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Lifestyle/Valley Scene | FamilyMonday, November 17, 2008
WINCHESTER — Gina Ensogna and Hartwell Pickard "Pic" Slayden met in the ninth grade when they both attended James Wood High School in Winchester. He asked her out to a party that weekend and they began dating. Now, 37 years later, they are planning their wedding. Though they dated for two years in high school, their young romance ended at the beginning of their junior year.
When it comes to the nation's economic mess, even the youngest members of a family can feel stress and anxiety. Children as young as 5 or 6 can have a basic understanding of money, says Donna Steffey, a licensed clinical social worker with Generations Counseling Center in Stephens City. Tuesday, October 14, 2008
WOODSTOCK — Sitting on her front porch on a recent fall morning, Arlena Miller had a smile on her lips, quivering into a full-blown laugh as she talked about her clownish personality, tricks she played on past co-workers and the time a cart her husband was pulling overturned with her and a load of blackberries. Inside her neat, little house, a sun room was dominated by an exercise machine. Miller, 75, quickly turned on a boom box to a Christian music CD and talked about how she would get going to tunes praising Jesus. Wreaths she had made were stacked on a table. She paints, quilts and plans to begin volunteering at adult homes. Monday, October 13, 2008
EDINBURG — Amidst the whirlwind of diaper changes, midnight feedings and sheer excitement that follow a baby's arrival, working parents have an important question to consider: What happens when mom and dad go back to work? According to Sharon Veatch, executive director of the Virginia Child Care Resource & Referral Network, when parents should start looking for infant care "really depends on how difficult it is to find" in their community. It can be hard to find in some parts of Virginia, she said. Monday, September 29, 2008
FRONT ROYAL- For survivors of sexual violence, words sometimes can't express the pain and sorrow of what they went through. Some survivors turn to art to show their pain and share their hope. A storefront at the Second Chance thrift store on Main Street will display paintings, artwork and poetry by victims of sexual violence until Oct. 30. The artwork is part of a traveling exhibit, "The Art of Surviving," from the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, a statewide coalition of agencies and individuals working to end sexual and domestic violence. Monday, September 15, 2008
RELIANCE — Chuck Call and his wife, Tracy Fitzsimmons, want their children to grow up to be caring, intelligent individuals. So far they are off to a good start, with Call's background in human rights, peace-building and justice reform under his belt, and Fitzsimmons' interest in politics and the arts and raising their children to be bilingual. "I was interested in seeing the world and learning about the world," says Call, 45. It was this passion that inspired him to major in international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey. Monday, September 8, 2008
WINCHESTER — A new club in the city teaches that counting one's good deeds can lead to rewards. The Good Deeds Club began last September as an activity put on by the Winchester Department of Parks and Recreation, and coordinator Leslie Bowery plans to keep it going this year. Monday, August 25, 2008
MT. JACKSON — David Walker gets up from the dining room table. He's smiling. His wife, Kathy, knows what is about to happen. "He wants to show you something he got in Cuba," she said. Monday, August 4, 2008
FRONT ROYAL — The Salvation Army Community Center is getting a face lift. This year, Capt. Lisa Booth, commanding officer of the local organization, said the focus is on organized activities that will keep children occupied. Children can come both during the summer and after school in the fall, on certain days of the week depending on their age, to this safe place where they can be supervised by adults. Anyone from age 5 to 16 has a place at the center, Booth said. Friday, July 25, 2008
MAURERTOWN — As well trained as he is, Lloyd Horst still learns a new lesson once in a while. As a father of eight, grandfather of 25 and great-grandfather of three, Horst, and his wife, Elverta, have influenced the lives of many more children as members of Volunteer Emergency Families for Children. As volunteers, they are matched by social workers with children who are either abused or in a home environment that has been deemed unsafe. Children can stay with volunteers for as many as three weeks and could be sent away from home and to a volunteer's house at any given time, with little notice. Monday, July 21, 2008
WINCHESTER — Lots of teenagers do service projects during their high school years. But Virginia Lyman, 17, of Frederick County, is one of a handful who can honestly say that they've helped to give a number of blind people a new "leash" on life. Saturday, July 19, 2008
A twister appearing out of heavy storm clouds might not be something that Virginians are used to seeing, but it is something they can and should expect, especially during the warmer months. According to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management's Web site, www.vaemergency.com, July is the most active month for tornadoes in Virginia. Monday, July 14, 2008
FRONT ROYAL — Rangers at the Shenandoah National Park are taking all the guesswork out of camping, offering two seminars tailored to the novice camper. "The Basics of Family Camping" seminars are designed to teach families how to camp. Staying overnight in the park is a favorite pastime for many families, said Regina Cardwell, a park ranger, but it is important to know some basic information. Monday, July 7, 2008
With children off from school and warm weather tempting residents outside, the summer holidays offer the perfect opportunity for get-togethers with family. Margaret Brumback, of Winchester, plans a reunion for the Armel and Trenary families every year. The families met again last month in Jim Barnett Park for their 46th year. Monday, June 23, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Peter Haskins seems a lot like a typical, witty 9-year-old: He loves his Nintendo Wii, the word "awesome" is a big part of his vocabulary, and he can quote lines from animated movies like "Chicken Run" and "Stuart Little." But there's a lot more to this boy than meets the eye. Monday, June 16, 2008
STRASBURG — Six-year-old Kyierra Ashby seemed fine after being rescued from water over her head in the Strasburg pool last week. Had pool manager Mary Catherine Funk not read a frightening article about "dry drowning" a few days before, probably nothing more would've been done for her. And in Kyierra's case that likely would've worked out just fine. Monday, June 9, 2008
Birthday parties are fun but also hectic, depending on how old your child is and how many friends will attend the party. Whether you are planning a celebration for a toddler or a teenager, options around the valley are endless — and can save you a headache in the long run. Many parents like to have their children's birthday parties at locations like Little Thinker Z in Winchester because the party coordinators do everything, and parents do not have to worry about cleaning up a mess, says owner Nanette Garver. Monday, June 2, 2008
FRONT ROYAL - Indiana Jones has nothing on Andrew Coffron. While the fictional movie hero had his temple of doom, Coffron's temples led to a dream come true. Coffron, 26, journeyed from Saratoga, Calif., to Front Royal and then to Thailand to find out where temple rice-paper rubbings left to him by his grandfather, Charles Jenkins, were from. Coffron's treasure at the end of his adventure, however, turned out to be meeting his future wife, Mukda Putthawong, 28. She is expecting the couple's first child in July. Monday, May 19, 2008
Joerg Eichmann grew up in Germany, where people frowned upon bringing children to dine at the finer restaurants. "If you brought little kids, jaws dropped," Eichmann declares, concerning German customs. Monday, May 12, 2008
When the sub-prime mortgage implosion began last year, the most obvious results were a rash of home foreclosures and falling home sales. But as college students begin making financial arrangements for the 2008-2009 school year, the resulting credit crunch has the student loan market looking decidedly shaky. Monday, May 12, 2008
WINCHESTER -- Virginia law might require that Edward N. Bell die for the murder of Winchester police Sgt. Ricky L. Timbrook, but taking another life will do nothing but create more suffering, according to the killer's family. Joanne Nicholson, of Winchester, shared a home with Bell for years, and has been helping to raise three of his children since his trial in 2001. She and other members of the family have largely remained silent since then. Monday, April 28, 2008
The pictures, snapshots of departed loved ones at family gatherings or posed portraits on days of celebration, may be long forgotten, say, in a box in the attic or in an album in a musty basement. They may be faded, or torn a little. Maybe the corners have worn away. They might have yellowed with age. And because of the damage, even when they're found again, it may be thought that they're lost forever. Friday, April 18, 2008
FRONT ROYAL — Neighbors and friends were reeling Thursday after learning that an early-morning fire on John Marshall Highway had claimed the life of at least one child, with one still unaccounted for that evening. Bob Hively, a member of Moose Lodge 829, adjacent to the scene of the fire, said he has known the Cook family, who lived in the home, for more than 20 years. He said they were neighbors several years earlier. Monday, April 14, 2008 Providing memories: Local student part of effort to give orphans portraits, worth When the memory fades, family photos help tell the stories. But many orphans, like Santiago Dotan, a boy in Quito, Ecuador, have neither pictures nor memories of their childhood. Saturday, April 12, 2008
STRASBURG — The day after police announced the arrest of Samantha Elizabeth Dale on a charge of attempted murder of her 5-year-old son, relatives said there is no way the 23-year-old mother would hurt her "little man." "I don't understand, because she is a great mother," Dale's sister, Kathy Dale, said through tears Friday. "I don't understand how they're accusing her of this, because this is not right. This is not her. Thursday, April 10, 2008
WOODSTOCK — With the winter air making it too cold to be outside, David Hinegardner placed a mattress against a wall in the unfinished basement of his home. That's where he would toss a ball for hours at a time to his 7-year-old daughter, Brea, who took her first cuts with a bat, hitting the ball over and over into the mattress. That was how Central sophomore Brea Hinegardner learned to play softball — the game she still loves today. Thursday, April 10, 2008
FRONT ROYAL — Just like most children, Kaylee Williams saves her pennies in a piggy bank. Unlike most children, though, she isn't pocketing that change for video games or Barbie dolls. She is desperately trying to find a cure for cancer. Monday, March 31, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Many residents of Frederick County already know about some of the cemeteries rooted in the county's history, but they might not be familiar with the many smaller, historic graveyards nestled along lesser-traveled country roads or on farmland. Though some of the cemeteries are well preserved, others have fallen into disrepair over the years, making a cemetery's history difficult to uncover. Monday, March 24, 2008
STRASBURG — For better or worse, children turn out like their parents. Passed down from one generation to the next can be political views, favorite sports teams, culinary skills, sense of humor, musical talent and a host of other traits good and bad. When Ricky and Beverly Funkhouser mapped out their plan for being parents in the mid-1980s, they identified one thing that would stand above the rest to define their children — unconditional love for others. Saturday, March 22, 2008 Birth control education pushed in Shenandoah County WOODSTOCK — A dose of the real world is coming to Shenandoah County Public Schools' seventh-graders. The School Board has approved a request from the family life education community involvement team to begin teaching a unit on contraception to pupils in seventh grade. Rebecca Cooper, chairwoman of the team, detailed the reasons it's needed at a lower grade level in a memo to board members, and the Internet, she states, is the big one. Monday, March 17, 2008
FRONT ROYAL - As Karen Eriksson-Lee has run her Front Royal dance studio, her children have always been by her side. "My studio I started before I was ever married or had kids, so they grew up with me in the studio," she said. Monday, March 10, 2008
BOYCE — The Wright family of MVP Acres Farm recently welcomed quadruplets to its ever-increasing number. Four healthy babies, three boys and a girl, made their way into the world in a mere 30 minutes the night of an eclipse, Feb. 19, each one of them sporting their own unique hair coloring, clamoring for mom's attention — and bleating. That's right. The Wrights, Eddie, Wendy and their 14-year-old daughter, Natalie, raise boer meat goats, and one of them, Stretch, gave birth to Polky Dot, Eclipse, Spuds Mackenzie and Clover. While twins are the norm for goats, quads are a rarity, Mrs. Wright said, and the farm has seen its fair share of babies recently, with four sets of births since the beginning of December. Monday, February 25, 2008
Starting a new relationship can be difficult, especially if you do not know your date very well and are unsure if the two of you have much in common. An alternative to the traditional "dinner and a movie" date, which could be easier on your wallet and your waistline, is fitness dating. Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Family stories affectionately told and passed down from generation to generation are familiar events at reunions and gatherings across the communities of the Northern Shenandoah Valley. But how frequently do these family discussions reveal to us important information about our family's health history? |
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