My guest this week is Betty Palmer, the culinary arts instructor at Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center. She has created a vibrant hands-on learning program that gets students rubbing elbows with local chefs in public venues. Palmer believes that heightened stress that goes along with serving food to the public gives her students invaluable skills they can apply to a career in food services or any other career path. Now she has an audacious idea of developing a food truck as a student-based enterprise to take the learning experience to a new level. It's a bold vision. The program has great support among the chefs in the valley and is an excellent example of creating meaningful hands-on learning opportunities to make education more relevant and interesting. Along the way, students come away with some terrific job skills.

#31: Betty Palmer and the art of engaging students through culinary arts

Exploring the power of collaboration and civic engagement in North Central Washington

Society & Culture

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My guest for this episode is Thom Nees, the executive director of Serve Wenatchee Valley who is also leading the effort to develop the Common Ground Community Housing Trust A community housing trust is a proven way to develop permanently affordable housing in a community. The simple mechanism is that a nonprofit owns the land and buyers purchase the home. This model has been successful in numerous communities, including Leavenworth and the Methow Valley.  The red hot housing market in the region is making it increasingly difficult for working families to afford homes, as anyone who is paying attention to the housing market can attest. This is an effort that can make a meaningful difference. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Look for an upcoming column on this effort in The Wenatchee World. 

#74 - A community housing trust is launching in Wenatchee Valley

My guest for this podcast is Christine Morgan, the executive director of the Icicle Fund in Leavenworth. Philanthropist Harriet Bullitt started the fund 20 years ago as a way of supporting arts and music, conservation, and natural history efforts in North Central Washington. The Icicle Fund has pumped more than $45 million into our region during that time. Christine and I spoke about her childhood in Denmark, how she developed a commitment to collaboration and viewing challenges from multiple perspectives, and how the Icicle Fund is making a difference by supporting local nonprofits. The Icicle Fund has provided transformational leadership by helping nonprofits dream bigger and make a more significant impact. It is a positive force for bringing people together to help us build stronger communities. 

#73 The Icicle Fund's major impact on the well-being of NCW

This episode features Yvonne Boyd, a member of the Braver Angels effort that seeks to depolarize political discussions and create a framework for honest discussions on difficult topics.    Braver Angels brings conservatives and liberals together in a format that has long been used in family counseling. The organization is growing by leaps and bounds as people on both sides of the political divide recognize the danger to America of not being able to have a dialogue.  Boyd talks about her background, how she came to be involved in Braver Angels, and talks about the virtual workshop that is being presented on Saturday, February 27. The title of the workshop is “Depolarizing within: Becoming a better angel in your own world.”   The workshop is about recognizing how we add to the polarization and offers techniques to have more constructive interactions with those we don’t agree with politically.   What happens in the conversations moderated by Braver Angels is that people see each other from a more nuanced and broader perspective beyond simple political labels.  Here’s a link to the workshop.  https://braverangels.org/event/depolarizing-within-standard-central-eastern-washington/  

#72 Depolarizing our politics with Yvonne Boyd of Braver Angels

My guest for this podcast is Jill Fineis, the principal of the fledgling Pinnacles Prep charter public school in Wenatchee, which will open its doors to sixth and seventh graders this fall in the Wenatchee Community Center on South Mission Street.  In our conversation, Jill shares her deep background in education and discusses the guiding philosophy of Pinnacles Prep. The learning environment they are committed to fostering encourages and supports students in finding their passion and taking charge of their learning journey. It’s an approach that has been successful in engaging students at other schools around the country.  Pinnacles Prep has a terrific and diverse group of board members and community ambassadors who are helping guide the design of the school’s academic program. They are doers with deep experience in public education here. 

#71 Jill Fineis of Pinnacles Prep charter public school

My guest for this episode is Jill Nielsen-Farrell, the daughter of longtime Wenatchee dentist Gerry Nielsen. She has started Wenatchee Community Acupuncture and treats  a wide variety of conditions, including doing trauma-informed acupuncture for depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and addiction. After losing her husband in a house fire, Nielsen-Farrell found that acupuncture helped her process her own grief and she decided to shift from a career as a social worker to helping people heal using Chinese medicine.   In our discussion, we talked about her personal journey, the unique aspects of community-based acupuncture, and her work with the Compassion Prison Project. She’s a delightful soul who I think will enrich this valley immeasurably.

#31: Betty Palmer and the art of engaging students through culinary arts

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