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Fair
Continued from page A-1
"I'm very uncomfortable,
and it's very unfortunate
that we have to deal with
a matter of such great sig-
nificance to the community
with our backs to the wall
and time running out."
No explicit details of this
investigation were given
during the meeting, but
Commissioner Tom Wallit-
ner addressed the Hansens,
who were in attendance, on
the matter.
"In reference to the in-
vestigation I don't see that
it merits any concern on
your part," he said. "I'm not
about to put myself in the
place of impeding the fair."
The commission voted 2-1
to approve the agreement
with Northwest Event Or-
ganizers.
Forest
Continued from page A-1
inspired 1970's buttons, to this
year's hand-drawn button illustrat-
ing the 2011 theme of Forest Tales.
Harvey said that since the first
festival, the buttons have been a
creative way to sell tickets.
"One of the principles of Forest
Festival is the sale of the button
gets you into everything," she said.
The festival costs $35,000 each year
- we couldn't put the forest festival
on if it wasn't for the community."
The festival begins today with
the opening of the carnival at 4
p.m. at Gateway Plaza on Moun-
tainview. The carnival will be open
from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Fri-
day, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sat-
urday and from noon to 6 p.m. on
Sunday. The closing times are de-
pendent on the weather.
Harvey said that even after 67
years the festival still educates the
community about its history, be-
cause many Shelton residents are
not familiar with the area's vast
logging heritage.
"One of the challenges we've
faced is we're kind of a bedroom
community now ... People don't
have a sense of what Forest Festi-
val is," she said. "I've talked to poe-
ple who have lived here 10 years
and don't know what the Forest
Festival is."
The logging show, which follows
Saturday's Paul Bunyan Parade,
which starts at 11 a.m. in Shelton,
gives people a first hand look at the
county's history, Harvey said.
"The logging show shows the old
style of logging," she said. "It's nice
to keep the heritage of the county
and teach the kids."
Saturday will also have a kiddie
parade starting at 10:30 a.m., the
Goldsborough Creek Fun Run and
fireworks at 10 p.m. at the Oakland
Bay Junior High School field.
To close out the festival, on Sun-
day there will be a duck float down
Goldsborough Creek in the morn-
ing, and a car show from 9 a.m. to
3 p.m. on Olympic Highway North.
For more information on schedul-
ing, go to masoncountyforestfesti-
val.com.
Harvey said that while the bulk
of the festival has not changed over
the years, and the purpose has al-
ways been to unite the community,
it now serves as a reminder that
conservation of the forest, which
has long sustained the community,
is more important than ever.
"It's a renewable resource - we
have to work on keeping it renew-
able," she said.
League
Continued from page A-1
the authority to expend money.
The groups are formed through
state law and county codes and
ordinances.
"We found out just kind of
what exactly do they do and who
are the members and how are
they selected and how long do
they stay on, just the nitty-gritty
facts about those committees,"
Boegl said.
The next step is focusing what
the group has learned for the
whole community, Boegl said.
"Putting it all together and
making some general recommen-
dations was the larger work," she
said.
The study group will share
its information with the larger
50-member League of Women
Voters of Mason County at the
non-profit's next regular mem-
bership meeting.
Teen
Continued from page A-1
funded Women, Infants and
Children nutritional program)
have been working in Mason
County to get young mothers the
resources they need, but several
factors contribute to why teen-
agers continue to get pregnant
-- from access to birth control,
to drug use to boredom in a ru-
ral county.
Snyder, who has Polycystic
ovary syndrome and was told
at 13 she'd always have a hard
time conceiving, and her boy-
friend had been using condoms
and birth control pills.
But, "none of those things
happened as regularly as they
probably should have," she said.
Snyder received a lot of sup-
port from most of her teachers
and her mother, who allowed her
boyfriend to move in with them.
"My sci6nce teacher gave
me a bassinet and a changing
table," she said. "The teachers
and nurses were mostly super
supportive. Other teachers, like
my P.E. teacher, were judgmen-
tal. So, I kind of stopped going
to P.E."
Snyder was also asked to
leave the North Mason branch of
the Boys & Girls Club, and many
of her classmates questioned
who her baby's father was, frus-
trating Snyder, who had been
in a relationship with her boy-
friend for three years.
"I slowly stopped caring for
some of my friends," she said. "A
lot of close friends will stick with
you. This let me realize what
friends were real."
By the time her baby shower
took place the August before her
junior year -- she'd spent the
summer cleaning houses while
her boyfriend worked at Safe-
way -- only two people showed
up.
At this point, Snyder had
dropped out of high school.
"I just couldn't do it any-
more," she said.
Some pregnant teens think
they have to choose between
being a good mother and being
a good student, said David Pe-
terson, superintendent at North
Mason School District.
The district is looking into
providing additional support
for teen parents, like a poten-
tial teen parent program with a
daycare, said Anne Crosby, the
district's compensatory educa-
tion director and principal of al-
ternative high school programs.
There are teen parents at
both PACE Academy, the dis-
trict's alternative high school,
and in the HomeLink parent-
school partnership program,
Crosby said.
"I think we're looking at
whatever means we have to keep
people at school," she said. "The
most important thing is to talk
to the kids and ask them what
they think. We think a daycare
might be great, but one of the
challenges for teen parents is
getting to school with a baby."
In the Shelton School Dis-
trict, CHOICE Alternative High
School had a daycare for teen
parents for several years before
funding cut it two years ago, said
counselor Kate Fletcher.
Fletcher has seen the rate of
teen pregnancies decrease in the
time she's worked at the schools
since 2004, which she credits to
general public awareness.
"I have kids who watch
[MTV's reality show] "reen Morn'
and say, 'I don't want to be a teen
morn," she said.
Students come to Fletcher for
a variety of pregnancy-related is-
sues, from working through a re-
lationship with the baby's other
parent to learning to cope after
having an abortion.
"It breaks my heart," she said.
"These kids are dealing with very
grown-up issues, and it's hard
because they are not grown-ups."
After Stephanie Baker
learned she was pregnant --a
year afar her best friend Snyder
-- the first person she told be-
sides Snyder was her 25-year-old
boyfriend of three months.
Her boyfriend, a Navy sailor
stationed in Bremerton, had told
Baker he was sterile. When he
found out she was pregnant, he
insisted that she get an abortion,
Baker said.
"I told him it was against my
moral beliefs, but he kept push-
ing it," she said.
The two broke up, and he did
not visit the hospital when Baker
gave birth to baby Parker almost
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Page A-6 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, June 2, 2011
ten weeks ago. Baker said she is
still attempting to get child sup-
port from him.
Baker, who was already plan-
ning to enroll at PACE Academy,
is now on track to graduate this
month.
"I didn't think I'd have the
support that I have," said Baker,
who lives with her mother, down
the street from Snyder. "This is
my life and this is the best thing
that could've happened to me."
Fellow teen morn Emma
Shafto, a student at North Ma-
son's HomeLink, agreed with
Baker.
"Sometimes I wonder if I
hadn't gotten pregnant, if I'd be
out partying with all my friends
and end up in a bad situation,"
said Shafto, who also lives with
her mother. "It's kind of a good
thing I got pregnant so young."
Her baby's father, who has
been arrested twice for drunk-
en behavior (he's 20 years old),
"disappeared off the face of the
Earth" ter Shafto told him she
was pregnant, she said.
Baker and Shafto were
switching birth control meth-
ods when they got pregnant
(Shv2to also credits "drunken
ftunbling'), but they and Snyder
believe boredom has a lot to do
with why Mason County's teen
pregnancy rate is higher than
the state average.
"There's no movie theatre, no
mall, no arcade," Snyder said.
"Instead, we have the woods,
and b0iifire parties and drink-
ing.
After-school activities are
what keeps students busy in a
positive manner, said Shelten
High School Counselor Susie
Wirzbicki.
"Part of what Shelton misses
is a place for kids to hang out
in a positive way," she said. "In
Mason County, we have a lot of
groups and activities and adults
that are trying to create these
places.
In rural areas, it can be hard-
er for students to access after-
school programs, Fletcher said.
"Shelton is like a city for
[some of] these students, an
hour bus ride to school, she
said. "Our parents are doing the
best they can, and I just worry
that our students are left to make
poor choices because they can."
Lower socio-economic levels,
as well as a. large Guatemalan
population that views pregnan-
cy through a different cultural
lens, could also contribute to
Mason County's teen pregnancy
rate.
"The Guatemalan culture
#Jews contraception differently,"
said Lyne Constantineau, who
works with low-income families
in the North Mason and Grape-
view school districts. "I believe it
brings up the numbers."
Many of the Guatemalan
families that Constantineau
works with are Catholic, a re-
ligion that frowns upon contra-
ception, she said.
Baker also noted that many
teen mothers she encounters at
the WIC office are Guatemalan.
.I honestly have to say the
Guatemalans could be bringing
up the numbers because of their
culture," she said.
Hi'gh-drug use among teenag-
ers could also be a factor, Baker
said, as well as boredom.
Access to birth control was
an issue in North Mason (which
does not have a Planned Parent-
hood location), but now it's less
of a problem, Constantineau
said.
"We've gone from bad to bet-
ter, and our teen pregnancies
have gone down tremendously,"
she said. "We need more out-
reach on the Guatemalan side.
Ultimately, most of the teen
morns she works with are good
mothers who take advantage of
social services and work hard
for their babies, Constantineau
said.
Snyder recently quit her job
working at Crazy Eric's burger
stand and now works at the
shipyard in Bremerton, cleaning
fuel and septic tanks and taking
classes in drafting, math, Eng-
lish and communications.
Snyder plans to get her GED
this December, though she's
acutely aware that if she fails,
that's $75 she could have used
on three packs of diapers for her
20-month-old daughter Olivia.
She and Olivia's father broke
up, and she said she has diffi-
culty collecting financial support
from him.
"His priorities are not what
they seem they should be," she
said. "I focus less on relation-
ships now. My short-term goal is
by January of next year to be out
on my own ... I want to start two
savings accounts, one for Olivia
and one for myself, so I can go
to college."
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