Encore May 2024

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

C3 — Celebrating Older Americans Month at the Lynden Community/Senior Center

C5 — Marv Fullner shares with our readers his passion for local history

“ The nur ses were spect acular! Ever y single one.”

D uring Nurses Week and throughout the year, we join the thousands of patients who have shared their gratitude with our nurses. With every interaction, the incredible work you do every day touches so many lives. Thank you for making a difference for your patients and communities.

NURSES WEEK | MAY 6-12, 2024

Sarah, RN | Longview, WA

Preet, RN | Bellingham, WA

Kristena, RN | Springfield, OR

May is Older Americans Month

By Jennifer Lautenbach For the Tribune

Many things are celebrated or brought to awareness in May: Mental Health Awareness month, World Meditation Day, National Wine Day, and Mother’s Day, to name a few. But did you know May is Older Americans Month?

When established in 1963 by John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens, only 17 million Americans had reached their 65th birthday. According to the Population Reference Bureau in 2022 there were 58 million people in the U.S. age 65 and older. In the 2022 census, 18.5% of Lynden’s population was 65 years and over. That’s a lot of numbers. What it boils

down to is that we are getting older, and May has been set aside as a time to celebrate the contributions made and foundations set by older Americans.

It is a time for older adults to recognize what contributes to their continued happiness, health and well-being.

This year’s theme is Powered by Connection: which “ … recognizes the profound impact that meaningful relationships and social connections have on our health and well-being.” For more on that, visit acl.gov/oam/2024/olderamericans-month-2024. Also, call the Center at 360-354-2921 for more information.

At the Lynden Community/ Senior Center we are all about connections. We love connections at the center. I Googled “how to stay connected socially” and some of the first suggestions were spend more time

with family and friends (you can do this at the center), join a group, club or class related to an interest or hobby (at the center), or to volunteer with an organization (at the center).

Recently we celebrated our center volunteers. In 2023, the Lynden Community/Senior Center had 114 volunteers who donated 6,622 hours of service Even at the 2023 minimum wage of $15.74, our volunteers benefitted the center $104,230.28. Again, more numbers. What this means is that our coffee bar was hosted, Granny’s Gifts staffed, kitchen help provided, dishes washed, meals delivered in our community, funds raised, flyers and newsletters distributed, classes and activities led, and kindness and laughter shared. Our volunteers are connected to every part of our center.

Helen Keller said, “Alone we

can do so little, together we can do so much.” This is so true of our volunteers. Their generosity of time and talent is essential to our success.

We invited a couple of volunteers to share why they continue to volunteer. I asked Chris Rosetti, one of our fabulous dining room helpers, to write down what she said so I could share with all of you. So, the following is from Chris’s point of view.

“I have said so many times, ‘this is so fun, I really do enjoy this.’ Now let me ask you this. Is going around picking up dirty dishes after someone else has just finished their lunch, is that fun? Well, no not really. Then why was I having so much fun? I had to really think about this. I really believe in being a vol-

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Above: Chris Rosetti shares her story during Volunteer Appreciation at the Lynden Community/Senior Center. Above photo right: Planting container gardens in March. Top photo: Jennifer Lautenbach, executive director and manager of the Lynden Community/Senior Center, with a group of the center’s members. (Photos courtesy Lynden Community/Senior Center)

Happy faces and happy tummies collide at the Lynden Community/ Senior Center's annual Thanksgiving luncheon.

(Bill Helm/ Lynden Tribune)

unteer, so when I was ready I came to the Lynden Community Center. The first day of being a volunteer I walked into the main dining area as a total stranger. I did not know even one person. I was amazed. Everyone was so friendly, kind, helpful and welcoming. The second week it was the same thing. Everyone was still the same wonderful group that I had before. I didn’t know their names yet because they don’t wear name tags. But that doesn’t matter. It was then as I was standing there alone looking around this room I realized, these people made me feel like I was a friend they had always known and it was fun going around picking up their dishes. Volunteering is not about the job, it is about the people. I am truly having fun at the Lynden Community Center as a volunteer.”

Volunteering is one way to stay connected to your community. The mental, physical and emotional benefits of social connection result in a better quality of life and overall superior health and wellness.

Some benefits include disease prevention, fewer physical health problems, improved cognitive function, better self-esteem and sense of

belonging.

Again, we love connections at the center. And I am so excited to announce a new connection at the center. In partnership with Northwest Regional Council, the center will offer Powerful Tools for Caregivers, a six-week class designed to provide family caregivers with the skills they need to take care of themselves while they are caring for a loved one. Center staff and volunteers will train this summer to facilitate the class and we hope to have our first class by the end of August.

Through our meal program, health and wellness programs, activities, entertainment and just welcoming the community to come in the door, the center remains a place of all levels of connection. Connections to resources, to fun, to each other, and to our community. And the connections do not have to remain within these walls. This is just a great place to get started.

-- Jennifer Lautenbach is executive director and manager of the Lynden Community/Senior Center, 401 Grover St.

History in the making

Nooksack's Marv Fullner keeps local history alive

By Racquel Muncy For the Tribune

Longtime Nooksack resident and local historian Marv Fullner enjoys spending his days making township maps of the area, historical displays and his most recent adventure — a phone book.

“This is everything to me,” Fullner said. “This is what I’m passionate about.”

Local history has been a passion Fullner said he has taken very seriously for the past 22 years.

“I gradually got deeper and deeper and now it’s all I think about,” he said of local history. “You’re never going to know everything.”

The passion is one he shared with fel-

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Longtime Nooksack resident and historian Marv Fullner enjoys spending his days making township maps of the area, historical displays and even a phone book. Fullner, in the photograph above at right, shows off township maps he has created to Mark Logan. In photo at left, Fullner explains to Allison Logan how he creates the township maps. In photo far left, an original money order issued by the Nooksack Post Office on 1899, prior to the City changing the spelling to Nooksack. (Racquel

for the Tribune)

Muncy

low local historian Jim Berg who passed away in 2020. The duo co-hosted NookChat, a local history program produced from 2015-2020 in partnership with the Nooksack Valley Heritage Center and Everson McBeath Community Library.

“It was the best thing we ever did,” Fullner said about hosting NookChat with Berg.

Fullner said Berg was a large inspiration to him and their shared love of history changed him forever.

“He was sharp,” he said of Berg. “He had a mind like a fox.”

Although they had different ways of displaying their knowledge and were interested in different content areas, the shared love of history always brought them together.

When Berg passed away, Fullner said he was able to get much of the history that Berg had collected over the years and add it to his own collection.

He said one of his favorite pieces from his own collection is glass plate photos shot by Charles

Gooding, his great-great grandfather on his mother’s side.

The Goodings owned several shingle mills in Whatcom County and founded New Whatcom Soda Works.

Fullner said there are more than 600 glass plate images from the early 1900s and late 1800s. The images are engraved with the name Charles Gooding and Johnson. Fullner said he is unsure who Johnson is, but the engraving is impressive because it had to be written backwards to show up correctly once developed.

Like many items in his collection, Fullner said he found these plates on eBay. They were difficult to transport as they are easily breakable and need to be stored in specific conditions to not ruin the images.

Fullner recently finished having the photos developed a handful at a time. He said the process took several years to get all of the images developed, but he has recently finished and has the photos developed and placed in binders.

In addition to his binders full

Whatcom County Cemetery District 10

Marv Fullner puts together the historical display at the Everson Library. Currently it is about the fire insurance that was held by the Good Templars in Everson. (Racquel Muncy for the Tribune)

of historic images, Fullner also makes collages with historical items.

Looking at how to make the photo or historical item stand out from the background is something he said he is very good at doing. For example, bordering a border in black to make the light image stand out on the page.

“I have a good eye for doing stuff like this,” he said. “I love doing collages.”

Many of his collages include the original item, a larger picture and text stating what it is. For example, he has original money orders from the Nooksack Post Office. Some of the money orders date to before 1899 when Nooksack was spelled Nooksachk.

As a local historian, Fullner enjoys sharing his knowledge with the community and puts together a display case at the Everson Library. This display changes several times a year and he said each display features unique items.

Over the years he said sometimes the topic has been the same, but never the items. For example, the current display is on the Good Templars in Everson. This is a subject that has been displayed before, but this time is specifically on the original fire insurance from the Grand Lodge.

While he enjoys making the displays,

“I am on the behalf of the LHM-EF writing this brief communication to enlist your support as we continue our efforts to give financial stability to the Lynden Heritage Museum.

We, I and nine other volunteers, serve as directors and officers of the LHM-EF. Our purpose and goals are to carefully and safely manage the invested funds that provide for quarterly distributions to the Lynden Heritage Foundation that provides day-to-day management of the Lynden Heritage Museum.

In addition to monitoring the invested funds we seek to grow our endowment. The founders of the endowment early on set a goal of $3 million. If we can achieve that goal, the amount we distribute

Fullner said his favorite look into local history is by making township maps. He has made several, including the areas of Lawrence, Nooksack and Everson. The Everson and Nooksack township maps he created are displayed in town hall. With the township maps, he said it is less about the property and who lived where and more about the people who came and settled.

“It’s more of discovering the first people that came and put up their feet,” he said. “Who were they? They all had a life. They all made a difference in life. I just want to know who they were.”

quarterly can rise to $60,000 annually without drawing down the total invested funds.

Currently our endowment is just over $2 million, a sum we have reached because of community support and some significant gifts and bequests. Many of our citizens have made regular yearly gifts to our endowment and others have made the endowment part of their estate planning. My wife and I use the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) option to give from our IRA. The endowment is a 501c3 charitable organization.

We would like an opportunity to add you to the supporters of the endowment in whichever way seems right for your participation.”

The first township map Marv Fullner created. (Racquel Muncy for the Tribune)