On the day before the holiday, 2,100 people received a full meal thanks to the tradition started by the late founder, Barb O’Neill. “A couple of days before, we were running way short.
“But thanks to the Food Bank and other organizations in the community and people on their own, we got enough food to feed everybody,” Rodney O’Neill said. “Definitely it was a community event and it’s getting much bigger with all the hardships people are facing today.
This community really pulls together. It’s awesome, just awesome,” O’Neill said. Coit, the executive director of the Thurston County Food Bank, agrees. For two days, hundreds of volunteers gathered at the Food Bank to cut squash, sack apples and potatoes, count turkeys and assemble boxes with all of the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
There were 600 volunteers assembled in 10 workstations on one Saturday morning alone. By the time the Food Bank closed its doors on Thanksgiving eve, more than 2,500 holiday meal boxes had gone out the door. And again, Coit said, it’s through the generosity of the community that those people living on the margins of society were able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family members.
This is, as O’Neill said, an awesome community.
Thumbs Down:The active-duty Air Force wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in charge of transporting nuclear weapons has received an “unsatisfactory” rating after a weeklong inspection that concluded recently.
The 62nd Airlift Wing is responsible for – in military parlance – the Prime Nuclear Airlift Force, or PNAF, mission to safely deliver all cargo. The unsatisfactory rating stems from an isolated incident involving an individual assigned to the mission, said an Air Mobility Command official with knowledge of the inspection’s findings.
The official declined to provide further details. Lt. Col. Glen Roberts, an AMC spokesman, said neither nuclear weapons nor related components were used during the inspection and the public was not at risk. “There was never any danger,” he said. “The Air Force policy is we don’t get into specifics on the inspections.” That’s too bad because the public has a reason to be concerned with the unsatisfactory rating on the handling of nuclear material.
It’s somewhat reassuring when Roberts says, “Perfection is the standard with this mission, and all members are held to that standard.” Someone clearly messed up, however.
Thumbs Up:Congratulations to the League of Women Voters of Thurston County, which is celebrating 50 years of service to the South Sound community.
The organization’s name, however, is a bit misleading. In 1974, delegates to the league’s national convention voted to give men full voting memberships in the league. Today, the Thurston chapter’s 107 members include 17 men, including the chapter’s first male board member.
What is clear from reading the excellent recap of the league’s history in Thurston County is just how effective the organization has been. One of the league’s most significant triumphs was the change in the structure of government in the City of Olympia.
Under the old three-member commission form of government, meetings were held in the middle of the day when most people were at work. The conversion to a seven-member council with a hired city manager conducting the day-to-day operations of the city, has been a giant step forward in transparency and accountability. The league sent observers to local government meetings, studied issues in depth and authored well-researched and reasoned position papers on environmental issues, access to public records, the need for open meetings and public education – to name just a few of the many topics the league tackled. They were a driver to bring land use planning to county government. The league was not always successful. Their two attempts to reform the structure of county government came up short, but a third effort is under way. The league has been a valuable resource in South Sound for 50 years.
Thumbs Down:What has happened to common sense in this country. A security guard employed by the Everett Safeway has been fired after he told the father of a 4-year-old girl that she would face criminal charges for eating from a dried fruit package. The child’s mother, Alissa Jones, told KOMO television in Seattle that the father wasn’t looking when the girl grabbed the package, ate a few dried apricots and returned the package to the store shelf.
After the father-daughter duo left the store, they were accosted by the guard who took the 4-year-old and her dad to a room and said the girl would face charges and be banned from the chain store.
The guard had the girl – remember, she’s 4 – sign a paper acknowledging she wasn’t allowed to enter any Safeway stores.
Common sense? Absolutely none.
Safeway officials said they were “appalled” by the guard’s actions and dismissed him. Store officials have apologized to the girl’s parents. Safeway spokesperson Cherie Myers said, “Our policies on shoplifting are intended to protect our customers, but built on common sense. And everyone understands what common sense is.” Apparently the guard at the center of this controversy skipped that class.
