Author Archives: GriffinNeighbors

Plant Sales Coming in May and June

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Feline Friends logoIn recent years we’ve been fortunate to see a series of plant sales, most for the benefit of Feline Friends and related organizations. This year is no different. If you like plants and are looking for some great sales that benefit some terrific organizations, you’ll want to mark these dates on your calendar.

If you would like to get great perennials, beautiful dahlias, herbs, some vegetables, or choose from a large variety of unusual plants at great prices, these sales are for you. Diane Jacob, of Cameron Gardens, says, “You will be helping dedicated organizations in Thurston/Mason Counties in the never-ending quest to spay and neuter all pets to save hundreds of lives every year.” Cameron Gardens and other local gardeners are the source of these plants.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Feline Friends Plant Sale
Saturday, May 5th
9 AM to 2 PM
Griffin School
6530 33rd Ave, Olympia

Adopt-A-Pet Plant Sale
Saturday, May 12th
9 AM to 3 PM
Our Community Credit Union parking lot
2948 Olympic Hwy N, Shelton

S.N.A.P. (Spay & Neuter All Pets) Plant Sale
Saturday, May 26th
Starts at 9 AM
Thurston County Animal Services
3120 Martin Way, Olympia

Close Out Plant & Garage Sale – a benefit for Feline Friends
Saturday, June 2nd
9 AM – 2 PM
Griffin School
6530 33rd Ave, Olympia

For the Close Out Plant & Garage Sale, please bring saleable items to Griffin between 6 PM and 8 PM Friday, June 3rd or call (360) 866-1909.

“Trauma, Toxic Stress, and Building Self-Healing Communities” – a Town Hall on March 27th

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Dr. Joyce Gilbert

At the Fall Town Hall Meeting presented by the Griffin Neighborhood Association, the theme was public safety. Invited speakers included Sheriff John Snaza. Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney, Jon Tunheim, also attended. The standing-room only crowd had many questions regarding neighborhood crime. Worries and concerns regarding mail theft, property theft, prowlers, drug activity, and personal safety were brought up. A common theme expressed was a sense of vulnerability, isolation, and powerlessness to crime, be it real or perceived.

The topic of our next Town Hall dovetails well with the concerns expressed last Fall. In conjunction with Providence Health & Services, the GNA will hold our Spring Town Hall at Griffin Elementary School on March 27, 6:30 – 7:30. We have invited Dr. Joyce Gilbert. With 30+ years as a pediatrician and multiple roles, Dr. Gilbert is fascinated with the science of trauma, and how stressors in early life become potentially toxic and life threatening to adults.

Dr. Gilbert will be explaining the difference between stress, toxic stress, trauma and how we process each. A sense of safety versus threat can trigger chemical changes in the brain that impact our ability to be resilient. Resilience is our internal ability to adapt to big or small stressors. Our Steamboat community will learn about the biochemistry of stress, trauma, and the long term effects, if not interrupted. Dr. Gilbert will discuss how we can affect change, particularly when we have no control over these traumas. Skills and strategies for grounding, calming and staying present are critical and basic maneuvers we can all implement, benefiting both in the moment and over a lifespan. The research is clear: both the quality and quantity of your life is directly related to what you do or do not do, with stress.

Dr. Gilbert set a personal goal: Teach all of our elementary school educators about trauma within this school year, almost 40 schools total. At this Town Hall meeting, we will learn just how important it is to take care of ourselves in our daily lives, and feel safe.

There is no charge to attend this event.

A Town Hall: “Trauma, Toxic Stress, and Building Self-Healing Communities”
Tuesday, March 27
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Griffin School

We hope to see all our community members there.

Are you interested in learning more about this topic? A variety of online resources are available. Here are just a few:

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a video of a TedTalk presentation entitled, “How childhood trauma affects health throughout a lifetime.” And Dr. Harris’ book, The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. In this book, Dr. van der Kolk “uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.”

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study — the largest, most important public health study you never heard of — began in an obesity clinic.

Epigenetics: The Science of Change. “For nearly a century after the term ‘epigenetics’ first surfaced on the printed page, researchers, physicians, and others poked around in the dark crevices of the gene, trying to untangle the clues that suggested gene function could be altered by more than just changes in sequence. Today, a wide variety of illnesses, behaviors, and other health indicators already have some level of evidence linking them with epigenetic mechanisms, including cancers of almost all types, cognitive dysfunction, and respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, autoimmune, and neurobehavioral illnesses.”

Local Business News from Flying Heron Yoga and Sovereign Cellars

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The Griffin Neighborhood Association works to promote local business on and around the Steamboat Peninsula. You can see some of these efforts if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter. In case you don’t, here’s some news you might have missed.

Click image for a larger view

The Steamboat Square is on the grow. Our Community Credit Union recently opened a branch. This Saturday, the new Flying Heron Yoga will begin its regular schedule of studio classes. Owner Heidianna Brown has announced an opening schedule of Gentle Yoga and Flow (Vinyasa) Yoga. A meditation class, Warm Slow Flow, and Strength and Balance class is also on the schedule. Additional classes and class times will be added.

The last Sunday of each month is a community class, offered at no charge. It’s “teacher’s choice” of class style and RSVP is required, due to limited space.

Flying Heron Yoga is located right on Sexton, next to the Subway Sandwich shop. Click on the image here, for a larger version of the class schedule that includes contact information at the bottom.

Sovereign Cellars, our local winery on the Eld Inlet side of the Peninsula, has announced a special Sweetheart Sale on its gold medal-winning 2014 merlot. Regularly sold at $35 a bottle, it’s available for a limited time at $20 a bottle. This special price ends on Valentine’s Day or while supplies last. Contact Dennis Gross, the winemaker at Sovereign Cellars, at (360) 866-7991 and dwgrosswine@yahoo.com, for purchase details.

Are you a local resident who owns or operates a business? Let us help you tell your story. Add your business to our  online directory. And, if you’re a resident on or near the Steamboat Peninsula, visit our local business directory whenever you are looking for services close to home.

 

Annual Community Meeting to Be Held Thursday, January 25th

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The Annual Community Meeting of the Griffin Neighborhood Association will be held at the Griffin Fire Department Headquarters on Thursday, January 25th. The doors open at 6 PM and the meeting begins at 6:30 PM. Everyone is invited. Each year, the GNA hosts an opportunity to reconnect with area residents, meet representatives of local organizations, participate in a brief Association business meeting, and hear from a group of speakers on a topic of general interest.

This year’s keynote speakers are representatives from Taylor Shellfish Farms, Squaxin Tribe Fisheries, and Thurston County Environmental Health. They will present on “The Health of the Sound”.

We’ll also receive an update from Drake Nicholson, on the Steamboat Tennis and Athletic Club and Steamboat Golf Driving Range.

Local organizations will be providing information about their work here in the Griffin area. The half-hour beginning at 6:00 PM provides you with a chance to meet these representatives. Some of the groups attending this year are:

Providence Behavioral Health Services
Steamboat Island Cooperative Preschool
Steamboat Peninsula Lions
Feline Friends
Empowerment 4 Girls
St. Christopher’s Outreach Program

Annual Community Meeting
Thursday, January 25
6 PM
Griffin Fire Department Headquarters

At this meeting, the Association will call for nominations to its Board of Directors. Current members of the Association will vote on a slate of Board members. This meeting is a good time to renew your membership with the Griffin Neighborhood Association, since only current members can vote in the election. Or, you can join or renew your membership online at steamboatisland.org/joinus

The Association exists only through the service of volunteers from our community. Board membership is a terrific way to give back to the Griffin area. You can be a member of our Board! For more information about Board membership, click here to read our frequently asked questions. Or contact any Board member. To learn more about our more than 25-year history here, click this link. ‘Think you can’t make a difference? We do, right here in the community where we live. Join us!

Thurston County Food Bank logoThis year we are especially asking members of the community to help support the St. Christopher’s Community Church Food Bank. This is a satellite of the Thurston County Food Bank and provides important assistance to families in need, right here on the Steamboat Peninsula. Our focus this year is on collecting non-food items that are often provided by our food bank. Please consider whether you can bring any of these to the Community Meeting:

  • Toilet tissue
  • Laundry soap
  • Dish soap
  • Personal items, such as shampoo and hand soap
  • Travel shampoo, conditioner, soap, in the sizes made available at hotels
  • Gift cards for gasoline

Any other items, including furniture donations, are welcome donations. To make arrangements to donate large items, please contact St. Christopher’s directly, at (360) 866-2111 and leave a message. Lindy Vincent will call you back.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Do you need to have your name added to the monthly food distribution from our food bank? Call (360) 866-2111. All names are kept confidential.

Come to our Annual Community Meeting this Thursday. Doors open at 6 PM for a social gathering before the meeting begins at 6:30 PM. Snacks and beverages will be served.

Conservation Easements; An important tool for land protection

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Appleby Conservation Easement. One of several easements within our region. Click on the image for more information. Photo by Capitol Land Trust.

Humans have a unique relationship to land; it is at the same time familial, emotional and legal. Some land is passed down from one generation to the next and represents family history and significance beyond its physical attributes. Some landowners bought their land because of the beautiful setting or the richness of its natural features. Landowners who cherish their land often want to ensure it is managed in a way that maintains what they love about it into the future, including after they’re gone. One way to ensure the land is used in line with the owner’s wishes is through a conservation easement.

A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and another party – often a land trust – regarding how the land will be used for years to come. This agreement is recorded by the appropriate government entity and becomes part of the permanent legal description of the land.

Capitol Land Trust has partnered with many landowners to develop these agreements, which can be tailored to the desires of the owner while protecting important ecological values – Capitol Land Trust’s goal. Conservation easements also can be employed to maintain working farms and forests ensuring they can continue to produce agricultural or forest products, often for local use.

An easement can identify different uses for distinct parts of a property. For example, land surrounding a stream might be left in its natural state, while a field can be used for growing crops, and yet another area for residential use.

With an easement, the landowner continues to own the land while the land trust agrees to ensure that the land is used in accordance to the agreement. This includes making sure future owners comply with the easement and, if necessary, bring legal action to enforce the agreement.

Capitol Land Trust’s first conserved property was protected through a conservation easement. While the trust also has purchased land for conservation purposes, protecting land through conservation easements can be cost-effective and lessens the burden of long-term management on the land trust. With 38 easements in our portfolio, this partnership with private landowners has meant that some of our area’s most ecologically significant and important working lands are protected forever.

– reprinted with permission from the Issue 63, Fall 2017 of the Capitol Land Trust News

Click here to learn more about conservation easements and land trusts.

Click here to begin learning more about how you can conserve your land. 

In 2009, the Griffin Neighborhood Association and Capitol Land Trust formed the Steamboat Conservation Partnership. Conservation easements are one important tool available to help the Partnership meet its goal of conserving the rich and diverse natural landscapes of the Steamboat Peninsula region. Click here to learn more about the Steamboat Conservation Partnership.

Remember the Steamboat Conservation Partnership in Your Year-End Giving

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This time of year, many of us are receiving requests to make year-end contributions to various worthy causes. With the Steamboat Conservation Partnership there exists a unique opportunity to give in a manner that will directly benefit those of us living here in the Griffin area. If your year-end planning includes making contributions to non-profit organizations, consider this your invitation to learn more about the SCP.

The Steamboat Conservation Partnership is a unique-in-the-nation collaboration between a local neighborhood group and the very successful Capitol Land Trust. The mission of the Steamboat Conservation Partnership is “to conserve the rich and diverse natural landscapes of the Steamboat Peninsula region.” Since this collaboration took effect, we have been able to protect more than 300 acres in the Steamboat Peninsula region.

The Capitol Land Trust has a proven record of working with land owners, businesses, and government to identify and preserve shorelines, rivers, forests, prairies, and working lands. You can learn more about the Steamboat Conservation Partnership on our web page at steamboatisland.org/scp  You will find a video there, that describes the work of the Capitol Land Trust.

We welcome contributions of any size.

Should you choose to make a contribution to the Steamboat Conservation Partnership, you will find a link on our web page and you can make a secure donation using a credit card. If you prefer, you may mail a check directly to the Capitol Land Trust. Insert “SCP” or “Steamboat Conservation Partnership” in the memo part of the check so we can receive credit. Your check should be mailed to Capitol Land Trust, 4405 – 7th Ave SE, Suite 306, Lacey, WA 98503. In reply you will receive a letter, for your tax records. And thank you, for supporting the Steamboat Conservation Partnership.

Our Community Credit Union Opens Branch in Steamboat Square

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Steamboat Square OCCU branch photoOur local business district is on the grow as Our Community Credit Union announced the opening of their newest branch located in the newly-expanded Steamboat Square, at 6541 Sexton Dr. NW. The 2100 square foot facility includes seating and ample space to provide customer service. There’s also an indoor teller machine that accepts both check and cash deposits. Current members of OCCU will certainly benefit from the closer location. And local residents who are looking for alternatives to for-profit banks now need not go very far to learn of the advantages of joining a credit union.

“We believe this is a perfect fit for the families and businesses in the Steamboat community, in addition to being a great convenience for our OCCU members who commute from Shelton,” said Bert Fisher, President/CEO of OCCU. “We are excited to get to know the Steamboat community and have the opportunity to provide them with local, affordable, financial products and services.”

Our Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit, full-service, financial alternative to a bank. One member’s savings deposit is another member’s loan. As a member-owned financial cooperative, credit unions are not-for-profit. They function to serve their membership. As a result, credit unions can pay very competitive dividends on savings and offer great interest rates on loans. Anyone living, working, or attending school in Washington State can join. You can even join OCCU online. A minimum deposit of $25 into a savings account is all it takes to become a member.

OCCU offers a wide variety of financial services. Personal checking and savings accounts, different kinds of loans, mortgages, and home equity lines of credit, and Visa cards. Retirement planning and investment advisory services are available. For those of you seeking business services, including an assortment of merchant services, “you will get the kind of rates and attention you deserve as a business owner.”

An online banking portal and mobile apps are available, too. You can access your OCCU account details and perform various tasks, online, from practically any location on the planet. Click here for more details regarding their mobile apps.

Founded in 1941 by employees of Simpson Logging Company, OCCU is now a $350 million, 5-star community-oriented financial institution with 29,000 members. Steamboat Square is their 8th branch. Their other locations are in Shelton, Union, McCleary, Elma, Montesano and on Vashon Island.

To learn more about OCCU, come to their new branch and visit. Their hours are Monday through Thursday, 9:00 am to 5:35 pm, and Friday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Or visit their web site at www.ourcu.com.

Feline Friends Asks Community to Assist with Building a New Shelter

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Feline Friends logoFounded in 2000, Feline Friends is a non-profit, volunteer-only operated, no-kill cat shelter that provides rescue, rehabilitation, medical attention and rehoming to at-risk cats in and throughout Thurston and Mason counties. Their mission is to, “provide unconditional love and care for any cat in need no matter what the circumstance may be.” Feline Friends Volunteers receive calls from Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pierce and many other counties in Washington State. They take in cats rescued from natural disasters such as the recent Oregon wildfires and they operate a trap-spay/neuter-release program for ferals in an effort to decrease unwanted breeding.

To raise funds for their new cat shelter, Feline Friends is hosting the 1st Annual Purr-fect Hearts Affair. This gala event will be held February 3, 2018 at Pellegrino’s Event Center in Tumwater. But before we can get to an evening of dinner, drinks and live music, culminating with a silent and live auction, Feline Friends is asking for donations of gifts and services from friends in the community.

Your generous donation would assist in building our new, larger facility and in turn allow us to provide our services to a greater number of cats in need. Our goal for the evening is $20,000, which would provide the necessary funding for construction, landscaping, and supplies at our new 8-acre location! In addition to service items and gift donations, we are also seeking sponsorships to help fund the event. Donors and sponsors of all levels will receive recognition for your charitable assistance with this event. For more information on how we will recognize your sponsorship or donation please click here.

If you can donate an item or service – pet sitting, tax preparation, landscaping, etc. – download a copy of the donation solicitation. If you would like your donation picked up, please contact Rebecca Reavis.

If you would like to make a financial donation, the donor/sponsorship levels may be of interest to you. Those details are on the donation solicitation, too.

If you have friends, family, or businesses that would want to help out as well, please send them a copy of the donation solicitation. Our feline friends need you.

Whether you can make a donation of goods and services or not, don’t forget to mark your calendar for the Purr-fect Hearts Affair.

Feline Friends Purr-fect Hearts Affair
February 3, 2018
6:00 PM
Pellegrino’s Event Center
5757 Littlerock Rd SW, Tumwater 98512

The evening will begin with a silent auction, Italian vegetarian buffet, and cash bar. Live music will be provided by Roger and Deb Hamilton. The live auction is hosted by Garrison Auctioneers. Each $40 ticket includes all you can eat and a beverage token. Event tickets are available online (click this link).

Thank you, neighbors, for your support of Feline Friends!

Feline Friends banner art

Feline Friends Holiday Bazaar with Santa, December 2

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Click for a larger image.

It’s a Griffin area tradition! The Feline Friends Holiday Bazaar will be held Saturday, December 2nd at the Griffin Fire Station (3707 Steamboat Loop NW, US-101 at the Steamboat Island exit) from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Many hand crafted items by local artisans – jewelry, Christmas decorations, homemade soaps, jams and great gift ideas.

Fresh coffee, hot apple cider, bake sale with lots of cookies.

Come have your children or leashed pets have pictures with Santa.

The Feline Friends cat house (6515 Sexton Drive NW) will be open for adoptions.

Saturday, December 2
10 AM to 3 PM
Griffin Fire Department Headquarters
3707 Steamboat Loop NW

Thank you for your support!

Town Hall with Thurston County Sheriff, November 30

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The Griffin Neighborhood Association has invited the Thurston County Sheriff to give us a safety report on Thurston County as a whole and to answer any question our neighbors may have regarding safety/crime reports in the area. Please make time to attend if you have questions or would like to be more informed about the status of our neighborhood. With all that we see on Nextdoor, we believe it is time we hear from Sheriff’s office about what is or is not being reported, as well as anything we should be doing to be safer during the upcoming holidays.

Thursday, November 30
6:30 PM to 8 PM
Griffin School
6530 33rd Ave NW

The meeting will be in the Griffin School gym.

Please support the Griffin Neighborhood Association. Join us today. For more information and to join online, see our page at steamboatisland.org/joinus/