Neighbor to Neighbor

Bellingham Symphony Orchestra

In this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor, host Keith Mader sits down with Gail Ridenour, Executive Director for the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra. Formerly known as the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, the Bellingham Symphony consists of over 80 volunteer musicians, including many local music teachers. It performs six season concerts throughout the year at the Mt. Baker Theatre. It also engages in many community outreach programs. In this interview, we discuss all aspects of this robust organization as well as the individual stories of Gail Ridenour and Music Director, Yaniv Attar.

Learn more about the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra

https://www.bellinghamsymphony.org

View their upcoming events

https://www.bellinghamsymphony.org/events

Whatcom Disc Golf Club

Over the last two decades, Whatcom County has experienced tremendous growth in the sport of disc golf. This free sport, which mirrors the rules of ball golf, takes place at parks. Currently, in Whatcom County, there are courses at Cornwall Park in Bellingham, VanderYacht park in Ferndale, and Lincoln Park in Blaine. In this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor we speak with Ryan Klassen, the President of the Whatcom Disc Golf Club, a local organization working to bring awareness and growth to the sport of disc golf in our community.  

Dragonfly Kayak Tours

Victoria’s dreams were too big for the ponds and lakes of Tennessee. From across the country, Bellingham Bay was calling her home. On this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor, host Keith Mader sits down with Victoria Ayers, the owner of Dragonfly Kayak Tours.

Victoria tells how she fell in love with kayaking in the ponds and lakes of Tennessee but, after seeing a photo of Bellingham Bay, she knew it was where she needed to be. She loaded up all of her worldly possessions into her car and moved across the country to a place she had never even visited. 

In this episode, we speak about her journey to starting her own kayak tour business, overnight kayak camping trips on the San Juan Islands, hidden coves, Victoria's dream kayak adventures, bio-luminescence, and the most magical moment Victoria has ever had on a Kayak. 

Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition (WMBC)

One of the most amazing parts about living in our little corner of the country is the geography. On one side, we have the ocean, on the other mountains. This unique nestling of our community right smack dab in the middle between the two means we live in an outdoor enthusiasts’ playground. On this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor, host Keith Mader speaks with Eric Brown a curator of one of our most loved playgrounds. He is the Executive Director for the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition or WMBC.

Ground Up Home Inspections

Many of us have heard scary stories of new home owners dealing with costly and even dangerous home repairs they did not expect. From leaky septic tanks to radon gas, to moldy walls and all the things that freeze in the night, it's a home inspector's job to make sure that those situations don't happen to you. In this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor we speak with Adam Morvee of Ground Up Inspections. What, on it's surface, may seem like a dry subject is anything but, as Adam shares tidbits and stories from his years of home inspecting. 

Cascadia Mushroom

In North Bellingham, there is a mushroom farm producing hundreds of pounds of mushrooms every single week in indoor warehouses. Driving by, you wouldn’t know it’s there. But what’s more interesting is that these aren’t your regular white button mushrooms you typically see on pizza or salad. Instead, they’re all exotic varieties. No, "exotic" does not mean psychedelic, rather mushrooms that are more commonly found in European or Asian Cuisine.

In this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor, host Keith Mader speaks with Alex Winstead about his story, how he went from a walk in the woods hunting mushrooms with a friend, to committing his life to growing and selling them, and also speak about mushrooms that glow in the dark, training truffle hunting dogs, and the time he tried orange pickled mushrooms in Uruguay.

Operation Doing More

For years Colby Stensland didn’t used to like Christmas.

He didn’t decorate.

Bought the minimal number of presents required.

Holiday cheer, for him, was almost non-existent.

And it’s not because he was a scrooge… it’s just that after his mom passed away a couple days before Christmas when he was a teenager, he just had a sour taste in his mouth about the whole Holiday.

Surprisingly, he now runs a non-profit that’s about as Christmassy as it gets, and he’s about as into Christmas as a jolly old elf.

Bellingham Pasta Company

Pasta. 

Americans eat a lot of it. In fact, this week 59% of Americans will eat a pasta or noodle dish at least once. We eat, on average, 20 pounds of it per year. The thing is- not much of it comes from here, Washington state or the Northwest in general. Most Italian style pastas come from Italy and if not from Italy then the Midwest or East Coast. On this episode of Neighbor to Neighbor, host Keith Mader sits down with Katie Hinton, President & CEO of Bellingham Pasta Company, a company who brings fresh local pasta to the tables of Whatcom County. 

Animals as Natural Therapy

68% of American Families have a household pet according to recent survey. It’s more common today than ever before. And while we love our cats and dogs, for the most part, we don’t realize the amazing healing and teaching power animals can have. A Bellingham non-profit is taking various groups out to the farm and they’re seeing amazing results. 

Downtime Taps

According to a recent study by the Kauffman Foundation the average age for a first new business owner is 39 years old. Tomas Aminnie, 25, is a dramatic exception to that norm – and then some. Aminnie, is one of Whatcom County’s newest business owners, having co-founded Downtime Taps in Ferndale with Coconut Kenny’s owner, Chay Tan. What’s more astonishing than his age, is the fact that fourteen years ago, Aminnie was an orphan in Ethiopia and didn’t speak a word of English.