Kim Whitlock started to lose weight as a personal mission. But her success ended up inspiring an entire town.

The 46-year-old Orting woman has lost 166 pounds since about 2005. When Whitlock’s neighbors heard that she was going on The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about her experience, they not only decided to throw a party around the broadcast – they started a town-wide fitness campaign.

Whitlock and more than 30 other Orting residents gathered at DeSanto’s Restaurant and Pub Tuesday to watch her TV appearance and launch a campaign called “Get Fit Orting.”

City officials came to tell residents how the local Foothills Trail system could help them reach their fitness goals, while local gyms offered free workout opportunities for residents participating in the fitness challenge.

Meanwhile, friends and former congratulated Whitlock on her progress and showered her with goodies like a $115 gift certificate for a local hair salon and free Zumba classes through the city parks department.

Whitlock said it was Dr. Mehmet Oz on the Oprah Winfrey Show who inspired to her to start losing weight.

=> Read more!

Sunny Park witnessed how the closure of the American Lake Park boat launch drove down business to her store last summer.

Sure, customers to Lake City Deli Mart stopped in to buy worms for fishing or pick up a six pack of beer, but the amount of expected foot traffic dwindled as the city performed reconstructive surgery to the boat launch.

It's the reason Park, a clerk who's worked at Lake City Deli Mart for nine years, and other mom-and-pop businesses hope the reopening of the boat launch Saturday (see my previous post) will translate to more customers.

Boaters make up a large chunk of business for Lake City stores during the summer. There aren't any chain retailers or Towne Centers that attract shoppers to the neighborhood.

The mom-and-pops must rely on visitors to American Lake Park, and having the boat launch open again should only help.

Park appeared pleasantly surprised when I broke the news today about the boat launch's reopening.

"It helps a lot," she said. "Hopefully we'll have a summer this year. Those two things, they hurt business real bad last year."

Zach Holm doesn’t fit the stereotype of the math whiz kid as a scrawny nerd packing a calculator.

Yet the Emerald Ridge High senior with the striking looks says he loves math.

So much so that he took up his mom’s request last year to create a rap song about a subject that typically induces groans from teens.

Going under the stage name of "Tha' Duke," Zach wrote and performed “Math is What Ya Do” on video. Jeremy Cathey, a friend and classmate at Emerald Ridge, shot and edited the piece that offers a glimpse of the wealth of careers requiring number knowledge.

Zach raps about hydraulics near a fire truck, about culinary arts in a commercial kitchen, about aerospace in front of a plane. Here's a sample:
“Say you want to be a dentist working on a bridge
You gotta know what you’re doing when you’re operating drills
Keep up on your math and you’ll be rolling in bills ...
Math is what you do, math is what you do
Algebra, geometry and calculus, too.”

The video has played before huge crowds at a math conference at Clover Park Technical College last year and today, plus at a college fair for eighth-graders in March.
All told, more than 3,000 kids and their instructors have seen the piece.

And that’s not counting all the views on YouTube.

Zach’s mother, Janet Holm, the technical college’s marketing and outreach coordinator, organized the conferences. Among the conference goals: show that math is an integral part of the workworld and that there’s good reason to study math in school.

Zach agrees.

“I know of a lot of kids go into math thinking ‘This is boring. When will I ever need to use this?’ “ Zach said in an interview.

“I thought the math rap video would be a way for kids my age and eighth-graders to get that math is in a lot of things,” he said. “Maybe they could relate more with me than teachers.”

The project melded well with Zach’s interests.

Math is one of his favorite subjects. He plays drums for a jazz band called Gentlemen of the Mafia. He plans to study electronic media and film at Eastern Washington University, with the help of the university's Presidential Scholarship worth up to $4,000. He’s been rapping since he was 13.

With mic in hand and no hint of nervousness, he strolled on the stage in a cavernous hall at Clover Park Technical this morning and held the attention of some 1,200 rambunctious 14- and 15-year-olds.

He urged the kids to get involved in school activities when they get to high school. He rattled off some of his activities at Emerald Ridge: acting the part of a tree in a school drama, playing football, being elected a student-body officer, organizing school assemblies and activities like the upcoming spirit week at Emerald Ridge.

He likened it to standing at a McDonald’s soda fountain and squirting samples of each soda into your cup.

“When you get to high school … you have to take your cup and you have to fill it up with a little bit of every single club and every single activity to really see what it is you’re going to like. When you mix it all together, you get the best drink ever. It’s the way to go."

Zach left minutes after he spoke. He had to take a test in pre-calculus.

Update: Lakewood Parks and Recreation Director Mary Dodsworth said the total project cost is around $1.2 million. The $850,000 figure was the price the city quoted a few years ago.

The wait is over for eager boaters in Lakewood.

The city will finally reopen the boat launch at American Lake Park on Saturday, just in time for the busy Memorial Day weekend.

The boat launch, which is more than three decades old, has undergone a renovation the last two years. Say for the city opening a temporary boat launch last year, visitors to the park have had to watch the boat launch’s facelift from behind a fence while crews performed the work.

I visited the boat launch today, which is still fenced off. However, the freshly striped pavement and white gangways leading to the floats are a reminder of the renovation.

=> Read more!