Once a Seahawk cheerleader, always a Seahawk cheerleader? Tiffinee Olsen, a 2003 graduate of Anacortes High School and former AHS Seahawk cheerleader, was one of 28 young women named to the 2008-2009 roster of the Seattle Sea Gals.

“I guess I have to watch football games,” said her proud mother, Elaine Olsen.

Tiffinee learned dance from several Anacortes teachers and danced the role of Clara in the Northwest Ballet Theatre’s “Nutcracker,” Elaine said. During high school she spent three years on cheer squads for two sports.

She went to Skagit Valley College and graduated from Whatcom Community College in 2006. She attended Everett Barber College and graduated as an esthetician in 2007. A friend coaxed her into trying out for the big league cheer squad.

More information, photos and a video of the Sea Gal tryouts are posted at http://www.seahawks.com/SeaGals/SeaGals.aspx?id=70958.

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Scott Gorman sends word that he has left Anacortes due to his long illness and is now living in Oakland, Calif., and is safe with family. Anyone who wants to get in touch can contact him at .

Gorman was a Fulbright Award winner, newspaper editor, cultural education coordinator and co-founder or volunteer for numerous arts organizations.

In recognition of his contributions to the arts, the Anacortes Arts Festival selected Gorman as the 2006 Anacortes Patron of the Arts.
Gorman said he apologizes for not being able to contact everyone. Anacortes has been his home for a quarter century and he never would have left voluntarily, he said.

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Katherine Selting, 23, of Anacortes has been accepted into the Peace Corps.

Selting departed for Panama on April 13 to begin pre-service training as a sustainable agriculture development Peace Corps volunteer. Upon graduation from training in July, Selting will be working with rural Panamanian farmers to develop and implement sustainable agriculture techniques.

Selting is the daughter of Mary and Bernard Selting and a graduate of Anacortes High School. She is a 2007 graduate of the University of Washington with a bachelor of science degree in biology. Selting previously taught outdoor environmental education through the YMCA on Orcas Island along with participating in projects through Sierra Club and Conservation Northwest.

“I was attracted to the Peace Corps because of the opportunity to volunteer to support positive change in our world and promote a positive American presence,” Selting said.

During the first three months of her service, Selting will live with a host family in Panama to become fully immersed in the country’s language and culture. Selting will then serve for two years in Panama, living in a manner similar to people in her host country.
Selting joins the 363 Washington residents currently serving in the Peace Corps. More than 7,911 Washington residents have served in the Peace Corps since 1961.

Since the program’s inception in 1963, the Peace Corps has sent more than 1,652 volunteers to Panama. Currently, there are 174 Peace Corps volunteers serving in the country.

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Duane Lowell, Anacortes School Superintendent from 1976 to 1991, was recently inducted into the Pierce County Athletic Hall of Fame.

The award honors people who have had outstanding high school and college athletic careers and impressive community service.
While a superintendent in Anacortes, Lowell received the Skagit County Liberty Bell Award for outstanding community leadership.
In high school, he played on the Lincoln Abes’ 1954 state championship football team, earning all-state honors as a tight end and defensive lineman.

He was also an all-city baseball player at the Tacoma school and was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. But he turned down the offer to sign with the University of Washington Husky football program.

Lowell lettered three years at UW and was co-captain of the team his senior year. He was a graduate assistant coach for coach Jim Owens for the 1959 Rose Bowl team and went on to coach at Bothell High School.

He started the football program at Shoreline Community College with friend and mentor coach Jim Lambright.

Before coming to Anacortes, he was a professor at Shoreline Community College, Western Washington University, Seattle Pacific University and Pierce College, and superintendent at the Orting School District.

He lives in Fircrest with his wife Colleen. They have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Lowell will be honored with a Hall of Fame plaque June 5 at a luncheon at the Tacoma Dome.

The Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Tacoma Athletic Commission.

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Will your business be remembered in photographs at the museum long after it is gone, or will it disappear from memory the day after you retire?

Anacortes Museum Curator Judy Hakins is asking business owners to update the museum’s research files to make sure that 50 years from now researchers will know all about the businesses here in 2008.

She’d like merchants, restaurateurs and other business operators fill out or update an information sheet and provide photographs of various aspects of their businesses such as the interior, exterior, wares, workers and signs. Contact Hakins at 293-1915 or and she will provide a form.

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The Lady Washington, the official ship of the state of Washington, and her companion vessel Hawaiian Chieftain need new suits of sails, and the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, owner and operator of the historic replica ships, is asking friends and former shipmates to help dress them up for the 2008 Tall Ships Challenge in Victoria, British Columbia, and Tacoma.

A regular and popular visitor to Anacortes, Lady Washington is scheduled to visit here with the Hawaiian Chieftain the first week of August 2008, after the July event in Victoria, said Joe Follansbee of the nonprofit seaport authority.

The Raise the Sails campaign is working to raise $93,000 for 22 sails, he said. Although current sails have been continually maintained, he said the new sails are badly needed. Four of Lady Washington’s current sails are from her original suit of sails dating back to May 1989.

Students from the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building of Port Hadlock, Force 10 Sails of Nordland and Northwest Sails and Canvas of Port Hadlock will construct the sails as part of a three-month traditional sail making class, Follansbee said.

Lady Washington is a full-scale replica of the first U.S. vessel to make landfall on the West Coast in 1788. Built as a state centennial project, she carries 11 sails with more than 4,400 square feet of canvas. World famous, she appeared in the 2003 movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

Call (800) 200-5239 or visit http://www.historicalseaport.org for more information.