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INDEPENDENT PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 ■ Vol. 120, No. 27 ■ www.portorchardindependent.com ■ 50¢
Local heroism merits national recognition Woman who saved baby from house fire will receive Carnegie medal By TIM KELLY Editor
Robin Adair had a pretty good week. The good news that came her way in the past week included finding out that she would receive a Carnegie medal for heroism, and that she won a pair of tickets for a Seattle Seahawks game in a contest. The prestigious Carnegie award is the latest honor for her lifesaving actions on Aug. 22, 2010, when she climbed through a window into a burning house and rescued an 11-month-old baby. Adair said her maternal instincts kicked in that day, explaining that she had previously experienced a neardeath experience with one of her children. “I myself would not be able to handle losing a kid, so for me to even think I could stand there and watch another mother lose her kid ... that’s the most horrible thought in the world,” she said Wednesday during an interview. A couple years ago, when her toddler son was only three weeks old, he had to undergo two heart surgeries. “He was on a life-support machine; we almost lost him,” she recalled. “I’ve had that nervous breakdown
Index Opinion Robert Meadows Thinking Allowed Letters Sports Obituaries
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Tim Kelly/Staff photo
Robin Adair displays awards she’s received for rescuing a baby from a burning house last year. ... so I think that was part of my instinct.” Adair and her boyfriend, Shane Berube, were driving from Shelton back to Port Orchard that Sunday afternoon when they saw the porch
of a manufactured home on fire along State Route 3 near Belfair. They pulled over, and “before the car was even in park, I jumped out,” she said. The woman who lived there,
Katrina Eash, had gotten out with three of her children, but the baby was sleeping in a playpen in a back bedroom. Adair saw her jumping up trying to reach the window of the bedroom
where her baby was, which was the only room not yet on fire. But the lower ledge of the window was about six feet above the ground. “I kicked my flip-flops off and she boosted me up in the window,” Adair recalled. She couldn’t see anything in the smoke-filled room, but she found the playpen and picked up the baby, Bobbi Stott. When Berube climbed in the window to help get them out, he hit the floor and could only see Adair’s feet “in the glow of the fire coming under the door,” she said. He climbed back out and she was able to follow his voice to the window, where she handed the baby out to safety. Moments after Adair was outside again — and while she was trying to find her call phone she had dropped — the windows blew out from the fire, which destroyed the home. For her brave actions that saved a child’s life, she was given an award for valor from Mason County Fire District 2, and she was honored last spring with a Good Neighbor Award at the Red Cross Real Heroes breakfast. She also did television interviews after the rescue, and said another organization is sending her a hero jacket. “It’s nice to be recognized for something I did,” she said Wednesday, although “I didn’t exactly want that much attention.” She was pleased with another development soon after that memorable day. “In September right after that fire I SEE HEROISM, A9
SKSD reports slight enrollment increase so far By CHRIS CHANCELLOR Staff writer
Enrollment has been trending downward in South Kitsap and many school districts for several years, but the 2011-12 academic year could be an exception. SKSD financial operations officer
Sandy Rotella said during Wednesday’s school board meeting that the district had 9,479.28 full-time equivalent (FTE) students enrolled Sept. 12, which is 23 more than last year. That date was selected because it was the fourth day of school, which is when school districts are required to calculate enrollment and report their
numbers to the state. SKSD had 9,814 students enrolled on that date, but FTE is computed differently. For example, kindergartners are counted as 0.5 FTE because most are in school only half the day. Others, such as high school seniors, also can be counted as less than one FTE if they start late or end early.
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Rotella said the district’s enrollment figures will get a boost in October when Running Start students are counted. While enrollment numbers generally trend downward as students move away or drop out, Rotella sees indications that this year might be SEE ENROLLMENT, A5