

Safe Harbor acts as a sort of consolidator of all the information required to successfully plan for retirement.

Phillip George said the best way to reach out to Safe Harbor is by attending one of their free educational seminars.

Check SafeHarborLegalSolutions.com/ seminars for more information; the next one will be Oct. 14 in Mt. Vernon, but Phillip George said they put on these seminars all over their coverage area.

“What we’ve found is after they’ve sat through a seminar, our initial consultations are quite a bit more efficient than if people just came to us off the street,” Phillip George said.

During seminars, he breaks down the cost at the end and shows what pricing will look like so there are no surprises.

Safe Harbor Legal Solutions is located at 1313 East Maple St., Suite 222, in Bellingham. Visit www.SafeHarborLegalSolutions.com for more information or call 360-746-7169.

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, October 13, 2021| Ferndale Record

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Getting help with aging family 82-year-old teacher has no plans to slow down

By Elisa Claassen for the Tribune

About 11 years ago I was assisting my mother at home.

Unlike expectant parents who often purchase “What to Expect When You Are Expecting” to prepare for the birth of their first child, as an adult child of an aging family member, I just didn’t really know what to do.

I was born to aging parents.

My father died in his late 70s when I was in my mid-20s. I had stepped into being a primary caregiver with little or no training. As the years passed, my mother was heading to age 90 and I was seeing changes in her behavior. One day she accidentally set something on fire in the stove – and didn’t notice.

I saw changes in her deposition and mood, sleep habits, and other things. I knew I had to keep her safe as well as keep my own sanity.

Thankfully I had a former coworker’s wife navigating her husband’s foray into the world See Aging on C13

Elisa's mother Bernice Lennart Claassen, left, at her 90th birthday. Around this time she transitioned into living at Christian Healthcare in Lynden. She lived until three and a half years ago. (Elisa Claassen/For the Tribune)

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What is the Lynden Community/ Senior Center? What do they do?

Meals, variety of activities provided at Lynden center

The Lynden Community/Senior Center provides a place and environment for one to experience great food, friendship and fun.

The Center particularly encourages seniors to continue in a physical and emotionally healthy lifestyle. The programs are designed to meet individual needs, develop inherent potential, promote personal growth and increase independence.

Membership

Though membership is required for some classes at the center, you do not have to be a member to come to the Lynden Community Center to participate in most drop-in activities. Noon meal, coffee bar, library, Wednesday breakfasts, blood pressure checks and footcare, entertainment, fundraisers and other social activities are open to adults of all ages, members or not.

Some classes and activities charge fees and in some cases a discount is given to center members. Although membership is not required, many become members to show appreciation and to place value on having the resources of the Community/Senior Center available to them and to others.

Also, there are no age restrictions, adults of all ages are welcome to participate.

Noon meal program

Our lunch program is independent of the rest of the county's senior centers.

It is not funded by any government entity but is made possible only through private donations from the participants and the community.

The noon meal program is especially targeted to those 60 or over, but anyone is welcome for $6 per meal. Home delivered hot meals are available for the homebound. Our meals are cooked on

site. The community is welcome.

Classes Classes are available to anyone in the community. They currently include exercise, strength training equipment, ukelele, and as well as many other games and activities including crafts, indoor and outdoor games, card games, vocal group, current events and other study classes. There is a fee for some classes and activities, and for some, center membership is required.

Operations The Lynden Community/Senior Center is governed by a volunteer board elected by the membership. The Center staff includes a full time manager and other staff including a bookkeeper, an administrative assistant, a program coordinator, a cook, and janitors.

Our many volunteers work with staff

in all kinds of ways that are essential to keeping the center active and growing.

Membership Membership at the Lynden Community/Senior Center is open to anyone and helps benefit the Center for its members and the community at large.

Membership is only $35 a year and includes:

• Monthly Newsletter

• Parking sticker (for parking in the Community Center parking lot while visiting)

• Allows use of the gym equipment (after training)

• Entitles one to participate in or be part of the election to the Board of Directors • Various discounts on travel through local businesses

• Member rate on footcare services offered at the center

• But most importantly, it shows your support for the operation of the Center.

For more information on membership, or to become a member, please call 360-354-2921, or just come on by. New Member Welcome and Center orientations are offered quarterly and are open to new or potential members.

The Lynden Community/Senior Center is a 501 (c) (3) charitable nonprofit organization.

— Information provided by the Lynden Community/Senior Center, Lynden Community/Senior Center; 401 Grover St., Lynden. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

M-F, closed Saturdays and Sundays.

Call 360-354-2921 for more information or visit lyndencommunitycenter.org.

Website includes list of programs, lunch menus, newsletter, contact information and donation options.

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Aging Continued from C11

of not only aging but having Alzheimer’s.

She saw my struggle and stepped up to kindly point my way to resources I did not know about. They were helpful as the one office alone opened doors to resources for other needs as they evolved.

I went to a caregiver support group initially and then switched to working oneon-one with staff to determine what to do each step of the way.

The Northwest Regional Council (NWRC) has a series of resources for the aging and those with disabilities. A bit of a clearinghouse they have staff who work with tired caregivers who may be children and spouses of those impacted by age or disability, others who can fill out intimidating paperwork, and work with finding the right places to go for additional care. The council works with clients in Island, San Juan, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

We sat down and went step by step to look at a spreadsheet of what local facilities would be a good fit as my mother needed more care than I could provide at home. We had to see what would accept her long-term care policy, where I

could more easily visit her to continue to be part of her life in her next stage of life, and also which facilities would accept the Medicaid funding as not all facilities do. With the rise of COVID-19, which has happened since my own experience, it even more important to plan ahead as some facilities don’t even take wait lists at present. Don’t wait until the last moment. Know what your options are – inhome helps, respite care for tired caregivers, special group homes or nursing home facilities.

It was nice to not make all of the decisions on my own and to have others more knowledgeable help me – for free.

When I went to seek advice, at one point, from an elder law attorney, I found out there were few options and one charged $500 for a half-hour consult with no actions taken.

NRRC is located at 600 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham. Due to COVID-19 protocols, look online at Community Based Care | Seniors, Adults with Disabilities | NWRC Northwest Regional Council (NWRC) (nwrcwa.org) for updated information.

ay W r u o Y , r e p a p Your News

Did you know that a subscription to the Lynden

Tribune includes FREE access to our mobile-friendly website? Whether you prefer turning pages or scrolling, sitting at home or on the go, we’ve got you covered.

113 Sixth St., Lynden 360-354-4444 www.lyndentribune.com

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More views of an illustrious career

Harlan Kredit taught high school science in Hudsonville, Michigan, for 11 years before he returned to Lynden in 1974. “One of the big reasons I came back is I missed the mountains and ocean,” he said. “My family was here, that was important, but the mountains and ocean are part of my science curriculum." (Courtesy photos)

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Lynden Tribune | Wednesday, October 13, 2021| Ferndale Record

Keep up with the latest on your heart.

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