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M a r c h 1 6 , 2 0 1 1 • Vo l . 4 • N o . 1 1 • w w w.T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Carey
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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o Alfie Boe in the Limelight this Saturday
Taking a Staycation? Consider a Historic Snowshoe Tour Page 3
Kane reviews new film The Company Men Page 10
Paragliders take flight from atop Baldy Page 9
read about it on PaGe 4
DID YOU KNOW?
COURTESY PHOTO
Herbst grabs halfway gold in Iditarod By KAREN BOSSICK
C
ommunity School teacher Trent Herbst went north to Alaska and will return home with $3,000 in gold nuggets. Herbst didn’t strike gold, but he and his 14 dogs were the first to arrive in the ghost town of Iditarod in the famed Iditarod dog sled race. Iditarod signifies the halfway point in the 1,161-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. “This is BIG news for a local guy,” said Troy Larsen, whose Windy City Arts sponsors Trent. Herbst said the northern lights show he got while running the dogs in 25-below-zero temperatures was an added bonus. Unfortunately, Herbst had not yet taken his mandatory 24-hour rest required of mushers at the time he took the gold. That meant that some of them would soon be passing him. Herbst, who races with young dogs, was in 23rd place as of Sunday, with John Baker in first and the better known Lance Mackey and Martin Buser in 11th and 12th positions. This is Herbst’s fifth Iditarod. His students have helped him build his sled and make scads of doggie booties. tws
Expanding the students Horizons Photos & Story By KAREN BOSSICK
T
he nasal tonal inflection of Chinese reverberates around a Hailey Elementary School classroom as students sing “An nian hao ya…”—“Happy New Year”—to the tune of “My Darling Clementine.” At the center of the group is Isabel Lui, a Hong Kong native who teaches Chinese after school to 40 Hailey Elementary students divided into three different classes. The first- through fifth-graders requested the classes after Lui taught them a few Chinese riddles and characters while substituting in their classes. “I said, ‘Okay, I will offer you 10 lessons and see if you want more.’ I never expected so many children to want to do it,” Lui said. “Now YAK (Youth Adult Konnections) has asked me to teach a program at the middle school. And I’m
Isabel helps third-grader Alli Rathfon, thirdgrader Zane Bardcholtz and second-grader Alex Baker write New Year’s wishes using Chinese calligraphy.
PHOTO: KAREN BOSSICK/TWS
continued, page 15
Liu points to Chinese New year slogans, such as “Wish that you make advancement in your studies,” and “Be safe in and out,” which many Chinese hang on their doors. “Take yours home and show your parents,” Lui told the children. “And put it in your home because these are good wishes.”
Isabel Lui helps Eric Mejorado write a Chinese New Year wish in Chinese calligraphy.
WLYH 6 and Alfiein theBoe Limelight Sun Valley
Emma Hansell and Hayden Baker worked on Trent Herbst’s sled last year, while Herbst and Charlie Dunn look on. In 2010, 18 fourth-graders accompanied Herbst to Alaska to cheer him on in the thousand-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race
considering offering a summer camp.” Lui grew up studying English and Mandarin Chinese in her native Hong Kong. She traveled the world—from Australia to Thailand to Flint, Mich.—putting her command of both languages to work as a corporate communications specialist for Dow Chemical Company. When the SARS respiratory pandemic halted business in Hong Kong in 2003, she and a friend took a vacation to Tibet where she met Sun Valley ski Instructor Brook Leiphart. “He didn’t speak Chinese and had no idea where to go or how to use public transportation. So I invited him to join us,” Lui recalled. The two exchanged e-mails over the next year. Leiphart convinced Lui to come to the United States to visit Sun Valley after war prompted her to reconsider her vacation to the Middle East. In 2005 she came to the United States again—this time to marry Leiphart. But she was deported at the airport because of visa problems and the wedding had to be put on hold for a year while she and Leiphart completed the necessary paperwork. “Hong Kong is very cosmopolitan, with people always moving around. Sun Valley is a resort—very quiet, lots of nature, people on holiday. I’ve come to treasure the mountain nature, the beauty of things, the clean air, the slower pace of living, the simplicity of life,” Lui said. Lui recently completed an online teaching course, which allowed her to teach in
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saturday, March 19 • 8 pm