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Shelton-Mason County Journal
Hail to the
2Oll Forest
Festival Court
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Mason County has picked its
Queen of the Forest for the 2011
Forest Festival - Shelton High
School senior Allyssa Cervantes.
Twelve contestants vied for the
honor of Forest Festival Queen in
the 67th annual Festival Corona-
tion, as well as her four princess-
es, of hemlock, cedar, Douglas Fir
and spruce, and Paul Bunyan and
Smokey Bear which make up the
Forest Festival Court on Saturday
at the SHS Auditorium.
Only high school seniors could
be considered for the top honor of
queen, but nine junior and senior
girls from around the area com-
peted to be queen or one of her four
princesses Saturday.
They included: Danielle Marti-
nez, a senior at SHS, Allyssa Cer-
vantes,• a senior at SHS, Kaitlyn
Freeman, a senior at North Mason
High school and a former princess,
Alyssa Mauvais, a senior at SHS,
Brianna Eddy, a junior at NM,
Amanda Abrain, a senior at SHS,
Bryanna McLean, a senior at SHS,
Harley Sweitzer, a junior at SHS,
and Hannah Mackiewicz, a junior •
at SHS.
Cervantes was named queen,
and her princesses will be Eddy, as
the Princess of Cedar, Freeman as
the Princess of Hemlock, Abrain as
the Princess of Spruce, and Mack-
iewicz as the Princess of Douglas
Fir.
Along with the title of Queen,
Cervantes won a $1,000 scholar-
Contestants in the 67th annual Forest Festival Coronation dance an opening number.
ship. The princesses each won a
$500 scholarship.
Three high school boys compet-
ed for the titles of Paul Bunyan and
Smokey Bear: Kyrk Taylor, a se-
nior at SHS, Skylar Core, a junior
at SHS, and Sean Rogers, a senior
at SHS.
Taylor was named this year's
Paul Bunyan, and Rogers will be
playing Smokey the Bear.
Both Taylor and Rogers won
$1,000 scholarships. Taylor also
won the friendship award.
The judges included Darrell
Cleveland, Hannah Kuhnau Blom-
berg, the 1999 Forest Festival
Queen, Sherie Sund Lakas, a For-
est Festival Princess in 1959, Cody
Franzen, Julie Orme and Bonnie
Porter, Supervisor of the Daffodil:
ueen
Journal photos by Natalie Johnson
Festival.
The panel formally judged con-
testants based on their perfor-
mance on an on-stage question, a
formal interview, an essay, based
on "Forest Tales," this year's Forest
See Coronation on page 8-5
HARST!NEISLANDNEWS
Habitat about more than homes
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Bert Pedersen, Habitat for Hunan-
ity of Mason County's president from
2010 is quick to tell you that Habitat
does more than build a home or two ev-
ery year.
'Tee are not just homebuilders," he
said. 'Tee want to work within the en-
tire community in helping families and
other groups."
Some of that support involves en-
couraging families they help to get their
G.E.D.s and pursue a college education.
'The whole gist of hiring people has
changed - if you don't have a G.E.D, or
a high school diploma, your application
goes straight to the round can," he said.
Pedersen said that Habitat will also
begin to host a series of"asset building"
workshops next month.
These workshops will focus on things
like budgeting and smart shopping tips
to help people in the area manage their
money better, he said.
"In today's economy, when every-
thing is costing more, and with budget
cuts, the people who had assistance be-
fore are getting cut back, so they're go-
ing to need some help," he said.
Pedersen also said that with Habi-
tat's expansion into the North Mason
area, new programs have gone with it.
One program in particular, "A Brush
with Kindness," along with the Habitat
store in Belfair, has allowed Habitat to
have a presence in the North Mason
area despite the fact that they have not
yet built a house there.
In this program, Habitat crews visit
existing houses and help with mainte-
nance or additions like handicap rail-
ings and ramps.
Since Pedersen started volunteering
his time at Habitat for Humanity about
three years ago, he said he has learned
about how complicated an organization
Habitat really is.
Before joining the Habitat board,
Pedersen was active with another
homebuilding organization, Thrivent
Builds, which partnered with Habitat
for Humanity to fund new houses.
To date, Thrivent has helped with
two local houses, he said. When the first
house was being build about four years
ago, Pedersen volunteered to help with
construction, but soon realized that
Bert Pedersen
construction was simply not his game.
"I went out and pounded nails and
said maybe there's something else I
can do for Habitat for Humanity be-
sides pound nails - that's not really my
thing," he said.
Although he was a long time Habi-
tat supporter, Pedersen hadn't yet got-
ten involved with the Habitat board or
a particular project. He offered to help
with the board, and was soon a board
member working on fundraising for the
organization.
"I have contributed to habitat for
humanity financially for 10 to 15 years
but I had never worked in a habitat af-
filiate," he said. "I worked • as the act-
ing executive director for about seven
months.., we not only build the houses,
we finance the houses, find the families
and we support the families."
Pedersen said that Habitat's agenda
during his year as president was ambi-
tious, and they succeeded in establish-
ing a presence in Belfair, among other
things. He said that in the future he
hopes that the Belfair operations con-
tinue to grow.
"We are actively looking for land out
there to potentially build for any fami-
lies out in that area," he said.
Pedersen said that while building
homes is Habitat's main goal, the other
p/-ograms they sponsor also help make
needed, long-term changes in the re-
gion.
"It's really working with our fami-
lies so they can contribute back to the
community," he said. "If their kids can
succeed they can break out of the cycle
they've been in."
Pedersen shared this recipe for Mar-
malade Salmon.
Marmalade Salmon
Makes 6-8 servings
1/2 c. orange marmalade
1/2 c. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. grated orange peel
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 boned salmon fillet (maximum
1 1/4 inch thick, 3 to 3 1/2 lbs.)
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar 1 c. wood chips
In a bowl, mix marmalade, soy sauce, ginger, orange peel, vinegar,
garlic and cayenne. Rinse salmon and place, skin side down, in a pan
large enough for it to lie fiat. Pour marmalade mixture evenly over
fish. Let stand at least 30 minutes, or chill airtight up to two hours.
Cut two sheets of foil four inches longer than the fislL Stack sheets,
lift fish from marmalade and center, skin down, on foil Fold up sides
and ends of foil to make a boat. Pour some marmalade on top of fish.
In a bowl, soak wood chips in two cups of hot water for 30 minutes,
then drain. Heat barheque to ]
utes until the fish is opaque but still moist looking in center of the
thickest part. With two wide spatulas, transfer fish on foil to a plat-
ter. Cut salmon into portions and lift from skin with a spatula.
ThL
Just wh en you
thougnt it was safe
to think ac spring
I had some plans for
planting this past week-
end, but those were car-
ried away by the snow-
man the grandkids built.
March is roaring in.
My favorite thing about
I thought it would be good
time to repeat the impor-
tance of being prepared for
a disaster and the basic
things you need to do to
make yourself ready. The
Nisqually quake was not
the big one that
scientist are pre-
dicting based
on past activi-
ty. That one will
likely have 5,000
times the force
of the Nisqually
quake.
For many of
March is St. Pat-
rick's Day. Being |- ' 'i,:,!i
a good Irish boy, -* ::!)::' :;::i!!:
I like to celebrate
the day. Here on
the island, the
Community Club
usually has some-
thing Irish and
this year the
MIKE
Backwoods Irish CALLAGHAN us, that quake
will perform at was a wakeup
the meeting. They
are a great and hilariously
rowdy bunch that will
keep you on your toes. So,
pack up a potluck dish and
head over to the hall for
the regular monthly meet-
ing at 6 p.m. and help cel-
ebrate by the wearing of
the green.
You've probably start-
ed seeing those Kiwanis
Crab and Clam dinner
signs. They are on ev-
ery roadway leading
to and around Pioneer
School. They are there to
remind you of the impor-
tance of your attendance.
Your contribution to the
cause helps to raise money
in a fun 'way for Pioneer
School. So, you should al-
ready have plans to be at
the school at 4 p.m on Sat-
urday, March 19.
Last week, Nick Neuer-
burg sent in a Mason 5
report and he has another
one for us this week. This
being the 10th anniversa-
ry of the Nisqually quake,
call and a lot
of people have taken
steps towards being bet-
ter prepared. But as a
2009 American Red Cross
national survey conclud-
ed, only 80 percent of us
had taken at least one of
the basic steps (mainly
storing water), and only 12
percent were reasonably
ready for disaster. We all
should know the basic sup-
plies we need to put aside
and realize that we could
be easily more isolated
than we are if we lost the
bridge and should pre-
pare with that in mind.
The more prepared we
are the less fear and anxi-
ety we will have and this
will lessen the burden for
those who are affected. So
I urge you, if you haven't
done so, to put your plan
into action. Put together
your three to seven day kit
of food, water, personnel
and sanitary items, medi-
cations, first aid supplies,
See Harstine on page B-5
"Way, March 3,2011 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page B-1