SoHum Parlance

Lovely. And welcome news for our reggae war-weary community. It brings back the days when we were all working so hard to build the MCC. Congratulations to Peter and all the folks in Briceland and environs. May your dreams grow and prosper.
 

reggae weary me donates to KMUD, MCC, our local VFD, Salmon Creek School, Whale Gulch School, Whitethorn School, Hospice, WISH, and a few others. Not Beginnings, sorry.But I still hope your dreams grow and prosper.
 

We are being spread out a little bit. But I agree about the need for optimism. Hopefully Peter is lining up grants.
 

8:57 I'm with you.
 

Since the Indie doesn't have a website, below is my article for whoever's interested (if you're not, just skip to the next post!). The address for donations is at the very end.

-C

*****

Beginnings Kicks Off Ambitious Capital Campaign
Community Center, School Look To Next 30 Years

After three decades of service to Southern Humboldt residents, a beloved community center, school, and gathering place is looking to make much-needed improvements, and has kicked off an ambitious fundraising campaign to meet that goal.

Set on 85 acres in an idyllic vale in Briceland, Beginnings Community Center began as a Montessori school in Garberville in 1973, with the property being purchased in 1976 and groundbreaking on the Octagon taking place in 1977. Now, Beginnings is comprised of both preschool and elementary school programs, the Children’s House and Skyfish School; the Yin Yang Pavilion, a martial-arts Dojo; the Beginnings Volunteer Fire Dept., now the largest in Southern Humboldt; and the beloved Octagon, which has been the site of numerous events, from weddings and memorials to fundraisers and dance classes.

Having been well used for thirty years, the Octagon is overdue for an overhaul, the first phase of which will involve building a new kitchen and adding an ADA-compliant restroom. “The existing kitchen is much too small for our many needs,” said Rupda Leserer-Lambley, a board member and Skyfish parent. Leserer-Lambley and Chestine Anderson – a board member who recently retired from teaching after 26 years – explained that a roomy, modern kitchen will be added to the northeast corner of the building, and the existing kitchen area will be converted into an ADA restroom and storage space.

The kitchen is used four days a week for nutritious, homemade lunches for the students, which number about 20 in the preschool program and 45 in the elementary. Additionally, it’s heavily utilized for special events, and its users are stymied by both lack of space and lack of a dishwasher. The new kitchen will incorporate both, and will be constructed to industrial standards; that way, people wishing to rent it for business purposes may do so, and the possibility of adding programs such as regular community lunches will be opened as well.

“It really is a community meeting place,” Leserer-Lambley continued, naming the numerous uses of the Octagon: in addition to providing the kitchen and teaching space for children four days a week, the building also hosts African dance, capoeira, and yoga classes, as well as smaller musical events, annual fundraisers for groups such as Sanctuary Forest, and community events such as weddings. Perennial celebrations include the Children’s Winter Faire, held since 1987, the Spring Plant and Trade Fair, and now, a Mother’s Day Brunch too. Additionally, Beginnings serves the pivotal role of being the area’s Red Cross Disaster Relief Center.

The services provided by the organization, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, go far beyond providing a physical space for activities, though. The group serves as an umbrella for many community services, most notably the Beginnings VFD, which responded to its first call in 1978. Workgroups such as Nick’s Interns – now incorporated as a non-profit – began there, and the Institute For Sustainable Forestry was created there. Beginnings has also fostered a number of learning programs, such as the Briceland Learning Center, and has sponsored groups such as the Friends of South Fork Earth Club.

A dedicated staff ensures that the day-to-day operations of the community center are run smoothly, including Executive Director Peter Ryce, Administrative Assistant Mary Giardino, Food & Nutrition Program Administrator Aleida Rios, and bookkeeper Bobbie Todd. The office space was originally built for just one or two people, though – so the second phase of the renovation project will involve expanding the existing office considerably, and converting a room currently used for dry storage into a meeting room.

In addition to its staff, Beginnings has benefited heavily from community support, in the form of volunteering, board service, and donations. “We cook every day from scratch,” Anderson said, “and most of that is organic food. In addition to what we purchase, we receive donations from parents, from the Community Park, and from local grocers, like Ray’s.” An annual membership fee costs only $5, but as part of its capital-campaign drive, the group hopes to add more lifetime members as well. Lifetime members – of which there are currently 41 – are people who have made a contribution of $1,000 or more.

The Beginnings Board of Directors officially introduced its renovation plan to the members at a Feb. 2 membership meeting. Next up for the group will be a public-relations campaign that includes coverage in local media, followed by the distribution of 1,000 leaflets and a local mailer detailing the project; local designer John Angus donated all the graphics services for the latter.

The total budget for the project is $279,000, of which $165,000 will be invested into Phase One (kitchen expansion and ADA-compliant bathroom). Of that amount, $50,000 has been raised already, from fundraisers, small grants, and board donations. Groundbreaking on the project is slated for the end of May. Phase Two will consist of expanding the office and building the meeting room, and Phrase Three will include renovation of the existing bathroom, roof repair, and window upgrades.

“What we’d like people to think about,” Leserer-Lambley concluded, “is what Beginnings means to them – how many times they’ve been here, and what their favorite memories here are.”

For more information about Beginnings and the capital campaign, call 923-3617. To contribute to the campaign, mail your pledge to Beginnings Inc., P.O. Box 190, Redway, Calif., 95560.
 

Beginnings...my kids went there--not too long as they, like many Beginning kids before and after them, came to miss the socialization into American life that can only happen in "normal" public schools.

And it is sad to me to see yet another SoHum community cooperative effort become essentially privatized as a non-profit life-long job for one individual-with the corresponding vision of that one person dictating how Beginnings has developed. Certainly it's not all bad as is the case with the MCC and PB and Carol and then there's the ex-Mateel Community Credit Union--also a community job secure system for a handful of local individuals--i.e., essentially privatized. Like EPIC too..

With no turn-around in personnel one can expect the same ol' same ol' which is good while it lasts but it never lasts, does it.
 

Little Stevie Lewis, you forgot Redwoods Rural Health Center.
Have you been told lately that you are an asshole? Well just in case, YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE!!!
While I don’t agree with everything that Peter Ryce does, Beginnings is much more than his vision. Without Peter Ryce, Beginnings would not have lasted this long and have a great future ahead of it. Peter Ryce and Beginnings have contributed so much more to this community than you can even comprehend.
Did I say you are an asshole Stevie Lewis??
 

Once you lower yourself to name calling it is obvious you have lost the argument. How about Karen Ryce, whatever happened to her?
 

Peter Ryce is totally cwel... i rmember one aftrenoon not long ago at Beginnnings... kids running around in teh sun and Petre sitting onna bench neer the fornt door of the OVctogon ---somkoking a joint LOL. A cute UPS driver in his cute brown unaform comes up and asks P to sign a paper for some packages he just dilvered and P gets up adn sticks sthe joint in the sid e of his muoth and signs it LOL!!! --yuo shoudka seen teh look on the drivers face LOL he musta beeen new LOL.
octagonward,
S
 

Redwoods Rural has had quite a bit of employee turnover over the years. But there are orgs with their resident permanent for life job bosses I didn't mention such as NEC had and the Sinkyone Wilderness Council with Hawk Rosales installed by EPIC and there ever since.

The thing is, these are supposedly democratically run community based orgs that for all intents and purposes end up as life-long jobs for a single individual. Where is the community''s input and say over the years if one man runs the show year after year? You get a single vision without natural changes that would occur if the community was really involved and had a say in programs of the organization it has sponsored.
 

It's privatization of cooperative community organizations that I'm objecting to and it's happened all SoHum. The MCC/PP war should have woke everyone up to the problem.
 

Stevie you are so conflicted that some people could feel sorry for you. People who don’t know you or followed your rants for a period of time that is. Have you thought about … oh forget it.
But you seem to have compared Beginnings to the MCC and to every other organization that the “hippy”/progressive? culture has created or whatever. In the way you are comparing them you could not have been more wrong. While Peter Ryce has run Beginnings all these years, and a pretty damn good job he has done, the MCC has been run by more than a handful of people over the years. In fact it seems that more often than not the MCC has been run by more than one person at any given time. Your last comment in relation the previous comment and the comment before that do not fit together. They are in conflict. In fact they point to one fucked up individual. You. You hate everything and everybody. No news there.
By the way, what is it exactly you do not like about Beginnings and what they do?
 

I don't give a rat's ass about your opinion of me. You need to talk with parents who have sent their kids to Beginnings and found out exactly what we found to be true--the majority of local hippie kids wanted to be in public school and not in a hippie side show. And have you checked with the results of hippie education in SoHum, i.e., are you or does any parent in SoHum have any reason to crow about SoHum alternative schools or culture when the kids produced have abandoned most all hippie values and gone for the gold with too many kids caving in from the strain of living and killing themselves.

Maybe if teaching came from more variety or even straight culture, the kids would have done better than what we see and read in the newpapers too many times.
 

For the record, my son is at Skyfish and they're doing quite well by him. He's reading, writing, adding, subtracting, and thinking. And he has a great social life, terrific school lunches, and and very rich cultural exposure for a rural school. Can't ask for much more than that.
 

How a kid does in school is probably 80%-90% of the parent’s responsibility. There are plenty of Redway kids who are not doing very well at school both socially and academically. There is a huge percentage of kids doing extremely well at Whale Gulch.
Beginnings can be as good or bad as you make it. Pretty much like any other school. Also Beginnings is a lot more than just the school too. That’s the main thing.
 

My own kids did excellent at Sky Fish too. But it sounds like none of you has talked with the now older kids who've have gone to Beginnings. Talk with them and find out for yourselves why hippie socialization has been inadequate for our local kids. And no parent in their right mind can feel proud of far too many local kids who are winding up as gross materialists using pot to fund their acquisitions or going to jail for same. And then there are the suicides..
 

Skyfish promotes suicide?!! Wow! Peter, put a stop to it now!!
 

My kids is a Skyfish grad and is doing well at a top notch university. Other kids arent doing as well. The self motivated ones do great, the ones with disabilities and learning deficits tend to fall through the cracks, in my humble opinion. Parents still have to pay for their kids' education at Skyfish, so that tends to weed out a lot of the less wealthy people, pun intended. I think Whitethorn and Redway do a great job, lots of caring dedicated staff with more resources than Skyfish, like speech therapists, reading coaches etc.
 

You can't apply a blanket philosophy to all students. Some students do better at public, "straight" schools, others thrive in "alternative" environments. I suspect I would have loved Beginnings or Whale Gulch when I was that age. I was bored out of my f*****g mind in public schools, wasn't allowed to take the courses necessary to graduate a year early, and wound up deeply resenting the whole experience. One-on-one work with teachers who pushed me would have done wonders.

My daughter, on the other hand, couldn't live without the social construct and organized sports of public school. So there.
 

"Skyfish promotes suicide?!! Wow! Peter, put a stop to it now!!"

You may think it's funny that too many SoHum kids have committed suicide but it's not funny. It's not a joking matter but a serious condemnation of SoHum socialization of kids. Do I have to spell out the gross materialism to you as well or can you see the kids in their brand new SUVs racing past you on the way to Shelter Cove?
 

the ones with disabilities and learning deficits tend to fall through the cracks, in my humble opinion

Too true, too true. My own daughter was passed through the bulk of her primary education in a rural private school without ever getting a handle on reading. She is dyslexic, and there was little awareness, screening or services available for those students. Evidently the problem still exists. Many teachers ignore it. They let learning disabled and worse yet, emotionally twisted students, just coast without any intervention. It is sad. It wasn't until she was under the private, one on one tutelage, from an extremely gifted teacher that she gained the skills that would serve her into her adulthood. Due to ignorance of learning disabilities, combined classrooms 2-3-4th grade together etc. and 'teacher burn-out' so common in these rural schools, many kids have gaps in their learning that affect them every day. Oh, if I had it to do over...
 

You have got to get it straight Stephen. Does Skyfish cause suicide, or SUVs? Or does Skyfish cause SUVs?
 

What do I have to get "straight"? That you can't see the connection between Beginnings (Ryce) asking dope growing hill people for more funds and the SUVs those same hill people are driving with their sons driving the newest ones super fast, some drunk and dying because of it, while others are heading for prison terms.

Or do you seriously think that has nothing to do with Sky Fish or Beginnings? Nothing to do with kids of dope growers, the same folks Beginnings and Sky Fish have relied on for years to fund Peter's school?
 

10:22 AM
There are plenty of kids who go to Skyfish who cannot afford it and do not pay. No school is perfect for everybody. Your weed reference is gratuitous bullshit.
 

Stevie you are wrong.
 

Yeah!! Suzy Blah Blah is back!! I've been waiting, reading on, waiting to see the blah, and there it is. Thanks Suzy!
 

My weed reference is gratuitous bullshit? So these Beginnings events and Sky Fish kids school don't receive any money from pot growing. How quaint in a land of pot growers and what a lie!

Gawdamighty, it will be a great day when SoHum narcissism bites the dust with reality feedback finally getting through the "we've arrived-you haven't" holier-than-thou attitude that SoHum reeks of.
 

Stephen, as a founding member of the Community Credit Union of Southern Humboldt, I take issue with your reference to it. It was never named Mateel CCU. And of all community institutions, certainly one charged with holding our money should have stable staffing. There have been three long-term managers in the CCUSH's nearly 30 year history: Lee Ellsworth, Sheila Richardson, and Shon Wellborn. All three have been dedicated and hardworking; Shon came to SoHum with extensive credit union management experience and led the CU through a very difficult transition. While the CCUSH building and decor have grown a little too fancy for my taste, it still offers hands down the best consumer credit counseling services available in HumCo. The Board of Directors, Loan Committee and Supervisory Committee, all staffed by volunteers, are stable but not stagnant. What's your beef?

Oh, and what a piggish thing to say about Skyfish: MY kids did fine, but others' kids..... If your kids did fine, it was certainly no thanks to YOUR parenting. I am very familiar with their struggles as teenagers and glad that they seem to be happy and functional now, but I don't see them as proof of your good parenting overcoming Peter Ryce's bad education.

Look up "narcissist," Stephen. It may be a relief to learn that the whole world doesn't revolve around you -- you're just suffering from a personality defect. Give yourself a rest.
 

Well, my son is being served very well by Skyfish. He's learning the basics, and while I don't know what it used to be like not all of the kids are "hippies" by any reasonable definition. His social life and development is coming along quite nicely. Andrea has been excellent as his teacher in all respects, and she has a solid handle on the development of each of her students. I believe other parents can say the same for Mark and Ella. We had sent our son to Childrens House and kept him at Skyfish precisely because of his social life, though we have no problems with the curriculum. Our son brings home homework every night, and we can see his progress.

And while this might seem like a minor point, I believe the school lunches make a huge difference in school performance. Angie and company cook terrific healthy meals every day. The mandates for school lunches in public schools which were weakened back during the Reagan administration leave much to be desired. Yes, we can provide our own lunches, but don't underestimate the power of a good hot meal in a kid's well-being at school.

That's not to knock the local public schools. They have some excellent teachers. But Skyfish is what is right for my son at this particular time.
 

I for one would have loved to attend a small private school. I found public school to be mostly boring. Coming from a poorer than most background and only getting new clothes at the beginning of each year I endured a lot of razzing or what was called rank out. I have exactly zero friends from that time in my life and would not repeat the experience.
 

The Mateel Community Credit Union was the original name of the Community Credit Union. It was changed and as a founding member I am surprised you don't know that which makes me suspicious of all your claims. If you are happy with CCU then more power to you but it's a community corporation and all the community should have a chance to work there if qualified but one saw, at least I did when a member for years, the same old faces year after year.

This is the problem I see with community organization taken over by one or a handful of individuals to create essentially a private business operation that uses community funds to operate.

As for my own kids experiences at Sky Fish and SoHum in general, I think the fact that both of my kids have abandoned SoHum hippie life speaks for itself. The lifestyle packaged and taught in SoHum alternative community isn't any one any parent in their right mind should be proud of. Just look at the statistics of what has happened to our kids. But keep looking the other way and label any social critic anyway you want. It's your community.
 

Beginnings and the Credit Union are two of the best intuitions in Southern Humboldt. Check that. In the entire county!! I would bet that the Credit Union is one of the best in the State for that matter. Hell, they would probably even lend money to little Stevie Lewis.
 

You'd be wrong. That Credit Union wouldn't loan me money to start a bread making business even tho I was a member for years. They wanted an arm and one leg for collateral plus my first born.

Actually, talk with the poor who have had accounts at the CCU vs. say Umpqua. Umpqua service wins out in the SoHum people I know and they are counterculture. But don't take my word for it. Ask around.
 

At Umpqua, you see turnover as young people make their way up the local corporate ladder. That's what's missing from community funded orgs that have frozen personnel, the same people in place for most of their existence. No place for young people to work. They have to go elsewhere.
 

Stephen- I think you are a bit out of touch. Of course you have had your own experiences while you lived here, but they are certainly not the experiences of everyone living here. Both my husband and I work "straight" jobs- 40 hours a week and my kids see that.

And so what if the CCU has long-term employees. Many employeers are thrilled to have people who stick around, because they have EXPERIENCE and usually provide better service having tenured employees. Maybe the CCU doesn't have yound people climbing the corporate ladder because it's not a corportation of 100's where people move around from office to office- there's only one- not much place to go.

Besides, employee turn around is a huge problem for employeers. Also, duh- not a lot of places for young people to work-because there's not a lot of buisnesses- how many do you honestly think this town can support? Also- Dazey's, Redway Feed, Shop Smart ,and many other establishments have lots of young people turn around.

I consider myself a liberal, but not a hippie- whatever that is supposed to mean anymore. I've lived here for over 16 years and honestly, I don't see much of a "hippie" community anymore. I do see a lot of hard working people that want a better life for their children that isn't embroiled in the America Mainstream mentality. Whether or not we can achieve that is another question. Of course there is a lot of other types here as well- as there are all over the COUNTY. (I grew up in Eureka- do you think that SOHum is the only place that has problems with their youth? -Please)

As for education- private or not- parents have to be involved and take responsibility for their education. Teachers can do only so much with the limited resources they have. I know- I grew up with two public school teachers as parents. Both types of schools have their issues. This "no-child left behind" program is crap-all the vetran school treachers I know can't stand what it is doing to the eduacation system. When I wsa a kid, California was #3 in the nation on spending per child. We're now 47th. Gee, no wonder the schools are failing our kids and parents are looking for alternatives.

SoHum does have issues with our children that have to be addressed. I'm doing it by being a postive role model. Stephen's comments are nothing more than his hatred towards this community. If you don't like it so much, then please leave it alone. You're not helpful or positive. So judgemental. Why do you insist on inflicting us all with your constant spu and assult on people that you don't even know?
 

godamit im bored but Bllly wants to play chess an i told hem not intil he puts his nose in that place i like it an does that thing i like but he frownd an whent out in teh yard to blaxt his saxafone but told him u no what the naighbors said last time but eeeeeeep! where was i LOL == oh = Hey you -- Sun Feb 17, 09:19:00 PM ,,,thanks 4 the welcome home me n Billy were in Mexco and justs got back ant midniet... it was a edukational ezperiance and Suxy learned alot of stuff even some espanyol -- thats Spanich for spanish ... so boy-knows Day-us every one LOL ... we were their for 3monthes YOU WOUSLD HAVE LUVED IT!!! we ate ZAPateka shrooms an were in PARADIse they make the cubensis shrooms u get aruond here seem like candy... LOL we ate medicine every dsay for 2 months but then Billy got n infection ear nad we hadda come back muchos pronto undelay undelay cux they dont have any penecilan down thier so n now /Billy is sayin THIS is paradise but and im glad he feels better but Suxy thigns there both paradise like 2 cirlces on top of esach other Mex and here like a figure eihgt if u tern it upside down its teh same LOL -- Suzy tuerned it on its side and NOW I AM HERE BEING NOW EYE AM == lol excipt its hard to take a drink of waater like this ciz it keeps leeking out the side of my mouth LOL but LOL and after standing on my head on top of teh hill i came down and looked Peter Rice strate in the I and said --I forgot ezactly what i said LOl that was a long time ago but the vibe was good and he said something reallly cool back to me anl ill never forget his wize words of wisdom... but where was I ? uh ... anyway Billy didnt comit suecide thats for sure but the naighbors oughta be here any minute now but anyway 4 now ill just havta say--

boy-nose no-chess,
S
 

Anon 5:28, your comment about why I criticize SoHum hippie narcissism doesn't make sense if you acknowledge that I have had direct experience with the people and institutions I criticize.

Social critique is what I do. It is part and parcel of social change activism. If I was happy and content with the status quo, I wouldn't be actively trying to change it, would I? Are you happy with the status quo? Well then, why condemn me with this again blanket lie, that criticism automatically means I "hate" something or somebody.

I know you SoHummers never want to hear feed back that the glorious counterculture lifestyle and political value system is flawed but that's reality and you'll just have to deal with it. Calling me names for pointing out what's not working with existing counterculture institutions does nothing to solve the problems that these institutions are not addressing--such as the pull of mainstream socialization and consumerism on counterculture kids in SoHum and the reasons for the scary number of suicides by young people in SoHum, the drunken kids in car wrecks, and the lack of opportunity in SoHum for legal work for existing kids. It's terrible that local kids have virtually nothing but pot growing to look forward to as a career in SoHum. What has happened to the community vision? You cannot have community self-sufficiency or continuity for that matter with no work available for younger generations.
 

What good does it do local SoHum kids when they go to the Community Credit Union and are turned away because a handful of people have latched onto the community funding of a community organization run by and for the community that really isn't the community's anymore--it's the tight little group set for life long positions with no opportunities for young people who are forced to seek employment elsewhere. This is the way a community gets old and dies.
 

Interesting morning. Woke up and realized Stephen had a thread that made sense in a wierd way. It was called the MCCU and had a revolving board that made loan decisions etc... and it was located in Redway in the same general area as the old RRHC. Also we were a much smaller population then and there were at least 6 major food places, 2 pharmacies and we managed to support them all. They were also local and family owned.
But the school thing. Most of the children wearing honor chords at SF graduations ten years ago came from the alternative schools. Many of their parents were also teachers one place or another.
However I'm not convinced our teenage suicide rate is higher than the nation's. We do have more children feeling entitled to the MTV life style that kids living in other places don't. But they wish they could so of course our kids embrace it, whether you encourage them or not. For a time. That parent thing is still important.
 

Skyfish a good school...hmmm! What about dope growing single mothers who put their children there so that their friends (Peter Ryce) can alter school records to keep said mother out of jail for not getting her children an education while they lived up the hill growing pot. And how about those yearly ski trips the kids and staff at Skyfish take up on Mount Shasta, in private cabins..who pays for that? Or all the other class trips the children there take? No wonder kids get so far behind while attending skyfish, ours was over a year behind in at least two subjects and Peter and his staff has done nothing but try to cover it up. If they spent less time and money on these class trips and more time educating the children they are paid to teach maybe they would have the money they need to do all the building they want to do and maybe just maybe those kids would start learning something.

I have been to many school functions in my life and I have never been to one that served alchol like they do there...game areas for kids and a bar for the parents....I'd like to be watching the drives home on those roads from one of those parties.

I guess the family that parties together stays together is the motto there.

Lets talk about unqualified teachers teaching your children that attend school there, I know of at least one that has had only one year of community college and has no teaching certificates what-so-ever and claims to have taught there and at Salmon Creek Elementary school, or is Peter Ryce and his friends at Salmon Creek just covering for her too so that she can continue to receive welfare benefits from the state while making at least 10K a month growing pot. Give me a break people....counter culture my ass....welfare mothers with 12 year olds that have thousands of dollars worth of electronic toys..

You'd have to be brain dead to no know what the hell is really going on there and at Whale Gulch....training kids and inducting them into the dope growing cult that is SO FUCKING HUM..............

No one gives a shit about those kids they are all about making money and hiding the abuse and neglect of these children to keep those dope growing dollars rolling in.
 

This is Karen Ryce here. If you want to know something of what I am doing you can go to http://www.besthelpfortroubledteens.com (sign up for my free ebook) or http://www.parentchildteacher.com (sign up for my free mini-course)or check out my blogs http://kvryce.wordpress.com or http://powerofrespect.wordpress.com or join facebook or myspace and become my friend.

I have recently created a social site where you can join if you like: http://powerofrespect.ning.com

I am launching a course on the Power of Respect. I intend to finish the first module this weekend.

My first efforts with this is to find non-profits that deal with foster parents and find donors to donate the money to the non-profit so they can pay for the course for their people.

I send best wishes to beautiful southern humboldt. I visited briefly last year and was blown away with the lush beauty of the place. Maybe because I now live in Las Vegas where the beauty of the surrounding mountains is stark in line and form and color, by comparison, where you live is luscious.

I wish everyone a joy-filled life.

Karen
 

I take it Suzy Blah Blah is a Beginnings/Skyfish graduate!