"All Things British" (But Not Very)

Give the little guy a break! It was, after all, his first prom, and he is checking out the oh-so-suave older guys and trying to decide if it is acceptable to wear his favorite green high-top Converse shoes with his cool white tuxedo (it was), and he is taking a look to see if he should put on the white gloves he is clutching so tightly now or just before he calls at the home of the Carpenters for Cailan, his first prom date (now seemed to work just fine).

The occasion for all the celebration and the "photo-ops" up and down Chalet Hill was the Holden Village High School Prom, a social occasion to which EVERYONE, regardless of age, gender, or resident status, was invited.

The theme for this year's prom was "All Things British," and this meant that Holden Villagers, in their usual creative style, would freely interpret the theme and arrive costumed more-or-less in keeping with the main idea. Andrew Rogers, dressed as the London Underground (??), witnessed the procession of the students down the hill to the Village Center where the festivities were held.

Jack Coffey, dressed as a vicar (but truth be told, missing a few buttons on his "frock"...reason enough for the pose with the reverential folded hands) oversees the younger men in whose honor the prom was held. The group includes the high school teacher Dave Sather in period costume and students Joe Coffey, August Carpenter, and Olaf Coffey, all quite debonair in all-things-English costumes...uh, tuxedos and tails. SMASHING, you chaps!

In their elegant finery, Dave and Anglea Mietzke stroll down the hill on their way to the Village Center. Dave had (fortunately) been able to get off the crutches in time for walking downhill in a more normal fashion. Dancing, unfortunately, was out of the question.

And posing for a group photo, the entire Holden Village School stops midway down Chalet Hill for parents and friends and staff members to take pictures. (Cailan kneels in order not to tower over her date for the evening.)

This remarkable group of young people decorated the Village Center in a record-breaking 3 hours and had prepared the refreshments in advance as well. On Saturday morning, they cleaned up after their own prom...a necessity since they are in rehearsals for the final school play of the year (The Importance of Being Earnest). The play is scheduled to be performed on Sunday night after the Friday night prom extravaganza.

Elli Vegdahl-Crowell and Nyrie Mietzke dance together. (The hairstyles of the girls provided evidence that, contrary to unspoken and unwritten but universally accepted policy against such accoutrements, there are curling irons at Holden Village!)

Grace Coffey extends a hand to Jordan Mietzke in order to include her in the dancing.

Two sisters dance together. Home from St. Olaf College for the summer, Anna Coffey dressed up as a student of Hogwarts and danced with her sister Mary Coffey Sather, wife of the high school teacher Dave.

Brandon Chenovert arrived as Robin Hood and was joined by Maid Marian, Maggie Hutchinson.

And what kind of posh English party would be complete without a visit from The Queen? Liz Langeland, complete with handbag and a wave, impersonated Her Highness. Jack Coffey kept saying that he needed to go...that he had a sermon to write...but he took some time to visit with royalty. (The part about the sermon is true...he is to deliver the Sunday address.)

Classmates Grace Coffey and Marta Vegdahl-Crowell share a dance.

Katy Fontana (in the "big hair"...no curling iron needed) and Raina Rerucha-Borges (curling iron a must) share an amusing moment.

While a dreamy (maybe sleepy) Olaf Coffey looks on, Inge Chiles, Raina Rerucha-Borges, and Cailan Carpenter sit out a dance in order to chat.

Chuck and Stephanie Carpenter (a little curling iron action in evidence here) arrive ready to take some pictures of their own.

From the balcony in the Village Center and looking down on the crowd gathered below.

Olaf pauses to give some attention to his green high-top Converse shoes which are much harder to tie when the person doing the tying is wearing gloves.

Mariel Vinge and Angela Gustafson get into some fast dancing.

Tom Ahlstrom takes pleasure in the fact that the villagers are enjoying themselves.

James Stutrud and Tuque took the middle of the dance floor and the spotlight as Tuque proved to be both a dancer and an acrobat, dancing and turning flips. Tuque was watching the crowd with his "spidery little eyes" and wearing a corsage made from flowers currently blooming in Holden's gardens.

Carole Young and Angela Mietzke share a laugh while Nyrie watches the dancers.

This group of 20-somethings took command of the dance floor during several numbers. No wonder. The Spice Girls were among their numbers.

The Daffodils

Cued to lock onto the beam,

Their slender-stalked

Fringed

Funnel faces

Seek the light.

In unison,

And in the manner

Of a tiny farm

Of satellite dishes,

They orient themselves.

Each stands tilted

To face the sky,

Faithfully following

The strongest manifestations

Of the sun and its energy.

And then unto themselves

They gather the colors,

The various yellows, the uncommon gold,

That cheer us on our way

Beside them.

The Quilts of Holden

Guests arrive at Holden Village to find a welcoming quilt on the beds in their assigned rooms. Each of the beds here is covered with a quilt, and each of the quilts is unique.

Although there are a few exceptions in which a quilt is made by an individual, most of the Holden quilts are made by Lutheran churches and donated to the village. On most of the quilts, there will be a tag identifying the group that made and donated the finished bed covering.

Here are a few examples of the quilts of Holden. Enjoy.

Made with Loving Stitches by the West Linn Lutheran Quilters.

Dian L. Wright
Lansing, Michigan

Grace Lutheran
Port Townsend, Washington

Lutheran Church of the San Juans
Lopez, San Juan, Orcas Islands, Washington

Esther Hogan



Zion Lutheran Church
Camas, Washington

Zion Lutheran Church

Camas, Washington

Sharon Fredrick Brainard

Salem Lutheran Church

Spokane, Washington

Zion Lutheran Church

Camas, Washington

Happy Stitchers of First Lutheran Church

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Vancouver, Washington

Hope Lutheran Church

Tacoma, Washington

Saints in Jeans Handle Prom Crisis

The Saints: Gini Stowell and Pat Wubbena. (Gini had arrived for a week's visit with her son, Dave Sather, the high school teacher. Pat was a short-term volunteer, here for a month to work in the book store.)

The Crisis: The theme for this year's Holden Village High School Prom is "Jane Austen." In keeping with the theme, the four young ladies attending Holden Village High School had elected to wear dresses in keeping with what Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennett would have worn on such a social occasion had Mr. Darcy asked her to accompany him! (Dream on.)

As always, "the devil is in the details." A period piece pattern for an Empire waisted gown and the gauzy material with which to make the girls' dresses was ordered. Construction began. It was all too soon abundantly clear that the "gauzy material" was just too gauzy...in other words, such dresses would have been indecent...in any era.

The Solution: Dave sends an SOS to mom. Mom arrives with her own sewing machine and quickly assesses the problem and possible solutions...another "dress" lying underneath the original dress...a complete lining...is the only way to keep the eyebrows of villagers at half mast on Prom Night (at Holden, EVERONE attends the Prom). Mom is assisted in the project by Pat who is given "release time" from the book store in order to sew. The two of them work long hours for a week in order to bring the project to a successful conclusion. By the end of the week, only the hemming and making the final adjustments needed to be done.

Gini examines one of the dresses while Dave gets another one down for the final fitting.

Grace Coffey gets some tips for "accessorizing" once the big night arrives.

Gini and Pat stand with the girls at the end of the week to show the results of their efforts. Marta Rolf-Vegdahl, Grace Coffey, Inge Chiles, and Raina Rerucha-Borges gracefully pretend there are no pins holding material in place for this final fitting.

Happy Birthday Mary!

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Mary Brocker of Portland, Oregon celebrated her 11th birthday. And so how did all of Holden Village know that Mary was 11? To celebrate Mary's birthday, her big sister, Matia, prepared rice pudding to be served as a dessert at Holden's evening meal.

Rice pudding is one of Mary's favorite things, and Matia spent considerable time debating over whether to make rice pudding cooked in a pot or to make rice pudding assembled and baked in the oven. In the end, she decided to secure some space in "The Rainier" (the name assigned to Holden's huge oven) and bake the rice pudding.

This is the birthday message that Matia wrote and placed on the table by the pans of rice pudding so that everyone would know their dessert for the evening was prepared in honor of Mary and her birthday.

Happy Birthday Mary! The rice pudding was delicious, and your big sister was happy to be able to help you celebrate your 11th birthday. There are many fans of rice pudding here at Holden, and we were all happy to help you celebrate as well.

Ready for Prime Time!

For those of you who have never seen "The V.C." (short for Village Center), this massive expanse of newly polished flooring is a wonder in and of itself. During the days the mine was in operation, the V.C. was called the Gym and was used for that purpose and for many other community activities. As a part of Holden Village, in the summer ("prime time") it serves as the worship center for all services and a concert venue, a meeting place for sessions, an activity center...whatever the need in the busy summer season, the V.C. is adequate for that need.

For those who have visited Holden often and know it well, it is a rare sight indeed to see this huge area completely clear of any object whatsoever. (I believe I am right in saying that the only object sitting on the floor is the organ/carillon off to one side.) It is an amazing sight to see it in this manner. The sight is made more amazing by the floor, newly varnished and polished to a mirror finish.

Such good things do not happen on their own. There was obviously much hard and difficult work involved in such a huge project. We owe our thanks and appreciation to Head Maverick, Daniel Roberts; Maverick, Nate Lee; former head Garbologist currently here in a volunteer position, Abbey Dibble; and our two high school boarding students, Inge Chiles and Andrew Dutcher.

Thanks! It is beautiful.

Spring Work Week

On the first day of Spring Work Week...EARLY in the morning on the first day of Spring Work Week...VERY early in the morning on the first day of Spring Work Week, those of us who are, by nature, early risers strolled into the dining hall to find that there were people who actually got out of bed and made it to the dining hall ahead of us. They were privileged to partake of the first coffee and to engage in the first conversations of the day. And all along, the few of us here for the long haul, those who awake at first light and/or bird song had thought it was our inalienable right to arrive first. Imagine our surprise to find coffee and conversation well underway upon our arrival.

Those already at the tables ahead of us were getting themselves fortified for the day ahead. It was the first day of the week set aside for getting the village ready for the summer season, and they were ready to begin their various job assignments.

There were approximately 60 volunteers who arrived to work...and none of it, I might add, was easy work. Most of it involved heavy lifting, strenuous repetition, protracted patience, and all were prepared to give of themselves and their energies.


The prize for patience, had there been one, would have gone to Harold Schnarre for his untiring efforts to come up with a diagnosis on this non-functioning washing machine in the staff laundry. His efforts would eventually pay off.

Just before they got on the bus to leave at the end of the week, these members of the sewing team proudly displayed a queen-sized quilt which they made from pieces of material found stored in the attic of the hotel. Dottie Nelson, Belinda Lowery-Keinhofer, and Cindy McGuinness hold up the finished quilt for all to see.

Fliegle Walters vacuums the grout dust from the new tile floor of one of the food storage lockers. The project to upgrade the walls and the floor of the locker (called Davy Jones...every object at Holden has a name assigned to it) and to bring the space into compliance with Health Department specifications had begun some months back. A work week team brought it to completion.

This is one you will have to see to believe. Imagine a long and continuous piece of cloth painted with mountains and evergreen trees and draped, window to window....as I said, you will have to see it to believe it. The two individuals credited with the concept and its implementation, Angela Mietzke and Melissa Anderson, install the piece over the windows of the dining hall.

Only Janice Haakons and her crew on the lawns and gardens team have enough foresight to imagine the garden that will be planted once the snow has melted and to take the time, make the effort, to build a fence that will keep out all forms of wildlife that would like to make such a garden their own.

The youngest person (can you tell?) and only one of the two in their 20's...the rest were decades older...to show up for Work Week, Aaron McCandless "staggers" under the weight of multiple bags of clean blankets ready to go on the beds of Lodge 3.

A window washer at every window of the upstairs windows of Lodge 3. This window washing was painstaking and difficult work. And the winter had left the windows in need of a thorough cleaning. Mission accomplished.

Ralph Shonder heads up the line transferring bags of clean linens from their winter place of storage into the lodges where the beds were made and the towels and sheets readied for the guests who will soon be filling the rooms.

At a temporary location outside a temporarily located book store, Ria Stroosma sorts, sizes, prices, and folds Holden Village shirts for later sale in a newly renovated and permanently located book store. Teams of volunteers worked on the book store site itself while other volunteers in another location worked on the merchandise that would be sold there.

A part of the sewing team's output included hats, kerchiefs, and other variations on head coverings for the kitchen staff. Belinda Lowery-Keinhofer prepares to cut out the latest rage in kitchen head gear...Teletubbies fabric lined with red gingham checks.

With approximately 100 May Youth Weekenders arriving in less than a week's time, there was a real need to clean and make ready the pool hall and recreation area. The problem in doing so was that there was an embankment of snow covering the entrance to the pool hall. No problem. Head maverick, Dan Roberts, uses a backhoe to clear away the entrance.

Head maverick, Dan Roberts...in the backhoe..., is assisted in snow removal by former head maverick...with the shovel..., Aaron McCandless in snow removal. The two of them got the job done.

Long term staff member, Art Neslund, and work week volunteer, Paul Sackmann, shovel snow to clear the walkway connecting the chalet area on the hill with the lower parts of the village. Although the weather is decidedly warmer, there is still much snow in the village.

Robert Monsen and Dottie Nelson work together on a project in the sewing room set up beneath Chalet 2.

Mary Dwinnell carries bags of clean linens into Lodge 2. When the volunteers left at the end of work week, all the beds were made, the curtains hung, the towels laid out. All of the rooms were ready for guests.

The dining hall was painted a cool shade of green, a color to complement the newly draped windows and a color that would blend with the newly laminated dining hall tables. Elisabeth Saunders spent many hours atop a step ladder meticulously edging the new green color up against the molding.

Aboard the bus leaving the village at the end of the week, Penny Sadis and Holden Village Director, Carol Hinderlie, say their good-byes. Penny leaves knowing that she will return with a church work group in June.