I was visiting my hometown of Louisville, KY. in late October and read the National FFA Agricultural Sales Career Development Event (CDE) would be hosted there, joined by a Yelm-participating FFA team.
Imagine my surprise when I returned here to read Yelm’s FFA was a “Top 10 team” winner:

The National FFA Organization National Event Winners – Agricultural Sales 2013
“The top ten individuals and the national winning team members received cash awards to recognize their success in the event.”

“The National FFA Agricultural Sales CDE is a competitive event that allows students to apply classroom knowledge to real-life situations. The event includes actual sales presentations, a written exam, team sales situation, an individual practical situation focusing on customer relations, customer service, or prospecting for customers. Each team competed at local and state levels for the privilege of representing their state at the National FFA Convention & Expo.

The event, held at the Marriott Hotel in Louisville, Ky., is one of many educational activities at the National FFA Convention & Expo in which FFA members practice the lessons taught in agricultural education classes”

The National FFA Organization National Event Winners – Agricultural Sales 2013

Top Placing Teams
1st Place– North Dakota

2nd Place– Washington
Jared Braswell, Jacob Guirell, Rebecca Foote, and Hannah McLaughlin, all of Yelm FFA
Read more

CONGRATULATIONS to Jared Braswell, Jacob Guirell, Rebecca Foote, and Hannah McLaughlin!

South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Curt Andino & Community Partnership Supervisor Addie Candib accept O’Bee Credit Union’s check, along with invited supporters.
Photo courtesy O’Bee Credit Union & Yelm Habitat for Humanity

South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity Staff and guests met at the Yelm Habitat Store on Wednesday, November 27th to accept sponsorship funding from the recently-opened O Bee Credit Union branch in Yelm. O Bee has been an important supporter of Habitat and underscored their commitment by presenting a $5,000 check to Yelm’s Habitat.
O Bee opened a branch in Yelm last month.

O Bee Credit Union donates $5,000 to Yelm’s Habitat for Humaity

Addie Candib, Community Partnership Supervisor for the Olympia-based South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity was present along with Executive Director Curt Andino plus invited supporters to receive the check, covered by Nisqually Valley News Publisher/Editor Michael Wagar for next week’s newspaper.

This was a terrific opportunity to showcase the Yelm Habitat for Humanity location with Store Manager Robert Chamberlain and his staff.

South Sound Habitat for Humanity Restore HFH -Yelm
412 E Yelm Ave.
Yelm, WA. 98597
Phone: (360) 956-3456
yelm@spshabitat.org

Candib also shared recently with the Yelm Community Blog they will be looking for volunteers from the Yelm area to work on their new Lacey site in Spring 2014 and to feature their homeownership program:

South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity is looking for qualified applicants to participate in its homeownership program.

Our program is unique:
– Habitat homes are affordable. We use volunteers to build safe and decent homes.
– It’s a hand up, not a hand out. Habitat homeowners are our partners.
– You own your home. You purchase your home from Habitat for Humanity.
– You help build your home. You get to learn how your home is built so you are prepared to maintain it.
– Your payments help others. With each mortgage payment, Habitat owners help build homes for others. – –
– Habitat finances homeownership. We offer zero interest loans to qualified applicants to purchase Habitat homes. Our average monthly mortgage payment is about $750.

Are you eligible? Do you qualify?
To learn more, click here: Homeownership Program Website

“Every Day A Miracle” – Photograph by Rory Sagner
Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art
Taken in Yelm October 30, 2013, at sunrise

This Thanksgiving Day message was first published here in 2009:

We have so much in our midst for which to be thankful.

THANKSGIVING DAY has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863 & became a federal holiday in 1941.
President Lincoln issued this proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving on October 3rd, 1863:

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2013 TO YELM COMMUNITY BLOG READERS !

– Update: Thanksgiving 2013
“The Great Thanksgiving Hoax”
By Richard J. Maybury with authorization of Mises Institute under Creative Commons License
“Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgivings real meaning.”
Read more

– UPDATE: November 28, 2013
“What if Thanksgiving exposes the government?”
By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Read more

The number of meals gifted to our local families has sharply increased this year in Yelm, closing in on 1,000 families being served. Consider the average sized family has at least 4 persons, which thus indicates close to 4,000 people will be served this Thanksgiving that need a helping hand in our area.

Nowhere has this been highlighted more than in so many stories in the Nisqually Valley News:

– “Bunkhouses Free Thanksgiving Meal: We Want to Feed Everyone That Is Hungry”
By Brittany Whitehead in the Nisqually Valley News:
“[Todd] Skinner, who owns The Bunkhouse and Big Daddys On the Green, both in Yelm, partnered with Gods Portion for Thanksgiving last year to combine their services for one big Thanksgiving meal open to anyone and everyone. Skinner provided the location and cooking talent, while Gods Portion provided most of the food.

‘Were closed just two days a year Thanksgiving and Christmas and we open our doors to anyone in need of a good Thanksgiving meal, for free,’ Skinner said.”
Read more
Skinner says they will serve over 500 meals this Thanksgiving.

– “The Gift of Gobble Aims to Feed 100 Families”
“The Yelm Food Co-op calls all community businesses to join in the fourth annual Gift of Gobble.

The effort aims to provide for 100 families this Thanksgiving. The organizers are asking for businesses and people to donate $50, which provides for a family of six or more a ‘bountiful Thanksgiving feast,'”
Read more from the Nisqually Valley News.

And:
“Yelm Co-op Gift of Gobble Serves Many”
“In the fourth year of this Thanksgiving meal donation, the amount of families served has more than tripled since the program started in 2010. Monday at the Yelm Food Co-op, 105 families or family representatives from the Yelm/Rainier/Roy/McKenna area came to pick up their food bags.”
Read more from Brittany Whitehead inthe Nisqually Valley News.

– “Yelm Community Services Will Serve About 500 Families with Thanksgiving Dinner Giveaways”
By Tyler Huey in the Nisqually Valley News:
“[Monserrat Morales, food bank office manager] Morales, who has worked at YCS since 1999, said up to 500 families will likely attend Tuesdays giveaway.”

“When people attend the food bank next Tuesday, once they show proof that they live within the area, whatever food is needed and has been donated will be provided.”
Read more

– “Thrift store helps Faith Harvest”
By Steven Wyble in the Nisqually Valley News:
“Harvest Community Thrifts primary purpose is raising money for Faith Harvest Helpers, an interdenominational nonprofit organization dedicating to feeding the hungry locally and globally.”
Read more

And:
Faith Harvest Helpers – Yelm
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. Mathew 25:35
Read more
And:
“Yelm Holds Off on Fines for Food Bank”
Read more

From the Yelm Area Chamber of Commerce, November 26, 2013:

Congratulations to the 2013 Annual Chamber Award Winners!
The following Chamber members will be honored at the Tuesday, December 10th Luncheon Forum!
We are excited to have the opportunity to honor these deserving businesses at our luncheon.
They have all contributed many volunteer hours and a wide-variety of financial support for a substantial cross-section of our community.
The Chamber members jointly make a tremendous difference for the citizens of our local area.

2013 Honorees:
Business of the Year (0-5) Allstate Insurance, Ronelle Funk
Business of the Year (6-10) Nisqually Valley News, Michael Wagar
Business of the Year (11-20) Jason’s Greenhouse, Jason Witherow
Business of the Year (21-49) McDonald’s of Yelm, Joseph Bravo
Business of the Year (50+) JZK, Inc., JZ Knight
Non-Profit, The Rotary Club of Yelm, Tom Dewell
Chamber Volunteer of the Year, April Sage, KeyBank

Photo credit: Janet Jensen, The Olympian

Cynthia Iyall, chairwoman of the Nisqually Tribal Council penned this report Nov. 9 in The Olympian:

“A bright light in the regional economic recovery is shining as years of planning, perseverance and investment by the Nisqually Tribe are coming into fruition.

Already one of Thurston Countys largest nonstate agency employers, the tribe is using revenue from our gaming enterprise to prime the broader economy by making investments in nongaming initiatives that benefit everyone.”
Read more

Read more from the SQUALLI ABSCH NEWS, the Nisqually Tribal News Letter.
Click here

Photo courtesy: Elect Mary Hall

Swearing In Ceremony for Newly Elected Auditor Mary Hall

The newly elected Auditor, Mary Hall will take office immediately after certification of the November 5, 2013 General Election on November 26.

The public is invited to the swearing in ceremony for her short term oath of office. The Swearing In Ceremony will be held on November 26 at 4:45p.m. at the Thurston County Superior Court Room 102 , 2000 Lakeridge Dr SW, Olympia WA.
From the current Thurston County Auditor’s Office Press Release.

Puyallup resident Ron Bestrom’s photo, July 24, 2012.

In case you missed the stunning sight of Air Force One over our area July 24, 2012, you will have another excellent chance to view the 747 arriving in Puget Sound this afternoon with partly cloudy skies forecast and an even better potential view tomorrow as President Obama flies from Sea-Tac Airport to San Francisco in the morning, if the marine deck clears (take-off 8:50am, look in sky approx. 9:05am).
Read more from KING-5 TV News.

Todd Skinner, former Air Force cook and owner of The Bunkhouse in Yelm has opened a second restaurant, Big Daddy’s on the Green at the Tahoma Valley Golf Course in Yelm, which opened for business Sept. 25.

There was an official ribbon cutting on Friday, November 8, 2013 conducted by the Yelm Chamber of Commerce.
Read more for location info.

Best wishes to Todd in his new endeavor!

From the City of Yelm website:
MAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT…AND WARM This season the City of Yelm will be collecting donations of children’s HATS, MITTENS, GLOVES AND SCARVES for local families. Donations can be dropped in boxes located at City Hall or the Public Safety Building. Donations will be distributed by Yelm Community Services. Thank you, Happy Holidays.
(posted: 11/14/2013)