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| April 21, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Shelton-Mason County Journal
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
Rick Lefller picked up his trumpets again after 40 years to help recover from the loss of his wife to cancer. Today he is
the principal trumpet player for the Olympia Symphony Orchestra.
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Two years ago, Rick Leffler
lost his wife of 50 years, Sandra,
to cancer and struggled to find a
way to go on without her.
~I wanted to go with her real
bad for the first probably month
or two," he said.
Leffler, who owns four busi-
.nesses in Shelton, turned to
family, friends and his religious
faith, but it was turning to music,
along lost-love, that helped him
find a new purpose in life.
"Music is a spiritual language
of truth,~ he said. "If you play it
or listen to great music or the
muSic that you love, it had a ten-
dency to calm you or to soothe
your troubled soul."
Lefller and his wife met when
they were teenagers, and after
their first date, rarely spent a
day apart.
, During the early years of their
marriage, Leffier was working as
an electrical engineer with a tele-
phone company and a profession-
al musician, focusing on horns,
and in particular, trumpet.
In 1970s, Leflter had 27 pri-
vate music students; was princi-
pal trumpeter for the San Fran-
cisco Symphony, the Oakland
Ballet and the San Jose Sym-
phony; as well as working full-
time for Western Electric and
studying for a Bachelors Degree
in music.
See Trumpeter on page B-5
SLAND
COOKIN'
" e lsland
Women's Club off, ers
s
By NATALIE JOHNSON
If you ask Joyce River how to in-
crease literacy, she'll tell you that
literacy starts young and it starts
at home.
River, a retired teacher with the
Shelton School District, runs the
Motheread/Fatheread program in
Mason County, which encourages
parents to read to their children
and gives them tools and strategies
to read to children more effectively.
"It started in North Carolina ...
it actually started in a men's prison
as a way for the fathers to have a
way to relate to their kids," River
said.
Over time, the program, funded
by Humanities Washington and Pi-
oneer Kiwanis, evolved into an af-
terschool program for parents and
their children, she said. In Mason
County, River often calls the pro-
gram "parentread" in order to en-
courage both mothers and fathers
to show up.
"I call it parentread because a
couple of years ago I finally had a
father come, and he said he'd been
very hesitant about coming because
all he saw was motheread ... I
thought, "That's not parent friend-
ly," she said.
While River was still working
for the Shelton School District, she
used the program in conjunction
with the Even Start program.
"We used it a lot there for their
own (parents') literacy skills and
their writing skills," she said.
About 10 years ago, River re-
tired, but her relaxation was short-
lived. A friend and fellow teacher at
the Pioneer School District asked
her to help start a motheread pro-
gram there.
Today, River runs the program
herself and meets with about a doz-
en parents every second Tuesday
of the month between October and
April.
"The parents come for the last
hour of the day, and we work, we
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
Joyce River shows off one of her favorite books from the
Motheread program.
read the story and we talk about
some parenting issues," she said.
At the beginning of the year, Riv-
er and the parents in her class de-
cide what issues they want to work
on, ranging from bullying to sibling
rivalry to bedtime.
After River and the parents
spend about an hour reading and
talking about the books, the kids
come in and read the books with
their parents. Then everybody does
an activity related to the story.
"With a lot of people it's just you
pick up the book, you read the sto-
ry, you put it down and that's it,"
River said. "We try to get the kids
involved ."
Also, River said that parents
learn to use books to teach their
kids about a variety of subjects.
"You can bring so many things in
and I think that's something a lot of
parents don't realize. You can teach
them geography, you can teach
them math, you can teach them
social skills, there's just a lot to be
learned," she said.
River said that reading as a fam-
ily is more than just a bonding ac-
tivity - it can dramatically impact
the future success of a child to read
with their parents at a young age.
Several studies have shown,
River explained, that a child who
reads with parents at a young age
will start school with a vocabulary
of about 30,000 words. A child who
doesn't read with their parents will
start school with about half that.
See Cookin' on page B-5
scholarships annually
Well,•after this long spell the democratic process will
of rain, I'm guessing that if appreciate your vote, so
your roof were going to leak
it would have showed it. I
say that because one leak
has popped up at our place.
Speaking of wet, we have
one dog that escaped our
confines a~ and swam
across Picketing and :ended
up in Grapeview. He and
our other dog did that about
a year ago, and I couldn't be-
lieve it then. Now, we have
yet another story
of our dog swim-
ruing the passage.
I never would have
guessed that was
possible.
I hope you have
already voted on
the school bond. I
voice your opinion yay or
nay, and get that ballot sent
in.
Bridge Community
Church invites everyone
to his or her Easter Sunrise
Service at 7 a.m. on April
24. They will be celebrat-
ing the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. They also invite ev-
eryone to breakfast which
will follow at about 8:15 a.m.
Adult and youth
Bible classes will
be held at 9:30 a.m.
If you slept in that
morning, the regu-
lar worship service
will start at 10:30
a.m. It is planned
that in each ser-
believe the ballot. MIKE vice a parishio-
is duetothecounty CALLAGHAN ner will tell the
by April 26. I know story of Jesus' res-
you've informed
yourself about this impor-
tant issue, but here are a
couple of the issues. The
expansion of the Primary
will allow the District to
move the fourth and fn~h
grade students out of the
Middle School and create a
contiguous K-5 elementary
school. The construction of a
new Middle School will pro-
vide students in grades six
through eight with a con-
temporary educational en-
vironment, including class-
rooms that are equipped
with today's technology,
specialized classrooms for
science, music and special
education and adequate
space and facilities for phys-
ical education, school as-
semblies mad food service.
The project will also in-
clude increased amenities
for community use, includ-
• ing. new gyms at schools, a
new library and commons
and improved outdoor sport
fields. These young kids,
. W!~.~re just learning about
urrection and his
influences on our lives to-
day. For more information,
and to RSVP phone Pastor
Howard Spear 426-5221.
There is also going to
be another Easter Sun-
rise service here on the is-
land, it will be held from
6:30 to 7 a.m. April 24 at
North Beach Pavilion. This
location is at the far is-
land north end. You will
have to go through the gate
there at Hartstene Pointe.
But, they have made it easy
for you - when you pull up
to the gate there is a key-
pad. The gate code for this
event is key, key, 0424. So,
just punch the little key
symbol twice and then the
0424 and the gate will open.
Breakfast rolls, coffee and
cocoa will be provided along
with a roaring, warm fire
and warm fellowship. This
is the third Sunrise Ser-
vice that the interdenomina-
tional Bible Study group at
See Harstine on page B-5
Thursday, April 21,2011 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page B-1