Cancer Care Northwest  is planning its Second Annual Cancer Resource Health Fair. This free event will feature cancer and general health screenings, educational lectures featuring CCNW’s physicians, booth exhibits from 25+local community partners, information and resources for cancer patients, massages, artwork created by cancer patients and more. Body mass index assessments (BMI), head/neck cancer screenings  and mole/skin cancer screenings will also be provided. Cancer nurses, counselors and cancer support staff will be on site to answer your questions.

The event will be held on Saturday, September 25th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Spokane Community College. For more information call Allison Benjamin at 509.228.1335 or visit our website www.cancercarenorthwest.com.

Some of the most dedicated performers at the   Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox never appear on stage.

Each night before the curtain goes up, volunteers donate their services to help make the theatre more accessible to both patrons and artists. Among those working the front of the house are Maurice and Laura Vial. The husband and wife began volunteering with the Spokane Symphony in 1989.

How does your garden grow? Just ask the WSU Master Gardeners

Marilyn Norgard has a green thumb and she wants to share it. Norgard, 67, retired as a registered nurse in 2006, but even before that time she knew she wanted to stay active in the community. “That summer I decided to do some things outdoors that I hadn’t had time to do while I was working. I took the Washington State University Master Gardeners horticulture classes and I was really impressed with what I learned.”

Who among us hasn’t wished that there was an easy way to send personal messages to our friends and family or to record family histories to share with future generations? Well, now there is. And all you need is a phone.

When it comes to mixing work with pleasure nobody has it better than the volunteers of the Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol. And they've been hard at it for more than 70 years.

Dressed in distinctive red jackets emblazoned with white crosses, the patrollers are the first on the mountain, taking the first and last runs of the day. Swooshing through freshly packed powered, they're always on the lookout for trouble, working hard to keep skiers and snowboarders safe.

Carmen Murphy is an animal lover.  Not only does Carmen share her home on five acres in Marsall with two horses, a miniature donkey, a pair of llamas, a dog and two cats, but she volunteers her free time assisting other animals in need.

Every Wednesday morning, the couple heads to the Inland Northwest Blood Center to volunteer in what has become a Makovsky tradition. Their specialty is in the blood center’s “canteen” where donors eat snacks and drink juice, post donation. Grace replenishes the donuts and Richard refills the juice. Both chat with donors - Richard can be overheard avidly declaring he’s the “world’s greatest hugger.”

Ray Lancaster, a 52-year-old volunteer for Project MOVE, in Spokane, is giving back to the community by working with disabled teens and young adults, most of them ages 16 through 21. And he is receiving big rewards in return.

Divorced with three grown children, Doll Fitzgerald decided in the early 1990s to put her nursing skills to use in Third World countries. Since then, she has made four trips to two continents in an effort to help those in need.

Paired through Big Brother Big Sisters, duo finds many ways to have fun.

When Irina Schmitt and Paula Kahl spent the first day together, getting their faces painted with outlandish designs and giggling breathlessly on the rollercoasters at Silverwood Theme Park, they knew they were the perfect match.

“The first day we hung out together, it was just immediate,” says Kahl, who was paired up with 13-year-old Irina by Big Brothers Big Sisters. “It’s a friendship.”

Dean Duncan had no idea some 30 years ago that a tutoring assignment would change his life.

Duncan, now 65, was a young teacher when he was asked to tutor two Shadle Park High School juniors a few hours each week after school.
He didn’t know it then, but he later learned that one teenage boy had a brain tumor and the other had leukemia.