Haven Films

Walt Disney is not the only magical place on the planet. Narnia, Oz, Stonehenge, etc. are all places of imagination and creativity. Perhaps less well known, but in no way less magical, is Camp Ida-Haven. This summer, the film crew at Ida-Haven, led by fearless leader Phillip, spit out films with the intensity of a loose llama.

Base camped in an 8'x20'(ish) construction trailer affectionately deemed "the job shack," the crew created and captured videos most summer long. The first production involved the entire Camp Ida-Haven Staff. The film, a romantic musical about two unlikely lovers, the daughter of a prestigious book club president and a punk rocking local, began the summer's film making with a journey through the emotional horse trough of romance.

Once the film started digitally rolling, Haven Films found its cadence. Four more productions would hit the big screen before Kids Camp ended: a song drama about overcoming the mundanity of life, a hair story about friendship, a spoof of Napoleon Dynamite, and a Western. Apart from these films, Haven Films also produced videos highlighting the campers weekly activities. Buttressed by a rocking soundtrack, these highlight videos were designed to capture the 7 day life changing experiences of camp. Below is a clip of Kevin getting some BMX footage during Junior Camp.

The end of kids camps meant the end of videos for Haven Films, but the crew continued to seek adventure in the mountain tops at dawn,

and dusk.

Sunset. Part of the magic at Haven Films. Sure as the summer sun sets so shall the simple cinematic productions of Haven Films be a success next season.

Spring Blues Are Dark Gray

So... we had to do an assignment for my photojournalism class that illustrated spring fever/relationships.  Either or.  My original idea was to have a student in full golf attire practicing his iron shots in the rain with a title "Can't Wait till Spring?"  Thankfully my contacts fell through so I was able to take these shots of the three course meal of a man Thomas Freeman.  

In the shots he's depressed because the weather is putting a damper on his tennis plans.  Imagine this scenario.  Thomas had a date scheduled with a sassy temptress, but a passing storm system came so she cancelled.  

CPFD "Kick the tires and light the fires"

College Place fire department trainees wait for their turn at putting out a controlled car fire. The trainees worked in the rain on Wednesday evening, Feb. 25. One of the trainees, Sean Martin, is an aviation major at Walla Walla University. He's been in the fire department training program since the beginning of January. “My favorite part of program is the live fire training,” Sean said. “The car fire was definitely a blast! Probably one of the funnest things we have done yet.” Once he completes the training Sean plans on working for the College Place fire department for the remainder of his college career, then he says he will “see where God leads from there.”  

Sean can be contacted at bgreenberets@hotmail.com.  Stop by the College Place fire department to learn more about what they do.

A day in the life of Mema.

Above: Shirley Dimke feeds her 16 hens and 1 rooster some yummy leftovers.    Shirley is known as "Mema" to her 5 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, and several others kids she knows.  Shirley was born on the plains of Alberta, about 100 miles south of Calgary.  She wrote this about her time there:

"We had no electricity, telephone, or inside pluming.  We went to school in a single horse drawn buggy or sled, whichever the weather dictated, three and one half miles each school day.  On our farm we raised mostly wheat, and oats to feed our cattle and horses which were used to do the farming. We had all of the usual animals of a farm for our welfare. We sold turkeys, cream, butter, eggs and beef to help with our living expenses.  We always had a good dog, plus a couple of barn cats to keep down the mice.  Our saddle horses were our helpers as well as our playmates for hours of pleasure riding.  The pristine prairie was a good place to grow up.  It holds many wonderful memories for me."  

Shirley and her family moved to Clarkston, Washington when She was ten and she has lived there ever since.  In high school Shirley was a standout student as well as a star tennis player and a drummer in the band.  

Shirley met and married her husband Vern when she was 18.  They started out with little more than energy and determination, but it was enough to succeed.  Thanks to God's grace and a lot of hard work the Dimkes' became very successful entrepreneurs in Southeastern Washington.  During their career, Vern and Shirley owned and operated several different businesses in the construction industry.  They also managed to raise 3 children, all of whom graduated from Walla Walla College.  

Although Shirley is retired she still finds plenty of things to keep her busy; such as feeding her husband Vern, feeding 17 chickens, 2 cats, 1-2 dogs, 1 duck, a pond full of coy fish, grandkids, as well as playing drums at church, completing puzzles, bronze sculpting, and watching after 3 different homes when the rest of the family vacations in Hawaii.  

Above: Shirley feeds the barn cat Jakey.  Jakey was given to the Dimkes by some family members who moved out of Clarkston.  Jakey was originally known as Jake for a number of years until one day Jake got pregnant, and became Jakey.  

Shirley can be contacted via email at shirley@dimke.com.

Portraits Part II

Dorene Hunter stands in front of the PDQ gas station.  Her and her husband have owned, and operated, the store for 15 years.

Wendy Castillo works at B & R.  She's also a student a Wa-Hi, saving up her extra money for college.

Abigail Tello takes orders at the local restaurant Taqaria Yungapeti.

Portraits Part I

Carol Geisinger stands in front of the BIBLES section at the ABC Bookstore.  Carol is the manager of the College Place store.  She has worked is biz just over ten years including her time at the store in Spokane.  Carol considers her job a perfect fit.

If you've called the 9th street Dominoes in Walla Walla in the past year and a half there's a chance you've talked to Andy.  

Andy Maycumber is a Wa-Hi student working at Jack in the Box.

Monica Carmona and Paul Jimenez work at Los Tapatios Market, which is a Mexican general store owned by Paul's father.

Epic (winter quarter) Adventure II

     

Our group continues the tradition of embarking on an epic adventure during winter quarter.  This year we traveled to Washington DC for the 56th presidential inauguration.  For our first trip,  in 2007, we went to Hawaii, which is a slightly more tropical location than the Capital.  When we landed in Maryland, the 20 degree air crystalized doubts in our minds about whether or not this destination was a solid decision.  Washington DC may not have beaches or palm tress but just think about what it does have...

...I'll help-

history,

roman architecture,

street vendors,

a metro,

but mainly Barack Obama's inauguration.

Our group was lucky enough to grab tickets for the event so we were able to get within 250-500m of the President while he gave his speech.

These two pictures were taken on the monday before inauguration.    The picture above is of (most) of our group in front of the Capital Building.  Below is a picture of Alban, Phil, and Eric trying to make sense of wher's where in Union Station.  Eric was the Smeagol who guided us through the Mordor of downtown DC.