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| June 21, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Journal photo by Kevin Spradlin
Community contributions helped officials from St. David's of Wales
Episcopal Church raise $50,000 to help repair the 1926 parish hall. The
Simpson Family Fund is matching the funds raised with a $50,000 grant.
inner raises
By KEVIN SPRADLIN
The homeless will con-
tinue to have a safe haven
in Mason County thanks in
part to a successful fund-
raiser.
Father Joe Mikel, of St.
David's of Wales Episco-
pal Church in Shelton, an-
nounced that a $40-per-tick-
et dinner at Xinh's Clam &
Oyster House and related
raffles and auction raised
more than $9,500.
That figure included 136
tickets sold as well as a
$3,000 gift from Skookum
Rotary.
Combined with more
than $40,000 raised since
June 2011, Mikel said, it
helped reach the necessary
$50,000 threshhold set by
The Simpson Family Fund.
The fund has agreed to
match the church's $50,000
with a grant of equal value.
The $100,000 will be used
to repair the parish hall, lo-
cated at the corner of Cedar
and Third streets.
"I wanted to say 'thank
you," Mikel said. "It proved
to be fabulous food and fo-
rum."
Volunteers auctioned off
a dessert cart that featured
fresh pies, ice cream and
other sweets from restau-
rants across Mason County.
Bidding opened up for the
top dessert, said Patti Case.
"once everybody really sali-
vated over the whole thing."
Case works with The
Simpson Family Fund.
The building, constructed
in 1926 and listed on the
city's register of historic
places, is currently used to
provide a wide variety of
services to a homeless popu-
lation estimated to be be-
tween 600 and 1,200 people.
Volunteers prepare and
serve meals at the parish
hall seven nights a week. In
addition, the building offers
homeless a place to shower
and receive vouchers for im-
portant services.
In the winter, volun-
teers open the hall as a cold
weather shelter.
Mikel said the work to be
done includes excising dete-
riorated mortar and replac-
ing it with fresh mortar.
If community members
and organizations had not
donated the money, "the
building would no longer be
viable," Mikel said.
In that ease, Mikel said,
"what happens in that
building would not be able
to continue."
Mikel did not indicate
how much shelf life the
building had left.
Mikel said his church has
put the project out to bid
and expects to award a con-
tract soon.
He said there was lit-
tle concern the church's
$50,000 share wouldn't be
raised.
"There were several peo~
ple in the community who
already had donated and
also said, 'if you don't make
it, call me,'" Mikel said.
i
Patrons checking
out more ebooks
By KEVIN SPRADLIN
~¢evin@maso~county.corn
At the Shelton Timberland Region-
al Library, business is booming.
While patrons are checking out
fewer physical books, they are wel-
coming opportunities to download
and check out ebooks.
"And that's okay," library manager
Patty Ayala Ross said during a pub-
lic meeting of the
Shelton City Com-
mission on Monday
at the Civic Center.
"The world
changes," she said.
"We have to change,
tOO."
Member vis-
its have averaged
81,348 each year
from 2009 to 2011. In the first three
months of 2012, Ross said library
staffhas logged more than 56,500 pa-
tron visits.
Circulation -- the checking out of
physical materials from the library --
has gone down gradually since 2009,
Ross said, but "member visits are not
down at alL"
If Ross were to carry the 56,529
visits logged through the final three-
quarters of the year, the number of
visits -- more than 226,000 -- could
more than double the most usage in
Ross's four years at the Alder Street
location.
Many of the library's visitors
have embraced new technologies,
Ross said. While the number of
checked-out physical books has
~
decreased, the number of ebooks
downloaded by patrons increased
nearly 500 percent in 2011 from
2010.
And this year, the number of eb-
ooks -- for which patrons are given
a temporary code to read a book on
their laptop or tablet -- could qua-
druple from last year's figure.
Ross herself is a new convert to
digital reading devices. She recently
purchased a Kindle Fire, made by
Amazon.
"I actually love the thing," said
Ross, after acknowledging she initial-
ly had some reluctance. "It's quite a
nifty tool."
Ross outlined the advantages of
"The wodd
changes, We
have to
using the library's
selection of ebooks
intead of going to *"!
retailers.
First, she said,
the library service
is free. ,:~
"So if you want to
change too."
Ross said.
Second, the temporary digital
copyright to the reader expires after
21 days. There's no book to turn in.
And, Ross noted, "no fines."
The books "magically disappear,"
she said.
Ross highlighted the library's ef-
fort to reach patrons through social
media websites. On Facebook, the
Shelton branch boasts only 430 likes,
she said.
But the reach is much broader
than that.
Those 430 people "have 101,000
friends" on Facebook, Ross said. "They
can see whatever we post. That's a lot
of reach for nothing."
Ebooks, she said, are "the hot, new,
happening thing out there in the
world of reading. Our people read."
stick it to Amazon, ..
come through us,"- .~='*~
:iii
Th
Sound Learning students earn GEDs
STAFF REPORT speakers this year included: Teresa Mc-
pr~na,~'m~count;yJ.!om Dermott, campus director; Elaine Williams
Bryant, associate dean of basic studies;
and board of trustees members Darlene
Seven students from Sound Learning, Peters and Stephen L. Warner.
Mason County's leading literacy advocate, Peters inspired the crowd and moved
were awarded their General Equivalency them to tears with her personal story and
Diploma certificates, the message that all doors are now open,
The ceremony took place on June 14 in- not only for the graduates, but for their
side Johnson Library at Olympic College families as well.
Shelton. Peters reminded them that even though
Graduates included Ula Amina, Tami there will always be hard work, obstacles
Brady, Jessica Kealy, Mindy Kretzer, Kelly and setbacks, they can move through all
Piper, Mateo Santiago and Ashley Smith. of them because they are now different --
Two of the seven graduates were able to they are graduates.
attend the annual gradual ceremony. Lar- Piper thanked Sound Learning for help-
ry Parker, volunteer math tutor, and in-
structors Katie Barrow and Shannon Kla-
sell also attended the celebration to honor
recent graduates.
Olympic College Shelton hosts the GED
graduation program each year. Guest
ing him "learn how to think again" and
said that since earning his GED, he has
completed three quarters of college.
After the ceremony, Kretzer held her
new grandson and said, "this is who it's
for."
i
March 2012
Birth Center Sta
Words Cannot done eXpreSSas how rn
What y°u'veThese have b a team for uuchs We apprecla
Bank robber pleads guilty in 2009 robberies, days.
STAFF REPORT was satisfied there were no packets, he al-
OV
p~',~.~'~>neou~b,~coff~, lowed the manager to go back in the build-?tDOtlonally, an een the m- . er the last
te
:==-=.:::::::.:===:::::::::=::=::=:: ing. dnCl/they .... u Spirituall,. , ust Physics,,. '
Wandke got away this time with $62,000. helpandre infinitely m 'Oaded Clays o:'y"
A Kitsap County man pleaded guilty last After those robberies, the bank put in
week to federal bank robbery charges, stem- place procedures requiring customers to be first chp PPort. We rnanage ., °urlives,
ming from a series of robberies including "buzzed in' through the front doors. Yr~,. ,,u, and left W;"- "- ine here to With Your
the Kitsap Bank in Allyn on Feb. 1, 2010, On July 29, 2010, Wandke forced open ,~a naveo ,~1 ~ lot have Our
Feb. 21, 2010 and July 29, 2010. the front door and robbedthe bank again, SinCerely, Urdeepestappmre°c;:tlor}&respect"
Michael Wandke, 48, of Seabeck, pleaded taking more than $16,000.
guilty to two counts of a~med bank robbery Wandke was apprehended by law en-
and two more counts of bank robbery, forcement after robbing an espresso stand
Wandke's bank robbing spree began at in Bremerton on Sept. 28,2010. Awitness ~ ~k~'~p, ~r_Ej~/
the Bank of America in Kingston on Dec. 21,
2009. He used a fake bomb he made with
materials such as a dog-training collar to
threaten tellers into giving him money.
Wandke got away with about $4,300 from
that robbery.
In his first robbery at the Kitsap Bank
in/kllynl Wandke had a handgun and got
away with about $10,000, according to his
plea agreement.
As Wandke fled, witnesses saw a red
mist trailing behind him, from a dye packet
a teller placed with his money.
Three weeks later Wandkeshowed up at
the bank again, and ordered the teller not to
give him any dye packs.
He then forced the bank's branch man-
ager to leave the bank with him while he
checked the bag for dye packets. When he
to the crime took the license plate number
of Wandke's truck and gave it to authori-
ties.
After identifying Wandke as the espresso
stand robber, officers .searched his home
and found items tying him to the bank rob-
beries.
The case was investigated by the FBI,
Mason County Sheriffs Office and the Kit-
sap County Sheriffs Office. The case has
been prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorney Gregory A. Gruber.
The plea agreement recommends that
Wandke serve a 15-year prison term. This is
scheduled to run concurrently with another
state sentence for robbing several espresso
stands.
His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 7
before U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan.
Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, June 21, 2012 - Page A-3
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