September is National Preparedness Month

NPM_logo_CMYK_FINALBy Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

According to Ready.gov, research indicates individuals “who believe they are prepared for disasters often are not as prepared as they think,” while others may not be prepared at all. Imagine you are at work when an earthquake strikes your city leaving phone lines down, roads inaccessible, and you separated from you family. What is your plan?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency states that most disaster situations strike when families are not together. Being prepared beforehand can help reduce stress and length of time apart, and prevent further emergency situations.

Knowing who to call, where to meet and what to pack should be included in your family emergency plan, along with practicing that plan on a regular basis.

FEMA suggests sending text messages to contact one another in the event of emergency as phone lines become overloaded and calls are disrupted. You can also create contact cards for each family member that includes how you will communicate in different scenarios, and list out-of-state family members to notify that you are safe. Programming an “ICE” (In Case of Emergency) contact in your phone is also suggested. This can cut down time in an accident for emergency personnel to notify your family of your well-being.

An escape route should also be included in your emergency plan, such as meeting at a local store near your home. It is a good idea to include multiple meeting places in your plan according to your place of work, school, or children’s after-school activities, as disasters can happen at anytime.

Assembling an emergency kit for your home and car can increase your chance of survival until help arrives. Your kit should include enough supplies for at least three days and include important medication, non-perishable food and a gallon of water for each person in your house. Other things that should be considered for your kit include, flashlights, batteries, first aid kits, whistles to signal help, battery powered or solar cell phone chargers, tarps and duct tape for shelter, and a battery-powered radio or hand crank radio.

Knowing your communities emergency plan during different disasters will help your local first responders focus more on aiding people in critical incidents such as fires and collapsed buildings.

Getting involved in your community and receiving training through community emergency response teams, Medical Reserve Corps or your local emergency organizations can help keep your family and community safe from further risks and threats due to disasters.

For more information on preparing an emergency plan for your family, please visit the website www.ready.gov or search Tulalip Medical Reserve Corps at www.medicalreservecorps.org.

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

 

 

CABIN GAMES RELEASES COVER ART FOR REDSKIN MIXTAPE “BIG RED”

BIGRED W TEXT_ Redskin
Source: Press Release Cabin Games LLC

Seattle, WA (9/3/2014) – Cabin Games emcee Redskin is gearing up to release a new mixtape titled Big Red, in which he spits hard-hitting rhymes over 14 classic Notorious B.I.G. instrumentals. This tribute to Biggie has been in the making for quite some time, and Redskin did not take the challenge of paying homage lightly, attacking each beat with the same calculated force and delivery as the last. With select features from Pez Paradise and Mya Rose, and mixing by Cabin Games producer Kjell Nelson, Big Red builds on the rapidly growing catalogue of dope music coming out of the Cabin.

The cover art for the mixtape features both the legendary Biggie Smalls and Redskin himself, and was designed by Native American artist Steven Judd. The project will be released on September 11th, 2014.

Cabin Games is a new music label co-founded in Seattle by Rich Jensen, former Co-President of Sub Pop Records, and Redskin, a Tulalip Tribal member.  Current artists include Silas Blak, Hightek Lowlives, Pigeonhed, Richie Dagger’s Crime, Redskin, Yardbirds and Steve Fisk.

For bookings and more information about Cabin Games:

Contact:

Info@CabinGames.net

Facebook.com/CabinGames
Twitter.com/CabinGamesLLC
Soundcloud.com/CabinGames

Storm drains with a message

By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

Photo/ Niki Cleary, Tulalip News
Photo/ Niki Cleary, Tulalip News

TULALIPThrough the summer break, 175 storm drains on the Tulalip Indian Reservation received a mini makeover due to a collaborative effort between Tulalip Tribes Natural Resources department and the Goodwill Aerospace Program.

Receiving help from 20 students from the Marysville/Everett area who participated in the Goodwill Aerospace program, the drains, located near the Tulalip Resort Casino, Totem Beach Road and Totem Beach Loop Road, now display a stenciled salmon graphic and custom message reading, “No Dumping; Drains to Salmon Habitat.” Tulalip Natural Resources hopes the message will remind the public of the risks salmon habitat face.

“Many people have the misperception that a drain in a street or parking lot is sent to a wastewater treatment plant, but it is not,” explains Valerie Streeter, Tulalip Natural and Cultural Resources stormwater planner. “ After a rain storm, stormwater runoff enters the drain and is usually piped directly to a ditch, stream or bay with very little treatment. This water picks up heavy metals, copper from brake pads, Zinc from tires, and oils from engines, and delivers these pollutants to our waterways. Salmon are especially sensitive to copper, which alters their response to predators and damages their olfactory organs, how they smell. Zinc and oils also damage aquatic plants and animals.”

Students involved in the program were required to participate in service learning projects, which involves learning about the science and background of a project and then volunteer their time toward that project.

“Protecting our watersheds and salmon habitat are very important and we want the community to understand that dumping anything down storm drains can impair fish and other aquatic creatures because storm drains drain directly to streams, lakes, and even the bay,” said Kelly Finley, Tulalip Tribes Natural Resources Outreach and Education Coordinator.

Streeter explains that when people wash their cars or driveway and either dump or allow the dirty wash water into the storm drains, this contributes to water pollution. “It is better to wash your car on the lawn or use a car wash, which are connected to wastewater treatment plants. Pet waste is another common pollutant in our water, which can pass diseases on to other animals or even us humans.”

“The worst is an old practice of dumping used oil from an oil change into the storm drains,” said Streeter, who recommends discarding used oil at appropriate places, such as the automotive center at the Walmart Supercenter located in Quil Ceda Village, who will discard the oil free of charge.

For more information on how you can help in salmon recovery, please visit Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office’s website at www.rco.wa.gov/salmon_recovery/what_you_can_do.shtml.

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

New app to help parents prevent bullying

By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

Photo/ SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
Photo/ SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)

Parents are receiving a new resource tool this school season with a smartphone app called “Knowbullying.” The free app, available for Android and iPhone, and created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in conjunction with StopBullying.gov Federal partnership, is being touted as an app to help parents and others prevent bullying.

This might interest Washington parents and educators as the state is ranked number five in the nation with the highest number of bullying incidents, according to a June 2013 report from Simplefacts.org.

As students across the nation finish their first week of school, bullying may not be a large concern until it happens. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states, “close to half of all children will experience school bullying at some point while they are at primary or secondary school.” In 2010, 71 percent of students reported bullying as an on-going problem. Grades 4 through 8 were reported as the years with the highest bullying incidents, with 90 percent of students experiencing some form of bullying.

Bullying can happen through a variety of mediums such as social media, known as cyber bullying, verbal abuse and intimidation, text messages and physical abuse. Knowing the signs of bullying can help prevent further acts of bullying that can lead to lasting physical and emotional impacts.

“KnowBullying” provides parents and educators the tools they need to engage youth in conversations about bullying. Through the app, you are provided conversation starters, tips and learning strategies to prevent bullying for ages 3-6, 7-13 years, and teens. The app also provides warning signs to recognize if your child is engaging in bullying, being bullied, or witnessing bullying, and connects you to social media within the app where you can share successful strategies and find useful advice via Facebook, Twitter, email, and text messages.

“The KnowBullying app empowers parents and caregivers by placing resources they need right in their hands to help prevent bullying,” explains Paolo del Vecchio, director of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services, in a press release on the apps official release. “This needs to be part of a community-wide effort to help protect our children from the unnecessary harm, and in some cases, devastating long-term consequences of bullying.”

You can download “KnowBullying” for free from the Android Play store and iTunes for iPhone. For more information about bullying or how to prevent it, please visit the website www.bullyingstatistics.org.

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402: bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

CCR tribute band to be Up Around the Bend playing at Tulalip

Creedance Clearwater Revisted— image credit: Courtesy photo
Creedance Clearwater Revisted
— image credit: Courtesy photo

By Brandon Adam, The Arlington Times

TULALIP — They toured alongside John and Tom Fogerty during the 1960s as the driving rhythm for Creedence Clearwater Revival, and they’ll be performing at the Tulalip Amphitheater Sunday, Sept. 7.

Credence’s original drummer, Doug “Cosmo” Clifford, and bassist, Stu Cook, perform as Creedence Clearwater Revisited — a tribute band.
“We take the music seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously,” Clifford said. “It’s a recipe for a good time.”
In 1995 Cook and Clifford formed Credence Clearwater Revisited to pay tribute to their original sound.
Sometime before that, Clifford was living on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, and Cook was residing in California. The two thought about relocating to some place in California. When reunited in the same state, Cook and Clifford jammed for a bit but that grew old quickly, and the two committed to a new project.
The project started out small, but grew in popularity and were eventually promoted by a friend.
“We were doing private shows for about three or four months just as something to do,” Clifford said. “The shows went well.”
Now the band tours nationally and internationally for rock and roll and CCR fans.
Though Revisted stays true to its classic sound, the kind of music is still relevant to the “single-digiters,” Clifford said.
“We have more young fans than older fans, and we continue to bring in younger fans,” Clifford said. “We do get a lot of airplay on the classic rock stations.”
Clifford and Cook look forward to spending some time in the Pacific Northwest.
“We certainly have been around the Northwest. It’s a beautiful place,” Clifford said. “There’s lots of rain, and we got the ‘rain song,'” he said, referring to Who’ll Stop the Rain?”

 

New backpacks, fresh supplies

BackpackDist2014 from Tulalip News on Vimeo.

By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

TULALIP – The annual Tulalip Tribes Youth Services backpack distribution kicked off the farewell to summer as hundreds of Tulalip youth attended a block party held on Tuesday, August 26, at the Don Hatch Jr. Youth Center.

The annual event, held at the Quil Ceda & Tulalip Elementary School in the past, was held for the first time at the youth center, which accommodated space for a large lunch, education booths, backpack distribution, and the highlight of the event: games and carnival-like activities.

Tulalip tribal youth and other Native youth, Pre-K through 12th grade enrolled in the Marysville School District, were provided a backpack filled with basic school supplies required by grade, which helps to lessen the back-to-school cost experienced by parents.

Tulalip Tribes Youth Services distributed over 1,400 backpacks during the event. Youth not present at the block party to receive a backpack may contact the Youth Services Department at 360-716-4902 to collect their backpack.

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

 

Tulalip Food Handlers Class, Sept 4

The next Food Handlers class being offered at Tulalip is Thursday, September 4th from 10:00am – 12:30pm at the Tulalip Tribes Administration Building off Marine Drive.   Anyone preparing or serving food on the reservation is required to have a current food worker card.  Upon completion of the class and a passing test score,  a food worker card will be issued which will be valid for three years from the test date.  This card is valid for employment on the reservation only.  

FH class 9-4-14