Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
www.issaquahreporter.com
Friday, May 24, 2013
Survey says ... Alcohol use high among seniors in the Issaquah School District BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Margie Vines shows off the flyer her parents displayed in their cabin after she was sent off as a member of the first all female branch of the United States Navy in 1942. KEVIN
After graduating high school, Vines, then 19, and her best friend, Olive Allen, decided it was time for a change. “One day we were just sick of the whole situation, we thought, ‘well, maybe we should go into the service,’” she said. “I talked to my dad and he said that was a safer place for me to be than the streets of Bremerton.” After signing their papers, Vines and Allen became a part of U.S. history. They were two of around 75 women from the Seattle area to hop on a train to New York City to join the WAVES. Approximately 27,000 women from all corners of the country joined the organization in its first year. Most were assigned to clerical work, but some took positions in aviation, medical professions, communications, intelligence and technology. Allen was sent to Oklahoma to become a
Alcohol use and binge drinking among students in the Issaquah School District — especially high school seniors — is well above average according to the state’s most recent Healthy Youth Survey. “Something happens around the 12th grade,” said Dennis Wright, the director of career and services for the district. Wright presented the results of the survey May 16 at the Action Forum for Youth at Sammamish City Hall. Data included voluntary input from students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 from 233 districts around the state. The only ISD students not included in the October survey were seniors at Skyline High School, who were omitted due to a clerical error. Results showed 43 percent of the seniors at Issaquah High and 45 percent of the seniors at Liberty High reported drinking at least a sip of wine, beer or hard alcohol in the previous 30 days. The state average was 36 percent. Under the same category, 32 percent of Issaquah seniors and 29 percent of Liberty seniors participated in binge drinking, which is defined as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting. The state average was 22 percent. “That’s a bit troubling, we are well above the state
SEE WAVES, 3
SEE SURVEY, 2
ENDEJAN, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
A TIME TO REMEMBER Spiritwood at Pine Lake resident Margie Vines recalls her time in WAVES
BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
M
argie Vines proudly opened a manila envelope and pulled out a certificate sent to her parents in 1942.
The near pristine piece of paper indicated the United States Navy accepted her to participate in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES — the first all female division of the USN. Now 86, and a resident of Issaquah’s Spiritwood at Pine Lake Retirement Community, Vines recalled much tougher times growing up. Her parents, who moved from the Skagit Valley to Bremerton after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, worked non-stop in the shipyard during the boat building boom. Margie and her sister were often left to fend for themselves.
And in a overpopulated town with not much going on, Vines said it was easy for most kids to get in trouble. “We’d get so bored, if we had 50 cents we’d go down and get on the ferry and ride to Seattle and then we had to hide on the ferry to get back,” she said. “That was the worst thing we did.”
O
n Memorial Day, let us remember and thank our fallen soldiers and those who are still in harms way so we may continue to enjoy the freedom that we now have. Have a safe Memorial Day weekend!