Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

Indigenous Peoples Call for Inclusion in Global Mercury Treaty

Source: Native News Network

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Representatives from the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus have convened in Geneva, Switzerland to make the final push for the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nations global mercury treaty.

The final, weeklong negotiating session initiated on Sunday, January 13.

The Caucus is a collaboration of Indigenous representatives from the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Island Sustainability Alliance Cook Islands Inc., International Indian Treaty Council, and the California Indian Environmental Alliance.

Methylmercury is a neurotoxin found in fish and other marine animals. Fish are one of the main sources of protein, and also serve social, cultural and spiritual purposes in many Indigenous communities. Indigenous Peoples disproportionately suffer the adverse effects of mercury contamination, yet they are not specifically mentioned in the current draft of the mercury treaty text.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to advocate on behalf of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva and look forward to engaging in meaningful dialogue with the country delegates about our priorities,”

said Jacqueline Keliiaa, Vice President of the Board of Directors for the California Indian Environmental Alliance.

“Our communities back home are continually affected by mercury exposure left over from the California gold rush. We deserve a strong treaty that is inclusive of our distinctive status as Indigenous Peoples.”

New studies show that even low-level exposure to mercury contamination over long periods of time may considerably impair health. Indigenous Peoples must be included in the text to ensure that the treaty provides appropriate protections so we can practice our cultures and life-ways without the threat of mercury in our lands, waters, foods or in the bodies of our children.

“The International Indian Treaty Council calls upon all UN agencies and UN member States to implement and follow up on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the internationally accepted minimum standard adopted by the UN General Assembly and now endorsed by all States including the US and Canada.”

“The Declaration recognizes Indigenous Peoples as “Peoples” and not “populations”, and affirms a number of inherent rights that are directly impacted by mercury contamination including rights to health, subsistence, culture and the rights affirmed in Nation to Nation Treaties,”

said Andrea Carmen, Executive Director of the International Indian Treaty Council.

The National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the United States has also joined the effort for Indigenous inclusion.

On January 10, the National Congress of American Indians adopted a resolution calling for the United States government to propose treaty text recognizing the impacts of mercury on Indigenous Peoples.

“We are honored and pleased that the National Congress of American Indians recognizes the severe impacts that mercury has had on Native Peoples, our homelands, and our sources of sustenance,”

said Tia Oros Peters, Executive Director of the Seventh Generation Fund, a key supporter of the resolution.

The mercury treaty is amongst the first multilateral environmental treaties to be negotiated since the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of indigenous Peoples in 2007. This is a unique opportunity for the international community and the United Nations system to abide by the standards set out in the UN Declaration, including the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “Peoples” and not “populations”, as well as the implementation of rights related to environment, health, culture, foods, amongst many others.

Paul Simon’s ‘Sound of Silence’ Backs Anti-Tanker Cautionary Video on Anniversary of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

“Don’t be silent. Vote for an oil-free coast.”

That’s the kicker of this two-minute commercial that began airing on the March 24th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which happened off Alaska in 1989. Released by Coastal First Nations, an alliance of aboriginals along British Columbia’s north and central coasts as well as Haida Gwaii, the two-minute video is backed by the song of legendary musician Paul Simon, ‘Sound of Silence.’

“It’s an honor to use Paul Simon’s famous song, ‘The Sound of Silence,’ to help remind British Columbians of the danger of oil tankers,” said Art Sterritt, the group’s executive director, in a statement. “An oil spill is the sound of silence. It silences communities, it silences cultures and it silences wildlife. That’s what we’ll have in B.C. if Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project is approved: A silent coast.”

The spot is airing on British Columbia television stations as well as social media, Coastal First Nations said in the statement. Simon granted use of his classic hit song for a “small honorarium,” the group said.

Among the First Nations in the group are Wuikinuxv Nation, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xaixais, Nuxalk Nation, Gitga’at, Metlakatla, Old Massett, Skidegate, and Council of the Haida Nation, the group said on its website.

“We thought it was appropriate to release the commercial on the 24th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska,” said Sterritt in the group’s statement. “The Coastal First Nations have banned oil tankers from our traditional territories in the Great Bear Rainforest, and we have invested more than $300 million dollars over the past decade to establish a sustainable economy on the coast.”

The song sounds all the more bleak when heard against the scenes of oil-soaked birds and marine life that flash by, footage from the Exxon Valdez spill. It is juxtaposed with the audio of Captain Joseph Hazelwood, the commander of the vessel of the time, notifiying his superiors that “we are leaking some oil.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that taxpayers will be left paying upwards of $21.4 billion dollars if there’s a spill,” Sterritt said. “Each tanker is owned and operated by a small holding company to limit financial liability. Taxpayers are left holding the bag, and our communities are left with a permanently polluted environment.”

Back to Back! Northwest Indian College Wins National Basketball Title for Second Year in a Row

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

To say the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) men’s basketball team challenged itself this year is to put it mildly. The Eagles’ season was filled with games against much larger schools, including an NCAA Division I and Division II teams.

The Eagles, who represent the only tribal college in Washington and Idaho, took on those large competitors with the hope that the games would prepare them for the tribal college basketball competition of the year: the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) national basketball tournament.

On March 17, the Eagles’ tough season paid off when – for the second consecutive year – the team claimed the AIHEC championship title at the basketball tournament, held in Cloquet, Minnesota.

In their first tournament game, on March 14, the Eagles played fast-paced against Oglala Lakota College (OLC), winning 73-67. They won the other two games in their pool as well, beating Navajo Technical College 61-40 and tournament host Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College 61-57.

“We had some tough, hard-fought wins during pool play that really helped our team,” NWIC Assistant Coach Adam Lane said in a press release. “That helped us to realize that all of our games would only get tougher as we got into the tournament.”

On March 16, the Eagles played Fort Berthold Community College in the tournament quarterfinals and won 98-78. That win sent them into a semifinals match-up against Salish Kootenai College (SKC), who the Eagles played in AIHEC championship games the past three years. SKC took the titles in 2010 and 2011, but were defeated by the Eagles in 2012.

In the tournament this year, the rivals played hard against each other. “I think our guys played their best during the semifinal game against Salish Kootenai College,” Lane said. “They really came together as a team and played well.”

The teamwork paid off and the Eagles beat SKC 114-102.

For their final game, the Eagles were matched up with OLC, their first opponents in pool play. “The championship game was a battle from the start,” Lane said. “We had played Oglala Lakota College once and knew that it would be a hard-fought, physical game.”

Lane said OLC was the Eagles’ toughest opponent, with scores in both games against the team remaining close up until the end. At the end of the championship game, the score was dead even, sending the game into overtime. The Eagles defeated OLC in overtime 111-107. Lane attributed the win to hard work and teamwork, and said that having a large number of players return from last year’s championship team gave the Eagles an edge.

“We knew that if we played as well as we are capable, we would be right there at the end with a chance to win,” he said.

The Eagles’ Doug Williams was named tournament MVP. “Doug was our leading scorer or one of our top scorers in every game we played over there,” Lane said. “He played well on the defensive end as well. He was one of our leading rebounders and also led our team in blocked shots.”

The Eagles’ Josh Nelson and Mike Schjang made the All-Tournament Team. Lane said he thought Randy Evans and J.J. Nixon were also deserving of the All-Tournament Team honors.

“Both of them played very hard, especially defensively,” Lane said. “Matt Eriacho also had a very strong tournament, playing a great game in the championship to help us win.”

Lane said all of the players deserve recognition for all of their dedication this season.

“They all worked very hard throughout the year and each of them contributed to this championship,” he said.

Head Coach Greg Mahle shared a similar sentiment.

“It took the entire team working hard every day to bring home another championship,” Mahle said in the release. “Each and every guy deserves recognition for the commitment they made to each other and becoming a stronger team as the year progressed.”

Mahle thanked NWIC and the Lummi Nation for the team’s big welcome home on March 18, when the players were greeted with a celebratory parade in their honor. He also thanked NWIC President Justin Guillory for supporting the team by making the trip to Minnesota for the games.

Goodwill introduces Youth Aerospace Program

Goodwill is teaming up with local community colleges and area businesses to help high school seniors succeed. Our new, two-year program provides students a smooth transition through their senior year in high school on their way to a career in aerospace.

To “launch” the program, the Goodwill is hosting a Meet and Greet on Thursday, April 25 from 5 – 7 at the Marysville Job Training and Education Center.

Federal Court Upholds Tribal Treaty Rights in Culvert Case

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, www.nwifc.org

OLYMPIA – The state of Washington must fix fish-blocking culverts under state-owned roads because they violate tribal treaty rights, federal Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled on Friday, March 29.

“This is a historic day,” said Billy Frank Jr., Nisqually tribal member and chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “This ruling isn’t only good for the resource, but for all of us who live here. It will result in more salmon for everyone. This is a great victory for all who have worked so hard to recover wild salmon.”

Martinez issued a permanent injunction requiring the state to repair more than 600 state-owned fish-blocking culverts over the next 17 years to “ensure that the State will act expeditiously in correcting the barrier culverts which violate treaty promises.” Treaty Indian tribes filed the initial culvert case litigation in 2001. The tribes, the United States and the state spent several years trying to settle the case, but were unable to reach agreement.

Tribes reserved the right to harvest salmon in treaties with the United States government more than 150 years ago. That right was upheld in U.S. v. Washington, the 1974 ruling that recognized the tribal right to half of the harvestable salmon returning to state waters and established the tribes as co-managers of the resource with the state.

The injunction was necessary, Martinez ruled, because the state has reduced repair efforts in the past three years, resulting in a net increase of fish blocking culverts. At the current rate, repairs would never be completed, he ruled, because more culverts were becoming barriers to salmon than were being fixed.

“The salmon needs our help now,” Frank said. “Salmon habitat throughout the region continues to be damaged and destroyed faster than we can repair it, and the trend is not improving. This ruling is a step in the right direction.”

Blocking culverts deny salmon access to hundreds of miles of good habitat in western Washington streams, affecting the fish in all stages of their life cycle. State agencies told the Legislature in 1995 that fixing culverts was one of the most cost-effective strategies for restoring salmon habitat and increasing natural salmon production. In 1997 state agencies estimated that every dollar spent fixing culverts would generate four dollars worth of additional salmon production. Recent studies support the state’s findings.

In the ruling Martinez wrote that the state’s duty to fix the culverts does not arise from a “broad environmental servitude” by the state to the treaty tribes, but rather a “narrow and specific treaty-based duty that attaches when the state elects to block rather than bridge a salmon-bearing stream. . .”

“Judge Martinez’s ruling was clear,” Frank said. “Our treaty-reserved right to harvest salmon also includes the right to have those salmon protected so that they are available for harvest, not only by the tribes, but by everyone who lives here.”

Cost estimates provided by the state are higher than the actual repair costs shown in court, Martinez held. He noted that repairs would be funded through the state’s separate transportation budget and would not come at the expense of education or other social services. Costs will be spread out over a 17-year correction program. As highway projects go, the corrections are mostly small.

“The cost will be a small sliver of the State’s two-year $7 billion transportation budget,” Frank said.

The March 29 ruling follows an August 2007 summary judgment issued by Martinez in favor of the tribes, but did not include a remedy to fix the culverts. He encouraged the tribes and state to continue to try and resolve the issue outside of court, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

“We prefer to collaborate with the state to restore and protect salmon and their habitat,” Frank said. “However, the state’s unwillingness to work together and solve the problems of these salmon-blocking culverts in a timely manner left us with no alternative except the courts.”

1st Annual Hibulb Center Film Festival, April 12-14

1st Annual Hibulb Center Film Festival, April 12, 13, and 14, 2013

Event Location: Tulalip Tribes Hibulb Cultural Center & Natural History Preserve, 6410 23rd Avenue NE
Tulalip, WA 98271, www.hibulbculturalcenter.org

The 1st Hibulb Cultural Center Film Festival will be held April 12, 13, and 14, 2013, at the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip, Washington. This year’s theme is ‘Our Land, Our Relations’. The Hibulb Cultural Center is seeking features, documentaries, short films, and animation. Films with strong voices of old cultures and connections to land and families are particularly welcome in anticipation of Earth Day.

“Being Frank” Fish Consumption Rate Unjust

By Billy Frank, Jr., Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

OLYMPIA – Medical experts say eating a Mediterranean diet that’s high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, olive oil and fish is one of the best things we can do to reduce our risk of heart attack and stroke. Eating more fish and other seafood is a healthy choice as long as those foods don’t come from polluted waters. We think the state of Washington needs to make sure our waters stay clean.

Washington uses one of the lowest fish consumption rates in the country – about 6.5 grams a day, or one 8-ounce fish meal a month – to set rules for how much pollution that industry can put in our waters. That rate is supposed to protect us from more than 100 toxins that can make us sick or kill us, but it was set more than 20 years ago. Even the state Department of Ecology recognizes that the inaccurate rate does not protect most of us who live in Washington, a state with one of the largest populations of seafood consumers in the country.

We should not face an increased risk of illness from toxic chemicals when we try to improve our health by eating seafood. Washington’s fish consumption rate should be at least as protective as Oregon’s, which has been raised to 175 grams, or about one fish meal per day. Plenty of scientific evidence supports an increase to that amount or more.

Treaty tribes have been trying for years to get Ecology to update the fish consumption rate. Our health and our treaty rights depend on our food being safe to eat.

Work to raise the rate finally began last year, but about halfway through the process Ecology did an about-face and progress skidded to a halt. The cause? A phone call from industry representatives who said revising the rate would be bad for our economy because it would increase the cost of doing business.

We’re trying to get the process back on track, and remain hopeful that Gov. Inslee and new Ecology Director Maia Bellon can help make it happen. We’re also working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to form a Government Leadership Group to move forward.

It’s not going to be easy, though. We’re up against some powerful interests.

Opponents claim federal water quality standards in place here already protect all of us. But how can that be, if we already know the fish consumption rate is wrong? Their answer is that existing rules can include a larger fish consumption rate as long as those who eat more fish accept a higher risk of getting cancer.

Imagine that. What they’re saying is that most people in Washington would be protected by a rate of risk that one in one million people will get cancer from toxins in water. But for anybody who eats more than one seafood meal per month, including Indians, Asians and Pacific Islanders, that risk rate can be as high as one in 10,000. That’s unacceptable. Current state law requires cancer risk rates to protect everyone at the rate of one in a million. That standard should remain unchanged.

There’s no question that seafood is good for us, but it won’t be that way for long if pollution is allowed to contaminate the waters it comes from. It is unjust for Indian people and others who consume a lot of seafood to be at greater risk for getting cancer than everyone else.

Developing a more realistic fish consumption rate and keeping risk standards in place to protect our health is a matter of justice – social justice and environmental justice – for everyone who lives here. None of us deserves anything less.

For updates on the fish consumption rate debate, go to keepseafoodclean.org

Safe Kids activities in Snohomish County

The following is an update of Safe Kids activities in Snohomish County.

What’s New?

New Look! Safe Kids Worldwide has a new look. In the next couple of weeks you will see our logo and branding colors change.

New Safe Kids Washington Director! Welcome Julie Alonso, Child Injury Prevention Specialist with the Department of Health. We look forward to seeing all the great things she has planned for our state.

New Role! Kristen Thorstenson is now the new Safe Kids Coordinator for Evergreen Healthcare. Kristen will be stepping down as VP of Media but continuing as our Child Passenger Safety Chair. Thank you Kristen for all your work in Snohomish County and best of luck in your new role!

Meeting Dates & Educational Presentation:

*We meet quarterly to discuss new programs, grant opportunities, budget and funding, membership, media/outreach and more. Following our meeting we will host an educational presentation & lunch—both are FREE to Safe Kids members and as well as the community. Reminders are sent out two weeks prior to the scheduled date.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room

10-12:00 pm — “Sports Safety & Concussion Prevention” presented by Kelly Allen, RN, Trauma Coordinator, PRMCE

Thursday, June 20, 2013

9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room

10-12:00 pm – “Drowning Prevention & Boating Safety” presented by Rodney Rochon, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Kim Schroeder, Fire District One

Thursday, September 26, 2013

9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room

10-12:00 pm – “Child Passenger Safety for the Provider” presented by Kristen Thorstenson, SafeKeepers, llc

Child Passenger Safety Events

May 16 @ Navy NEX, Smokey Point

July 18 @ Molina Healthcare, Everett Mall Way

September 20 @ Babies R Us, Lynnwood.

Bike/Pedestrian

National Bike to School Day Event, May 8 @ Cedar Valley Community School, Lynnwood

Drowning Prevention

Life jacket loaner cabinets are scheduled to open on Memorial Day, May 27, 2013

Sports Safety & Concussion Prevention

Join us April 18, 2013 for an in depth look at concussions, second impact syndrome and prevention. Learn how to host a concussion clinic and more.

Home Safety

Includes falls, fire/burns, poisoning, drowning and more. Last year we saw a 29% increase in window falls! Children also suffer burns that include campfire, BBQ’s and fireworks. We received an Medication Safety Grant from Safe Kids Worldwide and will be rolling out a campaign to reduce accidental poisonings. Every year, more than 67,000 children are treated in emergency departments. That’s one child every 8 minutes.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month

Please Join us in Protecting Tulalip Children from Child Sexual Abuse

The Legacy of Healing Child Advocacy Center is Hosting 3 Lunchtime Events at the Tulalip Tribes Administration Building:

Wednesday April 10^th 12-1 Room 162

Question & Answer format: Ask your Questions about Preventing & Healing from Child Abuse.

No need to sign up-Pizza provided Room 162

Wednesday April 17^th 12-2 Room 162

Stewards of Children-Free abuse prevention training. Designed for adults to learn how to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse. One hour of education leave in addition to your lunch break (with supervisor approval).

Space is limited please contact RaziLeptich with questions or to register. rleptich@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov 716-4100

Lunch provided

Wednesday April 24^th 12-2 Room 162

Space is limited please contact RaziLeptich with questions or to register. rleptich@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov 716-4100

Lunch provided

More information regarding the Stewards of Children training can be found at their website:

http://www.d2l.org/site/c.4dICIJOkGcISE/b.6243681/k.86C/Child_Sexual_Abuse_Prevention_Training.htm

Vietnam vets get the recognition they deserve

By Julie Muhlstein, The Herald

Photo courtesy of Rep. John McCoyRep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, during his Air Force duty in the 1960s. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, McCoy was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a major supply base for U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. — Photo courtesy of Rep. John McCoy
Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, during his Air Force duty in the 1960s. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, McCoy was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a major supply base for U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.

There was no heroes’ welcome. When Tim McDonald and other Americans returned from their Vietnam War duty, they were ignored or worse.

“Many Vietnam veterans, myself included, we didn’t feel the support of the nation at all,” he said Thursday.

McDonald, 65, was in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. He was in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971.

It was 40 years ago today — March 29, 1973 — that the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, officially ending direct American military involvement in the Vietnam War. Two years later, in 1975, the Saigon government fell.

McDonald lives on Whidbey Island. He is retiring today from his job as director of the Snohomish Health District’s communicable disease control division. Not only does the Vietnam War seem like ages ago, he said, “it seems like an entire separate universe.”

One major difference between then and now is the honor accorded servicemen and women returning from war. Today, Americans are united in our gratitude for veterans’ military service.

During the Vietnam War era, that wasn’t so. Troops came home to anti-war demonstrations, and were ignored or insulted.

Today, our state takes a step toward righting a wrong. At 9:15 a.m., Gov. Jay Inslee plans to sign House Bill 1319, an act declaring that March 30 be recognized each year as Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day in Washington state.

Not a legal holiday, it’s a day of remembrance on which public places will display the POW-MIA flag along with the American flag. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, and a number of co-sponsors, including Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip.

The proposal was brought to Johnson by a member of the Yakama Warriors Association, an American Indian veterans group in Eastern Washington.

An Air Force veteran, McCoy was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1968. That was the year of the Tet Offensive, heavy attacks by North Vietnamese forces. Clark Air Base was the major supply base for U.S. forces in Vietnam.

McCoy didn’t serve in Vietnam, but his memories of seeing what happened there are vivid.

“My place of work was across the street from the base morgue. I did see coffins stacked up,” McCoy said Wednesday.

He said his wife Jeannie had the harder time. A civilian worker in the base hospital’s records section, “she had to take records all over the facility,” McCoy said. “Hallways, waiting rooms, everywhere was clogged with the wounded, still in battle uniforms. It took her a long time to get over that.”

It is decades late, but McCoy hopes the day to welcome Vietnam veterans home will make a meaningful statement.

“My hope is that it brings closure for the troops, that their service is acknowledged and that it was not in vain,” McCoy said. “We still have veterans — that war will never leave them. They still struggle with it,” he said.

After Inslee signs the bill, the state House and Senate will honor Vietnam veterans. There will also be a short ceremony today at the Washington State Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Capitol campus.

“Too often our Vietnam veterans returned home to a less than grateful nation, so it is fitting that we embrace these heroes today,” Alfie Alvarado, director of the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement Thursday. She said Washington is home to more than 200,000 Vietnam veterans.

Heidi Audette, a spokeswoman for the state’s veterans department, said Vietnam veterans are encouraged to seek the benefits they earned. “There are specific problems tied to exposure to Agent Orange. It’s not too late to go back to the VA, for either health care services or disability compensation,” she said.

Tim Davis is the manager and head clinician at the Everett Vet Center, a facility of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“The treatment Vietnam vets got after they got back home from Vietnam was almost criminal. They felt the rejection by the general population,” Davis said.

He believes that even if Vietnam veterans say the welcome-home day is coming way too late, the state’s action will touch them. “What they will say is, ‘It’s too late.’ The reality will be something different,” Davis said.

In recent years, veterans have told Davis that strangers have come up to thank them after seeing a baseball cap or other indication that they served in Vietnam. “They tell me this in tears,” he said.

Davis served in the Army from 1969 until 1991. During the Vietnam War, he worked in amputee services at Valley Forge Army General Hospital in Pennsylvania.

Today, he helps veterans of all ages who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“It doesn’t matter if it was Somalia or Vietnam or Iraq, it’s all the same. But these young kids coming back have some appreciation from the country,” Davis said. “It’s different from Vietnam. They don’t understand what it feels like to be rejected by your country.”

McDonald, the Vietnam veteran from Whidbey, appreciates the welcome.

“The legislators who wrote this law did it to try to balance what happened in the past,” McDonald said. “They were doing something good. They really had their hearts in the right place.”

Herald writer Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Help for veterans

Vietnam veterans or their survivors needing information about benefits may call 800-562-2308 or email: benefits@dva.wa.gov.

The Everett Vet Center is at 3311 Wetmore Ave. Contact the center at 425-252-9701 or 877-927-8387.