Winter Golfing

Lake Padden’s Winter Golf Tour is a two and half month long event that allows players to come play golf when they otherwise would be inside avoiding the cold weather.

During the tour, individuals compete in different events for a place on teams of four that then play for $1,000 credit that can be used for the shop, food, or reoccurring fees. This $1,000 prize is paid for by the entrance fees that the golfers have to pay to participate in the events and by the golf course itself, said Greg Morris, founder of the golf tour.

The fourth annual tour started on Jan. 8 with the Polar Bear Open and will end on March 12.

There are a lot less people who come out to the golf course in the winter than in the summer, Morris said. “If we didn’t have these type of events, people wouldn’t come out as much.” He said there is an average of 300 regulars in the summer and around 15 in the winter. But the lack of golfers doesn’t affect business as much as it could, he said.

“This year we’ve averaged about 50 people each weekend, which on the weekend is pretty good,” Morris said.

Morris first founded the tour at the North Bellingham Golf Course, and then established one at Lake Padden when he changed jobs. Morris got into the sport of golfing when he was 10-years-old and has been playing ever since.

“I love to come to work and know that there’s a sport I enjoy,” he said.

There are three major events throughout the tour: an individual tourney, the winter five-man, and a one person scramble. There are no teams in an individual tourney; everyone competes for the highest score. During the five-man event, each player of a five person team takes turns being the “choker,” someone who’s score counts for half of the team’s overall score. And in the one person scramble, a two person team tees off, picks the best drive, and then both hit from that spot.

Being in Bellingham, the weather affects the game more than other places, Morris said. “But the tournaments we have now wouldn’t be something you’d be able to play in the summer so it works out,” he said. People don’t seem to have an issue with too much rain or too much snow.

“There are a lot of nice golf courses out there, but this is the best public course I’ve seen,” said Don Lewis, one of last year’s tour winners. He says he’s pretty much a golf fanatic and has been playing for more than 30 years.

“I really appreciate the fact that you can go golfing in the middle of the winter,” Lewis said. He said he likes playing golf because “it’s a walk in the park.”

The Lake Padden Golf Course has been voted King 5’s NW Backroad’s 2009 Best ‘Out of the Way’ Golf Course and the Bellingham Herald’s ‘Best Golf Course in Whatcom County.’

“It’s designed for every level of player,” said Lauren Williams a recent Western graduate and an employee at the course. “There are different places to tee off from so it’s more fair.”

5th graders at Wade King Elementary learning directions during Mandarin class.

Wade King's International Baccalaureate program

Six months after becoming the first fully authorized International Baccalaureate World School in the state, Wade King Elementary’s support from community members is growing steadily. “We’ve had an overwhelming endorsement from the families who are attending here,” said Principal Rob McElroy. “We have many elements families want for their kids.”

There are currently 420 students attending Wade King, he said, and over 100 of those students are from outside the Samish neighborhood.

The Primary Years program, part of the program designed for kids ages 3 to 12, focuses on allowing students to take control of their own education by letting them decide what they want to learn about.

“The kids realize that they are in charge of their own learning,” said Teresa Werner, co-president of the PTA, a substitute teacher and parent. She said her daughter came home from kindergarten one day and decided she needed a ‘wonder wall’, a place for her to post questions and be encouraged to find the answers on her own. “One of her questions on the board right now is ‘Is a coconut a fruit or a nut?’” Werner said.

Wade King opened in 2008 and participated in the rigorous, two year authorization process until being accepted into the program in July 2010. 

There are currently 245 International Baccalaureate schools in the country, ranging from elementary to high school, but only one in Washington. Northern Heights Elementary School, in the Barkley neighborhood, is a candidate IB school and will follow in Wade King’s footsteps if they are accepted into the program in the spring. 

The inquiry-based program lets kids study any subject they want as long as it falls under a certain category. For example, if the second graders are learning about life cycles, one student could choose to study the life cycle of a butterfly, while another student could decide to learn about fish.    

The IB program has developed a learner profile that details the kind of person a student should become to be able to change the world, McElroy said. “All of our programs and projects lead towards this learner profile, using inquiry as our mechanism of learning,” he said.

            “I think we are going to see an expansion of the IB program in the future in Washington state,” McElroy said. 

Because it is a public school, Wade King has the same standards as other public elementary schools, he said. The kids enter middle school knowing all the same material that other children know, but they also have the knowledge of other cultures and other people, McElroy said. 

Fifth graders are required to set up an exhibition that demonstrates their understanding of the key points of the Primary Years Program and how it will benefit them in the future. Project ideas could range from addressing homelessness in the area to evaluating the nutrition of the cafeteria food. 

The school’s mission statement starts out similar to other schools, McElroy said, focusing on knowledge and developing self-sufficient children. But then it goes on to say they want to develop kids who are going to change the world.

“We are focused on helping kids understand a culture that is vastly different from theirs,” McElroy said. 

To do this, every student at Wade King is learning Mandarin in some form or another. The school chose this as its second language because many Asian countries are becoming major leaders in today’s society and will continue to do so in the future, McElroy said. 

It absolutely helps that all the kids in the school are learning the same language, Werner said. The library holds an extensive Mandarin collection that the students can check out and take home. To encourage parents to get involved too, the school occasionally holds Mandarin workshops so they can speak Mandarin at home with their children.

In choosing the IB program over other programs, McElroy said he “tried to anticipate what the world will be like when these kids graduate in 2020.” 

Bulletin boards around the school highlight student’s real-world contributions to the community, McElroy said. 

“I like the expectation that kids take meaningful action based on what they’re learning,” said Tiffany Gutierrez, a 4^th grade teacher at Wade King. She said her students are currently working on raising money for the impoverished children in Pakistan and Afghanistan after reading Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea.” Mortenson is speaking at Skagit Valley College in the next couple weeks and she said several of her students are planning to attend.

Werner, being the co-president of the PTA, interacts with many parents on a daily basis. “I am always pleasantly surprised how similar our children’s experiences are,” she said. “It’s not just my child.”

Welcome to the Samish Neighborhood!

The Samish Neighborhood is located to the east of I-5 in the Southeast corner of Bellingham. It is bordered by Consolidation Street to the North, I-5 to the West and South, and Racine Street to the East. The heavily wooded areas and picturesque views make this a peaceful and quiet place to live. Residents can enjoy walks around Lake Padden or Ridgemont parks, playing a round at the golf course, or walks with the dog at the dog park.
The Samish Neighborhood Plan details resident’s desires to maintain the natural beauty of the area. Proximity to I-5 and Sehome Village let the residents live in a secluded neighborhood while enjoying the convenience of nearby shopping and amenities.