These students keep coming back for more

There’s a white board and teacher, students and a computer.  There are cookies and coffee and homemade chocolate candy.  What differentiates this classroom from most other college classes is that the candy sparked a conversation about coconut oil and Alzheimer’s disease.  Welcome to the 50+ classes at Clover Park Technical College.  The course listings mostly involve art classes but Stephen Rousseau, with the school’s Continuing Education program, said that the intention is to increase the number of personal enrichment classes offered to complement current “basic path leads to success classes.” Gretchen Alden’s oil painting class gets together every Monday for three hours of “therapy” as long-time student, Joyce Eyres sees it.  That therapy sometimes sounds like the conversation around the dinner table as students chide each other, interrupt conversations, offer encouragement and worry about missing classmates.
Personal enrichment classes differ from other college classes in that students often repeat classes for the fun of it.  Many of the students in Alden’s class have been showing up long enough to have lifetime memberships.  Harriet Stockridge laughed when she tried to recall how long she’s been showing up to apply paint to canvas.  “A long time,” she admits.  “I think about 15 years.  I was with Penny (when the courses were taught at the old Lakewood Senior Center).  I just started going,” she stopped then added, “I just do it because I like to get out of the house.  I feel productive.  Everybody’s so nice.  Fortunately my kids sort of like them (her paintings).  I just finished a farm scene for my granddaughter.  I’m not an artist.”  A statement which brings a quick disagreement from Emiko Hammand at the other end of the table.  “Don’t quote me,” she protested.  “I’m the worst one in the class.  They’re patient with me and help me.”
Hammond, who has been attending classes “a long, long time…maybe 20 years,” said she “was kind of a home body.  I had to come out.  I think everybody should come out of the house and do something.  Ahh,” she quietly said in frustration.  The class was working on a still life and Hammond was becoming frustrated trying to paint a green opaque vase.
Lyla Adey said she started taking classes after she’d “gotten a Bob Ross starter kit.”  She likes doing the different projects with people her own age and learning new things.  The added benefit is that the output from the classes means “you can change your walls out” although she claimed it was Eyers that owns a gallery in her home from the number of pictures on her wall.  “I paint for my own enjoyment.  I used to sit for hours painting at home.  I took a class from Jerry Yarnell and he was saying how many thoughts are required to paint.  You can exercise your brain (by painting).”
Eyers claimed she was going to be a stay at home mom so she took classes over the year but “didn’t get involved like I have here.”
One of the newbies, Carrie Dira has only been coming for the past two years.  “I spent 37 years on the east coast and while I was there I took classes at Michaels (Arts and Crafts store) and Michaels quit giving classes.  “This is fun.  It’s social too.  I prefer a smaller group.  If you want attention you ask for it and you get it.  If you don’t, they leave you alone.”
At a recent 50+ fair, the class showed their work.  An opportunity Dira said was fun as it moved them into the arena of “artistes” she said with a smile.
The only male member of the class is Robert Daniel.  He went to the 50+ fair and met Gretchen Alden who was answering questions about the class and talking to people about the art exhibit.  Daniels attended the event because he had just been laid off and the event included a job fair and seminars on finding work for individuals over 50.  “My major job now is looking for a job.”  He’d painted as a teenager.  “I used to go to the Boys Club and I just put it aside and always wondered about doing it again.”  While attending the fair, Daniel’s won a drawing for a free class.  He said he went right back to Alden and waved his prize at her and said he was taking her class.

Making people’s lives better by making homes safe

Elano Areno is one busy lady.  She retired in 2007 and heads a small non-profit called Barangay Community Services of Tacoma.  It’s a Filipino American non-profit whose mission it is to reach out to the elderly and newly arrived immigrants in Pierce County.  Barangay was the winner of the 2012 City of Tacoma Destiny Award for community groups and was also awarded a vacant lot to be converted into a community garden.  All those activities meant the group needed a safe meeting place but in order to open up Areno’s place for seniors and others to meet, the house needed to be safe.  However, her home was “homemade” as Areno calls it.  She feared it wouldn’t meet codes but was on a fixed income and couldn’t afford to make the repairs herself.  So she applied for help with Rebuilding Together South Sound (RTSS).

RTSS volunteers work year round on home modification and emergency repairs but their main program is Rebuilding Day which takes place on the last weekend in April.  In 2011, they built ramps, replaced or repaired roofs, modified or replaced porches and stairs and the list goes on and on for 29 homes and one non-profit facility.  For Areno, this is her second time getting assistance from RTSS.  The first time she applied, they came out to check her roofing.  While they were speaking with her they noticed orange extension cords running across her floor and asked her about it.  “My building is old,” she said, “and so half of my building had no electricity.  I used three orange extension cords from one side to the other.  It was okay because I could watch my TV.”

Her electrical box was old and used old-fashioned round glass fuses.  The fuses sparked when she changed them and scared her.  When she looked into getting her electric system repaired, someone gave her an estimate of $5000.  After her assessment, RTSS told her they were sending out a Bates student.  “They did a good job,” she said.  “I feel better because of safety (concerns).”

Then someone noticed that she slept on a couch.  Her upstairs area was used primarily for storage.  Her stairway was too narrow for her to move furniture up the stairs and into a room.  “They cleaned my upstairs and gave me a bedroom.”  The furniture came from IKEA and so could be assembled upstairs.  “They did a spectacular job.  They were pleasant and fun.”

Areno asked for help again because the February storm knocked down her fence.  Her neighbors behind her made her worried and so she didn’t feel safe being in her own yard.  Her gutters need work and the foundation for her home has some issues.  She’s still worried about her roof because her insurance company has sent her a letter about it.  RTSS has said that the roof isn’t in their budget but they’ll repair the fence, clean her gutters, do some yard maintenance and install a range hood so she can cook inside.

“They brighten my home but they also brighten my life,” she said.  “I feel so blessed and appreciate what they’ve done.”

Tacoma Writer, Karla Stover’s new book on Tacoma history
Hidden History of Tacoma: Little-Known Tales from the City of Destiny
Karla Stover
ISBN: 978-1-60949-470-4
$19.99

For years, Senior Scene readers received a dose of history with every paper in the guise of Karla Stover’s “Walkabouts.”  Each month, Stover introduced Pierce County residents to the characters, times and landmarks of Tacoma and its surrounding environs.  History isn’t about dusty old dates and dried up people and places, and Stover breathed life into the buildings we pass each day on the way to work and the music we hear when we turn to “old time” music programs.  She talks about local history on KLAY AM 1180, leads history walking tours and writes for several local papers.

Recently Stover released “Hidden History of Tacoma: Little-Known Tales from the City of Destiny.”  The book is a compilation of some of her previously published work as well as some new stories about familiar places and people.  These short, usually only a couple pages long, stories provide opportunities to get a real taste of life “way back when.”  She covers Tacoma from its birth to right around World War II.

Meet Karla Stover at the Lakewood Towne Center’s Barnes and Noble on Friday, May 25 from 3-7 p.m.

 

The type of tree planted is important.  In regions such as the Pacific Northwest where the majority of precipitation occurs in winter, evergreen trees play the largest role in interception.  According to Ramie Pierce, Tacoma’s Urban Forester, “Evergreens have more of a stormwater benefit mostly because they retain their leaves all year (it helps too that they are still growing, although slowly) and the leaves intercept and therefore slow down water flow, reducing the flow that reaches our storm system in the beginning parts of storms.”

Pierce isn’t suggesting that evergreens be the only type of trees planted.  One large deciduous tree can reduce stormwater runoff by over 4,000 gallons per year.  The largest benefit occurs if it is in-leaf when precipitation is at its greatest.  It will take a variety of trees to help Tacoma reach its goal of 30 percent coverage and to maximize stormwater retainment.

When determining tree selection, homeowners should consider tree species with large leaf surface area and rough surfaces.  Obviously, the larger the tree, the greater the impact on stormwater runoff.  When large trees are not an option, small groves of trees make a larger impact than single trees. Trees native to this part of Washington, once established require little supplemental irrigation and more readily tolerate this region’s fluctuating precipitation patterns which can leave them in standing water during the winter and high and dry in the summer months.

By planting appropriate trees, improving the maintenance of existing trees and redesigning parkways, boulevards, parking lots, traffic islands, swales, median strips and residential rain gardens to include more trees, homeowners can substantially reduce the amount of runoff during rain events and thereby reduce the impact to downstream lakes and rivers and eventually Puget Sound.