RECORD D SOUTH WHIDBEY
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2013 | VOL. 89, NO. 71 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
School year begins
INSIDE Fair results... SEE A2
State park finds new friends By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
ing at the same stop and unlike his school mates, he said he was kind of excited for school to start because staying home got a bit boring. He said he likes his fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school, Bruce Callahan. Amrian Ting saw two of her children off
Walking along South Whidbey’s Wilbert Trail on a summer day, the majesty of the 347-acre forest is easy to experience. A short, five-minute trek from the road and visitors are only 5 yards away from an ancient guardian, a massive cedar tree that towers above the hundred-foot high canopy of South Whidbey State Park. Keeping people from touching, and possibly harming the wooden sentinel, is a small fence. Keeping the rest of the short, 1.5-mile trail serviceable is the work of park staff and a growing group of dedicated volunteers. There is work to be done in the state park, and people who volunteered for years recently organized into the Friends of South Whidbey State Park. “There are so many special places there,” said Fletcher Davis, the acting president of the friends group. “Our parks are backyards for people who don’t have backyards.” That sense of stewardship drew about 75 people to a kickoff party for the Friends of South Whidbey State Park in mid-August. The group is working on formalizing itself as an official entity and a board of directors must be established before it can charge a membership fee — $12 for an individual, $20 for a family or $50 for an organization. Davis and his wife, Elizabeth, have lived near the state park since 2000 at their Smugglers Cove Road home. In those 13 years — 17 counting parttime residency — the couple visited the park regularly for walks on Wilbert Trail. They lead tours along the welltrodden path that loops from the south entrance to the north entrance of the state park. On their tours, they met and hosted people from across the country and the world, from Germany and Italy to British Columbia. “It’s amazing how many people come there and from different parts of the world,” Davis said. In the 2014-15 biennium, state parks are budgeted at $20.2 million in direct state funding, $7 million less than
SEE SCHOOL, A20
SEE PARKS, A20
Celeste Erickson / The Record
Amrian Ting gives her two sons, 7-year-old Joseph and 6-year-old Mateo, a final hug with their sister, Bella, before their first day of school at South Whidbey Elementary School on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
More than 1,500 report for first day By CELESTE ERICKSON South Whidbey Record A ringing bell will once again be a familiar sound for South Whidbey School District students. The first day of school began Tuesday, Sept. 3, for more than 1,500 children and teenagers enrolled in the district’s four schools.
Waiting patiently for their bus, Freeland brothers Rakeem and Maalik Heino, both 11, said they weren’t too thrilled about the start of the school year. “We’re not that excited,” Rakeem said. He and his brother began fifth grade this year at South Whidbey Elementary School. Langley resident Jacob Deritis, 9, was wait-