IT'S THE SIMPLE THINGS: Dog bite, prosecutor's office and animal control
Groth
In January, while walking alone on The North Idaho Centennial Trail near The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course, I was bitten by a black Labrador. Unprovoked. No dog with me.
Out of concern for the safety of others, and wanting my ripped coat repaired, I reported the incident to the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, who forwarded it to the city of Coeur d’Alene Prosecutor’s Office and to Animal Control.
The prosecutor’s office made sure I received the money to repair my coat and Animal Control visited the owner, declared the dog "dangerous and at-risk” and placed the owner on probation, with specific requirements for control of the dog. If she fails to follow the requirements, she loses the dog.
The attack scared me; the support of the Prosecutor’s Office and Animal Control was comforting.
Thank you!
DAVE AND LINDA BARNES — 3rd GRADE SWIM MATCHING GIFT CHALLENGE!
This generous offer is worthy of more publicity!
For 16 years, the 3rd Grade Swim program at The Kroc Center has provided free swim lessons and water safety skills to over 16,000 third graders in Kootenai County.
This March, retired Kootenai Health Emergency Department Doctor Dave Barnes and his wife, Linda, will match every dollar given to the program — up to $10,000!
What are the program costs? 1) Students are bused to the Kroc Center for four days of lessons; 2) The Kroc teachers are paid (There are also many volunteers); and 3) Some basic teaching tools are employed.
This is a leap toward growing an endowment that will sustain funding for this valuable program
Donate to Coeur d'Alene Kroc — 3rd Grade Swim
NEW WORDS
When I enrolled at St. Olaf College in 1971, I started a spiral “Vocabulary Notebook,” a place to collect and reinforce the learning of new words. I am a bit embarrassed to see some of the words that I didn’t know at age 18: chronic, intrinsic and myriad, to name a few.
At age 73, I have a page in “Notes” to collect words of which I am unsure. Recent additions to the list include: quizotic, treacle and votaries, to name a few.
Collecting words was helpful in college and continues to be a source of fun and increased understanding of the world.
“MATTERING” ... AND A REPAIR CAFE
I was moved by a Wall Street Journal article entitled “The Retirement Crisis No One Warms You About: Mattering.”
Research indicated that what retirees often miss from their working life is that feeling of being depended on. Through interviews, it became clear that the people who regained that sense of being tended to follow a simple, repeatable pattern: They identified a genuine need and met it with 3Ts — time, talent or treasure.
One of the clearest examples comes from the Repair Cafe movement, which began in Amsterdam in 2009. Now in towns across America, these volunteer-led gatherings invite people to bring in broken household items — a toaster, a lamp, a bike — and participants use their skills to repair them.
The article reported that Dean Gallea, a retired engineer who once tested products for Consumer Reports, runs his community’s Repair Café in New York’s Hudson Valley. He spends his days helping people squeeze more life from appliances that might otherwise end up in a landfill. But what’s happening there goes beyond fixing toasters. “Dean has become a kind of matchmaker, pairing neighbors’ needs with volunteers’ skills and, in the process, strengthening the sense of mattering of everyone who walks through the door.”
Seems like this would be a win-win in Kootenai County.
QUOTE ON LIFE
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” — Michael Jordan
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David Groth retired in 2016 after 37 years in elementary education. His last 17 years, the favorite part of his career, were spent teaching fifth grade and juggling at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities. He has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 1982 and has always appreciated the people, the geography, the climate, the rivers and lakes, and the simple things that make days special.