Foster Care Month
Compass Health hosts a dinner every May honoring foster parents and the business partners that support them.
May is National Foster Care Appreciation Month and this year Compass Health (www.compasfosters.org) is celebrating by hosting an honorary dinner for their foster parents and inviting the community partners, Sleep Country USA and Lori Lawrence, John L Scott.
Compass Health partnered with Sleep Country USA in order to address the needs of its foster children. Compass Healths therapeutic foster care program provides specialized foster care to children and adolescents, ranging in age from 6 to 17. Sleep Country USA provides outreach and stresses awareness of foster childrens needs through media advertising, fund raising events (like the upcoming Pajama Bowl) and six annual drives. Sleep Countys many successful charity drives provide new clothing, winter coats, backpacks and school supplies for Compass Healths foster children.
John L. Scott, Lori Lawrence and staff provide what the children want for Christmas.
Both Sleep Country and John L. Scott, Lori Lawrence, fulfill an important need and serve as a valuable community resource for the many foster children and their caregivers throughout the region. Without their help, many of our foster children would likely go without the basic necessities every child deserves. Sleep Country and John L. Scott, Lori Lawrence, show how everyone can benefit when businesses partner with non-profits to help a common cause.
Fran Barnett, Foster Home
Licensor, Compass Health


Define rural, protect it
Snohomish County will soon be holding community meetings to define rural character. This is an important process that demands citizen participation. The resulting definition will influence the kind and scale of development allowed in our rural lands. It is also important, however, that the county participate fully and actually make changes necessary to protect that rural environment.
After all, the public overwhelmingly asked that density bonuses in rural cluster housing be reduced in the latest update of the Unified Development Code. I would ask the County Council to send the revised code back to the planning department since density bonuses have not been addressed at all.
A great many of us have also asked the county to get rid of the code that allows a city of 15,000 people be built on 2,000 rural acres. The County Council failed by Councilman John Kosters vote to institute a moratorium on these cities. In addition, our County Executive, Aaron Reardon, lobbied the Puget Sound Regional Council to remove language from its planning documents that asked counties to avoid developing these cities. He was quoted by the Seattle Times to say that nothing prevents sprawl.
I sincerely hope that this new process of defining rural character will not end in more words that look good on our executives re-election campaign material, but do little or nothing, backed by little or no real and substantive action, to prevent the sprawl he apparently thinks is inevitable.
It is still incumbent upon us as citizens to take part in the process. But lets not forget to demand the change, as well.
Ellen Hiatt Watson
Seven Lakes