may8 2012
VERNONIA’S
reflecting the spirit of our community
volume6 issue9
Last Chance Dance – Saturday, June 23
Saying Goodbye to Washington Grade School and Vernonia Union High School
With the creation of the
new campus, the Vernonia School
District is required to remove the
school buildings from their current
locations. Certain elements have
been integrated into the new school,
but the actual buildings must go. No
matter how good it will be for the
community to have new schools, it
is still a big deal to see your school
disappear.
The Vernonia Education
Foundation (VEF) therefore
welcomes the entire community to
the campus on June 23rd for a last
chance to see your old schools. At
4:00 PM the entire campus will be
opened to guests, and there will be
several exciting opportunities to
mingle, exchange memories, and
perhaps express the collective hope
that our future will be as bright as
our history.
Beginning at 5:00 PM in
the Green Building there will be a
dinner for guests. During the dinner,
guests will have the opportunity to
bid, via silent auction, on many
items which have been donated
by businesses and individuals all
around the Pacific Northwest. In
addition, at 6:00 PM, following a
few words from Superintendent Dr.
Kenneth Cox and other community
leaders, there will be a live auction
during which our guests will have
the opportunity to bid on several
choice items. The dinner will have
limited seating, and tickets are
currently available at Vernonia
Florist and Vernonia Auto Parts, or
online at www.vernoniaschools.org
Following the dinner and
auction, the VEF will host the “Last
Chance Dance” in the Washington
Grade School gymnasium, an all-
ages celebration of all the dances
that have come before through the
decades. There is no charge for
attending the dance, or for touring
the schools.
The VEF would like to
thank the community and the district
for being given this opportunity to
express their deep appreciation for
the continuing financial support
of the capital campaign to rebuild
Vernonia’s Schools.
Camp 18 Logging Exhibition is May 12 th
The 2012 Camp 18 Loggers
Memorial Dedication and Logging Ex-
hibition will be held Saturday, May 12 at
the Camp 18 Logging Museum in Elsie,
Oregon. All are welcome to attend this
free event!
inside
10
hands-on
art
11
vhs
sports
11
school
flowers
Founded by Maurie Clark and Gordon
Smith back in the 1970’s, the Camp
18 Logging Museum is a popular spot
to stop on the way to the coast and see
the spar tree and big logging equip-
ment from years gone by. The museum
has grown over the years and
through generous donations of
time and money, the Camp 18
Logging Museum Loggers Me-
morial was completed in 2009.
The beautiful building houses a
bronze statue of a timber faller
and contains logging memora-
bilia from many local families
as well as over 300 plaques
commemorating
loggers
who’ve passed on. The 2012
Loggers Memorial dedication
begins at 10:00 AM. There
will be about 20 new plaques
dedicated this year. To order
a plaque for the memorial, con-
tact Danielle Cook at 503-308-
3250,
danicook09@yahoo.
com.
Many local loggers will
compete in the third annual
Logging Exhibition as well as
High School teams from Knap-
pa, Scio, Sweet Home, Verno-
nia and Philomath. The High
School teams work hard to help
keep the logging industry alive.
The forestry teams compete in
logging events and study all as-
free
Vernonia Community
Garden Ready to
Grow!
A new banner sign adorns the chain link
fence between the high school and district office,
heralding the arrival of spring and a new community
garden. The garden has been in the works for a while,
and the good news is that it is finally here. Thanks
to the cooperation of the city and the school district,
the community garden has a temporary home near
the old tennis courts.
Penny Costley and Allison McLeod are
leading the organization this summer, and are ready
to accept reservations for space in the garden.
According to Costley, the maximum size plot
available is 3’ by 21’, and smaller sizes are available.
Please call her (429-0196) to set up a spot.
Costley is currently organizing monthly
classes and workshops, featuring a different aspect of
gardening every month. The OSU Extension Service
held classes for Master Gardener in Vernonia several
years ago, and some of those graduates will be on
hand regularly to aide people that are unfamiliar
with plants.
The garden is projected to hold 400 lineal
feet of growing space, which will all be planted.
Any food produced in excess of that claimed by
participants will be distributed to the Vernonia Cares
Food Bank and other organizations that provide
nutritious food to those in need.
The community garden will eventually move
to the new school campus on Missouri Avenue, and
will be another tool in the school district curriculum.
The garden is a collaboration between The Ford
Family Foundation, City of Vernonia, Vernonia
School District, Vernonia Health Board, Vernonia
Cares, and Kiwanis International.
pects of forestry including biomass, tim-
ber harvesting, silviculture and forestry
engineering. These programs help pre-
pare students for careers in the industry
and serve as college prep for those go-
ing on to study forestry at the university
level. A highlight of last year’s event
came during the competition between
the top local rigging crew and the best of
the high school teams. The students did
a great job and would have won if their
teacher hadn’t dropped the pin out of the
block during the climbing portion of the Admission is FREE! Bring the whole
family. Take a tour
relay. The crowd
of all the great old-
loved it and had a
time logging museum
great time watch-
equipment. There will
ing all the com-
be food booths, hats,
petitions. Team
license plate frames,
registration starts
t-shirts and sweatshirts
at 9:00 and the
for sale. Volunteers
Exhibition begins
are needed!
at 11:00. Events
For more infor-
include tree climb-
mation or to volunteer,
ing, choker setting,
contact Mark Standley
splicing, double
at 503-434-0148, log-
bucking and the
safeinc@yahoo.com
hook tender re-
or Darlene Wilcoxen
lay race. There
at 503-728-2050, dar-
will a tree falling
lene.wilcoxen@ya-
competition and a
hoo.com. Save the
log loading com-
date! May 12, 2012;
petition too if you
Camp 18 is located at
want to come test
milepost 18 on Hwy
your skills or just
26, 42362 Hwy 26,
watch the loggers
Seaside, Oregon.
in action.
