The AADC is the proud recipient of a $6,000 grant from KELO television for air time. Ads will be produced and run sometime in the next couple of months. Unfortunately, not during Super Bowl. Many thanks to KELO television for this wonderful gift.
I recently got an e-mail from someone wishing to be a volunteer for the diversity committee. “No big deal,” you may say - except this guy was from the United Kingdom. The rest of you locals who haven’t stepped up should certainly take note of his dedication.
O.k., o.k., I have to be honest. He thought he was volunteering for a diversity group in Aberdeen, Scotland. Our analytics report shows we’ve also gotten hits from the U.K., Canada and Spain.
This isn’t the first time our little berg has confused people. A number of years ago when I was working at the American News I got a call from a television reporter insisting that the paper had taken a photo of Kurt Cobain standing on our overpass and she wanted a copy of the famous, but rare, photo. “No-o-o-o, I don’t think so,” I told her. If Cobain had ever appeared in Aberdeen, this would certainly have been an event I would remember. The tv reporter got a little huffy, implying we were holding back this photo of the late, great rocker. After some research by a music afficianado co-worker we discovered there was, indeed, a picture of Cobain on an overpass - in Aberdeen, Washington.
The Aberdeen Area Diversity Committee (AADC) is moving into the Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center (ARCC) building. Also housed in that building is the Aberdeen Area Arts Council, (AAAC.) I’m going to need a crib sheet to not stumble over all these initials.
Today is the Chinese New Year - year 4707 in the Chinese Lunar calendar and their most important holiday. It is the year of the Ox.
The Chinese clean and decorate their homes with the five lucky signs of happiness. New clothes are worn and also new shoes because it is considered bad luck to step down on the ground in old shoes in the new year.
I wonder if shoe stores take advantage of this tradition and raise prices on their shoes. Maybe they lower prices - have big shoe sales so they can attract all the customers.
Thanks to the hard work of Bill McQuillen, Doug Mayer, Brady Lacher and Damian Anderson we were able to move chairs, desks and file cabinets up to our new location at the ARCC. Brady and Damian are Roncalli High School students who were nice enough to lend muscle to the project. The walls are painted and the carpet will be installed soon. We’re planning an open house during the last week in March. More on this later. Check out the two new additions to the photos page. Brady and Damian managed to duck, turn and hide each time I pointed the camera in their direction so I couldn’t get a decent picture of them to post.
We’ve been so anxious to move into our new “digs” in the Aberdeen Parks and Recreation building, which will probably forever be really known as: “the Aberdeen Parks and Rec building, which used to be the old Central High School.” The weather, obviously, has not been cooperative. Even if we were to brave the blustering winds, the side streets blow in as quickly as they are cleared and getting stuck is an obvious risk. So, patience must prevail and perhaps Thursday will prove to be a better day.
Made plans for signage so that when we have the open house, the public will easily find us.
The new office/meeting room/classroom will be called D-ROC, Diversity Regional Outreach Center, (in what used to be the old Central High School.)
Even folks who are not “into” football, (like me) get caught up in the excitement of the Super Bowl. If you think about it, it’s a month-long tradition. People try to not schedule activities if there’s a play-off game, plans are made for the big day and “traditional” food is prepared and served. No one would think about having a sit-down meal on S-bowl Sunday - it’s all paper plates and bite-sized servings. Someone coming here from another country might make the social faux pax of wandering off during Superbowl commercials. “That’s the best part!” others will scream. Then there is the next-day judging of the best commercial. This is a uniquely American tradition with food from other countries - tacos, nachos, egg rolls, pizza, etc.
On Tusday, Jan. 13 is St. Knut’s Day, a recognition of King Knute who ruled Sweden in the 1800s.
Wouldn’t it be great to “cherry-pick” all the best traditions from each culture? For example, King Knute declared that Christmas should be celebrated for 20 days with parties for children and adults. I can get behind that. The season officially ends on the 13th when Christmas trees are to be taken down.
If we planned it right, we could find holidays from each culture to celebrate 365 days a year.
As a retired sailor used to tell me, “Every day’s a holiday, every meal’s a feast.”
I was reading today that the Jewish religious day is Saturday - Shabbat - and begins at nightfall on Friday until nightfall on Saturday. Then I got to wondering how Jews in Alaska figured out their religious day when there are several months of nightfall.
