Peoples adds people in Mount Vernon

Margaret Curry is now real estate loan representative at Peoples Bank’s Mount Vernon Home Loan Center.

She has over 28 years banking experience, including stints as financial service representative and branch manager. Most recently, she managed a mortgage company in Mount Vernon. Curry is a Board of Realtors member and teaches classes to first time homebuyers in Skagit County.

Jennifer Hodges joined Peoples Bank as assistant manager at the East Mount Vernon branch. She has six years banking experience, including time as a financial services representative and consumer lender.

 

Overall Laundry adds to Skagit sales staff

Ken Malseed joined Overall Laundry Services as a sales and service representative for Skagit County. He will serve their growing clientele in the Skagit Valley. Malseed joins Overall with customer service, marketing and sales experience gathered with CBS Inc., Puget Sound Energy, and Sysco Food Service.

Overall is a Bellingham-based provider of rental work wear and textile services. The company began in Seattle in 1920.

 

Prudential agent gains certification

Prudential Skagit Realtors agent Carol Ebbs has completed the first stage of coursework as an accredited buyers representative. When complete, she’ll achieve full certification.

 

Ensing expands insurance acceptance

Cheryl Ensing, acupuncturist and owner of Cornerstone Acupuncture, now accepts Regence BlueShield, Premera Blue Cross and Uniform Medical Plan.

Ensing is a graduate of the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and practices Acutonics, a method using tuning forks to balance the body’s energy system.

 

Kiwanis Club elects leaders

Kiwanis Club of Skagit-Mount Vernon elected their new leadership in October. Members will serve through September 2003.

Elected leaders are as follows:

Ken Bergsma, president. Bergsma is a lieutenant with the Mount Vernon police department.

Mary June Curtis, president-elect. Curtis works at the Skagit County Juvenile Probation department.

Maryl Skjei, vice-president. Skjei is a nurse with the Skagit County Health Department.

Katie Jungquist, secretary. Jungquist is Skagit County Treasurer.

Dean Shellan, treasurer. He owns Shellan Jewelers in Cascade Mall.

Bob Smith, past president. Smith owns Coupon Gazette ad flyers.

The board of directors consists of:

Bill Beane, owner of PiP Printing

Norma Brummett, Skagit County auditor

Mike Custance, owner of Valley Window Cleaning

Si Morris, retired US Army

Judith Rolston, counselor with Rehabco

Vera Rothrock, president of Mount Vernon Parks Foundation

Kiwanis Club hosts a variety of fundraisers for community projects. September’s Auction for Kids raised $13,000 for a variety of projects helping Skagit County youth.

 

Fox learns to toilet cats

Kolleen Fox, owner of the Cat Nap Inn in Sedro Woolley, attended a course on toilet training for cats.

Seattle/King County Humane society offered the course, which focused on practical training and troubleshooting in training cats to use a litter box.

The Cat Nap Inn is a bed and breakfast designed exclusively for cats.

 

MacGregor adds Yousling to team

Rachel D. Yousling joined MacGregor Publishing in sales and marketing last month. Before going to work for MacGregor, Yousling worked in ad sales and as a graphic artist for the Skagit Valley Herald and owned a jewelry shop in Burlington.

She is a member of the Rotary Club in Burlington and was a Paul Harris fellow in 2001. Yousling is past president of Mount Vernon Women in Business.

 

Eldred wins national recognition

David Eldred, assistant vice president and marketing director at Peoples Bank, is now a certified financial marketing professional. The Institute of Certified Bankers, a non-profit organization sponsored by the American Bankers Association, awards the designation.

Eldred joined Peoples Bank in 2001, with over 15 years experience in bank and financial services marketing and public relations. He graduated from Western Washington University in 1989. In 1993, he graduated with honors from the school of bank marketing through the University of Colorado and has completed bank-related education through Northwestern University and Emory University.

 

Visiting Nurse hires new director

Terri Briant Booth is the new director of operations for Visiting Nurse Personal services. Visiting Nurse is a regional non-profit providing home-care aides and nursing services throughout Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island Counties.

Booth has worked on Whatcom County Council on Aging’s senior and information and assistance. She is responsible for all aspects of Visiting Nurse’s operations.

 

Windermere Anacortes adds sales associates

Winderemere Real Estate in Anacortes has added two new sales associates.

Caroline Magnuson-Baumann joined Windermere after spending time in Santa Barbara, Calif. She began her real estate career at Winderemere in Bellevue.

Kathryn Rogers worked previously with Winderemere Manito in Spokane. She holds both an accredited buyers representative designation and graduate realtors institute designation.

 

Main Street Yoga adds people, classes

Main Street Yoga has added a variety of new classes and new teachers.

Master Joe Liao is offering a six-week women’s self defense class. The class is designed to prepare women both physically and mentally to defend themselves.

Randi is offering deep tissue massage. She also teaches athletic hatha yoga. This brand of yoga combines Ashtanga and Hatha styles with pilates, for a focus on conditioning.

Aaron Turner teaches Akido. He is a second-degree black belt, with a special teaching certificate from England.

Jerry Ferguson teaches traditional style karate. He has more than 18 years experience as a karate teacher. Ferguson is a former US Olympic committee athlete of the year, national team member and coach, and Pan American gold medallist.

David Rauch spends two evening each week teaching tai chi. He studied Yang style tai chi under Robert Fong of Bellingham.

Randy Walker teaches ashtanga yoga. Walker trained with Pattabhi Jois, director of the ashtanga research institute in Mysore, India.

 

SWAN names professional woman of the year

Skagit Women’s Alliance and Network, a leading organization fostering relationships among Skagit business and professional women, named Debra Lancaster their professional woman of the year.

Lancaster is coordinator of the Washington State University Learning Center for Skagit, Island and San Juan Counties. In that capacity, she is responsible for recruitment and student services. As such, she has the opportunity to mentor many women in the earliest stages of their careers.

Lancaster said she was humbled to be considered for the award.

The WSU Learning Center offers distance education resources for degrees in nursing, business, agriculture, social sciences and human development.

SWAN has awarded professional woman of the year awards annually since 1985. After an open nomination period, a panel of five judges assesses five finalists. Judges deliberate and announce the winner at a SWAN social each autumn.

 

Governor honors 24 with lifesaving awards

Governor Gary Locke handed out a total of 24 lifesaving awards at the 51st annual industrial health and safety conference. Awards are co-sponsored by the Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health advisory board and the state department of labor and industries. They commemorate heroic actions in saving lives.

Skagit Valley winners include:

Charlie Bauer of Sedro-Woolley who is chief inspector of Snelson Companies, Inc. Bauer was observing open trench work when Rick Stauffer had a seizure and fell into the ditch. Bauer picked Stauffer from being face down in the mud, unblocked his airway and monitored Stauffer until paramedics arrived.

Denis Caron of Sedro-Woolley, along with Ron Chevalier of Acme, recognized Richard Zavala, unit operator for Puget Sound Refining, was choking. They performed the Heimlich maneuver and removed the obstruction from Zavala’s throat.

 

Skagit county commissioners join national committees

Don Munks, Skagit County commissioner, was recently appointed to the National Association of Counties’ environment, energy, and land use steering committee.

The steering committee focuses on pollution control issues, waste management, zoning, growth management, and using water, energy, and land resources. Committee recommendations are presented to the annual NACo meeting and, if adopted, become part of the American County Platform. The platform becomes the basis for NACo lobbying before the federal government.

“It’s a privilege to serve on this committee,” said Munks. “Skagit County needs to be at the table in addressing these important issues.”

Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt was reappointed to the NACo agricultural and rural affairs committee. The committee is concerned with farm legislation, economies of agricultural areas, trade legislation, rural development, conservation and agricultural land preservation.

“As a fourth-generation Skagit Valley farmer, this committee assignment is a good fit for me,” Dahlstedt said. “Putting U.S. agriculture on a level playing field with foreign producers is critical to save Skagit County agriculture.”

During his tenure on the agricultural and rural affairs committee, Dahlstedt has promoted national food safety legislation and the inspection of foreign food products before entering the United States.

“We need to insure a safe food supply for Americans,” Dahlstedt said.

 

Newton certified in balloon art

Brenda Newton, of Balloon and Basket Creations in Anacortes, earned certified balloon artist status recently. She completed a set of written, oral and practical exams administered by the Qualatex Balloon Network in Chicago.

The certification test examines a balloon professional’s knowledge of skills and techniques for designing and building balloon arrangements and demonstrating design theories, delivery techniques and business systems.

There are over 1,500 certified balloon artists around the world.

 

Hurtig master of table topics

Phil Hurtig of Prudential Skagit Realtors won first place at a recent Toastmasters table topics competiton in Seatac. Table topics is a test of extemporaneous speaking. Competitors must deliver a two-minute speech on a topic revealed right before the competition

 

College names new BRC director

Bruce McBane is the new director of Skagit Valley College’s Business Resource Center. Most recently, McBane was public information director at the college.

Before joining Skagit Valley College, McBane spent two years as executive director of the Mount Vernon chamber of commerce and was director of the La Conner chamber of commerce. He has an extensive military background and is a retired Army officer. In the Army, McBane gained a great deal of public relations experience and served in a variety of community, government and press relations positions.

In his capacity as director of the Business Resource Center, McBane is charged with encouraging both large and small businesses to take full advantage of the center’s resources.

“The challenge is to get businesses in here,” he said.

Currently, the BRC has a number of strategic partnerships designed to enhance their ability to offer useful services to the local business community. With the Small Business Administration, they offer training and counseling for both new and established small businesses. With a partnership with the Economic Development Association of Skagit County, they offer workshops to meet business training needs in both governmentally mandated and enterprise-enriching topics.

“If we don’t have an instructor, we’ll find one,” McBane said. The BRC also offers customized training both at their facility and on-site.

One special training area is in governmentally mandated workplace safety courses. McBane said their Worksafe Institute instructor, David Ellsworth, is one of the top safety instructors in the state.

Finally, through a partnership with the Skagit Council of Governments, business owners can apply for a revolving loan.

“It’s really one stop shopping,” McBane said.

Arden Ainley is the new interim public information director at the college. She will temporarily add these responsibilities to her regular duties as news and publications manager at Skagit Valley College.

Ainely joined the public information office in 1988. She added news and publications responsibilities in 1996. She has a history degree from the University of Washington, where she also did extensive coursework in communications.

While she spent time in graphic design and technical writing, Ainely said her positions with Skagit Valley College have developed into the most diverse and interesting job’s she held.