Community News - May 3, 2012

Runners gear up for 28th Great White Tail Run

The 28th annual Great White Tail Run takes place on May 19 on the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge in Skamokawa at 10 a.m.

The courses are 10k, 5k and 2 miles in length, with award recognition for overall female and male winners in each event. There will be ribbons for the top three finishers in each age division.

Packet pickup and day of registration starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Skamokawa Vista Park. Registration fees are $10 without shirt (pre run), $20 with shirt (pre run) and $12 without shirt (run day) and $25 with shirt (run day). A limited supply of shirts will be available for day of registering and mail in entries need to be received by May 16. There is a family or youth group discount, with the first two entries of immediate family/group regular price and each additional entry $3 off regular price.

Runners bringing a dog should add $1 to take part in and compete for awards in this division. Official dog rules allow socialized dogs at least six months of age with current vaccinations. Dogs must be on a leash at all times and stay on the designated run course. Event officials reserve the right to refuse entry to any dog whose health or behavior could be dangerous.

This is a fund raising event for the Wahkiakum 4-H program and all proceeds will be used to benefit the county program.

For more information, call Carol Ervest at 360-465-2275 or 360-795-3278 or email carol.ervest@gmail.com.

Skamokawa Grade

school reunion canceled

Due to the All School Reunion this August, the Skamokawa Grade School Reunion is canceled for this year.

Organizer Gary Emery encourages everyone to attend this year's Wahkiakum All School Reunion and will post when the next Skamokawa Reunion will be held.

Design contest winners get gallery reception

The Wahkiakum 4-H Leaders Council extends an invitation to a reception at the Tsuga Gallery in Cathlamet on May 12 from 5-7 p.m. for the winning artists in the Great White Tail Run design contest.

This is the 28th year that students from the Naselle Grays River and Wahkiakum School districts have participated in the annual event. Winners whose work will be displayed are Tarah Wisner, first place; Mya Kirey, second place; Kristina Goldinov, third place. Honorable mention awards were given to Brock Cothren, Mckensi Fluckiger, Cheyenne Kennedy, Kalli McCaffferty, Shelby Robinson, Hannah Saari and Anna Zimmerman. Kayli Quigley's artwork, which was chosen by the Wahkiakum Marine Resource Committee as their logo, will also be featured.

For more information, call Carol Ervest at 36-465-2275 or the W.S.U. Extension Office at 360-795-3278.

Farmer's Market

to reopen May 4

Two Islands Farm Market will begin their seventh season tomorrow (Friday) at Stockhouse's Farm, 59 W. Birnie Slough Road on Puget Island.

Farmer's market hours have been extended and the market will run every Friday from 3-6:30 p.m. through October.

Fresh Wahkiakum grown vegetables, cut flowers, veggie starts, perennial plants, artisan breads, local art, eggs from pastured chickens and USDA processed meats such as goat, beef, lamb and pork, by the cut are often available.

Vendors for opening day include The Farm at 172, Little Island Farm, Island's End Farm, Wahkiakum Master Gardeners, Stockhouse's Farm and Victorian Acres Breads.

In addition, for the first two weeks, there will be a plant booth with proceeds going to benefit St. James Family Center.

The Two Island Farm Market booth will accept Senior Farmers Market checks and Food Stamp EBT cards this season.

The Up Beet stage is ready for a new open mic season with all musicians welcome. The trolley will run, weather permitting, from the Elochoman Marina to the market, leaving the Marina at 3, 4 and 5 p.m. on Fridays.

Boentgen exhibition set for Redmen Hall

submitted by

Jill Hâtier

Martha Boentgen has long been recognized as a major Pacific Northwest painter, who had during her lifetime displayed her work at major galleries in England, France and Italy and extensively in North America. Her family has kept her work together and asked Friends of Skamokawa to display this collection at Redmen Hall, in the town where she spent so many of her final years. The collection consists primarily of paintings she did of the Lower Columbia River Estuary, and prints and postcards of these paintings that they are offering for sale.

She was born in 1920 in Astoria as a second generation Astorian and grew up on the waterfront of Knappa. Her father was a commercial fisherman and one of her first paintings was of her father mending nets on his dock - done when she was 13 years old. She went to grade school (in a boat) and high school in Knappa, then to University of Oregon for a BA and Mills College for a MFA, and then to Chicago Art Institute for further study. Her paintings are primarily land and river scapes, with most of the views from the Lower Columbia River. She said that the River has always been important to her; she went out with her father as a child to help him fish, she spent a lot of time on the netrack making repairs. "I learned to do it all. The collection is a debt I had to pay to the river. I don't regret for one minute that I had to do a man's work as a net puller." She focused on the amazing colors the mixture of rain and sun and stormy weather can produce.

In an interview in the Cowlitz County Advocate, February 1993 by Loretta Long, Boentgen said, "I wanted the whole spectrum, the whole experience of day and night, pleasant weather and what people describe as bad weather, the space is just so beautiful. There is no way to express it except to take a paintbrush and go and paint it."

The Friends of Skamokawa and the family of Boentgen are celebrating her work with an exhibit opening on the Saturday of Mother's Day Weekend, May 12, with many of her students attending.

Redmen Hall is located at 1394 SR-4 in glorious downtown Skamokawa and is open from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, and the exhibit will be ready for viewing on May 12, running through June 17. Contact the hall during open hours at 360-795-3007.