Chimacum High School students ruled a recent meeting of the East Jefferson Rotary Club.

The two students of the month were announced and recognized. Nate Miller talked of his experience and skills with the alto saxophone. He also talked about his desire to become a music teacher after his college years at Central Washington University, the alma mater of Tamara Meredith, Jefferson County Library director. (More about her later.) Darnell Adams talked about his plan to join the Navy after high school and his interest in the military police side of the service. That met with enthusiastic support from former Navy Capt. Pat Cooper. (More about him later, too.) Both young men demonstrated the confidence and skill that will make them valuable contributors to society in the future. 

The Knowledge Bowl team from Chimacum High School was next, fresh from its sixth-place finish in the Washington State Knowledge Bowl competition. The team was composed of Emily Calkins, Christina Bell, TJ Brennan and JJ Klaric. (JJ is a Rotary Exchange student from Croatia. TJ is a CHS student going to Taiwan next year as a Rotary Exchange student.) These Knowledge Bowl kids were tough. They came to our meeting ready to avenge their losses against the best our club has to offer, since we have won against them over the past two years. Frankly, it looked like we had a strong team. President Terry Umbreit selected Brian MacKenzie, principal of Chimacum High School, a man who replaced former principal and member of our team Whitney Meissner. Terry also selected Cheri Van Hoover, a recent candidate for the Jefferson Healthcare hospital board and a nurse. Since former Navy Capt. Pete Leenhouts was not available, Terry selected Pat Cooper, another former Navy captain, to replace him. Finally, Terry selected Tamara Meredith to replace former library director Ray Serebrin. My friends, we had the winning lineup again. New names but the same skills. Right? Those of us in the audience began to wonder after the first 11 questions and the score was 10-1 in favor of those kids. After 30 questions, the moderator wanted to know if our team had any substitutes. A couple of team members wanted out, but nobody in the audience wanted in. After all 50 of the questions were asked, the game mercifully ended. I do not know how it happened, but I think the score was about 112 to 3. It was not pretty.  

Now for a couple of things you should know. 

Our neighbor Merrily Mount is retiring after 20 years as a nurse practitioner at the health clinic in Quilcene. There was a nice article in The Leader last week about her, so I won’t go into those details. It might be interesting for you to know that she drives a sort of pastel green VW Beetle, which is eerily decorated during the Christmas season with antlers and a red nose. It will be nice to see her in the neighborhood more often. 

The annual Port Ludlow Art Fest is being held on Saturday, May 5 at the Bay Club. Tear yourself away from the margaritas, since it will be Cinco de Mayo, and head on over to paint a picture. 

Loren and Mark are the performers for the Port Ludlow Performing Arts this coming Saturday and Sunday. 

Tax season is over, so those dedicated AARP Tax Aide volunteers had a well-deserved celebration at the Port Townsend Vineyards winery. BJ invited me! 

Tomorrow is delivery day for the roses you ordered from your favorite Rotarian, so everything will be coming up roses for the next few days.

Mark your calendars for Thursday, May 17 at The Bay Club. There is a farewell party for Don and Lynn Folsom, who are moving to Colorado. They have been active contributors in Port Ludlow for many years, and this is your opportunity to raise a glass in their honor. 

We might remember this quote from Barbara Bush. She said, “People who worry about their hair all the time, frankly, are boring.” (Note the picture of this author.) 

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

Ned Luce writes this column weekly for The Leader. Connect with him at

NedLuce@sbcglobal.net.