Volunteer Mentors for summer camps etc. We are retired, but still very active with volunteer work in our community of Bainbridge Island, where Wayne has lived all his life, and I have lived for 44 years. We have served on various boards over the years. Wayne was on the Bainbridge Performing Arts board at a crucial time, while they were planning and building their play house. Later he was on the Bainbridge Library Board while they planned the remodeling and more than doubled the size of the library. It is now a showcase on the island. I have served on my church board, as a Sunday school teacher, as the usher chairman, the grounds chairman and many other duties. I also served for many years on the board of Bainbridge Music and Arts, an organization which raised and awarded scholarships to island young people in all the arts, especially in music, dance, visual arts, and drama. For several years I taught Spanish and French in high school, and later substituted in the Bainbridge Island school district in all grades and subjects. For about 20 years we had several horses, and I taught beginner riding to all ages, but mostly to children. For about eight years after retirement we fostered dogs, mainly from the county humane society or from the local PAWS. We tested, trained and placed the dogs in the right home for them, with follow up training help with the new owners. For the past ten years we have spent the winter in a mobile home park in the desert in southern California, where we are very active volunteering in many areas.

We have definitely found that we are happiest when we are working together using our particular abilities and talents to help others, not to do it for them, but to help them learn how to express their own qualities best. Another important thing we have found is that it doesn't matter how young or old one is, there is always something useful for others that you can do. In our mobile home park in the winter there is a lot of talk about what they used to do, as most are retired and older than we are, but I always think, "But what do you do now?" A lot in our park are very active in missionary work or helping in all areas of the world through their churches mainly. Some teach various crafts, line dancing, music, etc. Even Brandy, our dog, loves to do her tricks to entertain people we see on our walks and to help me teach dog training classes in the park. We really enjoy our volunteer work of trying to find uplifting and good movies appropriate for this particular group to show at the Monday night movies and the Tuesday travelogues. We enjoy selling the popcorn and ice cream before the movies, and playing in the harmonica band before the travelogues. The ways we have used these ideas over the years have been mostly in teaching something. In addition to the subject, what I was always trying to teach was that you can do something you didn't think you could, that you can say "No" to something or someone trying to push you around, dominate you or influence you to do something you know is wrong, and to have courage to try new things. I started teaching swimming when I was 16, being an assistant to the swimming teacher in high school, then for the King County park dept. in summer when I was in college and had my Water Safety Instructor certificate. For about 20 years we had horses and I taught riding to all ages, mostly beginners. One boy was around 12 and autistic, would never talk, but after about half an hour on our best horse, he was singing, laughing and talking to her, as I had showed him that she would only go or stop if he spoke the commands to her.. His mother was in tears of joy. A lady older than we were had MS and loved to ride her also. Horses can be really helpful to people with problems of all sorts. Many children or their mothers have talked to us years later about how much the riding helped them develop confidence, even learning to read finally, saying no to abusive men in the workplace, etc.. When we fostered the dogs, about 125 over around 8 years, we took the same approach, developing the dogs' potentials and changing wrong behavior to acceptable and placing them with the right family. We have found that to be truly loving to someone or an animal is not to let it do what it wants but to teach it what the right way to behave is, and they and everyone they come in contact with will be happier and more useful. Everyone is capable of more than they do and can find their individual abilities and qualities.

Judy and Wayne Nakata, Bainbridge Island, Washington