Nicolas Campbell and Matt Acosta have taken road tripping to a new extreme. A Microsoft employee by day, Campbell’s life is much more than simply working on computers. He redefined the phrase “on a mission” when he signed his team up for a journey that poses incredible challenges. Campbell and his two friends, Acosta and Joy Bloser, will travel to Southeast Asia for an international rickshaw race that will benefit impoverished men and women of India.

Gig Harbor High School graduate Christina McCann didn’t have the normal prep swimming career.

It was my fourth year of competing in the world’s largest 3-on-3-basketball tournament in Spokane last weekend.

James Austin of Fox Island would have a leg up if he could travel back to the Old West. Austin, 44, has been a gun enthusiast for nearly 15 years. His collection of pistols is more extensive than most people’s DVD library.

When Gig Harbor marine biology teacher JoAnn Moore decided to compete in her first triathlon, she didn’t have to look far for advice.

MultiCare Health System has made patients’ access to records easier than ever. With MyChart, the health system’s newest online innovation, patients can book appointments, request medication refills and view their medical information and results.

Fox Island will resurrect a century-old tradition of celebrating the community on July 13. Island Days is a week-long series of free events to reminisce on the island’s history. The event is a joint effort between the Fox Island Historical Museum, the Chapel on Echo Bay and the Fox Island Community and Recreation Association.

It’s time to walk the walk in Gig Harbor. Thanks to innovative people like Dr. Pat Hogan and many other volunteers associated with Healthy Communities of Pierce County, you can now walk, run or bike in town and use mile markers embedded in the sidewalks as your guide.

Two years ago, because I had been away from family, the Fourth of July did not promise to be my best. I was returning home from a month in a country where democracy hangs in the balance and an egomaniacal and despotic leader publicly declared America his enemy.

Harbor Covenant Church will host the “God’s Big Backyard 2009” vacation Bible school from 9 a.m. to noon July 27-31 at 5601 Gustafson Drive NW in Gig Harbor.

‘Ohana Harbor is the label on quality Kona coffee beans that can be purchased online. But the name is just as much a state of mind.

John Shoemaker of American Informatics, Inc., in Gig Harbor, was appointed to the 2009 Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award by Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Deputy Director of the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.

First impressions are important to Sue Braaten, owner and operator of the Best Western Wesley Inn of Gig Harbor.

Dr. Karl Peterson’s practice offers a blend of chiropractic and naturopathic healing. He believes in the latter so much that he’s chaired the annual Northwest Naturopathic Physicians Conference, which was held in Seattle in April, for the past six years.

A lot of Washingtonians are staunch environmentalists and “going green” is all the rage. People are tired of putting up with toxins inside their homes, but finding eco-friendly building supplies can turn into a frustrating hunting expedition.

As we get closer to this weekend’s Fourth of July festivities, Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula residents should exercise caution in more ways than one. Every year, post-fireworks stories surface that detail horrific accidents involving injuries too grisly to mention. But this isn’t a scare tactic. It’s reality.

The Peninsula School District has some outstanding people in leadership positions, but two in particular — Dan Gregory of Henderson Bay High and Jacque Crisman of Evergreen Elementary — have distinguished themselves and their schools.

The Gig Harbor firefighters would like to thank everyone who gave so unselfishly to the recent Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Fill the Boot campaign. Your generous donations totaled $10,783.

We hear so often in the news about the struggles and frustrations people are facing all across the country in these challenging economic times. But you don’t have to look very far to see these same struggles happening here in our own community. It’s very difficult, because people’s lives drastically change as they lose their homes and jobs.

Gig Harbor’s Henderson Bay High School is a lot of things: alternative, accomplished and, now, accredited.

I’d never heard of the “Watch D.O.G.S.” before. Thanks to Kristi Rivera, assistant principal at Purdy Elementary School, I learned. Rivera, who invited me to visit the school a few days ago, told me “D.O.G.S.” stands for “Dads of Great Students.” The kids who benefit from the unique program wear T-shirts proclaiming, “My hero is a Watch D.O.G.”

The Cheney Family Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound is expected to open in September, but this summer, the club will give local children a preview of what’s to come.

The Peninsula School District will do something it hasn’t done in a decade — allow out-of-district transfers.

More than 175 Key Peninsula Middle School students were honored Friday during the school’s “Moving On” ceremony at the Peninsula High School gym.