News

Agnew accessibility advocate Ian McKay is known in the community for his extraordinary achievements riding his wheelchair across the state and other long distances, and finding great joy as he has developed a life promoting outdoor accessibility and inspiration for others challenged with mobility issues.  A new book “Ian’s Ride: A Long Distance Journey to Joy” describing Ian’s life transformation after great tragedy left him paralyzed from the neck down was released Monday, April 1. 

 Ian explained to Sassy Susan on KSQM Monday the book is about his transformation from years of depression after a bicycle crash rendered him a quadriplegic in 2008, to today and all the support he’s had along the way.

“What this is about is my journey back from tragedy and the only way I’m here today is because of my incredible family network that I have that picked me up and kept me moving forward.  And no matter how much I may have wanted to throw in the towel in the early days. And so I’m super lucky to have this incredible family.  And my mom has a huge voice in the book.

His mother, Tina Woodworth, kept a detailed dairy during those first years after the bicycle crash, an invaluable source of information for writer Karen Polinsky as she pieced together Ian’s story. 

“Basically she drank the ocean. She took in all this information and then she needed to distill it down to the story that she really chose to write. And then Ian and I would read, and then we’d tell her, no, no, that’s…and it’s like no good and we went back and forth many times. And it’s so honest and it’s so raw. And Ian and read this book and I don’t know how many times – dozens maybe. And every time I still cry. Every time it still brings me back to some really painful times.”

Since then Ian says he has found great joy in riding his chair outdoors every day he can.  He founded the Ian’s Ride non-profit organization to help spread the word.  

“That’s where I found my solace, was getting outside and getting to have some independence in finding a local pathway. Where it blew up is getting to talk with others about how special it was about those benefits and seeing how almost addictive that can be.”

 “Ian’s Ride: A Long Distance Journey to Joy” is now available through "iansride.com" and Amazon in paperback and audio book.  Proceeds from all sales benefit the Ian’s Ride non-profit.

Photo: from Iansride.com

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is adding a first of its kind specialized K9 therapy team to its law enforcement Chaplaincy program. Chaplain K9 Scout and her handler Chaplain Kathi Gregoire are currently in training to serve as therapy dog team as an additional resource for the sheriff’s office. Scout is a four-year-old mix of various working dog breeds. 

“She is a therapy dog in training and I am her handler. And we’re being trained together that can be utilized through my typical chaplain rounds that I do to the Sheriff’s Office, the State Patrol, other law enforcement agencies, dispatch, which is PenCom, Washington State Patrol radio within the district that I serve and bringing that benefit to them.”

Chaplains provide emotional and spiritual support to law enforcement daily, as well as citizens in the community when there has been a traumatic event. Animals have long been known to ease tension, lower blood pressure, and provide companionship. Chaplain Kathi says she became aware of Scout’s sensitivity when she was very young.

“She has the kind of the un-definable, un-trainable but natural “it.”  She knows how to take care of people as a therapy dog.  You can’t train that in. And she showed that to me and surprised the living daylights out of me to kind of stumble into a situation. And I watched her to kind of work the room, introduce herself to everybody. She wasn’t even three months old yet. And then she settled on a person that had experienced a really traumatic event. And it’s like she just kind of settled on this individual and said, ‘Kathi I’m going to stay with her a while, I’m going to take care of this one. I need to pay attention to that. There’s something unique about this dog”


Chaplain Kathi and Chaplain K9 Scout will be tested and certified with Therapy Dog International and will continue advance training with Canyon Crest K9 Training Center in Tacoma. They have passed the first level of training. For now, she does not take Scout with her on 911 call outs.

“I don’t take her with me on those. Those are much more intense. They’re much more fluid. I could be called out for what we would consider an unattended death when somebody dies unexpectedly. But it could take a turn, there needs to be an investigation. And it can escalate. Families emotions are escalated. We’re not trained as a team yet to be able to work in that environment.”


Once their training advances sufficiently she hopefully will be able take Scout with her on 911 call outs, but she would stay in her vehicle until an appropriate time.


Photo: Clallam County Sheriff’s Office

Former Port Angeles Mayor Cheri Kidd is still aglow after being crowned  2025 Ms Senior World in a pageant in Biloxi, Mississippi Nov. 15th. According to the event’s website, the competition is the premier pageant for Senior women that brings women aged 50-79 together to boost confidence, have fun, make new friends and allow them an outlet to share platform issues that are import to them the other delegates and the world. Kidd took first place in the category of women in their 70s.

 In previous pageants she won first runner up in the Ms Senior USA competition in Las Vegas before coming back and winning the 2020 and 2021 crown.

 “I guess I’m a girl who is always looking for a new challenge.I’m finding that I’ve been, I have more first runner up plaques than anybody I have ever met. But that is an indication that you’re almost there, you can do it. Just persevere. Don’t quit now."

 Appearing with Sassy Susan on KSQM radio earlier this week she talked about where her journey in the world of senior beauty pageants has taken her.

 “Being the Senior USA, that opened doors for me and I met people, and had new experiences and went places I never would have. It was absolutely amazing.  Like last year I modeled in New York – well this year and last year I modeled in New York’s Fashion Week. OK. I’m not twenty. I never thought I would have that opportunity. And it was fabulous.”

 She’s been featured on a Times Square billboard, in four fashion magazines, including the cover of two of them, and has been contracted to appear in this year’s Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.

 “The whole point of Senior World is to let women know that your age doesn’t define you. It’s your energy. It’s you passion. And the fact that you’re older gives us experience and wisdom and that’s our power. And so I’m telling ladies that the rest of your life should be the best of your life. Do not let you age stop you from – you need to grow and challenge yourself in new ways. We need go find areas that we can excel and we need to encourage ourselves to do that.”

 During the discussion with Sassy Susan, her cell phone rang a number of times, including once from someone she said who  was calling for another interview.

 Photo: 2025 Ms Senior World Pageant

After more than 50 years, southern resident orca whales have begun returning to Penn Cove, the site where boats, airplanes and nets were used in violent roundups that took place in the early 1970s to capture and sell them to aquariums and marine parks around the world.  The whales were driven from open waters and corralled into pens with hunters using boats and dynamite to move them into the cove.  That trauma for the orcas left deep scars on the population of killer whales which researchers say have been passed down through generations.

A key person most responsible for stopping their capture was former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro. 

“I got involved with the orcas in a capture in Olympia quite by accident. But  you know I’d seen them as a child and all that stuff. and I loved the whales and all that stuff. As a child it was a different sort of scene. The feeling was that they were eating all the salmon and people were kind of opposed to orcas. I got involved when Karen and I were out sailing one day with some friends on a Sunday and we saw an orca capture take place. I took place about, oh 50 yards from out boat. I was so disgusted and so disturbed that I just did everything I could stop it.”

As a member of Governor Dan Evans’ staff, Munro went to the governor and the two of them along with Attorney General Slade Gorton filed a federal restraining order to stop their capture.

“And we did stop it. And that was the last orcas that were captured in Washington waters. This was a cut-throat deal.  We were very proud to stop it.”

The capture of the Southern Residents population of orcas in Puget Sound caused the loss of one-third of its population.  These who weren’t sold died entangled in nets.  None of them captured are still alive.

“It took a lot of time. It took a lot of effort. There was lots of joy and pleasure when we won. But the orcas were pretty much left alone ever since then.”

And now, more than 50 years after the trauma of the captures, the orcas have begun to return to Penn Cove.

“And I think that’s a significant sign that things are getting better.”

(Photo: Western Washington University Archives)

Listeners to KZQM radio in Sequim might occasionally confuse it with the other radio station in Sequim, KSQM.  KZQM is not the same as KSQM, Sequim’s non-commercial educational, listener supported, all volunteer radio station. KZQM does not play the same kind of music as KSQM, what we like to call the home of the best music ever made. KZQM is operated by Radio Pacific, which also owns KONP and KSTI.  KSQM is owned and operated by Sequim Community Broadcasting, a non-profit 501(c) 3 corporation. So it might be understandable there could be a bit of confusion between the two.

That confusion is coming to an end.  Brown Maloney, the owner of KZQM says effective this week, the station’s call letters have changed to KZEG. He says in a news release, “For some time, there has been confusion by having similar call letters as Sequim’s radio station KSQM 91.5 FM.  Therefore,” he says, “it was my decision that changing the call letters would be beneficial to both stations.“

Three Sequim police officers were presented with life saving awards during Monday’s City Council meeting for their roles in saving a man who had been struck by a hit and run pickup truck on Highway 101 east of Sequim earlier this month.  Witnesses said the man, identified as 66-year-old Lawrence Sherer of Mukilteo had been fighting with another man on the Highway near the “Welcome to Sequim” elk sign at Simdars Road around 11 pm October 8.

Officers Devin McBride, Ella Mildon and Chris Moon were the first to arrive. Sequim Deputy Mayor Rachel Anderson read from the proclamation:

“Officer Mildon arrived first and observed a female doing chest compressions on a male in the middle of the highway. She immediately checked for a pulse and started life saving measures.  As other officers and sheriff’s deputies arrived, they took over chest compressions. Officer Mildon retrieved her AED and handed it off to Officer McBride while officer Moon and others continued CPR. Officers and Deputies continued life saving measures for approximates seven minutes until EMS staff arrived on scene and took over patient care.”

Sherer was airlifted on a Life Flight helicopter to Seattle’s Harborview Hospital in what a State Patrol spokesperson was in “Very Critical” condition.

Police Chief Mike Hill:

“I do think it’s important to recognize officers for saving human life because there’s no way you can put a value on that. So the recognition that they receive for an invaluable service is well deserved.  As you can imagine when they showed up on scene on October 8th it was chaotic and violent. And that’s an understatement based on what we saw and what the investigation revealed. But these three immediately went to work on what their number one priority was and that saving someone’s life.”

The second person involved in the fight on the Highway is not know.  He go into his vehicle and sped away.  The driver of the hit and run pickup turned herself in at the Clallam County courthouse the next morning.