The Editor:
As a three-year Blaine resident, I am impressed with the number of churches in the community. I admire the work that people of faith (as well as those who are non-believers, but do-gooders) provide on behalf of those in need not only during the Christmas season, but throughout the year. The Blaine High School teacher who quietly organizes a free clothing closet for students, the food bank, blood drives, the community’s support of the senior center and Boys and Girls Club, the library with its extended hours and helpful librarians, the high school’s parenting nights with free dinners and the list goes on. You amaze me!
With all of the commotion, terror, calamities and mean-spirited politics of 2018, I invite us all to step back and thoughtfully become engaged in bringing Christ-like giving to the forefront of our minds and hearts this month.
For example, by logging onto lds.org or justserve.org, we can find opportunities and inspirational ideas to daily reach out and serve people in our homes, our places of employment, and within our own town and county.
I bet your place of worship has similar ideas, as well as our ever-busy community organizations. Would you please share these ideas with us? I would like to lend my support wherever and however I can. We may be attending different church buildings, and belong to different charitable organizations, but we can share the same wish: to bring good into this world. Let us join together to uplift, serve and share hope and joy into this Christmas season.
Keri Krout Smith
Blaine
The Editor:
I fully support the ideas and enthusiasm expressed in letters here by Bill Becht on the potential for this beautiful town so handy to Canada. Blaine has a wonderful sea walk and is so pedestrian friendly that a train stop at the existing train depot could bring in so many tourists from the north as well as cause those who come for mail and shipping to linger a bit.
Coming from the south in the U.S., this is the only stop for the beach. It could hook up with various shuttle services or taxis to Birch Bay and Semiahmoo. Trains would be packed in the summer.
Think of the offerings here for urbanites hopping on a train: marinas, water sports like kayaking, parks, piers, beaches, deep woods, wildlife and birds. My first trip to Blaine, where I have chosen to live, was perched on the sidewalk under an umbrella eating fresh divinely cooked oysters from Drayton Harbor Oyster Co.; my next trip had two friends in tow for the same experience. There is also Birch Bay State Park with perhaps the most stunning campground anywhere.
I wonder at the disconnected transportation between all the wonders of Blaine even for those of us who live here. Organized with a train station, we could add to the great musical events here and give a larger public to the artists. A plein air festival along with bird-watching in the spring and summer to bring the painters out with their followings or I personally would love a winter retreat for poets and maybe other writers.
Of course, we all have that selfish side of keeping all this just for ourselves to avoid having too many people trampling the “sights,” but that is not the problem here where small business has a hard time surviving. I agree with Bill Becht, this place begs for stores, galleries and boutiques to honor, not exploit its great beauty. How can we help get that train?
Sharon Robinson
Blaine
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