MEMBERconnection

Left to right: Samir, Senada, Vernes and Aida, in Jajce, Bosnia, 1970. Left to right: Samir, S

Connecting across borders

THEY WERE HOLDING hands and playing when Steve Horn took a picture of four children—Samir, Senada, Vernes and Aida—in Jajce, Bosnia, in 1970

(upper right photo).

Thirty-three years later, in 2003—after the bombings, burned-out buildings and dead bodies—he returned to the war-torn country and photographed them again. One of the boys from that photo, Vernes, now grown, stands with his daughter in Horn’s photo of the two of them (lower right). The then-and-now pair of pictures joins more than 80 other photos in Horn’s book

Pictures Without Borders: Bosnia Revisited

( www.pictureswithoutborders.com).

Horn was 20 when he first traveled through Bosnia as part of a college project he designed to explore Europe with his camera, developing and printing pictures in his home-on-the-road Volkswagen van. Years later, the war in Bosnia reconnected him to the place, inspiring him to eventually go back. “I felt enormous sadness seeing the devastation and endless graveyards,” says Horn, a Costco member in Lopez Island, Washington. “But I

Steve Horn

STEVE HORN

Vernes and his daughter Nadja in Jajce, Bosnia, 2003.

also saw Bosnians rebuilding their homes
and lives, and that gave me hope.”
Horn brought his early pictures and pointed
his Nikon at people and places he had photo-
graphed long ago. Recognizing a man in one of
his photos, someone at an outdoor market ran
off to find him. Horn took a picture of him again,
holding his younger likeness. “I felt like we were
longtime friends, standing there together,
though we had just met,” says Horn.

People experience Pictures Without Borders as “a book about our common humanity and what links us, through peace and reconciliation,” he continues. “We’re not alone in the world—we’re all connected.”—Claire Sykes

Bond girls bike for bones

WHAT WOULD POSSESS a 50-something mom and her daughter to bike all the way across America? “We’re shrinking,” says Costco member Marybeth Bond, the mom in the pair. A few years ago, when she compared notes with her sisters and mother, she realized that “between us we’ve lost 6 inches of height due to osteoporosis or osteopenia. I don’t want my daughters to have the same problem.”

Julieclaire (left) and Marybeth Bond

The self-dubbed “Bond girls”—Tiburon, California–based Marybeth, an author/ editor of 11 travel books, and her daughter, Julieclaire, or JC, a recent graduate of Cornell University—are committed to increasing awareness of osteoporosis, a silent disease that affects millions of postmenopausal women, making their bones weak and more likely to fracture over time.

From June 2 to July 31, the two will pedal from the Pacific to the Atlantic on a bone-health education campaign.

En route they plan to stop in seven cities for media interviews and public riding events to inspire other mothers and daughters to eat well and exercise. They are raising funds through Sponsor-a-Mile donations for the National Osteoporosis Foundation ( www.nof.org).

GREGG TULLY

“It is the fulfillment of a dream, as well as a physically and emotionally challenging way to expand our mother-daughter relationships,” says Marybeth.—T. Foster Jones

80 ;e Costco Connection MAY 2010

IN FEBRUARY 2008 when Molly Ringwald turned 40, she wondered how it was possible. After all, the iconic redhead is best known for her oles in the teen films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. The milestone birthday, combined with playing a mom on the TV show The Secret Life of the American Teenager, prompted the Costco mem- ber to think about the kind of mom and the kind of woman she wanted to be. The result? Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Lipstick (It Books, 2010). “I wanted to write a book that I’d want to read. One that’s funny, inspira- tional, irreverent and beautifully illus- trated,” Ringwald tells The Connection. In the book, using a chatty and conversational tone, she discusses food, style, friends, love, motherhood and, of course, hair. In addition to being a mother—to a 6-year-old and twins who will celebrate their first birthday in June—and work- ing on the book and the TV show, Ringwald is recording a jazz album. “[An actor] is not all that I am,” she says. “I’ve never been somebody who’s been happy doing one thing.” —Stephanie E. Ponder Forty candles We want to hear from you! IF YOU HAVE a note, photo or story to share about Costco or Costco members, e-mail it to connection@costco.com with “The Member Connection” in the subject line or send it to “The Member Connection,” The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned.