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FROM THE EDITOR
Stay Connected
Email Health & Home Editor Anne McGregor at annem@inlander.com.
The conversation continues on the Inlander Facebook page, and stay in touch with us at Inlander.com/Health&Home.
Fascinating Times
BY ANNE McGREGOR
Here’s some good news: All those chores we like to complain about — from emptying the dishwasher to folding laundry to mowing the lawn — actually offer the perfect opportunity to let your mind wander freely. It’s just a matter of reframing the situation. Check out E.J. Iannelli’s story (page 28) on what researchers have delightfully termed “soft fascinations” to learn about how to begin to appreciate time spent on mundane tasks or just wandering about in nature. Spoiler alert: You’re going to have to turn off your phone and all its attendant delights to tap into the world of soft fascinations.
Fascinations of a different sort await at Spokane’s Lorén, a swanky French restaurant with a sophisticated menu. Writer Dora Scott chats with the two chefs in charge and shares a recipe for what will surely become a summer barbecue staple atop your grilled burgers: Lorén’s espresso bacon jam (page 36).
You know what else is fascinating? We have a real Hollywood screenwriter right here in Spokane — and he’s a seasoned home renovator (page 10).
And correspondent Michael Danford shares insider-tips on paddleboarding (page 44). Four locations, five paddles of varying length, including local spots perfect for darting out to after work. After all, the year’s most sublime weather is at hand. There’s not a minute to waste!
Cheers,
CONTRIBUTORS
LESLIE DOUGLAS is a graphic designer and photographer at the Inlander from Lawrence, Kansas, and the designer of the coveted 2025 Bloomsday shirt. In this issue, she captured the “after” photos of Mark Steilen’s renovated abode. “It was so cool to follow Mark around his home and see the transformation. Just as it was important to him to balance original details with new comforts, I hoped to capture that same feeling in my photos.”
MADISON PEARSON is the Inlander’s Listings Editor, Digital Lead and Arts & Culture writer. In every issue of Health & Home, she excitedly shares some upcoming, hand-picked events in the area. When the sun finally comes out for the year, she personally looks forward to Spokane’s numerous art markets, watching all of the local live music she can possibly see and engaging with the amazing Spokane community. Get out there, people!
SPOKANE • EASTERN WASHINGTON • NORTH IDAHO also at inlander.com/health&home
1227 W. Summit Parkway, Spokane, Wash. 99201
PHONE: 509-325-0634
HEALTH & HOME EDITOR
Anne McGregor annem@inlander.com
HEALTH & HOME ART DIRECTOR
Ali Blackwood
INLANDER EDITOR
Chey Scott
INLANDER NEWS EDITOR
Samantha Wohlfeil
COPY CHIEF
Chris Frisella
CONTRIBUTORS
Michael Danford, Erick Doxey, E.J. Iannelli, Bob Johnson, Young Kwak, Will Maupin, Madison Pearson, Colton Rasanen, Summer Sandstrom, Dora Scott, Carrie Shriver, Bob Slack
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EVENTS
Sun’s Out, Fun’s Out
BY MADISON PEARSON
Mother’s Day Home Tour
Spokane is full of hidden gems in the form of historic homes. Once a year, those gems are uncovered at the annual Mother’s Day Home Tour presented by the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture. This year, the tour takes participants to the historic Millwood district and showcases charming homes with French, Mediterranean and European cottage influences. Listen to Millwood residents tell stories, show off their beautiful homes and visit the Hutton Settlement just down the road for even more historic fun on Mother’s Day weekend. May 10-11 from noon-4 pm, $15-$30, Millwood neighborhood, northwestmuseum.org
Spokane Zine Fest
The phrase “small but mighty” has never been more pertinent than when talking about zines. For the uninitiated, zines (pronounced “zeens”) are small, photocopied paper books filled with words or images. Meant to be circulated to a hyper-local group of people, zines often give representation to the voices of those on the fringes of mainstream culture. This one-day event celebrates that niche counterculture with vendors showing off their small press and self-published books, comics, drawings, prints, cards and other forms of limited edition works. Take a workshop, learn about zines, connect with Spokane’s vibrant arts community and more at the 2025 edition of Spokane Zine Fest. Sat, May 31 from 11 am-4 pm, free, Central Library, spokanezinefest.com
Mamma Mia!
Here we go again! As part of Spokane Best of Broadway’s 2024-25 season, the unbelievably catchy and downright fun musical Mamma Mia! graces the First Interstate Center for the Arts stage this summer. Set on the eve of Sophie’s wedding, this musical tells the tale of a daughter’s quest to discover the father she’s never known by bringing three men from her mother’s past back to the island they last visited decades ago. Featuring the songs of ABBA, this is one you won’t want to miss, Super Trouper. June 17-22; Tue-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat also at 2 pm, Sun at 1 pm and 6:30 pm, $52-$126, First Interstate Center for the Arts, broadwayspokane.com
Postmodern Jukebox
If you’ve never been to a Postmodern Jukebox, allow me to give you a rundown: Founded by jazz pianist Scott Bradlee, the band reinvents popular songs in the light of oft-ignored genres, mostly the vintage early 20th-century forms like swing and jazz. The jazzy group consists of a rotating cast of singers and musicians who often invite incredible guest vocalists to perform with them. Postmodern Jukebox is often described as “Saturday Night Live for singers,” and that’s certainly the vibe that plays out on stage and the performers have the time of their life while being some of the best at their craft. No matter your music taste, there’s something for everyone at a PMJ show. Wed, July 2 at 8 pm, $47-$120, Bing Crosby Theater, bingcrosbytheater.com
Unlike its predecessor, The Cold Millions, Jess Walter’s new novel, SO FAR GONE, is very much set in the here and now — a post-pandemic, posttruth age where everyone seems to be searching for solid footing. It opens with Rhys Kinnick's young grandchildren suddenly turning up on the porch of his dilapidated remote cabin in rural Stevens County. The retired journalist is quickly yanked out of his self-imposed reclusion and plunged back into the chaos of the world he had abandoned years ago.
So Far, So Good
Spokane author Jess Walter returns with
a novel about our topsy-turvy times
BY E.J. IANNELLI OUTDOORS
The opportunity for some much-needed intergenerational bonding instead devolves into a kidnapping and half-baked rescue attempt that pushes Kinnick into contact with all-too-human characters who also represent the Inland Northwest’s often surreal social fabric: religious revivalists, thuggish white supremacists, latter-day hippies, a rudderless and seeking mother, a well-meaning but manic former detective, a prickly ex-girlfriend and a Spokane tribal member with a protective bent.
Although the journey that sees them zigzagging across the region is humorously unpredictable and grimly painful, there are some shots at redemption, too. The question Walter’s title seems to prompt is, which characters in his rogues’ gallery are too far gone to seize them?
Mellow Music, Lakeside
Long gone are the days of hearing the tired complaint that Spokane’s music scene is dwindling or not up to snuff with other cities. The recent success of Volume Music Festival’s comeback and the inaugural Boomjam Festival last September have set the stage for more musical opportunities in our area.
Cam Joslyn, local artist manager and talent buyer at The Chameleon, is adding another festival to the growing list. ZEPHYR FOLK FESTIVAL will take place at Liberty Lake’s Zephyr Lodge from June 6-7, catering to those among us who prefer a mellow, lakeside hang.
The property lends itself to live music with beautiful views and wide open lawns perfect for relaxing in the sonic bliss. Zephyr Lodge is no stranger to hosting music festivals, as local soul
singer Allen Stone hosts his Stone Family Field Trip event at Zephyr each year.
The lineup for Zephyr Folk Fest boasts local artists such as The Bed Heads, The Holy Broke, Sydney Dale, Lucas Brookbank Brown, Tristan Hart Pierce, John Wayne Williams of Timeworm, local creative Karli Fairbanks and Matt Mitchell Music Co. Out-of-towners include Seattle folk powerhouse Amelia Day, the Nashville-based BabyJake, Eel Sallad (Dallas Lee), Jacob Miller, Racoma, Small Paul and rising singer-songwriter Pictoria Vark.
—MADISON PEARSON
For more information head to zephyrlibertylake.com/folk-festival or follow the festival on Instagram @zephyrfolkfest.
The grounds at Zephyr Lodge. MADISON PEARSON PHOTOS
YOUNG KWAK PHOTO
A Writer’s Retreat
With views of the winding Spokane River, a run-down home gets a new life as a Hollywood screenwriter’s escape
STORY BY ANNE MCGREGOR
PHOTOS BY LESLIE DOUGLAS
THE TEASER:
MARK STEILEN
“My dream was to be able to fly-fish in my backyard.”
Realizing that dream turned out to be a lengthy and fraught process for Mark Steilen, who grew up in Spokane but spent his career in Hollywood as a writer, director and producer. Though he has many credits, including Will, Shameless and Mozart in the Jungle, he’s perhaps best known in his hometown as a writer and producer of the movie Tag, based on the reallife story of a group of friends in Spokane who have played an annual, and epic, game of tag for more than 40 years.
Befitting a storyteller from the entertainment industry, the saga of Steilen’s renovation of a dilapidated property with Spokane River frontage has plenty of drama.
ACT 1
The house was built in 1928 in the rather severe Brutalist style. Its original owner made his fortune in home heating oil but lost his wife at a relatively young age. “The story was that he was so distraught that he built this and basically stepped in and didn’t come out,” Steilen says. The home’s peculiar set of two front doors led neighbors to believe it was a duplex, though in fact the smaller door provided a way for the owner to limit contact with the outside world: A cook would enter the small kitchen, prepare meals, pass them through a window into the formal dining room, leaving the owner to dine alone.
After the original owner died, the home deteriorated, eventually inhabited by squatters as a legal dispute over ownership dragged on. Steilen, who splits his time between Southern California and Spokane, was always on the lookout for close-in river frontage property in his hometown. He got a tip on a house that was “an incredible deal” from his friend, Jess Walter. Steilen first viewed the interior on a video that friend, and future neighbor, Nance Van Winckel shot and sent to him while he was living in New York City, working with a group
Continued on next page...
A Writer’s Retreat...
of writers on the series Divorce for HBO. Finding the house was a bright spot during a rough patch, as he was actually going through a divorce of his own at the time.
MARK STEILEN
“So I’m celebrating in the writer’s room in New York, and they go, ‘What are you so happy about?’” Steilen says. He showed the British writers the video, “And they’re like, ‘Christ, you’re happy about that?’ They thought it was insane.”
ACT 2
When Steilen eventually toured the house in West Central Spokane, it was in worse shape than the video revealed. Amid all the structural issues, “here was an old mirror and someone in the dust had, with a finger, written REDRUM,” Steilen says, still somewhat incredulous years later. A bullet hole was evidence of previous gun play.
Undeterred, the home’s new owner saw great potential in the near-ruin. Most of all, he just wanted to maximize the property’s incredible 180-degree view of the curving Spokane River out the back of the home.
“I had ideas, and I just drew them like a child… I sent [them to] an engineer, and I said, ‘OK. Here’s the concept. We’re literally going to take a saw, and we’re going to cut the concrete,” he says, referring to the entire back wall of the main floor of the cinder block house. “And then we’re going to put trusses in to elevate the whole house. Can we do this?’”
As it turned out, owing to the home’s unique, unusually large and heavy cinder block construction, it was possible, though there were plenty of obstacles ahead.
It took more than a year for the project to even get underway, somewhat inauspiciously aided by the arrival of COVID. As Hollywood shut down, Steilen found himself hanging out at home in LA with his son.
“All we did was work out in the park and stare at each other in the condo and daydream. So I said, ‘Let’s just go look at that house and see what we can do.’” The duo road-tripped to Spokane, set up camp in the back yard and started to plan a major home renovation in a time of acute supply chain issues.
“We made a rule: We will repurpose as much of the house as we can. That’ll be part of the design puzzle. We’ll try and
...continued on page 14
The original house was built in 1928. NORTHWEST MUSEUM OF ARTS & CULTURE PHOTO
Photos of construction in-progress, and the backyard turkey take-off zone. TRICIA CONNER JACKSON AND MARK STEILEN PHOTOS
A Writer’s Retreat...
make it beautiful out of the parts we have available… We got up every morning and said, ‘What next?’ And we just started taking the house apart.”
ACT 3
All the removed elements — even nails pulled from salvaged wood — were carefully sorted and stored in the garage. More than four months in, the biggest test still remained: cutting off the back of the house. A couple of contractors took a look at the job and immediately declined. Steilen worried he’d have to bulldoze the whole project. Gary Schimmel, a longtime friend, suggested the despairing
SUPPORTING CAST
Partner, “Better known as the Chuck Norris Girl”: Tricia Connor Jackson
House Finder: Jess Walter
Consultant, demolition assistant and friend: Gary Schimmel
Project Supervisor and Builder: Jeff Yarnell
HVAC: John DeClue, with Sam Donahey and Justin Rockhill, Spokane Heating & Plumbing
Woodwork: Marcel Coca, Coca Construction
Floor restoration: Mark Gentry, Gentry Hardwood Floors
Neighbors: Rik Nelson, Nance Van Winckel, Chris Manccini, Tracy Fowler, Tim and Peg Moran
Steilen show the house and explain his plan to Jeff Yarnell, a “real jack-of-all-trades and master of even more,” Steilen says.
“Jeff comes to me and says, ‘I don’t know if it’s gonna stand up when we cut it. If it torques, the whole house is going to go down.’”
But Yarnell was willing to try, and after shoring up the roof with poles, a crew from Spokane Concrete Cutting wielded the giant saw, slicing into the back of the house. The assembled team counted down and ever-so-carefully, in perfect coordination, pushed the freed blocks out. “We had the door open, we were ready to run,” says Steilen. Debris landed with a giant thud in the backyard.
The structure held, revealing the sweeping river vista.
“By the end of the day, it’s a whole different world. How cool is that?” Steilen marvels.
ACT 4
Standing in the living room in February, the house is nearing completion. Steilen recounts stories of all the craft and tradespeople — a unique group even a casting agent couldn’t have dreamed up — who made the project possible over those years. He credits Yarnell with directing the project, “It was Jeff who really built the whole thing, while I stood next to him and took orders for how long to cut the two by fours.”
Then, there’s his partner, Tricia Connor Jackson — “Before I’d ask Jeff whether any design idea was possible, I’d run it by Tricia… She’s got these killer green eyes that would suddenly go a little squinty if she didn’t like something and that was a dead give-away.”
Then there was the HVAC specialist, John — “He’s a sculptor, but you can’t make a living sculpting” — who created a unique solution for necessary but potentially unattractive return vents. The unknown carver of a beautiful wood front door
...continued on next page
A Writer’s Retreat...
from Tuscany that made its way to the house via the Ugly Duck in Spokane. Marcel, the Romanian immigrant who installed that door in perfect balance and did much of the finish millwork in the house. “He’s a musician — a lot of musicians end up in specialty carpentry. He can sing like a god… like he could be performing in Le Caveau in Paris.”
The materials, too, have stories. The living room’s floor-to-ceiling wood paneling was crafted from reclaimed fir roof trusses, with some of the 2-inch-by-10-inch boards stretching to 20 feet in length.
“These are invaluable — you can’t get these. We took them apart and stacked them so they could air dry for a whole year,” says Steilen, who was enthralled by the wood’s beauty. “I’d sand them to just the degree that I thought would be right… I wanted them to be real. You see all the hammer [marks], the nail holes, everything.”
Terra-cotta tile flooring, with its authentic worn patina, was preserved in the entry and on the stairs. The original wood flooring remains on the main floor, supplemented by replacement boards scavenged from the lower level. (Steilen even tracked down the firm that supplied the original flooring to order replacement boards for the lower level.)
Mostly intact underneath an unsightly faux mantelpiece, the fireplace surround was carefully restored by a skilled local mason, its imperfections purposefully left unaltered.
Even the furnishings hold meaning. A wide and well-worn leather sofa — “the greatest napping couch in the world” — arrived as a gift from a friend in NYC. There’s a perfect spot for playing guitar
by the window, and a gracious large table for gathering.
And that singing carpenter? He brought out the whole neighborhood. “People would hear the music, so they would pop in,” Steilen says. “My next door neighbor Rik walks over and says, ‘I’ll bring my piano.’ This young couple across the street, Chris and Tracy, have these beautiful voices. So we have an actual neighborhood band. We have a blast… This neighborhood’s just filled with really wonderful, interesting people.”
There are animal visitors too. “The largest buck mule deer nested out there last year – his whole family’s there, and my dog would go out and lay down with them.” Wild turkeys line up on the edge of the bluff, daring each other to be the first to take off.
After five long years working on his fifth home renovation, Steilen looks back with gratitude for the distraction that the complicated project provided during a tumultuous time, and greater still for how the house, with its blunt and utilitarian facade, has turned out. “There’s a little James Bond vibe to it when you open the door and go, ‘Oh, didn’t expect that. That’s something special.’”
Mark Steilen says his partner, actress and model Tricia Conner Jackson, helped build the patio after the original one was destroyed during the remodel. “We had a few kids quit when we were hauling the slate stones to replace the smashed patio and deck, but she just started carrying them down the hill herself. She’s as tough as she is gorgeous.”
A Whole Mess of Fun
Best
little
investment ever:
creating an outdoor space for young bodies and minds to run wild
BY ANNE MCGREGOR
While having a picture-perfect yard may be fun for adults, if you want your kids to enjoy actually being outdoors, things are probably going to need to get a little messy.
“The most important, invaluable thing that families could do with their own spaces — no matter how big or how small — is designate an area that is not precious to you where your child can access the freedom to make it their own space,” says Hope Helms, program administrator at Greenplay Northwest, where preschoolers learn “100 percent outside, all year.”
Once you’ve set aside some space, and acknowledged that it may no longer be quite so photogenic, it’s time to get creative. Luck-
A play zone at Bemiss Elementary in Spokane offers intriguing options for young children. JENA PONTI JAUCHIUS PHOTOS
ily the things that experts recommend to lure kids outdoors away from all those screens are both easy to come by and inexpensive. Wooden boards, bricks, rope, small tires and even tree stumps are all elements that children can use for multiple projects by letting their imaginations run a little wild. They might build a teeter-totter, a balance beam, a slide or any number of other things.
A rain barrel with various sizes of water containers and some shovels can offer hours of creative activity. “Water is one of the best sources of sensory stimulation you can give to a kid,” landscape architect and founder of N is for Nature Play, Jena Ponti Jauchius says. “It changes everything it comes in contact with.” A mud kitchen can simply be a flat surface with a stock of housewares — think bowls, spoons, pans — and offers the potential for hours of inventive play.
Ponti Jauchius has a sensory garden at her own house, and also designs inclusive play areas designed to foster the development of children’s “body, mind and spirit” for schools and other public spaces. She likes to include cozy spaces, something she says can be particularly helpful for neurodiverse children. “It gives them a place that’s child-sized that allows them to escape something they find overwhelming… Nature’s the fastest way to regulate all of our systems.” A quiet space could be a child-size teepee, simply created by securing a group of poles at the top. From there, it’s time for imagination. Sunflowers planted around it create a continually evolving ...continued on next page
Jena Ponti Jauchius created a sensory garden at her own home featuring a nature loom and teepee as well as abundant plants and a variety of surfaces for the winding pathways.
A Whole Mess of Fun...
palette of smells and colors. Attaching fabric strips at the top allows for plenty of child-directed customization.
While setting up a backyard play structure probably won’t be enough to keep children entertained and engaged outdoors after the initial novelty wears off, considering the structure as just one element of a play area and allowing the child to make it their own changes everything. “If they can get creative with it, then it could be an incredible investment,” Helms says.
Swings, “especially if they can spin and they can go high,” Helms says, are perfect for helping children develop proprioception, that sense of where their bodies are in space. But you don’t need a play structure for swings. “There are a plethora of ways to hang swings from trees,” Helms says. “You don’t even need a big horizontal branch. They make branch extenders that you can attach to a pine tree. There are straps that are designed to string swings from.”
Letting your child join in — and even direct — the planning for an outdoor space is key to making the area something they’ll
gravitate toward, something so enticing it can be an easy choice to play outside.
“Typically, they have zero control over their space, but no matter what age they are, they all have ideas,” Ponti Jauchius says. “If they can have some input and be involved in the creation of that space, that will stick with them their whole lives.”
For a free, 30 minute Zoom to discuss options for creating a natural play/learning space, reach out to Jena Ponti Jauchius at jena@nisfornatureplay.com.
A mud kitchen encourages creativity and open-ended activity.
Craftsmanship in a Mass-Produced World
STORY BY BOB JOHNSON
There’s a sense of resignation in the voice of Garrett Trotter as he observes: “We live in a world of Wayfair quality and Amazon Prime pricing,” a reference to those giant e-commerce companies that sell just about anything one can think of. He and business partner Henry Briggs are offering an alternative to costfirst, craftsmanship-second shopping with their Broader Custom Woodworks business, which they operate out of Briggs’ renovated garage in Cheney.
Trotter and Briggs met at Spokane Christian Church and developed a friendship when Briggs offered to help Trotter with a basement remodeling project at the home Garrett and his wife, Sarah, had just bought.
“I had been prying boards off the walls of this 1930s house,” Trotter recalls, “and I remember saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with these.’ And Henry says, ‘Why don’t you make something out of them?’ That was the first time it clicked with me: You can do that?”
You can, and they did. The boards were transformed at Briggs’ workshop into an entertainment center.
“It was a really cool project that started this passion for woodworking for me,” Trotter says, adding that when he looks at the unit today, he thinks, “We’ve come a long way.”
Briggs is less diplomatic when he says, “It’s a little painful to look at some of the
projects we did for family and friends when we were first starting. Now, nothing goes out of here unless we’re 100 percent happy with it — and that includes the stuff we do as a hobby for our families.
“Sometimes the work and the hobby will blur a little bit,” he adds, “but that’s what happens when you’re doing what you love. Thankfully, my wife [Paige] has put up with me for this long.”
Briggs followed his wife as her career path in pediatric care led them from their native Illinois to Washington, via Minnesota. Trotter is a Washington native who met his wife while attending Eastern Washington University.
Briggs’ love for woodworking came
Henry Briggs and Garrett Trotter, co-founders of Broader Custom Woodworks MICHELLE JOHNSON PHOTO
from his grandfather, Dean Briggs, whom he describes as “a true craftsman. He could make pretty much anything with his hands. Then I guess it skipped a generation — my dad does not have the patience for sanding or finishing — but at least I ended up with a lot of my grandpa’s tools.”
Patience is a critical quality for a woodworker because it contributes to the ultimate quality of the item being crafted. It also contributes to the cost.
“Early on,” recalls Trotter, “I can remember people reacting to our estimates: ‘Oh... you’re a little out of our price range.’ But with custom woodworking, you’re talking about nice lumber and a lot of time to make sure the quality is great.”
Blending the skill sets of Briggs and Trotter with the technology provided by a CNC (computer numerical control) machine and a LaserPecker engraver, Broader Custom Woodworks has developed an extensive portfolio of projects since debuting in 2019, ranging from home and business furniture to signs, wall art and home goods such as game boards. The company also provided golf bag stands for the driving range at Walla Walla Country Club.
The partners agree that their “coolest project so far” has been the installation of a wine barrel stave wall at The Gallery at Spokane Assisted & Senior Living on Spokane’s South Hill. Briggs says the project, called “the wine nook” involved attaching about 160 barrel staves, provided by Barrister Winery, to a 29-foot segment of wall.
An “in-progress” project involves a pair of Adirondack chairs that have already been assembled and are being weather tested. They’ll be used for a Teen & Kid Closet fundraiser, part of the duo’s commitment to giving back. “We don’t want to be just a woodworking company; we are trying to become part of the community,” Briggs says.
With that in mind, a project that is in the queue could end up being the company’s most significant yet. The fire department at the new public safety campus in Airway Heights will include a mess hall for which Briggs and Garrett have been commissioned to build a 10-foot-long solid cherry table with two inlaid axes (with epoxy on top) and an engraved badge at each place setting.
“That’s the kind of work we love doing,” Briggs says. “It’s different. It’s unique. It’s the kind of thing that a craftsman hopes will outlive himself.”
Commission pieces created by Broader Custom Woodworks.
Pain in theNeck
Keyboards, screens
and phones are taking a toll on our bodies — here’s what to do about it
BY CARRIE SHRIVER
It’s happening everywhere. Standing on a corner waiting for the walk sign, teenagers are glued to their phones, oblivious to everything else. A couple out for dinner ignore each other in favor of playing games on their phones or scrolling social media. Office workers, cemented to their desks, sit nearly motionless, typing away for hours at a time.
All of these people share something besides dependence on technology: They can start to look like cavemen — hunched and round shouldered. (Except, according to various studies, researchers now think Neanderthals walked upright. In fact, they probably had better posture than most of us do now.)
People really have to not ignore the signs and those little pains that they feel on a day-to-day basis.
It’s becoming clear that all this tech, whether it’s for work or fun, is turning out to be hard on the body, regardless of age. Besides prompting a sedentary lifestyle, tech use can also lead to painful conditions including tendonitis and arthritis, headaches, and even symptoms in the arms and hands related to nerve compression or irritation. Over time, the problems can grow worse.
“People really have to not ignore the signs and those little pains that they feel on a day-today basis,” says Rebecca Facey, an occupational therapist who also works at Inspire Physical & Hand Therapy.
“I worked for a company, prior to this position, educating the workforce on ergonomics and proper body position and how to decrease musculoskeletal injuries,” she says. “The No. 1 thing is being autonomous over your own body
and realizing: ‘I’m doing something and waking up with pain now for some reason.’”
The modern propensity for sitting for long periods using a mouse and keyboard means Jenna Popesku, also an occupational therapist at Inspire Physical & Hand Therapy, is seeing a lot of clients with “tech neck, which is where the neck starts jutting forward a little bit,” she says. Tech neck can also lead to a lump on the back of your neck, something therapists are seeing even in very young clients.
Bree Freeland, the patient care coordinator at Inspire Physical & Hand Therapy, can attest to the toll of daily tech use.
“I work 10 hours a day, so I’m constantly at my computer, always with my right hand on my mouse,” Freeland says. “On top of that I also do nails on the side, so I’m constantly in a pinched position with my hand.”
All this led to Freeland developing tendonitis (an inflammation in the tissue that connects muscle to the bone), intersection syndrome (pain in the wrist and forearm), and De Quervain’s syndrome (which affects the thumb tendons).
“Sometimes it’s so painful to the point where I can’t even use it,” Freeland says.
Luckily, the therapists Freeland works with have helped identify and treat many of the issues she’s faced, and they have plenty of advice for the rest of us.
Daily Do’s and Don’ts
First off, if you sit in the same position for hours at school, work or home, Facey recommends getting up and taking a break every 20 minutes. Do some quick stretches or go for a short walk, with the goal of getting out of the rounded posture position. As an added benefit: “Studies have also found that taking those breaks helps you to get ...continued on next page
Tips for Tip-Top Musculoskeletal Health
• Pay attention to any persistent pain or discomfort in your body
• Become aware of your posture (sitting or standing), and straighten up if you need to
• Utilize ergonomic tools
• Take breaks to stretch or walk around whether you’re bingeing a TV show or frantically finishing a work or school project
• Build more movement into your life through an exercise program or fun activities like dancing
• If you’re still having pain or trouble with posture visit an occupational or physical therapist for guidance
— CARRIE SHRIVER
“PAIN IN THE NECK,” CONTINUED...
your work done faster, and better, as well,” Popesku says.
At your desk, consider alternating among typing tasks and other work to give your hands a break from time to time.
You can also reorganize your workspace to benefit your body.
“You need to make sure things are placed properly,” Facey says. The phone should be within easy reach.
“Where is your wrist placement when you’re typing? Is your chair leaning too far back? Too far forward? Are your hips set at a 90 degree angle?”
There are a plethora of ergonomic aides to assist in achieving these things.
PopSockets, an accessory for cellphones and tablets, allow you to hold your tech with a flat hand placement, taking the pressure off your thumbs and pinkies. Ergonomically designed computer mice and split keyboards can aid in creating a better, neutral resting position for your hands and wrists. A headset eliminates holding the phone against your ear, which can lead to shoulder and neck problems.
Adjustable height desks and ergonomic chairs can facilitate improved body mechanics.
But having everything in its
proper place just isn’t enough. You also need to include more movement in your day, according to David Jeter, an owner and physical therapist at Acceleration Physical Therapy.
“The vast majority of what I see is the fact that people just don’t move well and haven’t in a really, really long time,” Jeter says.
“I make a joke with some of my patients. I envision a desk in which you’re standing up, then sitting down, then rotating one way, and then all of a sudden you’re looking straight up into keyboards above your head, and clicking down there, and working on the floor,” he says.
“Nobody’s gonna make a desk like that, but that variety of positions would be, in my view, probably a healthier thing for people to do on a regular basis, rather than sit in that one perfect spot and only wiggle their fingers a little bit.”
The good news is that it’s certainly possible to do things on your own to decrease or even eliminate tech-related aches and pains. “All of those things,” from exercising, to stretching and utilizing ergonomic tools, “are great.... But if it is something that’s really impacting your day to day, come see a professional. Therapists can help a ton,” Popesku says.
Popesku and Facey work with Bree Freeland on nerve glides, stretching and better posture at her workstation.
Occupational therapists Rebecca Facey and Jenna Popesku at Inspire Physical and Hand Therapy help clients get rid of nagging aches and pains resulting from tech usage. YOUNG KWAK PHOTOS
April Hansen, Chief Executive Officer
Two Degrees of Fascination
Letting your mind wander can recharge a mental battery drained by directed attention
BY E.J. IANNELLI
Throughout any given day, hundreds of things vie for our attention. Whether it’s socializing in person, making a phone call, planning a big work project, commuting around town, listening to a podcast, exercising, checking texts or cooking a meal, anything we do requires some degree of concentration.
Yet not all forms of attention are the same.
Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, the husband-and-wife research team who pioneered the concept of attention restoration theory, or ART, in the 1980s, drew an influential distinction between “directed” and “effortless” attention.
If you imagine your mind’s total capacity for attention in terms of a battery, directed attention is a high-drain activity that depletes the charge over the course of the day.
Effortless attention, by contrast, is like a power bank that helps recharge your mental battery.
One of the most significant claims of ART is that natural environments amplify those restorative powers. They do so by engaging what environmental psychologist Avik Basu, who studied under the Kaplans at the University of Michigan, calls “the fascination system.” Much like the two types of attention, fascinations can be split into two groups: hard and soft.
“If you’re on your social media feed and you keep scrolling to the next thing and the next thing, there’s a sort of addictive quality to that. You can’t quite turn it off. And that is a pretty good example of hard fascination.
There’s not a lot of room in the head to think about anything else except for the content that you’re viewing at that moment,” he explains.
“As for the soft fascination, think about being on a forest walk. You can look up at the trees for a moment and be engaged, and then you can look away. You might hear some birds, and that’ll capture your attention for a bit, and then you’ll move on to something else.”
Possibly as a response to the growing feeling that our capacity for attention — our “mental bandwidth,” in Basu’s words — isn’t able to keep pace with all the things that are competing for it, there’s been renewed interest in the power of soft fascinations in recent years.
“I think people are starting to sense that something feels different, particularly those in the generation that have experienced living with and without phones,” he says.
“There have been studies that look at people who walk in nature, and you can see that their attentional capacity goes up. But one study looked at walking in nature with and without a phone. And you can imagine what the results were.”
Soft fascinations aren’t limited to isolated locations enveloped by nature. Any activity that allows our minds to wander and quietly process things in the background can fall under that category, including folding laundry, washing dishes, walking the dog, taking a shower or just sitting on a bench in the park.
“When I was very young and learning ballet, we were taught something called a soft focus,” says Diane Barth, a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst based in New York City.
“Rather than focusing hard on something or paying attention to something in front of you, you sort of let your eyes gently focus or not focus, and then your body could relax. It was easier to actually dance more fluidly. To me, the soft fascination is an extension of that idea.”
Barth has written about the problem-solving power of soft fascinations. In her practice, she’s found them to be a useful tool when helping clients cope with stress. For one of those clients, a busy mother, soft fascination took the form of sweeping the entire house with a broom. As she settled into a kind of rhythmic autopilot, the knotty challenges that she might be facing at work or at home would slowly untangle themselves.
You can even bring a little splash of nature indoors as a kind of soft fascination. Barth has seen her clients benefit from the low-barrier gardening she dubbed “houseplant therapy.”
“Planting them or working with them, like
watering or spritzing them, gives you an opportunity to have that same kind of experience of interacting with something that’s living but in a way that’s not particularly demanding. You’re engaged with it, but you don’t have to put all your focus or energy into it,” she says.
The tough part, says Basu, is creating space for soft fascinations, especially natural ones, when so many things in modern life — social media feeds, video games, binge-watch streaming series — are literally engineered to capture and consume our attention.
“One study looked at walking in nature with and without a phone. And you can imagine what the results were.”
“There’s a draw that we have as humans toward that. We’ve evolved to pay attention to hard-fascination-oriented information. It’s important to have the habits or routines to put on your shoes and get outside. Once you’re out the door, things already feel better.”
When Dogs Bite
Managing aggressive behavior requires a serious approach
BY ROBERT SLACK
Pets have curious ways of weaving themselves into the very heart of their human families. The bond that anchors them tightly together, human and pet, often resembles the attachment a parent has with a child. It’s not unusual to hear families refer to their pet as a “family member.”
There is one particular problem that can develop that threatens this relationship. What do we humans do when our pet, especially a dog, has that one trait we all fear: aggressiveness. It cannot be ignored, and we are often in a quandary over what to do. Aggressiveness has been one of the more difficult and complicated conditions I faced over the course of my veterinary career. Too often I find the problem rests not with the pet but with the client, the “pet par-
ent.” Their attachment to a beloved pet leads them to deny or excuse aggressive behavior, believing the problem must lie “elsewhere” and is not the fault of their pet.
After listening to my client’s description of their pet’s behavior and observing how their pet accepts my presence and physical examination, I might determine the problem indeed lies with the pet and not elsewhere. This “diagnosis” is not always very well received by a pet parent.
Three common categories of aggressive behavior are fear-induced, possessive or food-related, and territory-based. Territorial aggression frequently involves dogs who are aggressive toward other dogs but also toward children. I can’t count the number of pets brought to my hospital over the years to
repair bite wounds caused by territorial aggression, while human urgent care clinics receive the human side of bite wounds.
Be aware, however, that there is a long list of different types of dog aggressiveness, and each has its root causes and particular methods for behavior correction, too difficult and extensive to cover here.
No matter the root cause, it’s very important to understand that the solution is a joint venture — both parties, human and dog, must be involved in order to succeed in managing the pet’s behavior.
…both parties, human and dog, must be involved in order to succeed in managing the pet’s behavior.
A word of warning: Some pets do not respond to corrective training, and you are faced with the terrible dilemma of what to do with a pet that remains a danger to family and community. The bond we have with pets is not always diminished because of aggressive behavior, making life decisions very difficult.
Here are some of my suggestions on how to have a safe and happy home with a pet. First, choose wisely. Learn the ABC’s of temperament testing that help you understand, among other things, the signs of aggressive tendencies. I have been impressed by the increased number of folks who attend puppy and training classes to learn about raising a pet dog. These classes are effective in preventing problems from developing in the first place.
But what if you already have a pet that has problems with aggressive behavior? First, I encourage you to have your pet examined by a veterinarian. Sometimes the cause can be traced to a medical problem that can be treated! Veterinarians can also offer suggestions and resources on how to successfully manage certain kinds of aggressive behavior, including the subtle differences between discipline and punishment and how to use positive reinforcement.
On a good note: Spokane is a great place to raise a pet. We have great veterinarians, lots of classes run by competent dog trainers and for the more serious problems there are Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists, who are very helpful in managing the more difficult behaviors.
Robert Slack is a retired veterinarian who lives in Spokane. He’s the author of Tails: Curious Stories of the Animal-Human Bond.
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JOYA CHILD AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT
BY SUMMER SANDSTROM
Joya
Child and Family Development primarily serves kids newborn to 3 years old who have developmental delays and disabilities.
“We want to make sure that every child is able to keep up with their peers and have a good, strong development in all areas — social, emotional, cognitive, physical, language and communication — and have every possibility to go into school as strong as possible in all of those areas,” Executive Director Colleen Fuchs says.
Founded in 1960 as the Spokane Guilds’ School & Neuromuscular Center, Joya Child and Family Development was rebranded in 2019 and moved into a new building three years ago.
A team of specialists including physical and occupational therapists, speech therapists, a registered dietitian, a medical director and many more pediatric professionals assist children and families.
“Eighty percent of brain development
happens in the first three years of life, so it is the ideal time to be intervening so that you’re preserving all that capacity for growth and success down the road,” Fuchs says.
While the nonprofit mainly works with kids up to 3 years old, they also have a program called Joya Jump Start, which works with kids ages 3 to 5 to help them transition out of early intervention services and get ready for kindergarten.
“If you can keep a child caught up, they’re going to require a lot fewer services down the road than a child who’s fallen behind who needs to get caught up,” Fuchs says. “It’s really, really important.”
Joya’s team and learning some basics of child development.
Currently, Joya is trying to meet a fundraising goal of $18.5 million, with more than $4 million left to raise. The funds will go toward serving twice as many children and families, and also updating technology and equipment to elevate the therapeutic services. Fuchs says a follow-up campaign will raise funds for research in early childhood development.
JOYA CHILD AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT joya.org
1016 N. Superior St.
Joya has community groups, which are playgroups open to the public for children who are typically developing or for those who have a developmental delay or disability. Parents stay at those groups, talking with
“We will serve more than 700 kids this year,” Fuchs says. “That’s a big number for us. In our first three years in this building we more than doubled — and that was our 10-year goal — and it’s not slowing down, so the need for these services just keeps growing.”
Fuchs says that Joya is always looking for volunteers to help with events, such as the Donut Dash on May 31.
JOYA PHOTOS
MORE TO CHECK OUT
AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY CENTER
1025 W. Indiana Ave.
Founded in 1967, the American Indian Community Center (AICC) serves as a social gathering place for Native American people in the Spokane area, while also providing employment, educational and social services, and working to preserve and protect Native American cultures and traditions. The AICC provides crisis intervention and case management services, behavioral health and substance abuse programs, and a variety of other advocacy and support services. The organization is currently working on building a new forever home near Spokane’s High Bridge Park. Additionally, the AICC has a wish list of items in high demand including backpacks, water bottles and blankets.
Find a full wish list for donations, as well as options for financial contributions and volunteer opportunities at aiccinc.org.
FEED SPOKANE
1114 N. Fancher Rd. Ste. 109, Spokane Valley
For 18 years, Feed Spokane has been helping to reduce food waste and providing needed sustenance for community members experiencing food insecurity. The nonprofit receives food from local restaurants, caterers, hotels and grocery stores and distributes it to various food banks and other sites that serve free meals.
To become a food donor, or to volunteer your assistance with food pickup and delivery, go to feedspokane.org.
SPOKANE RIVER FORUM
1201 N. Ash St. #201
In 2008, Andy Dunau founded the Spokane River Forum as an organization to promote sharing information and convening people to have conversations about a healthy river system and watershed. Dunau recently stepped down, with new Executive Director Happy Avery continuing the Spokane River Forum’s work.
Each year, the organization hosts the Spokane River Conference to promote work that a variety of organizations and agencies are doing. The Water Trail program, with Spokane River Forum serving as the lead organization, is working to design new access points along the river. To provide information on how to take care of the Spokane River system, Spokane River Forum created Outdoor Watering Nerds and the Spokane Kootenai County Waste and Recycling Directory. “We’re nonpartisan, we’re not an issues advocate, we’re just trying to put the information out there and help people empower themselves,” Avery says.
To find out about upcoming events or to donate, visit spokaneriver.net.
SPOKANE RIVER FORUM PHOTO
A CulInary EsCape
Lorén’s French-inspired fine dining experience is backed by these powerhouse chefs
STORY BY DORA SCOTT PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK
located in the basement floor of the Papillon building right next to Riverfront Park’s north entrance, the French-inspired, fine dining experience that Lorén offers is well worth the hunt.
To find it, you’ll have to descend flights of stairs, then meander down a hallway until you reach a large wooden sliding door with deep purple velvet curtains teasing the swanky restaurant inside.
Chef-owner Juli Norris, a longtime Spokane restauranteur, first opened Kasa Restaurant and Taphouse on the building’s first floor at 908 N. Howard St. However, the family-focused, casual atmosphere didn’t quite fulfill her passions.
“My vision was I wanted to create a
place that shined in the food that I was trained in and wanted to be a little bit of an escape for people when they come here,” Norris says. “It’s like something Spokane didn’t already have. I wanted it to feel very special, I wanted it to feel very secluded.”
She hit the mark, transforming the dark underground space from scratch before opening Lorén in 2023. Unlike Kasa right upstairs, Lorén is a 21+ space illuminated by tea lights and soft lavender fixtures. The history of the building can be found in the thick stone walls, but is balanced with modern touches of marble and violet accents, like the gold-encrusted purple geodes that trail along a wall.
The Lorén beef burger is topped with espresso bacon jam (recipe, pg. 36).
Norris used her classic training in French cuisine to create a menu that would live up to the upscale space.
“I work with chefs that have the same dedication to the level of food, the freshness of the food, the locality of the food and as well as that consistency and
parents, but says his most formative inspiration was visiting and helping cook at a family friend’s rural home.
“I was just always fascinated watching her and doing her farmstead thing and cooking with those fresh ingredients,” Rinaldi says.
I wanted it to feel very special, I wanted it to feel very secluded.
that quality. But we all kind of have that same vision,” Norris says.
Each dish reflects the time and dedication Norris, Executive Chef Stephen Rinaldi and Chef de Cuisine Sebastian Zowal have put into their craft.
looking back, Rinaldi thinks that he’s been destined to become a chef.
“There’s a picture of me when I was I think 3 years old, and I’m on a fake little burners that I drew, a stovetop on a cardboard box, and I’m playing with pans and acting like a chef,” he says.
Rinaldi grew up cooking with his
While he dabbled in food service jobs growing up in Spokane, his goal to become a chef was cemented when Rinaldi moved to the Virgin Islands at 19 years old and worked in the kitchen of an eco resort for three years.
“I just learned to love cooking down there. I had a lot of freedom to write the menus, and the menus always changed,” Rindali says.
After his time working at the resort, Rinaldi had plans to co-open a brewery on the islands. However, Hurricane Irma literally swept those dreams aside in 2017. Luckily, he was vacationing when Irma came through, but he lost
his apartment and all of his belongings.
“I wasn’t even able to go back,” Rinaldi says. “I haven’t been back since.”
Rindali has since racked up culinary experience working locally at Cochinito Taqueria, Gozzer Ranch Golf and Lake Club, and Dry Fly Distilling as a sous chef.
Looking to continue to advance as a chef, when he saw that Lorén was slated to open, he worked at Kasa briefly before moving to the basement restaurant.
“It’s something I’ve always been striving for, to get to this point, and now I can only just go farther,” says Rinaldi about working in his first executive chef position.
Influenced by his time on the islands, Rinaldi always enjoys putting a Caribbean flair to his cuisine.
“I like to use a lot of citrus, exotic fruits and that kind of stuff. I like a lot of fish dishes, which I also incorporate those things into,” he says.
When coming up with new recipes, Rinaldi tries to draw from local, seasonal ingredients. Sometimes, dish ideas will come to him in a dream, like a handmade fettuccine with black garlic pesto cream sauce, snap peas and preserved peppadews that was previously
...continued on next page
Chef de Cuisine Sebastian Zowal (left) and Executive Chef Stephen Rinaldi share duties in the kitchen at Lorén.
“A CULINARY ESCAPE,” CONTINUED...
on Lorén’s menu.
Though life has taken Rinaldi in various directions, partially chased by hurricanes, the Spokane food scene is glad to have him.
To ensure Lorén’s menu remains consistent, high-quality and creative, Zowal — the chef de cuisine — backs up Rinaldi in the kitchen.
Zowal’s first job in the food industry was serving brunch items at Frank’s Diner when he was 16 years old. He dedicated seven years to the diner, working in every position and learning the ins and outs, before attending culinary school at Spokane Community College in 2016.
“One of my co-workers at Frank’s Diner, she went to culinary school at SCC, and she recommended it to me,” Zowal says. “She’s like, ‘Hey, I noticed you’re really passionate about cooking and working in a restaurant, you should try to excel your skills and learn more about the industry.”
TRY IT YOURSELF
Espresso Bacon Jam
This espresso bacon jam elevates the Lorén burger, which is crafted from beef filet trimmings, topped with house seasoning, black garlic aioli, cambozola cheese, and butter lettuce. The jam works well on bread-based appetizers, or pretty much any pairing you can envision. (It’s bacon!)
He did just that, going on to work at Italia Trattoria in Browne’s Addition for two years before meeting and following chef Philip Stanton to Park Lodge along the western end of Kendall Yards. Zowal worked there for six years, working his way up to a sous chef position until the lodge closed.
“After they closed down, Juli was a frequent customer at Park Lodge, and she was like, ‘I can tell you’re really talented, and I love the food that you cook. How about you come cook for me?” Zowal says.
Lorén was right up his alley, working a lot with classical French cuisine, but then also with the restaurant’s creative flexibility to incorporate other cuisines like Italian food. One of his favorite dishes at Lorén was a Valentine’s Day special of pasta stuffed with a crab and ricotta filling, cut and folded to look like a rose.
While shows like The Bear and Hell’s Kitchen paint the restaurant industry in a chaotic, stress-filled light, cooking is almost therapeutic to Zowal.
“It’s just really relaxing for me, just building a recipe from start to finish,” He says. “Just the whole cooking process, it amazes me how you can just take all these different ingredients and bring them together into a composed dish.”
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 lb smoked bacon, large dice
• 1 large sweet onion, julienned
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup apple cider juice
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of espresso
• Fresh thyme, about 8 stems, tied with butcher’s twine
DIRECTIONS:
Cook the bacon:
1. In a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat, cook the chopped bacon until it becomes crispy. This should take about 10-15 minutes.
2. Once cooked, transfer the bacon pieces to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain excess fat.
3. Carefully drain all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the skillet, leaving the drippings in the pan.
Sauté onions:
4. In the same skillet with the bacon drippings, add the finely chopped onions.
5. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions become caramelized and golden brown. This process should take approximately 15-20 minutes.
Combine ingredients:
6. Add the cooked bacon pieces back into the skillet with the caramelized onions.
7. Stir in the brown sugar, apple cider juice, balsamic vinegar, the bundle of thyme and the brewed espresso.
8. Mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.
Simmer the mixture:
9. Reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer uncovered.
10. Stir occasionally and cook until the liquid reduces and the mixture thickens to a jam-like consistency. This should take about 20-25 minutes.
Cool and store:
11. Once the desired consistency is achieved, remove the skillet from heat.
12. Allow the jam to cool to room temperature. Transfer the cooled jam into sterilized jars or airtight containers.
13. Store the jam in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 2-3 weeks.
— RECIPE COURTESY OF STEPHEN RINALDI
UNO MAS TACOS & TEQUILA
BY DORA SCOTT
Margarita in one hand, a hefty taco in the other, you might forget that you’re in Spokane at Uno Más Tacos & Tequila. The eatery’s new flagship location opened Jan. 2 on North Monroe Street, nestled behind Indaba Coffee, under the sole ownership of Ramsey Pruchnic.
quarter-pound of meat,” Pruchnic says.
UNO MAS TACOS & TEQUILA
Some may be familiar with Uno Más Taco Shop’s previous iterations, as it was founded in 2022 by Pruchnic, chef Chad White and local brewery owner Travis Thosath inside the Wonder Building, along with a now-closed location in the Spokane Valley.
2020 N. Monroe St. Suite C unomastacoshop.com
Tues-Thu noon-8 pm; Fri-Sat noon-9 pm
Uno Mas has six taco varieties: carne asada, tinga de pollo, carnitas, camarón (shrimp), batata (sweet potato) and hongos (maitake and crimini mushrooms). They also serve a selection of sides like elote, chips and salsa or guacamole. The slight name change isn’t the only refresh to the
If you’ve never had an Uno Más taco, you’re in for a treat — and a handful.
“I think that’s the big thing is people hear the word ‘taco’ and they assume it’s typically like a street taco, and ours are a
local Mexican eatery. Pruchnic wants Uno Mas to offer a full experience, with an interior that riffs on a Mexican plaza and a full bar alongside a more speakeasy-style bar upstairs.
Though their hefty tacos are designed to satisfy, you still may catch yourself thinking, “Maybe just one more?”
Carne asada (left) and hongos tacos with chips at Uno Más. ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS
Uno Más General Manager Karissa Schulke, Executive Chef Jesse Orchard, and owner/founder Ramsey Pruchnic.
MORE TO TRY
MADD CHICKEN TERIYAKI
1520 N. Government Way, Coeur d’Alene, Mon-Sat 11 am-8 pm
You’re in for a fast-casual teriyaki menu that’s not only delicious, but also relatively guilt free at Madd Chicken Teriyaki. The menu is free of seed oils and gluten, inspired by co-owner Tim Bastedo’s own health issues and dietary restrictions.
The star of the menu is either the chicken teriyaki loaded fries, topped with house sauce, sliced teriyaki chicken thigh meat, spring onions, sesame seeds and cheese, or the teriyaki bowls and entrées.
Bastedo also added burgers to the menu that are reminiscent of the In-N-Out burgers he grew up eating in California. Options include beef or chicken, with a deluxe version topped with avocado, grilled pineapple and teriyaki sauce.
“Every morning we make our own teriyaki sauce, we make 5 gallons,” Bastedo says. “When we first started, I thought I’d make 1 gallon every Monday, and now I have to make it every day.”
Future Madd Chicken locations are slated for Post Falls and Liberty Lake.
TERIYAKI SPICE
1412 W. Second Ave., teriyakispice.com, Sun 10 am-8 pm; Mon-Sat 10 am-10 pm
What started in 2015 as a family-run teriyaki spot in Woodland, Washington, has since expanded to five locations across Washington and Oregon, including a spot in Airway Heights (11980 W Sunset Hwy.).
In February, Teriyaki Spice opened a downtown Spokane location in the former Uncle Rusty’s Diner space, serving an Asian fusion menu with scratch-made sauces.
Teriyaki Spice’s menu covers all the essentials, from the classic chicken teriyaki served over white rice with a side salad to more diverse offerings like potstickers, egg rolls, french fries and California rolls. In a nod to teriyaki’s seafood origins, there’s also salmon teriyaki, plus beef, shrimp, pork and tofu.
HOT POT RAMEN HOUSE
8052 Main St. Ste 101, Rathdrum, hotpotramenhouse.com, Tues-Thu 11 am-7 pm; Fri-Sat 11 am-8 pm
While instant ramen has become a U.S. staple, saving wallets across the nation since Top Ramen hit the market in the 1970s, nothing quite compares the the instant noodle empires of countries like South Korea and Japan.
Viral videos of people making deluxe instant ramen in Korean convenience stores, using instant ramen machines, have made their way across to American audiences. Such a video landed on Lisa Maxwell’s screen and she became inspired to open up a similar concept in Rathdrum, Idaho, with her husband.
Customers heading to Hot Pot Ramen House can explore a wall of more than 65 instant ramen varieties to the left of the entrance. A helpful two-minute video about the cooking process plays on a large tablet.
After you select your ramen, you then choose from a plethora of toppings like egg, Spam, homemade kimchi and more.
You check out before cooking your meal, then take your tray to one of the five instant ramen cookers that were imported from South Korea.
The restaurant also has a boba bar alongside fridges stocked with Asian beverages and ice cream.
Next time you're hankering for some good ol’ instant ramen, maybe ditch those Cup Noodles for a trip to Hot Pot Ramen House.
and experience award-winning wines and regionally inspired bistro menus to enhance your wine tasting experience.
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Roast, Grind and Brew
Arctos Coffee serves its own blend of community and coffee in the Logan neighborhood
BY WILL MAUPIN
In the world of coffee, some places roast beans while others sling beverages, but few do both.
Arctos Coffee and Roasting Company has been blending the two and caffeinating the Logan neighborhood since 2018.
“We have a really great roaster, and I think that the way that he roasts — because we roast all of our beans in-house — he takes it very seriously and makes sure that the quality is nothing less than amazing. That really helps us be able to keep the same recipes all across the board all the time,” Arctos manager Maddy Dean says.
There’s nothing wrong with looking to an outside roaster like many other coffee shops do. Many of Spokane’s most lauded cafes and drive-thrus take advantage of the wealth of quality roasters in our region,
some even turn to Arctos to do the roasting. But by keeping the roasting in-house, Arctos is able to have complete control over the quality of the beans that they brew up on a daily basis.
“It makes our jobs a lot easier in the sense of consistency,” Dean says.
After the roasting process, the beans are passed to the baristas, where the commitment to consistency continues. Every shot at Arctos is precisely weighed before being pulled. Meaning the “Logan Latte” you ordered on Monday will taste the same as the Logan Latte you order on Thursday.
Consistency and customer service are two pillars that have helped build Arctos into one of the Logan neighborhood’s premier “third place” establishments.
“Third place” is a term coined by
American sociologist Ray Oldenburg to refer to places like coffee shops where people can congregate and socialize that are outside the home (“first place”) and work (“second place”). In the diverse Logan neighborhood, where Gonzaga students mingle with multigenerational Spokane families, and historic single-family homes sit down the block from multistory apartment complexes, Arctos provides an environment where all are welcome.
“There are a lot of different groups of people who come in all the time,” Dean says. “Students use this place to just study, too. They don’t just come in to get coffee.”
Visually, it’s easy to understand why.
Large glass, garage-style doors allow in plenty of warm morning light. In the afternoon, the patio space out front allows
patrons to bask in the sun. Wood counters and shelves overflowing with plants are accented with vintage neon, and the shop’s black mugs add to the cozy vibe.
The food menu includes staples like bagels, muffins and pastries, but there are also options for heartier appetites. “We have a couple of really good croissant sandwiches. One is a turkey with pesto. And then the other one is basically just a cheese croissant, so it’s havarti cheese, and then we do raspberry jam on the other side,” Dean says. “Then our hammy is our OG sandwich. We’ve had it forever. And we do a cheddar one, or we can do a pepper jack one.”
Whether you’re coming in for a cup of the on-site roasted Guatemalan, Colombian or the popular South American blend, or stopping by for a sandwich and some study time, Arctos strives to make sure people always know what they’ll get, from the product to the service to the atmosphere.
“You’ll walk into a very warm, inviting space,” Dean says.
B
Arctos Manager Maddy Dean says coffee beans for every shot are carefully weighed, ensuring consistency.
ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS
Farm to Grocery to Table
A farm store stocked with local goods sprouts on the Palouse
BY ANNE McGREGOR
The Palouse Highway begins in a commercial zone — there’s a sprawling Target complex, a McDonald’s and an expanse of often well-populated soccer fields. But head a little farther south, and the road curves and begins to gently roll until it eventually opens onto the picturesque Palouse prairie. After about 10 minutes going south on the Palouse Highway, hang a left at South Madison Road, go just past the post office and up a little hill, you’ll find the Casa Cano farm store.
Jorge Cano and his wife, Madyson Versteeg, have owned the farm for 11 years and have mostly focused on offering wholesale produce to local restaurants and some nonprofits. “For the retail, we’d always put card tables out [by the side of the road]… it was pretty random, and I think it was hard for customers to connect with us,” Cano says.
COVID brought an increase in business, and by the time they were filling 30 to 40 orders a day, the couple realized the potential for a more permanent retail space. The store, though only 2 years old, includes an interior of well-worn wood and metal, both with the sort of patina popular in “farm-style” decor. Here, though, it’s legit. “All the materials we collected off of barns we took down in the back of our place… we repurposed it because we had to,” Cano says.
The hand-built store is tiny, yet fully stocked for a grocery run. Much of the inventory is produced right at the family farm, while the remainder is sourced from other regional providers. Shoppers will find an assortment of vegetables, fruit, eggs and even coffee from nearby Rockford’s LaShaw Ranch Roasters. Frozen fish is courtesy of the Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative, which also supplies honey kombucha and even peanut butter made in Washington. Shelves of curated organic pantry items include pasta and some canned or jarred goods. “It’s just things that we like to eat and that we think are healthy. We don’t have anything that has sugar in it,” Cano says.
There’s also plenty of meat, produced locally. Casa Cano’s cattle spend the summer months grazing on grass at the farm, while enjoying non-sprayed hay in winter
Jorge Cano and Madyson Versteeg are expanding business at their Casa Cano Farms. PHOTOS COURTESY OF JORGE CANO
months. The farm’s pigs feast on “non-GMO grain that was grown here on the Palouse and milled just down the road,” Cano says. Beef cuts and pork selections, including the popular Casa Cano Farms sausage often found on local restaurant menus, are wrapped in crisp white paper and stored in freezer cases at the back of the store.
Oddly, in such an abundant farming region, Cano says his store is the only option for miles. “We’re kind of a food desert, you know? You have to go to Spokane to go grocery shopping, and south of us, the towns don’t have grocery stores anymore.”
The Circle of Life
Not a lot gets wasted at Casa Cano Farm. For example, when microgreens from the greenhouses are trimmed, with the tops going off to retail or wholesale buyers, the remaining stems are composted together with piles of wood chips from local arborists. “And we use that to bed our cows and pigs,” Jorge Cano says. “Obviously, they add manure to it, and then a lot of vegetable scraps and whatever else is compostable goes into those piles. And then we mix all that to get it hot and kill the weed seeds, and then we make our own soil mix, which we also sell in the spring… It’s as closed a loop as we can make it but still not totally torture ourselves.”
— ANNE McGREGOR
Cano is just finishing constructing, by hand, the farm’s next expansion, something that’s been in the works for two years: a food storage warehouse. “We’ve been working with enough farms that we need more space to intake what they bring us and store it. A lot of small farms have an issue of storage on their farm — a restaurant can only buy so many carrots a week. So a lot of this is going to be freezer and cooler space.”
While the farm is small, it’s part of an intentional, post-pandemic statewide effort aimed at improving food security, to allow “more small farms to be able to fill gaps in times of crisis,” Cano says. A farm infrastructure grant from the Washington State Department of Agriculture helped fund equipment for processing locally grown produce that’s now sold to at least 10 northeast Washington school districts, Cano says. “So that’s really helped us grow.”
Casa Cano Farm Store • Tues-Fri, 9 am-5 pm, Saturdays (through June 14) 9 am-2 pm • 12210 S. Madison Rd., Valleyford • To place online orders for pick up or delivery and for more info on u-pick Thursdays, CSA subscriptions, workshops and events, go casacanofarms.com
Casa Cano Farm store is compact, yet well-stocked.
SUP This Summer
Enjoy stunning natural beauty this summer — after work and on a budget
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL DANFORD
Water and sunshine are therapeutic. And there’s a perfect way to get the best of both, so let’s get ready to paddleboard. Of course you’ll first need a board and paddle. Rent one from REI or Fun Unlimited, or another rental place in town. You can buy one, of course, but you don’t have to buy one new if you do. During COVID, my wife and I bought used boards and have enjoyed tons of fun at half the cost ever since. If you do buy, I’d suggest an inflatable. I’ve found the solid boards hard to transport and can be slippery. Always include a life vest and take your whistle. You’ll want to consider a
water bottle or two, some snacks for each trip, and maybe a small six-pack-sized cooler. Paddleboards usually have some sort of bungee cord to tie down items. And don’t go without a dry bag to protect your keys, phone and wallet.
Finally, don’t let the idea of balancing on a board intimidate you into not trying that first paddle. It might take a minute or two, but you’ll find that the boards, especially the 12-footers, are pretty sturdy and stable. Start by sitting, then move to your knees, and when ready, work up to standing in the middle of the board with your legs as wide as those shoulders. You’ve got this!
Medical Lake
Now that you are ready for an adventure, let me tell you about Medical Lake. My wife, Kristin, and I love this little spot, especially for a quick trip from Spokane. We live north, so after packing the gear into the back of the truck, we can be on the water there in 45 minutes.
Medical Lake has a boat launch and a beach, but I wouldn’t set my board in the water from either spot. Here’s what to do instead: head west to Medical Lake on I-90, then take the Highway 902/Medical Lake exit. Just past the Lakes Harvest Foods, turn left on Lefevre Street. Then go two
sip of water here. One summer a few years back, my wife and I waited until her Apple watch read an exact 100 degrees. That’s when we got off our boards and took a refreshing splash.
Bead Lake
blocks and turn right onto Fourth Street. Watch for the small dusty parking lot on the left. With your Discover Pass, park in the lot there, get your things ready, and launch.
Hey, it’s not the most aesthetic launch, but hang with me, it’ll be worth it.
Once in the water and on your SUP, paddle out and away from the parking lot to the approximate middle of the lake. You’ll have to move past the boulders and toward the funky solar panels powering some sort of gauges. Glance south a bit down the 149-acre lake to see the beach. In that perfect middle-of-the-lake spot, stop. Rest, relax, and enjoy the sun. Have a
Bead Lake is gorgeous. Might be my favorite spot to hit the water, honestly. It’s only 8 miles outside Newport. Sparing the trip details, Google Maps will get you to the boat launch just fine. Bead Lake is in the Colville National Forest, so keep in mind there’s a fee to park a single vehicle for the day while you paddle. A National Forest day pass for $5 is all you need to park your rig. The annual Northwest Forest Pass for Washington and Oregon ($30) will do the trick as well.
Once at the launch, be mindful of the short paved road from the parking lot to the water. The launch can only accommodate a car or two. You might want to have your boards, paddles, dry bag and water bottles ready in the parking lot and walk them the 50 feet or so down the hill to the water’s edge.
Once you’ve pushed off from shore, soak it all in. Paddle on your knees at first as you take in the homes to the west of the lake and pines all around. Once standing, notice too, the cooler water temps and lake clarity.
Start your paddle by hugging the shoreline near the homes and head north. Make your way to the far end of Bead — a 45-minute paddle or so — or fork off and travel east for just as long. You can’t get lost, although Bead Lake is good-sized at 720 acres. Since you’ve made the drive, plan to take some time. You can make it a shorter paddle, of course, but I wouldn’t. Enjoy this one for as long as you’ve got the energy.
Plan to take your water and Gatorade. You don’t want to end the day early with hunger pangs, so grab some snacks for this SUP excursion.
During the trip you’ll want to pause your paddling, rest, and peacefully float, so wear your swimsuit this time, because when ready, you’ll want to take a nice plunge. Prepare for the chill, but plan to be refreshed as well. Breathe the fresh air, and note the beauty of the lake… the pines… and the sun. Bead Lake is a winner for paddleboarders for sure.
Bead Lake can draw a crowd sometimes, so be aware. It’s that pretty. Don’t head up without some forethought. Folks seem to know about this spot, so if you are traveling north, plan for an earlier launch to avoid congestion at the parking lot.
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Michael Danford and his wife Kristin enjoy paddleboarding all over the Inland Northwest
SUP This Summer...
Marshall Lake
Surely Bead Lake is worth the trip, but don’t hesitate to visit the hidden gem of Marshall Lake just a few minutes away. Again, let Google Maps get you there. Marshall Lake is just over 6 miles from Newport.
Bring your Discover Pass for this trip. Once at Marshall Lake, you’ll find a gravel launch. Drive to the launch, drop your boards, then park up the hill a bit. The launch is good-sized, so there shouldn’t be any crowding while putting in or taking out.
Last summer, Kristin and I visited Marshall on an amazing summer day. Marshall Lake is nice and quiet. So quiet. See, it’s designated for nonmotorized boating only — perfect for us paddlers. With very little chop, we paddled clear to the far end of the lake. Floating the shoreline is fun here. There’s lots to take in.
Once tired, we took time to float and enjoy the warm rays. Feeling a little overheated, we knew it was time to dip. Whether you hold onto your board and slip slowly into the lake or show bravery and just flop in, do it. The stability of the boards makes getting back on fairly simple, so don’t miss the chance to swim and splash, especially if you’ve driven the hour and 15 minutes from Spokane.
Plese Flats to Nine Mile Falls
Although this trip might be the closest to town, it’s going to take a bit of planning, especially if you’re trekking the entire route. If you put in at Plese Flats at Riverside State Park and paddle all the way to the Nine Mile Falls takeout, you’re talking about a 5-mile trip on the Spokane River. You’ll need a ride back from the takeout, which is just shy of the dam. If you put in at Plese Flats and paddle, say, to the 7-Mile Bridge and back, you’ll work less and not need a ride back to Plese Flats, about an hour and a half to two-hour float.
Personally, I’d plan for the entire 5 miles. If you do this, we’re talking two to twoand-half hours, depending on how quickly you paddle. Remember too, that you’ll not want to tackle the river before the summer runoff is complete. If you hit the water too soon, the currents are strong the currents are strong, the water is awfully cold, and the trip won’t be much fun. Flows of 4000-6000 cubic feet per second (cfs) are prime. Flows below 4000 cfs are enjoyable as well. USGS and Avista report river flow Monday through Friday.
I typically enjoy this fairly long, chop-free float late June thru Labor Day. In my view, when any water is glassy and still, the fun-factor soars. That’s what you’re gonna get with this one.
Here’s the kicker. Make sure you paddle to the left bank as you go with the flow at about the two-thirds mark of the trip. At about this point, you’ll come to a super sandy and low section of the river. This is where I bust out my drinks and snacks and take a break. I jump off the board, wade this sandy section of the river, and swim. The water’s always cool and clear at this spot. When refreshed, jump back on your board. Float if you wish and let the slight current lead. When you’re ready, stand up tall, and paddle to the takeout. Do not stress. Do not hurry. Enjoy this one!
Because of the trees and brush, you can’t always see the takeout. But it’s there — on the left as you approach the safety signs and buoys. Be mindful when exiting your SUP, the few low steps there can be slippery.
Unwind and Recharge
As a longtime educator and elementary school principal, I find paddleboarding to be an incredible opportunity to unwind and recharge. It’s no trouble at all to hit the Spokane River or Medical Lake after 4 pm for a quick paddle. On summer weekends, there’s time to venture to the lakes up north. Wherever you go, there’s just nothing much better than getting your board into the water.
CHAISE & HOME
BY SUMMER SANDSTROM
Looking to spruce up your home, perhaps by adding in some pops of color? In the market for fun decorative pieces to infuse your personality into your place? Or considering replacing your furniture with some new items?
Chaise & Home, which opened in September 2024 in the Garland District, serves as the retail space for owner Wendy Nolan’s interior design company 509 Design.
projects for individuals’ homes, Chaise & Home has a designer on staff who can help shoppers find the right pieces for their specific aesthetics and goals.
“We show how people can incorporate color and really push them beyond what their limits might be in terms of combining patterns, colors and textures,” Nolan says.
CHAISE & HOME
“When we moved our studio to the Garland area, we saw there was a lot of foot traffic,” Nolan says. “We decided to open our doors to the general public, and we opened the decor store and custom home furnishings just kind of as a separate branch.”
509.design 815 W. Garland Ave.
Nolan says that her love for interior design sparked at a young age, when she was 13 years old taking home economics classes that focused on design and architecture.
After getting her bachelor’s degree in Salt Lake City and working in commercial design at architecture firms for a number of years, she made the transition into residential design, opening 509 Design in 2015.
While 509 Design focuses on design
Chaise & Home stocks new and antique furniture, as well as pillows, side tables, glassware, lanterns and much, much more.
“We try to provide things you don’t normally see anywhere else in town,” she says.
Nolan says she wants the store to feel welcoming and inviting to all.
“You’ll come in and you’ll see some really high price-point items, but we’ve mixed them in with some lower cost items, and we try to do that on our projects too — not everything has to be the best or the most expensive,” she says. “When you have good quality foundational pieces, you don’t notice that you might have skimped on the end table that’s not superb quality or something that was made by a craftsman, but I think it blends well and it helps the budget stretch further for clients.”
Find something for your home at almost any price point at Chaise & Home in Spokane’s Garland District. WENDY NOLAN PHOTOS
MORE TO CHECK OUT
VEDA LUX
1106 S. Perry St. and 114 S. Madison St.
Carrying an array of vintage clothing and decor, locally made jewelry, perfumes, candles and gift items, Veda Lux takes a maximalist approach to bringing fashion and fun to Spokane. “I wanted to open something that was a very unique shopping experience, something just off the beaten path,” says Summer Hightower, who opened the store 15 years ago. “I feel like the style [in Spokane] is a lot more relaxed and hiking oriented — everybody just seems to dress down here. I wanted a place where people would come to get gussied up or feel fancy.” Hightower recently opened a second location downtown. The Perry location, now known as The Dollhouse, has a bright and cheerful vibe, while the downtown location, called the Reliquarium, features a moodier vibe and houses Hightower’s higher-end finds. “We’re just trying to spread the fashion love and make Spokane more maximalist one day at a time,” Hightower says.
WONDERS OF THE WORLD
621 W. Mallon Ave. Ste. 412
Housing a collection of magical and eye-catching crystals, jewelry, fossils and metaphysical items, Wonders of the World showcases the wonders of the earth in a number of ways. Located in the historic Flour Mill building by the Spokane Arena, Wonders of the World is split into two separate spaces that sit directly across from each other. The Import Shop carries crystals, jewelry and a variety of other fun gift items. The Bead Shop offers up a myriad of beads made from various crystals and gems, as well as a variety of beading tools, candles and incense.
SPOKANE ART SUPPLY
1303 N. Monroe St.
If you’re in need of new paints, canvases, brushes, pencils or anything artsy, check out Spokane Art Supply’s robust assortment of fine art supplies and and be sure to seek assistance from the knowledgeable staff who stand ready to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. The business was started by Ad and Alice Myers in 1954, with their daughter Claudia Myers taking over in the early 1980s. “There’s really no other art stores in the area,” says Claudia’s son Craig Marshall, who manages the store. “I think what makes it different is that this style of business, a fine art store, you just don’t see a lot these days even in some of the bigger cities.”
Creating Comfort
Sandpoint resident Michelle Sebern creates space for mourning, one memory bear at a time
“Everybody grieves, like every single person in the whole universe is going to grieve at some point,” Michelle Sebern says. “If you haven’t yet, you will.”
Death can be hard to process. It’s something that all of us will deal with at some point in our lives, but traversing the grief and heartache associated with it isn’t impossible. At least, that’s something Sandpoint resident Sebern believes.
BY COLTON RASANEN
degree and get put into leadership. It feels like you’re just working for a corporation,” she says. “So, I made the decision that I wanted to do something more heart related, more community related.”
physical — to people nearing the end of their life.
Sebern spent three years on the nonprofit’s board of directors, and in that time she trained to become a death doula. She planned to bring that knowledge to Sandpoint, where she’s resided for the last decade, but she soon realized that type of care might not be as accepted as it was in Bend.
“Every single person in the whole universe is going to grieve at some point. If you haven’t yet, you will.”
In 2019, Sebern was working a travel nursing assignment in Missoula, Montana. She says she was at the top of her career, but when her assignment ended around the same time the pandemic began brewing, she retired.
“There’s a lot of bureaucracy [at hospitals] especially when you get your master’s
It just so happened that around the same time one of her best friends was starting a nonprofit in Bend, Oregon, called the Peaceful Presence Project. The organization trains end-of-life doulas to ensure that folks can live and die with dignity. These doulas provide nonmedical support — emotional, spiritual and
“I thought, that’s gonna be awesome in Sandpoint, I wanted to bring that forward,” she recalls. “But when I got here I realized that conversation is just really hard to tap into, because who wants to talk about death and dying?”
That realization didn’t dissuade her, instead she worked harder to think of an outlet for that type of energy in the com-
ERICK DOXEY PHOTOS
munity. Then one day she stumbled across memory bears. These teddy bears created with fabric from the clothing of a loved one who’s died, are really a way to tap into the grieving process without actually talking about it.
“Talking about death and dying and talking about the grief that they’re experiencing from loss is not easy for people, but talking about bears is a piece of cake,” she says with a warm smile.
MAKING A MEMORY BEAR
The process of getting a memory bear is fairly simple. After someone reaches out to Sebern through her Facebook or website (thememorybearmaker.com) asking for a bear, they’ll then talk about the material they’d like to use. T-shirts, sweaters, dress shirts, flannels. Basically, if you can wear it, she can turn it into a bear.
She’ll also ask about smaller details, such as their favorite color, to add into a little heart on the bear’s foot.
“I get a lot of people who are widows,
and then also a lot of women who want to preserve the legacy of their dad or their husband,” she says. “They want to have gifts made for the kids or the grandkids, and so there’s a lot of that legacy gifting going on.”
More than anything, Sebern says she loves learning the stories of these people through their clothes. From a few holes or flecks of paint on a shirt, she can put together the puzzle pieces of their life.
“A lot of times someone will drop clothes off, and I’ll always get the ‘Well, I brought you two. This one is something he never wore, but it’s in great shape so it might be great for a bear. And this one, well, he always wore it, but it’s all splattered with paint and damaged,’” she says. I always use that one, the one that’s got the paint and everything on it, because it tells a story. You can see the colors of his paint that he painted his house with, and you can see some of the things that he experienced.”
In total it takes Sebern about six hours over three days to make one bear. So far, she’s made about 50 of them.
And it’s all free. Sebern doesn’t charge any of her clients a cent to memorialize their late loved one into a huggable stuffed animal.
“They do cost quite a bit to make, but I don’t want any money for my time. I’m being intentional about that,” she explains. “There’s a lot of expectation that comes with money. There’s a lot of people I get that might not take the time to engage in getting a memory bear made for themselves during their grieving process if it costs money.”
Sebern has a pay-it-forward list on Amazon, and she takes donations in-person or through Venmo to keep her craft at least partially funded, but she can’t see a time when she would ever charge someone to make their memory bear.
FABRICATING A RITUAL
Creating these cherished keepsakes can take an emotional toll, but Sebern’s training through the Peaceful Presence Project has prepared her for this work.
“It is emotional. We cry a lot outside of my driveway as I’m passing off bears,” she says. “But it doesn’t wear on me because I feel like it’s something that is really beneficial and empowering for people.”
However, the experience was somewhat surprising to Sebern. She expected her clients would be emotional at both the dropoff and pickup, but that just wasn’t the case.
“They often give me the clothes and tell me a little bit about the person, but they’re not emotional at that time,” she says. “Then they come and they get the bear and, I mean, it stops them dead in their tracks.”
While its impact is small in scope, Sebern believes her work with memory bears creates some sort of routine around death that isn’t common in the U.S.
“When it comes to death and grieving, we as a culture are not so hot at it. Here when somebody dies we call the coroner, and they come and take the body away, and it’s fast and furious, and there’s no real ritual around it in general,” she explains. “So having a memory bear created is a ritual in a lot of ways. It kind of causes people to pause and slow down and think about [death] and process it in ways that other cultures might.”
While Sebern doesn’t want to create a business or nonprofit, she is currently teaching others in her community how to make these bears. In the end, her goal is to create hybrid sewing-grieving groups where people can get together to make these memorable keepsakes and work through their feelings in a community-oriented way.
“I just love the community part of it,” she says. “There’s more people that want to help than I have bears to create.”
