Rise, shine with grange breakfast

The next Sequim Prairie Grange Pancake Breakfast is set for 7:30 a.m.-noon on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 290 Macleay Road.

The menu includes all-you-can-eat pancakes plus an egg, a slice of ham, coffee and orange juice. Each additional egg or slice of ham will costs $0.50.

Breakfast is $8 for adults, $4 for children 10 years and younger. There will also be a bake sale, with homemade goodies from grange members. Part of the proceeds go to the Erickson family, whose home has suffered damage from vehicles crashing into their yard.

Sequim Guild thrift shop to open

The Sequim Dungeness Hospital Guild Thrift Shop, 204 W. Bell St., will be open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 2-4, with plenty of holiday decor in stock, along with an assortment of kitchen/tableware to dress up one’s holidays. White tag items are half-off.

Items may be donated from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays and when the shop is open. Volunteers are also sought to help at the shop.

Temporary office closure at courthouse

Following the completion of an office remodel, the Clallam County Auditor’s Office will close to the public for one day, on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023, to relocate back into the main office at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Suite 1, Port Angeles.

The office will re-open at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Office hours will continue to be Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Grief group to start

Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County (VHOCC) is sponsoring a five-week in-person grief support group from 1-3 p.m. each Monday, Nov. 6-Dec. 4, at Trinity Methodist Church, 100 N. Blake Ave.

Organizers say the group offers a place for participants to share with others their feelings and experiences with grief; gain a clearer understanding of the mourning process; and learn coping skills and strategies for dealing with the emotional pain of loss. Confidentiality is essential to foster openness, trust and acceptance.

Attendance is free, but registration is required. For more information or to register, call 360-452-1511 or email to reception@vhocc.org.

VHOCC has been providing free hospice services to patients and their families since 1978. Part of their organization’s mission is to offer grief support groups to not just families of hospice patients, but to anyone in the community who has experienced the death of a loved one.

Learn more about VHOCC at volunteerhospice.org or by calling 360-452-1511.

First holiday, remembrance ceremony set

Sequim Valley Chapel will host its first of what organizers hope is an annual celebration and remembrance event from 2:30- 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2, at 108 W. Alder St.

The program will include the reading of names submitted by the community, reflections with the Reverend Julia McKenna-Blessing and uplifting music with a memorial slideshow and candlelight tribute.

“It’s hard to imagine what life is going be like without their presence and voice,” said Amanda Hough, Community Outreach Specialist for Sequim Valley Chapel. “The vacuum of loss we feel can understandably increase around the holidays and there is a camaraderie a remembrance ceremony brings to those who are grieving. We are looking forward to providing this opportunity to the community and sharing with our families.”

Refreshments will be available following the program. RSVP deadline for name submittal and attendance is Nov. 15. Call 360-683-5242 or see sequimvalleychapel.com.

Studium Generale sets author reading

Dr. Laureen Nussbaum will offer a reading from “Shedding our Stars: The Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine” at Peninsula College’s Studium Generale lecture series, set for 12:35-1:25 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.

The event can also be livestreamed via Zoom at pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/82308557946 (meeting ID 823 0855 7946).

Studium Generale events are free and open to the public.

Soul Speaker Series event set for Nov. 8

Dr. Martha Jo Atkins, a professional counselor, speaker and author, will address the topic of children and grief from noon-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 8, on Zoom, as a part of the ongoing Soul Care Speaker Series sponsored by Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County (VHOCC).

According to Atkins, well-meaning adults often leave children out of sacred and transformative life moments, assuming they are too young to grieve, to understand or to participate in family farewells.

Her lecture will share some of the ways grief manifests in children, how adults can help and how to find opportunities for including children in goodbye rituals as they navigate loss.

The talk is free, but registration is required. To register or for more information, call the VHOCC offices at 360-452-1511 or email to office@vhocc.org.

To learn more about Atkins, visit her website at marthajoatkins.com or watch her TEDx talk, “More to Dying Than Meets the Eye.”

VHOCC’s Speaker Series and other Soul Care programs are supported by the Albert and Helen Mangan Fund.

Sequim Elks hosting veterans program

On Nov. 9, the Sequim Elks Lodge at 143 Port Williams Road will be hosting a Veterans Day program, with a dinner to follow.

A social hour will begin at 4:30 p.m., with the program and guest speaker begin at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will follow.

The turkey dinner and dessert is free to all veterans, by donation for all others.

Salmon coalition gets $129K grant

On Oct. 24, the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office and Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction announced the award of $3.7 million in grants to provide thousands of Washington’s students with outdoor learning experiences. Included in that was a $129,042 grant awarded to the North Olympic Salmon Coalition for its Real Learning Real Work education program.

The program gives students in Clallam and Jefferson counties opportunities to develop a better understanding of healthy ecological systems and an intimate relationship with their local salmon streams. Nearly 800 students from Sequim, Blue Heron (Port Townsend), Chimacum and Clallam Bay will have an opportunity for two years of programming with applied skills in both critical-thinking and problem solving that are uniquely developed through fieldwork at a local restoration site.

The program, organizers note, challenges students to evaluate habitat, engineer solutions, and respond to the complexities of restoring wild salmon to local rivers. Middle school students will design habitat restoration actions in their region’s watersheds and eventually plant the trees they specify in their action plans in nearby restoration sites.