Health & Wellness

Church service accommodates those struggling through holidays

Dec 12, 2023 | By:

Gig Harbor United Methodist Church’s Blue Christmas service is structured for people experiencing grief and difficulties that can come with the season.

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PenMet community recreation center becoming reality in 2024

Dec 05, 2023 | By:

Construction has begun on the $31.6 million facility that will occupy much of PenMet’s time and money next year.

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Tracy Cram Perkins: Tips for simplifying the holidays for those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia

Nov 21, 2023 | By: Tracy Cram Perkins

Holidays and family reunions can be stressful. For people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the holidays can be overwhelming. Look at a holiday gathering from their point of view. Your loved one is taken out of their normal routine, perhaps to a place they don’t remember, and then asked to behave like they are “normal.”

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Jennifer Preston: Foraging for the fungus among us

Nov 15, 2023 | By:

Editor’s note: This is the second in Jennifer Preston’s two-part series about mushrooms. Read the first here. The Pacific Northwest is known for its wide variety of wild mushrooms. They sprout up throughout the year from the coast to the Olympics Peninsula’s temperate rainforest, in local parks, perhaps even in your backyard. We are lucky

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Wellness Wednesday: Men’s health awareness during No Shave November

Nov 15, 2023 | By: Scot Fleshman

It’s no secret that men don’t prioritize their health like women do. Why is that? Every November, we recognize Men’s Health Month by participating in “No Shave November” and working diligently to educate our community through personal connections and social media platforms. Men’s health is incredibly important, yet it often doesn’t get the attention it

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Jennifer Preston: All mushrooms are magic

Nov 08, 2023 | By:

They help turn wheat into bread and fruit into wine. They ferment cacao beans, making it possible for us to enjoy one of the world’s favorite treats — chocolate. They give us penicillin, forever altering the way we fight infection. These mostly invisible, seemingly magical organisms quietly go about their work sustaining forests and enriching

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Two In Tow & On The Go: A forgotten treasure at Point Defiance

Nov 03, 2023 | By:

Today’s adventure brings us across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and over to the wooded wonderland that is Point Defiance Park to explore yet another local playground almost hidden in plain sight.

Sandwiched between the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and the Marina, this playground is outdated – but also secluded and awesome. Finding it atop a narrow bluff among the trees, the kids and I felt like we stumbled upon a well-kept secret with its hand-powered scoot platform, climbers and log-style-construction.

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Phase 2/3 sports center layouts whittled to two similar plans

Oct 30, 2023 | By:

The two Phase 3 soccer fields could be on the same level or at different elevations. If at on height, a high school-sized baseball diamond could be overlaid on them.

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On Raft Island, the Peninsula’s last summer camp carries on, with updates

Oct 26, 2023 | By:

Residents on the east side of Lay Inlet enjoy looking across the bay at All Saints Camp and Retreat Center, a heavily forested stretch of Raft Island shoreline that provides a home to wildlife and brilliant fall colors. The view hasn’t changed in decades. Neighbors might have worried earlier this month, when barges and heavy

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Local rotarian Denny Wilford featured at Gates Foundation’s World Polio Day

Oct 23, 2023 | By:

Editor’s note: This article was submitted by members of the Gig Harbor Midday Rotary Club. Polio struck Denny Wilford early. He was only nine months old. But from that early blow, Denny grew to walk tall and brave in his lifelong fight to eradicate polio and save countless other children from the same fate. When

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