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The Billiken Club of La Conner was established in November 1909 by the women of La Conner. They adopted as their mascot the Billiken good luck charm which was used extensively in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle in the same year. The Billiken is “the God of things as they ought to be.” Since the women organized to promote charitable causes in the community of La Conner, it was an appropriate mascot and mission statement for their new club. Dues were set at one dollar a year. Membership was limited to fifteen. New mem...
The Sun Dome in Yakima has a lot of fond memories for the La Conner High volleyball program. But the defending state champions aren’t looking back this week. Instead, their focus is on the task ahead, starting with a first round State 2B Tournament date with Willapa Valley (13-3) Thursday at 1:30 p.m. “We’re looking forward to going into the State Tournament, coming off a good showing at Tri-District,” La Conner head coach Suzanne Marble told the Weekly News on Monday. “I’ve scouted six of the...
There was no masking the enthusiasm for Halloween in La Conner last week. There weren’t even storm clouds to shroud excitement for all the guys and ghouls who donned costumes and paraded First Street prior to the big Halloween Carnival at La Conner Elementary School which was held afterward. “The weather was awesome,” said Beth Schmittou Bowles, who along with fellow members of the La Conner Parent-Teacher-Student Association coordinated the array of family fun activities in town Thursday after...
If you’re moved by the story James H. Keefe III shares next Tuesday at the La Conner High School Auditorium, you can thank Patty McCormick. The retired LaConner Schools bus driver was browsing the Mount Vernon Goodwill store with her daughter Emily when she found a framed photograph of a man in uniform, inscribed ‘great flying with you – the Tigers’. “I always wonder how family pictures end up in secondhand stores,” she told the Weekly News. Curious, she took her purchase out of its frame and found the name James H. Keeffe, Junior. Google...
The defending State champion La Conner High volleyball team extended its unbeaten league winning streak to eight matches with a straight-sets triumph over Mount Vernon Christian at Landy James Gym last Thursday. But everybody came away feeling like a winner because the night was also an opportunity for the large crowd on hand to play a role in the fight to cure breast cancer. Over $700 was raised during the Lady Braves’ annual Dig Pink/Senior Night Match to help give more women access to p...
John Agen learned to think on his feet while quarterbacking a no-huddle offense for a La Conner High league championship football team his senior year, in 1973-74. He later refined his research skills while a student at Whitman College and the University of Washington, where his studies in Business Administration led to a wide-ranging sales career. Now Agen hopes to parlay that background, with keen interests in finance and health, into a seat on the La Conner School Board. Agen is facing...
Elaborate costumes will conceal the identities of those celebrating Halloween here next Thursday. But there’s no hiding the fact there will be plenty of fun for those partaking of the local holiday festivities. Oct. 31 looks to be a boo-tiful time for kids and adults alike, both in La Conner and on Swinomish Reservation. Festivities kick off at 3:15 p.m. with the parade and always popular downtown trick-or-treating. First Street transforms from a tourist mecca into a gateway for Halloween e...
Simply Marbleous. That was the vibe in Mount Vernon last week when fans from near and far and across time gathered to watch La Conner High volleyball coach Suzanne Marble record her 500th career win with a program she has guided to four state titles, the most recent last November. La Conner’s straight-sets triumph at Mount Vernon Christian resembled many of the preceding 499 victories under Marble’s watch, a journey that began here in 1993. The Lady Braves served at a 94 per cent clip, won two...
When Janie Beasley speaks, whether in English or Lushootseed, people listen. In fact, her ability to speak – and listen – to a broad base of La Conner area constituents has long been a trademark of the incumbent La Conner School District Board Director, who currently chairs the five-member panel. Beasley, a La Conner High alum, is often called upon to deliver bi-lingual messages during local special events, both at school and off-campus. Thus, she knows well the importance of...
La Conner students enjoyed their summer, even those for whom the time off was more of a working vacation. Perhaps especially them. La Conner High junior Ashley Davis attended two separate student leadership events, one in Spokane and another in southwest Washington, while eighth graders Kailey Carlson, Hattie Walls and Latesha Guerrero-Gobert took part in a week-long Tech Trek session at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. They wouldn’t have done it any other way. “It was really neat,” Kaile...
An attentive crowd of 80 people heard candidates for La Conner School Board District Directors 1 and 2 at a forum co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Skagit County and the La Conner Weekly News last Wednesday on the Swinomish reservation. Incumbents Kate Szurek, District 1 Director, and Janie Beasley, District 2 Director, are challenged by John Agen and Marlys Baker, respectively. The large turnout indicated the interest in the tension between the administration and the two school unions. Also, the District 2 position is a contest...
This corrects and updates the Sept. 25 editorial: “School board candidates.” All people living in the La Conner school district are invited to attend tonight’s candidates forum featuring District 1 candidates John Agen and Kate Szurek and District 2 candidates Marlys Baker and Janie Beasley. All school district residents will be voting for the four director positions on the ballot. District 4 Director Lynette Cram and District 5 Director Susan Deyo are unopposed. The Sept. 25 Weekly News editorial stating that tonight’s forum was for residen...
She’s soft-spoken by nature, but Kate Szurek has long been a strong voice for public education, having served on three school boards in Washington locales. The local attorney has relished being a member of the La Conner School Board since her appointment in 2014 to succeed Gretchen McCauley on the district panel. “I jumped in with both feet,” she recalls. There was no hesitation, Szurek told the Weekly News, because of her faith in La Conner Schools, where she now has three grandchildren enrol...
Ten La Conner High School students raised their signs and their umbrellas Friday, striking for the climate and their future. They left their classes about 10 a.m. and crossed the street to the knoll in front of the elementary school, prepared for their day with blankets, markers and cardboard and had pizza delivered for lunch. They stayed out till the 2:40 p.m. last bell. The morning’s showers made their signs run, but the ten, ranging from first year student Ellie Fullington to senior and A...
Chuck Hedlund enjoyed a great career, one that took him halfway across the globe as a pioneer in modern international trade. But it was what he did in retirement, back home in La Conner, that has truly made a world of difference. On that count, pretty much everyone here is agreed. “Chuck Hedlund returned home from Singapore and took on the mantle of Community Volunteer,” said Maureen Harlan, a lifelong friend and herself a local civic leader. “He was dedicated to promoting and serving the youth...
In 1977 Dick Holt moved his growing family to La Conner to establish a barber shop. It was then, and still remains, the only shop in town, and over the past forty-two years has become not only a La Conner institution, but is now a three-generation family affair. Dick still fills in at the shop when necessary, but son Tony has anchored the business for many years, and recently Tony’s daughter McKeighla has joined the family in the two-chair operation. Dick began his barbering career f...
Those of you who know me realize I care deeply about children and education. My desire is always to be a part of the solution and work for unity. I know that the new food services director and her team at La Conner School District are working extremely hard to provide excellent services for everyone, and I realize they are being directed by the district office. Amber Fleck, a LCSD parent and employee, should not have to summon the courage to stand up at a school board meeting as an advocate for students to say that the meal portions have not...
Today’s front page headline urging ALL La Conner School District residents to attend tonight’s District 1 and 2 director candidates forum uses all caps to get your attention. That is a poor fix for the error made here last week, when the editorial wrongly focused on urging Fidalgo Island voters in Districts 1 and 2 to attend the forum. Wrong: In Washington all voters in a school district vote for all directors. That is an at large voting system placed on top of geographical representation by distributing directors throughout the district. I m...
I am a candidate for the La Conner School Board, I believe the District can benefit from a fresh perspective within its leadership team. As a candidate, I thought it prudent to share my opinions regarding issues that have arisen involving the Board, Superintendent Meissner and both the teachers’ union and non-classified union. Since early May, I have been a close observer of the actions taken and statements made. I understand the frustrations of all involved – mistakes have probably been made by people on all sides. I certainly have n...
Elders carried signs reading “Wake Up, the House is on Fire.” One teen asked, “if your house was on fire, would you just sit there?” and another spoke of “the (melting) polar caps are our alarms; we need to stop the fire burning in our homes now” werer part of some 250 Skagetonians of all ages gathering at the Skagit County Courthouse Friday. Hope and despair for the future of the planet – and theirs and their children’s very uncertain futures – were voiced by teens, elders and a...
I am long overdue in expressing my thanks to our local community and the Swinomish Tribal Community for supporting the youth of La Conner. A little over three years ago my then junior high daughter came home from a Young Life summer camp and expressed it was one of the best weeks of her life. She was then able to experience this magic again as a high school student when she attended the high school camp. Each year I watched as a bus full of somewhat withdrawn middle and high school students departed La Conner and then watched amazed when that...
Few have as much to celebrate these days as Katherine Paul. The daughter of local residents Kevin and Pat Paul is an acclaimed vocalist whose music was featured in a recent National Public Radio (NPR) interview with correspondent Ailsa Chang. She’s also a newlywed. And hers were no ordinary nuptials. Katherine, 30, and Camas Logue, 31, both of Portland, were wed earlier this month on the banks of the Columbia River, each having arrived on tribal canoes, an 11-minute crossing in the p...
At La Conner Elementary, it isn’t just back to school time for students and staff. The iconic campus totem pole has also returned. A large crowd gathered around the school’s parking circle last Wednesday to witness re-installation of its near quarter-century old signature landmark, which was refurbished over the summer by master carver and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senator Kevin Paul. The project was especially meaningful for Paul, who had joined his late father and brother, Alex Pau...
Charles Robert Hedlund passed on September 10, 2019 at the age of 81. “Chuck” to his friends, which was just about everyone, was a lifelong Skagit Valley and La Conner resident. Born on June 20, 1938 in Mt. Vernon, WA he attended Lincoln and Roosevelt grade schools until moving to La Conner in third grade. He graduated from La Conner High School in 1956 and married his high school sweetheart Marianne Swanson (La Conner class of 1957) in 1958. Right out of high school, Chuck worked for the Dunlap...
There’s little doubt Kathy Herrera puts her heart into her career. But that’s just a figure of speech compared to the sacrifice she made away from work this summer. The La Conner Middle and High School athletic director and assistant principal donated a kidney to her brother-in-law, 41-year-old Fred Schori, of Seminole, Florida, in a five-hour surgery on July 31 – just five weeks before the start of school. Yet the former college athlete was in school hallways greeting students last Wed...