The sale of Duck Dash tickets are returned to the community

After being forced to dump its rubber ducks on the grounds of Haller Park last year, the Great Stilly Duck Dash lived up to its name again this year by sending the ducks downriver on the evening of July 4, albeit reduced from their usual complement of 10,000 to only 150, due to this year's river conditions.

While 8-year-old Hayden Caponey insisted that he would buy "a solid gold toilet" if he won the $5,000 grand prize, the youngest winner turned out to be fellow 8-year-old Sally Jane Pierce, whose grandfather, Doug Newman, purchased the ticket that won her the $2,000 second prize. Pierce promised she would save the money.

Although Pierce and Mitch Rorick, who won the $1,000 third prize, were among the few winning ticket-holders who actually attended the Duck Dash itself, Haller Park was still packed with spectators as the sun set, and their numbers were reflected in the record-breaking $65,000 in proceeds from Duck Dash ticket sales this year.

Arlington Rotary President Linda Byrnes noted that the Duck Dash has been part of Arlington's Fourth of July celebrations for the past 24 years.

"This year's success can be attributed to the many local sponsors who supported the Duck Dash, and the community members who participated," Byrnes said. "We are so grateful for their generosity."

Of the event's other cash prize winners, Chuck Tripp won the $5,000 grand prize, while $100 each went to Linda Buchanan, George Bolton, Bill Blake, John Gralinski, Julie Churchill, Tim Cavanaugh and Cascade Surveying.

All funds raised from the sale of Duck Dash tickets are returned to the community, with an eye toward enhancing the lives of children, seniors and other community members in Arlington, Lakewood and Darrington, as well as around the world. Last year, the Rotary Club of Arlington helped to build a new facility for the Arlington Community Food Bank, gave scholarships to local high school graduates, built a new campsite at Fire Mountain for the Boy Scouts of America, and bought more than 800 pairs of new shoes for Kids' Kloset in Arlington.

"This has given me the opportunity to see the spirit of the community firsthand," said Linda Jenkins, one of this year's costumed ducks alongside Wally Thomas. "You see that the people who live here love to be here. I got all sorts of hugs and high-fives in my duck costume."

"This is America, right here, today," said Dale Duskin, ticket sales chair for the Duck Dash, on July 4. "These proceeds also help fund Arlington's fireworks and parades, and every ticket bought is a winner, because they all include discounts to local businesses who have supported us, so please support them by shopping there.

Somehow we made it through winter without anyone getting sick

I recently went back to a 40-hour work schedule for the first time in more than 13 years. I won't say where I work, but I handle the bank accounts of people who have passed away, giving condolences to grieving family members and information on what loved ones need to do with the accounts.

To put it mildly, I deal with death every day.

I take my job seriously. Sometimes I cry when someone tells me about the loss of a dear family member or friend. I don't like to miss a day of work, and have only recently earned the right to take sick time with pay, whether for myself or one of my children. This might not seem like much, but it can be a stressful decision when two parents work.

Somehow we made it through winter without anyone getting sick and then — whammo! — our daughter got a stomach virus. At 7, she is the youngest and the most active of our three, so it was hard to see her so down.

Day One of the stomach virus went well. Sure, there was "the sickness," but in between we played video games, which I hadn't done in years, and talked. I realized how much I've missed hanging out with my kids since going back to work.

On the second day, her sickness started to subside and she fell into blessed sleep. That was when I turned to cut off her lamp and realized her pet fish of almost two years had died.

Two years! What kind of fish lives for two years, anyway? Don't they usually last about two weeks?

As I mentioned, I deal with death every day, but this was a death in our own home. And why now? My daughter already felt horrible. How could I tell her poor Carly, named for the character on the TV show of the same name, was belly-up in her bowl? Even though this fish lived for two long years, which is like a hundred from what I know about fish, I couldn't help but feel personally responsible.

Had she, too, gotten the stomach virus? Or perhaps we had neglected her somehow?

I immediately start wondering how I would break the news to my daughter when she woke up. My son, age 13, thought I should wait until she was feeling better, but what was I supposed to do, leave Carly there for a couple more days, only to decompose even more?

My husband was at work, and my 17-year-old was off with friends. So I made the executive decision to tell my daughter when she woke up.

She slept for hours. When she finally woke up, I waited the obligatory 15 minutes. "Feeling better, sweetie?" I asked. "Yes," she said. "Can I get you some ginger ale?" I asked. "That would be great," she answered.

"Sweetie, there is something I have to tell you." So I did, and then the tears started. It seemed to go on forever. How could I stop the heartache? "We can have a funeral," I suggested. "Really?" She wiped away the tears, looking interested. "Yes, I'll find a pretty jewelry box. We can put her in it and bury her," I told her. After agreeing that she could pick where we buried poor Carly, we were out the door, big brother in tow.

She picked a spot under a bush in the backyard. There was a stepping stone that one of the kids had made years ago with little gems set into the cement. The dirt underneath was just soft enough to dig easily.

All of a sudden a bird shot out from the bush, flying almost straight into my face. It was a mother bird protecting a nest above where we were burying the fish. My son got a chair to stand on to see into the nest, and confirmed that four Tiffany-blue robin eggs were inside. I suggested moving the burial location of Carly, but my daughter wouldn't hear of it.

The Avon location of the popular bargain designer fashion chain

The T.J. Maxx parking lot in Avon was nearly filled Thursday as shoppers took advantage of closing sales.

The Avon location of the popular bargain designer fashion chain is closing for good on July 14 at 6 p.m., according to signs on the store windows.

"We are always assessing and reviewing our real estate strategies and our decision to close the Avon store reflects that thinking," Sherry Lang, senior vice president of global communications at the TJX Companies, Inc., wrote in an email to Patch.

The Avon store employees have been offered "the ability to work at our other area stores," Lang said.

In order to clear out its remaining merchandise, all items are 20 percent off the regular retail prices through the closing date.

Many customers were in the store the day after the 4th of July, looking at everything from clothes and shoes to sunglasses and kitchenware.

"We are grateful for the patronage of our T.J. Maxx customers in Avon and believe they will continue to find great values at our nearby stores in Granby and Farmington," Lang said.

The next closest T.J. Maxx stores you'll be able to go to after next Saturday are in Farmington, at The Convenience Center on 600 Southeast Rd., and in Granby at Stop & Shop Plaza on 124A Salmon Brook Street.

The Avon site was one of 28 T.J. Maxx stores in Connecticut and the newest is in Southbury.

Bargain shopping is still an option in Avon at Marshalls in Nod Brook Mall at 315 West Main St. (Route 44) and at area boutiques like Jolie Boutique Consignment and A Cool Chick Place.

Lang confirmed that T.J. Maxx will be opening 50 stores nationally and 10 globally in the United States, Canada and Europe, but declined to identify the towns specifically.
About this column: Businesses and real estate are ever-changing. New companies come to Avon and older ones move out. New establishments are built and current ones are renovated. Patch is going to monitor the changes in the Avon business and development world.

The Erdeleans happen to run their own adult family home

Biliana and Milorad Erdelean found the 34-year-old man, dirty and disoriented, in their backyard.

“I noticed he had an adult diaper on with no shoes. He had dirty hands and grass in his mouth. That’s when we started getting concerned and called 911,” Milorad Erdelean said.

The man couldn't speak. When police arrived, they took him to Overlake Hospital and sent the media a photo to disseminate in the hope someone could identify him. Later, a detective remembered the man from a previous call and traced his address back to the adult family home.

Once inside, police say they found broken glass everywhere, uncooked food on the floor, clogged toilets and a large knife sitting out on a counter. Bellevue detectives had to wake up the caretaker, Mbichire, who, according to police, registered a blood alcohol level of .138.

Wayne Siegel, whose son is one of three clients who live in the home, said he visits a few times a week and he's never noticed the house to be in that bad condition, but is concerned after hearing about the caretaker's arrest.

“I’ll do some inquiring about it and probably be more observant about what may have been going on or what is going on,” Siegel said.

A person who answered the front door at the adult home said its company, Service Alternatives,  should be contacted for comment. According to the company's website, Service Alternatives has operated adult supported living facilities in Island, King, Skagit and Pierce counties since 1983.  Phone calls to the company were not immediately returned.

“I hope they come down hard on these people," Milorad Erdelean said, adding that they need "someone to take care of these clients, and if the place is that dirty somebody hasn’t been doing their job.”

The Erdeleans happen to run their own adult family home taking care of seniors, so they said hearing about this story made them even more upset.

The caretaker, Mbichire, was arrested for alleged DUI in King County in 2008, but the charge was reduced to negligent driving. He will be arraigned on the new charge of abandonment of a dependent person on July 12.

Donn Moyer, who is with the state Department of Health, confirmed Wednesday that the agency has opened a complaint file on this case and is investigating the home.

Mom, daughter help homeless people, pets

Lori Rich knows all about food. She owns a made-to-order baking business, Rich Delights, in Riverside.

She knows all about the homeless. For the past few years, she and her 17-year-old daughter, Shira, have been providing goods and services to Riverside’s disadvantaged.

And she knows all about pets. Her family owns four dogs, ranging from 6 to 52 pounds, along with a desert tortoise and three toads.

So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that her commitment to the homeless has evolved into something more. Many of those she calls “the street people” have pets, and they have needs as well.

As Rich, 56, explains on her Facebook page, “We are a mom and daughter team trying to make a tiny difference in the lives of people many never speak to and their pets that do not have a voice in their lives.”

Shira was the impetus in recognizing the role of pets in the lives of the homeless.

“My daughter got me involved with animals running in the streets,” Rich said. “A couple of times we’d be chasing strays, and it didn’t dawn on me that people in the streets had dogs. It’s not easy for them to take care of animals.”

The dogs provide companionship for the homeless, and they also protect them. There can be rivalries among street people, Rich said, and the dogs alert them to trouble, particularly the theft of whatever they own.

Every day — sometimes twice a day — Rich is on the road in Riverside, picking up donated items and distributing them along a route from the Magnolia Center area to 14th Street, then out to Arlington and Van Buren avenues.

The donations come from friends on her Facebook page and from strangers as far away as New York.

“They want to help but some don’t have the time, and others are afraid of these people,” Rich said. “Some of that is justified, but a neighbor could be just as horrible and dangerous.”

Rich’s SUV is filled with donated items, which include blankets, towels, toiletries, snacks, dog food and leashes, cat food, ice water, shoes clothing and fast-food gift cards. The gift cards are as close to cash that she and Shira accept or distribute. They’re not a nonprofit, so donations are not tax-deductible. The gift cards provide assurance that the homeless won’t use the assistance for drugs or alcohol.

Many of the homeless are addicts, but she pointed out, “The difference between an accepted user of alcohol or drugs and a homeless one is four walls and a roof. These are people in a horrible situation. They tell me they’re addicts, but they’ll hug me. They’re a lot more like we are than most of us think. It’s easy to judge people when they have nothing.”

With all the contact Rich has with the homeless — perhaps 40 each week — one thing is clear to her.

“I could never live on the streets. I wouldn’t last. They have the strength to make it and not die. The danger is between themselves and the people who hate them just because they are out there.”

Yet, she said, many homeless display loyalty towards each other.

“There are duos and groups that stick together and take care of each other,” Rich said.

Detroit’s DJ House Shoes Talks Love

2006 was a year of devastating loss for Detroit Hip-Hop. The sudden but anticipated death of James “J. Dilla” Yancey on February 10, propelled the city’s small Hip-Hop community into a torrent of grief. However, two months later, when DeShaun “Proof” Holton was gunned down at an after-hours club in early morning hours of April 11, grief was too small a word to express the shock that resonated throughout a community. The remnants of that shock remains today, echoing inside empty venues, reflected in the eyes of hometown artists, and depriving a community of its very best friend.

That was the impact that these men had on the small Detroit Hip-Hop community. These few hundred men and women who grew up together, learning and loving this industry together, most with a shared history that extends 20 or so years, of battling a larger city that wouldn’t accept or acknowledge its contributions to music. It is from this small community of people that Eminem, Royce Da 5’9”, Black Milk, and many more artists honed their skills and influenced them to become the artists that they are today.

Within the Detroit Hip-Hop community, House Shoes played an integral part for over 20 years. A DJ at the legendary St. Andrews Hall, as well as numerous other Detroit music venues, “Shoes,” as he is affectionately known, broke records by Detroit artists, and connected countless people and dots with amazing results.

It was Shoes who introduced Guilty Simpson to J. Dilla. It was Shoes who first broke Danny Brown’s music at Northern Lights Lounge. For years, Shoes worked in Detroit for little to no pay, helping others, producing music for free, spinning for next to nothing until 2006, when he experienced his own transition and moved to Los Angeles, and started a family, with a daughter on the way and a three-year old son appropriately named, James DeShaun.

Hirsh's Shoes stands apart with its focus on aching feet

Aching feet rarely wait, becoming intolerable quickly, and so Hirsh's Shoes has done a brisk business, even during the recession.

Founded in 1954 as a children's shoe store, Hirsh's now specializes in shoes for sore feet and shoes for dancing.

It has two certified pedorthists on staff to do expert fittings and to modify shoes. Pedorthists, like pharmacists, fill a prescription from a doctor.

One staffer, Beverly Valdez, has specialized in tightly fitting dance shoes for more than seven years.

Even though most customers who walk through Hirsh's doors at 2934 E. Broadway - gingerly, in many cases - come looking for relief, entrance does not necessarily translate into a guaranteed sale.

Some people's feet don't hurt enough, said pedorthist Richard Moran, who has been making custom orthotics for 15 years.

Vanity is perhaps a greater damper on sales than a global recession. Fashionable and strappy shoes are most often made with aesthetics, rather than anatomy, in mind.

That is something that hasn't changed over time, even as shoe materials have improved, said Sid Hirsh, one of the store's original partners.

But fashion isn't what Hirsh's is about - comfort is. Not that style is forgotten. An array of styles and colors lines the walls.

Still, customers buck compromise. "I couldn't wear that" is something Moran has heard many times, even from a customer with tears in her eyes.

"Most people buy shoes for their pocketbooks and their eyes," Hirsh said. "When something hurts, that's what brings them."

That's the case with Edna Lindquist. She came to the store Wednesday because she recently had several foot surgeries.

The strappy black pair she loved most weren't a good fit, but she did find some slip-ons she liked, even if the transition to shoes more about fit than flair was uncomfortable.

"That's what happens when you get older," she said as she walked to the register.

Hirsh's business model is founded upon customer service, high-quality shoes and professional fitting, and it appears to be working.

Last year's sales were back at pre-recession levels, and this year's sales are looking even better, Hirsh said.

That's with a quarter of sales made up of Finn Comfort shoes, which start at about $225. Some shoes sell for as much as $400, and custom orthotics cost about $275.

Over the past few years, Hirsh says, his major competitors have gone out of business, and his business has consolidated since the 1990s from five stores down to one.

His primary competition now is the Internet, where customers don't need to pay the 9-percent sales tax required for in-store purchases.

Hirsh began charging a $10 fee for customers wanting a professional fit on dance shoes, which can take more than an hour.

"I just had to to pay for my workers' time," he said, as many people would leave the store after the fitting and buy the same shoes online.

Hirsh is hoping for legislation that puts online retailers on equal footing with bricks-and-mortar stores.

In the meantime, though, he's not complaining. His business is growing - now at five full-time and two part-time employees - and at 81, he's doing what he loves.

He's no longer hiking - an earlier passion - but he attends the opera in Santa Fe and regularly gives talks titled "All You Want to Know about Shoes."