top

***************************************

Gardiner Cemetery Update

by Rich Quinnell

Members of the community may have already noticed

the improvements to the access road and parking areas of the Gardiner Community Cemetery. Much of the credit for these improvements goes to the Seabees from the Bangor Naval Station, who donated their time and expertise along with the use of their equipment for these projects. The improvements made include expanding, grading, and graveling the parking lot at the upper end of the cemetery; filling the drainage ditches with crushed rock and topping with gravel; removing stumps, filling with crushed rock, and topping with gravel at the lower end of the cemetery to form a secondary parking lot, and widening the access road to allow large vehicles more turning room.

Ongoing improvements and maintenance arranged by the Cemetery Commissioners have included replacing the railroad spikes formerly marking the cemetery with alphabetical row markers, raising sunken headstones, and re-aligning incorrectly-placed headstones. Volunteers

and Commissioners have also removed dead trees and replaced the upper culvert pipe.

A local Boy Scout is in the process of developing an Eagle Scout Project that will make improvements to the cemetery in the form of a permanent C-shaped bench to be installed under the cedar at the upper end of the cemetery for people to enjoy while visiting, and making a permanent sign identifying “Gardiner Community Cemetery – Established 1906” to be installed in the cemetery’s lower northwest corner.

The Commissioners are still considering the placement and design of a memorial wall for the cemetery, and anticipates making final decisions in time to begin construction in the Spring of 2012. The memorial wall will give community members an opportunity to arrange for the placement of plaques honoring those interred in the cemetery as well as close relatives not interred. The community is encouraged to attend the regular Gardiner Community Cemetery meetings at 7:30 pm the first Thursday of each month in the basement of the Gardiner Community Center to offer their ideas and opinions on the memorial wall and any other cemetery business.

The Gardiner Cemetery has seen many improvements over the last few years.

top

***************************************

Gardiner Community Church

Boxing Day Mission

by Diane Martin

The Gardiner Community Church family wants to thank you for your continued dedication, support, and faithful donations that you make each quarter so we can prepare APO boxes to send to our Air Force TACP’s and CCT’s in Afghanistan.

This mission was started in January, 2008 to honor Washington State sons and daughters who make the ultimate sacrafice serving in the Special Operations of the US Air Force. We honor these brave men and women

by shipping APO boxes to their fellow Airmen and women who are still fighting for our country.

For the first time, we were able to pack and send 45 APO boxes on Saturday, August 20, 2011. We usually are able to send 35. The boxes were sent to Special Forces in Afghanistan. These troops are usually the ‘first in and the last out’ during any situation. Each box we pack is intended to service two service men or women. The

boxes are often delivered to them in the field by donkey.

Here are a few thank you’s we received recently from our service men:

On September 9, at 2:29 am, we received the following telephone message: “My name is Senior Airman Edson Wright ... I received one of your Care Packages today, 9

September, 2011. Just calling to say thank you, and thank  you for supporting us, and the cookies are delicious ... and thank you so very much.” (This message was received from overseas.)

Dear Pastor,

We would like to thank you for the care package we received. Everything in there will give us that "taste" of home.

It can be rough at times, but when a package such as yours arrives it reminds us of home and the support we are getting.

Sincerely,

Steve K, Senior Master Sergeant, USAF

P.S. We love the photo of the pastor and the lady on the

Harley. You apparently have a very cool church.

A second letter came from a Chaplain:

"I am Chaplain (CPT) Michael Dawson. I am the Chaplain for Task Force Attack. I wanted to personally thank you for supporting us by sending care packages. Thank you for all that you do to remind our people that their service and sacrifices are appreciated."

Each box does make a difference and we will continue to send them as long as we have men and women overseas.

Thank you again for your support and faithfulness with this mission. We could not continue to do what we do, without people like you, who do what you do. Our next

Boxing Day is Saturday, November 19, 2011.  If you would like to help, you can contact Diane Martin at

360.797.7515.

top

***************************************

E-mail Distribution of Newsletter

by Bob McCauley

In these days of shrinking resources and ever tightened budgets we are looking for ways to reduce costs for producing the Community Newsletter. One thing we are considering is to distribute it via e-mail. If we can get enough Gardiner residents to sign-up for e-mail distribution we can significantly reduce both printing and mailing costs.

Of course, e-mail distribution requires that you, the reader, must be comfortable with this computer process and that you be able to read the newsletter once it arrives. It will be mailed as a Public Document Format (.PDF)

file which you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.

To download the “Reader” go to http://get.adobe.com/

reader/ and follow the instructions.

If you are interested to get the Community Newsletter by e-mail please send an e-mail message to the editor, Bob McCauley, at “deccoeur@embarqmail.com”. Please indicate whether or not you still wish to receive a paper copy via “snail mail”. You’ll be put on the e-mail distribution list and get the next edition hot off the wire as soon as it is published.

top

***************************************

 Mailing List Update

by Bob McCauley

The Community Newsletter is currently distributed to Gardiner area residents as contained in the Jefferson County voter registration rolls. This can cause problems when residents change more frequently than the voter rolls are updated or if a resident is not a registered voter. This can be a particular problem for renters.

If you do not currently receive the Newsletter by mail and wish to, or if you know of anyone who is not currently receiving the Newsletter, please contact the editor, Bob McCauley, either by e-mail (see above) or by phone at (360) 797-2106.

top

***************************************

Editor’s Note – by Bob McCauley

Welcome to the Community Newsletter.  The Newsletter is a tri-annual publication of the Gardiner Community Center and is

mailed to registered voter households of Jefferson County precincts 101, 102 and 103. Additional copies will be available at the Gardiner Community Center. It is intended to provide news and information concerning and of interest to the Gardiner commu- nity.

•      Articles will be timely in content (events occurring one month prior and one month after publication).

•      Articles must be non-political and non-commercial, signed by author for publication

•      All articles and information will be approved by the Editor and the Gardiner Community Center Board

•      Length of articles may be limited due to space available.

•      We welcome articles submitted by residents of Gardiner.

•      Deadline of one week prior to publication, to be set by Editor, for submission of articles. NO EXCEPTIONS

•      Phone Editor, Bob McCauley, for further information at 797-2106, or by mail at the Gardiner Community Center,

980 Old Gardiner Rd, Sequim, WA 98382