WawonaNews.com - June 2025
Hello Yosemite Employees and Community,
We are excited to officially launch Yosemite Health Pulse a Community Health Assessment. ✨
This project started with a simple question: How can we directly address unmet needs for those who live or work at Yosemite? With consideration to our scope of influence, we created this survey. Your answers will help us get suggestions straight from the source and inform our future community projects and services.
What is Yosemite Health Pulse? A comprehensive assessment of the current health needs, wellness concerns, and social challenges within the Yosemite communities, designed to inform both ongoing programming and strategic planning. This effort will inform immediate projects as well as set goals for the next 1-3 years.
Key focus areas:
The survey information will be analyzed by:
Timeline:
Who should fill out this survey? For the purposes of this survey, we are defining the Yosemite community as:
If you're interested in participating in a key informant interview or focus group in addition to this survey, please send an email to [email protected]. Participation in key informant interviews or focus groups is voluntary and will not be anonymous.
Take the Survey:
Please email us at [email protected] if you have any general questions. Thank you for your participation!
Resources:
Sincerely,
The Yosemite Wellness Coalition
Yosemite Health and Wellness Program
We are excited to officially launch Yosemite Health Pulse a Community Health Assessment. ✨
This project started with a simple question: How can we directly address unmet needs for those who live or work at Yosemite? With consideration to our scope of influence, we created this survey. Your answers will help us get suggestions straight from the source and inform our future community projects and services.
What is Yosemite Health Pulse? A comprehensive assessment of the current health needs, wellness concerns, and social challenges within the Yosemite communities, designed to inform both ongoing programming and strategic planning. This effort will inform immediate projects as well as set goals for the next 1-3 years.
Key focus areas:
- Evaluating health needs and access to care
- Understanding wellness and mental health
- Identifying social factors that affect health and well-being
- Exploring community engagement and available resources
The survey information will be analyzed by:
- Dr. Aly Rose-Wood, Yosemite Medical Clinic Administrator
- Jamie C. Gonzales, Health & Wellness Program Coordinator
- Diana Brnjic, Health & Wellness Program Assistant
Timeline:
- May 15th - June 30th: Survey, Key Informant Interviews, & Focus Group period.
- July: Data Review and Analysis
- End of Summer (Date/time TBD): Community Share-Out Event
Who should fill out this survey? For the purposes of this survey, we are defining the Yosemite community as:
- Yosemite National Park employees from all park partners AND their family members
- Any and all other full-time or seasonal park residents
If you're interested in participating in a key informant interview or focus group in addition to this survey, please send an email to [email protected]. Participation in key informant interviews or focus groups is voluntary and will not be anonymous.
Take the Survey:
- Yosemite Health Pulse: Community Health Assessment Survey
- Attached: Printer friendly version. To be returned to one of the listed drop off locations
- 1-pager info sheet (png)
- Health Pulse Printable Survey (Please print for your areas)
- 1-pager + info cards
Please email us at [email protected] if you have any general questions. Thank you for your participation!
Resources:
- To learn more about Community Health Assessments (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIP), visit the CDC Website: Community Planning for Health Assessment: Frameworks & Tools | Public Health Gateway | CDC
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts, a substance use crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress.
- 988lifeline.org
- Call or text 988
- Counselors are available 24/7
- Fully confidential
- Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Reporting
- Call 911: An official investigation cannot begin until reported to Law Enforcement
- Investigative Services Branch: [email protected] / Victim Assistance: [email protected]
- Yosemite Medical Clinic: 209-372-4637 / The clinic is a neutral and safe space and will confidentially provide medical services and referrals to desired resources including mental health and social safety net services with community partners.
- National Sexual Assault Hotline / 800-656-4673 rain.org/resources / A national hotline, available 24/7, with knowledge of the reporting process
Sincerely,
The Yosemite Wellness Coalition
Yosemite Health and Wellness Program
Series of 4 Summer Barn Dances To Begin June 21
YOSEMITE-WAWONA ELEMENTARY CHARTER SCHOOL
Board of Directors Regular Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5:30 P.M.
Wawona Elementary School
7925 Chilnualna Falls Road
Wawona, CA
Staff Members Present: Glenn Reid, Ray Edwards
Community Members Present: Wayne Heringer
MONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS
3.1- Approval of Agenda
3.2– Approval of Minutes of the regular meeting of April 8.
3.3 - Approve Warrants/Payroll
3.4 – Accept Donations to YWECS
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Greg Royse, to approve the Consent Agenda. The motion was approved; Ed Mee abstained from the motion.
ACTION ITEMS
A MOTION WAS MADE by Katie Henderson, seconded by Savannah Pina, to approve the P2 Attendance Report. The motion was approved unanimously.
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Katie Henderson, to approve the 2025-26 YWECS school calendar. The motion was carried unanimously.
A MOTION WAS MADE by Greg Royse, seconded by Katie Henderson, to sign the petition to oppose Proposition 218. The motion was carried unanimously.
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Savannah Pina to approve a stipend of $1500 for the additional responsibilities that will be assumed during the So-Cal field trip. The motion was carried unanimously.
INFORMATION ITEMS
Hearing on the 2025-26 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the 2025-26 Budget.
There will be 2 meetings in June – one to have a public hearing on the LCAP and proposed Budget – and the other to adopt both
Board of Directors Regular Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5:30 P.M.
Wawona Elementary School
7925 Chilnualna Falls Road
Wawona, CA
- CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 5:30PM by Board Chairman Ed Mee.
- ROLL CALL
Staff Members Present: Glenn Reid, Ray Edwards
Community Members Present: Wayne Heringer
MONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS
- CONSENT AGENDA
3.1- Approval of Agenda
3.2– Approval of Minutes of the regular meeting of April 8.
3.3 - Approve Warrants/Payroll
3.4 – Accept Donations to YWECS
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Greg Royse, to approve the Consent Agenda. The motion was approved; Ed Mee abstained from the motion.
- HEARING OF PERSONS WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD
ACTION ITEMS
- APPROVAL OF P2 ATTENDANCE REPORT
A MOTION WAS MADE by Katie Henderson, seconded by Savannah Pina, to approve the P2 Attendance Report. The motion was approved unanimously.
- APPROVAL OF A SCHOOL CALENDAR FOR THE 2025-26 SCHOOL YEAR
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Katie Henderson, to approve the 2025-26 YWECS school calendar. The motion was carried unanimously.
- SOLID WASTE REMOVAL RATES
A MOTION WAS MADE by Greg Royse, seconded by Katie Henderson, to sign the petition to oppose Proposition 218. The motion was carried unanimously.
- APPROVAL OF STIPEND FOR RAY EDWARDS FOR ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES ASSUMED DURING THE SO-CAL FIELD TRIP.
A MOTION WAS MADE by Elise Bevington, seconded by Savannah Pina to approve a stipend of $1500 for the additional responsibilities that will be assumed during the So-Cal field trip. The motion was carried unanimously.
INFORMATION ITEMS
- STAFF REPORTS/ CHARTER FUTURE PLANNING UPDATES
Glenn Reid updated the Board on the status of the Charter renewal, as well as potential teachers that have applied for the YWECS teacher position.
- BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS PROJECTS UPDATE
- FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
- BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS
- FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Hearing on the 2025-26 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the 2025-26 Budget.
There will be 2 meetings in June – one to have a public hearing on the LCAP and proposed Budget – and the other to adopt both
- NEXT BOARD MEETING
- ADJOURNMENT
My Country Grill Schedule For June
|
|
Artist's Reception for Charlotte Gibb
The Ansel Adams Gallery will host an opening reception for Wawona resident, Charlotte Gibb between 2 and 4 pm on Saturday, June 7th. The |
|
reception celebrates her latest exhibition, "Symphony of Seasons: Photographs by Charlotte Gibb," which features both her latest work alongside some of her more recognized photographs. The exhibition will run through July 12th. This event is open to the public
New Wawona Listing
8067 Chilnualna Falls Rd, Wawona, CA 95389 - 3beds, 2baths, 1,400sqft $1,500,000
Click here for more info.
8067 Chilnualna Falls Rd, Wawona, CA 95389 - 3beds, 2baths, 1,400sqft $1,500,000
Click here for more info.
Land For Sale
1.35 Ac River St, Wawona, CA 95389, 1.35 acre lot, $349,000. Click here for more info.
1.35 Ac River St, Wawona, CA 95389, 1.35 acre lot, $349,000. Click here for more info.
Friday May 30, Saturday May 31: Menu for My Country Grill (at Pine Tree Market)
Will be open and serving hot meals from lunch all the way until dinner time Friday: - Pork Stroganoff with Salad as a side - Beef Borsch Soup topped with sour cream and a flat bread as a side - Beef or Chicken Hot dogs on sesame buns |
|
Saturday:
-Charbroiled chicken breast with pilaf and a flat bread
- Charbroiled pork ribs with pilaf and a flat bread
- Burgers ( angus beef or veggie) with fries
Plus desserts
-Charbroiled chicken breast with pilaf and a flat bread
- Charbroiled pork ribs with pilaf and a flat bread
- Burgers ( angus beef or veggie) with fries
Plus desserts
Celebration of Life for Kathie Heringer
A Celebration of Life for Kathie Heringer was held at the Wawona Community Center on Saturday, May 24th, with friends and family attending from Massachusetts, Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon and throughout California and Wawona. Kathie's life was remembered with scores of pictures, a video, and friends recalling memories while enjoying gourmet pizza and sampling many desserts.
THE YOSEMITE Post Office is turning 100 amid a challenging period. (Patrick Burkhart)
Yosemite’s longtime lifeline
The remote post office building has connected the park to the outside world for 100 years
By Hailey Branson-Potts, LA Times
The letter from Yosemite Postmaster Fred C. Alexander, dated June 29, 1926, was meant to set the record straight regarding a shipment of 50 pounds of frankfurters from San Francisco.
The sausages were to have passed through the newly built Yosemite National Park post office before being delivered to a beloved Yosemite Valley restaurateur. Alas, the hot dogs didn’t fare so well.
A U.S. Postal Service truck had slid 50 feet down an embankment, and the “box containing the frankfurters was bursted open and the contents strewn considerably,” Alexander wrote to a U.S. Postal Service official in San Francisco.
“We gathered them up to the best of our ability, trying to save them all,” the letter continued, “but as they were pretty badly mangled and terribly dirty by the time we got them to this office it was decided that the only thing to do with them was to destroy.”
Delivery to the remote Yosemite National Park post office — as evidenced by what current Yosemite Postmaster Ellen Damin calls “the great frankfurter debacle” — has never been easy. But for the 1,800 or so residents of the Yosemite Valley, “it’s our connection to the world outside,” Damin said.
The Postal Service this month celebrated the 100th anniversary of its building in Yosemite Village. Completed in 1925, the two-story facility — with wood shingle siding on top and stone siding on bottom — was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the architect who would later design the famed Ahwahnee Hotel down the street.
The Postal Service has for years considered closing or consolidating rural post offices, which are expensive for the financially strapped agency to run. But in far-flung places such as Yosemite — with spotty internet and cell service, no instant Amazon delivery and few brick-and-mortar stores and pharmacies — they are a lifeline.
“I know how important this post office is to daily life, especially here in the Yosemite Valley,” Damin told the crowd at a centennial celebration this month.
She added: “In the mail is where a lot of everyday supplies arrive for those living here. The hikers on the Pacific Crest and John Muir trails, the climbers camping on the side of El Capitan — resupply parcels are crucial for them to continue their journeys.”
The Yosemite centennial has been a bright spot during a challenging time for both the USPS and the National Park Service. In recent months, President Trump has mused about privatizing the Postal Service, which lost $9.5 billion in the 2024 fiscal year and is cutting thousands of jobs.
On March 13, former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy wrote in a letter to several members of Congress that the Postal Service would eliminate 10,000 positions within 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program and that it had eliminated about 30,000 positions since 2021. The letter said he had signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and members of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk, to identify further cost savings.
DeJoy resigned March 24.
This month, the Postal Service’s Board of Governors announced its selection of David Steiner to be the next postmaster general. Steiner serves on the board of FedEx, a direct USPS competitor. Critics, including the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, the union representing some 295,000 mail carriers, said they feared his selection would hasten privatization of the independent agency.
And this year, thousands of year-round and seasonal National Parks workers — including rangers, wildlife researchers and maintenance staff — have been fired and rehired as part of the DOGE efforts to slash the size of the federal government. Hundreds of year-round employees have taken buyouts.
In February, a group of Yosemite National Park staffers hung a giant, upside-down American flag — a symbol of distress — from the side of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot granite monolith, to protest the cuts.
In her May 14 centennial speech, Damin promised that, under the USPS Delivering for America plan — a 10-year modernization and cost-cutting initiative rolled out in 2021— she would remain “committed to ensuring that our service is timely, reliable and rooted in respect for the people we serve.”
Mail service to Yosemite started long before the current building was constructed. It began in August 1869, two decades before Yosemite National Park was established.
The first post office was called Yo Semite. Two words.
In the mid-to-late 1800s, mail delivery from the East Coast to the new state of California required an arduous, weeks-long journey, said Steve Kochersperger, the official historian for the USPS.
There was an overland route from St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., to San Francisco that required a roughly 22-day journey by horse-drawn stagecoach. And there was a sea route. Steamships laden with mail sailed from the East Coast to Panama, where the mail was taken off the ships, transported in canoes or on pack animals, and handed to another steamship waiting on the Pacific side of the isthmus. That ship would then sail for San Francisco.
From San Francisco, Kochersperger said, it was still a long, difficult postal route to Yosemite before railroad service reached the park. Boats traveled by river from the Bay Area to Sacramento, where packages were handed off to a train bound for Merced. From there, it was hauled by stagecoach to the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Coulterville, where horse riders grabbed it for the last 55-mile leg of the journey.
“If you’re going to be part of the nation, you have to be connected,” Kochersperger said of mail delivery to California, which became a state in 1850. “The only connection was the mail. There was no telephone. The telegraph came later.
“Everybody in the country, no matter where they live, is important to the Postal Service, because it’s our mission to make sure they receive the same level of service as everybody else — it doesn’t matter how remote your home is,” Kochersperger said.
In 1959, John Reynolds was born at what was then called Lewis Memorial Hospital, about 200 yards from the Yosemite post office. He joked that he “didn’t go very far in my growing up and my career” — and meant it literally.
Reynolds retired as postmaster of the Yosemite post office in 2023 after a 44-year USPS career in and near the national park. Without the place, he said, he wouldn’t even be alive.
It’s where his parents, Anna and Albert, met. And it’s where his mother spent a four-decade USPS career that overlapped his own.
In 1945, Anna Reynolds, nee Aulick, then 18, hitched a ride with an aunt and uncle from her family’s home in rural Kentucky to San Francisco, where they lived. A year later, at the suggestion of a girlfriend, she took a semester off from school, headed for Yosemite and never looked back.
She soon was hired by fellow Kentuckian and Postmaster Fred C. Alexander of the frankfurter debacle. Anna Aulick was working the clerk’s window in the late 1950s when she met Albert Reynolds, a Standard Oil concessionaire from Montreal. They hit it off.
“Oh, the romances that have bloomed at that post office — that I know of! It’s quite astonishing,” said John Reynolds, 65, with a laugh.
He started working at the post office in 1978 as a part-time summer clerk and worked his way up through the ranks. He prided himself on getting the mail delivered in all conditions, including snow, floods, and rockslides, because “people feel isolated if they can’t get their mail.”
On several occasions, John Reynolds said, he drove his personal truck right up to the edge of a rockslide, walked across, and grabbed incoming mail from a USPS truck waiting on the other side.
“It was like a bucket brigade: a truck on one side, a truck on the other,” he said. “And we would walk across — to a certain amount of danger and a heightened consciousness of rocks coming down — and hand mail across the rocks.”
During the centennial celebration, John Reynolds quoted his mom, who never stopped feeling lucky to work at the Yosemite post office.
When he was a young child, he said, she posed a question: “Could you imagine if these walls could talk? ... If you think about it, all the people from every state of the union, every corner of that globe, came to this post office.”
Damin, who became postmaster after John Reynolds’ retirement, also said that “without Yosemite or the post office, I would not be here.” In June 1957, her mother, Lucy Persons, went camping in the park with a few college girlfriends. They spotted a group of cute guys pitching a tent nearby.
“My mom called dibs,” Damin, 54, said with a laugh. “She called dibs on my dad. All the girls picked one from the campsite, and they went and met. My mom and dad, they stuck. Nobody else did.”
Lucy and her catch, David Persons, went back to school — she to an all-girls Catholic college in Oakland, he to school in Reno and then to mortuary training in San Francisco.
Their entire courtship was through letters.
Damin comes from a long line of USPS employees. Her grandfather was postmaster in Lake Nebagamon, Wis., in the 1930s. And her grandmother, father and uncle worked as clerks. She has worked for the USPS for 24 years, starting as a substitute rural carrier in Stanislaus County. When she landed the job in Yosemite, she said, she couldn’t believe her luck.
“It’s very joyful here, and of course beautiful,” she said. “This place is magical.”
The post office staff has shrunk over the years, from five or six clerks to just two, who live in apartments above the lobby.
But the place still gets busy. And, she said, she hopes it’s around for another hundred years or more.
The remote post office building has connected the park to the outside world for 100 years
By Hailey Branson-Potts, LA Times
The letter from Yosemite Postmaster Fred C. Alexander, dated June 29, 1926, was meant to set the record straight regarding a shipment of 50 pounds of frankfurters from San Francisco.
The sausages were to have passed through the newly built Yosemite National Park post office before being delivered to a beloved Yosemite Valley restaurateur. Alas, the hot dogs didn’t fare so well.
A U.S. Postal Service truck had slid 50 feet down an embankment, and the “box containing the frankfurters was bursted open and the contents strewn considerably,” Alexander wrote to a U.S. Postal Service official in San Francisco.
“We gathered them up to the best of our ability, trying to save them all,” the letter continued, “but as they were pretty badly mangled and terribly dirty by the time we got them to this office it was decided that the only thing to do with them was to destroy.”
Delivery to the remote Yosemite National Park post office — as evidenced by what current Yosemite Postmaster Ellen Damin calls “the great frankfurter debacle” — has never been easy. But for the 1,800 or so residents of the Yosemite Valley, “it’s our connection to the world outside,” Damin said.
The Postal Service this month celebrated the 100th anniversary of its building in Yosemite Village. Completed in 1925, the two-story facility — with wood shingle siding on top and stone siding on bottom — was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the architect who would later design the famed Ahwahnee Hotel down the street.
The Postal Service has for years considered closing or consolidating rural post offices, which are expensive for the financially strapped agency to run. But in far-flung places such as Yosemite — with spotty internet and cell service, no instant Amazon delivery and few brick-and-mortar stores and pharmacies — they are a lifeline.
“I know how important this post office is to daily life, especially here in the Yosemite Valley,” Damin told the crowd at a centennial celebration this month.
She added: “In the mail is where a lot of everyday supplies arrive for those living here. The hikers on the Pacific Crest and John Muir trails, the climbers camping on the side of El Capitan — resupply parcels are crucial for them to continue their journeys.”
The Yosemite centennial has been a bright spot during a challenging time for both the USPS and the National Park Service. In recent months, President Trump has mused about privatizing the Postal Service, which lost $9.5 billion in the 2024 fiscal year and is cutting thousands of jobs.
On March 13, former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy wrote in a letter to several members of Congress that the Postal Service would eliminate 10,000 positions within 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program and that it had eliminated about 30,000 positions since 2021. The letter said he had signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and members of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk, to identify further cost savings.
DeJoy resigned March 24.
This month, the Postal Service’s Board of Governors announced its selection of David Steiner to be the next postmaster general. Steiner serves on the board of FedEx, a direct USPS competitor. Critics, including the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, the union representing some 295,000 mail carriers, said they feared his selection would hasten privatization of the independent agency.
And this year, thousands of year-round and seasonal National Parks workers — including rangers, wildlife researchers and maintenance staff — have been fired and rehired as part of the DOGE efforts to slash the size of the federal government. Hundreds of year-round employees have taken buyouts.
In February, a group of Yosemite National Park staffers hung a giant, upside-down American flag — a symbol of distress — from the side of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot granite monolith, to protest the cuts.
In her May 14 centennial speech, Damin promised that, under the USPS Delivering for America plan — a 10-year modernization and cost-cutting initiative rolled out in 2021— she would remain “committed to ensuring that our service is timely, reliable and rooted in respect for the people we serve.”
Mail service to Yosemite started long before the current building was constructed. It began in August 1869, two decades before Yosemite National Park was established.
The first post office was called Yo Semite. Two words.
In the mid-to-late 1800s, mail delivery from the East Coast to the new state of California required an arduous, weeks-long journey, said Steve Kochersperger, the official historian for the USPS.
There was an overland route from St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., to San Francisco that required a roughly 22-day journey by horse-drawn stagecoach. And there was a sea route. Steamships laden with mail sailed from the East Coast to Panama, where the mail was taken off the ships, transported in canoes or on pack animals, and handed to another steamship waiting on the Pacific side of the isthmus. That ship would then sail for San Francisco.
From San Francisco, Kochersperger said, it was still a long, difficult postal route to Yosemite before railroad service reached the park. Boats traveled by river from the Bay Area to Sacramento, where packages were handed off to a train bound for Merced. From there, it was hauled by stagecoach to the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Coulterville, where horse riders grabbed it for the last 55-mile leg of the journey.
“If you’re going to be part of the nation, you have to be connected,” Kochersperger said of mail delivery to California, which became a state in 1850. “The only connection was the mail. There was no telephone. The telegraph came later.
“Everybody in the country, no matter where they live, is important to the Postal Service, because it’s our mission to make sure they receive the same level of service as everybody else — it doesn’t matter how remote your home is,” Kochersperger said.
In 1959, John Reynolds was born at what was then called Lewis Memorial Hospital, about 200 yards from the Yosemite post office. He joked that he “didn’t go very far in my growing up and my career” — and meant it literally.
Reynolds retired as postmaster of the Yosemite post office in 2023 after a 44-year USPS career in and near the national park. Without the place, he said, he wouldn’t even be alive.
It’s where his parents, Anna and Albert, met. And it’s where his mother spent a four-decade USPS career that overlapped his own.
In 1945, Anna Reynolds, nee Aulick, then 18, hitched a ride with an aunt and uncle from her family’s home in rural Kentucky to San Francisco, where they lived. A year later, at the suggestion of a girlfriend, she took a semester off from school, headed for Yosemite and never looked back.
She soon was hired by fellow Kentuckian and Postmaster Fred C. Alexander of the frankfurter debacle. Anna Aulick was working the clerk’s window in the late 1950s when she met Albert Reynolds, a Standard Oil concessionaire from Montreal. They hit it off.
“Oh, the romances that have bloomed at that post office — that I know of! It’s quite astonishing,” said John Reynolds, 65, with a laugh.
He started working at the post office in 1978 as a part-time summer clerk and worked his way up through the ranks. He prided himself on getting the mail delivered in all conditions, including snow, floods, and rockslides, because “people feel isolated if they can’t get their mail.”
On several occasions, John Reynolds said, he drove his personal truck right up to the edge of a rockslide, walked across, and grabbed incoming mail from a USPS truck waiting on the other side.
“It was like a bucket brigade: a truck on one side, a truck on the other,” he said. “And we would walk across — to a certain amount of danger and a heightened consciousness of rocks coming down — and hand mail across the rocks.”
During the centennial celebration, John Reynolds quoted his mom, who never stopped feeling lucky to work at the Yosemite post office.
When he was a young child, he said, she posed a question: “Could you imagine if these walls could talk? ... If you think about it, all the people from every state of the union, every corner of that globe, came to this post office.”
Damin, who became postmaster after John Reynolds’ retirement, also said that “without Yosemite or the post office, I would not be here.” In June 1957, her mother, Lucy Persons, went camping in the park with a few college girlfriends. They spotted a group of cute guys pitching a tent nearby.
“My mom called dibs,” Damin, 54, said with a laugh. “She called dibs on my dad. All the girls picked one from the campsite, and they went and met. My mom and dad, they stuck. Nobody else did.”
Lucy and her catch, David Persons, went back to school — she to an all-girls Catholic college in Oakland, he to school in Reno and then to mortuary training in San Francisco.
Their entire courtship was through letters.
Damin comes from a long line of USPS employees. Her grandfather was postmaster in Lake Nebagamon, Wis., in the 1930s. And her grandmother, father and uncle worked as clerks. She has worked for the USPS for 24 years, starting as a substitute rural carrier in Stanislaus County. When she landed the job in Yosemite, she said, she couldn’t believe her luck.
“It’s very joyful here, and of course beautiful,” she said. “This place is magical.”
The post office staff has shrunk over the years, from five or six clerks to just two, who live in apartments above the lobby.
But the place still gets busy. And, she said, she hopes it’s around for another hundred years or more.
|
Wawona Golf Course and Stables Open For Season
May 24 - The golf course reopened this weekend. Sign in at Wawona store. There are pull carts, but no electric carts. The stables by the history center also opened. |
|
Tioga Road Open May 26
All park roads are open with Tioga Road slated to be opened Monday, May 26 at 8 a.m. Limited services will be available to visitors traversing Tioga Road. Visitors are urged to bring their own appropriate levels of food and water and utilize food lockers if away from their vehicle. Restroom (vaults and portables) along Tioga Road. will be open. No other services will be available along Tioga Road.
All park roads are open with Tioga Road slated to be opened Monday, May 26 at 8 a.m. Limited services will be available to visitors traversing Tioga Road. Visitors are urged to bring their own appropriate levels of food and water and utilize food lockers if away from their vehicle. Restroom (vaults and portables) along Tioga Road. will be open. No other services will be available along Tioga Road.
New Food Service in Wawona
Memorial Day weekend will be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday
May 23 menu:
Charbroiled chicken
Served with pilaf rice and flat bread
Charbroiled pork
Served rice pilaf and flat bread
And don’t forget to see what desserts we will have for you.
You deserve to try it all Our way at Pine Tree Market parking lot from lunch til dinner while supply last. So save your appetite!
May 23 menu:
Charbroiled chicken
Served with pilaf rice and flat bread
Charbroiled pork
Served rice pilaf and flat bread
And don’t forget to see what desserts we will have for you.
You deserve to try it all Our way at Pine Tree Market parking lot from lunch til dinner while supply last. So save your appetite!
Kathie Heringer, July 18, 1948 — March 20, 2025
Kathie Heringer, beloved resident of Wawona in Yosemite National Park, California, passed away peacefully on March 20, 2025, at the age of 76.
Kathie was a cherished daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend. Born and raised in Dos Palos California, Kathie graduated from CSU Fresno and married Wayne Heringer on the grounds of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. She lived an incredibly full life overseas and in the States with her children and grandchildren.
She is survived by her children Trevor and Mendy, their spouses Jessica and Kevin, and her grandchildren Alejandra, Aaleyah, and Ava. In addition to her family, Kathie had a deep connection to the natural beauty of the Yosemite region. We welcome you to visit Wawona and experience her peace and joy sitting on her porch overlooking the Merced River - that was her greatest daily wish - and she is sitting there in spirit as you read this.
She leaves an incredible legacy of dedication to her friends, family and her charitable causes. She taught her family and friends the undeniable lessons of love, kindness, compassion, generosity and devotion. She was always the first to offer to help paint a friend's house, stop by and listen to a loved one who was having a difficult time, or open her house to travelers who needed a beautiful rest stop and great food. She was known for her handwritten cards and frequent presents hand-picked for each special person. For everyone who was touched by Kathie's presence in their life, we will never forget her laughter and smile; She had a true gift for valuing, seeing and loving all who were fortunate to be a part of her life.
A future private memorial service will be held in her honor in Wawona. Please email her daughter at, [email protected] for further information. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wounded Warriors Project.
Kathie’s impact in this world is immeasurable. She will be greatly missed, but know she is where she needs to be - laughing, drinking Diet Coke, eating clam dip and M&Ms, sitting in her chair overlooking the river. We love you gobbers.
To see more photos of Kathie in her obituary web page, click here.
Kathie Heringer, beloved resident of Wawona in Yosemite National Park, California, passed away peacefully on March 20, 2025, at the age of 76.
Kathie was a cherished daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend. Born and raised in Dos Palos California, Kathie graduated from CSU Fresno and married Wayne Heringer on the grounds of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. She lived an incredibly full life overseas and in the States with her children and grandchildren.
She is survived by her children Trevor and Mendy, their spouses Jessica and Kevin, and her grandchildren Alejandra, Aaleyah, and Ava. In addition to her family, Kathie had a deep connection to the natural beauty of the Yosemite region. We welcome you to visit Wawona and experience her peace and joy sitting on her porch overlooking the Merced River - that was her greatest daily wish - and she is sitting there in spirit as you read this.
She leaves an incredible legacy of dedication to her friends, family and her charitable causes. She taught her family and friends the undeniable lessons of love, kindness, compassion, generosity and devotion. She was always the first to offer to help paint a friend's house, stop by and listen to a loved one who was having a difficult time, or open her house to travelers who needed a beautiful rest stop and great food. She was known for her handwritten cards and frequent presents hand-picked for each special person. For everyone who was touched by Kathie's presence in their life, we will never forget her laughter and smile; She had a true gift for valuing, seeing and loving all who were fortunate to be a part of her life.
A future private memorial service will be held in her honor in Wawona. Please email her daughter at, [email protected] for further information. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Wounded Warriors Project.
Kathie’s impact in this world is immeasurable. She will be greatly missed, but know she is where she needs to be - laughing, drinking Diet Coke, eating clam dip and M&Ms, sitting in her chair overlooking the river. We love you gobbers.
To see more photos of Kathie in her obituary web page, click here.
Sunset at the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp in Yosemite National Park.
Doug Steakley/Getty Images
Yosemite Cancels Beloved Experience Despite Order to Remain 'Open and Accessible'
The National Park Service won't be opening the High Sierra CampsBy Ashley Harrell,
National Parks Bureau Chief
Updated May 14, 2025
The National Park Service won't be opening the High Sierra CampsBy Ashley Harrell,
National Parks Bureau Chief
Updated May 14, 2025
Merced Lake Tents at a High Sierra Campsite in Yosemite National Park.
Charles O'Rear/Getty Images
Established more than a century ago, Yosemite National Park’s High Sierra Camps are one of the most coveted reservations in any national park in America. Guests sleep in glamping tent cabins, dine on high-end meals prepared by specially trained chefs with gourmet ingredients transported by mule, and have access to running water in the middle of the park’s stunning, otherwise untouched wilderness. This summer, the collection of five historic High Sierra Camps was supposed to fully reopen for the first time since 2018. Instead, amid staffing shortages and funding cuts, the posh backcountry stays will remain shuttered, according to an announcement on the park concessioner’s website.
“Unfortunately, the utilities which support the High Sierra Camps — potable water and toilets — will not be available and the camps will not be operated this summer,” the announcement from Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of Aramark Corporation, states. “This decision was made in collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS), which manages the utilities necessary to run the camps.”
“Unfortunately, the utilities which support the High Sierra Camps — potable water and toilets — will not be available and the camps will not be operated this summer,” the announcement from Yosemite Hospitality, a subsidiary of Aramark Corporation, states. “This decision was made in collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS), which manages the utilities necessary to run the camps.”
A backpacker makes her way through Vogelsang Pass while hiking in the Yosemite National Park.
John Elk/Getty Images
Over the past six years, the High Sierra Camps’ tent cabins have opened just once — during the summer of 2024 — and only on a limited basis. Of the five camps, only three welcomed guests, and the last time all the camps opened to visitors was in 2018. Since then, the camps’ 56 total tent cabins have mostly remained shuttered due to heavy snowfall, pandemic restrictions and other operational challenges. There are a mix of opinions, however, on whether the camps should reopen at all.
Critics have long argued that the camps and the mules that transport supplies for visitors degrade the backcountry environment, while advocates counter that the camps are part of an important tradition and make the wilderness experience more accessible.
The five camps are spaced about 8 miles apart along a 50-mile loop across undulating granite, over mountain passes and through yawning canyons. Each camp has room for only 30 to 60 people, and when they do manage to open, it’s only for a couple of months in the summer. Because the camps allow visitors to enjoy the wilderness without carrying a backpacking backpack, they’re extremely popular. Applications for the camps’ long-standing lottery system far outnumber the available spots.
SFGATE first learned of this year’s closure via one of our editors, David Curran, who won the lottery in 2023 and secured the exclusive accommodations for the summer of 2024. That trip got canceled because the camps opened later than expected due to a large snowpack, Curran said, and he received priority in (and again won) the lottery for the summer of 2025. Today, though, he received more bad news in an email from Nick Sponaugle, Yosemite Hospitality’s vice president of operations.
“Unfortunately, we have been notified by the National Park Service that the camps will not open this year,” the email states. “The Park Service needs to prioritize its resources to serve the broadest group of visitors. Consequently, the utilities which support the High Sierra Camps — potable water and toilets — will not be available and the camps will not be operated this summer.”
The closure comes as staffing and funding have been cut at Yosemite and other national parks across the country, triggering a widespread public outcry in support of the park service. It’s unclear whether the closure is in line with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s order that national parks remain fully “accessible and open,” requiring any reductions in services to be reviewed by top officials.
Critics have long argued that the camps and the mules that transport supplies for visitors degrade the backcountry environment, while advocates counter that the camps are part of an important tradition and make the wilderness experience more accessible.
The five camps are spaced about 8 miles apart along a 50-mile loop across undulating granite, over mountain passes and through yawning canyons. Each camp has room for only 30 to 60 people, and when they do manage to open, it’s only for a couple of months in the summer. Because the camps allow visitors to enjoy the wilderness without carrying a backpacking backpack, they’re extremely popular. Applications for the camps’ long-standing lottery system far outnumber the available spots.
SFGATE first learned of this year’s closure via one of our editors, David Curran, who won the lottery in 2023 and secured the exclusive accommodations for the summer of 2024. That trip got canceled because the camps opened later than expected due to a large snowpack, Curran said, and he received priority in (and again won) the lottery for the summer of 2025. Today, though, he received more bad news in an email from Nick Sponaugle, Yosemite Hospitality’s vice president of operations.
“Unfortunately, we have been notified by the National Park Service that the camps will not open this year,” the email states. “The Park Service needs to prioritize its resources to serve the broadest group of visitors. Consequently, the utilities which support the High Sierra Camps — potable water and toilets — will not be available and the camps will not be operated this summer.”
The closure comes as staffing and funding have been cut at Yosemite and other national parks across the country, triggering a widespread public outcry in support of the park service. It’s unclear whether the closure is in line with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s order that national parks remain fully “accessible and open,” requiring any reductions in services to be reviewed by top officials.
In an email to the park service’s public information office, SFGATE asked whether the decision had been reviewed by the director of the park service and the assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. We received no response.
Over the phone with SFGATE, a Yosemite National Park spokesman confirmed that the camps would not open due to utilities being unavailable. “Visitors can reserve a wilderness permit to backpack and enjoy a self-guided experience in the area of the camps,” he said.
Sponaugle’s email to Curran states that a full refund will be issued within 14 business days and that impacted guests will receive priority consideration for the 2026 High Sierra Camp lottery. They will still need to submit lottery applications in the fall, however.
Curran and his group will likely do that, he said. Then again, they might just enjoy the savings and backpack the route on their own this summer. Unguided trips cost nearly $200 per adult per night, while guided trips cost $1,400 per adult.
Over the phone with SFGATE, a Yosemite National Park spokesman confirmed that the camps would not open due to utilities being unavailable. “Visitors can reserve a wilderness permit to backpack and enjoy a self-guided experience in the area of the camps,” he said.
Sponaugle’s email to Curran states that a full refund will be issued within 14 business days and that impacted guests will receive priority consideration for the 2026 High Sierra Camp lottery. They will still need to submit lottery applications in the fall, however.
Curran and his group will likely do that, he said. Then again, they might just enjoy the savings and backpack the route on their own this summer. Unguided trips cost nearly $200 per adult per night, while guided trips cost $1,400 per adult.
YOSEMITE-WAWONA ELEMENTARY CHARTER SCHOOL
Board of Directors Regular Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5:30 P.M.
Wawona Elementary School
7925 Chilnualna Falls Road
Wawona, CA
MONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS
3.1- Approval of Agenda
3.2– Approval of Minutes of the regular meeting of April 8.
3.3 - Approve Warrants/Payroll
3.4 – Accept Donations to YWECS
ACTION ITEMS
INFORMATION ITEMS
Hearing on the 2025-26 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the 2025-26 Budget.
There will be 2 meetings in June – one to have a public hearing on the LCAP and proposed Budget – and the other to adopt both
Board of Directors Regular Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
5:30 P.M.
Wawona Elementary School
7925 Chilnualna Falls Road
Wawona, CA
- CALL TO ORDER
- ROLL CALL
MONTHLY ITEMS AND FINANCIAL REPORTS
- CONSENT AGENDA
3.1- Approval of Agenda
3.2– Approval of Minutes of the regular meeting of April 8.
3.3 - Approve Warrants/Payroll
3.4 – Accept Donations to YWECS
- HEARING OF PERSONS WISHING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD
ACTION ITEMS
- APPROVAL OF P2 ATTENDANCE REPORT
- APPROVAL OF A SCHOOL CALENDAR FOR THE 2025-26 SCHOOL YEAR
- SOLID WASTE REMOVAL RATES
- APPROVAL OF STIPEND FOR RAY EDWARDS FOR ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES ASSUMED DURING THE SO-CAL FIELD TRIP.
INFORMATION ITEMS
- STAFF REPORTS/ CHARTER FUTURE PLANNING UPDATES
- BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS PROJECTS UPDATE
- FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
- BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS
- FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Hearing on the 2025-26 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and the 2025-26 Budget.
There will be 2 meetings in June – one to have a public hearing on the LCAP and proposed Budget – and the other to adopt both
- NEXT BOARD MEETING
- ADJOURNMENT
