News Roundup — BPA kicks off campaign/Dale is Youth of the Year/Big plant sale this weekend/Schools hire firm for plan/Trio named to harbor group/‘CSI’ course

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, March 2, 2005

BPA kicks off campaign

March is said to come in like a lion.

Bainbridge Performing Arts is hoping to raise the lion’s share of its operating budget this month, with its annual fund-raising campaign that runs through March.

Per Sherwin, managing director of BPA, says the organization needs to raise $150,000 from its annual campaign toward an annual budget of $500,000.

“If we sold out every single show, it wouldn’t even come close to paying our bills,” Sherwin said.

Sherwin sees the month-long campaign also as a celebration of BPA, which puts on one of its biggest shows this year, the Shakespeare-inspired “Kiss Me, Kate” musical from March 4-20.

Some 75-100 volunteers will be involved with the grassroots fund-raising campaign to reach out to donors.

Sherwin encourages interested islanders to drop by the box office for a tour of the Playhouse or consider volunteering during the campaign.

In the coming season, the Playhouse is planning to host five major theatrical productions, three orchestra concerts, four “Mostly Music” productions, 12 comedy Improv shows, year-round dance performances and theatre school and much more.

Team leaders Scott and Debbie Balsam lead this year’s campaign. To get involved, call Andrew Mackin at 842-8578.

Donations can be dropped off at the Playhouse on Madison Avenue, or call 842-8578 for more information.

– Tina Lieu

Dale is Youth of the Year

The first step that has taken Sydney Dale around the world began with the Boys and Girls Club of Bainbridge Island.

The Bainbridge High School junior was selected as the first 2005 Youth of the Year for the Boys and Girls Club, recognizing her leadership, academic achievement, obstacles overcome and outstanding service to the club and community.

In her application essay, Dale wrote, “The Bainbridge Boys and Girls Club led me to realize my passion for service. Once I began volunteering at the club, I began involving myself in other organizations as well… I’d always wanted to find my niche, and the club showed me that I had one.

“It’s given me the assurance that I’m worthy enough to be a role model to these kids.”

Dale competed with 11 other youths in King County to represent the Boys and Girls Club of King County at state competition. She gave a speech to a crowd of 500 at Benaroya Hall and received a $500 scholarship for college.

The daughter of Cheryl and Jim Dale of Bainbridge Island, she joined the club as a volunteer the summer of her freshman year in 2003 and knew she had found her place.

“The Boys and Girls Club is such a great organization with a tight-knit group that works together and easily accepts newcomers,” Dale said.

Little things like seeing kids happy to get homework help, everyone being greeted by name and feeling welcome were what made the club special for Dale.

At the club, she is active in a mentoring program for young girls K-4 and another that matches high school students with club members.

With the confidence gained from being a part of the club, Dale joined the high school’s community service Key Club and served as a counselor to orphans in Siberia with Camp Siberia last July.

Dale says her experiences have “without a doubt” influenced her post-high school plans.

“I want to do something to help the world for the better,” Dale said. “(The club) really let me put myself out there. I didn’t think I was quite aware of my capabilities. You learn about yourself and your capacity as a person.”

“She’s quite a leader among our young people and also among her peer group,” the Bainbridge Island club’s Executive Director Jennifer Wood said. “We’re very proud of her and her accomplishments in giving back to the community.”

—Tina Lieu

Big plant sale this weekend

With English, Scotch, Japanese and Himalayan invaders creeping in and taking root from all sides, Washington natives need all the help they can get.

Fortunately, the island’s home-grown flora have a friend in the Community Forestry Commission, which hosts its third annual native plant sale this Saturday.

“We want to promote native plants here on Bainbridge because these are the plants that belong here,” said commission member Brian Stahl.

They may appear benign, even pretty to some, but introduced plant species have run rampant throughout the county. English ivy envelopes trees, Scotch broom crowds roadsides and meadows, Japanese knotweed clogs stream banks and Himalayan blackberries form impenetrable plumes everywhere they can. While native plants aren’t tough enough to push out these aggressive weeds, natives can help hold ground purged of invasives.

“Native plants are great for cleared out areas,” Stahl said. “If you cut out some blackberries, you can plant some natives and let them have a chance.”

The commission will sell nine species of shrubs and six types of trees. Plants are sold in bundles of 10 for $10-15.

Native shrubs make attractive landscape adornments and typically require no watering, Stahl said.

They also serve as habitat to animals many residents welcome to their yards and gardens. Various songbirds are attracted to native rose while hummingbirds find mock orange hard to resist, Stahl said.

Native trees, Stahl said, are a wise investment.

“Doug firs and noble firs, in time, can be harvested,” he said. “They also make great Christmas trees.”

Not really a fundraiser – the sale broke even last year – organizers hope the event will promote interest in native plants. Commission members purchase the plants from the Kitsap Conservation District and plan to donate whatever they make to the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.

Stahl advises customers to come early, as the supply often runs out before noon.

This Saturday’s Community Forestry Commission Native Plant Sale begins at 9 a.m. at the plaza by City Hall. For more information call 842-2552.

– Tristan Baurick

Schools hire firm for plan

The Bainbridge Island School district has hired the Seattle firm of Mahlum Architects to help it create a “master plan” of district-wide facilities needs, funding sources and educational priorities.

The school board learned Thursday night that the master plan won’t be complete until June. That means a May 17 capital facilities bond election will almost certainly be postponed.

Critical decisions about the bond, the technology levy and proposed election dates for both measures will be made when the board meets again at 5 p.m. March 10, in the Bainbridge High library.

Regardless of the election delays, “our goal is to still put the shovel in the ground” next summer, said school board president Susan Sivitz.

—Rhonda Parks Manville

Trio named to harbor group

Despite some reservations, the City Council reappointed two Harbor Commission members last week, while also giving the nod to a new member.

Commission members Paul Svornitch and Mike Rose will serve new three-year terms.

Bob Schoonmaker, owner of the Chandlery, will replace former chair Langley Gace. Commission member Rob Jacques will replace Gace as chair.

Councilors commended the commission for its work on the Eagle Harbor Anchoring and Mooring Plan and expressed a desire to maintain the current line up to keep momentum going.

The commission has been charged with drafting a plan for an “open water marina” to meet state guidelines while preserving the harbor’s liveaboard community. The plan is the first of its kind in Washington.

Despite approving all commissioners, Councilman Nezam Tooloee was skeptical about Svornitch’s reappointment.

“I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are at least two liveaboards on the commission,” Tooloee said, expressing concern over “disproportionate representation of one community.”

While commission member Kathy Ivy is a long-term liveaboard, Svornitch typically winters in his Eagle Harbor home and lives aboard his commercial fishing boat off the Oregon coast during the summer.

Svornitch said he appreciates the opportunity to help draft the harbor plan.

“This is the first concrete opportunity to provide the city with a tool that allows people to live in the harbor in a clean, efficient and environmentally sound way,” he said.

Rose defended Svornitch’s reappointment, telling the council he didn’t feel the commission was out of balance.

The council joked that Rose, a former mayor of Bend, Ore., might be overqualified for the commission.

“I’m not over qualified for anything except maybe washing dishes,” he said, crediting his term as mayor to being “at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Rose spent five years cruising the seas in his sailboat before settling on Bainbridge in 2001. He also served as a regional manager for the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs.

Schoonmaker has been an active member of the island’s boating community for years.

Besides owning and operating the boating supply store, Schoonmaker organizes sailing races, boat shows and the lighted boat parade. As a commissioner, he hopes to serve as a link with the local business community and to initiate a boating webpage that makes it “easier for visitors to enjoy the paradise we call home.”

– Tristan Baurick

‘CSI’ course earns plaudits

The Bainbridge School board praised a proposal to add “forensic science,” to the elective curriculum at the high school, but is worried about how to pay for it.

Bainbridge High principal Brent Peterson lauded the class, designed by biology teacher Louise Baxter, as a creative way to engage students in a variety of scientific disciplines.

More than 200 students have expressed an interest in the course, which would include instruction in securing a crime scene and collecting and analyzing evidence.

But given the funding uncertainties in the district, the board indicated that it could not approve the course unless there was independent funding for it.

“I think we have to say ‘Yay!’,” said board member Bruce Weiland. “But we can’t commit the money. How comfortable are you coming up with the money on your own?”

Start-up costs for the class, which includes DNA technology and a “Sherlock Bones” skeleton, would run about $38,000.

Of that amount, about $10,000 is for science kits that would have to be replenished on an annual basis.

“It sounds like a very exciting course, but I have to ask, what classes are we taking away from when kids flock to this one?” board president Susan Sivitz asked. She said that funding additional advanced placement courses in the core curriculum should be a priority.

Peterson said he would investigate independent funding sources for the project and report back later.

– Rhonda Parks Manville