February 25, 2026
ISSUE 9
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IT'S IN THE CLASSIFIEDS
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By Peter Lowe
N
ew All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) sirens have been installed at the Eatonville Public Safety Building and Tehaleh Heights Elementary School as part of Pierce County Department of Emergency Management’s Outdoor Warning System expansion. The sirens are equipped with alert tones and voice-recorded messages, along with blue flashing lights, to inform and direct people during community-wide emergencies and evacuations. “Pierce County is excited to give the communities of Eatonville and Tehaleh a new way to stay safe and well-informed during emergencies with the expansion of our All Hazard Alert Broadcast sirens,” said Arel Solie, Pierce County Department of Emergency Management Director. “Historically, these sirens were intended to alert Pierce County residents about volcanic eruptions and lahars, however new technology, including customized sounds and voice-recorded messages, allows us to use them in a wide range of incidents, including severe weather and evacuations.” Pierce County Department of Emergency Management has 42 Outdoor Warning System sirens in the Puyallup River Valley and Nisqually River Valley, with the addition of nine new sirens throughout Pierce County since 2020. Funding sources for the Pierce County siren program expansion include the Washington Emergency Management Division and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Outdoor Warning System siren testing takes place the first Monday of each month at noon with a Westminster clock chime, flashing blue lights, and an audio announcement in English and Spanish. When there is an actual emergency, the sirens will play a continuously steady beeping sound and strobe lights will flash, followed by a recorded audio message. In the event of a volcanic eruption and lahar, the sirens will emit a loud wailing tone.
can be adjusted and the grain drop location set to ‘random’ or ‘centered’ to achieve different effects. Titus was introduced to the Desmos calculator through math classes at Eatonville Middle School. He was inspired by the Art Gallery of previous contest winners and taught
himself the more advanced applications in part by investigating the expression lines they used. His entry titled “One of Everything Hexagonal Abelian Sandpile” along with the other winners can be seen in the Desmos Gallery at www. Desmos.com/Art in the Ages 15-16 category.
Eatonville Equestrian Opens Season with Dominant Showing in Elma By Skip Smith
T
he Eatonville High School Equestrian team opened its season in dominant fashion last weekend, piling up top finishes and showcasing depth across nearly every event at the Grays Harbor County Fairgrounds in Elma. Competing Friday through Sunday against District 2 rivals Bethel, Ilwaco, La Center, Orting, White River, Wishka and Yelm, the Cruisers wasted little time establishing themselves as a team to watch this spring. Eatonville claimed first-place finishes in Driving behind Natalie Foster, Saddle Seat with Ava Weaver and Working Pairs with Ava Weaver and Heidi Weaver. The Cruisers also earned top honors in Individual Flags with Ava Payne and Figure 8 with Kaydence Hill. The team’s dominance continued in Canadian Flags, where Emma Adams, Ella S., Macey Dudley and Kali Olson combined for another first-place finish. Emma Adams added an individual victory in Poles and later captured first in Keyhole. Kali Olson secured first in Daubing, while Hadley Noble and Ava Payne teamed up to take first in the 2-man birangle. Payne also topped the field in Barrels, where Eatonville went on to claim first and then third through seventh places, underscoring the team’s depth in the speed events. Those victories highlighted an im-
SIERRA BREEZE PHOTOGRAPHYW
AGUS THROUGH LENS / ADOBE STOCK
Pierce County
he days of students buying $100 graphing calculators for advanced math classes are over. The Desmos free online graphing calculator that emerged in 2011 has taken over as the graphing calculator of choice in American math education and is now used on all state standardized tests as well as Advanced Placement (AP) exams and the SAT (for college admissions). While it is most often used for basic graphing, its calculating abilities far exceed old handheld calculators and include colors, geometric figures, programming commands, and a host of other options. These abilities gave rise to the Desmos Studio Math Art Contest which challenges participants to blend mathematical equations, functions, and geometric modeling with artistic creativity, often resulting in complex, interactive, or animated designs. The contest opened globally in 2020 and by its 2nd year was receiving over 10,000
submissions from over 100 countries. This year 20 winners were selected in each of four age categories, and one of those winners was Titus Lowe, a Junior at Eatonville High School. Each winner receives a $250 cash prize. While many of the entries focus on visual aesthetics or interactive complexity, Titus took a different approach striving, instead, for mathematical elegance. Rather than using dozens of expression lines (graphical commands) to produce a complex image he restricted himself to one of each of the 7 standard expression types. Using these he created a sandpile simulation, known in mathematics as an Abelian sandpile model, that drops grains of sand on a hexagonal grid. When any space has more than 6 grains they cascade off onto the neighboring spaces often causing them to overfill and continue cascading out. The effect is a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic animation that illustrates ‘self-organized critically’ and other interesting cellular properties. The board size
PETER LOWE
New Outdoor Eatonville Student Winner in Warning Global Calculator Art Contest System Sirens T Installed in Eatonville and Tehaleh
Kaydence Hill leans into a tight turn aboard Cola during the Figure 8 event at the Grays Harbor Fairgrounds this past weekend. The duo captured first place to help lead the Cruisers at their season-opening meet. pressive list of first-place accomplishments for the Cruisers in their opening meet of the year. Eatonville’s success was not limited to the top of the podium. The Drill Team earned a second-place finish, and Ava Weaver placed second in Dressage to round out a strong all-around performance. In Figure 8, Macey Dudley placed second, Emma Adams finished third and Kali Olson took fourth, giving Eatonville three riders in the top four. Kaydence Hill added a second-place finish in Poles, while Macey Dudley secured second in Roping. In Daubing, Ava Payne placed second and Dakota Murra finished third. Emma Adams and Kali Olson teamed up for second in the 2-man birangle team event,
while Hadley Noble earned second in Keyhole. Weaver also captured second in Jumping to close out a busy and productive weekend. The meet marked the first competition of the season for District 2 schools, and Eatonville’s performance across both performance and gaming events signaled a balanced and experienced roster. With multiple riders contributing podium finishes and several events featuring more than one Cruiser near the top of the standings, Eatonville left Elma with momentum heading into its next meet, scheduled for March 13-15. If the opening weekend was any indication, the Cruisers will once again be a strong presence in District 2 competition this season.