Thank you for inviting Public Television into your home on this Thanksgiving night.

Welcome to the all new November edition of North West Profiles.

Season 38, episode two.

I'm Tom McArthur.

Tonight we explore the diversity in our northwest communities.

Fall on the mats of a Spokane martial arts studio.

Fly aboard an airborne ambulance stand on the deck of a steamship in BC, Canada, and sit in some wooden furniture handmade in Montana.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

We begin tonight on the mats at Newborn Cash Cow Jujitsu in Spokane.

Our story shows us the power of love in the face of tragedy, and why building a community is so important.

Were gonna start right now, in this half guard.

I'm going to move towards him, he puts up his frame.

I rotate my hand through and hold his jaw and drop to my hip.

And I walk behind him.

Does that make sense?

All right.

One, two, three.

My name is James Weed.

I'm a third degree black belt under the legendary Walter Cascão.

I was born and raised in Las Vegas and now live here in Spokane, Washington.

I am the head instructor and co-owner of Newborn Cascão Jiu Jitsu.

So, Jiu Jitsu is a leverage based, martial arts.

It's a lot like wrestling, but with chokes and submissions.

The old UFC, first UFC number one, made it popular back in ‘93, when you saw Royce Gracie.

He uses his whole body as the weapon.

He's going to snap his arm.

Jiu jitsu is very challenging.

I think it's a really good sport to grow in.

You know, James is awesome and I think he is as good as he is as a person, that there's other people that follow in the same footsteps.

It starts with James.

He's built this community.

He's built this house.

And everybody here is fully invested, not only in their Jiu Jitsu aspirations, but invested in their team and building each other up and just making everybody better around you.

I grew up super poor in government housing in Vegas.

My parents were super religious, which was good.

It kept me out a lot of trouble.

The religion was a little, a little extreme... At any moment, if you decide you don't want to be part of the religion, they would cut you off.

The older I got, probably mid-teens.

I started seeing some issues and decided that it was best to pull myself away.

I was going to lose everything.

There was a coffee shop in Vegas.

Where there always be somebody there, you know, to talk to, someone there to hang out with.

And so I had, you know, a bunch of friends that took me under their wing and whether it was giving me somewhere to stay, something to eat, or even just somewhere to be; it meant the world to me.

The name Newborn was actually one of my friends, in that, in that group that kind of took me in.

And he was a well-spoken, charismatic, you know, individual.

People wanting to spit in your face and kick you down and...

He was an activist, who was strong against racial prejudice.

It was always amazing.

The passion he had for that!

Because of the stance he had and because of being such a charismatic guy.

One day, Nazis decided to actually murder him in the deserts of Las Vegas.

Him and my friend Dan.

So it was Len Newborn and Dan Shersty.

I remember I lost my mind for a bit.

I wanted to fight all the time.

I just needed, an outlet, and I found all the wrong outlets.

I say it was anger that brought me to Jiu Jitsu, but it was actually love that made me stay.

I went into Cascão Jiu Jitsu in Las Vegas.

I met my coach and Walter Cascão.

And to have somebody who was, like, a mentor who was an unbelievably amazing competitor, one of the toughest people I've ever met in my life, but have so much heart.

And to care.

I couldn't think about anything outside those doors.

I couldn't think about family life.

I couldn't think about work.

I couldn't think about anything besides the fact that somebody was trying to choke me.

You know, I had to be in the element.

And I had something that I wanted to master.

If I wanted to be good at this, I had to let whatever was outside those doors go and focus on what I was doing.

My name is Molly Burke.

I'm 28 and I've been in Jiu-Jitsu for a little over a year now, and I'm a white belt with two stripes.

The thing I love about Jiu Jitsu is it doesn't matter your size, gender, weight, there's not really a requirement, just your skill level and what you put into it.

I've rolled with guys that are 220 pounds and I've got them to tap.

So, and I'm not that big.

Back in August of 2022, I almost died.

There was a guy who attacked me on my morning walk.

I felt like something was taken from me.

When I came to Jiu Jitsu, they helped build back a lot of confidence that I thought I lost from that attack.

Because of Newborn and James specifically, like, they create such a safe environment.

James, I feel like has a really good judge of character.

You know, he brings in more people that are like him and love Jiu Jitsu, they're good at Jiu Jitsu and they just want to share that with other people.

I'm Michael Chiesa, I'm a two stripe brown belt under James Weed here at Newborn Cascão in Spokane.

I fight professionally in the UFC, and I'm also a broadcaster for ESPN.

The thing I love about jiu jitsu is it's the soft art where there's so much fluidity to be being good at Jiu Jitsu.

It's something that you can't force.

It's something you have to train proper techniques, successes isnt determined by, like winning and losing or your belt rank.

Success is determined by your commitment coming in and showing up every day.

James, as the leader of this gym and this team, it's kind of forced me to grow up a little bit in all the right ways; and it's made me a better man.

I can tell a difference, not only in how I compete as a fighter, but how I walk through life as a human being.

And that's the thing I love about it.

It's it's more than a team.

It's a community.

We're really here to take care of each other and at the same time push each other.

And that's that's what helps us all grow.

It's really cool to sit there and see the community that jiu jitsu has brought in Spokane.

Where you have people that normally never get to know each other.

You know, you have Republicans, you have Democrats, you have rich, poor, black, white.

I always say we have cops, and I have people with grow ops.

You know, you have all these different walks of life and this kind of forces you to put a face to that other side.

And especially we'll do that in the name of Newborn, you know, in the name of my friend who, that was his passion!

And that was something that meant so much to him.

The fact that people, you know, aren't that different.

And so to be able to do that, keep his name alive, while having everybody come on the mats and trust each other with their limbs, as we, you know, armbar each other and choke each other, and then again, have that love and that care and that respect for each other is pretty amazing.

Learn more about newborn jiu jitsu online at Newborn Jiu Jitsu Spokane.

All one word dot com.

Up next, we hear from the dedicated team of pilots and nurses from Life Flight Network.

These are the highly trained professionals who soar into action in critical moments when every second counts.

[helicopter whopping] I dont want anybody to be afraid to not call us.

If you need us, we just have a very loud vehicle.

But it's three human beings in this helicopter, full on heart and soul coming to get the patient.

and we want to save their lives.

And so it's, three human beings in a fancy company vehicle.

[chuckles] Life Flight Network is the largest not for profit air medical transport company in the nation.

And we exist for a very simple reason to save lives.

[dramatic music] So Life Flight Network actually started all the way back in 1978 as Emanuel Life Flight, operating a single French Alouette helicopter out of Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

And since then, we've grown to operate over 50 aircraft from 30 bases across five states.

[music] But what really sets us apart uh, from a typical ambulance is that one, were flying and two, we are a mobile ICU.

[music] [Sherri] Working with a patient before you get to the hospital, there's a lot going on.

And two of us are working in the back of this helicopter on a patient.

Whether it's the paramedic, pre-hospital or the nurse with the hospital expertise.

And when we arrive it's incredible how much light room and space and how many extra hands are there once we get to the hospitals.

And, uh, it's a relief, that's for sure.

But you can get a lot done and save a life in a tiny, tiny space.

[laughing] [music] [Hannah] We're transporting 14 to 15,000 patients per year.

So we're, we're not something that pops up every once in a while.

We're in use every day across all the states that we serve, ready and available to care for patients who need us.

[music fades] [mellow music] My name is Cade Johnson, and I am a helicopter pilot for Life Flight Network.

[mellow music] Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to fly helicopters.

So, by the time I was 30, I was dead serious about it and I quit everything else and started training and I've been doing it ever since.

It's been six years.

[mellow music] The reason why I'm still here is because I absolutely love the work that we do.

And I get to go home knowing that we help people.

[mellow music] I think, a common misconception that pilots get in air medical industry is that we're assumed that we're medically trained as well.

And some are.

You can be if you want to, but it's not a requirement.

Having said that, we're a team that do totally separate things, and we assist each other the best we can.

I am here to make sure that they get from point A to point B safely and efficiently, and when we're on the ground, I become another hand, another set of eyes, and I help them as much as I possibly can to make their lives easier because it's a busy time for them.

[mellow music] In our jobs, we see the most unique situations.

You can literally say, I don't think I'm ever going to experience that.

And then the next day you will, and you better be prepared for it and know how to save somebody from that situation.

There's a saying that I love and that I absolutely live by.

And it's we are not studying to pass the test.

We are studying because one day will be the only thing between our patient and the grave.

And that's what we're here for.

[whopping helicopter] The best advice that Ive been given is, slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

A lot of these emergencies, it is somebody emergency, but I try to make it a point to not let it be my emergency.

Um, that doesn't mean that we have to work slow.

That just means that we need to have our processes in order, and the speed will come.

[mellow music] And my demeanor is a lot like most of these pilots.

We're very calm, that's our job.

Is to try to make sure that the crew gets what they need.

[helicopter whopping] I think there's a personality trait that comes along with being in this, field, this industry.

And.

There's nothing that's too extreme.

There's no location that you're at where we think, well, that's unusual how you got there.

We usually think, well, that's pretty cool.

I wish we were there.

[mellow music] [Cade] We got a scene call just not long ago, Right up on the side of Mount Rainier.

High altitude.

We circled around for a long time trying to find a good spot, and we actually were able to successfully land.

We picked up the patient and we took him to the hospital when he was having a heart attack.

So, potentially we saved him.

There was nowhere for him to go.

[helicopter whopping] It's not every day, but, I mean, we look forward to those kind of calls.

[mellow music] We all want to be in the air.

We all want to be flying to you.

And we want to be there to save your life.

and that's our personalities.

Where we're so excited to be doing this job.

And no matter where you send us, we will find you.

And we have the equipment on board that we will make it better.

No matter how remote you are, no matter where your location is at.

And its those beautiful, unique days that keep bringing me back.

That keep me excited.

And, and those things that are so unique to experience.

I get to do that for a living.

[Music fades] [dramatic music] [Cade] For us, as a crew operating at this high level of excitement and professionalism and being able to actually save someone's life, potentially, and most of the time we do.

The flight back is usually kind of a high for us, and I'm not going to say it's addicting, but it's something that we look forward to going to work.

[dramatic music] [Sherri] I've been doing this for seven years, and I have 1300 patient contacts.

And I remember and I think about those patients every day.

Its a person to me.

It's, it's not just a patient.

It's not just a procedure.

It is a person.

And I will hold your hand and, and I will be there.

[dramatic music] [Cade] I know that we only have one life to live.

And I am so proud to do this job.

We all know that we can't do it forever.

And it's something that I know that I'm going to look back on and be super proud of it.

I already am.

LifeFlight network flies out of Felts Field in Spokane Valley, among its 30 bases across the Pacific Northwest.

LifeFlight network will participate in the airport's Neighbor Day Open House event again next June.

Look for the blue helicopter and meet a few of the members from the team.

When the letters SS precede the name of a ship, that means the vessel is a steamship.

The S.S. Moyie was built more than a century ago.

Time and the elements have taken their toll.

Thanks to some dedicated locals on the shore of Kootenay Lake in the tiny town of Kaslo B.C., the S.S. Moyie is being restored back to its original glory for all to enjoy.

I would go to the ship because it's a chance to see an elegance from Victorian times.

The whole ship was built from craftsmanship by people who knew what they were doing.

Welcome aboard.

The history of the SS Moyie started in 1898.

A new Canadian Pacific rail line from the east reached Kootenay Landing.

From there, passengers and freight were to be carried to Nelson by a specially built steamboat.

On December 7th, 1898, the SS Moyie began service on Kootenay Lake.

Because the Moyie started out as the dining facility.

They'd eat on the Moyie, as they were coming across.

And so it was all done with the silverware and the fancy dishes and the fancy menus.

And then in 1906, a larger ship, the Kuskanook, was put into service on Kootenay Lake.

The Moyie now had a new purpose.

Because it was built for being up north.

It was a river boat that could land on beaches.

So it was relegated to be a freight boat on the lake and that's why it survived.

I'm sure, because it was still useful.

And as time went by, the ship's interior became plainer.

A major overhaul was due for the Moyie, but the expense ruled it out.

After 59 years of service, the S.S. Moyie was retired and bought by the city of Kaslo for $1, then handed over to the newly incorporated Kootenay Lake Historical Society, which took on the task of preserving the historic ship and telling its story.

And it didn't look at all like it does now.

It was all just functional, plain.

And it was so fun putting all the gold and velvet back.

So actually, there was a whole crew of women.

They found that women were better at it because they were so patient with its tedious, tedious work.

I guess to use a Navy term, I was press ganged.

I was asked if I knew anything about ships, and I was in the Navy as a radio operator in my early years.

So they said, well, you qualify.

I was asked to come and look at things.

We had buckets of water coming in every seam of the ship.

And the first thing I noticed was, the men's salon was sagging, you know, because it got the wheelhouse and all the engineer's quarters on top and the canvas, which is 30 years old and canvas being cotton, it just cracks and breaks and it's not watertight.

So I got roped into writing for grants and writing for the moneys.

And overall, over 3 close to 4 y we got about $850,000.

Canadian, that is.

I had no idea the scope of the money required, but that boat is unique in the world.

The S.S. Moyie is considered to be the oldest, most intact stern wheel ship in the world.

But keeping it that way requires an extensive amount of maintenance and labor.

We have the finest red seal carpenter from Quebec.

He just knew exactly how to fix these old things.

And if it's rotten, it comes out like a dentist.

If its rotten it comes out.

You don't try to put modge podge in there and clean it up.

Part of our agreement with the grants we have to hire students to to show them how to get into a career or into a trade, and theoretically, because there's a lot of it's funded by the B.C.

government.

You're supposed to use local materials and local suppliers.

So that research and phoning, and that takes a lot of time.

Materials came from far and wide.

The canvas for the decks came from Edmonton.

The fabric for the guardrails came from Texas.

The small glass windows came from Victoria.

Carpeting in the Ladies salon was found at the Empress Hotel, also in Victoria.

Marine glue is donated from Spokane and the list goes on.

But as we got into the work, we found more and more problems and ways to do things and to keep it to an authentic repair.

Because you're not allowed per Parks Canada, per the restoration rules, you're not allowed to modify something that can't be returned back to its original condition.

And then, like these joists here mean there only one by threes.

And it's all cedar.

And right at that point, we needed to buy to see the price of lumber just skyrocketed.

So one of the local loggers here, Corey, you know, I'll donate you a cedar tree.

And this thing was a huge thing.

And they milled that and cut it all up into all these pieces.

And it was just amazing how these local people came, came together.

The scope of restoration and repairs was immense.

In the men's salon, jacks were adjusted weekly over a year to lift the ceiling over 2.5 in, with new supports added, the port and starboard stairs had to be replaced.

The engineer's cabins required extensive work, including a complete roof replacement.

The Texas deck required a new canvas.

The stern under the Texas deck had rotted supports.

The port side required new railings, footings, posts, and fabric.

Even the whistle needed a repair and refresh.

Every one of these lights and windows came out and there were all rotted out on the bottom because the last people hadn't sealed off the bottoms properly.

And then by doing all that, we had to get scaffolding.

So this whole ship was scaffolded for two years.

And then I got very useful doing the artwork and everything had been buried under layers of paint.

We found evidence of fancy Victorian stuff and gold leafing and even in the engine room, floral gold designs on them.

Discoveries were made as the refurbishing continued, including the parquet floor in the dining room that had been completely covered by battleship linoleum.

In the ladies salon.

I was working in the summer and I was just taking a break, and I stood up and it was hot and the old oil's from the stuff that was there was just oozing out of the wood a little bit.

And I went, There it is!

And so I ran and got some mylar, and I went up and I taped it up, and I traced the shapes and it matched historically what we thought might be there.

So that was our start to putting the flags and the CPR logo and all of that work there.

So it was just things revealed themselves to slowly over time.

The restoration of the SS Moyie is an ongoing effort.

I am writing this 3 to 5 year maintenance program of how to redo stuff and how we did it, and why we did it.

I think a larger organization has to take it over.

We struggle here as a village, the village owns it and we are just custodians to the village.

I got to be part of something so unique.

And then I got to find all this beautiful artwork, and I got to help restore all this beautiful artwork.

I feel proud because I go by the ship and I go, I did that.

You can visit the SS Moyie National Historic Site in Kaslo BC between Mother's Day in May and Canadian Thanksgiving in October.

To our final story tonight.

We visited Helena, Montana a couple of months ago and met up with a true craftsman who designs and builds furniture with exceptional attention to form and detail.

His provenance is born from a lifetime as a gifted creator.

The expression of movement coupled with the beautiful natural elements of wood.

For Helena, Montana based woodworker Tim Carney.

The design and creation of beautiful wood furniture is both organically pleasing to the eye and is also very practical and usable.

>>I've done a lot of cabinetry all along.

I mean that it's kind of the what's allowed me to do the furniture.

I really try to put my artistic sense into that too.

I remember early on one of the first live edge dining tables I made.

I found these beautiful pieces of quilted maple.

They were live edge.

I just thought, boy, these are just gorgeous and live edge pieces where you're using the whole piece.

There's sometimes big knots or splits or things like that that you have to deal with in a tabletop.

You can put butterfly keys in there to accent them, flaw in the wood and make it a really nice accent in the tabletop.

>>With roughly 50 years of woodworking under his belt.

Working with the medium is a constant in his life.

>>I was always very interested in it from childhood.

I grew up in Boise, Idaho, and, I remember very distinctly having we had a basement under the basement stairs.

I had a little shop.

I built model airplanes and I built all sorts of things.

My family used to, laugh about the things I came up with from down in the basement.

>>After working as a carpenter in 1973 for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Pocatello, Idaho, and later opening businesses and woodworking there, Tim moved his shop to Helena around 1996 to be with his soon to be wife, Maureen.

>>Helena is very open to the arts and it was a little tough setting up the business to start with.

>>Having a community that embraces artists.

It was a natural fit for the couple to eventually open a pop up gallery.

The opening of the One Plus One gallery in downtown Helena gave Tim and Maureen a chance to place their works beside other local artists, and a venue meant to show and market their wares.

>>I don't know that if I that I set out to make it art, that I just I couldn't help myself.

I just did.

One big influence on that was Sam Maloof.

I was able to attend a workshop of his before he died.

It was just very inspiring to me because his, his, furniture designs are very organic and very artistic, and he developed a whole new way of doing joinery that allowed that to allow beautiful, graceful lines in a piece of furniture.

So I end up making prototypes for any new piece I'm going to do, and to work out those details.

And you probably see a number of them around the shop.

It's pretty time consuming to do the prototype, but once I decide on the final dimensions and shapes and sizes, then I try to make jigs to reproduce those, to make it easier and quicker to reproduce, and more accurate.

And they're all over the shop too.

Just love the sense of design, and I love that graceful flow of lines and just the the organic stuff.

Once I was introduced to that, I couldn't ignore it anymore.

I had to do it.

It does take more time to do that kind of work, because there's a lot of handwork and it, the joinery you put together in a rough state.

Once it's together, then you have to hand carve it or hand shape it to those really smooth lines.

You can't do that any other way.

It's got to be done by hand.

>>The gallery has since closed, but the highly sought after works that Tim creates are still being made, though retirement looms in his future.

>>I've been thinking about it for like three years now, but I haven't got there yet, so it's soon though.

I don't know, I guess my favorite part is getting to the finish stage and being able to put the finish on and, and, really seeing how it feels and looks.

But there's I enjoy the whole process all the way through.

I have over the years, I've really enjoyed that.

With all the time and effort that Tim applies to his creations, you can bet that even in retirement, his artistry will continue.

As Northwest Profiles airs tonight, many families in the United States are celebrating the national holiday of Thanksgiving.

In that spirit, we conclude on a note of gratitude for the pleasure of your company tonight and through the year.

I'm Tom MacArthur.

See you again in January, when there will be more to discover about the great Pacific Northwest.

On Northwest Profiles.