This story goes back a few years, to the 1960s, when Jim and Liz Perry were living in Santa Clara, California. Jim was a policeman and Liz was tending to three young children. Looking for spare work, Jim began building workbenches for a local glass studio, which in turn led to a job offer to learn the art of designing and creating fine stained glass.

Pause for a minute and imagine that you have more than 50 acres of prime land open for development right in the middle of the city of Sammamish. What would you do with the forest- and meadow-covered land?

Garbusjuk comes from a line of German candy makers that goes back more than 200 years. This background made him a perfect fit to learn from Boehm and then guide the company following Julius’s death in 1981. Garbusjuk’s philosophy is to respect Boehm’s heritage and to maintain the legacy of the land, the buildings, the art, and the quality of the products.

It really is just the blink of an eye, a tiny fraction of a second, during which a life can be lost and a family changed forever. For the Williams family of Sammamish, that moment came on January 21, 2002, when Josh, their athletic and affable 16-year-old son, died in a snowboarding accident.

While researching these profiles of people who are improving the quality of life in our community, I find that we are blessed to have an abundance of people who are willing to step forward and lead causes, and this is both good and vital. However, Jim Berry is one of those people who are not at the forefront, but who instead labor behind the scenes, mastering all of the little things that in the end make for a successful event, auction, or campaign, and in so doing are responsible for a wide range of positive things in our community.

What do you do when you confront a challenging situation, with no easy solution in sight? Most people rant for a bit and then walk away figuring that nothing can be done. Many say, “The problem is too big and I am too small to make a difference.”

This inspiring love story begins like many others–two young people meet after college and fall in love. But As Chris and Dellann discovered more about each other following their first date in 1987, they were amazed at how often their paths might have crossed in previous years: they both attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, even living in the same dorm for a year.

One of the greatest examples of a person who gives back to our local community is the quiet, self-effacing Marty Budzius. Marty and his wife Pat moved to Issaquah in 1961 to begin their teaching careers with the Issaquah School District.

When Liz and Ken Moscaret introduced their youngest son to Simi Reynolds, something special was put in motion. Simi was a star athlete of the senior class at Skyline High School in 2001, and the Moscarets’ son was suffering from a sudden onset of Tourette’s syndrome.

A great many young athletes have the dream of playing their chosen sport at the professional level. They envision this as the pinnacle of personal and athletic achievement. For those very few who do make it to the top level in their sport after years of dedication, pain and total focus, too often the pressure to perform, coupled with new found wealth, ends up doing the athlete more harm than good.