Senior Times - May 2021

DELIVERING NEWS TO MID-COLUMBIA SENIORS SINCE 1982

Port of Kennewick bill for complaint tops $450,000

By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz

Don Barnes, chairman of the Port of Kennewick commission, will not seek reelection when his term expires this year.

The move comes after the port spent nearly $450,000 to address an “anonymous” complaint against Barnes and fellow Commissioner Tom Moak over a land sale dispute that began in 2019.

Barnes announced his decision to step down after nine years on April 27, calling it an honor to have served.

“I have worked hard to serve the best interests of my community and fellow taxpayers with honesty and integrity,” he said.

The complaint cost, which was authored by the port’s third commissioner, Skip Novakovich, led to a finding that both Barnes and Moak violated port policies during arguments over the sale of former port-owned land that is now home to Miramar Health Center, operated by the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

Moak accepted the finding of fault but Barnes appealed. A judge reversed the decision, concluding Barnes did nothing wrong.

The complaint cost $400,000 to investigate and adjudicate.

On April 13, Barnes and Moak voted to spend an additional $49,000 to reimburse Barnes for his legal fees, sidestepping a review that said $42,000 was reasonable.

“In some way or matter it was appropriate,” Moak said. “It’s about time we finish this. And I think it is justified. We need to move on.”

Novakovich abstained from voting. uPORT, Page 4

MAY 2021

Vol. 9 | Issue 5

Hearing clinic adds house calls to its menu of services

By Kristina Lord

publisher@tcjournal.biz

George Perkins doesn’t have to worry about navigating his wheelchair into the offices of Columbia Basin Hearing Center to see his audiologist.

Since February, the 83-year-old meets with Neil Aiello from the comfort of his Kennewick home.

“Dr. Neil has been here every month checking on the quality – and he just left here by the way,” Perkins said in late April.

“We enjoy his visits so much. It’s a social and technical visit,” he said.

Aiello and his audiologist wife, Shannon Aiello, own Columbia Basin Hearing Center, which has offices in Kennewick and Walla Walla.

They recently launched a clinic within their clinic called Hear For You, offering hearing aid delivery services, telehearing appointments, mo-

Courtesy Columbia Basin Hearing Center George Perkins, left, chats with his audiologist, Neil Aiello, at his Kennewick home. The 83-year-old was the first patient to use Columbia Basin Hearing Center’s new mobile clinic, called Hear For You.

bile hearing care and curbside service.

The pandemic got the husband-andwife team thinking about how best to serve their homebound patients.

The idea bounced around Shan-

non’s mind the year prior because of the long-term relationships their clinic nurtures with patients, she said. uHEARING CENTER, Page 2

Retired Hanford chemist now tells overlooked stories of Black excellence

By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz

John Abercrombie had little use for history during the 28 years he worked as a chemist, analytical lab manager and employment officer at the Hanford site.

History was a tangle of people he didn’t know, places he hadn’t been.

He had a series of jobs to do, a family to raise.

“I hated history, I absolutely hated it,” said Abercrombie, who worked at Hanford for 28 years, beginning in 1967. He retired in 1997 and, despite his previous disinterest in history, is enjoying a second

career telling the overlooked stories of Black excellence in the U.S. and beyond.

AbercromJohn Abercrombie bie splits his time between his official home in Richland and his native Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he quarantined for the Covid-19 pandemic after returning to care for his aging parents. He devotes his free time to his blog at Amazingblackhistory.com, and the podcast he hosts on blogtalkradio.

com.

His recent efforts include a profile of Raye Montague, who grew up in the segregated South and overcame low expectations to become not just an engineer but the first person ever to design a U.S. Navy ship by computer, and Dr. Alexa Canady, the first black female neurosurgeon focused on pediatrics.

For his work, Abercrombie was February’s “Everyday Patriot,” an honor given by Cold War Patriots.

The organization serves veterans of the nuclear industry.

His own story is as riveting as uABERCROMBIE, Page 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

PBS puts spotlight on Richland’s global miracle worker Page 5

MONTHLY QUIZ

Senior-focused agency breaks ground on $1.6M building

Page 11

What year was the town of Richland taken over by the U.S. government as development of the top-secret Hanford activities were going on in World War II, and what year was it reincorporated under civilian control?

ANSWER, PAGE 9

PLEASE DELIVER TO CURRENT OCCUPANT Senior Times 8524 W. Gage Blvd., #A1-300 Kennewick, WA 99336

PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PASCO, WA PERMIT NO. 8778

2

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021 HEARING CENTER, From page 1 509-737-8778 509-737-8448 fax Mailing address: 8524 W. Gage Blvd., #A1-300 Kennewick, WA 99336 srtimes.com

STAFF Melanie Hair CEO 509-737-8778 ext. 5 melanie@tcjournal.biz Kristina Lord Publisher 509-737-8778 ext. 3 publisher@tcjournal.biz Wendy Culverwell Editor 509-737-8778 ext. 6 editor@tcjournal.biz Tiffany Lundstrom Advertising Director 509-737-8778 ext. 2 tiffany@tcjournal.biz Chad Utecht Advertising Account Manager 509-737-8778 ext. 1 chad@tcjournal.biz Vanessa Guzmán Graphic Designer 509-737-8778 ext. 4 ads@tcjournal.biz

Senior Times, a publication of TriComp Inc., is published monthly. Subscriptions are $21.67 per year, prepayment required, no refunds.

Contents of this publication are the sole property of TriComp Inc. and can not be reproduced in any form without expressed written consent.

Opinions expressed by guest columnists and advertisers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Senior Times staff, other guest columnists or other advertisers, nor do they imply endorsement

by Senior Times staff, other guest columnists or advertisers. Every effort will be made to assure information published is correct; however, we are not liable for any errors or omissions made despite these efforts.

Get the Senior Times every month in your mailbox Subscriptions: One year - $21.67 Two years - $34.70 Three years - $42.30 All prices include Kennewick sales tax.

To subscribe send your name, mailing address, and a check payable to Senior Times to:

8524 W. Gage Blvd. #A1-300 Kennewick, WA 99336

“From the happy retiree to the golden years, to having caregivers involved, to kids taking over to help with dementia, to hospice and end-oflife care, we see a lot of history with patients,” she said.

Shannon said they wanted a way to continue serving patients throughout the changes in their lives and thought a mobile clinic would be a great option, but at the time couldn’t think of a sustainable model to make it happen.

Then Covid-19 hit and it reprogrammed how people approached health care. The clinic closed for a couple of weeks, and when it did reopen, the Aiellos decided to go to their patients.

“It’s a privilege to be in their home.

They treat me like family. It’s an awesome experience,” Neil said.

Soon the couple were exploring how to make home visits a permanent part of their practice. They launched the mobile clinic in February, repurposing a 2013 family sedan.

Neil uses a couple of handheld bags to carry in his laptop, an audiometer and other equipment to do inhome assessments and adjustments.

“Hearing aids are so much more than a widget,” Shannon said. “They have to be fine-tuned, they need adjustments, to be cleaned, they need follow-up care. For remote communities and seniors with no access, it is beyond exciting for possibilities of this clinic.”

Patients don’t have to worry about coordinating a ride to the clinic with their family or Dial-A-Ride.

“We wanted to perfect it and offer the same level of service and care to our patients, not just during Covid, but into the future,” Shannon said.

Tech-savvy patients can hop on a Zoom call with the Aiellos and get real-time adjustments made to their hearing aids, thanks to Bluetooth technology, which connects their device to the internet.

Since launching the mobile clinic, Neil spends about two days a week making house calls.

“In the past month, I’ve been to Pendelton, Weston, Athena, Walla Walla, Milton-Freewater, Kirkland, Mill Creek and the Tri-Cities of course,” he said.

The service is complimentary for patients who have hearing aids under warranty. After their warranty ends, there’s a $182 annual subscription for the mobile service.

“There’s no reason, honestly, we can’t go anywhere in the state,” Shannon said. “It’s exciting to remove the geographic barrier where you can help.”

Roy Waugh of Snohomish chose to get his hearing aid from Columbia

Basin Hearing Center instead of a closer west-side clinic.

Waugh, 71, knew Neil’s father before he took over the family practice.

“I don’t like driving into Seattle and the other hearing aid people are nice enough, but they seem more about the sale and not the service,” said Waugh, who’s been wearing hearing aids for seven years.

Good customer service is Waugh’s love language.

“Large box stores – the prices might be a little better, but they have no service.

Courtesy Columbia Basin Hearing Center I know a lot of people who get hearing aids Audiologists Neil and Shannon Aiello own Coand get frustrated and lumbia Basin Hearing Center, which has offices in Kennewick and Walla Walla. stop using them. I’m a service-oriented perenjoyed getting out of the office and son and am willing to pay for that ser- seeing patients in their homes. vice,” he said.

“He thrives on people and relationAfter delivering and fitting Waugh’s new hearing aid, Neil called ships. Put him in their environment the next day to check on how he was and it’s a great combination,” Shandoing. He made a few adjustments non said.

Perkins was the Aiellos’ first paover the internet.

“I now have another appointment. tient to use the mobile clinic.

He wants to tweak it in person and He said having properly working see how they’re doing. You can’t get and fitting hearing aids has made a service like that. It’s pretty special,” huge difference in his life.

Waugh said.

He got his first hearing aids in 2004 His new device also is pretty special. In addition to its ability to be but left them at a Los Angeles hotel. adjusted remotely, the device tracks He replaced them with aids from anbrain and body activity, detects falls other source and “wore them until I and can deliver reminders. couldn’t stand them anymore,” he “It’s an amazing electronic de- said. vice,” he said. “When you’ve got He’s happier with his new pair from technology like this you do need a Columbia Basin Hearing Center. service provider to take care of it.”

“I use them all the time. I’m in love Best of all, he can hear better.

“I’m hearing things I haven’t heard with the darn things for Audible. The in years. I’m listening to the wind in tonal quality is so good. The battery the trees. I have been missing this for life is so good. I use them extensively for Audible, use it for music and, of the last six years,” he said.

On a recent April afternoon, Neil course, for hearing during the day.” traveled to Westin, Oregon, to visit Taking care of hearing health is as a 104-year-old patient who is blind, important as taking care of your teeth immobile and has significant hearand the rest of your body, the Aiellos ing loss. She’s been a patient for six said. years.

“Hearing loss is usually a very “Hearing is your most important social sense. … Our social abilities slow onset and usually people don’t are limited when you cannot hear. We notice. It’s usually other people who now know, and not just from Covid, notice first. Wearing masks has really but from longitudinal studies, that not amplified how important hearing is hearing well means the brain doesn’t and how difficult it is for people with function as well, and it can affect cognormal hearing and mild hearing loss nition, dementia, Alzheimer’s, you to hear,” Neil said. name it. If you don’t use it, you lose Columbia Basin Hearing Center: it,” Neil said.

The mobile clinic also had an un- 4015 W. Clearwater Ave., Kenneexpected benefit for Neil, who has wick; 509-736-4005; columbiabasinbeen practicing for 29 years. He’s hearing.com.

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

3

Longtime leader steers Chaplaincy through transition to new executive director

By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz

A well-known Tri-City business leader is at the helm of Chaplaincy Health Care while the hospice agency seeks a leader to succeed Gary Castillo.

Bob Rosselli, who retired from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002 and from the Columbia Basin College Foundation Board in 2014, stepped in as interim executive director after Castillo resigned effective June 1 after 13 years with the nonprofit.

Castillo is credited with expanding Chaplaincy’s role in supporting patients and families facing terminal illnesses.

He launched the behavioral health initiative, its Repeat Boutique thrift stores and palliative care for ill patients who are not eligible for hospice services.

“He has a tremendous amount of heart for the mission of the organization,” Rosselli said of Castillo. “He brought us our behavioral health mission. He brought us our thrift store mission.”

Castillo’s resignation came four months after financial pressures forced Chaplaincy to close its palliative care program, which he had started seven years earlier.

uBRIEFS Green2Go has free lockboxes to keep your drugs safe

Green2Go Wellness is providing free lockboxes or bags to keep cannabis and other items out of the hands of children.

They will be distributed starting at 9 a.m. April 27 at Green2Go’s Kennewick wellness center, 419 W. Columbia Drive. The wellness center carries cannabis-related products but not marijuana, which is banned inside the city limits.

The lockboxes and bags are offered in partnership with the BentonFranklin Health District and Educational Service District 123.

UW enlisting dogs for aging study

The University of Washington is enlisting big dogs, rural dogs, working dogs and certain other breeds and puppies in the national Dog Aging Project, a research project to understand the factors that play a role in longevity and aging.

Dogs and their owners share the same homes, have comparable lifestyles and tend to get many of the same diseases as they age – arthritis, cancer, heart disease and dementia.

The five-year study is funded by the National Institute of Aging at the National Institutes of Health. It hopes

The Covid-19 pandemic affected its feepaying services that helped support palliative care, which unlike hospice care Bob Rosselli is not covered by Medicare.

As an organization, Chaplaincy Health served 1,131 hospice patients and their families in 2020, 437 palliative care patients and 279 children and teens through its Cork’s Place grief program.

Chaplaincy depends on Medicare reimbursements, thrift store sales and donations to support its roughly $12 million budget, based on 2018 financial reports posted to Guidestar.com.

It serves an average of 160 hospice patients at a time, providing physical, social and spiritual support to people facing the end of their lives. It operates a hospice facility and serves patients in their homes.

Rosselli said the pandemic has curtailed many activities, including its reliance on volunteers. For safety reasons, volunteers are sidelined, though he hopes to bring them back when the

pandemic eventually passes.

Too, it is more difficult to serve patients in their homes. Many are unwilling to admit nonrelatives, leading to a decline in the number of people it services. Rosselli expects the fear to drop as more people are vaccinated.

“We still take the precautions. But with people getting vaccinated, they’re opening up the doors,” he said.

Rosselli joined the Chaplaincy board about six years ago. He had previously volunteered as a youth coach and on numerous boards, even serving as interim president of Columbia Industries, which serves people with development disabilities and barriers to housing and employment.

Hospice, he said, offered an opportunity to learn about an aspect of the community he did not know.

He brings a deep well of management expertise and a familiarity with the organization to the interim role.

Chaplaincy has advertised the executive director position. As of April 24, it had received seven applications – one local and six from out of state. The board will make the final decision. No time frame has been set.

In the interim, Rosselli is doing what he has done in his prior management

roles: He is managing.

He doesn’t have specific marching orders beyond maintaining the organization until a permanent director comes on.

“But I’m looking for areas to make organizational improvements to make our services more effective,” he said.

He’s evaluating staffing levels to ensure it can comfortably support its mission and reviewing the training procedures to ensure newly hired staff are properly prepared for the role.

Rosselli came to the Tri-Cities in the 1980s with an master’s in business administration from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business.

He worked as an administrator for DOE’s Richland Operations office, rising to deputy manager for business services by 1999.

He enjoyed retirement for six years before rejoining the workforce in 2008 to lead the Columbia Basin College Foundation. He said he is learned to enjoy retirement pursuits, including spending time with his wife, cooking, reading, hiking and bicycling.

He’s enjoying the interim position but said he’s eager to turn the reins over to the next director.

to learn how biology, habits and the environment affect canine aging in a variety of dogs.

The project is co-directed by biology of aging researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine as well as veterinary specialists at Washington State University and schools in Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Iowa and North Carolina.

All breeds are welcome but researchers hope to increase the representation of large and giant dogs, dogs living in rural areas or on ranches, working dogs such as K-9s, service animals, search-and-rescuers, mushers, agility athlete and herders, as well

as puppies.

Go to dogagingproject.org for information or to nominate a dog for inclusion.

question about a return, if it needs to verify an identity, if it needs additional information and if it has changed a return.

Taxpayers should not ignore IRS letters and notices. In most cases, the matter can be resolved simply. If the IRS changed a return, the taxpayer should compare their information with changes. Generally, there is no need to contact the IRS if the taxpayer agrees with the notice.

Letters will provide a deadline to address issues to minimize interest and penalty charges and to preserve appeal rights.

Go to irs.gov/payments/view-yourtax-account for information.

The IRS might send a letter.

Don’t panic

At the height of tax season, the IRS is reminding taxpayers that it’s not unusual to receive a letter from the revenue agency and that it is not a cause for panic.

The IRS contacts taxpayers by U.S. mail for a variety of reasons and does not text or use social media.

Letters are sent if there is a balance due, if the refund is larger or smaller than anticipated, if the agency has a

4

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

PORT, From page 1

Novakovich earlier said he would support paying the bill but changed his mind when no one could assure him the port wouldn’t be faulted by the state auditor’s office for the move.

The cost is the latest in a series of conflicts between the port’s three commissioners.

The one thing they agree on is it went too high.

Moak called it terrible but said he does not think it will affect the port’s major undertakings, including turnTom Moak ing the former Vista Field into a mixed-use development and creating visitor amenities along the downtown Kennewick waterfront.

Barnes called it an “appalling amount of money” and said the complaint and resulting investigation and hearings should never have happened.

Doug Barnes Novakovich said the outcome showed the process works. However, he said, efforts to reconcile soon after

the heated arguments were rebuffed by his board mates.

The cost represents 16% of the port’s $2.6 million 2019 Skip Novakovich operating budget, according to a financial summary by its independent auditor submitted to the office of the state auditor in lieu of a state audit. That excludes capital and other expenditures.

The $400,000 to process the complaint and appeal were not covered by the port’s insurance policy.

The conflict began in early 2019, when port staff asked the elected commissioners to release a buyback clause on land the port had sold more than a decade earlier to Jerry Ivy Jr. In 2019, Ivy had a deal to sell the five acres to the Yakima Valley Farm Workers, which was preparing to build a $20 million medical and dental clinic for low-income patients there.

Barnes and Moak initially objected.

Later, they said did not know a medical clinic was in the works and feared it would be an industrial laydown yard.

That was not the neighbor they envisioned for Vista Field, their prized redevelopment project next door.

The two say they signed off once

they knew about the clinic’s plan. Novakovich disputes their version, saying all three commissioners were given the same information about Miramar at the same time.

Barnes continues to be rankled by the transaction. The port sold the land to Ivy more than a decade earlier, with a standard buyback clause allowing the port to repurchase it if it was not developed.

“The port doesn’t always extract the highest possible price in a land sale,” he said. “We’re trying to encourage economic development.”

Buyback clauses are supposed to discourage people from holding land and selling it at a higher price years later.

Still, all three commissioners agree the Miramar Clinic project and its staff of medical professionals is exactly what they wanted for a neighbor in the heart of Kennewick.

While the land sale went through, the complaint roiled the port for more than a year.

An independent investigator concluded Moak and Barnes did violate port policies when they raised their voices during meetings about the buyback clause. Moak acknowledged he raised his voice but Barnes challenged the finding.

In December, Paris Kallas, the independent judge who heard his appeal, overturned the investigator’s conclusion in explicit terms. “(T)he complaint against Commissioner Barnes is unsubstantiated in its entirety and no sanctions shall be applied,” Kallas wrote in the December 2020 decision.

Barnes requested reimbursement in March, saying he would not have done so if the case had gone the other way.

The $450,000 bill promises to be a

hot topic in the 2021 campaign season.

While Barnes is not running for reelection, the race has drawn a prominent candidate already.

Ken Hohenberg, Kennewick’s retiring police chief and deputy city manager, announced his candidacy in March.

The official filing week is May 17-21.

The complaint-related costs through March came to $399,280.61, excluding the legal fees Barnes paid from his own pocket, according to documents released under Washington’s Public Records Act. That includes $60,000 to investigate the complaint, $180,000 to process Barnes’ appeal and $159,000 to comply with public records requests, many from Barnes’ attorney, Joel Comfort of the Kennewick law firm Miller Mertens & Comfort PLLC. Seattle law firm Ogden Murphy Wallace billed $38,296 for the investigative services of Tara Parker through five separate invoices. Parker’s review concluded both Barnes and Moak violated port rules. Only Barnes appealed.

Judicial Dispute Resolution LLC, a Seattle arbitration firm, submitted three invoices totaling $14,000 for the services of Kallas, the retired judge who concluded Barnes was not at fault.

Law firm Foster Garvey submitted 40 invoices totaling $141,000 for costs related to the complaint process.

Carney Bradley Spellman submitted 128 invoices totaling $187,000 related to processing the complaint.

Barnes is chiefly represented by Comfort. There were also invoices for services by Francois “Fran” Forgette of Rettig Forgette Iller and Bowers LLP, a Kennewick law firm.

Non-Emergent Medical Transportation Service

Do you enjoy driving long distance and meeting new people?

We are looking for volunteer drivers in Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Yakima and Kittitas counties to take clients to medical appointments.

Must have Washington State driver’s license and been driving for at least 5 years.

Drivers receive .58 per mile, plus meals with receipt.

Call (509) 426-2190 for more information protraneast.com | 7 N. 11th Ave. | Yakima, WA

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

5

PBS puts spotlight on Richland’s global miracle worker

By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz

A Richland nonprofit that works medical magic in the world’s most remote, undeveloped and dangerous corners is enjoying a moment in the spotlight, courtesy public television.

SIGN Fracture Care International, helmed by founder Dr. Lewis Zirkle and CEO Jeanne Dillner, is featured in “Trauma Healers,” a documentary that explores the need for trauma care in developing countries to prevent routine injuries from turning deadly or disabling.

It will air on more than 170 PBS stations beginning May 4. Local viewers can tune into Northwest Public Broadcasting or NWPB at 2 p.m. May 23; 7 p.m. May 24; and 10 p.m. May 27.

Producers Patricia Fraley of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Robert Parish, of Portland, Oregon, made the documentary to draw attention to the “silent epidemic” of traumatic orthopedic injuries in “low resource countries,” particularly at a time when the world’s attention is focused on fighting infectious diseases.

The program promises to highlight what many Tri-Citians already know: SIGN Fracture Care International is a local feel-good story for its work to bring equipment and training to orthopedic surgeons in developing countries.

Zirkle, a well-known orthopedic surgeon, is fond of sharing its story in the community. In 2018, he was honored by a fellow Richlander, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis, with the department’s Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

Zirkle, Mattis noted, wasn’t like most retirees. He went to places that had been dealt a rough hand.

The mission

Zirkle established SIGN in 1999 with a singular mission to return injured people to healthy, productive lives, regardless of where they live. A broken leg is a painful nuisance in First

World countries but can be a disabling, even life-ending, catastrophe in a developing one.

It is a complicated undertaking that marries training, manufacturing and a vast global network of surgeons, all linked by a common database.

SIGN designs and manufactures the implants and tools so surgeons can operate in conditions that can be primitive. Electricity may not be available or subject to dangerous surges. X-ray equipment, for example, may not be available to guide doctors to injuries.

When he learned that First World tech didn’t work in Third World settings, Zirkle headed to his garage and created devices that would.

SIGN’s work is funded chiefly by donations and some cost reimbursements. Its annual budget is about $6.7 million, with support from Kiwanis Clubs, Battelle, Kadlec Regional Medical Center and its longstanding partnership with the Seattle Foundation.

SIGN and its expanding network of surgeons operate in 54 – going on 55 – countries and have treated 350,000 patients injured in accidents and war.

Surgeons must report cases to SIGN’s database to get resupplied with implants. Zirkle reads and comments on them.

The technology database offers Dillner and Zirkle insights into procedures and the growing number of surgeons and nurses who are being trained by the people SIGN trained.

“I see new names in there all the time,” Zirkle said.

Pre-pandemic, the duo traveled three to four times a year, stopping in three countries per trip. It was a grueling schedule that’s now on hold. Unable to visit their sites in person, SIGN watches its impact spread through training from afar.

They embrace the process.

“To be a successful leader, you have to back off,” Zirkle said. “That’s what we’re doing.”

Courtesy SIGN Fracture Care International Martha, center in red skirt, was an 11-year-old orphan when her leg was broken in Tanzania. She was treated by surgeons treated by SIGN Fracture Care International, allowing her to continue her schooling. She graduated from high school in December and dreams of becoming a doctor, or maybe an engineer.

Changing lives

Naturally, Dillner and Zirkle have their favorite tales, which they shared via a recent Zoom interview.

For Dillner, who serves as SIGN’s chief executive officer, it is the pair of Marthas, one young and one old, whose lives could have been upended or even ended when they broke their legs in separate incidents.

The young Martha was 11 and an orphan living with her grandmother in Tanzania when her leg was broken when she was overrun in a street. In the normal course of events, she might have been taken to a local clinic and put in traction. It was unlikely she would have ever returned to school.

But young Martha had the good fortune to be taken to a SIGN pediatric

hospital, where the surgeon successfully operated on her the next day.

Dillner befriended the girl, sponsoring her through boarding school. She graduated from high school in December, the first in her family. She’s alternating between becoming a doctor or an engineer.

The other Martha was over 60. She had been crawling around her farm attempting to maintain animals after a leg injury went untreated for years. The local SIGN-trained surgeon went to her village.

“Both Marthas were doing well – elderly Martha in her hut and little Martha in school getting straight A’s,” Dillner said.

Zirkle’s favorite stories tend to focus uSIGN, Page 12

6

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

How becoming a Red Cross can be benefit to seniors Teams from the American Red Cross respond to about 60,000 disasters each year – home fires for the most part – but also floods, storms and wildfires.

Without the willing volunteers that fill out the ranks of Red Cross responders, many of those calls for help might go unanswered.

Because they bring maturity, judgement and experience to the job – and often have time to spare – senior volunteers are actively recruited and always welcome at the Red Cross.

Volunteers represent more than 90% of the workforce for the Red Cross Central and Southeastern Washington chapter, said Michele Roth, executive director. Of those, 33% are 65 or over.

Seniors can help others by volunteering to aid a worthy cause. Many causes are worthy of your time and effort. The Red Cross hopes you will consider it.

“The Red Cross is one of the most recognized and trusted brands in the country. Seniors express the desire to stay active, meet new people and make a difference in the community, for many, involvement in the Red Cross fits the bill,” according to a report published by Quinn Estate and Elder Law in St. Louis, Missouri.

By volunteering, seniors not only help others, they also improve their own health. A 2019 study by the Gordon Williams federal governAmerican Red Cross ment’s GUEST COLUMN Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) concluded that “consistent volunteering can improve the health and well-being of people age 55 and older…”

The Red Cross makes it easy to volunteer. You can sign up on the Red Cross website at redcross.org. Lynne Calmus is the recruiter for the TriCities. She can be reached at lynne. calmus@redcross.org or at 509-3161845.

The Red Cross operates in so many fields that almost any experience and skills you possess can be put to good use.

Red Cross Disaster Action Teams (DAT) respond to local disasters such as house fires. If called, you would operate for a few hours at a time, close to home. Some choose to deploy for longer periods farther from home, to

More than a Senior Living Community, it’s a thriving community.

What some of our residents are saying:

“I came to Parkview, looked out the window of the room they were offering and thought this is a place I want to go.”

“I am really just glad to be here!”

Comfortable living spaces • Delicious meals • Engaging social activities

Call today to schedule a tour!

(509) 734-9773 7820 W. 6th Avenue • Kennewick, WA • www.Parkviewslc.com

Independent/Assisted Living and Respite Care

provide care at such disasters as wildfires and hurricanes.

Wiley and Melody Witherspoon of Richland have been Red Cross volunteers for many years, since they were both employed at Hanford. Now retired, Wiley serves as his chapter’s operations manager while Melody plays a central role in training Red Cross workers.

Both have deployed to far-off disaster scenes such as Hurricanes Harvey and Dorian and western wildfires.

Volunteer opportunities extend far beyond disaster response. The Red Cross collects 40% of all the blood used in hospitals around the U.S. and volunteers are needed at each Red Cross blood drive to guide donors through the process.

Drivers also are needed to transport the processed blood to hospitals.

Red Cross Service to Armed Forces (SAF) delivers support services to active duty military, retirees and their families.

A program called the Hero Care Network helps unite far-flung members of military families when there is an emergency. The program relies on volunteers to handle the details of bringing a service member home when someone in the family has died or become seriously ill.

“That chore is perfect for seniors, even those with physical limitations,” said Katie Prettyman, volunteer services officer for the Northwest region. “It can all be done from your home.”

Red Cross volunteers teach emergency preparedness to community groups through a program called the

Pillowcase Project aimed at teaching preparedness to school kids in grades 3-5.

The Red Cross Home Fire campaign has cut home fire deaths by installing smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them and by teaching home fire safety lessons. If things were normal, teams of Red Cross volunteers would be in the field this time of year, installing alarms where needed. Those teams will be back in action when the pandemic ends.

If the Red Cross gains from volunteers, what do volunteers gain from the Red Cross?

By being out and about and mingling with others, the Red Cross can open the door to new friendships.

“Some of the nicest people I have met are at the Red Cross,” Melody said.

“We enjoy the friendship and comradery that has developed.”

Finally, there is the satisfaction seniors gain from still being able to make a positive contribution to their communities.

“Some of our Red Cross volunteers have told me it gives them an opportunity to give back to their communities and to make an impactful difference in people’s lives during life’s most difficult situations,” said Roth.

Melody agreed. “Volunteering with the Red Cross is a wonderful way to give back to your community,” she says, and husband Wiley nods agreement. Gordon Williams is member of the communications team for the Red Cross Northwest Region, serving Washington and north Idaho.

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021 ABERCROMBIE, From page 1

those he tells.

Abercrombie was born at the Spartanburg Colored General Hospital in the separate but not equal South of the Jim Crow era.

His parents were educators and entrepreneurs. His father taught masonry in the local school district for more than 40 years and inspired a love of math and science in his son.

His mother taught in a school for veterans and ran a restaurant she advertised in The Green Book, a guide to services and places that offered a friendly welcome to Black travelers.

The guide, published annually until it ceased in the 1960s, brought Black visitors to her door.

Abercrombie has fond memories of the athletes and entertainers who came to town but couldn’t eat in white establishments.

“I got to meet Satchel Paige and many others. I think we fixed dinner for Nat King Cole,” he recalled.

His parents’ friends were teachers and professionals.

A high school instructor who taught “unscheduled advanced courses” introduced him to chemistry, which he would study in college.

He attended Livingstone College, a historically black college in Salisbury, North Carolina, on an athletic and academic scholarship. To pay the bills, he worked as a bricklayer, in textile mills and even built and sold a home. And he majored in chemistry, building on his exposure in high school.

“That was the easiest thing I could think of to major in,” he said. The social sciences did not hold his interest at the time.

A job in chemistry

His father urged him to join him in the homebuilding trade after graduation. But Abercrombie wanted to work in chemistry for at least a few years before settling into the family business.

A friend had heard about the Hanford nuclear reservation at an East Coast job fair. The faraway state of Washington was “just a name on a map in the middle of nowhere,” as far as he was concerned.

Still, he inquired and was invited to interview. The interview was in Nashville, on his first wedding anniversary.

He recalls the weather was grim and flights were canceled. Abercrombie hadn’t planned to travel by air – most Black people didn’t, he said. As planned, he drove and reported to the interview.

Not many other candidates did because their flights were canceled.

The recruiter from Isochem, Hanford’s chemical processing contractor, was impressed when he showed

Courtesy Cold War Patriots Retired Hanford chemist John C. Abercrombie is enjoying a second career blogging and podcasting about Black history following his 1997 retirement from the Hanford site. Cold War Patriots, serving veterans of the nuclear industry, named Abercrombie one of its Everyday Heroes for 2021.

up. Abercrombie was offered a job.

He and his wife decided to move with their baby daughter in tow.

“My wanderlust kicked in, so off we drove,” he said.

It was 1967 and the Abercrombies set off without a copy of the Green Book, which had halted publication a year earlier.

Coming from a segregated community, he feared it might be hard to find Black-friendly services on the

promoted to supervisor. Thoughts of a swift return to South Carolina were set aside as he settled into a fruitful career.

“I thought, this can’t hurt,” he said.

Eventually, he was named an equal opportunity employment coordinator and spent more than 20 of his years in Richland in labor relations.

He returned to the laboratories and retired during a round of layoffs.

“I thought I’d landed on the moon.

What in the world did I get my family into?”

- John Abercrombie on his first impression of Eastern Washington when he arrived to work at Hanford in 1967.

road. Fortunately, the trip went off without a hitch.

The family entered the Tri-Cities via Wallula. He recalled being startled by the desert landscape in a state that bills itself as “Evergreen.”

He’d heard about the drizzly weather of western Washington and the lush mountains. Eastern Washington wasn’t what they expected.

“I thought I’d landed on the moon,” he recalled. “What in the world did I get my family into?”

Deciding to stay

Like most Hanford workers, Abercrombie held a series of positions with different employers as contracts and contractors changed. Isochem would give way to Arco Richfield Hanford Co., and then Rockwell Hanford Operations (1977) and then Westinghouse Corp.

(1987).

He started in a laboratory and was

In his spare time, he was one of a handful of Black members of the Benton County Sheriff’s Reserve and served as a deputy coroner.

He was on the sheriff’s boat during the 1996 Tri-Cities Water Follies when a call came over the radio: Boat race fans had found a human skeleton on the shoreline. No one knew it at the time, but it was Kennewick Man, one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found.

Hanford diversity

Raising a Black family in Richland was, in Abercrombie’s words, “not bad.” He does recall difficult moments, such as his daughter being the target of a racist slur in school.

And some colleagues at Hanford were surprised when he didn’t conform to the stereotypes they had seen on TV and in movies.

“What hit me was being told,

7

‘You’re not like the rest of them.’ ” he said. When pressed, people would tell him they didn’t know any other Black people and were drawing their views from the media.

He considered it a personal accomplishment when one colleague who had said she would not work with a Black man brought him onions from her garden.

There was much to celebrate too.

Hanford was a diverse place with workers drawn from around the country. It was enjoying a renaissance as well among Black professionals. Dr. William Wiley, for whom the elementary in West Richland is named, would be selected to lead the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which began in 1966.

And Abercrombie said he learned aspects of Black history that were unfamiliar.

He’d never heard of Juneteenth, the Texas-led celebration marking the day in 1865 that slavery ended in Texas.

There were other signs too that he was no longer in the South.

There were no segregated bathrooms at Hanford. Lower-skill jobs weren’t reserved for Black workers.

“The first time I ever saw a white janitor was at Hanford,” he said.

Rethinking history

A chance visit to Sutter’s Mill, birthplace of the California 1849 Gold Rush, inspired his love of telling stories about Black greatness.

He recalled he casually asked the curator if any Black people were involved in the Gold Rush, triggered by the discovery of flakes of gold at the Coloma mill.

He learned that some of the people who came to look for gold were Black, including some who were enslaved until they were freed when California was admitted to the United States in 1850.

In California, he learned about Mary Ellen Pleasant, a wealthy San Francisco entrepreneur, abolitionist and Underground Railroad supporter who financed John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, a triggering event for the Civil War. “The spark came from that visit to Sutter’s Mill,” he said.

An old college classmate invited him to do a podcast on Black history.

He jumped on the chance to tell stories, seeing it as a way to highlight encouraging stories of success.

“We get painted with a broad brush. It’s not fair. At the same time, there are many contributions,” he said. “I basically try to unravel stories.”

8

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

Washington vets must remain vigilant against vaccine scams Coronavirus scams are spreading as fast as the virus itself.

In late February, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had logged more than 362,000 consumer complaints related to Covid-19 and stimulus payments, 69% of them involving fraud or identity theft.

Victims have reported losing nearly $349 million. In Washington, the FTC has logged more than 7,900 consumer complaints related to Covid-19 and stimulus payments since the pandemic started.

According to an AARP survey, veterans and military families are twice as likely as civilians to be targeted by con artists. Washington veterans and all of America’s service members must remain ever vigilant.

Scammers closely monitor the headlines and adapt their messages and tactics as new medical and economic issues arise.

The Covid-19 vaccine distribution is the next big scam targeting veterans and all Americans alike.

In a January 2021 report, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cautioned “scammers are calling, texting and emailing veterans with promises of vaccine availability and early access to vaccines. These promises are lies. The people send-

Paul Frost AARP

GUEST COLUMN

ing these messages are identity thieves.”

The VA says these criminals are after your sensitive, personal information, such as your Social Security number and your

money.

Vaccine scams come in many forms: emails, website scams, texts and phone calls. Here are the top vaccine scams the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns about: • Payment to be added to a vaccine waitlist.

• Ads, websites, texts, phone calls and emails offering early access to the vaccine for a fee.

• Emails or phone calls from people claiming to work at a medical center or insurance company offering the vaccine but requiring personal medical details to check eligibility.

• Messages, calls or emails claiming that the government is requiring you to get the vaccine.

• Fake social media ads for the vaccine.

Avoid all these types of outreach

and do not engage with the scammer at all.

The VA has started an official “Keep Me Informed” online tool to give regular updates about its Covid19 vaccination process. Veterans and their family members can sign up for these vaccine updates by visiting va. gov/health-care/covid-19-vaccine/ stay-informed.

This is an official source of information about VA’s Covid-19 vaccine response.

Additionally, individual VA medical facilities will start contacting veterans about the vaccine.

However, in this outreach, VA officials will never request money, your full Social Security number, nor personal health information through phone, email, or text message during a vaccination registration request.

The VA will never require payment in exchange for providing the vaccine early, nor require payment to become eligible for the vaccine.

According to the AARP Fraud Watch Network, this isn’t the first time scammers have used the pandemic to drum up another scheme to steal from those who served our country. Some of the Covid-related scams targeting veterans and military families included:

• Fake coronavirus cures; • Fake testing and TRICARE scams; • Fake charities to help veterans and military families; and • Stimulus check scams.

The AARP Fraud Watch Network and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service created Operation Protect Veterans to help former service members and military families in Washington to protect themselves by raising awareness of scams and fraud.

The AARP Watchdog Alert Handbook: Veterans’ Edition explains 10 ways that con artists target veterans. Report suspicious emails, texts, phone calls or mailings to trained volunteers by emailing protectveterans@aarp.org or by calling 877-908-3360. Paul Frost, a former Army captain, serves as AARP employer outreach director, employer support of the Guard and Reserve, Washington Committee, U.S. Department of Defense. For more timely information and free resources to help veterans and military families, go to AARP.org/Veterans.

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

Just for Fun

Crossword

Across 1 Biblical homicide victim 5 Iraqi port 10 Double-check 13 Forewarning 14 Watch 15 Fumed 19 Pervading air 22 “... but I could be wrong” 23 --- firma 24 Software trial version 25 What a parade does 26 Set of moral principles 28 Graveyard of Empires

9

Solutions on page 11

36 Round, red root vegetable

16 Metal-bearing mineral

Down

18 Hated big-time

17 Natural number

1 Stage equipment

20 Globe

2 Ingot 3 Supplement

21 Eight hours, to most workers

4 Moon lander

23 Implied

5 Place of confinement

25 Turpentine source

6 Now and again 7 St. Elmo is their patron 8 City it can be blamed on?

27 Fort --- State University, Kansas 28 Powdery residue 29 Sum charged

9 Raggedy one

30 Weep

11 Lust after

34 Agree

12 Lady of “Idylls of the King”

35 Groups of animals

15 Move up and down

31 Golfer’s peg 32 Affirmative vote 33 Open mesh fabric

Word search - Birds Heron

Pipit

Turnstone

Auklet

Ibis

Rail

Veery

Coot

Jay

Robin

Verdin

Crane

Kite

Skylark

Wigeon

Crow

Loon

Smew

Duck

Ovenbird

Snipe

Eagle

Owl

Stint

Gull

Petrel

Teal

3 3

2 72 7 6 64 3 23 2 7 7 6 6 3 1 31 23 2 1 15 5 9 9 3 3 9 9 96 9 2 28 8 1 1 6 6 42 4 4 4 1 18 6 16 1 5 5 4 49 9 7 6 56 5 3 2 27 7 6 6

How to How beat to Str8ts beat–Str8ts – Like Sudoku, no single 1 to 9 can repeat any row Like Sudoku, nonumber single number 1 to 9 caninrepeat in any row or column.

But... rows and columns are or column. But... rows and columns are divided by black squares into compartments. 2 1 divided by black squares into compartments. 2 4 1 5 4 Each compartment must form a straight Each compartment must form a straight - 6 4 5 6 3 4 2 5 a set of numbers with no gaps but it can be a set of numbers with no gaps but it can be4 5 2 1 in any order, eg [7,6,9,8]. Clues in black cells 4 5 in any order, eg [7,6,9,8]. Clues in black4cells 3 6 2 1 5 remove that number as an option in that row 4 3 6 2 remove that number as an option in that row and column, and are not part of any straight.

3 5 2 1 4 and column, and are not part of any straight.

3 5 2 1 Glance at the solution to see how ‘straights’ 2 1 3 Glance at the solution to see how ‘straights’ are formed.

2 1 3 are formed.

Turn Back the Clock...

1971

Str8ts example

Easy Easy

© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles

3

Tough Tough

© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles

2

SUDOKU SUDOKU

© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles

6 6 6

Tern

Sudoku - Tough

Pewee STR8TS STR8TS

Str8ts - Easy

Hawk

4 3

8 7

© 2021 Syndicated Puzzles

Ani

How to beat Str8ts: No single number, 1 to 9, can repeat in any row or column.

But rows and columns are divided by black squares into compartments. Each compartment must form a straight, a set of numbers with no gaps but it can be in any order, eg: 7, 6, 8, 9. Clues in black cells remove that number as an option in that row and column, and are not part of any straight.

Rules of Sudoku - To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains ever number uniquely.

For more strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org and www.str8ts.com.

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 and 3x3 1 to 9 such that each row, column box contains every numberConsidered,” May 3box : “All Things National contains everyuniquely. number uniquely.

5Public Radio’s flagship news program, was strategies, hints and tips, many strategies, hints and tips, 3For2manyFor broadcast for the first visit www.sudokuwiki.org fortime.

Sudoku visit www.sudokuwiki.org for Sudoku 2and1www.str8ts.com for Str8ts. and www.str8ts.com for Str8ts.

5 16 : The price of mailing a letter in the 1May If you like Str8ts and other puzzles, check out our United by puzzles, 25%, with price IfStates you like increased Str8ts and other checkaout our 4books, iPhone/iPad Apps and much more on our store.

books, iPhone/iPad Apps and much more on our store. rise from 6 cents to 8 cents.

May 30 : Mariner 9 was launched by the U.S. toward Mars from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

ANSWER Quiz answer from Page 1

It was taken over by the government in 1943 and reincorporated as a civilian community in 1958.

— Source: East Benton County Historic Society and Museum

10

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

Get your goodies

Photo by Vanessa Guzmán Publisher Kristina Lord hands a goody bag to a senior during the April 20 Senior Times Expo drive-thru event in Kennewick. The Senior Times team distributed 800 goody bags at the expo and to local senior living facilities. Major event sponsors were Building Trades National Medical Screening Program, Ben Franklin Transit, Columbia Basin Denture Care, Legends Casino & Hotel, Life Care Centers of Kennewick and Richland, Nuclear Care Partners and WindSong at Southridge.

Spring Cleaning of Headstones Granite and bronze memorial headstones, like all materials exposed to outdoor elements, do require certain maintenance. Periodic cleaning of the cemetery memorial is important for lasting beauty in cemeteries.

Here are some cleaning basics: •

For hard water staining use a vinegar solution with baking soda as a mild descaling cleanser.

•

An ammonia-based cleaner like Windex will restore the natural luster to the surface of stone if used on a regular basis.

•

Use a mild solution made of three to four tablespoons of an automatic dish washing detergent and one quart of clean water.

•

Use a stiff bristled nylon brush (no wire brushes) and wet the stone with distilled or filtered water before applying the detergent solution.

•

For a more thorough cleaning the memorial can be pressure washed with up to 2000 lbs. of water pressure. Be sure to consult with the cemetery before performing any maintenance like pressure washing.

Meet Maggie Butler Murphy Maggie Butler Murphy’s reverence for cemetery and funeral work generates from her childhood experiences in pioneer cemeteries seeking and finding her ancestors’ graves. Her personal philosophy is that all people deserve to be lovingly remembered and that connecting families through generations is a gift to humanity. As a person who has been impacted by many untimely losses, she is also an advocate for pre-planning all funeral and burial

MuellersFuneralHomes.com

arrangements. In her view there is too much survivor hardship after death; planning ahead frees family and loved ones to grieve and remember without the cares of decision making and financial concerns that accompany a loss. Since joining the funeral and cemetery profession over 15 years ago, she has proudly served families of all walks of life and helped them creatively commemorate and celebrate their loved ones, and has saved countless families the unnecessary burden of pressured decision making by assisting with advance planning. “This profession is a sacred calling whereby I can lift others and ease suffering. It is truly a blessing to serve folks in their times of sorrow.”

(509) 783-3181

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

11

Senior-focused agency breaks ground on $1.6M building

By Kristina Lord

publisher@tcjournal.biz

Senior Life Resources Northwest is adding a new building to its Richland campus.

The $1.6 million, 6,100-squarefoot building will be a replica of the existing administration building and should be move-in ready in about six months, said Grant Baynes, executive director of the senior-focused nonprofit best known for operating Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels.

Senior Life Resources Northwest broke ground in mid-April after securing a low-interest, 20-year fixed loan with Bank of the West. The agency’s finance and human resources teams will be moving into the new building.

Baynes said the addition has been part of the agency’s long-range plan.

Covid-19 made it clear the new building needed to come sooner rather than later.

Before the pandemic, workers shared offices but with social distancing requirements, this practice had to stop. The staff are now spread throughout the building, which gobbled up all available space.

Baynes said they’ve also hired more staff over the years. The agency recently remodeled its Yakima facility, adding five offices, and remodeled its Sunnyside building in 2019.

Senior Life Resources Northwest moved into its existing building in 2016 in Richland. “It was tight when we moved in but it was all we could afford,” Baynes said.

“In a million years I would never have guessed we would outgrow this building,” said Kristi Thien, nutrition services director.

The agency, which operates in eight counties, runs Home Care Services, providing in-home assistance to seniors, and Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels, which offers home-delivered meals and well-checks for

homebound clients and dining center meals for mobile clients.

The dining centers are closed due to pandemic restrictions but drivethru hot lunches are offered three days a week.

The team overseeing construction includes two key people who earned Baynes’ trust because they worked on the original building project.

Dale Perry is the construction project manager for Pratt & Co. Nick Castorini serves as the construction liaison for Senior Life Resources Northwest.

“We got the old team of Dale and Nick back together,” he said. “It’s the only reason I agreed to do (this construction) now.”

The building project includes security upgrades.

“We’ll have better control over building access and a chance to improve that here (in the existing building). This area has quite a few people drifting through,” Baynes said, referring to incidents of people camping, poking through the Dumpster and stealing a Meals on Wheels van in fall 2019.

The integrated security system with cameras also will include freezer alarms to protect meals destined for senior citizens from dangerous thaws. If there’s a rise in temperatures, an alarm will sound.

“To lose one would be disastrous,” Baynes said.

The Senior Life Resources Northwest teams are back to working in the office, using a hybrid schedule with split shifts but Baynes yearns to have the whole crew back together.

“I really miss everybody here because an integral part of how we operate and feed off each other and keep our energy going on through this is face to face,” he said.

Baynes, who likes to see his staff walking around and talking to each other, is already worrying about the

Photo by Kristina Lord Construction is underway on a new $1.6 million office building at Senior Life Resources Northwest at 1824 Fowler St. in Richland.

new building splitting up the team, but he’s confident they’ll remain connected across the small parking lot between them.

“We’ll have some rebuilding to do and different dynamics in offices but we’re a human services business and human-to-human connection is integral to that,” he said.

As the pandemic and shutdowns took hold last year, Baynes secured a hefty supply of personal protective

equipment for his staff, thanks to his quick reaction time, a result of more than 35 years in fire service.

The Senior Life Resources Northwest board of directors also is offering a $50 thank-you incentive to staff who get vaccinated.

Keeping senior clients and staff safe while coronavirus rages through the community has been Baynes’s uSLR, Page 16

Puzzle answers from page 9

Crossword 1

A

10

2

B

3

E

4

L

11

K

P

E M O N

R

C

12

M A

13

E

5

E

14

V

I

L

E

D

O R

N O

T

B

T

A

E

T

15

B

22 24

16

O E

17

I

26

18

27

B

T

I G

A

A

I

T

I

O N

I

L

19

20

N

21

T

E

R

R

A

S

S

B

Y

I

C

N

I

S

E

E

E

Y

E

T

H

E

R

D

S

35

R

9

A

A

34

S

8

P

25

H

29

7

M O O D

23

G H

A

A

R

F

28

6

Str8ts

Str8ts Solution

30

S

31

T

32

A

33

N

O

E

Y

E

B

E

E

T

36

Word search

Str8ts Solution O P V 9W E Y 6 N L B 7U I 8K R E D L Y 5G A 4A J 3E

9I P8 I T 4H 8I G7 E4 O 5N L A D O R 1 3 L U G C B 6C K9 T2 I 1I 5P L6 N3 B 2N 2L E4 I5 S I O T T Q D 4O O3 S R 7R 3N E2 E7W 6E Y R 5 E6 E V

1A W 3 K2 W7 O R 3 2 E1 H 6 O M T Q 2S U I4 S 5 5 K3 K 4 R X R E 4 7 T Y 7A S6 C L 8 Y N R A 6L 1I A8 R 9 5P P8 N9 K 8L E9 E7 Q

9 8 9 8 7 4 6 1 7 6 9 2 8 5 6 3 2 4 5 5 4 3 4 3 2 7 3 5 6

Sudo

1 3 2 7 3 2 1 6 2 4 5 5 3 4 4 7 7 6 8 7 6 1 8 9 6 5 8 9 8 9 7 4 5 3 1 2

Sudoku

Sudoku Solution

8 7 1 4 6 9 3 5 2

2 4 6 3 5 7 9 1 8

3 9 5 8 1 2 4 6 7

9 6 8 5 2 3 7 4 1

5 2 4 9 7 1 6 8 3

7 1 3 6 8 4 2 9 5

For more strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org and www.str8ts.com.

6 5 9 7 3 8 1 2 4

1 8 7 2 4 6 5 3 9

4 3 2 1 9 5 8 7 6

8 7 1 4 6 9 3 5 2

2 4 6 3 5 7 9 1 8

12

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

SIGN, From page 5

on the successes of “his” surgeons, like one operating in Myanmar, roiled now by revolution. Zirkle encouraged him to avoid politics and keep operating.

His favorite photo is a young man who broke his leg in a motorcycle crash there. He was the sole support for an extended family, including grandparents. He fully healed with SIGN’s implant, and Zirkle has his smiling photo to prove it.

He is proud too of the goodwill SIGN engenders. He recalls visiting a SIGN hospital in Afghanistan for a training session. The whole room was filled with surgeons who had traveled through battle zones to get there.

Men sitting on a fence at the entrance stared as the team walked in.

“Afghan men can really glare at you.

They would glare at us.”

The nurse introduced them to an old man who had broken both legs falling in a well. Zirkle thought surgeons could help and insisted he be treated. The procedure was a success.

The next time they walked past the row of waiting men, they smiled.

“It’s a big way to win friends for the United States and personally,” he said.

Returning the injured to good health benefits not just the individual but the people who depend on them. Dillner and Zirkle estimate the people treated

by SIGN and its network of surgeons

translates to 2 million people who were not left destitute because their provider was disabled.

“We’re helping real people who deserve an equal opportunity for healing.

We’re providing these surgeons the tools they need to stay in their country and provide these services,” Dillner said.

SIGN is known for its “long bone” work, but it has expanded its mission into pediatric injuries, pelvic injuries and spinal injuries.

Pelvic and spinal injuries are more difficult to treat than broken legs. But the consequences of going without treatment are even more dire. A badly healed pelvic injury can leave the patient permanently unable to walk and bed-ridden.

It has launched a fellowship program to train surgeons in pelvic fractures. It pays a stipend so participants are not forced to go into private practice. The program in Ethiopia trains a local surgeon and one from another country, with the expectation they will go home and train their beers.

It is also getting involved in spinal surgery.

“It’s going to be a big step for us. We tend to think big,” he said.

How does SIGN do it?

To understand how Zirkle and Dillner built a global network of orthopedic expertise, start at the start: Vietnam.

Courtesy SIGN Fracture Care International Jeanne Dillner, CEO, left, and Dr. Lewis Zirkle, founder and president of SIGN Fracture Care International, share the story of how their Richland nonprofit is training surgeons in developing countries to treat broken bones in primitive settings in “Trauma Healers,” a documentary airing on PBS this month.

Zirkle, who studied medicine at Duke University, was drafted and sent to Vietnam shortly after he completed the first year of his orthopedic residency.

He was part of a team that rescued American and Vietnamese soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. The American casualties were sent to Japan or the U.S. for treatment. The civilians went to an ill-equipped local hospital.

“It wasn’t any good,” Zirkle recalled.

Opportunity knocked when a top commander was injured and treated in Zirkle’s hospital. The generals – William Westmoreland and Creighton Abrams Jr. – visited daily.

“I had to stand there each day like an idiot with a smile,” Zirkle said. He decided to get something out of the situation and asked the pair for permission to treat civilians in his own hospital.

Zirkle got his “yes” within the week.

The work was popular with his medical colleagues. Implants and equipment were sent through back channels. Nurses and anesthesiologists gave their time.

“That was so rewarding to do that,” he recalled.

Zirkle returned home and set up a thriving medical practice in Richland, where he was the go-to doctor for routine broken bones and orthopedic injuries.

But he was drawn by the horrors he had seen in the war. He established SIGN in 1999 in Richland.

Today, it employs 44 where its team develops instruments that can be used in unsophisticated settings. He’s never regretted making Richland the center of the global network instead of a community with direct overseas flights.

“We have Alaska Airlines here.

That’s enough,” he said.

Dillner said Richland is a good fit for recruiting employees. Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University have helped out.

Students in WSU’s new medical school have signed on to assist with research in the engineering department.

“We never have problems finding people who have a commitment to the mission,” she said.

And they never run out of people who need help.

“There are so many patients in developing countries that need help,” Zirkle said.

Go to traumahealers.org for more information about the documentary and the producers’ work to highlight the need to prevent and heal orthopedic injuries in “low resource” countries.

Finest Groundskeeper LLC

FINESG*792JR

(509) 851-7700 Lawn and garden maintenance Hedge and tree pruning Junk and yard waste removal Landscaping installation and restoration

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

The day our eyes were glued to the heavens

By East Benton County Historical Society

Sixty years ago this month, TriCitians raised their eyes to the sky – through their television sets.

Most TVs back then were blackand-white and the few channels available were all broadcasting the same spectacle: the leadup to and launch of America’s first spaceman and the first-ever public airing of blastoff taking a human being into space.

It was watched by most Tri-Citians – and 45 million others around the world.

On May 5, 1961, from Launch Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Alan B. Shepard, a 37-yearold Navy lieutenant commander sat in the cramped confines of a Mercury space capsule atop a Redstone rocket ready to fly more than 100 miles above the earth and out of the reach of its gravity.

For four hours Shepard sat atop the Mercury-Redstone combination as one glitch after another had to be resolved to ensure the safety of America’s first space pilot, one of seven pioneering astronauts announced on April 9, 1959, for Project Mercury, America’s first effort to place a man in space. They were chosen from among 110 test pilots rigorously examined in a search for the first corps of astronauts.

The competition to be the first American into space was intense among the Mercury 7, three from the Navy, three from the Air Force and one from the Marine Corps, all with impeccable credentials.

In January 1961, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), informed the Mercury astronauts that Shepard would be the first among them to fly into space.

The rest of the world was told in February that the first would be one of three: Air Force Capt. Virgil I. Grissom, Marine Corps Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr., or it would be Shepard.

From then, almost to the May 5 launch, the rest of the world, including the citizens of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco, were left with a guessing game as to which of the three.

Lively discussions ensued around parlors, cafes, dinner tables and the hallways of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco high schools. The manned space program in its infancy was an exciting, hero-driven, current-event experience of the most newsworthy caliber. Almost anything about the

Mercury astronauts made for headline news.

The original launch was scheduled for May 2, and when unfavorable weather conditions forced cancellation, the world learned Shepard would be America’s first spaceman.

Left off the chosen list for first American into space were Air Force majors Donald K. “Deke” Slayton and Leroy Gordon Cooper, and Navy pilots Wally Schirra and Scott Carpenter. Ultimately all would fly in outer space, with six of them aboard Mercury flights before Project Mercury ended, to be followed by two-men spacecraft launched in Project Gemini.

Shepard himself a decade later would command Apollo 14 to become just one of 12 men to walk on the moon.

Twenty-three days before Shepard’s flight, Yuri A. Gagarin, a 27-year-old Soviet Air Force major, became the first man into space, a one-orbit flight in a spacecraft known as Vostok I. It was launched and flew in complete secrecy, and it was decades before most details of the flight came out.

Shepard slammed his fist onto the trunk of a car in anger on learning of Gagarin’s flight. He felt needless delays kept the United States from being first.

At 6:34 a.m. on a beautiful spring morning in the Tri-Cities, or 9:34 a.m. at Cape Canaveral, the Redstone rocket ignited and the flight of Freedom 7 was on its way. Shepard named his spacecraft, designating it with a “7” honoring his fellow astronaut comrades. The others followed the same: “Liberty Bell 7” (Grissom); “Friendship 7” (Glenn); “Aurora 7” (Carpenter); “Sigma 7” (Schirra); “Faith 7” (Cooper).

Shepard’s suborbital flight reached

13

Courtesy NASA Images Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., in his silver pressure suit with the helmet visor closed, prepares for his Mercury Redstone 3 launch on May 5, 1961. Shepard’s Freedom 7 Mercury capsule lifted off at 9:34 a.m. and flew a suborbital trajectory lasting 15 minutes and 22 seconds. He became the first American to fly into space.

116.5 miles high where Shepard, in weightlessness, was the first human ever to fly a spacecraft. Gagarin did no manual operation during his 90-minute flight, while Shepard tested different functions.

“What a beautiful view,” he radioed from his unique perch.

His flight lasted 15 minutes and 38 seconds before splashing into the Atlantic Ocean 302 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range from Cape Canaveral. He was lifted from his craft by a U.S. Marine helicopter and flown to the carrier USS Lake

Champlain for examination and to receive a call from President Kennedy.

After his successful mission, Shepard and the other Mercury seven, along with their wives, were invited to the White House where Kennedy was to decorate Shepard with NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal. As he was about to pin the medal on the lapel of the man who had just rocketed from earth to space, the president dropped the medal.

He bent over, picked it up and then quipped: “This is the first medal to go from the ground up!”

14

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

uBRIEFS Cancer center feeds patients on Fridays

The Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation is seeking donations as it aims to double its Dine In program, which provides take-home restaurant meals for patients going through cancer treatment.

The 2020 program raised $56,000 and provided 1,900 meals from local restaurants. The goal for 2021 is to provide 5,500 meals.

Follow the program on Facebook @TCCancerCenter. Call Tara Divers, 509-737-3452 or go to bit.ly/ CancerCenterDineIn to donate.

Chaplaincy raising funds to support grieving children

Chaplaincy Cork’s Place is holding Heart of Healing, a fundraising campaign and online auction, through May 21 to support children and teens who are grieving a loss.

Supporters are invited to bid on a variety of auction packages, purchase artwork created by Cork’s Place clients and/or to donate to the campaign.

Cork’s Place services are provided at no cost with support from grants, sponsorships, donations and fundraisers.

Go to bit.ly/ ChaplaincyHeartofHealing.

Pasco seeks volunteers for arts, preservation commissions

The city of Pasco is seeking applicants to serve on its Arts and Historic Preservation commissions.

Candidates must be residents of the city, although the requirement can be waived.

The Arts & Culture Commission is seeking a member for its “art professional” seat. Artists, art directors, educators and others with arts-related experience are invited to apply.

Applicants are due by May 7.

The historic preservation commission focuses on preserving the city’s cultural heritage. Candidates should demonstrate and interest and competence in preservation.

Go to bit.ly/PascoCommissions or call 509-544-3096 for information.

U.S. Bank closes Kennewick branch

U.S. Bank permanently closed its downtown Kennewick branch in November following a temporary close earlier due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The building at 303 First Ave. is available for lease although U.S. Bank continues to operate a drivethru ATM in the parking lot.

The branch was scheduled for closure in early 2019. A spokeswoman said customers were notified of the permanent closure in October.

The nearest branch is at Clearwater and Edison in Kennewick.

Area code dialing changes for all Washington calls

Callers within the Washington 509 area code may start including the area code when dialing later this month.

Beginning April 24, telecommunications service providers will allow 10-digit dialing to help prepare 509 callers for mandatory dialing changes required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Currently, some callers can only use seven-digit dialing for calls within the 509 area code.

Starting Oct. 24, calls made without adding the area code to the seven-digit phone number may not go through, and in July 2022 service providers will completely remove seven-digit dialing from their networks.

This change to 10-digit dialing in 509 is a first step toward ensuring that everyone in the country will be able to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline using a threedigit code of 988 that launches in 2022.

Requiring the area code also will ensure that customers who already have 988 as the prefix in their phone number don’t have trouble making or receiving calls once the new threedigit dialing shortcut launches. No phone numbers will change because of this order.

In 2017, all western Washington area codes switched to 10-digit dialing, leaving 509 as the only area code in the state that hasn’t made the change from seven digit to 10-digit dialing.

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

15

Airline veteran brings new carrier to Pasco, right on schedule

By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz

A Texas-based company led by the former head of Allegiant Air launched a new carrier April 28 with a map that includes three weekly flights between the Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco and Burbank, California.

Houston Air Holdings Inc., formerly charter carrier Xtra Airways, announced the launch of Avelo Airlines to fly nonstop flights from its Los Angeles-area base to 11 West Coast vacation destinations, including Pasco, in early April.

The move fulfills an aviation consultant’s 2020 prediction that Pasco could gain new routes as airlines dropped unprofitable runs because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are thrilled to welcome Avelo Airlines to the Tri-Cities region,” said Buck Taft, director of airports for the Port of Pasco, which operates the local airport. He sat in the front row on the first flight.

“It’s an honor to be one of the first destinations for the airline,” he said.

Avelo’s arrival is right on schedule, coming less than a year after a Portland aviation consultant told Tri-City business leaders that the

Courtesy Tri-Cities Airport Tri-City officials celebrate the April 29 launch of Avelo Airlines, which offers direct service between Pasco and Hollywood Burbank airport in Southern California. The airline flies Boeing 737-800 aircraft, visible through the window.

Covid-19 pandemic could lead to opportunities for airports such as Pasco that have strong business models.

It was a bold prediction by Jack Penning of Volaire Aviation Consulting, Pasco’s aviation advisor. At the time, air travel was in a state of almost total collapse after shutdowns

took hold in April 2020.

Losing, not gaining, flights was the preoccupying thought of the day.

But in a May 29, 2020, “Coffee with Karl” program hosted by the Tri-City Development Council, Penning said the local airport could gain new routes or even see airlines restore the lost connection to Portland

as they dropped unprofitable routes for ones frequented by business and government officials.

Avelo is not restoring the Pascoto-Portland link, but its launch appears to affirm Penning’s belief that disruption could usher in opportunity.

A year later, he cheered news that the new airline is starting and that Pasco is on its map. Avelo will succeed with its emphasis on low-cost, nonstop flights catering to leisure travelers, said Penning, who sat next to Taft on that first flight.

“I think Burbank is a terrific airport in the LA Basin,” he said. “The Tri-Cities has long been working to secure year-round service to LA, and this service should work well for many of the region’s travelers.”

Andrew Levy, a former Allegiant Air and United Airlines executive, is the new CEO for Houston Air Holdings. “Avelo Airlines” is the marketing name for the former charter operator.

Levy is an aviation industry veteran with a law degree from Emery University and a background in investments, according to a 2016 docuAVELO, Page 16

2021 THANK YOU! TO OUR SPONSORS

16

SENIOR TIMES • MAY 2021

AVELO, From page 15

ument filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, when he was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of United Continental Holdings Inc. Two years earlier, he’d left Allegiant Travel Co. with a $650,000 lump sum payment and $8.5 million for his stock shares and options, according to a separate SEC document.

Levy and Houston Air Holdings raised $88 million of nearly $89 million sought to launch the airline, according to a Form D filed with the SEC in January 2020. The SEC tracks private securities as well as publicly traded companies.

uBRIEF Stimulus payment status check

The Internal Revenue Service reports it has distributed 161 million Economic Impact Payments with a total value of $379 billion as of April 22.

The third round of pandemic payments was authorized by the American Rescue Plan.

The IRS will continue to make payments on a weekly basis to individuals who are eligible based on

Levy’s Avelo team includes former executives from Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Northwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines.

Its fleet consists of 159-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft, configured as a single class and decked out in purple, yellow, white and blue livery.

Avelo casts the Burbank airport as a stress-free way to access Los Angeles and its theme parks, beaches and Hollywood hot spots.

Introductory fares begin at $19, with add-on fees for both checked and carry-on bags, window and aisle seating, priority boarding, pets and other services. past tax returns.

Although payments are automatic, the IRS urges whose who don’t normally file a tax return and have not received a payment to file a 2020 return to get the benefits they’re entitled to, which include the 2020 Recovery Rebate Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Go to irs.gov/individuals/free-taxreturn-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers to learn about the assistance available to help with returns.

The new airline arrives as Pasco, like airports everywhere, struggles to regain its footing after air travel bottomed out in 2020.

The Pasco airport recorded nearly 189,000 boardings in 2020, down 51% from the year prior. It had been on a growth tear prior to Covid-19, posting three years of consecutive record growth, topping out at 438,100 in 2019.

Pasco boardings remain well below normal in the first two months of the year. The were down 43% and 34% in January and February, relative to a year earlier, according to the port’s monthly airline activity report.

SLR, From page 11

priority from the start.

He expressed concern about the loss of congregant dining for seniors being “a huge loss socially for a lot of people.”

“We are trying to work out now how to open hours at our café safely,” he said.

More people are receiving meals at home than ever before, he said.

“If we learned nothing else, we learned how incredible this community is,” he said, explaining that

Penning, the consultant, believes the numbers will improve. Air travel is ticking up as more Americans are vaccinated and looking to reconnect with family and friends.

“These travelers are looking for good fares and nonstop flights – to reduce touch points – so Avelo’s service is likely to meet with success,” he said.

Burbank serves as Avelo’s hub, with flights to Bend/Redmond, Oregon; Bozeman, Montana; Eugene, Oregon; Grand Junction, Colorado; Medford, Oregon; Phoenix/Mesa, Arizona; Ogden, Utah; and Arcata/ Eureka, Redding and Santa Rosa, all in California. community members donated money when the agency’s annual fundraisers were canceled.

“A good company does pretty well in good times but it takes a great company to be great in bad times,” Baynes said. “It’s too late to start building relationships and a culture when times get bad. You’ve got to have that ahead of time.

“It’s helped us excel,” he said.

To learn more about Senior Life Resources Northwest, go to seniorliferesources.org or call 509-7351911.