Peninsular Thinking

Five performances by Kitsap musicians earned high honors in a statewide competition Friday and Saturday, including two performances that took top prizes.

Nick Stahl from Bainbridge High School took first in the solo soprano-alto saxophone category, outperforming four other competitors.

Shannon O’Brien from Bremerton High School won a solo competition in the vocal-bass category.

Second place winners included a small percussion group from Central Kitsap High School and small vocal group from North Kitsap High School. Kelly Lanzafame from North Kitsap High School took third in the vocal-alto category.

The annual competition happens on the last Friday and Saturday of April and Central Washington University in Ellensburg hosts the event. Contestants from across the state first competed in 22 separate regional contests to qualify for the showcase.

This is, according to one educator, the musical equivalent to athletes taking state.

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In August we had the story of the untimely death of a former Kitsap County boy, Sam Skaggs. His family had moved to Colorado and while making a nighttime drive with his father his car hit a cow that had wandered onto the road. The 10-year-old boy, whose “smile was his best asset” if you asked one of his former teachers, died the next morning.

His dad suffered severe breaks in both arms and was just recently able to start working again.

The family was able to raise funds for a burial, but not a headstone. So they’ve done as many do these days. They’ve set up a page on GoFundMe.com, a place for people to donate funds for causes like this one. They also want to plant a tree near the spot of the accident, a place they drive by every day as they take their children to school. His mother wrote:

“Sam loved nature, he loved bugs and loved the outdoors. This tree would represent him in so many ways of his love for nature and help us as a family of knowing that his love for nature continues as this tree will continue to grow.”

The goal is to raise $2,500. So far they have reached almost halfway, helped in large part by a single anonymous $1,000 donation.

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Thursday morning came earlier for some than others. By 8 a.m., at least a dozen same-sex couples were lined up at the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office seeking marriage licenses. At least one couple had waited outside the county administration building in Port Orchard since 6:30 a.m. for a watershed moment in their lives and the state’s history.

With the passage of Referendum-74, supporting legislation allowing same-sex marriage in Washington State, Thursday was the first day same sex couples could apply to wed. The auditor saw double the business for a typical winter day.

“We are amazed, ecstatic and amazed,” said Mel Wensel, 52, of Port Orchard, who has been in a committed relationship with her partner Traia Wensel, 45, for 12 years. The couple from Port Orchard were the early birds who got there at 6:30 a.m., and they were the first Kitsap County same-sex couple to receive a marriage license.

The early hour and the significance of the day were not lost on county employee Dana Coggon, in charge of the county’s Noxious Weed program, to eradicate invasive vegetation. Coggon showed up with a carafe of Starbucks and offered a cuppa to those embarking on a new chapter of their lives.

“It was warming my heart to see people stand in line, so I thought, ‘Why not bring coffee?’” Coggon said.

The simple act of kindness hit a little closer to home for Coggen, a Tacoma resident. Although everyone in her immediate (albeit tiny) staff knows of Coggen is lesbian, Thursday’s coffee handout was her workplace coming out.

Coggon hasn’t advertised her sexual orientation one way or another at work. “I don’t think my sexual orientation has anything to do with how I do my job,” she said. “(It) is only a piece of who I am.”

Coggen and her partner of just over a year are not ready to make a permanent commitment, but the passage of Ref-74 has them thinking.

“I’m happy to see this day,” Coggon said. “Having that opportunity is just amazing. I’m now told I’m equal … mostly …. ’til the federal government gets it figured out.”

A number of the same-sex couples I interviewed said they are carefully watching Supreme Court challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, that defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

Coggon and others took heart from the fact that statewide, voters in November upheld legislation allowing gay marriage by 53.7 percent; in Kitsap County, 53.99 percent approved.

“I don’t publicize my personal life, because I’m afraid of how people might view me,” Coggon said, getting choked up. “To have the community I serve in validate who I am is amazing, absolutely amazing.”

Coggon, 34, said she wants to be “very thoughtful” about making a lifetime commitment to her partner. Despite the lack of federal approval, the fact that they can even have that conversation blows Coggon away.

“I think it’s a big step. It’s a huge step, and it’s great,” she said.

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I spent Friday morning fighting with my umbrella while scribbling notes in the wind and pouring rain. Perfect weather for picking a U-cut Christmas tree, if the families I followed up hill and over dale can be considered credible sources.

For most, the day-after-Thanksgiving hunt for the perfect tree is a time-honored tradition, regardless of the weather.

Stopping by a bright, red hut at Hubert’s Christmas Tree Farm on Seabeck Highway, I met the owner Randy Billick and his “Uncle Dan” Saul. Uncle Dan is a colorful character, whose offbeat comments kept everyone laughing. But his Habañero Hellfire Chili is really something to smile about.

Dan offered me a sample, like a dare. D’ya like hot dishes?” he asked with a sinister twinkle in his eye.

I took a bite: tender little chunks of beef and pork swimming in a fragrant, spicy broth, with grace notes of chocolate and the kick of 15, count them, 15 habañero peppers (for a recipe that serves 20). Not so secret ingredients include bittersweet chocolate, strong coffee and a quart of dark beer.

Hellfire Chili emanates the kind of heat that creeps up on you, and seeps out your nostrils and ears like something from a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. The chili blasted through my rain-induced chill from the inside out.

“Uncle Dan” travels all the way from Whidbey Island to cook for the crew at Hubert’s during the holiday season. Upcoming dishes include chili mac, Caldo de Res (Mexican Beef Stew) and Hungarian Hangover Soup.

Dan, in his 60s or 70s (he was kind of vague), works in The Soup Kitchen in Langley, that recently served up its 1,000th community lunch. Group officials estimate nearly 110,000 meals have been served at the kitchen since its inception nearly 10 years ago, according to the Whidbey News-Times.

It’s clear Dan enjoys feeding people, and he’s as generous with his recipes as he is with his dishes. His blog, Soups on at the Soup Kitchen or at Home, has been up and running since 2010. Try it you’ll like it. On the blog you’ll find assorted dishes including his Thai Mussels in Curry Broth, a 2003 Penn Cove Mussel Festival winner.

Here’s the recipe for Uncle Dan’s Habañero Hellfire Chili. Don’t say you weren’t warned. (If you don’t need 20 servings, hopefully you can do the math to cut it down.)

Serves 20

Ingredients:

4 onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 pounds ground beef
2 pounds ground pork
15 jalapeños, seeded and chopped
15 habañero peppers, seeded and chopped
20 Anaheim peppers, seeded and chopped
1 quart dark beer
4 cups coffee (strong brewed)
2 (28-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes
5 (16-ounce) cans chili beans
1 (six-ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup chili powder
2-ounces bittersweet chocolate, shaved into fine pieces
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp. cayenne pepper
3 tbsp. cumin
3 tbsp. smoked paprika

Directions
In a stock pot brown beef and pork over medium-high heat
Season with salt and pepper
While meat is browning, stir in all ingredients except beans
Reduce heat to simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally
Add beans and continue simmering for 45 minutes.

“Bon appetite,” says Dan.

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Fans of South Colby Principal Brian Pickard will want to tune in at 7 p.m. tonight to KING5′s “Evening Magazine.” Pickard will be featured on a segment about the program’s “Best of Western Washington” He edged out well over a hundred other nominees in the “Best Principal” category.

Although many school districts represented in the 2012 Best Principal contest are larger than South Kitsap, results show that the South Colby PTSO really knows how to get out the vote.

“Evening Magazine’s” executive producer Mark Erskine couldn’t pinpoint the exact number of votes, because the company KING5 contracts with to register and tally votes is back east, preoccupied by Hurricane Sandy. Erskine noted that Best of Western Washington really is a popularity contest. The station has no control over who wins. It all came down to Pickard’s enthusiastic supporters.

“Our viewers have selected him Best Principal of Western Washington,” Erskine said. “Hey, it’s a democracy.”

“Best of Western Washington,” now in its 20th year, is one of the oldest “best of” contests in the region. The 2012 contest generated more than 500,000 votes in all categories (there are dozens). The “best of” web page on the KING5 site got more than 1 million page views.

Not all “best of” winners get their own segments. Since this is TV, the producers look for stories with a strong visual element. “Best principal is always good because there’s a whole school behind it,” said Erskine. “There’s students. There’s teachers. There’s emotion.”

So it wasn’t Pickard’s Superman suit that won producers over? Not so much, Erskine said. But there’s no doubt South Colby’s love of the 20-year principal helped push the envelope.

PTSO member Tiffany Wilhelm, who nominated Pickard called him an “amazing principal.” “He believes that every child is capable of success — no exceptions, and encourages that pledge among both the kids AND all adults within the building,” Wilhelm said. “Our school community is stronger because he is part of it.”

Pickard was right back at’cha with the PTSO. “It’s a great group of people,” he said. “They’ve been incredibly supportive.”

“Evening Magazine’s” “Best of Western Washington” coverage will continue throughout the rest of the week. The show airs at 7 p.m. Monday through Friday on KING5 TV.

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George Dockins, executive director of the Public School Employees of Washington, delivers high praise to Yvonne Dean, who is retiring after 24 years with the Bremerton School District. (This poorly focused photo was taken by Steven Gardner, who we hope did a better job with the blog entry itself.)

That was 1988.

On Tuesday she was celebrated by fellow members of the Bremerton Professional Education Association. Dean is retiring.

“We’re going to be lose a historian,” said Wanda Liner at Tuesday’s regular meeting that turned into a tribute. “We’re going to have some big shoes to fill, especially in the union.”

The union is made up with the school district’s equivalent of the “people for that.” You know, like that time you spilled the shrimp sauce on the carpet at Alex Rodriguez’ house. You started to clean it up yourself, but Alex gently reminded you not to worry, that “We have people for that.”

The “people for that” in the school district do clerical work, manage offices and serve as paraeducators and custodians. If the school district were a human body, the BPEA and its statewide union, the Public School Employees of Washington, would be the liver. I know no one wants to be called “the liver,” but take one out of your body try living without it. You can’t.

There were moments Tuesday, too, when it became clear that there are times these employees feel as unappreciated as a liver. There are contract talks at play now, and not everyone is happy about the direction those are going.

Dean started as a sub, then worked as a clerical assistant and office assistant at Crown Hill Elementary, Magnuson Community School and the district’s business, maintenance and transportation offices. She didn’t drive the buses, (“No way would they get me on a bus with 70 kids behind me,” she said. “That takes a special person.”) but she handled transportation issues in the office so a bus driver could focus on driving a route.

“I have grandkids,” Dean said when asked why she’s retiring. “It’s time for a change.”

Change is something she has seen over 24 years. One thing she mentions is how parents are much less willing to accept responsibility for what their children do now than when she started working in the district. Before, a child acting up in class would lament that the “worst thing was Mom and Dad were going to know and they would do something.” She also said all the technology available has made us all less willing to look at each other and say, “Hi.” That, she said, will prove difficult for today’s kids. “I understand it’s great, but we need to communicate.”

My recollections from my years in school were that some of the classified employees we met were among our favorite personalities. Olie was the custodian at my elementary school and Bernie served that role in high school.

Even if we didn’t know them directly, they certainly had an impact. When I tried to ditch school it wasn’t a teacher I tried to trick into believing I was my dad. I went to school that day at the gentle prodding of a nice woman whose name I no longer recall. Nonetheless, she had as much to do with my education experience as some of the teachers. I just didn’t know it or appreciate it at the time. So many important things were done for us students, things we never had to notice because the school district made sure we had “people for that.”

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Sure the presidential debate is tonight, but did you know there is another momentous contest afoot?

Tiffany Wilhelm, a member of the Parent Teacher Student Organization at South Colby Elementary, informs us that Brian Pickard, longtime principal, is leading the pack in King 5/ Evening Magazine’s Best of Western Washington contest. Yes, scroll on down past “Best Amateur Athlete,” “Hottest Firefighter,” and “Best Comedian,” and you’ll see Pickard — in his superman outfit — in first place with 150 votes.

Wilhelm, leaving nothing to chance, contacted to Kitsap Sun to make a shameless pitch for Pickard and to encourage other voters to step forward. She’s the one who submitted the superman picture (Pickard apparently doesn’t know the fuzzy image of him at some school event has gone public), and Wilhelm says it’s fitting.

“He really is a Super Hero in our school,” Wilhelm said in an email, “He is willing to do just about anything for the kids, including be duct taped to a wall, dye his hair blue, kiss a pig, become a human ice cream sundae and so much more.”

On the first day of school this year, Pickard organized parents, former parents and community members to greet arriving students with a “Tunnel of Hope.” In his words: “This Tunnel of Hope is to meet and greet all the students (treasures!!) and their parents (also treasures!!) arriving at SC on the first day and give them the most amazing welcome and positive feelings they have ever experienced.” Wilhelm described walking through the Tunnel of Hope as a “fantastic way to start the year” for students and parents, alike.

“Mr. Pickard is an amazing principal,” Wilhelm said. “He believes that every child is capable of success — no exceptions, and encourages that pledge among both the kids AND all adults within the building. Our school community is stronger because he is part of it.”

A principal from “big ‘ol Bothel” is edging in on Pickard’s lead, Wilhelm says. She encourages South Colby constituents to get out the vote between now and the contest deadline Oct. 12.

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Raise your hand if you were in Sekiu this past weekend.

On our annual fill-the-freezer excursion to the little fishing town two miles west of Clallam Bay (19 miles East of Neah Bay), it seemed one in every six people had a Kitsap connection.

Sekiu shrinks and swells on the tides of anglers who come and go with the fish runs. In winter it dwindles to a handful of residents who probably know each other way too well (some escape to the warmth and anonymity of Arizona). During salmon season, though, the hillsides are chock-a-block with RVs perched above the bay, barely tucked in from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Canada within spitting distance.

The accommodations are nothing fancy, but the view is spectacular. Bottle green water, sparkling with beds of kelp that sway and twirl in the currents. Mist shrouded forests and strange rock formations, like Mussolini Rock, with the tuft of trees growing on its top looks like the Italian dictator’s military cap. There are seals, sea birds and the occasional porpoise or whale passing through. On this visit we saw a sea elephant about two miles from shore bobbing on the surface long enough to get a gulp of air then sliding down into the water.

At dawn, fishermen (and the occasional woman) lug on their muckboots, fill their thermoses and fire up their motors, lighting out on the heaving waters like a swarm of bees. If the bite is on, they’ll limit out before noon and spend the rest of the day swapping fish stories. Word of how deep to fish and where they’re biting spreads like a virus. If there is a #Sekiu on Twitter, it’s overkill.

A glamorous resort town this is not. The docks are splattered with excrement from great clouds of seagulls that flock like brazen thugs around the fish cleaning stations, mewling for a handout of guts. The smell is distinctly horrific, sometimes tinged with a pleasant waft of salt air from the open water.

The anglers don’t seem to care about the smell. For many the trip to Sekiu is an annual ritual, like summer camp for adults. When they’re not fishing, you might find them tending the smoker or vacuum-sealing their catch. The anglers drop plenty of dough on Sekiu. They eat in the handful of restaurants, buy bait, tackle and ice at the stores, and pay for moorage and RV or tent spaces.

Those who live here year ’round to operate the eateries and rustic resorts make much of their annual income during these few frenzied weeks when the fish are running. The recession hit them hard, but the town had been struggling years before the bottom dropped out of the housing market.

On the west side of town, a decaying dock is all that’s left of a once bustling fish cannery from decades past. Here and there are abandoned, boarded up buildings. The properties that remain open are sagging, a little seedy. The fishermen don’t care, but the symptoms don’t bode well for Sekiu.

Challenges facing resort owners are often invisible to visitors. For example, there was the storm of 2006 that took out the parking lot of Van Riper’s Resort. Repairing the damage took a quarter million dollars worth of fill.

There’s another problem, age, not of the properties but the owners. Barbara, who owns The Breakwater restaurant, is in her mid-60s. She has a 5-year-old granddaughter to raise and a grandson to help through college, so she’s not actively looking for a buyer. But the place has been listed since before her husband died four years ago.

In the old days, The Breakwater had no “off season.” If it wasn’t the fishermen, it was the loggers, who lined up outside the door on payday. Now, what logging goes on, the workers live out of town, she said. These days, the place stays busy enough, but nothing like it used to be.

Barbara and her cohorts are beyond ready for something new. Van Ripers is for sale. So is Olsons, the largest resort in town, as well as many smaller properties.

“We’re all tired,” said Barbara, a warm and friendly woman with a white apron around her waist, who makes homemade pies and cakes, and a mean prime rib.

Barbara would work with any prospective buyer for her place, should one step forward. There’s a lot of memories in the old place. “I just want whoever takes it over to succeed,” she said.

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Fans close to Delilah Rene Luke know that in March she lost her recently adopted 16-year-old son Sammy to sickle cell anemia. A South Kitsap resident and downtown Port Orchard business owner, Delilah is better known as a nationally syndicated radio host. The self-described “Queen of Sappy Love Songs” is beloved by 8 million listeners for her ability to connect to the lovelorn, lonely and conflicted like an instant BFF.

On Thursday, Delilah will be a featured guest on Katie Couric’s new nationally syndicated talk show, “Katie.” The segment airs in the Seattle area at 4 p.m. on KING-TV NBC. A spokeswoman for the show promises a glimpse at “the woman behind the microphone,” whose love of life trumps “the many hardships she has faced.”

I first met Delilah in 2008 and soon found out that, despite her honeyed voice and upbeat on-air persona, she’s only about 30 percent sugar, with plenty of spice. She’s down-to-earth, funny and often irreverent. Delilah’s become a very real part of the South Kitsap community, sometimes rubbing neighbors the wrong way with her outspoken views and bold plans.

Sammy’s story, as Delilah relates it on her website, is both tragic and uplifting. When he was a toddler, the boy was found wandering the streets of a village in West Ghana. He survived on scraps of food given to him by school children and later was sent to an orphanage in the capitol city of Accra. A relative who was eventually located said he used to scream and writhe on the floor. The family thought he was possessed by demons and attempted an exorcism.

“When that didn’t stop his screaming, they put him out in the street to die,” Delilah writes. “Little did they know he was writhing in pain because of sickle cell anemia, a genetic blood disorder that afflicts many in West Africa. When the school children found him they named him ‘Dzolali,’ meaning ‘spirits fly.’”

Delilah met Sammy in 2010 through her work in Ghana with Point Hope, the nonprofit children’s welfare organization she founded. She was immediately taken by his broad smile and — despite all he’d endured — his “unconditional love.”

With 11 children already, Delilah had not been looking to adopt again, and she wrestled with her conscience before initiating the mountain of adoption paperwork that set the ball rolling for Sammy’s adoption a year later.

“I knew in my heart that Sammy was special, talented, lonely and that I loved him, I just didn’t have a clue how special he really was at that time or how much more I would grow to love him,” Delilah wrote, on the Point Hope website.

Once home, Sammy blossomed. He was a talented artist and dancer, with Michael Jackson-like moves. He kept his room and belongings immaculate and often offered to help Delilah.

Sammy had some developmental catching up to do. “Once he was home to America, he could not get enough love and affection,” Delilah wrote. “He was like a little puppy, wanting to be held and loved on constantly.” But he quickly matured and outgrew his need for lap time with “Momma Bear.”

Sammy Young D’zolali Rene died March 11 in the arms of people who loved him.

I’ve interviewed Delilah on a number of occasions as her businesses and big personality have made their impact on South Kitsap. I can verify that a conversation with Delilah is one wild, loopy emotional roller coaster ride. It’s hard not to get swept along with the passion, the pathos and her infectious, throaty laugh. Looking at the world through Delilah-colored glasses, everything is possible, including fairy tale endings to impossibly sad stories like Sammy’s.

“On the first night that he was fully my son, Sammy told me through his tears that he never dreamed God would answer his prayers,” Delilah wrote. “He said, ‘Momma, I always thought I would die alone in the orphanage. That I would never know what it was like to have someone love me.’”

Through racking sobs, Sammy said he’d always feared no one would remember his life after he was gone.

Delilah promised him, “That he would be loved more than life by me and many others, and that people would know that he had lived.”

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Meili Cady

Cady was a homecoming princess, ASB co-president and honors student. She said she was voted by her classmates “Most likely to be famous.” Seems they got that one right.

She is under house arrest now and did real jail time for her part in a drug trafficking operation.

It isn’t as bad as all that. Start with the Rolling Stone piece and it seems clear that Cady’s path to prison came from trusting a committed manipulator, reportedly an heiress within the Samsung family, for far too long, caring for her friend even they were both arrested in Columbus, Ohio. Seriously, this is a compelling story about a woman, Lisette Lee, who had an amazing ability to turn friends and acquaintances into puppets. Cady, who didn’t want to believe the worst about her friend in the face of all evidence, reflects now on the price she paid by trusting so much.

“It ends up being a fatal flaw to trust someone so blindly,” she said. “It ended up tainting me and hurting the people I love. It was really awful to be so wrong about something I thought was so sacred.”

She told me that Monday during a 90-minute conversation we had by phone.

She has remained in Los Angeles, living the aspiring actress life, which means she’s working as a waitress as she considers her future, all the while wearing an ankle monitor that lets law enforcement know where she is all the time.

Cady blogs about her day-to-day life in an engaging blog titled House Arrest Girl. She tells of the monotony of staying home all the time, of friends who visit and of a creepy neighbor who took too much delight in watching her as she chatted with a friend outside. If you go far enough into the archives, you’ll find this description of her relationship with her ankle bracelet:

“They say that the true nature of a relationship cannot be holistically assessed until it has survived a full year of seasons. I’ve been with my ankle bracelet now for more than seven months. He came to live with me the day we met. Fast, I know, but we were connected. We spent Christmas together, and we were skin-close at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. He even comes into my work and insists on grocery shopping with me every week (awww). We don’t go out much. We are homebodies– but we do sleep together every night, even when I’m not happy with him before we get into bed. We are still inseparable, even at this very moment. But, I’ve got to be honest with you… I cannot wait to leave this bastard and never see him again come November.”

At some point later this year I hope to tell her story in greater detail, but I highly recommend you begin your understanding by reading the Rolling Stone piece. In the meantime I can tell you that she has no plans to let this whole affair ruin her life. She does wonder how the ordeal will affect her ability to be in a committed, romantic relationship the next time that opportunity arises. And she feels for how this might have affected her parents, who she calls her heroes. The blog has helped.

“Yes, this happened but this doesn’t define me,” Cady said. “I don’t want to be shamed by this circumstance. I want to grow from it.”

As of Monday she has 58 days left on house arrest.

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