Vancouver Family Magazine December 2021

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December 2021

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COLUMBIA

House of

HOPE

Vancouver Organization Empowers Children in Ethiopia

PLAY

PROJEC T

Better Budgeting With a 90-Day Financial Road Map

Tracie DeMars REMAX Equity Group traciedemars@aol.com

360.903.3504 HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU & YOURS!!

from ALL of us at the Community Home Buyer & Home Seller Education Classes

Check out our FREE classes:

DECEMBER HOME BUYER CLASS DATES:

DECEMBER SELLER CLASS DATES:

Monday, 12/14/2021, 5pm-8pm Marshall Community Center Conference room 1009 E McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver WA (kitty corner from Clark College)

VIRTUAL CLASSES Sunday, 12/5/2021, 10am-12pm Wednesday, 12/15/2021, 5:30pm-7:30pm

VIRTUAL CLASSES: Saturday, 12/4/2021, 9am-12pm Saturday 12/18/2021, 10am-12pm

Visit our website for class times and locations.

Virtual classes available.

www.learningtobuyahome.com www.freesellerclasses.com Education should always be the first step. Not ready for a class?

Educational blogs & videos available on the website for those not ready for a class.

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Gideyn DeMars REMAX Equity Group GideynD@gmail.com

360.601.0868

We would love to be the ones you call when you are thinking about buying, or selling, or refinanciang, and we hope that you will. However, the classes are non-promotional, and informational only.

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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contents

December '21

FEATURE ARTICLES

12

House of Hope Empowering the hidden hearts and faces of Africa.

18

Better Budgeting How a 90-day financial road map can change everything.

24

Columbia Play Project Helping Southwest Washington families rediscover the value of play for generations to come.

12 IN EVERY ISSUE

24 8

6

Editor’s Notes

8

Couve Scoop • Must-See Holiday Houses • The Pivot Project: Downtown Camas • Vancouver Makes Top 10 Best Places to Live

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18

Mosaic Family Voyage The Messerschmidt family cruises the California coast on their last U.S. leg before entering foreign waters.

32 Calendar of Events & Activities

ON THE WEB • Vancouver Family Magazine's 2021 Year in Review

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Make their dreams reality Washington College Savings Plans can help you prepare for your student’s dreams.

GET enrollment now open DreamAhead open year-round

Learn more at wastate529.wa.gov GET and DreamAhead are qualified tuition programs sponsored and distributed by the State of Washington. The Committee on Advanced Tuition Payment and College Savings administers and the Washington Student Achievement Council supports the plans. DreamAhead investment returns are not guaranteed and you could lose money by investing in the plan. If in-state tuition decreases in the future, GET tuition units Magazine may lose value.

Vancouver Family • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Photo by Marie Pham Photography

EDITOR'S NOTES

Beloved Community Rev. Dr. Andrew Teal of Oxford University recently addressed students, staff and faculty at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah on the topic of building a “Beloved Community.” The term was coined by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to mean a society based on justice, equity and love, and one in which every individual is cared for. As a chaplain, university lecturer, convent warden and leading figure in interfaith relations, Dr. Teal is uniquely qualified to speak on such a vital and relevant concept—one that Dr. King and his fellow activists considered not only possible, but worth sacrificing everything for. “We speak today of a cancel culture, deliberately demonizing and diminishing those with whom we disagree,” Dr. Teal asserted in his October 2021 speech, “but some of our different religious communities’ approaches to minorities or to powerless people have indeed nurtured this response. So, we have to listen and learn and love. Then, we will also find that it is necessary that a Beloved Community has boundaries and norms and expectations . . . There cannot be exploitation. We cannot seek to exploit the vulnerable or collude with oppression or unkindness. We must especially safeguard the most vulnerable, those who need our help the most.”

The holiday season is a special time of year that cultivates this safeguarding by bringing together individuals, families and groups in celebration of the best parts of being human. From Hanukkah to Christmas to Kwanzaa to New Year’s Day, it’s an opportunity to hold close our dear ones, while simultaneously giving away that which is thus multiplied. It’s a season when we resolve to become new and better tomorrow. For many of us, it’s the time of year when our own community most resembles “Beloved” and our commitment to maintain and grow that condition is profound. As cliché as it is to suggest, what would our Southwest Washington community look like if we perpetuated that feeling and those actions year round?

This month, read about two different local nonprofit organizations who are developing Beloved Communities in very different ways, from building a House of Hope in Ethiopia (page 12) to helping families rediscover the value of play right here in Clark County (page 24). Plus, as the holiday celebrations squeeze our finances, learn how creating a 90-day financial road map can change everything (page 18).

Nikki Klock, Editor nikki@vancouverfamilymagazine.com

www.VancouverFamilyMagazine.com

Volume 20, Issue 12 Publisher

Julie Buchan Julie@vancouverfamilymagazine.com (360) 882-7762

Editor

Nikki Klock Nikki@vancouverfamilymagazine.com (360) 882-7762

Associate Editor

Sarah Mortensen Sarah@vancouverfamilymagazine.com

Graphic Designer

I-Shüan Warr Ishuan@vancouverfamilymagazine.com

Ad Designer

Philip Nerat addesign@vancouverfamilymagazine.com

Contributing Writers

Kristen Flowers; Carrie Lynn; Rachel Messerschmidt; Sione & Alana Uyema

Ad Sales

sales@vancouverfamilymagazine.com Vancouver Family Magazine is published monthly by Vancouver Kidz Magazine, LLC Address: PO Box 820264 Vancouver, WA 98682 Tel: 360-882-7762 Copyright 2002-2021. All rights reserved.

No portion of Vancouver Family Magazine may be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher.

Vancouver Kidz Magazine, LLC and staff do not recommend or endorse any service, product, or content represented in this magazine or on our website.

The sole purpose of this publication is to provide information on available services and/or products. It is the consumer’s responsibility to verify the accuracy of information given. Vancouver Kidz Magazine, LLC, and/or Julie Buchan and Nikki Klock and staff do not assume and disclaim any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by error or omission in this magazine or on our website. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

On the Cover:

Three-year-old Hadassah C. of Vancouver loves playing in the rain and jumping in puddles with her rain boots on.

Photo on the cover by Crystal Chavez.

CrystalChavezPhoto.com @crystalchavezphoto Crystal Chavez Photography

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Notable News, Events & Efforts in Clark County

DECEMBER 2021

Must See

Holiday Houses

T

he holiday season is here, and a handful of local families have gone all out to celebrate and decorate for the most wonderful time of the year. Meet two of these families and find out what motivates them to spend so much time, money and effort to spread Christmas cheer.

West Side Vancouver: Holidays on Franklin Jim Mains and his wife, Cecilia, have lived on Franklin Street in Vancouver since 2010. But Mains’s interest in holiday home decorating goes way back to stringing up Christmas lights with his family of origin and childhood neighbors when he was as young as 8. “When I was younger, I would help an older friend in our neighborhood decorate her home. She would go all out. She really inspired me and gave me the decorating bug,” he says. Over the ensuing decades, Mains’s holiday decorating has gradually grown to what is now a huge display with its own name: Holidays on Franklin. The Mains family decorates for all the major holidays but Halloween and Christmas are the biggest events, drawing hundreds of families to view thousands of lights and props.

The Christmas work begins the day after Halloween, with Mains’s 20-year-old twin goddaughters, Grace and Lucy, helping and his small children, ages 5 and 2, enjoying the entire process. Decking out for the holidays is so much a part of the Mains family’s life that a few years ago they purchased the lot next to their home just they could expand their holiday displays. And expand it has: neighbors have joined in on the fun, and this year the display features over 120,000 Christmas lights over eight properties, along with a Christmas Wish Food Drive.

“We love seeing people’s reaction to the decorations,” Mains says.

“So many families and especially children walk by watching us put the display up. It’s fun to walk outside and stand in the ground and hear people’s reactions to the lights. Our kids love it . . . They get so excited in August when they see all the boxes coming out in preparation [for the Halloween and Christmas seasons]. I hope we will continue to do this for many years to come. Our children love to participate with us and I hope they will want to carry on the tradition.”

You can view

Holidays on Franklin through January 6 at 4616 NW Franklin Street in Vancouver, next to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School.

East Side Vancouver: Countryside Park Brad Buchanan’s enthusiasm for Christmas decorating came directly from growing up in Yakima with his own father, who won multiple awards for their family’s holiday decorations. When Buchanan purchased his home on 7th Street, across from Countryside Park in Vancouver in 1991, he immediately started growing his holiday display, with the help of a good friend. Unfortunately, vandalism and theft eventually left him discouraged, and for a time he scaled down and even sold many of his decorations. But his son helped turn things around. “It wasn’t until my younger son Brant started helping that the display started growing again,” Buchanan says. “His passion for decorating started growing and he began buying his own decorations after Christmas when they went on sale. Each year he would buy a little more and even find decorations in the off-season. His growing interest in decorating also re-sparked my passion. It was and still is a great bonding experience putting up the display and building decorations together.” Today, Buchanan is the one helping his grown sons, who now spearhead the display that takes 3-4 weeks to put everything up, not to mention hours of testing and bulb replacement, which Buchanan says he and his sons start in early October. Together they estimate they have spent more than $10,000 on Christmas decorations. The cost has been well worth it. “We have so many regulars that come by year after year, some for over 20 years, and admire what we do . . . It truly warms our hearts to get the appreciation we have and know that we can provide happiness during Christmas time through our display.” Though they don’t decorate for Valentine’s Day, the Buchanan family has even unwittingly played Cupid. One year, a couple dropped off flowers with photos and a letter that read, “Because of You . . . We Found Love.”

“It explained that our Christmas display started a connection between the two that led them to get married and combine into a family of 9,” Buchanan recalls. “It was a ‘Thank You’ for putting up the display, because it helped them find love. This story is unbelievable and we are so thankful they shared it with us.”

The Buchanan family’s Christmas display is live through January 2, and new this year will be a donation box to raise funds for Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Portland.

Far left: Holidays on Franklin Courtesy Jim Mains

Left: Countryside Christmas Courtesy Brad Buchanan

Page 9: Elaine Pitassi, Katie Carson and Kimberly Koch of Camas business Truly Scrumptious, photographed by Lara Blair (pictured in inset) as part of The Pivot Project. Courtesy Lara Blair

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Downtown Camas

Camas photographer, Lara Blair, recently highlighted the resilience of fellow Camas business owners in a special public exhibit called “The Pivot Project” that displayed at Nuestra Mesa restaurant in Downtown Camas in November. She says the inspiration for the project hit her ept 3401 SE 192nd Ave #107 Vancouver, WA 98683 we acc ajor from the back of a motorcycle. “My husband and I were riding through most m h lt hea Downtown Camas on our way home from a trip and I got to thinking plans! www.prioritylifechiro.com about how amazing it was that so many businesses were not only surviving, but thriving, during this pandemic,” she says. “I saw some of my fellow Main Street people at the coffee shop and I thought, ‘It would be so cool to do a project where we honor our resilience as a community. I wonder if [Camas business owners] would show up at my studio for a picture?’” Not one to waste time, Blair got started right away. “That evening I texted all my friends who have shops on Main Street to tell them my idea and the feedback was immediate and wonderful.”

360-882-7733

With the help of Downtown Camas Association (DCA) to get the word out to Camas business owners, Blair scheduled 37 photography sessions over a three-day period. At each photo shoot, Blair and her assistant also collected each business owner’s pandemic pivot stories to include with the black and white photos in the culminating exhibit. “The conversations between me, my assistant, Erin Endreson, and the DCA rep (and my stylist) Caroline Mercury and all the folks who came in were just fantastic. So much positivity and a feeling that ‘we made it!’

I’ve never felt more in community with downtown than I did that day. It was gratifying to see everyone doing well.”

Blair hopes that the optimism, hope and sense of community that she felt during those whirlwind days of putting this project together will be contagious. “My hope is that we will all gain inspiration from reading what each person has been through,” she says. She emphasizes that there is something significant that comes out of going through a crisis together and coming out the other side stronger for it. “I think there’s already a lot of respect down here among the business owners and teams, but it’s truly special when you thrive together in these circumstances. We are one scrappy town with a lot of heart and passion for serving our customers and clients. I’m so proud to have my business in Downtown Camas and thankful I got to capture these stories. I could’ve called it 'We Are Still Standing,' but I thought The Pivot Project showed what had to be done to make it through. We made history--- it will always remind us of what we’re made of as a community.”

Now that the physical exhibit has ended, The Pivot Project can be viewed on Instagram at @larablairphotography or on Facebook at @ LaraBlairPhotography.

Vancouver Makes Livability.com’s

TOP 10

Best Places to Live in America

Most of us already know that Clark County is a fantastic place to live, but Vancouver was recently honored officially as one of the top 10 best places to live by Livability.com. Each year, the community research organization calculates and ranks the safety, affordability, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility and community engagement of more than 1,000 small to mid-size cities based on surveys and data to produce their Top 100 Best Places to Live in America. The 2021 list is especially significant since, due to the pandemic-driven increase in individuals working from home, many Americans are moving to locations where they want to live, rather than where they have to live based on proximity to work, and Livabilty reports that since March 2020, more than 42% of the U.S. population has either moved or considered moving. Vancouver ranked no. 10 on the list and nearby Hillsboro, Oregon ranked no. 7. The no. 1 best place to live according to Livability is Madison, Wisconsin.

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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MOSAIC FAMILY VOYAGE

By Rachel Messerschmidt All photos courtesy of the author.

Cruising the

California Coast

It was a difficult passage for us,

rounding Cape Mendocino to arrive in Half Moon Bay. There were times that I felt extremely guilty for subjecting our children to those uncomfortable conditions. After all, there was a reason that we initially intended not to bring the kids back aboard the boat until after we’d gotten past Mendocino. But a sailor’s life is guided by the weather, and we just didn’t have a choice.

up more frequently, but would continue the trend we’d seen down the coast: often times being too much wind, or nothing.

All in all, the kids rolled with the punches, and we all felt a great sense of accomplishment when we pulled into the harbor in Half Moon Bay. And the quaint coastal town did not disappoint.

As we moved south, we saw fewer whales but many more dolphins.

On our trip to Morro Bay, we experienced a dreamy 15 minutes with dozens of dolphins playing in the bow wave at the front of our boat.

Our family sprawled on the deck above them laughing and calling out greetings. There were even a few happy tears as the sheer joy sank in. Another highlight was the night passage to Oxnard, where a troop of dolphins escorted us through the entire night of darkness, their lithe bodies glowing in bright bioluminescence. It seemed truly magical.

As we walked along the beach, we noticed a marked change in the environment. The plants were no longer the familiar evergreens and ferns of the Pacific Northwest, but instead had turned to palms and succulents. Bald eagles had been replaced by large pelicans. And the beaches were no longer the rocky pebbles of the Northwest, but fine soft sand. It was clear that we had really reached California.

So, we celebrated our accomplishment while simultaneously licking our wounds. The weather windows eased a bit, and opened

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For the next six weeks, we hopped down the California coastline: Half Moon Bay to Morro Bay, Morro Bay to Oxnard, Oxnard to Redondo Beach and then to Dana Point. Each passage getting us closer and closer to our goal.

We also got word of the oil spill off Orange County and listened routinely to the reports of harbors and beaches closing, wondering how it would impact our journey and mourning the impact on the

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

continued on next page

continued from previous page

environment and wildlife. Thankfully, the spill response was swift and effective. We only ever saw an oily sheen on the water once, and it was in an area where we were warned to expect it due to natural seepage from the ocean floor itself.

Mosaic was pulled from the water and placed on the trailer five years ago, knowing that she was back in those same warm waters, anchored safely out in the bay after an adventurous trip down the entire U.S. west coast with us.

In mid-October, we reached San Diego. Our arrival marked a big milestone in our journey. Not only would this be our final port in the United States before crossing south into Mexico, but this was also where we had purchased our sailboat five years ago, before trucking her up to Portland to move aboard.

We spent a couple of weeks in San Diego making final preparations and enjoying our community of sailing friends. Hundreds of sailboats were congregating in the waters of San Diego, also preparing to go south. We would soon leave the United States, bound for Ensenada and the remote Baja California coast. Our whole world was about to change.

It was remarkable to walk past the boatyard where

Rachel Messerschmidt and her family are Clark County natives living and cruising full time aboard their 40-foot sailboat, Mosaic. Currently traveling from the Pacific Northwest, down the west coast of the US, and onward toward Mexico, Rachel blogs about her life and journey at www. mosaicvoyage.com. She shares her family’s adventures in a monthly column in Vancouver Family Magazine.

Page 10, top: The view from the deck of Mosaic on the evening the author’s family reached San Diego.

Bottom left: Kali, the author’s 7-year-old daughter, dancing to some music while on the passage.

Bottom right: The one photo taken by the author's husband while the family laughed and cheered for the dolphins playing at the bow of their sailboat as they sailed toward Morro Bay. This moment itself was a dream come true.

Page 11: The author's children, Evan (11) and Kali (7), enjoying the late October sun and sand in beautiful San Diego.

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Feature: House of Hope

House of

H O PE

Nearly 600,000 orphans

and impoverished

displaced children live in Ethiopia, many of them in the capital city of Addis Ababa. They are drawn to the city with the dream of finding a better life. Sadly, those dreams are often stripped away when they become undocumented child laborers or trafficking victims. Though both genders share this tragedy, girls are particularly vulnerable. Fortunately, a local nonprofit

Empowering the Hidden Hearts and Faces of Africa

The Mission AGCI was founded 30 years ago when a Romanian infant named Hannah was adopted by the Beazely family of Vancouver. International adoptions were rare at the time, especially from postCommunist countries. When baby Hannah arrived at Portland International Airport in January of 1991, friends, family and the press came to greet her. As Hannah’s story was shared, more local families wanted to know how or if they could adopt a child internationally. AGCI was created to facilitate those adoption dreams.

Today the agency serves vulnerable children and families in eleven countries around the world. Fiorella Calderoni, marketing and communications coordinator for AGCI, says, “Our vision is to empower local leaders to intervene for the 8 million children currently living in institutions and create more pathways to family and independence.” Because adoption is not available in every country, AGCI has learned to pivot from the international adoption opportunities to

agency in Vancouver is at the forefront of serving this vulnerable community and stopping this traumatic cycle. They are All God’s Children International (AGCI).

By: Carrie Lynn

creating Child Advocacy Centers. The centers are homes where local children who are detached from their families for myriad reasons can find refuge, healing, and potential reunification with their biological family. In 2022, AGCI will formally open the Ethiopian Child Advocacy Center. It is appropriately named the House of Hope.

The Fulfillment Angelyn Salyer, Ethiopia program director, recently returned to her home in Vancouver and was eager to talk about her team’s success. For the past four years, Salyer has worked side by side with local Ethiopians, who are the staff and facilitators of AGCI in Ethiopia. For nearly a dozen years the team members facilitated international adoptions, participated in local advocacy, all while seeking government support for vulnerable children and families.

In 2006, Ethiopian international adoptions were plentiful. War, poverty and famine had left millions of children homeless and traumatized. AGCI and other agencies continued on next page

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Top: Door to House of Hope Above: Shopping for local art All photos courtesy of All God’s Children International

®

Novice fly fisher. Pub trivia participant. OBGYN.

Meet Shanan tvc.org/meet-shanan continued from previous page

helped place orphaned children into safe, loving families. Then in early 2017, the AGCI team began to sense change was coming. Shortly thereafter the Ethiopian government shut down international adoptions. With no international adoption opportunities available, other agencies in the area closed up shop and left, but not AGCI. Though they understood the mandate, AGCI believed that some assistance for the thousands of children living on the streets in Ethiopia was still needed. They just had to figure out what and how. They spent two years observing, assessing, and identifying the most pressing needs. Initially, they focused on a child sponsorship program, a very successful life building model they have used all around the world.

Salyer explains, “In Ethiopia, access to education is limited, especially in rural regions. Additionally, children whose families are affected by poverty are at

significant risk of prematurely dropping out and becoming child laborers . . . Even though [public] education is free, most families living in poverty are at risk of having their children drop out of school prematurely because they need to bring in an income for the family.” However, through the AGCI sponsorship program, an impoverished or displaced child gets an opportunity to attend school, have the necessary school supplies and uniform, as well as nutritious meals.

Sponsorship is a mere $40 per month, with 97% of all sponsorship funds going directly to the child and their family for tuition, school needs, mentorship and a savings account. The final 3% covers administration, which is all handled by local Ethiopians. Each sponsor gets to select the child or children they wish to sponsor. They become a vested member of this child’s success. Salyer is proud to report that 750 families and children

were supported and thriving through the family preservation sponsorship program in Ethiopia. In fact, based on an internal survey of over 700 of AGCI’s sponsored children, beneficiaries of their program are 2.8 times more likely to complete high school and 14.5 times more likely to complete a university degree than their non-sponsored peers.

But sponsorship was just the tip of the iceberg. Always open to new ways to improve lives and community, the team worked with government officials and local individual contributors to help build schools and libraries with the goal of lifting people and families out of poverty. Still, it wasn’t enough. As the team met with local leaders, it became clear that girls who are separated from their families and are living on the streets are the most vulnerable population. Inspired to go farther, the AGCI team began to look for a house they could purchase to transform into an advocacy continued on page 14

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Feature: House of Hope (cont'd) continued from page 13

center for girls. Enthusiastically, they set out to find the perfect home.

Unexpected Partnership While the Ethiopian team was 8,000 miles away hunting for properties, an unexpected partnership was being created stateside with Tim Tebow Foundation. Traditionally AGCI has used funds gathered from fundraisers for home purchases. However, in September of 2019, Jep Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame joined the AGCI advancement team. He had worked with Tim Tebow in the past and reached out to his organization to see if they would like to partner on the House of Hope project in Ethiopia. The answer was a resounding yes.

In Tim Tebow Foundation’s public press release, Tebow himself stated, “My

foundation and I are excited to have been a part of bringing the House of Hope in Ethiopia to life alongside All God’s Children International. We are honored to have been a catalyst that helped get to more lives faster and we can’t wait to see the impact we’ll have in the lives of the girls we are able to serve together as we share faith, hope and love with them in their darkest hours.”

Full Steam Ahead With the generous support of this one-time partnership, the team in Ethiopia selected the perfect home to restructure. One of their key objectives was to design a house that represented traditional Ethiopian homes, not American homes. As many of the girls come from rural areas of the country, having a house that feels like a

real home they lived in would significantly help create the first transitional step to safety and healing.

Once the building was acquired, the team furnished and decorated the home with local furniture, artisan décor and accessories. A full kitchen was installed, as well as bedrooms, bathrooms, dining and community gathering rooms. The enthusiasm for the work was contagious. continued on page 16

The House of Hope renovations were completed in September 2021.

Inset: One little local boy just couldn’t stay away from the work parties on painting days.

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Feature: House of Hope (cont'd) continued from page 14

Everyone pitched in to help—even one little local boy just couldn’t stay away from the work parties on painting days.

In September 2021, the building remodel was complete. A 20-member staff was hired. Five girls, of the 360 girls who will eventually live there in the coming three years (30 girls at a time), were admitted.

In the weeks following this soft opening, the rest of the groundwork was laid for the enriching programs ahead. In the future, AGCI’s goal is to have 1,800 community leaders educated on how best to support the girls who will come to the house to live and launch their lives as best suits their needs. An additional 3,000 government officials and social workers will complete trauma-informed training to prevent more

children from living on the streets, with the objective of developing new policies for the thousands of children separated from their families. The long term goal is to turn the tide on poverty.

Family First Though it may sound cliché, AGCI’s number one goal is family first. Throughout the multiyear process, the Ethiopian team adhered to AGCI’s five-spoked initiatives called the 5 Ps; Prevent, Provide, Place, Prepare, Policy. As the first five girls took up residence in the house, Salyer says that she is confident that every one of the 5 Ps will be fulfilled. Salyer states, “Our main objective is to build a bridge to reunite and empower families through holistic and trauma informed care so they can continue

to live and thrive thus ultimately breaking the cycle of generational trauma.”

The city of Vancouver is just a small dot on the global map, yet that dot houses an agency whose sole objective is to lift entire communities to their fullest, abundant potential. Because of AGCI’s efforts, people can say that individuals and families in Ethiopia are better off because of people in Vancouver, Washington.

Carrie Lynn is an avid reader and emerging writer living in Vancouver. Her first memoir, “Finding Fitzgerald,” is now available. When not reading or writing, she can be found coordinating Vancouver’s nonprofit Winter Hospitality Overflow (W.H.O.) or traveling with her family.

To learn more about All God’s Children International’s adoption arm, check out “Welcome to the Family: Adoptions at Home and Abroad” in our November 2021 issue, available to read online at VancouverFamilyMagazine.com/ welcome-to-the-family

The team celebrates the House of Hope opening.

Inset: AGCI Angelyn Salyer shopping for locally made textiles.

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Spread Joy this Season Celebrate Vancouver’s winter traditions at these free community events.

Community Tree

Esther Short Park is aglow 24 hours a day with thousands of lights hung on the community tree for all to enjoy through Jan. 1, 2022.

Before you visit, watch an online video with the Rotary club and Mayor McEnerny-Ogle with a special appearance from Santa, as they flip the switch to light up downtown!

Grand Menorah

The grand menorah is shining in Esther Short Park to celebrate Chanukah through Dec. 6. The menorah is provided by the Chabad Jewish Center of Clark County.

Christmas Ships

The Columbia Fleet will pass by Vancouver on December 6, 8, 14 and 20. The ships can be viewed from Vancouver Waterfront Park, along the Columbia River Renaissance Trail and at Marine Park.

While you’re downtown, be sure to check out the fun and festive Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest brought to you by the Vancouver Downtown Association!

Learn more at cityofvancouver.us/WinterEvents Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

17

Feature: Better Budgeting

How a 90-Day Financial Road Map Can Change Everything

By Sione and Alana Uyema

We sat at the kitchen table, across the young mother of 5 as she let out a sigh of relief. She had called us the night before with panic in her voice. Their family had been hit with another financial emergency and she wasn’t sure how far this one was going to set them back. The stress was not only affecting her ability to get the rest she needed, but it was also impacting her ability to be patient and fully present for her kids. She sat there and thanked us for our help. In the last hour we had been able to bring her anxiety down and give her the confidence and peace of mind she needed to take care of her expenses and more importantly, be her best for her family.

Instead of budgeting from paycheck to paycheck, we taught her to create a running 90-day road map, projecting all of her family’s income and expenses for the next 90 days.

As personal finance coaches, we help those we work with create plans to reach their financial goals. Goals like eliminating debt, buying a home, going on a family vacation, or even having enough money to cover the cost of sending their kids to continued on page 20

She was used to budgeting from paycheck to paycheck, but it constantly left her turning to her husband and asking, “How can this be? I know we make decent money! Why does it always seem like we don’t have enough money by the end of the month?”

What we were teaching her to do wasn’t too different from what she had been doing before, but it made a world of difference in their family’s peace of mind and in their ability to see progress towards their financial goals.

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Having a 90-day financial road map

...(is) like getting to look forward in time to see what your bank account will look like so you aren’t surprised when you get there.

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19

Feature: Better Budgeting (cont'd) continued from page 18

the college of their choice. Accurate projections of what lies ahead in their financial forecast is a vital part of these plans.

No More Paycheck-to-Paycheck The most common mistake that we see people making when it comes to budgets is that they aren’t projecting far enough in advance. They are often creating a budget that forecasts only as far as the next paycheck or the next month. Here’s the biggest flaw in only budgeting from month to month: Monthly budgets assume that every month’s income and expenses will be exactly the same. Our finances may be similar from month to month, but they are most definitely not the same.

Let’s take a look at a few factors that affect changes in monthly income. If you get paid every other week, there are some months that you will receive three paychecks, and other months that you will only receive two paychecks. Bonuses and tax returns also don’t happen every month and will cause fluctuations in a household’s monthly income.

When it comes to expenses, there are even more factors to take into account, such as semi-annual or annual expenses like car insurance, care registration, or subscription plans. There are also birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and other special occasions that incur expenses. We also have to take into account the extra expenses that come at the start of a school year or

sporting season and the cost of home or car maintenance.

something about it to improve what you’ll be experiencing in the near future.

Planning Ahead Being aware that these irregular expenses exist isn’t enough. They must be planned for. When they aren’t planned for, savings funds are usually the first to get dipped into to cover the costs, causing individuals to wonder why it’s taking so long to save or why they keep running out of money by the end of the month.

Maps allow you to prepare for what is coming ahead. If there is rough terrain ahead, you know you need to prepare by having the proper tires or vehicle. That knowledge can also provide you with the foreknowledge to choose a different route if you don’t have access to the necessary tools to cross the terrain. Having a 90day financial road map similarly allows you to prepare well in advance. Perhaps you’d choose to spend a little less on entertainment or eating out during the months prior to your family’s birthdays, so you can afford to make those celebrations special without the financial stress of trying to make it work the day of. If the dates to do some maintenance on the car is coming up in a few months and your car is starting to get worn out, having the awareness in advance may help you realize that it would be financially beneficial to trade the current car in for something more reliable instead of cashing out on further maintenance.

Having a 90-day financial road map provides you with certainty of what to prepare for and the time and information to make financial decisions more confidently.

This is where the 90-day road map comes in. It’s done by mapping out the dates and amounts of all income as well as the dates and amounts of all the regular and irregular expenses in chronological order, 90 days in advance. It’s also helpful to have the running balance of your bank account next to each of those dates so you can see exactly what you’ll be dealing with financially over the next 90 days.

Having a 90-day financial road map doesn’t just allow you to predict what your family has coming up, it also allows you to anticipate exactly what your financial future looks like. It’s like getting to look forward in time to see what your bank account will look like so you aren’t surprised when you get there. If you don’t like what you see when you look ahead, you are now in a better position to do

Detour Pivots It’s important to note that a map is just a guide. It is up to you to follow the guide if you want to make sure that you are still on the desired track. Paper maps aren’t able to account for traffic, construction on the road, or weather conditions.

These things have a huge impact on continued on page 22

20

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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21

Feature: Better Budgeting (cont'd) continued from page 20

what the journey will actually look like.

Keep this in mind when using your 90-day financial road map. While you are able to project your income and expenses, sometimes they aren’t what actually ends up happening. You may budget $100 per week for food, but because someone ends up sick and isn’t cooking meals at home, one week the actual amount spent on food jumps to $300 because the family chose to order out. Keeping track of what you actually earn and spend will enhance your ability to pivot and prepare when you are forced or choose to take a detour.

Here’s a bonus tip to help you as you create your 90-day financial road map:

While it takes time and energy to prepare and maintain a 90-day financial road map, having one helps you get to where you want to go. And the best part is, it provides you with the financial peace necessary to show up better in every other area of your life.

Track the actual income and expenses as they happen alongside your running 90-day projections.

Sione and Alana Uyema are husband and wife personal finance coaches living in Vancouver.

They help individuals across the United States create and execute custom plans for reaching their financial goals. They love teaching their clients how to bank and budget more efficiently and then celebrating with them as they achieve their goals. They share money management tips on their website, saumoney. com. In their free time, they recount the life lessons they’ve learned from life’s adventures on their podcast, Recounting Life Lessons.

DAY

90

FINANCIAL ROADMAP

DAY

60

DAY

30

DAY

15

DAY

1

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

23

Feature: Columbia Play Project

PLAY A

CO L

B UM I

PROJEC T Rediscovering the Value of Play for Generations to Come By: Kristen Flowers

In mid-March 2020, the world was in

a pandemic. The outside world stilled as those who kept their jobs moved them inside the home, and kids found a new normal learning at their kitchen tables.

Industries that relied on patronage and admission shut their doors and felt the pain of knowing they might not reopen them.

One of those businesses was the beloved Portland Children’s Museum.

Facing mounting problems and the lack of outside ticket sales or donations, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the museum. Founded in 1946, Portland Children’s Museum was the sixth oldest children’s museum in the world, and the oldest west of the Mississippi. In June

of 2021, the museum entertained and educated young guests for the last time.

A GoFundMe was created to try salvaging the organization, but the damage had already been done. Portland Children’s Museum closed its doors, and no amount of last-minute community support was going to change that. Pacific Northwest families and children grieved for an institution that was a crucial character in the childhood of many young people’s lives.

Jeanne Bennett remembers the feeling well. “I was devastated. It was such an important part of raising my own children.”

But behind the scenes and long before Portland Children’s Museum announced their closure, Bennett had a vision that

Columbia Play Project board members, Jeanne Bennett (left) and Mary Sisson, don character costumes at the Vancouver Waterfront at a recent GiveMore24! fundraising event.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Play Project.

was slowly becoming a reality. With the desire to bring play spaces for children and families of Clark County to the forefront, that dream turned into Columbia Play Project.

As board chair of Columbia Play Project, Bennett’s idea for a Vancouver-based children’s museum came while she was still CEO at Workforce Southwest Washington.

While working with the Columbia River Economic Development Council on their new strategic plan, the group had the idea of creating a “Brain Gain,” or a way to make the city very attractive to young families and new businesses. “It’s the idea that if you want to attract businesses into continued on page 26

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Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Feature: Columbia Play Project (cont'd) continued from page 24

a community, you have to have things for people to do,” Bennett says. “You’ve got to have great restaurants, you’ve got to have great outdoor recreation, and you need cultural experiences.”

Bennett knew Southwest Washington needed a big draw to get people excited.

“It seemed to me, a children’s museum was the perfect idea to pull this community together.”

Mary Sisson, founder and former owner of Kazoodles Toys, agrees. “We took our grandkids to Hands On Children’s Museum in Olympia, and it is an amazing place. And we all had so much fun, and I just thought, Vancouver needs a children’s museum like this.”

Now, as secretary for Columbia Play Project, Sisson recalls her first Columbia Play Project meeting back in 2019. She expected to see design concepts or

blueprints for the museum, but instead, the focus turned to play. They talked the entire meeting about how Columbia Play Project could bring the critical and often overlooked element of play to families in Clark County.

Why is it so important for kids to play?

Sisson says that’s how kids learn about the world around them. “They learn how to cooperate, how to communicate. They learn how the world works. Children learn everything by playing.”

Bennett says the value of play will be a big part of eventually creating the children’s museum. “It’s helpful for people in all walks of life, and in every stage of life. It helps with creativity, it helps with stress relief, and we’re in an era where everyone could use a little break now and then.”

Play is not only crucial for children, but it’s essential for parents too. Bennett says

“They learn how to cooperate, how to communicate. They learn how the world works.

Children learn everything by playing.”

Columbia Play Project will allow them to take a break, have a little fun, and explore their creative side.

Now that the founding team had a central focus on bringing play to the Southwest Washington community, it was time to outline how to get there. The long-term goal for the museum was simple: to build a children’s museum somewhere in Clark County that would house both permanent and changing exhibits, so there is always something new to discover. The museum would also include an indoor and outdoor playground space, an art lab, a music lab, a children’s theater and a library.

“That would open up worlds of play for kids and families in Clark County,” Sisson says.

A brick-and-mortar children’s museum is not an easy feat to achieve, though. In fact, the actual grand opening of the museum is about 5-6 years down the road. That’s why the museum’s creation will begin in stages, and it’s that philosophy of fun that drives each phase of Columbia Play Project.

In summer 2021, families might have been part of the initial phase of bringing fun and play to kids without even knowing about Columbia Play Project. In a partnership with Vancouver Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department, each week, organizers went to local parks with lawn toys and sidewalk chalk that the kids could play with at no charge. It was all a strategic move to get the word out about the project.

In fact, for Mary Sisson, this has been one of the more challenging hurdles. “That’s a big challenge when you’re just starting from scratch to get people to find out that you even exist, so we’re working on it.”

The next phase for the project will be athome play kits. Columbia Play Project created characters that you will meet for the first time in these play kits. Doug the continued on page 28

26

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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Feature: Columbia Play Project (cont'd) continued from page 26

Slug, Gail the Goldfinch, Beth the Beaver and Old Sty the Sturgeon will tell stories about concepts important to Southwest Washington. Each play kit will contain an activity that will help kids understand ecosystems, bridges and even shipping.

Sisson says, “We want to center it around our own area, so the Columbia River will have a big part to play.”

Providing a locality to these play kits is just the beginning of Columbia Play Project.

Sisson explains that being equitable in everything they do has been a massive priority in all the planning. “We want to reflect the history of our local area accurately, but we also want to make it accessible to kids of all abilities and to kids across the economic spectrum.”

The next phase will be a mobile museum, and that has Jeanne Bennett particularly excited. “Imagine a van and a trailer,” she describes, “and they have exhibits in them that can be removed and can be set up outside under pop-up tents, or in the school gym, a church parking lot, or wherever we can take the mobile unit.”

and every phase. The first way to show support for Columbia Play Project is to visit ColumbiaPlayProject.org to sign up for their newsletter. By signing up, community members can let the Columbia Play Project team know that their message about the museum is being heard and shared. It’s also the first line of contact when it comes to events in the community and the sale and distribution of play kits.

Buying a play kit is another way to show your support, but Bennett challenges the community to take it a step further.

“An even better idea in my mind is if you buy kits and donate them to kids in need in our community.” A play kit donation to a nonprofit, Bennett explains, will help Columbia Play Project and communityfocused charities at the same time. Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Washington, Share Vancouver and Vancouver Housing Authority are just a few organizations to consider donating to.

Volunteering with Columbia Play Project is another excellent way to get involved and

Bennett explains that the mobile museum will focus heavily on skills that excite children towards needed skills early in their learning lives. “Those exhibits will also be based on our same theme of science, technology, reading, engineering, art, and math, which spells STREAM and connects back to our Columbia Play Project.”

The final phase is the building and opening of Columbia Play Project.

Before Bennett or Sisson can cut the red ribbon on the grand opening, the community is being called upon to help. Local support from citizens and benefactors is desperately needed to successfully complete each

28

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

show your support. Volunteers may be asked to pack play kits or help with free events at local parks.

Still, according to Sisson, there is another significant way to make a difference and support the museum. “The other way that’s going to make all these things happen is to give money,” she emphasizes.

Sharing your voice about the project is also strongly encouraged. Bennett hopes everyone will follow Columbia Play Project on social media, because she wants to hear directly from people in Southwest Washington. “The other thing that we really are looking for is voices from the community, who will tell us what they want and how they want a full-scale museum to look.”

Community input is critical to the success of Columbia Play Project because, as Bennett describes it, this should be a continued on page 30

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

29

Feature: Columbia Play Project (cont'd) continued from page 28

museum that children are excited to share with their children when they become parents. “I want Clark County and Vancouver to be a better place to live and to raise families.”

Kristen Flowers is the host of the morning show, Nick and Kristen in the Morning on 99.5 The Wolf. She lives in Vancouver and currently blogs for her own website, www.

AccordingtoKristen.com. She moderates the Positive Parenting Posse group on Facebook, a page dedicated to sharing positive and helpful tips about parenting. In her spare time, she’s working on her debut novel and making everything she possibly can on her new Cricut maker.

30

Any donation is welcome

and can be made directly at ColumbiaPlayProject.org.

Follow Columbia Play Project on Facebook at facebook.com/ columbiaplayproject or on Instagram at instagram.com/columbiaplayproject.

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

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31

CALENDAR OF EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

Calendar

December '21

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 WEDNESDAY

ZooLights at the Oregon Zoo. Experience the holidays in Portland with a visit to ZooLights. In addition to the classic walk through a dazzling display of 1.5 million lights, you can bring your family and friends to explore the lights by car with a drive-through experience on select nights. ZooLights runs through Jan. 9, 2022, excluding Dec. 25. For tickets and or more details visit www.oregonzoo.org/visit/zoolights Visit and Get Photos with Santa at Vancouver Mall, 8700 NE Vancouver Mall Dr., Vancouver. Santa's new Elf home is located on the lower level near H&M through December 24. The set is free and open to the public to visit, and professional photos are available for purchase. Children will be able to talk with Santa to share their wish lists, or place a letter in Santa's mailbox for him to read later.

Go to shopvancouvermall.com to see Santa’s schedule and make a reservation.

Sunshine Division Winter Wonderland at Portland International Raceway, 1940 N Victory Blvd., Portland. The “Largest Holiday Light Show West of the Mississippi.” All proceeds from the event will benefit Sunshine Division‘s year-round hunger relief efforts that provide thousands of free, nutritious meals to Portland families in need. Mon-Thur, 5-10 pm / Fri-Sun, 4:30-11 pm / *Special Hours* Dec 2026: 4:30-11 pm, through January 1.

2 THURSDAY

Washougal Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting at Reflection Plaza, 1703 Main Street Washougal! The parade begins at 6:00 pm on Main Street and proceeds to Reflection Plaza.

Christmas tree lighting following the parade.

6 pm

3 FRIDAY

Downtown Camas First Friday Hometown Holidays! Featuring activities, art, dining, and after hours shopping—fun for the whole family.

Local art exhibits, themed family games and

32

of events

activities

Have a community event that you want to share?

Go to www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com and click on “Calendar” to submit your event. Deadline for print calendar submissions is the 1st of the month prior to the issue.

Check out our website for even mo re local events .

Events are subject to change. Please contact organization directly to confirm. All library events are free and open to the public. activities, and free-to-enter gift basket raffles are part of each First Friday line-up. 5-8 pm Battle Ground Holiday Tree Lighting at Battle Ground Community Center, 912 E Main St, Battle Ground. 5:30 pm Riverside Performing Arts presents the Nutcracker at Riverside Preforming Arts Black Box Theater, 1307 NE 78th St., Vancouver.

Tickets $20 at riversidepa.com/nutcracker.

6:30 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” presented by Pacific Stageworks at TerrellEverest Theater, 14001 SE 1st St., Vancouver.

Instead of performing Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic for the umpteenth time, four actors decide to perform every Christmas story ever told, plus Christmas traditions from around the world, seasonal icons from ancient times to topical pop-culture, and every carol ever sung. A madcap romp through the holiday season! Tickets are $12 for kids and $20 for adults. Purchase tickets at pacificstageworks. org. 7 pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre 1111 SW Broadway, Portland. A Holiday extravaganza of memories, merriment and music presented by Oregon Children’s Theatre. Playing through December 19, Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm & 5 pm, Sundays at 11 am & 2 pm. Get into the holiday spirit with an evening of nostalgia, hilarity, and musical performances. With every performance featuring a special surprise guest artist sharing stories about their holiday memories, this show will bring you loads of cheer and joy! 7:30 pm

4 SATURDAY

Vancouver Farmers Market Fall Market on 8th and Esther St Downtown Vancouver.

9 am-2 pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm & 5 pm

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

Riverside Performing Arts presents the Nutcracker at Riverside Preforming Arts Black Box Theater, 1307 NE 78th St., Vancouver.

Tickets $20 at riversidepa.com/nutcracker.

6:30 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 7pm

5 SUNDAY

Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 11 am & 2 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm

10 FRIDAY

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts, 6403 E Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver. Follow the antics of good ol’ Charlie Brown. Fun for the whole family, come see these timeless Peanuts characters come to life in a fun, high spirited musical. Tickets are $12-$18 each and can be purchased at mpa.booktix.com. All patrons 12 years and older must show proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of the event. 6:30 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 7pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 7:30 pm

11 SATURDAY

Vancouver Farmers Market Fall Market on 8th and Esther St., Downtown Vancouver.

9 am-2 pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm & 5 pm continued on page 34

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33

Calendar of Events & Activities (cont'd) continued from page 32 “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts.

(See Dec 10 for details) 2 pm & 6:30 pm Vancouver Master Chorale: Joy of Christmas at First Presbyterian Church, 4300 Main St., Vancouver. Vancouver Master Chorale, a fully vaccinated community choir presents Handel’s Messiah and Traditional Carols, accompanied by an orchestra. General admission is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Proof of vaccination and face coverings required for entry. More information at vancouvermasterchorale.org. 7pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver.

(See Dec 3 for details) 7pm Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Broadway Holiday at Skyview Concert Hall, 1300 NW 139th St., Vancouver. Enjoy your favorite musical theater hits and holiday classics with Broadway star Liz Callaway! This wintertime song fest will have something for everyone, so bring the whole family. Join VSO as they return to Skyview Concert Hall! Masks and proof of vaccination or negative COVID test within 72 hours will be required. 7 pm Vancouver Dance Theatre’s Virtual Presentation of the Nutcracker. VDT invites you to experience the magic of the holidays with our digital presentation of The Nutcracker!

This year, experience the magic of The Nutcracker at home! For the safety and health of both our dancers and our audience, this year’s production will be pre-recorded. You

can view the show via a downloadable link.

By purchasing a ticket ($30), you’ll receive a downloadable link for our pre-recorded performance of The Nutcracker! The download will be available to you on 12/11/2021, just in time to celebrate the holidays! More information at vancouverdancetheatre.com.

12 SUNDAY

Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 11 am & 2 pm “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts 6403 E Mill Plain Blvd Vancouver. (See Dec 10 for details) 2 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Broadway Holiday at Skyview Concert Hall, Vancouver.

(See Dec 11 for details) 3 pm

Third Thursdays in Downtown Camas: Mistletoe and Munchies! Including afterhours shopping, dining, sipping and special activities or menus in downtown businesses.

Schedule your babysitter now, grab your friends or sweetheart and join us! Watch

17 FRIDAY

Holiday Night Market Vancouver at Vancouver Innovation Center (VIC), 18110 SE 34th St., Vancouver. Come celebrate local with Night Market Vancouver! Discover local brands and shop products from over 70 different makers! Enjoy an evening of live music, DJ, dance lessons and more. All ages. Entrance is $6. Food/drinks available for purchase.

4:30-8:30 pm “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts.

(See Dec 10 for details) 6:30 pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 7:30 pm

Vancouver Master Chorale: Joy of Christmas at First Presbyterian Church, Vancouver. (See Dec 11 for details) 7 pm

16 THURSDAY

for all the details on the Downtown Camas Association Facebook page and Instagram @ ilovedowntowncamas. 5-8 pm

“Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 7pm

18 SATURDAY

Vancouver Farmers Market Fall Market on 8th and Esther St Downtown Vancouver.

9 am-2 pm Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm & 5 pm continued on next page

Enjoy the holiday season by supporting our local

Clark County businesses and events this year!

Happy Holidays and

Happy New Year from

34

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

continued from previous page “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts. (See Dec 10 for details) 2 pm & 6:30 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” at Terrell-Everest Theater, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm & 7 pm

COUVE CLOVER RUN March 20, 2022 3, 7 & 10 Miler Benefiting SHARE and Foundation for Vancouver Public Schools

Holiday Night Market Vancouver at Vancouver Innovation Center.

(See Dec 17 for details). 4:30-8:30 pm

19 SUNDAY

Santa’s Posse 5K Run/Walk in Camas. Each runner or walker will receive a full Santa’s Suit with Santa’s Jacket, Santa’s Pants, Hat and Beard, and a Santa Medal/Ornament. Registration: $49. Kids 12 and under race for free and 13-17 is 50% off the normal rate.

Merry Happy Everything! at Burnish Theatre, Portland. (See Dec 3 for details) 11 am & 2 pm

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“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” presented by Metropolitan Performing Arts. (See Dec 10 for details) 2 pm “Every Christmas Story Ever Told” presented by Pacific Stageworks at Terrell-Everest Theater 14001 SE 1st Street, Vancouver. (See Dec 3 for details) 2 pm

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advertiser index Camps & Classes The Little Gym................................................11 Journey Theater.............................................25 Events Ball Drop 5k, 10k, Half Marathon...................33 Couve Clover Run..........................................35 Oregon Children’s Theatre.............................27 Santa's Posse 5k............................................33 Vancouver Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services..........................................17 Financial OnPoint Community Credit Union..................23 WA529..............................................................5 Warner Brown Financial.................................29

Fitness The Little Gym................................................11 Health Adventure Dental............................................29 All Star Orthodontics........................................7 Barnick Chiropractic.......................................21 Child and Adolescent Clinic..............................2 Evergreen Pediatrics......................................27 Priority Life Chiropractic and Massage.............9 Storybook Dental............................................21 TriStar Family Chiropractic...............................7 Vancouver Clinic.............................................13 Legal Schauermann Thayer.....................................31

Resources Applied Team Insurance.................................21 ESD112....................................................11, 29 Great Northwest Installations.........................25 Home Buyer’s and Seller’s Seminars...............2 KeepUsOpen.us...............................................3 WA529..............................................................5 Retail Kazoodles Toys..............................................19 Vancouver Mall...............................................15 Schools, Education & Child Care St. Andrew Preschool.....................................21 Southwest Washington Learning Center........36

Vancouver Family Magazine • www.vancouverfamilymagazine.com • December 2021

35

Where LifeLong Learning Begins

Southwest Washington Learning Center Exceptional care and education provided by highly qualified staff Infant to 12 years Convenient Hours: 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. M-F

Infants 5 days Full-Time only $1455/mo (335.77 wk) Current Openings won’t last long!

Toddlers 5 days Full-time (13mos to 35 mos) $1225/mo (282/wk)

e Part-tim lso a s e t a r le! availabat:

visit us s.com earn www.swl

Preschool—through Schoolage (36 mos. To 12 years) $1055/mo (243.67/wk)

Minutes from Downtown Vancouver,Felida, and Salmon Creek Easy access to I-5 and 205

Schedule a Tour or Pre-register Online!!

360-573-7007 www.swlearns.com