Issaquah native Melanie, makeup maven, leaves mark on fashion, commercials and silver screen
January 31, 2012
Makeup artist Melanie (left), of Issaquah, prepares a model for a recent shoot. At top is a model after her complete transformation by Melanie. Contributed
Imagine a job where you are flown to New York one day, Milan the next and then are out on a boat, performing a job you love, knowing your work will be seen my millions of people.
That description fits Issaquah resident and internationally known makeup artist Melanie.
“I started going by one name 15 years ago,” Melanie said. “It differentiated me from the start, and that’s what I needed in a town full of thousands of other hair and makeup professionals.”
Since she began her career 20 years ago, Melanie has worked on more than 30 films, hundreds of commercials and thousands of print ads. Though it sounds like glamour and first-class tickets, her career is filled with long days away from home, many times in uncomfortable circumstances.
On one commercial set, she had to create the face of the Ivar’s sea captain, working on his beard, hair and makeup, all the while on a boat that was rocking to and fro. For a major motion picture, she and her crew had to arrive at 3 in the morning every day for several months as she delicately glued hair and makeup to the main actors.
Newcastle mom wins IKEA’s Stuff the Bug contest
January 31, 2012
The Seattle IKEA yellow Volkswagen Bug is filled with soft toys to promote its annual campaign. Contributed
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but Newcastle resident Angela Weber often attends IKEA’s free Monday morning breakfasts with a group of friends.
That’s how she found out about the Stuff the Bug Contest.
But on one trip in particular, it paid off big.
“I thought it was really fun to see a VW bug stuffed with toys,” she said.
The yellow classic Beetle was stuffed with soft toys to promote IKEA’s Soft Toys for Education campaign.
IKEA held its annual Soft Toys for Education campaign from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24. Since 2003, the IKEA Soft Toy campaign has donated $47.5 million to UNICEF and Save the Children — a contribution that has provided access to education to about 8 million children in nearly 40 countries.
For every colorful soft toy purchased at stores throughout the U.S. during the contest, IKEA donated $1.30, or the equivalent of one Euro, to UNICEF and Save the Children’s global projects designed to improve children’s education.
REI employee braves sub-zero temps for a good cause
January 31, 2012
Linsey Warren, an Issaquah resident and avid outdoorswoman, with the Olympic Mountains behind her in a view from Issaquah Highlands, plans a trek through Quebec in February to raise money for the oncology department at St. Jerome’s Hospital near Montreal. By Greg Farrar
There’s a reason Linsey Warren works at the Issaquah REI store.
“I grew up in the outdoors and I’ve always liked the idea of a challenge,” she said.
Now, Warren’s taking her love of the outdoors and adventure and using it for a good cause.
This month, Warren and two others will race Ski-Doos in the province of Quebec. The expedition will raise money for the oncology department at St. Jerome’s Hospital, located just outside Montreal.
The trek begins at the Inuit village of Puvirnituq and proceeds north toward the villages of Akulivik and Ivujivik, on the northern tip of the province in the arctic region of Nunavik. The group expects to cover several hundred miles during the journey.
Craig Ross, a first aid instructor at the Nunavik Arctic Survival Training Center, created the project.
Ross has a personal connection to the cause. His wife received successful treatment at the hospital when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“He wanted to take everything that he knows about the north and everything that the hospital was doing to fight for his wife, and combine it into one dream,” Warren said.
Community invited to enjoy love of fiddling
January 24, 2012
From left, Tami Curtis, and Ken and Martha Neville from the Rovin’ Fiddlers play at the Railroad Depot in June 2009. Contributed
Fiddle music is filling the air in Issaquah and beyond. Two locally based bands aim to bring joy to the public through fiddle music.
Rovin’ Fiddlers was formed in the summer of 2008 and consists of six to eight regular members, ages ranging from 40s to 60s. Besides performing at senior centers, retirement homes and the farmers market in Issaquah, they also rove around the greater Seattle area.
“Our group was originally called the Firehouse Fiddlers … but we changed it because we move around the local area to perform,” said Ken Neville, the group’s coordinator, who has lived in Issaquah since 1972.
Other regular band members include Ken’s wife, Martha, Tami Curtis and David Edfeldt, all of Issaquah.
Huntington Learning Center helps celebrate Catholic Schools Week
January 24, 2012
The Issaquah Huntington Learning Center is supporting the 39th annual Catholic Schools Week 2012 from Jan. 29 through Feb. 5.
“America’s youth are shaped by their education, and Huntington is pleased to join the Catholic schools in the state in giving elementary and secondary students the best education possible,” said Brian Riddick, of Huntington Learning Center of Issaquah. “We applaud all schools that uphold high educational standards and integrate values-based teaching into their curricula.”
The 2012 theme of Catholic Schools Week is “Catholic Schools: Faith, Academics, Service,” which highlights the three distinctions of Catholic schools.
“Huntington Learning Center is a part of many communities across our nation, and we recognize that Catholic schools play an important role in our educational system,” Riddick said. “We’re proud to partner with Catholic and other schools of excellence to help students reach their potential and give them the foundation to become good citizens.”
Huntington supports a variety of national events focused on education, including Read Across America, Math Awareness Month and American Education Week.
Learn more by calling 391-0348.
Donate sweaters to neighbors in need at PCC Natural Market
January 24, 2012
The spirit of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” has come to Issaquah and the Puget Sound region during a sweater drive for neighbors in need.
PCC Natural Markets and KCTS 9 teamed up for the annual Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Sweater Drive to collect thousands of sweaters for local nonprofit organizations.
The greatest need is for children’s items, but the drive accepts all new and gently used adult and children’s sweaters and coats. Find collection bins at PCC Natural Markets and the KCTS 9 lobby through Feb. 12.
Donors can drop off sweaters and coats at the Issaquah store, 1810 12th Ave. N.W., or other locations.
The sweaters go to Wellspring Family Services, a group formed to help families achieve self-sufficiency.
Donors dropped off more than 6,000 coats and sweaters during the 2011 drive.
The drive is a takeoff on Fred Rogers and the cardigan he donned at the start of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” episodes. The famed red cardigan is enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution.
Mardi Gras theme comes to Grand Ridge Elementary School auction
January 24, 2012
Artwork like this piece, ‘Hands,’ is up for auction to raise money for the Grand Ridge Elementary School PTA. Contributed
A past president of the Grand Ridge Elementary School PTA, Lida Buckner makes no secret of the fact she wants to start a tradition.
Buckner is one of the driving forces behind the school’s first auction event, dubbed Mardi Gras 2012. The fundraiser is split into two parts, an online auction and a live auction event. The online portion of the fundraiser began Jan. 22 and runs through Jan. 29. The live auction is set for Feb. 11 at the Hilton Garden Inn Issaquah.
Buckner said proceeds will benefit science, art and music programs, as well as programs run by the school PTSA.
During the online event, parents and others can bid on 37 original student art projects, one from each classroom in the Issaquah Highlands school. As for the live event, organizers wanted to make it a little different. Buckner said their choice of the Hilton Garden Inn as a venue is another reason the live auction will run a bit unlike similar events parents and others may have seen put together by other schools.
Veterinarian fulfills a lifelong wish list
January 17, 2012
Sarah Owens (center) becomes friends with two women during a luncheon at one of the first gatherings of Tanzanian and Kenyan Maa-speaking peoples (Maasai nomadic tribes) at a sharing of the commonalities and differences in traditions. Contributed
As a young person, veterinarian Dr. Sarah Owens made a point of asking her elders what it was they wished they had done with their lives. As she listened to their regrets, Owens made a promise to herself to “make sure I didn’t miss out on anything.”
Owens kept that promise. She graduated from Brown and Harvard, traveled to the mountains of Nepal to care for animals on film shoots and spent many hours in the castles around Europe performing delicate surgeries on animals. In between stints at college, Owens was an active leader in several of nongovernmental organizations in South Africa. Eventually, the pull of her native Northwest roots drew her home to Issaquah.
“Aside from the Arctic and Antarctic, I’ve lived most my life on the continents and am completely happy to be back here in the Northwest,” she said, adding that she feels a symbiotic relationship to people in the Northwest.
“No matter where I was, every time I met someone in a remote and exotic locale who was from the Pacific Northwest, I felt we shared a certain way of connecting to the natural and social environment,” she said. “I am sure it stems from coming from a landscape of such great soul.”
Popular aerobics instructor calls Issaquah Community Center home for 15 years
January 17, 2012
Kristina Gravette leads a recent aerobics class at the Community Center, where she’s been teaching for the last 15 years. By Greg Farrar
After moving around a bit, including working at two or three different private centers in Issaquah, Kristina Gravette seems to have found a home.
That spot is the Issaquah Community Center. Since the building’s opening in 1997, Gravette has been teaching aerobics classes in the center.
“Exercise people come and go,” said Laura Foreman, a longtime Gravette student. “She’s really a town treasure.”
Overall, Gravette has been teaching aerobics for about 30 years. She and her family moved to Issaquah in 1986. She said she sort of stumbled into aerobics after she began attending classes while living in Wyoming. Her instructor told her that the studio was looking for an additional teacher and felt Gravette could do it.
Miss Benny, feline celebrity, finds permanent home
January 17, 2012
Miss Benny
No one seems to fully know how the large-sized feline that spent almost two years at the Issaquah Petco ended up with the name “Miss Benny.”
Still, if her origins are a bit obscure, the 8-year-old cat’s celebrity isn’t.
A volunteer for the Purrfect Pals shelter inside Petco on Northwest Gilman Boulevard, Claire Wilkinson said the large cat arrived at the shelter with the name “Benny.”
“The ‘Miss’ part was demanded by the cat herself,” said Wilkinson, who more than once referred to the feline as a bit of a diva.
