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The roster has changed and so has the game plan for the La Conner High School boys' soccer team. The Braves opened preseason workouts Monday minus key players who graduated from last year's club that placed fifth with a 7-8 mark in the NW2B title chase, forcing La Conner head coach Galen McKnight to tweak his attack. "We're going to have play a different style," McKnight told the Weekly News. "We'll have to play smart and rely on a lot of passing rather than try to score quickly on each...
A lot has changed in 50 years. But some of the best things in life have not. Tom and Judy Zimmerman celebrated their 50th anniversary on Aug. 13 during an open house hosted by their daughter and son-in-law Kelsey and Lance Stevens. The Zimmermans have been community leaders in La Conner over the past five decades – he as a fire chief and Dunlap Towing skipper and she as a council member and La Conner Elementary School teacher. Those attending the festivities were treated to good food and good memories in equal measure. Many of those memories w...
After a vigorous week at the Skagit County fair, two leaders with La Conner roots are taking it easy. As 4H dairy supervisor for the whole fair, Chelsy Mesman of Mesman Farms helped 18 young people between the ages of nine and 18 prepare and show their cows. "It's a lot of responsibility and a lot of kids," she said. Valley Green Acres 4H Horse Club supervisor Lauren Hedlin of Hedlin Family Farms worked with 10 young riders who performed in the horse arena. All county 4H clubs arrived two days...
The actress Bo Derek was famous in the 1970s for being considered a perfect 10. Shelter Bay’s Jean Collins has her beat 10-fold. She’s a perfect 100. Collins, famed for her regular one-mile walks at Whitaker Field, was honored Thursday, July 21 at Maple Hall on her 100th birthday. She didn’t get her laps in at the track, but Collins kept up her step count circling the room, greeting the many well-wishers who gathered from near and far to share her special milestone. As proof, shortly after enjoy...
Residents of the La Conner Retirement Inn celebrated life in the fast lane Friday, July 22. The seniors were treated to a three-hour classic car show that featured a dozen vintage vehicles. The event’s People’s Choice Award winner was a 1930 Ford Model A entered by Shelter Bay resident Colin Banks. Balloting was by Retirement Inn residents, said show coordinator Bob Ferari, also of Shelter Bay, who entered “Bella,” his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air. “Since it was the residents who voted,” Ferari told the W...
It helps being well-grounded when soaring with eagles. Alex Bouwens, a 2022 La Conner High School grad, and Andrew Villard, an incoming senior, have parlayed self-discipline, perseverance and a commitment to public service into achieving Eagle Scout status, the seventh and highest rank of Scouts BSA. It is an achievement only 5% of scouts attain. To earn the Eagle rank, scouts must exhibit sustained leadership in their troop while earning 21 merit badges, 12 of which are required. Those badges r...
The Nelson family is not only deeply rooted in Skagit County but also boasts many branches covering a wide range of achievements near and far over the course of more than a century. A case in point is told by Reggie Nelson, a retired teacher and La Conner High School alum, who will be among the main speakers when he and his relatives are honored as the 2022 Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year on Aug. 4 at Pioneer Park. “My uncle, Duane Smith, was an honest-to-goodness rocket scientist,” Nelson told the Weekly News. “He graduated from...
Here the Magic Skagit mingles into the Bay, sheltered yet centrally located; Swinomish is a place of great healing. People here enjoy a diverse, continuous and bountiful ecosystem. The soil is rich. Water is always accessible. Food is found easily in plentiful amounts. The climate is mild. People are drawn here. Some may realize a portion of why they are drawn here, yet few are fortunate enough to have experienced the full spectrum of its gift. In a field of rich and intoxicatingly beautiful diversity it is easy to loose perspective and take...
Arlene Anne (Gannon) Kimbell (Arly) of La Conner (formerly from Everett), 87, peacefully went to be with her Lord and Savior on July 8, 2022. Mom was born on April 30, 1935 to Ansel and Mary (Kappel) Gannon in Everett, WA. Mom was raised with her younger sister Linda, helping out in their family grocery store in Pinehurst. She had so much fun coming home from school and getting specialty candies from the jars on their store counter. Mom graduated from Everett High School where her nickname was...
La Conner School board members went on retreat Monday to plan a path forward for the 2022-23 academic year, addressing a wide range of discussion topics – from finances and goal setting to maintenance priorities and student enrollment– during a three-hour afternoon in-person public session at the Swinomish Casino conference room. The dozen agenda items included reports from district business manager Brian Gianello and operations and planning director Bobby Vaughn. Gianello had good news, reporting that an infusion of $852,000 in...
La Conner High School baseball prospect Nathan Bailey made history last weekend. Bailey was in Atlanta representing the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community at the first-ever Native American All-Star Showcase as one of 50 tribal high school players selected nationally to take part in a pro-style workout and compete in a marquee Sunday afternoon game. Bailey blasted a run-scoring triple. The Atlanta Journal-American’s digital gallery posted a photograph of him running to third base. The two-day e...
Swinomish master carver Kevin Paul's latest work, a carved and painted thematic totem story pole was installed near the new La Conner Swinomish Library entrance July 7. “It’s really a landmark,” said La Conner Regional Library Board of Directors Secretary Robert Hancock, who attended the hour-long installation and brief ceremony afterward. “It’s something that people coming to town will want to have their picture taken with.” The tall and graceful pole symbolizes unity and a reverence f...
For more than a century, members of the pioneer Nelson family have been outstanding in their fields. The Nelson family has been selected as the 2022 Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year. The Nelsons have had a significant impact on Skagit Valley’s agricultural development, from dairy and cattle operations to grain, berry and potato production. Farming is only one part of their remarkable saga, which began here shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Since then, the Nelsons and their m...
The historic Billiken Club of La Conner, founded more than a century ago, will be recognized as one of four Spirit Award recipients at the 118th annual Pioneer Picnic on August 4. As far as the Billiken Club is concerned, Janna Gage of Seaport Books, is the go-to person. She wrote the definitive history of the Billikens in a guest column for the Weekly News nearly three years ago. At that time, Gage defined the term Billiken, which also serves as the mascot for St. Louis University athletic teams and is a constant source of local inquiry....
Dustin Swanson is the new head coach of the Stanwood High School girls’ basketball team. Swanson was the La Conner High School assistant basketball coach. Swanson, from a pioneer La Conner family, was an integral part of basketball teams here for 15 years, serving on the high school boys’ and girls’ staffs and coaching youths from Little Dribblers through eighth grade. He hopes to replicate the success he had working alongside head coach Scott Novak. Swanson was courtside with Braves and Lady...
Fifteen years ago, 650 students attended grades K-12 at La Conner Schools. But this fall only 530 are projected, an enrollment drop that will have a direct impact on the school district’s 2022-23 budget. School officials are forecasting a $13 million budget next year, down from $14.5 million in 2021-22, in response to anticipated reduced state funding and federal impact aid support linked to student enrollment. The district has already eliminated two in-person teaching positions. The board h...
C.J. Woods has been named the La Conner School District’s new director of athletics after his first year as a teacher and boys’ head basketball coach. The district has been splitting the assistant principal/athletics director position. Woods will retain his coaching position and teach physical education and health at the middle school. He has already done a deep dive into the intricacies of the position. “The role ranges from day-to-day athletic organization to big project planning and organization,” he said. “Every day you coordinat...
Poor John Cline; he seems to be unhappy that La Conner Weekly News isn’t in lockstep with the right-wing element of his preferred political party. I don’t know John, but if I did here are a few questions that I would pose to him. Each of these talking points is prefaced with the question; Are you proud of your affiliation with the GOP for any of these facts of historic events? George W. Bush’s fifteen year incursion into Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction, where nearly 5,000 U.S. service members lost their lives, began in 2003....
The nightmare scenario for reporters today is watching a nearly completed article vanish from the computer screen, lost in the grasp of cyberspace. Nearly as dire is not receiving time sensitive responses to emailed interview questions, again because the electronic gods chose to defy the sanctity of deadlines. Neither, however, was an issue back in the day, as the kids say. That’s because newspaper composition – as were most writing tasks throughout the business world – was done o...
Having spent decades devoted to feeding the hungry, Virginia Good-Vlahovich found herself on the receiving end of praise at the annual “Leaders Inspiring Leaders” forum at Skagit Regional Airport on Saturday, June 25. The 1975 La Conner High School grad was recipient of a special “Community Champion” award at the two-hour program that also featured remarks from former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency Director Robert Gates, a Big Lake resident who, in retirement, has bee...
Two weeks ago 60 seniors graduated from La Conner High School in an old fashioned indoor ceremony. The 54 students graduating last year did so in an outside ceremony at the football stadium. In 2020, each of the 33 graduating seniors was delivered to the parking lot ceremony by their parents in the family car. The last two graduating classes have been huge. Future classes will not be that big. For the fall, the La Conner School District is projecting a 11% decline in enrollment, maybe 530 students, down 56 from this year’s 586 students. This w...
Kurt Bassford quietly goes about his business each day – whether at work, tending to family obligations or lending a hand to friends and relatives – but his example doesn’t go unnoticed at Swinomish or in La Conner. A 1976 La Conner High School alum who works for Dunlap Towing and as a commercial fisherman, Bassford twice has received honors voted by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for his commitment to maintaining a healthy and sober lifestyle. His plaques are displayed at t...
It’s rhubarb season. I let mine grow until there is a special occasion. Then I bake a dessert to enjoy with family. On this occasion, it was the dinner party to celebrate the graduation of our grandson Finnegan Ellsworth from La Conner High School. Finn came into our lives when our daughter, Katherine, married his father, Camas Logue, in 2019. They moved as a family, with younger Oliver Currin Logue, to La Conner and settled in town. We share numerous family meals together. They loved this r...
The La Conner High School graduating class had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic and then one last time Friday evening. The 128th annual commencement exercises were moved from Whittaker Field to Landy James Gym when forecasts predicted rainfall. There were few dry eyes among families and friends of the graduates during the emotional 90-minute ceremony. “COVID was not kind to this class,” stressed co-valedictorian Delaney Cobbs, one of several student speakers. “By the time we hit our junio...
Few have shown the can-do spirit on a sustained basis as well as Shegay Vanderpool. The career educator, after all, has proved since the early 1970s that she can do just about anything in the classroom, at all grade levels. Same with the campus music hall. And auditorium. Not to mention the counseling office. In baseball parlance, said her longtime friend, retired La Conner Middle School principal Maureen Harlan, Vanderpool is the ultimate utility player – someone versatile and skilled...