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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Doctors, nurses, and staff at the Sutter Lakeside Hospital Family Birth Center have welcomed new life into the world for two decades.

The Family Birth Center celebrated its 20th anniversary by hosting a free public event that included bounce houses, face painting, tours of the Birth Center, and local organizations ready to supply information on community resources available to mothers and families.

Among the attendees was Brooke Teverbaugh, the first baby born in the Family Birth Center.

Teverbaugh, born Jan. 23, 1997, grew up in Lake County and regularly visited the staff who helped welcome her into the world.

“I used to go every year on my birthday to visit the Family Birth Center,” said Teverbaugh. “I’d give them an updated picture. I would walk in and one of the nurses would say, ‘You’re the girl on top of our computer!’”

Teverbaugh, who is an honors student at Mendocino College, aspires to teach in Lake County and has received scholarship money from the Lake County division of the California Retired Teachers Association, the Kiwanis Club of Ukiah and Mendocino College.

Her community involvement includes volunteering at the warming shelter, volunteering as a photographer with the Lake County Office of Education’s Hero Project, and working as a substitute para educator at the Lakeport Unified School District for children with special needs.

Renee Teverbaugh looks back with humor on the day she delivered Brooke.

“It was a fun experience,” said Renee. “I never changed a diaper the first two days. The staff were so excited because they’d been waiting for a baby to show up.”

“We love seeing the babies who were born here and where they are now,” said Teresa Campbell, RN, MSN, chief nursing executive, Sutter Lakeside Hospital. “Living in a small community means we get to watch them grow up, in a way. It’s an incredibly rewarding experience.”

Event attendance topped 150 people, many of whom were families who had delivered at the Family Birth Center.

Booths included representatives of the Lakeport Library, Mother-Wise, the Lake County Family Resource Center and Mother’s Instinct. Children also had the opportunity to create a mother’s day card at the crafting table.

For more information about Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s maternity care or Family Birth Center, please call 707-262-5087 or visit www.sutterlakeside.org .
 
Morgen Wells is community relations and fund development coordinator for Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The American Cancer Society held its annual Relay for Life of Lake County on the football field at Upper Lake High School on Saturday, May 6, and Sunday, May 7.

Mike Sheets and an amazing staff of volunteers made it all possible.

The opening ceremony began with a blessing from Aaron York followed by the Lake County Diamonds Gymnastics Team leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

The National Anthem was sung by Melissa Maregrave and Teryn Husley as Kaysea Murphy carried the stars and stripes on horseback around the field.

Crew members from the Northshore Fire Protection District were on hand to present awards to the survivors who took the first lap around the field. 

Close to 300 hundred family members and friends came out to listen to DJ Israel play an amazing range of music for the crowd while they walked and talked enjoying one another’s company.

From the Kids Zone with the bounce house, mechanical bull, and obstacle course to all the fun and wacky laps all those who participated had a blast.

Numerous vendors were on hand providing awareness, prevention, treatment options and family support.

Many people spent the entire day fundraising, enjoying a wide range of yummy food donated by Running Creek Casino and walking their hearts out.

At night, they continued their laps by candlelight in the form of the luminaria bags that had been decorated throughout the day. These bags all represented someone special from those who lost their battle to those who are still with us.

The event raised over $20,000 and funds are still rolling in. The teams will be fundraising until the end of August.

There was an awards night party on May 18 at Lakeport Senior Center from 6pm-8pm. There teams received awards, sponsors were honored and they decided on next year’s Relay For Life date and location.

All are welcome to join. For more information please contact Mike Sheets at 707-349-2574.

During the 12 years we've been doing this weekly column, today's poem will be the first time I've offered you a plane ride.

It's just one of a number of fine poems from Patricia Hooper's book, “Separate Flights,” from the University of Tampa Press.

Hooper lives in North Carolina.

Sunday Flying

Sometimes after the flight show when my father
flew in formation with the other pilots,
diving and somersaulting in his Cessna,
he took us up. The crowd was driving off,
the windsocks disappeared. We flew above
the empty air strip, past the silver hangar,
the ballpark, then the bridge, beyond the school;

and then, if there was fuel enough, we flew
to Hidden Lake where, just below us, Grandpa
was fishing in his rowboat, looking up,
waving his hat, and Grandma hurried out,
wearing her yellow apron. Oh, if only
we could go down and fish for perch with Grandpa!
But it was nearly sunset, and we flew

back over woods and highways toward the town,
and finally there we were above our block,
our house, my Kool-Aid stand, my brother's blue
two-wheeler in the drive. How small it was—
how strange it seemed to look down on your life
from somewhere else. And suddenly I was sick
with loneliness. But we were all together:

my brother with my father up in front,
Mother beside me in the back. And yet
we must be small from there: our empty yard,
the Thompsons on their porch, the Barton's Airedale
trying to climb the fence, and Mother's clothesline,
my sweater hung to dry. Just then, if I had seen
myself on the swing set, I would not have been surprised.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited submissions. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by Patricia Hooper, “Sunday Flying,” from Separate Flights, (University of Tampa Press,2016). Poem reprinted by permission of Patricia Hooper and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – With preparations under way for the inaugural Lakeport Sprint Boat Grand Prix on Saturday, June 3, and Sunday, June 4, organizers have reached out to community outlets to get tickets to this exciting event in the hands of Lake and Mendocino County sprint boat fans.

“Most people don’t want to wait in line at a ticket booth,” said event Chairman Jack Long. “The whole area is going to be fenced off and if people purchase tickets at the gate, they will have to buy the ticket and then go through the check in process.”

Long said organizers are encouraging presale tickets to avoid the ticket lines. “If attendees buy their tickets through our Web site or at any of the local ticket outlets, they can go straight to the check in. They will have no need to stand in the ticket line.”

Several local partners have stepped up to offer tickets. In Lake County they include Twin Pine Casino’s “Off the Vine” gift shop, Kelseyville Lumber, Lake County Fairgrounds, Steele Winery Tasting Room and Chacewater Winery Tasting Room. Ukiah fans can pick up their tickets at dig! Music. Tickets are also available online at www.sprintboatgrandprix.com .

Organizers are still looking for volunteers:

• Volunteers with a boat or personal watercraft are needed to be part of the race course perimeter line to secure the area. They can work one or two days, and will receive as many complimentary general tickets as they work. There will be a need up to 40 crafts and drivers.

• Individuals who will be part of the race management team (supporting ticket takers, gate monitors and general support of the Sprint Boat Grand Prix management team). Approximately 20 people are needed. They will also receive a general admission ticket for each day they work. Go to www.sprintboatgrandprix.com and click on the volunteer tab for more information.

Vendors also are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. With the large number of visitors expected at this event from all over the West Coast, this is a prime opportunity for service organizations or vendors to make money.

The rate for vending is a flat $100 per day and vendors keep 100 percent of what they sell. Vendors can go to www.sprintboatgrandprix.com and click on the vendor tab for more information and to apply.

This week we consider key occurrences in the turbulent years leading up to the American Civil War.

May 21, 1856

It can be disheartening to watch what appears to be the complete, fiery tailspin of American Democracy replayed on news channels each day.

Of the three branches of our government, none catches the most ire from everyday Americans than the legislative. Our distrust of our legislature has almost become a stereotype, Congress itself the punchline to some sad joke about the dysfunctional nature of politics.

As sad as the gridlock in D.C. appears to us now, we can at least rest assured that we haven’t reached rock bottom quite yet. Let’s take some time today to remember that on this day in 1856, if we did not actually reach it, we came dangerously close to that bottom.

The decades leading up to the American Civil War read today like one long wailing cry of warning. Hindsight, they say, is 20/20 and from our clear-eyed perspective it’s difficult not to see each mistake made by politicians and radicals on both sides of the argument as inexorable stumbles towards the bloody conflict. That’s not to say that the war “had” to happen, just that given what led up to it, it’s no wonder that it did.

Although later it would become the foundation for the war, the “casus belli” for the victorious Union looking back on the conflict, slavery at the time was just one of many sore points between southern and northern politicians.

Both sides had their champions who, for the most part, fought with rhetoric and op-eds in newspapers rather than with fists and feet. As the war approached, however, that began to change.

Standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate on May 19, 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner harangued the pro-slavery politicians in what was admittedly one of the most brutal tongue-lashings given on either side of the argument.

In what today we remember as his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, Sen. Sumner lambasted his opponents for their illegal attempts to extend slavery to the territory of Kansas by sending wagons-full of southern settlers to the territory (among many other things).

Targeting two senators in particular – Stephen Douglas (future opponent to Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential race) and Andrew Butler – Sen. Sumner laid into them mercilessly. Butler was absent from the Senate and so he was spared some embarrassment, but Douglas sat nearby and received the full brunt of the five-hour long assault. You can read the speech in its entirety here.

In an age not far removed from the notions of courteous honor and chivalry, Sumner’s public words of criticism outraged the pro-slavery politicians. So much so, that one of them acted.

On this day in 1856, a kinsman of Butler, one Congressman Preston S. Brooks, approached Sumner on the floor of the Senate.

It was just days after his lecture and Sumner was attaching postage to copies of his “Crime Against Kansas” speech that he was going to send people when Congressman Brooks approached.

Without warning, Brooks slammed the heavy cane he was carrying against Sen. Sumner’s head. What followed was a cowardly beating of the unarmed Sumner.

Although he attempted to defend himself, the initial blow to the head had dazed Sen. Sumner.

After the minute-long assault, the triumphant Brooks walked unmolested from the Senate floor while his victim was carted out by friends.

Brooks survived a censure from the Senate, willingly resigned his post from the House and was promptly reelected by his adoring fans shortly thereafter. He later died at the young age of 37.

Meanwhile, after a long recovery, Sen. Sumner returned to the floor and served another 18 years in national politics.

Some have since pointed to this incident as a major shift in the argument over slavery. It is true, once something has broken, it can never be wholly mended – a line gets crossed that cannot be recrossed, at least not at the same place.

The assault on Sen. Sumner was certainly a breakdown of American politics, but no one can honestly say that it was an isolated incident.

In September of 1859, two prominent public figures in California went further than Brooks and Sumner over the argument against slavery.

Behind a barn near Lake Merced just outside the city limits of San Francisco two California politicians fought to the death.

The duel itself was instigated, at least on the surface, by insults hurled in the newspaper. David S. Terry, chief justice of the state Supreme Court and a fervent pro-slavery southerner, was no stranger to violence. Always a gentleman to speak his mind, it all started when Terry threw insults at the free-soil Democrats of the state, which were recorded by a journalist.

Terry then turned his venom to U.S. Senator from California David Broderick, a free-soil Democrat.

Terry insinuated that Broderick and his ilk took their orders from Frederick Douglas, the controversial escaped-slave-turned abolitionist. That proved too much for Broderick and he responded in kind, escalating the verbal repartee.

In response, Terry challenged Broderick to a duel. Broderick agreed. Unfortunately for him, that day in September did not go his way and the bullet he fired at Terry buried itself in the ground well short of its target. Terry landed a shot in Broderick’s lungs. Broderick died three days later.

The symbolism of the death of Broderick, an anti-slavery politician, at the hands of the pro-slavery Terry was not lost on those following politics in the state.

At Broderick’s funeral, Republican E.D. Baker, who eulogized the late senator, remarked: “What was his public crime? The answer is in his own words: ‘I die because I was opposed to a corrupt administration and the extension of slavery.’….his death was a political necessity, poorly veiled beneath the guise of a private quarrel.”

The breakdown that led to the war was like the slow fissuring of an iceberg. Those days in 1856 and 1859 were just two of many small pops and snaps felt by America as the nation slowly split in two.

For modern citizens, these incidences should represent the low bar – the worst of government. Rock bottom in American politics sounds like the dull thud of club against skull and the crack of dueling pistols echoing off a lake. Violence begets violence, as the saying goes.

Today our politicians may spend an inordinate amount of time in front of cameras, taking snipes at each other but at least Paul Ryan and Chuck Schumer aren’t beating each other with canes. Small comfort, I know, but we have to take what we can get.

Antone Pierucci is the former curator of the Lake County Museum in Lake County, Calif., and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Cemetery District will hold a Memorial Day service to honor veterans on Monday, May 29.

The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. at the Mary Hardesty building, on the top of the hill on the cemetery grounds, at 16357 Butts Canyon Road. Parking will be provided.

In addition to the ceremony, a new veterans memorial site will be dedicated that day.

Commander Rich Feiro and Sgt. of the Guard Larry Mick from the Lake County Military Funeral Honors Team will begin the ceremonies and veteran Bill Vonn will do the church calling and playing of “Taps.”

Chaplin Woody Hughes will speak and the team will do the 21-gun salute. They will be ushered in by the Patriot Guard Riders.

District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon will be the guest speaker. Jim Comstock, the retired District 1 supervisor, will read the names of the veterans buried in the Middletown Cemetery, and Simon – who also is tribal chair of Middletown Rancheria – will read the names of tribal members who were veterans.

Middletown Cemetery District Vice Chairwoman Linda Diehl-Darms will act as mistress of ceremonies. The invocation and benediction will be given by Voris Brumfield, president of the Historical Society. David Neft will provide the sound and keyboard, accompanying vocalist Kathleen Escude.

The ceremonies will include colorful flowered wreaths, made by the floral design class from the Middletown High School, and presented in honor of veterans.  

The local 4-H is in charge of the flag ceremony. Girl Scout Troop 10676, with leader Jennifer Popovich, will help with wreath placement and programs, and will place the flags on the 203 Veteran’s graves. Brownies Troop 11314, led by Emily Kasmier, will assist.

The Lion’s Club also faithfully provides the chairs and helps with many set up items on this special day.

The community is invited to join in the festivities and enjoy refreshment afterward.