Community Thanks May 18, 2014

KESLER: Family fans of NIC, Coeur d'Alene

To the city of Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho College Basketball,

We wanted to thank you for the hospitality and the privilege it was to visit your community over the past several months. Our third son is on the NIC basketball team and has had a wonderful experience during his first year of college.

There are so many to thank, and I'm sure I will miss a few, but here are some of the great people we now call friends and the fun places we visited and would recommend to both the locals and anyone else visiting your area.

First is a huge thanks to NIC, the coaches and all of the athlete's and teammates. Coach Jared Phay (he will be missed as he moves to CSI), Corey Symons and Thane Jackson run an amazing program and truly care for their players. Let's not forget the "Voice of the Cards" - Richard A. Haugen.

We met many fun people at the games like the soccer players who painted their bodies and jeered the other teams with chants of "SpongeBob SquarePants" and many other creative taunts. Larry the mailman (he delivered mail to the Weeing family many years ago when they lived in Coeur d'Alene - Cole's grandfather who also played basketball in 1958-1959). Special thanks to the players host families and the boosters that we saw at every game. The Wheelocks (Cole's host family), the Pauls, the Brennans and so many more supports.

We love food and finding new restaurants and enjoyed eating at these places and many more: Herbie's Deli, Angelo's, The Bistro on Spruce (Valentine's Day dinner), Roger's (our first stop in Coeur d'Alene), The Garnet Cafe (amazing), Michael D's, Capone's, Fort Ground Grill, Pepe Caldo Pizzeria (great skateboard collection), and who can ever forget eating a Gooey (or two) from the Dockside Restaurant.

The guys at Perfection Tire (and a sponsor of the Cardinals) gave us great service installing four new tires on a snowy day when they were slammed. For getting our son's car back in alignment after he performed a 180 on a slick road. They also repaired one of the tires for free several months later.

A very special thanks to the Reichner family for making the connection with Coach Phay, adopting our son, taking him on your family vacation, becoming an uncle to their four beautiful girls, letting us stay at their home on many occasions and especially the packed house with three families during New Year's. There aren't enough words to express our thanks for everything you have done for our family.

To say the least, we have become fans of your part of the world and look forward to visiting again in the future. If you are ever in Laguna Beach look us up.

All our best,

THE KESLER FAMILY: Keith, Shirlyn, Christian, Tyler, Cole, Paige and Beck

Thanks: Bowls and bowls of local soul

Many local restaurants, businesses, and individuals joined together to offer services for a worthy cause.

The Distinguished Young Women of Post Falls in conjunction with Hands to Art and the Post Falls Food Bank is proud to announce the third annual Empty Bowls event today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center in Post Falls.

This much-anticipated event benefits the Post Falls Food Bank while offering custom hand-painted bowls filled with fabulous locally donated soup at a beautiful venue.

Throughout the last few months, local artists, community members and Distinguished Young Women participants volunteered to paint 250 bowls with the generous support and facilities offered by Hands to Art, a family-friendly, paint-your-own-pottery studio in Coeur d'Alene.

During the Empty Bowls event, a unique selection of professionally-painted bowls are aside for a silent auction organized by Sherry Wallis, Executive Director of the Post Falls Food Bank.

Featured professional artists include: Jane Scott, Judy Nicholson, Lana Lawrence, Brenda Lawrence, Chris Heath, Kellie Lovelace, Debbie Mefferd, Melissa Strand, Tiffany Hochberger, Kim Washko, Jaquith Travis, Jackie Gervais, Christina Hull, Ginger Oaks, Katrina Brennan, Linda Malcomn and Melinda Melvin.

In addition to a lovely bowl, your admission to the event includes a beverage, delicious honey-buttered rolls generously donated by Texas Roadhouse, and locally crafted soup donated by the following participating restaurants: Big Bear Catering, Post Falls; Fleur de Sel, Post Falls; Garden Plaza, Post Falls; Cafe Carambola, Coeur d'Alene; Capone's, Post Falls; Seasons of Coeur d'Alene.

On behalf of the Distinguished Young Women of Post Falls, we'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the many local restaurants, artists and Hands to Art for their generous contributions to this event. Once again, our community has gathered together for a worthy cause.

MEGAN MARSHALL

Coeur d'Alene

Empty Bowls organizer

SPONSORS: Thanks for support of youth sports

The Post Falls Parks and Recreation Department would like to extend a special thanks and appreciation for the dedicated businesses that sponsor the youth sports events provided by our department to the youth of Post Falls and the surrounding communities during the spring season. We would like to thank the following sponsors:

Big Mountain Accounting & Taxes, Blue Dog RV, Bowen Orthopedic Clinic, Burget's Contracting, Burkhardt Consulting LLC, Cart Wrappers, Classical Christian, Coeur d'Alene Pediatrics, Curtis Orthodontics, Express Employment Professionals, FMI-EPS, Financial Strategies, Fox Trailers, Grace Tree Service, Grille from Ipanema, Hagadone Directories, Heartwood Family Dental, Homes by Josh.com, In Touch Physical Therapy, Jump Into Fun, Interstate Plastic, JUB Engineering Inc., JLee Design Electrical Design and Consulting, Kimmel Athletic Supply, Kootenai Animal Hospital, Kootenai Electric Coorperative, Lakeview Financial, Legends Sports Photography, Little Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, Mainstream Electric Inc., NW Recumbent Cycles, Nate's New York Pizza, North Idaho Neurosurgery & Spine, Paul Bunyan, Peach Orthodontics, Post Falls Family Dental, Post Falls Family Medicine, Post Falls Taco Bell, Reality Design LLC, River City Animal Hospital, Saturday Night Inc., Schini Family Dentistry, St. Maries Soccer, Stacie's Cakes, Stan Craft Boat Co., Summit Environmental, Viking Constructions Inc., Wood Doctor.

JILL McDOWELL

City of Post Falls recreation coordinator

GINA: Thanks for supporting fundraiser

We would like to express our most heartfelt gratitude to all our friends who participated in the "Breathe for Gina" fundraiser held at Grooveberries Frozen Yogurt shop in Riverstone on Saturday, May 3. We always read about the generosity of the local community here in Coeur d'Alene but now we've witnessed it firsthand. We also want to let Jamie and Brad Stone and their family know that opening their business that afternoon to support Gina Moriarty was very generous. Our thanks also go out to those friends of ours that took time out of their busy lives to open their hearts and wallets to help someone they only know through us. We'd like to thank you all individually but there were so many and you know who you are. To all of you wonderful folks, thank you.

WAYNE and MICHELLE HASH

Coeur d'Alene

DONORS: Helped us color our fence

We are so grateful to the wonderful people of Kootenai County who came together on Idaho Gives Day to support the amazing nonprofits that exist within our area.

With our wonderful donors, and the help of a grant from Thrivent, we raised more than $3,000 and were able to "color our fence" on Northwest Boulevard with ribbons.

Each ribbon represents the love that people in Kootenai County have for our residents at Coeur d'Alene Homes Nonprofit Assisted Living and Memory Care as well as for the family members in whose names the donations were made. The ribbons will remain on our fence until the end of the month in their honor.

Thank you Idaho, and especially Kootenai County, for caring!

KIMBERLY HOBSON,

director of development and marketing

Coeur d'Alene Homes

SPRING SHOW: Community showed support

Recently we held our very successful spring show and would like to publicly express our thanks to members and businesses of our community for their support.

We appreciate Kootenai County Fairgrounds for welcoming us back for our 14th Annual Artist Showcase after a few years in other locations. It proved to be the perfect venue for our well attended show.

We would like to express our great appreciation for our Showcase Gold Sponsors, Susan and Tom Yaberg of A Mini Storage On Third and our Silver Sponsors, Merlin and Shane Berger and Lynee Richards of Frame of Mind Gallery and Marshall Johnson of Commercial Printing. Their generosity helped make our annual Showcase a very special event.

We would also like to express special thanks to our several Gourmet Business Sponsors for their contributions of food, wine and floral arrangements. Pastry and More, Latah Creek Winery, Litehouse Dressing, Super 1 Foods (Hayden) and Duncan's Florist provided for our splendid Friday evening Public Reception.

As a membership of artists and art lovers, CAA has been sharing the visual arts with the community for over half a century. We welcome interested visitors and prospective members to attend our General Meetings on the third Thursday of the month. For more information and meeting times, visit our website www.coeurdaleneartassn.org.

Sincerely,

SANDRA BERGERON,

president

Coeur d'Alene Art Association