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To your health! Healthy Living, our quarterly magazine quarte devoted d d to better b h health on the North Olympic Peninsula, is included with this edition of the Peninsula Daily News.
December 25, 2011
(Yes, really!)
An interview with
Inside!
Joy in face of tragedy Gifts replaced as family copes with death, burglary BY TOM CALLIS
CHRIS TUCKER/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Nikki Kovatch Morris has experienced her own Christmas miracle. Morris, 30, faced tragALSO . . . edy twice recently after ■ Missing her fiance died in a car baby Jesus wreck Dec. 17, and her figures are home was burglarized mysteriously the following day. returned/A4 Taken from the home were jewelry, video games and presents, including a gift from her fiance, Bryan Casey Hughes. But today, when her three young children wake up, they will not be disappointed. Morris said she has since received about 50 gifts — roughly 10 times as many as were stolen — from people responding to her time of need. “I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude,” she said Friday. TURN
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Santa Claus, who occasionally goes by the name of Don McIntyre, holds his bubble pipe during our exclusive interview.
It’s not easy spreading cheer Santa covers Peninsula — even AA meetings BY DIANE URBANI
DE LA
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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Santa Claus’ strait-blue eyes have seen a lot in the last little while. This Santa has Diamond Point as his home base, and travels from there to Port Angeles to Sequim to Port Townsend and back —where he has encountered entirely too many people walking down
streets, looking sad. The rotund one also found less-thancheerful people at restaurants, stores, offices and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Yet at all of these stops, Claus changes things. Those dejected pedestrians, as well as the other people in his path, tend to perk up when he jingles his bells and belted out, “Merry Christmas!” as only he can. “They respond back,” with a smile, even a giggle, Claus said in an interview this week. When people lay eyes on this guy in
the red suit and black comfortable shoes, they suddenly remember: Christmas is here, and it’s not just about shopping. Claus, who is called Don McIntyre during the balance of the year, savored his 41st season as jolly old St. Nick this year. He began his candy-cane-bestowing career as a U.S. Marine, an 18-year-old straight out of boot camp. It was 1960 and his orders were to hand out Christmas presents at a Toys for Tots party. TURN
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JOY/A6
Keegan not in a hurry to leave President still has things to do at Peninsula College BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Departing Peninsula College President Tom Keegan stands in the new Maier Hall, one of several buildings opened on the Port Angeles campus during his tenure.
PORT ANGELES — Departing Peninsula College President Tom Keegan, who oversaw massive upgrades for the college during the last decade, is keeping his attention on being here, not on his impending move. Skagit Valley College still has a solid president in place, and Penin-
ALSO . . . ■ How Peninsula College grew during the Keegan years/A7
sula College — which is based in Port Angeles with branches in Port Townsend and Forks — still needs all of his attention, Keegan said. Keegan, who has been Peninsula College’s president for 10 years, was selected as the new president of Skagit Valley College on Oct. 12 and will begin his new job March 12. Keegan’s final day at Peninsula College will be Friday, Feb. 3. TURN
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INSIDE TODAY’S PENINSULA DAILY NEWS 95th year, 305th issue — 9 sections, 90 pages
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