NEWS BRIEFS — Human services fair slated Monday at Clallam Bay Library . . . and other items

CLALLAM BAY — The Clallam Bay Library, 16990 state Highway 112, will host a human services fair from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Representatives from United Way of Clallam County and partner agencies will be on hand to provide information and answer questions about human service programs available to county residents.

Information about opportunities for volunteering and supporting United Way programs also will be available.

This event is free and open to the public; pre-registration is not required.

For more information, phone 360-963-2414, email ClallamBay@nols.org or visit www.nols.org.

No flight operations this week

COUPEVILLE — There will be no field carrier landing practice operations for aircraft stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island at the outlying field in Coupeville today through Saturday.

Comments, including noise complaints, can be directed to station’s comment line at 360-257-6665 or via email at comments.NASWI@navy.mil.

All other questions can be directed to the public affairs office at 360-257-2286.

Senior nutrition

PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles Senior Nutrition Site dinners will be served at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St.

A suggested donation is $5 for those who are 60 or older.

People younger than 60 can attend for $8.

Reservations should be made 24 hours in advance to 360-457-8921.

Menus are subject to change.

■ Tuesday: Minestrone soup, tossed salad, combination pizza and mixed berries with cream.

■ Wednesday: Green salad, corned beef and cabbage, carrots, biscuit and cherry crisp.

■ Thursday: Marinated vegetable salad, baked cod, steamed rice, asparagus tips and orange slices.

■ Friday: Green salad, shepherd’s pie, steamed broccoli, dinner roll and fruit cup.

2014 Winterfest

PORT ANGELES — Live music, a steak dinner, a live and silent auction, and a series of short films featuring local skiers and snowboarders are slated for the 2014 Winterfest fundraiser, to be held at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

The event supports winter sports education at Hurricane Ridge. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Proceeds go to snow school and ski team operations as well as scholarships to underprivileged children in the community to help them learn to ski, snowboard or participate on ski team.

Doors open at 5 p.m., and the event begins at 6 p.m.

Following auctions, Winterfest puts on top films from the VideOlympics, a film festival/contest held in the spring featuring local talent carving up Hurricane Ridge.

Tickets are $50 in advance and $55 at the door; tickets for children 12 and younger are $25; community tables are $360 (eight spots).

Dinner is by Next Door Gastropub, and the event features a no-host bar. Music is by Bill and Rudy.

Individual tickets can be purchased at Brian’s Sporting Goods, 542 W. Washington St. in Sequim, and several Port Angeles locations: Brown’s Outdoor, 112 W. Front St.; Swain’s General Store, 602 E. First St.; Next Door Gastropub, 113 W. First St.; and Necessities & Temptations, 217 N. Laurel St.

For more information, phone Eric Flodstrom at 360-452-2327, ext. 304.

Food bank benefit

SEQUIM — Gratitude Yoga will hold a Thanksgiving Day benefit for the Sequim Food Bank from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 27, at SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive.

Bring a mat, a towel and nonperishable items for the food bank.

Thanksgiving dinner

SEQUIM — Hardy’s Market, 10200 Old Olympic Highway, invites the public to enjoy a complimentary, traditional Thanksgiving dinner at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 27.

Come dine in or take out while supplies last.

For more information, phone 360-582-0240.

Principals recognized

PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School District Board of Directors recognized school principals through adoption of Resolution No. 1415-05 during the regular board meeting at Jefferson Elementary School.

Directors joined Gov. Jay Inslee in proclaiming Oct. 26-Nov. 1 as School Principals Week and urged all Washingtonians to celebrate this special observance and recognition of these leaders.

School Board President Steve Baxter presented each principal a signed certificate of recognition.

Resolution No. 1415-05 — signed by President Steve Baxter, Vice President Sarah Methner and directors Patti Happe, Lonnie Linn and Cindy Kelly — is available at http://tinyurl.com/pdn-pares1415.

Students honored

PORT ANGELES — Two Jefferson Elementary School students — Rylan Jester and Rianne Rodocker — were honored by Principal Joyce Mininger and School Board President Steve Baxter at a recent School Board meeting as Port Angeles School District October Students of the Month.

The sixth-graders were selected by Jefferson staff as part of a new program instituted by Superintendent Marc Jackson to honor exemplary students.

The two students have attended Jefferson Elementary since kindergarten.

Rylan is the son of Joe Jester. Rianne is the daughter of Amber and Chris Rodocker.

Students of the Month will be announced at each school’s respective School Board meeting. Each district school hosts a School Board meeting once during the school year.

Toastmaster wins

POULSBO — Port Angeles resident Leilani Wood matched wits with other public speaking enthusiasts recently to come out on top in a speech contest.

The event, Toastmasters Tall Tales and Table Topics Contest for Division B of District 32, stretches from Port Angeles to Gig Harbor and comprises 16 clubs.

Wood is a member of Port Angeles Toastmasters, which meets Mondays from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Clallam Transit office.

She and the other contestants made it through two previous rounds of contests — the first at their clubs, the second at the area level.

Each of the four table topics contestants entered the room one at a time to hear the topic question for the first time. Each had one to two minutes to speak to the question: “Vanilla or chocolate?”

As a horticulturist, Wood called upon her knowledge of both the cacao tree and the vanilla orchid to respond. Her brief but humorous and fact-packed talk won the votes of the judges, all fellow Toastmasters, according to a news release.

Other Toastmasters, one from each of four areas within Division B, also competed in Tall Tales. Elena Brenna, Port Ludlow resident, won that contest.

The first-place winners will compete at the Toastmasters District 32 Fall Conference at the Red Lion Hotel, 2300 Evergreen Park Drive S.W. in Olympia, at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Nonmembers of Toastmasters can attend this portion of the conference at no charge.

For more information, visit http://d32.toastmastersdistricts.org.

PC prof published

PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College Spanish Professor Reina Barreto is the author of an article that appeared in Women’s Gaze: Female Visual Narratives and Narrations of the Visual in the Luso-Hispanic World, a special issue of Letras Femeninas that was published this past summer.

The article is titled “Transformation, Space and Creativity in Maya Islas’ Lifting the Tempest at Breakfast.”

Letras Femeninas is the journal of the International Association of Hispanic Women’s Literature and Culture.

The focus of Barreto’s article is the work of Cuban-U.S. poet and visual artist Maya Islas and her exploration of creativity through the blending of poetry and collage.

Islas is familiar to Peninsula-area writers, who had an opportunity to hear her read from her writings at Peninsula College as part of the Foothills Writer’s Series in 2013.

Barreto has been a Spanish instructor at Peninsula College since 2005. During her 2012-13 sabbatical, she studied Cuba from the perspective of the newest generation of Cuban-American women writers, those who have been writing since the 1990s.

“In their writing, there is an ongoing search into their family’s past and a desire to build connections with the Cuba of today, a very different place from the one that their parents knew in the 1950s,” Barreto said.

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