Herald North K itsap
Inside: In kitsapweek a bundle of ‘A Secret Gift’ letters, an amazing discovery / In
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LIFE AND CULTURE
Kitsap Week
Friday, December 21, 2012 | Vol. 111, No. 51 | www.northkitsapherald.com | 50¢ Poulsbo Lions / Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund
Sound Classifieds & Real Estate Now
D e c e m b e r 2 1 — 2 7, 2 0 1 2
When a news reporter finds a bundle of letters among his grandmother’s belongings, he makes a startling discovery about one man’s generosity — Page 3
week’s
highlights
A holidAy concert feAturing you PORT ORCHARD — The Western Washington
Center for the Arts hosts a Christmas Holiday Concert and Carol Sing Dec. 21 and 22, 7:30 p.m., 521 Bay St., Port Orchard.
will be available.
The concert will feature some of your favorite WWCA performers and you.
c-Stock StudentS in concert
Festival seating; tickets by donation. Refreshments
For more information, call (360) 769-7469 or go to www.wwca.us.
SILVERDALE — Maestro Friedrich Schlott presents
his C-Stock U students in his annual Christmas show, “A Song Was Born At Christmas,” Dec. 23, 2 p.m., in the Silverdale Community Center, 9729 Silverdale Way NW. C-Stock is the Central Stage Theatre of County Kitsap. This year’s concert
combines the fun of the season with the sacred music that celebrates Jesus’s birth. Donation requested: $5. The concert features, in order of billing, Sarah Sveen, soprano; Alyssa Becker, mezzo; TaMara Bale, alto; Julie Riley, alto; Johnny Felty, tenor;
Mathew Flaherty, tenor; Alex Becker, baritone; Tom Clouthier, baritone; Nova Hughes, piano. For more information, call (360) 692-9940 or go to www.cstock.org. — For more holiday events, see Kitsap Week Calendar, pages 5-7.
65,000 circulation every Friday in the Bainbridge Island Review | Bremerton Patriot | Central Kitsap Reporter | North Kitsap Herald | Port Orchard Independent
Serving coffee and hope Mayor
wants school resource officer Response to shooting in Newtown, Conn. By KIPP ROBERTSON
Bellringer Fund $15,000 from goal POULSBO — Donations to the Poulsbo Lions/ Raab Foundation Bellringer Fund totaled $20,076 on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. The week’s gifts included anonymous donations ranging from $20 to $1,200. All told, $9,600 was donated this week. Mike’s Car Wash in Poulsbo has pledged to the fund a portion of proceeds from car washes through the end of the year. The Lions hope to raise $35,000 to help meet local needs. Last year, $33,061 in donations provided 102 Christmas dinners for local families and helped more than 300 local people in crisis. See FUND, Page A9
krobertson@northkitsapherald.com
Rocky Basile, Coffee Oasis Bremerton’s store manager, helps out at the grand opening of Coffee Oasis Poulsbo, Dec. 15. The shop has fresh-roasted coffee and is open for business; the teen center welcomes North Kitsap youth needing a warm place to seek help or a shoulder to lean on. Megan Stephenson / Herald
Long-awaited Coffee Oasis opens in Poulsbo By MEGAN STEPHENSON
mstephenson@northkitsapherald.com
P
OULSBO — Dave Frederick was echoed by many at the opening of Poulsbo’s Coffee Oasis teen center on Dec. 15 when he called the day “bittersweet.” The opening of the center for local homeless and at-risk youth came one day after the tragic shoot-
ing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 27 people died. Perhaps Ryan Lanza, the 20-year-old shooter, could have been reached by a Coffee Oasis-type organization. “That life could have been saved, and a lot of other lives could have been saved,” Frederick said. “That’s why we exist.”
Coffee Oasis opened its third teen center in Kitsap County at 780 NE Iverson St., at the corner of 8th Avenue, offering a safe haven, job training, school help, mentoring, and a place just to be heard for teens with nowhere else to go. Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson spoke to the crowd, which filled the See COFFEE OASIS, Page A11
POULSBO — Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson thinks of the Hostmark area as a little city when school is in session — a little city in need of protection. According to an October student head count, 2,369 students attend Poulsbo Elementary, Poulsbo Middle School and North Kitsap High School, all on Hostmark Avenue. Following the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Erickson will propose a budget amendment to reinstate a school resource officer for the Hostmark campuses. “It’s pretty obvious to me that we need to have a police presence there,” Erickson said. “Especially after what happened in Connecticut. It’s imperative to have it.” The Poulsbo City Council adopted a $24.7 million budget for
Snow didn’t slow packing of 100 Christmas dinners for local families By RICHARD WALKER
rwalker@northkitsapherald.com
POULSBO — Neither rain nor snow could slow the volunteers in their task.
Within an hour Wednesday morning, members of the Poulsbo Host Lions Club had filled boxes with enough food for 100 families’
Christmas dinners. “This is great. I love it,” said John Macdonald, a Poulsbo Lions Club member who drove See DINNERS, Page A10
The Voice of North Kitsap since 1901. Named a 2012 Newspaper of the Year by the Local Media Association
See OFFICER, Page A3
John Macdonald of the Poulsbo Noon Lions Club does a final tally for the Christmas food basket program, Wednesday. Richard Walker / Herald