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TREE CONTINUED FROM A1 what would make the best fit for the child. Freitas and English have cochaired the program for eight years — six of which have been with the Soroptimists. They started chairing the program with Venture Club. They brought the program to Soroptimist when the Venture Club disbanded. “We’ve been married for the last eight years,” Freitas said jokingly. “But we don’t fight as much,” English added. This is the seventh year they’ve been able to keep gifts at the Church of Christ in Oak Harbor. The church has provided them with the headquarters they need for the week leading up to pick-up time. Before the church was available, English and Freitas would have only
UFO CONTINUED FROM A1 something in the southern sky caught her eye. An extremely bright, orangishyellow light appeared to be coming closer and closer. It was roundish with wavy, blurred edges, she said. “It was such a weird shape and such an odd color.” The light loomed above her, but there was no sound. She said it was the brightest thing in the sky except for the moon, which was nearly full. It stopped moving and appeared to hover like a bright, orange, shimmering ball. Excited, Laing ran into her house to get her husband, John. When she returned outside with him, she found that the light had moved to a different part of the sky in the short time she was
SPIRIT CONTINUED FROM A1 sit down. He found a sturdy piece of driftwood, sat and wondered what he would do next, where he would sleep that night, what he would wear and what he’d got himself into on Whidbey Island. “Really, I didn’t know what to feel,”Thierry said recently, looking back. “All your stuff was there in the morning and it’s gone in the afternoon. “The sheriff came over and told me to get in the back of his car, just to make sure I wasn’t in too much shock and was staying warm.” A year later, Thierry can look back on his introduction to Whidbey Island and the Pacific Northwest and smile. He had only been on the
one or two days to set everything up, and all the presents were stored all over the place. “It’s changed to a format that’s smoother and easier,” English said. “It’s streamlined.” From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, more than 400 families came to church to receive gifts. Freitas said she wanted to provide a fun, holiday experience. With the space at the church, they had ample room to set up an area in which children can make ornaments. In addition to the presents they picked up, English said they are also wanted entire families to receive a game that they could play together. “It teaches kids how to win and to lose, and it’s the interaction they get with the family,” English said. Tree of Hope works with other programs on the island, such as Toys for Tots, to make sure all the children are getting what they need over the holidays. English said they give each other assistance and
make efforts not to duplicate services that have already been provided. And if there are extra toys, they are stored for next time. “Nothing leaves the island,” English said. Even though most think of the Tree of Hope as a December event, the planning officially starts during the end of July or early August. “With something this big, you have to start early,” English said. With the help of the Department of Social and Health Services, they prepare applications to be mailed out for the program. Employees from the department send out the prepared envelopes to families they think need assistance. About 1,900 applications were mailed in September. A lot of times kids are asking for things they need, such as warm clothes, or even a bed. Whidbey Furniture donated a bed so a kid could have one to sleep on one year, English said.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013 • Whidbey News-Times
Photo by Sara Hansen/Whidbey News-Times
Volunteers check every present twice for the Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor Tree of Hope program, which helped more than 950 kids this year. If people don’t need assistance, but have in the past, they usually respond to the application with a thank-you note, English said. “They’ll say: ‘Thank you for what you’ve done, but we don’t need it
this year,’” Freitas said. Others will come back and donate if they are able, English said. “It comes full circle,” English said.
away. As they watched, it seemed to move away at an amazing speed until it was just a dot and finally disappeared. “It was something I could not identify and it was a flying object,” Laing said, “so I guess it was an unidentified flying object.” She said her husband, a former physicist, had no clue as to what the light might have been. Lenny was too busy smelling things to notice. Laing said she spoke to neighbors, but none of them were looking outside at the time. The Laings are not alone in reporting UFOs over the island. In March, a South Whidbey man and a Marysville woman reported seeing a number of mysterious orange lights. Their descriptions were similar to what Laing reported, except they saw multiple objects.
In September, a woman camping with her husband at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station reported seeing a white light similar to a satellite that suddenly made “impossible maneuvers” in the night sky. The National UFO Reporting Center has a long list of sightings in Western Washington, many of which are described as orange orbs. The most recent report on the list was from Whidbey; a witness claimed to have seen six orange objects on the south part of the island on Dec. 11. A Dec. 8 report from Port Orchard closely resembles Laing’s observations. No aircraft from NAS Whidbey was in the area Monday night, according to Tony Popp, a public information officer for the base. “Nothing was reported or observed by air traffic control personnel,” he said.
The International Space Station was likely visible from Whidbey at that time, which was a mostly clear night. The online space station tracker shows that it would have been directly above the north end of Marysville at 9 p.m. However, NASA’s description of the space station doesn’t match very well with what Laing reported seeing. “The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, but it will be seen as a steady — not blinking — white pinpoint of light,” according to NASA’s website. “Typically it will be the brightest object in the night sky (except for the Moon). It is bright enough that it can even be seen from the middle of a city!” Dan Pullen, president of the Island County Astronomical Society, said none of his group’s members reported seeing anything unusual. He said there’s a lot
of fascinating things to see in the heavens this time of year, including planets visible with low-powered telescopes or even the naked eye. “The most amazing thing I’ve seen is a meteor entering the atmosphere and breaking into five or six pieces.” “It started out green and turned
to red.” Pullen said he doesn’t know what the Laings might have seen, but he’s certain about what it was not. “It was not an alien space craft,” he said. “I don’t believe aliens have ever landed here.” The North Pole did not return a call for comment.
island for four months when his world got turned upside down. He was in the early stages of his first full-time teaching job out of college and a long way from home in St. Louis, Mo. A pottery teacher, Thierry will forever have the date of Dec. 17, 2012, etched in his memory. It taught him life lessons about the gentle nature of a caring community that rallied in his support and the harsh realities of natural forces. Other houses sustained damage, but his home was leaning toward the sea and uninhabitable. “I can only laugh about it,” said Thierry, who turns 26 in February. “I can say, ‘Oh yeah, I lost all this stuff’ and get really down about it, but that’s not going to change
what happened.” “I just laugh about it. “I lost a lot of things, but they’re just items. I’m still alive. I didn’t have any pets or a significant other or a roommate.” “They’re just material things that I lost.” Thierry walked away with some salvaged clothes, a wool pea coat, a bowling ball, one camera and not a whole lot else. He also still had the Dodge Saturn he’d been driving since he was 16. “I recovered one load of laundry that was in the dryer thanks to my laziness,” he said, “but we had to take a sledgehammer and go through a wall to get it.” Thierry also walked away with a wild, almost unbelievable tale to share with family at Christmas.
The losses did hurt. The sea claimed his vintage record collection, computers and backup external hard drive that contained nearly all of his images of his artwork, lesson plans and master’s thesis he provided to Truman State University. But, during Christmas time at his parent’s home in St. Louis, he could still laugh. Teachers, artists and complete strangers had come to his aid, offering clothing, donations and even a place to stay. His renter’s insurance didn’t cover his losses, which he estimated to be about $10,000. Still, the teasing didn’t stop back home. One of his Christmas gifts was an accessory for a camera he no longer had. “I flew back to St. Louis
and had Christmas with my family, where there were lots of jokes about things that were bought for me before it happened,” Thierry said. Thierry is headed back to St. Louis for the holidays to share a much more uplifting story this year. He’ll share a tale of recovery and about the sort of friends and support he’s found in Oak Harbor. Librarian Lisa Bain organized efforts at school to help Thierry get back on his feet, while art teacher Jennifer Yates let him stay in her guest room until he was able to rent an apartment in Anacortes. Thierry said he was indebted to those who helped, including the families from the high school boys and girls swimming teams he coaches.
“I think he’s handled this well,” said Dwight Lundstrom, principal at Oak Harbor High School. “He’s got so much going on between coaching the swim team and full-time teaching that I don’t think he really had time to reflect on it a whole lot. I think he just kind of had to bounce back, roll up his sleeves and get to work, and he’s done that well.” Thierry said the experience has changed his outlook on life. “I would have to say I’m pretty optimistic about coming back from that,” he said. “It was definitely a life (changing) point. I was like, ‘Do I really need all this stuff?’ Yeah, I do miss the vintage vinyl records collection sometimes, but I can come back from that.”
Photo by Jessie Stensland/Whidbey News-Times
North Whidbey resident Christine Laing looks at the sky from the spot where she recently saw a UFO.