My story of life in North Idaho

During my first visit to Coeur d’Alene in the summer of 1975, I felt as if I’d stumbled into a time warp of simplicity, beauty and wonder. I saw a community featuring a crystal blue lake, lush wooded areas with green ferns and wildlife, a friendly quaint town with three stoplights and a charming community college where bagpipers in full regalia were piping on the campus at the mouth of the Spokane River. You might say I had found my Margaretville. It took another two years for me to relocate to this beautiful place.

Upon my moving to Coeur d’Alene, I blended in with friendly people and soon found a job in the business office at North Idaho College with Gerry Wendt as my boss and mentor. Soon I met Rolly Williams, the NIC athletic director and men’s basketball coach. We were married in 1983.

It was then that I learned to admire Rolly’s steadfast principles and commitment of embracing equality and respect for all people as he recruited fine young men of ethnic and racial diversity for his teams in the face of strong opposition from some local xenophobic individuals and especially strong opposition from members of the Aryan Nations. I was never more proud of my husband than when he was awarded the 2007 Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Human Rights Award for his support of human rights at NIC and his commitment to recruiting ethnic and racially diverse basketball teams despite opposition from some individuals.

Upon beginning my job at NIC, I became a student earning my A.S. degree from NIC and my B.S. in Dental Hygiene from Eastern Washington University. During a 33-year career, I served in a variety of capacities including clinical dental hygiene professor; congruently as a temporary hygienist in the region; held various offices in the local, state, and national associations of my profession; and invented a dental tool accessory for dental hygienists that are used across America and internationally. In recent years, I have been fortunate to work with AmeriCorps, the NIC Head Start as a health care advocate, and a member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Red Cross and for the past two years in my semi-retirement have been a substitute teacher in the CDA School District.

During my 43-years in northern Idaho like many of you, I have witnessed dramatic changes, some good and some challenging. As our region has seen the loss of many good paying jobs in the mining and forest industries, we have fortunately had an increase in jobs in the tech industry, health care and education as well as tourism especially fueled by the expansion of the Hagadone Hospitality Corporation.

As we look toward the future, we face a number of serious challenges including managing the explosion in growth, medical insurance for every American, fixing a deteriorating infrastructure (aging bridges and roads as well as traffic congestion), rising residential property taxes especially for senior citizens on a fixed income, protection of our air and water quality, and inadequate funding of Idaho’s public educational system with our state ranked 49th on dollars spent per student.

Finally, I wish to address the wage-earner plight of many hard working Idahoans. I know of so many individuals who work two or three jobs to put food on the table and a roof over the heads of the family. If one is making a paltry minimum wage of $7.26 an hour, imagine working one-half hour to earn enough for a loaf of bread. No one in our great rich country should have to ever choose between paying the rent or medicine.

As a loyal American and Idahoan, I decided to pen this article to speak out and join the fight to confront and work to solve these problems.

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Sharon (Shari) Williams is a Coeur d’Alene resident.