Issaquahpress07102013

COMMUNITYSection

B WednesdayJuly 10, 2013

THE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESS

By Erin [email protected]

The first time Mike Gearhart ran naked, he was both excited and ap-prehensive.

At the time, he was 34 and when he saw an ad-vertisement for Fraternity Snoqualmie Family Nudist Park’s Bare Buns Fun Run, he thought, “Why not?” But what started out as a whim turned into a lifestyle.

More than two decades later, Gearhart, a regular member at Fraternity Sno-qualmie, is preparing for the 22nd annual Fun Run. He is one of three people to have run it every single year.

“You can see the joy in everyone else,” he said. “It’s a really enjoyable day.”

On July 14, hundreds of runners will join Gearhart in varying degrees of dress. The Fun Run, a strenu-ous 5K trail run up Tiger Mountain, is the grand finale of a weekend at the nudist park. The festivi-ties begin July 12 with a wine and cheese party. At 1 p.m. Saturday, Fraternity Snoqualmie, in partnership with the American Associa-tion for Nude Recreation, will attempt to beat the Guinness World Record for largest skinny dip, which it set in 2010.

Dawnzella Gearhart,

Local runners share naked enthusiasm for Bare Buns Fun Run

DRESS DOWN FOR A WORLD RECORD

You can help beat the heat — and a world record — by helping set the larg-est number of people simultaneously in the water without swimsuits.

This June 13 event, co-sponsored by the American Association for Nude Recreation and The Naturist Society, will be the exciting finale to Nude Recreation Week at Fraternity Snoqualmie Family Nudist Park. Organizers encour-age participants to plan to camp and enjoy the rest of the activities planned for the week.

The dip is free with a paid $16 one-day mem-bership. First time visitors can also get a free one-day pass for another day of the recreation week.

Photo identification is required; children are wel-come if they attend with their parents. The gates to the event open at 11 a.m., with check-in beginning at noon. The skinny dip starts at 1 p.m.

Learn more at www.fraternitysnoqualmie.com or www.aanr.com/world-record-skinny-dip.

By Erin [email protected]

In 2004, Karen Klein thought she had retired, but then she saw a newspaper advertisement for a volunteer position at the Issaquah History Museums.

Nearly a decade later, Klein is retiring for real from her position as volunteer coordinator, and according to Museum Director Erica Maniez, she will be difficult to replace.

“It’s been delightful,” she said of her time working with Klein, whose last day was June 27. “She’s been my right-hand person in develop-ing many things in the museum.”

Klein grew up in Davis, Calif., where her father was the head of the Department of Viticulture and Enology, and she graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts in art history. Klein and her husband Joel, who is a winemaker for Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, moved to Issaquah from California shortly before the birth of their first child.

In her 38 years as an Issaquah resident, Klein has been a legal secretary, the owner of Snoqualmie Winery and the owner of a chocolate business prior to her work at the Issaquah History Museums. Behind the scenes, Klein helped Maniez develop the

volunteer program as it currently stands, but her primary contribution was her passion for connect-ing with people.

“I do enjoy the history aspect,” Klein said, “but one of the things I enjoy greatly is the people I work with.”

Klein appreciated an awareness of history and understood the impor-tance of interpretation in the community, Maniez said, adding that the outgoing and personable Klein always seemed to know intuitively what each museum guest needed, and she found joy in the happiness of others.

CONTRIBUTED

Karen Klein (left) receives applause during Volunteer Awards Night in May at the Issaquah History Museums, led by Museum Director Erica Maniez (right), in honor of Klein’s nine years of volunteer work. On the wall happens to be a painting Klein created for longtime Issaquah resident Ruth Mohl as part of the museum’s Collective Memory Program.

By Dan Aznoff

More than a dozen vol-unteers from the Eastside gave up the first sunny Saturday of the summer to provide some much needed safety upgrades on the singlewide mobile home occupied by an elderly woman who lives on Tiger Mountain.

Members of the I-90 Church in Issaquah teamed with volunteers from East-side Friends of Seniors to install a wheelchair ramp to the outside deck, and repaired rotted boards on the porch where Leila Forbeck fell and broke her leg in 20 places in Septem-ber. The unpaid workers also replaced and painted drywall that had been damaged when the water heater in the tiny trailer failed several months ago.

Later in the day, volun-teers tore out the worn carpeting that piled up near the front door and laid down new floor cover-

ing. They also stacked firewood on the porch that Forbeck can use to heat her home this winter. The trailer does have a small electric space heater, but the elderly woman relies on a small wood stove as her main source of heat, according to Claire Peter-sky, executive director of Eastside Friends of Se-niors.

“New carpet and the ramp will give our client better access in and out of her home,” Petersky said. “Before last weekend,

Organizations unite to makeover home on Tiger Mountain

HOW TO HELPDonations to cover the Tiger Mountain project can be made through the Eastside Friends of Seniors website at www.eastside-friendsofseniors.org.

See BARE BUNS, Page B7

By Keith ErvinSeattle Times staff reporter

He’s not exactly a wild creature, but he’s too independent to be considered a farm animal or a pet.

He’s a free-range kind of guy.Since the bantam rooster

known as McNugget first showed up in a downtown Issaquah parking lot 11 years ago, he’s stuck around and brought smiles to shoppers and passers-by.

Michelle Schneider, owner of the Your Espresso stand on Front Street North, said she was terrified when the black-feath-ered bird suddenly appeared

one day at her window.After calming down, she

learned he had escaped from a customer of nearby The Grange supply store. A Grange employee captured him, but he escaped again, and at that point, at-tempts to catch and return him to his owner ended.

McNugget, who was named in a poll of Your Espresso custom-ers, hasn’t left since.

He sleeps in a maple tree next to the espresso stand and splits his days between the coffee shop, the Staples office-supply store and Issaquah Creek.

Baristas and a neighbor feed him chicken feed and meal-worms. Customers and other admirers bring him treats.

When he’s hungry, he flies up to a serving window.

“If I say, ‘Down!’ ” — Schnei-der snaps her fingers — “he gets down. He’s like a dog.”

Issaquah’s land-use code prohibits keeping roosters in residential areas, but there’s no prohibition in the commercially zoned parking lot where McNug-get roosts.

Charming though he can be, the rooster does have a can-tankerous streak, and is known on occasion to attack people in wheelchairs and on bicycles and motorcycles. And — since being clamped in the jaws of a pit bull — he refuses to be intimidated by curious canines.

Kristin Parshall, a Fall City animal-rights advocate who gave McNugget a doghouse, isn’t happy that he lives with no other protection against cold weather or predators.

“If he was a white fluffy dog,” she said, “people would not be

MIKE SIEGEL/THE SEATTLE TIMES

Katheryn Parker, as she leaves Staples, admires McNugget the rooster, which has been wandering the parking lot for 11 years.

REIGN ROAMING ROOSTERof the

Museum volunteer retires after nine years of service

One tough old bird rules an Issaquah parking lot

B1

Take a walk and make new Friends

Friends of Lake Sam-mamish State Park hosts walks in the park.

Morning walks begin at 10 every Wednesday. The next Monday evening walk is at 7 p.m. July 15. Walks are informal and take dif-ferent paths each week, but all are on level ground. Walks are typically one hour, but walkers can drop out as needed. Dogs on leashes are welcome.

Meet at the large rotunda inside the park, on the right as you turn into the first parking lot. An annual Discover Pass is needed, or pay a $10 one-time fee.

Volunteer opportunity for creative person

Friends of Lake Sam-mamish State Park need a creative someone to design photo/graphic display boards for exhibits. Offer your help by calling Debbie at 392-5393, evenings.

State Park group welcome new members

Friends of Lake Sam-mamish State Park wel-comes charter members.

Those who join before Aug. 1 will be invited to a special event at the park Sept. 12 and will receive a framed certificate.

The group already has 40 paid memberships from people interested in help-ing preserve, restore and enhance the park in accor-dance with the park’s 2007 master plan. Suggestions for other improvements may also be pursued.

So far, the group has agreed to seek to re-estab-lish a recycling program in the park and wants to redevelop the children’s playground area.

Receive a membership application through the link on the homepage of www.issaquahpress.com.

See ROOSTER, Page B6

CONTRIBUTED

Leila Forbeck (center) inspects the work being done by volun-teers who added a wheelchair ramp and other safety improve-ments for the senior citizen who lives in a singlewide trailer on Tiger Mountain. See RETIRING, Page B6

See MAKEOVER, Page B7