The last week of December is time to consider your holiday gift plants. Poinsettias are the most popular potted plant to give and one of the easiest to keep alive.
The Sumner School District will host an open house from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at Maple Lawn Elementary in Sumner. The focus of the meeting is to present revised transportation, attendance plans and waiver options. For more information, visit the district’s Web site at www.sumner.wednet.edu.
The Sumner marching band, under the direction of Joe Carl, made school history in November when it received the Musical Excellence Award for its performance in the Macy’s Holiday Parade in Seattle. The prize included a check for $500.
The Sumner School Board hosted a reception Dec. 10 to honor its new national board-certified teachers. Honored were Cheryl Roper, Jennifer Fruehauf, Nancy Nybo and Jason Vander Hoek of Bonney Lake High; Chris Clayton, Kim Franett-Fergus and Jen Peters from Sumner High; Scott Sousa and Pam Noble of Crestwood Elementary; and Jeanne Ossman, Maple Lawn Elementary. This brings the number of district teachers certified in 2008 to 10.
White River School District students and teachers received an early season gift – three days without school – as nasty, winter weather shut down classrooms. Those three days stretched right into winter break, which began Monday and continues through Jan. 2.
Signs of a struggling economy weren’t on the Grinch’s list this holiday season, evident by the generosity displayed among Dieringer School District’s three schools.
Enter Whispering Woods and you’ll find everything to please nature lovers: from moose, rabbits and squirrels to foxes, boats and bears. Take a step closer inside. You’ll discover huskies, racoons and wolves hiding between its trees – all 25 of them. That’s just for starters; other inhabitants include skiing moose, birds that sing their authentic Audobon Society songs and friendly snowmen. And that doesn’t even include the books.
The following are tips from East Pierce Fire and Rescue to help prepare for cold weather emergencies and possible power outages.
Let’s go back together
After writing this column for more than 25 years, this is still the most requested reprint, so as a gift each year I repeat this tradition and offer the column so it can be sent copyright-free from my Web site, www.binettigarden.com. Just go to the very bottom of the opening Web page.
“The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles,” edited by Jeff Martin, c. 2008, Soft Skull Press, $12.95, 171 pages.
