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Shelton-Mason county Journal
By NATALIE JOHNSON
Sara Huddleston has some big shoes to fill.
Last year at Mason Matters her Ameri-
Corps predecessors - Delphina Lyles and
Tara Rigby - created community gardens,
educated parents about health care and got
the Pioneer Food Bank offto a good start.
Huddleston said she's up to the challenge.
"The goal of Mason Matters is to get the
community involved and this is a great way
to do that," she said, speak-
ing about the Pioneer Food
Bank.
Huddleston graduated
from Middlebury College in
her home state of Vermont
in 2009. After two years of
working as a paralegal in
New York, she wanted a
change.
Sara "I decided I don't want to
Huddleston go to law school," she said.
While still in college,
Huddleston took a class
called "Fast Food, Slow Food" and immedi-
ately felt called to the subject.
"I realized my calling might be nutrition
and exercise," she said.
Mason Matters, with its focus on nutrition
through community gardens and food banks,
was a perfect fit for her, despite it being on the
other side of the country, she said. can be intimidating for some cooks.
The Pioneer Food Bank had its first fall To help food bank patrons use their food
distribution day on Thursday, Oct. 20, and most effectively, Huddleston and food bank
served 15 families, she said. volunteers distributed recipes. They also gave
'~¢¢e got fresh produce to people, which is out eight donated slow cookers to families at
my passion," she said. the last distribution day.
Volunteers handed out vegetables such as "I handed out a recipe for simple roasted
beets and Brussels sprouts - ingredients that vegetables," she said.
On the back of the recipe for vegetables
was another recipe for a slaw cooker Vegeta-
ble soup.
One of Huddlesten's projects this year is to
change the way people donate to food banks.
She's been busy creating flyers for the Pioneer
Food Bank that suggest donating whole grains,
beans, nuts and fresh fruits and vegetables.
%Ve also really want to let people know
that food banks are not just a place to bring
the things you have in the back of your cup-
boards or 500 things oframen," she said.
In addition to helping the food bank, Hud-
dleston will continue to work on the Mason
Matters Health Literacy Program: The cur-
riculum for the program centers on the book
"What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick."
"It's just teaching people you don't have to
go to the emergency room every time you get
sick," she said.
Huddleston also works half-time with the
Mason County Department of Public Health
this year.
While Huddleston will continue to manage
many of these programs through Mason Mat-
ters this year, she's working on a guidebook to
allow different organizations in the community
to take over projects such as the HOPE Com-
munity Garden and the Pioneer Food Bank.
"AmeriCorps built these programs - we
want to return them to the community," she
said.
NARSTINEISLANDNEWS
The SHS "If Pigs Could Fly" team prepares to launch a pumpkin at last Saturday's 2011
Fest Catapult Competition.
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
Union Pumpkin-
en
By NATALIE JOHNSON per."
SHS's "If Pigs Could Fly" trebuchet
Six competing armies came together won first place in the accuracy division
on a muddy Union battlefield last Sat- by smashing out a window in the target
urday, covered with gourd innards and - an old boat donated by Hunter Farms,
armed to the teeth with homemade tre- where the event took place. The Charlie
buchets. Brown trebuchet came in at second after
They came, they saw, they Chucked a tiebreaker.
some pumpkins. While shut out of
"What kid wouldn't want to break a
window with a pumpkin?" said Shelton
High School Career and Technical Edu-
cation teacher Roger McCausland.
The premise of the 2011 Union Pump-ing a pumpkin a massive
kinFest Catapult Competition is simple. 251 feet.
Teams compete in high school and adult "That is the pumpkin
(Olympic Catapult League: Open Divi- throw of the century,"
sion) by hurling pumpkins with hand- said announcer Mick Mc-
made trebuchets - a kind of catapult Cartney.
-judging the best by distance and accu- West Sound Tech also
racy and style, won the design portion
Two teams from SHS entered trebu- with SHS coming in second.
chets, one Charlie Brown themed and an- Adults also got a chance to hurl some
other painted pink to champion breast can- gourds on Saturday in the open divi-
cer awareness called "If Pigs Could Fly." sion. Two adult teams showed up for the
Both Charlie Brown and the pink pigevent, a Hunter Farms team and a "Save
trebuchet fought hard against competi- Our Air" team with their "99 percenter"
tor West Sound Tech, which brought trebuchet.
two teams and one trebuchet, decorated The Hunter Farms catapult won first
with an axe and named "Pumpkin Chop- place in the distance competition with a
throw of 117 feet.
The 99 percenters occupied the field
during the accuracy portion and won
first place.
Last year's PumpkinFest Catapult
Competition was hampered by horren-
dous weather, organizers said, but this
year the rain cleared in plenty of time
for the competition, let-
the accuracy test, West kid ring all teams hurl their
Sound Tech ran away pumpkins in optimum
with the distance portionVVUU~UM ~ ~ aA~m mJ~n~ wa~t cool, sunny weather.
of the competition, shoot- Despite the bad weath-
to break a
window with
a pumpkin?"
er last year, organiz-
ers estimated a crowd of
about 150 came, but this
year more than 300 peo-
ple showed up.
Shelton's McCausland
plans to talk up the com-
petition at an upcoming
and Technical Education)
CTE (Career
"conference.
Organizer James John Bell said he
hopes McCausland's advocacy will bring
more teams to the competition next
year.
"Next year I think we're going to have
6 to 12 high schools because of Roger ad-
vocating to the high schools," he said.
Thursday, Nov.
3,201
Edgin awarded
Honored C itizen
posthumoUsly
I am excited that Judy and I got to do
some trick-or-treating with the grand-
kids. But, I'm not so excited about the
time change coming up. On Nov. 6 we
will fall back. ] don't like it when we do
because the day seems to be over be-
tween 4 and 5 p.m. For those coming
home after a hard day on the job, there
is no time to enjoy the yard or garden.
Even though it is winter, there are still
a lot of things that
need to be done out-
doors.
The three re-
cipients for the
island's Hon-
ored Citizens of the
Year were Lynn Fish,
Sandy Murphy and
MIKE Sam Edgin. Bill Bur-
CALLAGHAN rows was awarded
the Citizen of the
Year award. In the
past two columns, you've read about
Lynn and Sandy. This week I will use
Jim Anderson's notes about Sam Edgin.
Sam was awarded Honored Citizen
posthumously. He was a past commu-
nity club president. He worked with the
grange to get the map sign moved from
the mainland side of the bridge to the
island where it is located today. The
state came in and declared the commu-
nity halls septic and water systems in-
adequate and Sam worked to have both
repaired and brought up to code. Sam
was a very outgoing guy; there wasn't
a person who was a stranger. Using
that trait, Sam became an auctioneer
and when he retired here to the island
he volunteered his time and talent to
many fundraising activities, includ-
ing many island charities. He was a
past president of Pioneer Kiwanis and
also a Kiwanis district governor. When
it was discovered that Sam had cancer,
he was treated by Mason General Hos-
pital. He was so impressed with their
efforts that he became President of the
Mason County Hospital Foundation,
where he again led the way with fund-
raising activities.
The next senior lunch is sched-
uled for Nov. 16. On the menu they
will have sausage with sauerkraut and
potatoes, crudit~s and brownies. They
start serving lunch right at noon, so
get there a little early so you can find
a good seat.
Thanksgiving dinner will be at
the community hail: As has been the
1
See Harstine on page B-2
- Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page B-1