Syndicated
to the
Daily Gazette

New scholarship for struggling grad 

 Three generations of Lee family
  honor importance of education

          Three generations in the Lee family of Canyon Park share a long history of recognizing the value of education.

          Tom and Atha Lee moved to just north of what is now Canyon Park Junior High School in the early 1960s to raise their family. At the time, Tom practiced law in Seattle at a firm he established in the 1940s. He had grown up in Chelan and worked on the Grand Coulee dam after finishing high school. Admittedly, Tom struggled in the ninth and tenth grades but he was fortunate to have helpful and understanding teachers and coaches who encouraged him to pursue his education and finish school.

          Tom Lee died in mid December of 2004 at the age of 84. Recalling Tom’s having to buckle down in the mid 1930s to finish high school, the family decided a fitting tribute to Tom’s perseverance as a youth would be to establish a scholarship to help a young person facing similar circumstances today. The first award will be made this spring – one of 92 scholarships to be announced at the 21^st annual Northshore Scholarship Foundation recognition breakfast May 25.

          The recipient of the $1,000 Tom Lee Memorial Scholarship will be someone who “struggled with academics early in high school, but who has made academic improvement in the junior and/or senior year and now has a sincere desire to continue education beyond high school. The scholarship may be used at either a two-year or a four-year college.”

          Tom’s son Darrell was instrumental in setting up this particular criteria. Darrell is head career counselor at Bothell High School, his alma mater. Darrell and Corinne (Candee) Lee’s son Ian is a 2004 graduate of BHS and was named winner of the Bob and Ruth Munro Memorial Scholarship, also offered through the Foundation. His plan is to study math and science at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.  

          The Nelson Tom Lee Memorial becomes the 43^rd endowed scholarship program to be managed and offered through the community foundation. In May, the 92 scholarships to be awarded will help graduating seniors to the tune of $128,570. Application deadline for 2005-06 grants was March 1, so now more than 30 committees will get to work with the tough assignment of selecting those 92 recipients.

Beware Medicare?

          Is it any wonder our health care system is in crisis – at least Medicare and Medicaid? Hospital officials in this area warn that it might not be possible to expand emergency departments sufficiently or fast enough to handle the anticipated growth in Medicare-dependent patient-clients who have no place else to turn for basic medical attention.

          It’s no secret that private medical clinics are turning down new patients if their only means of payment is through Medicare.

          This was driven home to me personally last month when my Medigap insurance provider sent me an explanation of benefits on a rather routine lab and x-ray service related to my propensity to attract kidney stones. (If you’ve had one, you have just said ouch two or three times).

          The clinic’s charge was $90. Medicare approved $17.18 of that and paid only $13.74. Medigap insurance stepped up to cover a whopping $3.44. The clinic ate the balance of  $72.82. I’m assuming the $90 charge had not been padded in order to extract more dollars from the federal budget.

          How can we expect physicians and clinics to continue to care for the elderly, let alone the vast numbers of uninsured? Next time you drive past Evergreen Hospital, note the construction project on the west side of the main building. It’s a new wing to accommodate expanded emergency facilities quadruple the size of the present emergency room. If Medicare payments to our public hospital are at the same level, how long can this go on?

          I’d better stay on the real good side of the medics who have cared for my family and me all these many years. If you haven’t reached that stage in life, just think of what you and your children have to look forward to if this state and our country continue to ignore the obvious need for wholesale health care reform.

Mini-Brightwaters in sight?

          My scratch pads continue to yield a variety of subjects; for instance, residents of south Snohomish County whose homes, apartments or business buildings are on septic systems might want to keep an eye on a pilot project at the Woodinville Water District headquarters off Woodinville-Duvall Highway.

          Ken McDowell is overseeing the operation of a newly installed self-contained satellite treatment system capable of handling 3,000 gallons of effluent daily. The filter and pump system could effectively service six to eight homes, treating effluent through a series of membrane filters and returning water to drainfield mounds or, in some cases, into storage tanks to be used for irrigation purposes. The state health department and environmental protection agency are keeping an eye on the operation at the district’s campus where all effluent will be processed.

          Ken reports that folks from Barrow, Alaska intend to visit and check out the installation.

The
Northshore
Citizen  
weekly newspaper would have been
100 years old in 2003. Over the years it covered events in Bothell, Kenmore and Woodinville. The Citizen gave way in January of 2002 to the
     Bothell-Kenmore
          Reporter
mailed twice monthly free to homes in both communities

Previous Columns

March 16, 2005
March Madness in Idaho

February 16, 2005
Levy Election Supermajority?

February 2, 2005
The comfort of Third Place

January 19, 2005
Humanitarian C.P. Johnson

January 5, 2005
A New Year's Potpourri

December 15, 2004
The gift of life story

December 1, 2004
Scholarships keep growing

Nov. 17, 2004
Plenty poppin' in Northshore

November 3, 2004
Global Experiences at Home

October 20, 2004
Our Lady of the Seniors

October 6, 2004
Fabric addict discovered

Sept 15, 2004
Time of Civil Elections

Sept. 1, 2004
Three golden opportunities

August 18, 2004
All about Grace

August 4, 2004
Maltby Cafe Anniversary 

July 21, 2004
Tent City in Bothell

July 7, 2004
Saga of Harry Tracy

with the late Peg Phillips

John B. Hughes
was editor and publisher of the
Citizen Newspapers from 1961-1988 and now writes a column for the
Reporter under the title of
Northshore
Citizen

Hughes serves as grand marshal
in Grace, under the name of Hugo B. Jonsen and is in charge of the town's parades, special events and celebrations. For some odd reason, most of the town's planned events have been cancelled of late.

Hugo and 
Mayor-for-Life Terry Jarvis
co-publish
The Greater Grace
Daily OnLine
Gazette
from offices in 
Grace Town Hall
P.O. Box 967
Grace, Wa 98072

(425) 482-4076