{"id":12238,"date":"2012-05-07T20:09:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T03:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=12238"},"modified":"2012-05-08T13:40:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T20:40:20","slug":"celebration-of-life-set-for-8-year-old-boistfort-student-who-drowned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=12238","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of life set for 8-year-old Boistfort student who drowned"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2012.0507nicholasmatchett.2011-07-13<\/a>

Nicholas Hunter Lee Matchett \/ Courtesy photo<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

A family and a community is in mourning following the loss of 8-year-old Nicholas Hunter Lee Matchett to drowning in the Chehalis River.<\/p>\n

Nicholas was found on a gravel bar a quarter mile downstream from his home near the intersection of state Route 6 and Ceres Hill Road about an hour after his mother reported him missing late Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

He was a student at Boistfort School.<\/p>\n

School Principal Rich Apperson said he will be missed as a friend and a member of the school family.<\/p>\n

“This was a year he was really flourishing,” Apperson said.<\/p>\n

“He was learning to work an iPad and if he had a choice, he might play Angry Birds, or country music,” Apperson said.<\/p>\n

Nicholas was one of only about 100 students at the small school in the Boistfort Valley.<\/p>\n

Apperson said they tried to keep today as normal as possible for the children, but brought in a counselor and expect to do the same tomorrow, “just in case, as people comes to terms.”<\/p>\n

A youth pastor and his wife spoke to each of the classes today, and an informational flyer was sent home with the kids, he said.<\/p>\n

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has not completed its investigation, but it was reasonable to surmise the child fell into the river, according to sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust.<\/p>\n

“The boy had been swinging on the porch and his mom went in the house for a few minutes,” Aust said. “She asked her 11-year-old daughter to go check on him.”<\/p>\n

Deputies didn’t find any specific spot where the river bank behind the Matchett’s house caved, but he could have gone straight in without touching the bank, Aust said.<\/p>\n

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod confirmed this morning the death was an accidental drowning.<\/p>\n

Michelle Matchett, his mother, said her son loved everybody.<\/p>\n

“He was happy all the time, he was never unhappy,” she said.<\/p>\n

He especially liked the movie “Over the hedge”, she said. “He watched it about a million times.”<\/p>\n

Nicholas was developmentally delayed, his mother said, describing that as not yet learning to talk.<\/p>\n

His school principal said Nicholas had vision and hearing problems, but this year got glasses and a hearing aid and was making good progress.<\/p>\n

“We all kind of got to know him,” Apperson said. “He was and yet he wasn’t so much outside the ballpark of what kids go through.”<\/p>\n

Next door neighbors Starla and Bruce Terry spoke of a high and dangerously unstable river bank that goes behind both theirs and the Matchett’s homes.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the bank has eroded, and the winding river moved closer and closer to their properties, Starla Terry said.<\/p>\n

“I’m saying, he fell off a cliff that if I had my way, wouldn’t have been there,” Starla Terry said.<\/p>\n

Various regulations have prevented anyone from clearing debris from the original channel to allow it to move back, something she has wanted done for years, she said.<\/p>\n

The Matchett’s house is about nine miles west of Chehalis, near where the South Fork of the Chehalis RIver meets the main fork.<\/p>\n

Starla Terry, an accountant, has been on the phone getting pledges from her clients to help pay funeral costs.<\/p>\n

The single mother of two works at Home Depot in Chehalis, and doesn’t have a budget for such an expense, she said.<\/p>\n

Starla Terry said she has several irons in the fire to help her neighbor with an “utter disaster.”<\/p>\n

“He was just such a cute little thing,” she said. “Honest to God, all those long golden curls.”<\/p>\n

Anyone who wants to make a donation can contact Starla Terry at 360-245-3334. An account named Nicky Matchett Memorial is set up to take donations at Wells Fargo Bank.<\/p>\n

Nicholas’s graveside service is set for 11 a.m. on Thursday at the Boistfort Cemetery.<\/p>\n

It will be followed at 1:30 p.m. with a celebration of life and potluck in the gym at Boistfort School, for anyone who would like to attend, according to Apperson.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

For background read “Breaking news: Child drowns in Chehalis River” from Friday May 4, 2012 at 7:38 p.m., here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter A family and a community is in mourning following the loss of 8-year-old Nicholas Hunter Lee Matchett to drowning in the Chehalis River. Nicholas was found on a gravel bar a quarter mile downstream from his home near the intersection of state Route 6 and Ceres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-12238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12238"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12243,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12238\/revisions\/12243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}