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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 1, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 1, 2007
 
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What's Cookin'? Encouraging you:h is on Lisa's heart By REBECCA WELLS Using a paper clip, Lisa Hansen illustrates to local students how the choices they make can perma- nently impact their lives. She is a certified abstinence educator, or HEART coordinator, for Care Net Pregnancy Center of Mason Coun- ty, HEART being an acronym for: Health Education and Relation- ship Training. Her job is to present abstinence as an option in the context of sex education in health classes at area junior high and high schools. "They're just appreciative that we've given them an option," she says of the students' general reac- tion to her presentation in local classrooms. It's up to them to decide on their own whether or not to become sex- ually active in relationships and many of their parents don't talk to them about abstinence as an alter- native, she's learned. "You really do have to make that decision for yourself," she considers. "Some of them don't have anyone to help them make that decision." LISA KNOWS first-hand what this can mean for a teenager. As a little girl she had been a pastor's daughter and grew up with a love for music. However, by age 14 she became inexplicably angry and suicidal, feeling worthless and hat- ing men. In spite of her parents' best efforts to protect her, she ran away from home twice and wound up on the streets, eventually get- ting pregnant. She married the father of her baby and had a second child with her husband a week before he left her for another woman. In the meantime, she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. That's when she found out through her parents about some trouble in her own past that had led to the sudden change in her be- havior and a depressive downward spiral. This information inspired her to set and accomplish goals for herself. Lisa moved back in with her parents and later fell truly in love with Mike and married him. He is her husband of eight years and together they have a 5-year- old son, Will. Her other*to Sons, Skylar and Hayden, are now ages 15 and 11. When she shares her story, with students, she tells it as a third-per- son account, at first, not revealing whose experiences she's talking about until the very end. This al- lows the students to view every- thing from an open perspective. "IT'S A PRETTY vulnerable state to be up there," she says of exposing her past to a room full of adolescents. Her history has instilled Lisa with a passion for advocating healthy relationships and reach- ing out to young women. She hopes to prevent young people from tak- ing the same risks she did and she wants to help them overcome any of their own mistakes. That's where the paper clip comes into play. She asks the stu- dents to take a regular paper clip and unbend it into a fiat, straight line: a fairly simple task. Once they manage this, she asks them to bnd it back into its original form again. This, they notice, is more challenging. The lesson she demonstrates here is that avoiding a mistake is" safer and easier than trying to fix one. At the same time, she points out that while a re-bent paper clip might never return to its former shape, it can still be used for its original function. Using herself as an example, she teaches teens how LISA HANSEN is passion- ate about working as an ab- stinence educator. the same holds true in her own case and in the case of others in similar situations. "THERE ARE so many kids who feel like they've screwed up so badly," she says. She wants to show them they still have hope of restoring their lives, no matter what's happened to them. "I've had a couple of kids say, 'Well, I'm a mistake,' " But she emphatically assures them, "No, no you're not." Lisa says of what she's able to achieve through her job: "It's fun; it's very cool." All this culminates a two-day course. At the Introduction, she engages the students with ques- tions about their personal goals in coming years. "I love to ask the kids to tell me about the person that they want to spend the rest of" their life with," Lisa says. Sometimes students respond with fhnny ideas of what they want, but normal answers in- clude a person with traditional qualities, being trustworthy, hon- est, loyal, responsible and loving. These questions and answers lead the students to think about how important the choices are that they make today and how they can impact their future. "THEY KNOW what they are; they spell them out," she says of these choices. Students tend to name drugs, alcohol and unplanned pregnan- cies as choices with potentially negative repercussions in their future. From there Lisa focuses on the negative impacts of an un- planned pregnancy. The financial and emotional re- sponsibilities of raising a child are something the teens understand, and the same goes for the difficul- ties parenting poses to a person who is trying to go to college. Sta- tistically, she says, fewer than one third of all teens who start a fam- ily before 18 finish high school and even fewer go on to get a college education. Addressing the results of sexual expression, she breaks them down into fbur main categories: sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy; emotional implications; and ef- fects on society. "IT'S FUN, BECAUSE they ag know it, they all understand it, they get it, but it's the first time they see it in that way," Lisa says. She defines the differences be- tween intimacy and sex and gives the students a chance to respond. "It's really sweet, because they see that they do want something more for themselves than a sexual rela- tionship," she says. Lisa also breaks down the dif- ferences between love and infatu- Vegetarian Cooking Classes • Need quick, healthy meals? • Want to save money? • Experience feeling better? Learn quick, easy vegetarian recipes dinners, desserts and drinks Sample each delicious recipe Take home a folder of recipes Thursday, March 1,8 and 15 * 6:30-8:00 pm SheHon Civic Center (Cota St) $5 per night or $10 for all 3 classes includes food and materials • Space is limited, Call Chriss at 426-5242 or Eileen at 427-1073 Presented by Shelton Seventh-day Adventist Church ation, discusses different levels of intimacy and addresses the concept of setting personal, physi- cal boundaries. She ends her pre- sentation by describing five main "love languages" and tries to help the young people figure out which ways they tend to express love. Lisa also offers ideas for how to clearly show love to friends and family without resorting to physi- cal expressions. "It's a lot of fun!" she says. FOLLOWING HER presenta- tion the students fill out anony- mous evaluations. "I get the best re- sponses!" she says. "It's amazing." This feedback lets her know how the students have come to understand intimacy and love for what they really are and how they are learning to appreciate the im- portance of setting boundaries. Lisa's not alone in these presen- tations. A team of three volunteers joins her in speaking to classes in Mason County, and there is also a group of volunteers who speak in Thurston County. Besides giving presentations to students, Lisa is also in charge of training and mon- itoring the volunteers, keeping ev- eryone up-to-date, and maintain- ing the entire HEART program. Lisa says the volunteers all make an impact on the students. Though the HEART volunteers never decline an invitation to speak, her job is part-time and definitely has the potential to ex- pand to full-time if funding were available. The program continues to grow, as this year she and her volunteers have been able to go full-bore with presentations in Thurston County schools. SHE AND HER family attend the First Baptist Church of Shel- ton. Her husband works for Black Hills Distributing and is finishing up his license to become a helicop- ter instructor pilot. "We're really excited about it," she says. True to her Arizona roots, Lisa shared a recipe for arroz con pollo y frijoles, a traditional southwest- ern dish which translates from Spanish into English as "rice with chicken and beans." This recipe calls for chicken thighs and, although Lisa real- izes breasts are leaner, she says the flavor in thighs is "outstand- ing!" She says: "Don't count calo- ries with this meal; just enjoy the great taste!" Her whole family loves this rec- ipe, she adds, and although it's a little spicy, nobody ever leaves any leftovers. Arroz con Pollo y Frijoles Ingredients: 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into pieces 2 tsp. garlic salt 1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper 1 C. long-grain rice 2 10-oz. cans diced green toma- toes and green chilies, undrained 1 14-oz. can chicken broth 1 16-oz. can refried beans 1/2 C. shredded Monterey Jack cheese Preparation: 1. Season chicken with garlic salt and pepper. 2. Brown chicken over medium- high heat for seven minutes on each side. 3. Remove all but 2 tables lj of drippings from the skillet. ' rice and brown over medium, h e$ for about two minutes, stirr constantly. 4. Add tomatoes and chick broth; blend well. Place chicken0 top of rice. Bring to a boil. 5. Reduce heat, cover and mer for 20 minutes, or until is tender and chicken is no pink. Remove chicken from and keep warm. 6. Drop beans by into rice; sprinkle with Heat for five minutes or beans are hot and cheese has ed. Serve with chicken. Care Net's fund-raiser is on FridaY, .A" Themed, "With All Your HeF / the 2007 dessert fund-raiser. Care Net Pregnancy Center ofla' son County is tomorrow. The event will begin at 7P. ' on Friday, March 2, at The Fay," ion at Sentry Park, 190 West Se" try Drive in Shelton. Local musician Paul will perform a full hour tertainment at this event. at the door will cost $15 More information is by contacting the Care Net nancy Center at 2233 Street, P.O. Box 1581 98584, or by calling "THAT'S WHY IT'S nice to have volunteers," she says. She started out as a Care Net volunteer 11 years ago after her father opened a branch down in Tucson, Arizona, where she grew up. She moved to Shelton about nine years ago and she wanted to plug into the local pregnancy cen- ter right away, so she trained to become a volunteer. As soon as she heard about the abstinence education program, she knew she had to be a part of it. That was eight years ago. "Before I knew it I was running it," she recalls. To maintain her certification as an abstinence educator, Lisa undergoes a three-day training course every two years. Doctors, lawyers and other specialists pro- vide the most current information on relevant topics at these semi- nars. IN HER FREE time, Lisa loves to garden. Coming from the des- erts of southern Arizona, she is im- pressed and excited about the wide variety of flowers and plants that flourish in this part of the state. She'd never seen hydrangeas or lilac bushes before moving here. "It's fun to be blown away by what you can grow up here. It's amazing!" she says. Considering Lisa used to run a wedding floral business, she is "fa- miliar with flowers. At the same time, during the extended rainy season and sporadic summers in Washington, she misses Arizona's steady sunshine. Assisting people with home decor and paint colors is another of Lisa's hobbies. "I have a knack for helping peo- ple make their house look the way they want it to," she says. DOLLAR STORE Locally owned and operated 00DOG limb Garden Tools GII I SHOP NOW OPEN At 7am E O Kitchen I im • $1 All items llmited to stock on hand 330 W, Rallread Ave • (360) 432-31 Downtown Shelton at Evergreen Plaza Monday - Saturday O am - 8 pm, Sunday 11 am - 6 pm eokl rosalie4. On Maroh 6th, 13th & 17th at 6P p' Start Entering in the Cage or Table 6amesll OPEN DALLY Sun-Wed Thurs-Sat 10am-12am 10a m-2ar 19330 N. HWY 101. (360) Page 14 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 1,2007 What's Cookin'? Encouraging you:h is on Lisa's heart By REBECCA WELLS Using a paper clip, Lisa Hansen illustrates to local students how the choices they make can perma- nently impact their lives. She is a certified abstinence educator, or HEART coordinator, for Care Net Pregnancy Center of Mason Coun- ty, HEART being an acronym for: Health Education and Relation- ship Training. Her job is to present abstinence as an option in the context of sex education in health classes at area junior high and high schools. "They're just appreciative that we've given them an option," she says of the students' general reac- tion to her presentation in local classrooms. It's up to them to decide on their own whether or not to become sex- ually active in relationships and many of their parents don't talk to them about abstinence as an alter- native, she's learned. "You really do have to make that decision for yourself," she considers. "Some of them don't have anyone to help them make that decision." LISA KNOWS first-hand what this can mean for a teenager. As a little girl she had been a pastor's daughter and grew up with a love for music. However, by age 14 she became inexplicably angry and suicidal, feeling worthless and hat- ing men. In spite of her parents' best efforts to protect her, she ran away from home twice and wound up on the streets, eventually get- ting pregnant. She married the father of her baby and had a second child with her husband a week before he left her for another woman. In the meantime, she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. That's when she found out through her parents about some trouble in her own past that had led to the sudden change in her be- havior and a depressive downward spiral. This information inspired her to set and accomplish goals for herself. Lisa moved back in with her parents and later fell truly in love with Mike and married him. He is her husband of eight years and together they have a 5-year- old son, Will. Her other*to Sons, Skylar and Hayden, are now ages 15 and 11. When she shares her story, with students, she tells it as a third-per- son account, at first, not revealing whose experiences she's talking about until the very end. This al- lows the students to view every- thing from an open perspective. "IT'S A PRETTY vulnerable state to be up there," she says of exposing her past to a room full of adolescents. Her history has instilled Lisa with a passion for advocating healthy relationships and reach- ing out to young women. She hopes to prevent young people from tak- ing the same risks she did and she wants to help them overcome any of their own mistakes. That's where the paper clip comes into play. She asks the stu- dents to take a regular paper clip and unbend it into a fiat, straight line: a fairly simple task. Once they manage this, she asks them to bnd it back into its original form again. This, they notice, is more challenging. The lesson she demonstrates here is that avoiding a mistake is" safer and easier than trying to fix one. At the same time, she points out that while a re-bent paper clip might never return to its former shape, it can still be used for its original function. Using herself as an example, she teaches teens how LISA HANSEN is passion- ate about working as an ab- stinence educator. the same holds true in her own case and in the case of others in similar situations. "THERE ARE so many kids who feel like they've screwed up so badly," she says. She wants to show them they still have hope of restoring their lives, no matter what's happened to them. "I've had a couple of kids say, 'Well, I'm a mistake,' " But she emphatically assures them, "No, no you're not." Lisa says of what she's able to achieve through her job: "It's fun; it's very cool." All this culminates a two-day course. At the Introduction, she engages the students with ques- tions about their personal goals in coming years. "I love to ask the kids to tell me about the person that they want to spend the rest of" their life with," Lisa says. Sometimes students respond with fhnny ideas of what they want, but normal answers in- clude a person with traditional qualities, being trustworthy, hon- est, loyal, responsible and loving. These questions and answers lead the students to think about how important the choices are that they make today and how they can impact their future. "THEY KNOW what they are; they spell them out," she says of these choices. Students tend to name drugs, alcohol and unplanned pregnan- cies as choices with potentially negative repercussions in their future. From there Lisa focuses on the negative impacts of an un- planned pregnancy. The financial and emotional re- sponsibilities of raising a child are something the teens understand, and the same goes for the difficul- ties parenting poses to a person who is trying to go to college. Sta- tistically, she says, fewer than one third of all teens who start a fam- ily before 18 finish high school and even fewer go on to get a college education. Addressing the results of sexual expression, she breaks them down into fbur main categories: sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy; emotional implications; and ef- fects on society. "IT'S FUN, BECAUSE they ag know it, they all understand it, they get it, but it's the first time they see it in that way," Lisa says. She defines the differences be- tween intimacy and sex and gives the students a chance to respond. "It's really sweet, because they see that they do want something more for themselves than a sexual rela- tionship," she says. Lisa also breaks down the dif- ferences between love and infatu- Vegetarian Cooking Classes • Need quick, healthy meals? • Want to save money? • Experience feeling better? Learn quick, easy vegetarian recipes dinners, desserts and drinks Sample each delicious recipe Take home a folder of recipes Thursday, March 1,8 and 15 * 6:30-8:00 pm SheHon Civic Center (Cota St) $5 per night or $10 for all 3 classes includes food and materials • Space is limited, Call Chriss at 426-5242 or Eileen at 427-1073 Presented by Shelton Seventh-day Adventist Church ation, discusses different levels of intimacy and addresses the concept of setting personal, physi- cal boundaries. She ends her pre- sentation by describing five main "love languages" and tries to help the young people figure out which ways they tend to express love. Lisa also offers ideas for how to clearly show love to friends and family without resorting to physi- cal expressions. "It's a lot of fun!" she says. FOLLOWING HER presenta- tion the students fill out anony- mous evaluations. "I get the best re- sponses!" she says. "It's amazing." This feedback lets her know how the students have come to understand intimacy and love for what they really are and how they are learning to appreciate the im- portance of setting boundaries. Lisa's not alone in these presen- tations. A team of three volunteers joins her in speaking to classes in Mason County, and there is also a group of volunteers who speak in Thurston County. Besides giving presentations to students, Lisa is also in charge of training and mon- itoring the volunteers, keeping ev- eryone up-to-date, and maintain- ing the entire HEART program. Lisa says the volunteers all make an impact on the students. Though the HEART volunteers never decline an invitation to speak, her job is part-time and definitely has the potential to ex- pand to full-time if funding were available. The program continues to grow, as this year she and her volunteers have been able to go full-bore with presentations in Thurston County schools. SHE AND HER family attend the First Baptist Church of Shel- ton. Her husband works for Black Hills Distributing and is finishing up his license to become a helicop- ter instructor pilot. "We're really excited about it," she says. True to her Arizona roots, Lisa shared a recipe for arroz con pollo y frijoles, a traditional southwest- ern dish which translates from Spanish into English as "rice with chicken and beans." This recipe calls for chicken thighs and, although Lisa real- izes breasts are leaner, she says the flavor in thighs is "outstand- ing!" She says: "Don't count calo- ries with this meal; just enjoy the great taste!" Her whole family loves this rec- ipe, she adds, and although it's a little spicy, nobody ever leaves any leftovers. Arroz con Pollo y Frijoles Ingredients: 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into pieces 2 tsp. garlic salt 1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper 1 C. long-grain rice 2 10-oz. cans diced green toma- toes and green chilies, undrained 1 14-oz. can chicken broth 1 16-oz. can refried beans 1/2 C. shredded Monterey Jack cheese Preparation: 1. Season chicken with garlic salt and pepper. 2. Brown chicken over medium- high heat for seven minutes on each side. 3. Remove all but 2 tables lj of drippings from the skillet. ' rice and brown over medium, h e$ for about two minutes, stirr constantly. 4. Add tomatoes and chick broth; blend well. Place chicken0 top of rice. Bring to a boil. 5. Reduce heat, cover and mer for 20 minutes, or until is tender and chicken is no pink. Remove chicken from and keep warm. 6. Drop beans by into rice; sprinkle with Heat for five minutes or beans are hot and cheese has ed. Serve with chicken. Care Net's fund-raiser is on FridaY, .A" Themed, "With All Your HeF / the 2007 dessert fund-raiser. Care Net Pregnancy Center ofla' son County is tomorrow. The event will begin at 7P. ' on Friday, March 2, at The Fay," ion at Sentry Park, 190 West Se" try Drive in Shelton. Local musician Paul will perform a full hour tertainment at this event. at the door will cost $15 More information is by contacting the Care Net nancy Center at 2233 Street, P.O. Box 1581 98584, or by calling "THAT'S WHY IT'S nice to have volunteers," she says. She started out as a Care Net volunteer 11 years ago after her father opened a branch down in Tucson, Arizona, where she grew up. She moved to Shelton about nine years ago and she wanted to plug into the local pregnancy cen- ter right away, so she trained to become a volunteer. As soon as she heard about the abstinence education program, she knew she had to be a part of it. That was eight years ago. "Before I knew it I was running it," she recalls. To maintain her certification as an abstinence educator, Lisa undergoes a three-day training course every two years. Doctors, lawyers and other specialists pro- vide the most current information on relevant topics at these semi- nars. IN HER FREE time, Lisa loves to garden. Coming from the des- erts of southern Arizona, she is im- pressed and excited about the wide variety of flowers and plants that flourish in this part of the state. She'd never seen hydrangeas or lilac bushes before moving here. "It's fun to be blown away by what you can grow up here. It's amazing!" she says. Considering Lisa used to run a wedding floral business, she is "fa- miliar with flowers. At the same time, during the extended rainy season and sporadic summers in Washington, she misses Arizona's steady sunshine. Assisting people with home decor and paint colors is another of Lisa's hobbies. "I have a knack for helping peo- ple make their house look the way they want it to," she says. DOLLAR STORE Locally owned and operated 00DOG limb Garden Tools GII I SHOP NOW OPEN At 7am E O Kitchen I im • $1 All items llmited to stock on hand 330 W, Rallread Ave • (360) 432-31 Downtown Shelton at Evergreen Plaza Monday - Saturday O am - 8 pm, Sunday 11 am - 6 pm eokl rosalie4. On Maroh 6th, 13th & 17th at 6P p' Start Entering in the Cage or Table 6amesll OPEN DALLY Sun-Wed Thurs-Sat 10am-12am 10a m-2ar 19330 N. HWY 101. (360) Page 14 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 1,2007