United General therapist’s ultrasound study to be published

Dr. Allison Ariail-Thompson of Anacortes was recently approved to be published in “Physical Therapy,” the official journal of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Her case study documenting the use of ultrasound as a physical therapy assessment tool will appear in the October issue of the journal during National Physical Therapy Month.

Ariail-Thompson began the case study while working as a physical therapist at United General Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, where she helped develop a women’s health physical therapy program. She began the Internal Review Board process in summer 2006 while working on her doctoral thesis at Boston University.

In January 2007, Ariail-Thompson earned a doctor of physical therapy degree. She completed the case-study manuscript last summer while pregnant with her first child and while her husband, Brandon Thompson, was deployed in Iraq. Their son was born in November 2007.

Ariail-Thompson is currently developing a physical therapy program for lymphedema patients at United General Hospital and works part-time for Boston University as an online teaching assistant.



Local Sea Scout on winning sailing team in Annapolis

Levi White, 16, of La Conner and Eric Johnson, 17, of Mercer Island won the Kiwi Cup at the fourth biennial William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup regatta on July 13-19 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Participation in the regatta is open to Sea Scouts who actively belong to a Sea Scout Ship. White is a member of Sea Scout Ship 4083 (Orca), berthed in La Conner and led by skipper Patsy Good. Johnson is a member of SSS 860 (Corinthian) from Mercer Island.

“We are very proud and very excited for him,” Good said. White had just completed a long cruise aboard the Orca before leaving the next day to participate in the Koch Cup, she said.

“He spent a lot of time and effort to get ready for the event,” she said. He did most of his training for the race in Seattle.

White, Johnson and about 80 other young men and women competed in the weeklong international regatta. The Scouts were divided into two fleets of two-person teams. After three qualifying races, the 18 Kiwi teams competed in 16 more races to determine the winners.

More experienced sailors competed for the Koch Cup, and a second fleet sailed for the Kiwi Cup, a Maori carving donated by New Zealand Sea Scouts. Both trophies are displayed at the Sea Scouts Museum in Irving, Texas.

The biennial event is underwritten in large part by William I. Koch, a Palm Beach industrialist and the last American to successfully defend the America’s Cup. Founded in 1912, the Sea Scouts are a division of International Scouting open to young men and women between the ages 14 and 21 who learn leadership skills through seamanship.



Good guess for three locals

Three local residents were winners at last month’s annual Loggerodeo Log Drive.

Susie Swain of Sedro-Woolley, Lindsay Crawford of Stanwood and Carl VandarSar of Sedro-Woolley all guessed within two minutes the time it took for a cedar log to float about 18 miles down the Skagit River from Rockport to the Highway 9 bridge near Sedro-Woolley.

The red-, white- and blue-colored log made the July 12 journey in 9 hours, 55 minutes and 33 seconds. Swain’s guess exceeded the total time by just 38 seconds to win $300, which she intends to donate back to the club.

Crawford and VandarSar guessed the log would travel faster, by 48 seconds and by 1:21, respectively. Crawford won $200 and VandarSar won $100.

Longtime Kiwanis member and Sedro-Woolley optometrist Joe Bee said lower river levels made log-float times about an hour longer than in 2007. A video camera is used to record the log’s start and finish. Teams of log herders shepherd the trip in two legs, changing teams at the Birdsview halfway point.

Bee said the traditional log nearly escaped after last year’s float trip. It had been tied up at Janicki Cove, but came loose and drifted downriver. The log was eventually discovered several days later “bobbing up and down like a Dick Knight (fishing lure)” under the Highway 9 bridge, where its bright-orange tow rope became entangled in debris.

Bee said the Sedro-Woolley Kiwanis Club has completed two years of its three-year commitment for running the log drive, in which tickets are sold in exchange for a guess at the transit time. The annual fundraiser helps the club provide scholarships for high school and college students.