Latest news with #FlatheadValleyCommunityCollege
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Author's love of the water fills the sails of his debut novel
May 12—The course to Kalispell author Steve Brady's debut novel was first charted in a class at Flathead Valley Community College. Brady, 74, who always enjoyed writing, took a continuing education course for budding novelists with the encouragement of his wife Trish. After a few lessons under the tutelage of instructor Dennis Foley, he found out the class was geared more toward practical application than the study of the theoretical. "I hadn't intended to write a novel, but [Foley] said you might as well start one if you want to take this class," Brady recalled. Five years — and a lot of writing and revising — later, Brady released "Downwind to Baja" as an e-book and paperback in March. Available through Amazon, the book is part adventure, part thriller set on the high seas between Seattle and Cabo San Lucas on the Baja California peninsula. The tale follows Ben Reilly, a hastily hired skipper tasked with getting the luxury sailboat Calisto — unbeknownst to him outfitted with groundbreaking technology worth killing over — to the Mexican resort city in time for an international sailing race. But all of that came to Brady much later. Back in Foley's class, he remembered deciding to write what he knew and loved. "I said, 'Shoot — I like sailing,'" Brady recalled. "And I like adventure." THOUGH BRADY grew up in Deadwood, South Dakota — not exactly known for its sailing — he held a steady interest in all things nautical. As a boy, he built model boats and learned about famous sailing vessels. But it wasn't until his career in the U.S. Forest Service brought him to Washington in his 20s that he had an opportunity to learn how to sail himself. He joined the Seattle Sailing Club and fell in love with the water, departing from Anacortes, Washington, for weekend trips around the San Juan Islands. "Once you've motored out of the harbor and the wind's taken over your sails, you heel a little bit and it's quiet and you can feel the boat move through the water," he said, trying to describe what it was about sailing that hooked him. "It's mostly just the feeling of moving under natural power," he finished. His real-life maritime adventures included chartering trips with his wife and later taking the family, which by then had grown to include two boys, on camping trips aboard a cabin cruiser he owned while working in Alaska. A more recent trip saw him tour the Turkish coast by boat, pulling into the occasional cove to explore ruins dating back to antiquity. "It's peaceful," Brady said of sailing. Then he chuckled and added an afterthought. "Except when it's stormy." PENNING A novel for the first time wasn't without its share of rough water. The writing part was smooth sailing, Brady recalled. He found himself up late into the night or even early into the morning working on the novel. Breaking away to focus on real-world tasks, like getting an oil change, proved challenging. "Your imagination takes hold and that side of your brain kicks over," he said before giving pause. "I have to say the editing part was less addictive." Thankfully, Brady had a crew to help with the work. After finishing Foley's class, Brady enrolled in a series of creative writing courses taught by Kathy Dunnehoff. The topics of the classes might not have addressed a particular problem he faced, but they kept him motivated. Dunnehoff, in turn, connected him with a writers' critique group and Authors of the Flathead, a nonprofit organization that aids nonfiction writers, screenwriters, poets, and burgeoning and experienced authors. Members of the writers' critique group, Brady included, took turns swapping chapters and reviewing them for one another. One of the best lessons Brady learned came from Foley. He encouraged Brady to write his rough draft without spending too much time looking back. Foley, he recalled, likened it to listening to a child tell a story. If you want to get to the end, don't interrupt. "Just write your first draft because you'll get stuck in loops trying to fix it," Brady said. "It's a different side of your brain that [edits]." When that time to revise finally came, he received support from his writers' critique group and had at least six people review his earlier versions of the story. Their help, plus the tools he learned from Authors of the Flathead, proved instrumental in getting the tale into print, he said. His advice for aspiring writers? Get connected to the resources offered in the Flathead Valley. "If you're in this community, I'd get in touch with Authors of the Flathead," he said. "I'd look at the slate of classes at Flathead Valley Community College. They can show you a path." THOUGH HE learned plenty about the business side of publishing a book, Brady opted to self-publish "Downwind to Baja." He can understand why some authors would want to connect with an agent who could then pitch their work to publishing houses. The process, though, can take years, he said. "Being 74, I didn't want to wait for an agent to find my book," he said. "I admire people who go through that process, but I wanted to get it out." He remains busy learning the marketing side of being a published author these days. Part of that includes learning to navigate social media as a way to promote the novel, which Brady admits is uncharted territory for him. But he's not done writing. He has a couple of ideas for a second work, including a sequel to "Downwind to Baja." There's also an idea for a book focused on women firefighters. Having fought plenty of fires during his decades with the Forest Service, Brady admired his female colleagues, who soldiered on despite facing chauvinism. "I've got time to kick it around," he said. News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Columbia Falls quilter has spent lifetime sewing
Apr. 7—When Therese Stempin recalls how she first began sewing, she pauses and then from another room produces a small hard-sided case with a handle. Lifting the latches, she opens it to reveal a bright green sewing machine set on a lightly colored wooden base. The portable Necchi sewing machine for children, which still has a spool of thread on it, was given to her in 1952 as a Christmas gift. Stempin began sewing doll clothes on the machine, which has since been carried with her throughout life and moves to different states. It was an interest in sewing that led her mother to put the sewing machine on a payment plan so it would be delivered by Santa. "My mother purchased it at the Bremerton, Washington, farmers market for $1 down and $1 per week," Stempin recalled. "It was lucky she went down there to pick it up the night before because then [the] market burned down." "It all started with this little Necchi," the 80-year-old Columbia Falls resident said. Stempin taught herself to sew and began sewing her own clothes in junior high. In piecing together her first dress Stempin was allowed to use her mother's Singer Featherweight machine for one hour per day, but when her parents would go out in the evening, she'd sneak more time at the machine. "When I get on a project, I want to get it finished," she said. She went on to graduate from Olympic Junior College and Central Washington State earning a degree in home economics. In 1978, she and her husband Gary moved to the Flathead Valley. A neighbor talked her into taking a quilting class at Flathead Valley Community College and later she joined the Teakettle Quilt Guild, which is honoring her this year as the Quilter of the Year during its 25th anniversary Quilt Show on April 12. "I'm awed and dumbstruck, I still can't believe it," she said. "There's so many quilters out there and I'm a bare-bones type of quilter." TWO STACKS of quilts set out in Stempin's living room showcase her work. Her favorite quilts use 1930s- and 1940s-style fabrics with simple prints and more muted colors. Her second favorite are a juxtaposition as they feature Halloween themes with bold patterns and bright colors. "I like that old-fashioned farmhouse feel," she says of her first pick. "I like that aesthetic without having to actually live on a ranch." Stempin teases her husband that if he were a rancher she wouldn't have married him, and if she did, they'd have all elderly cattle because though she eats meat, she couldn't bear to butcher any animals. The couple met in a lounge in Bremerton, Washington, and were engaged in two months, and then married four months when he shipped out for the Vietnam War. Today, they've been married for 56 years. Spending time in Montana and Washington, Stempin worked in education and retired as the librarian at Ruder Elementary in Columbia Falls. Both spent summers working in Glacier National Park. Now Gary fishes in the fall, and she quilts. When they travel, he makes sure she stops at every quilt shop they see along the way. "I always go to quilt shops because each is unique and they always have different things," she said. Quilting, she says, is relaxing. Participating in the quilt guild, the quilt group at Our Savior's Lutheran Church and quilting retreats adds to the experience. "I like taking the little pieces and cutting them up and then putting them back together," she said. "It's fun to belong to the group and to make good friends who help each other out." Even after decades of sewing and quilting (she knits afghans too), Stempin says she's still learning. Stempin has a list of quilt projects on her to-do list. Next up she's making a baby quilt and then she has a pattern for a wall hanging quilt featuring a barn scene, and then there's a scrap quilt planned. "I will not outlive all my projects," she says with a laugh. "I like to sew, but I like to do other things too." The Teakettle Quilt Guild holds its 25th anniversary Quilt Show at Glacier Gateway Elementary in Columbia Falls on April 12 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The event includes vendors, a boutique, antique quilts and sewing machines, along with a wide variety of handmade quilts on display. Admission is free. Deputy Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Friends, family reflect on the legacy of Flathead Valley conservationist 'Lex' Blood
Feb. 28—William "Lex" Blood had only lived in the Flathead Valley a few years when the first Cabinet Creek mines threatened to poison Northwest Montana waterways, but the former miner quickly became an unlikely hero when he led the effort to stall the projects. Over the course of 50 years, Blood taught countless students at Flathead Valley Community College and founded multiple land conservation and education organizations. The gregarious geologist was a community hallmark, so much so that few of his closest colleagues could recall a time before knowing Blood. "He was sort of like the air you breathe," said Steve Thompson of Whitefish. "Any time you look out the window and see the mountains and the lakes and you remember that this is still a special place, you can thank Lex Blood for that." The famed conservationist and educator died Feb. 13 in Kalispell. He was 91 years old. Blood's route to local stardom was circuitous. He was raised on the East Coast and harbored early dreams of working in the mining industry like his father. After an abbreviated stint at Yale and a two-year service in the Marines, Blood moved his young family west to study geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. "I always looked up to my dad," recalled Blood's daughter, Lisa Flowers. "The sense of adventure, it was really instilled deeply in me." Flowers described her parents as "early hippies" with a strong land ethic. Instead of a lemonade stand, the Blood kids ran a rock shop supplied with specimens their father brought home from work, and the family often spent their evenings outside playing sports and weekends camping in the woods. Blood graduated with a doctorate in 1968, but after a decade of working in mines across the U.S., Africa and South America, he was beginning to have second thoughts about his career. "I began to realize that technology was leading us by the nose," Blood said in a 1999 Daily Inter Lake story. "We could do this, but should we?" In 1972, the family crammed into a pickup camper and spent the summer roaming the Pacific Northwest in search of greener pastures. They settled in a log cabin near Lake Blaine, where Blood cultivated a new career as an outdoor educator and conservation advocate. Almost immediately, Blood became a leading voice in early efforts to stall open-pit mining projects in the Canadian Flathead. In the 1970s and 80s, two projects on Cabinet Creek threatened to dump tailings and other toxic refuse into the North Fork of the Flathead River, which would then flow downstream into Montana. Blood organized local Montanans into a citizen advocacy group called the Flathead Coalition and later served on the steering committee for the Flathead Basin Environmental Impact Study. Both efforts heavily factored into international negotiations to halt mining activity. In 1975, Blood started teaching geology courses at Flathead Valley Community College. While he described himself as an indifferent student, Blood quickly proved himself as a talented teacher. "As an instructor, he was so dynamic and so enthusiastic," said Ursula Mattson. A naturalist and outdoor educator herself, Mattson reached out to Blood in 1983 with an idea for a local outdoor education organization in Glacier National Park. Blood immediately responded, saying he had been considering the same idea. The two quickly founded the Glacier Institute with the goal of providing place-based field courses for park visitors and Flathead residents. Blood served as the organization's president until 1999 and taught many of the courses himself, crafting lessons that extended far beyond simple facts to, as he said, "tell the story behind the landscape." "His teaching was very much part of who he was," said Mattson. "He wanted to share the depth and breadth of his knowledge." Blood also helped found the Montana Environmental Information Center, Glacier Park Associates, Montana Environmental Education Association, Crown of the Continent Ecosystem Education Consortium and the Flathead Forestry Collaborative Project, all while maintaining a vibrant teaching career at Flathead Valley Community College. Blood supported many other organizations through his post-retirement work with the Sustainability Fund and the Non-Profit Development Partnership. He often lent his decades of geologic expertise to Montana Land Reliance, Flathead Land Trust and the Nature Conservancy of Montana, conducting mineral analyses for conservation easements across Northwest Montana. "He just showed up," said Flathead Land Trust Executive Director Paul Travis. He described Blood as a mentor and a close friend. "He was always there and always using his advice and leadership to lead the way." Flathead Audubon honored Blood with an Outstanding Contribution to Conservation Education Award in 2006, and Whitefish Lake Institute granted him the Lifetime Achievement Stewardship Award in 2008. Throughout his life, Blood remained an avid outdoorsman and a voracious scholar. He spent many afternoons scaling rock walls and swimming in the Flathead River with his four granddaughters and continued to bike well into his 80s. Even as his abilities waned, Lisa Flowers said her father often expressed gratitude for the life he had led. "He was a lover of the community he was a part of. It ran deep in his bones," said Flowers. "My dad was a thinker, a deep thinker with deep care and a huge personality." Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at hsmalley@ or 758-4433.
