June 2016
Volume 4 • Issue 6
Cat Tales Zoological Park is purrfect daytrip
Summer lends itself to lighter, fresher foods
16th Annual Hogs and Dogs Family Festival
Don’t miss it Thursday, June 16 4-10 p.m. Hogs and Dogs Family Festival Bombing Range Sports Complex, West Richland
Grandparents gathering signatures for initiative to grant visitation rights By Mary Coffman For a couple of hours each day, Christine Nichols stands outside of Lowe’s, telling anyone who will listen her story and asking them to sign the petition she is holding. Nichols, of Richland, is with GROW, or Grandparents’ Rights of Washington State, a group that trying to gather 250,000 signatures to qualify Initiative 1431 for the November ballot. I-1431 would gives grandparents legal standing to petition a court for visitation rights if they are being unreasonably kept from their grandchildren. Nichols’ granddaughter had lived her from the time the young girl was an infant until last November, when she was not returned by the father’s family after going to have holiday pictures taken. Nichols said her daughter, who struggles with mental illness, left her granddaughter with her as a baby and would come in and out of her life sporadically. “I potty trained her. I taught her A,B,Cs, I taught her to skate and play soccer,” Nichols said. “She is my life.” But the father’s family has kept the child from Nichols, who has no visitation rights under the law. “I still have her Christmas presents boxed up and haven’t been able to give them to her,” she said. In 2000, Washington’s visitation laws were dismantled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled they were too broad and unconstitutionally interfered with parenting rights in Troxel vs. Granville. In that case, the Troxel’s son committed suicide and the daughter-in-law started withholding the children from the grandparents. A judge granted them visitation, but the daughter-in-law appealed and the Appellate Court sent the case to the Supreme Court. uRIGHTS, Page 8
Bob and Lois Andrewjeski of Eltopia, owners of Shamrock Percherons, take a four-horse team on a lap around the arena at Sandpoint, Idaho.
The Andrewjeskies’ Percherons have wowed parade goers for decades
By Loretto J. Hulse Encounter the Andrewjeski family and their Percherons draft horses at a fair, parade or show and they’ll gladly answer your questions. But please, please don’t ask them the one they hear the most. “Does it hurt when they step on your foot?” said Helenka Vanderbilt of Connell. With an average weight of anywhere from 2,100 to 2,900 pounds, the answer is an emphatic “Yes.” Vanderbilt is one of the Andrewjeskies’ four daughters and the only one currently involved with the care and use of the family’s five draft horses. She grew up with the family’s massive equines,
although the actual animals have come and gone over the years. “I began driving a team when I was 7 years old— I’m 43 now,” she said. Her parents, Lois and Bob Andrewjeski, bought their first draft horses, two half-Percherons, Dolly and Daphane, in 1948. “We’d gone to a sale at Quincy Livestock, which was owned by the Easterdays, and Bob bought the two big white mares. Later he bought a black registered Percheron stallion and showed him at draft horse shows in Monroe and Sandpoint, where he took champion. That’s all it took,” said Lois Andrewjeski, now 76. uHORSES, Page 2
Program enhances lives of senior citizens through companionship By Audra Distifeno for Senior Times Area senior citizens who would otherwise be lonely and unable to get themselves to medical appointments or complete everyday tasks have been uplifted and given hope by friendships made through the Senior Companion Program. “Many of our seniors are living alone and all of their family and friends are gone. We provide companionship, emotional support, transportation and more to them,” said Ann Myer, coordinator for Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties. Myer has been the coordinator for four years and she said it gives her great satis-
faction knowing the area’s elderly are being helped through the program. “I honestly think the most satisfying thing to me is knowing that our volunteers are going out there and making a difference in people’s lives,” she said. The Senior Companion Program is a free service provided by Catholic Family & Child Services to elderly and adults with special needs who are generally living alone. Companions who are 55 years and older provide assistance and friendship by taking care of simple chores, like providing transportation and offering contact to the outside world. uCOMPANIONSHIP, Page 11
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