08
september
vernonia’s
voice
community
2007
Senior Advocate, Karen Miller - Available to Help
By Scott Laird
Whenever I get the chance to talk with Karen
Miller, I am struck by her approachability. She
always makes time to stop for a chat, at least
briefly. She also always seems like a person with
something to do, a person with somewhere to be,
a person who’s taking care of business.
That’s because it’s her job to take care of
business in the name of helping our local senior
citizens find and get needed services. “Seniors
are the fastest growing segment of our popula-
tion,” says Karen.
Karen works for Community Action Team
(CAT) as a Senior Service Case Manager based
at the Senior Center in Vernonia. “I prefer the title
Senior Advocate,” said Karen at her office recent-
ly, “because basically what I do is advocate for
our seniors. Any problem they have, I am here to
try and help.”
CAT, whose motto is “Building Bridges to
Self-sufficiency,” is a non-profit whose goal is to
mobilize resources to reduce poverty and make
families and individuals more self-reliant. They
provide a Senior Advocate for community mem-
bers sixty years old and over in Clatskanie, Rain-
ier, St. Helens, Scappoose, and Vernonia. They
follow an assessment process that allows them
to identify needs that might qualify for assistance.
Just some of the services they provide are Re-
spite Care which provides relief for at home care
takers; Oregon Project Independence (OPI) which
helps seniors living at home with housekeeping
and personal care assistance; a nutritional pro-
gram which includes Meals on Wheels delivery to
homes; foot
care
ser-
vices
at
the Senior
Center; and
Hearing Aid
services.
They also
offer Veter-
ans Servic-
es through
a represen-
tative at the
St. Helens
main office;
legal assis-
tance including possible pro bono help; AARP
safe driving classes; and a new Foster Grand-
parent/Senior companion program that matches
seniors with kids to help them with reading and
friendship, and matches volunteers with seniors,
to bring joy and comfort to lonely and isolated se-
niors.
CAT doesn’t just provide senior services ei-
ther. Other services they offer are: emergency
energy and housing services, transitional housing
assistance, USDA child care food program, Kid
Start, and Head Start.
Karen loves working with our local seniors
and really appreciates the opportunity to be here.
She has worked in the past to acquire funding
through state and federal Preventative Health
Grants to provide additional programs like swim-
ming for exercise at the Forest Grove pool, Diabe-
tes check-ups, and Medical screenings.
According to Karen, “many seniors don’t know
that these services are available. Worse yet, they
don’t know I’m here to help. I want people to feel
free to stop in or call me to ask questions,” said
Karen, “I also encourage anybody in the commu-
nity who knows of a senior who might need some
assistance to contact me. I really depend on net-
working to make my connections.”
Karen Miller will always have a lot of business
to attend to, but she’ll always make time to stop
and talk, especially for our senior citizens.
To reach Karen Miller stop by the Senior Cen-
ter - 446 Bridge Street, or call her office at 503-
429- 9112. Leave Karen a message if she’s not
there. To reach CAT call 503-397-3511
Vernonia Boys’ Baseball Season a Success
By Scott Laird
Coach Jerry Butcher couldn’t say enough about his team. Butcher’s 12-
14 year olds had just completed an amazing season, and Jerry surely was
proud. “This was a great group of kids,” he told me numerous times during
a recent interview about their successful season.
Coach Butcher is the head coach for the Vernonia entry in Junior Base-
ball of Oregon’s National League. The twelve boys under his direction fin-
ished the year with fourteen wins, one loss and one tie. After a tough draw
at the county tournament, where the team finished third, they just missed
qualifying for the state tournament. “We had a very demanding, very hard
schedule, three games on Saturday, and three on Sunday, plus it was very
hot,” said Butcher about the county tourney. “The kids just ran out of gas.”
Butcher, who has coached boys’ baseball for seven years, was assisted
by Aaron Miller, Mike Orth, and Dan Titus with this year’s team. “We had
great support from the whole community this year,” said Butcher. “All the
parents really got involved. We had times when we had more spectators at
an away game than the home team.”
When asked about keys to the team’s success, Butcher talked about his
players’ dedication - to the team, to themselves and to each other. “These
kids would do anything to win. Not one kid missed a single practice or game
the whole season. We had four kids on this team who had never played at all
before, and the other
players taught them
and
encouraged
them. I told them ‘I’m
the coach, you’re the
leaders’, and they re-
ally embraced that
philosophy.”
“It was a whole
team effort all sea-
son. Different kids
would step up and
contribute in different
games. That was the
key to our whole sea-
son. This was a great
group of kids.”
Coach Butcher and the rest of Vernonia can look forward to more excit-
ing and aggressive baseball next season. Eight of this year’s twelve players
are eligible for the team again next year.
Echoing Evergreen Booster Day Camp – Fun For Everyone
By Scott Laird
Another year of the Echoing Evergreen Boost-
ers’ summer day camp at Camp Wilkerson has
come and gone. And what a year it was!
A total of 353 campers took part in the biggest
day camp yet during the week following Jambo-
ree weekend. “We were very excited about the
turn out this year,” said Camp Director Katie Po-
etter as she recovered at home the week follow-
ing camp. “Everybody had so much fun!”
Poetter has assembled a great team to
run the camp including co-director Robin
Dennis, Financial Director Michelle Dennis
and Secretary Jeanne Mohr. Poetter also
recognized the great contribution of all the
volunteers, sponsors and camp coun-
selors who helped out. “Without them
camp just wouldn’t happen,” said Po-
etter.
Camp Wilkerson consists of one week
of day camp, Monday through Friday,
and is open to all children from kinder-
garten to twelfth grade in the Vernonia
and Mist areas. The seventh through
twelfth graders act as counselors for
the younger children. Adults who vol-
unteer can also bring their infants. The
camp is set up in stations which the campers
rotate through, participating in activities like
hiking, building bird houses, Jazzercise, ob-
stacle courses, BB gun and archery shooting,
and crafts.
Poetter, who began training to take over as di-
rector five years ago and took the reins three years
ago, credits her predecessors for the camp’s suc-
cess. “Camp Wilkerson was started thirty years
ago as a Girl Scout Camp by Nona Skinner and
was run with the help of Kathy Ward.
(continued on page 19)