CHRISTMAS BELLS ARE ready to ring on Friday afternoon at the Fantasy Forest senior tea. This was one of the events that raised $144,000 for the hospital foundation.

Union Post Office digs
into its new digs

The Union Post Office has a new home in the Union Square Building on Dalby Road. Seen here are Union Postmaster Jim Madsen and Relief Postmaster Leslie Nace standing outside the new Post Office last Wednesday afternoon. The Union Post Office dates back to 1858 and sought a new home since 2003.

SOUTHSIDE SCHOOL teacher Roy Conover tilts a wheelbarrow containing cement toward a form to hold a memorial plaque for former Southside student Brandon Kaufman, killed in a traffic collision last February. Helping Conover are students Daniel Wilson, center, and Cannon Milligan, as a number of students and faculty watch.

THIS SHIP OFF THE HOODSPORT shore is involved in a project that tries to reduce a surplus of nitrogen caused by chum carcasses. After the Skokomish Tribe harvests eggs from the fish, they are processed for food and fertilizer instead of dumped in the canal.

KATRINA HALE, a 2002 Shelton High School grad, stands outside Kalighat, Mother Teresa's first home in Calcutta, India. Hale, a junior at Seattle University, currently is serving in Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity, an order of Roman Catholic nuns.

He's the wheel deal

Taking a tour of the park behind the PUD 3 building in downtown Shelton is Jack Hughes. The unicyclist had an uphill climb to finish second in an international competition held in Japan.

POWDER PUFF ACTION Thursday in Highclimber Stadium finds anticipation rewarded as usual as the girls get their long-awaited shot at gridiron glory. From left at the top are Mina Miljkovic, Amanda Oliva, Liz Monger, Laura Moelter and Liz Eaton. In the aborted "Statue of Liberty" play in the top-center inset, Ms. Eaton opts to let fly with her pass even as backfield mate Micah Hart prepares to grab the ball from behind her and teammate Angie Kinneman (45) doubles back to block as white-jerseyed Lacy Harrison (67) gallops past. In postgame hug, inset below, are Serbian exchange student Mina (left) and friendly rival Kalea Christensen. Aglow in grease paint in the lowermost photo is senior Ashley Bamford, and inset before her is one of her victorious team's end-zone "grenade" reenactments, with bodies scattered in the wake of yet another tally. Posing for postgame posterity, inset near, are (from left) Krystle Taylor, Liz Monger, Laura Moelter, Cheleace Kaufman and Mina Miljkovic.

THEY CERTAINLY SEEM to be, at any rate, in the glancing rays of late afternoon last week as the Climber hoop girls endure a first-turnout conditioning drill in the strategically windowed Climber Minidome. From left are Meredith McCarty, Marissa Hill, Jeannie Anderson and Brynna Fuller. Theirs and other winter-sports' campaigns at the high school are scheduled to commence shortly after Thanksgiving break.

SCULPTOR ANDREW Carson adjusts the kinetic windmill as he works on the finishing touches to assemble his artwork at Mason General Hospital.

LOCAL AMERICORPS members pitching in at a Bill Hunter Park cleanup in Belfair are, from left to right in back, Robert Taylor, Chris Reynolds, supervisor Walt Harper, Casey Townsend, Nichole Klinemeier, Jared Arave, Jana Liptak, Sandra Gibbons, Sandy Straw and Sean Hildenbrant. In front are Abby Holmay, at left, and Mandy Cobb. The cleanup was sponsored by Belfair's Evergreen Garden Club.