Community looks after its own as well as its young

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Life can sometimes be a little too laid back for young people in town.

"There's not a whole lot for kids to do," notes Laurie Ripley, owner of Rip's Barber Shop. "We don't have a bowling alley or a skating rink for them."

The old movie theater, the Roxy, was refurbished and reopened a few years ago. Residents no longer face a long drive to another town to see a movie.

Much of the social life for young people revolves around the schools. And sports are a big thing in "Cruiser Country."

"They take sports seriously here," says Lori Ramsey, whose 16-year-old son, Max, is a wrestler.

Rebecca Weaver marvels at the townspeople's support for the schools and the children. "There is a real community concern for the children," she says. "If I see a child in trouble, it's my business to help."

"People here have a real mindset that it takes a community to raise a child," adds Ramsey, who applauds the personal interest school staff members take in their students.

"I just got a letter from my son's history teacher. His teacher wrote to say, 'Thank you for sending such a fine young man to school.' When does anybody do anything like that? But it happened here."

It is the same kind of caring that community members showed two years ago when they rallied to help the town's only doctor, Tom Van Eaton, pay a $198,000 malpractice award in a legal dispute over a broken leg. Van Eaton's medical assistant had misdiagnosed the injury to an elderly woman.

Van Eaton, whose grandfather, Thomas C. Van Eaton, founded the town and gave it its name, had feared the malpractice award would financially force him to move his practice elsewhere. But he is still in Eatonville.

"We are just a nice, friendly town," says Thompson.