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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2014)
letters to the editor/events Readers Lend Their Voices... Dear Vernonia Community, The 2014 exchange students would like to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to live this amazing and immeasurable experience! For all of us this was the most intense and productive year of our entire lives, and if we made it so far it is because you gave us the chance to be part of your community and of your lives. We could never thank you enough for what you did, do and will do for us! Now, we would like to say some special words to the people that made our experience possible: There is probably no way we will ever be able to thank our host parents enough for taking us into their houses and treating us like their own children. It is unbelievable how close we became to all of you. We crossed the world, and got here and did not know much about you, and in a few months we made the strongest and most authentic relationship! We are now able to call you our second home. Without you we would not be able to have such an experience. Everything you have done for us and all the memories we have made together are just an unforgettable part of this experience. Thank you for making us such an important part of your families and for all the attention you unconditionally gave us! We found a family and a second home in another part of the world, as you found another kid from a different country. You will always have a place in our hearts. Thank you so much. We love you all! A special thanks to Cathy Ward and Karen Roberts for being the best area representatives any exchange student would love to have. Thank you for all the guidance you have given us throughout the year and all the fun activities you have organized for us. Thank you for finding the best host families for each and every one of us and continuously checking up on us. We have had a great year because of your work and dedication. You made this year memorable for us. You will always be in our hearts and minds. Thank you once again! A special thank you goes also to Mr. Underwood, our principal. Thank you for giving us a place in your school and helping us out any time we needed it. It has been a fantastic year in Vernonia. We know how much you care about your students and we really appreciate your work and everything you do to benefit us. We are really glad to be among the few who got the chance to be a student at VHS. Thank you also for all the fun activities you let us do in your school and all the sports we have done. Thank you once again. Thank you, also, to our teachers! Thank you for letting us be part of your classes. Thanks for teaching us new stuff and supporting us when we needed help. Thank you for being so patient with us, from the very first day of school, when we are not able to understand a single word, to the last day of school, when we do understand! We appreciate your hard work and dedication you showed us. We will always remember you and will miss you! Thank you sincerely. We would also like to thank our awesome coaches. Thank you for letting us play in the school teams and pushing us to do our best. It was a great experience that we will never forget! Thanks for supporting us, coaching us and most of all for never stopping believing in us. You didn’t just give us the chance to play in the team, you also gave us a chance to make awesome memories with our team members and become part of a family. Thank you for these unforgettable seasons. Love you all. We would also like to thank the community for being hospitable and friendly, ensuring our experience to be the greatest it could be. Thank you very much for giving us all the opportunity to see and live and be a part of your town, thank you for giving us all the opportunity to be part of this small but amazing family/community and for making us a really important part of it! It is incredible how much love, respect and care there is among these people that are not related to each other in any way! We felt part of your community for 10 months and we will continue feeling part of it forever. Vernonia will be forever in our hearts… we love you! To our school staff members, we would like to thank you all so much for the many things you did for us and our school over this year. From cooking our lunches every day, cleaning the school and opening the gym for us! Thank you for treating us like members of your community, we really appreciate it a lot! Thank you for contributing to this experience! Thank you so much, also, to all our bus drivers. We really appreciate all the time you have put into getting us to and from school, sports and other events. We would not have been able to get a lot of experiences without you guys, so thank you very much! The last but not the least thank you goes to all of the friends that we have made in these past 10 months. All the many memories we have had and all the wonderful people we have met. You have all left a mark on us that we will never forget! We love you all so much and thank you for making our experience that much better. A piece of our hearts will stay here with you forever! We love you all so so very much! All up we want to thank everyone for making our experience of being an exchange student in Vernonia a memorable and a great one! Vernonia and all of you will be part of our lives forever. We will remember of you forever and we will love you all our lives long! THANK YOU VERNONIA, WE LOVE YOU! With love, Exchange Students 2014 Buxton Named to WOEC Board Jim Buxton has been named to the West Oregon Electric Board of Directors. Buxton replaces Marty Van Dyken as the Director from District 3 after Van Dyken resigned his position. june5 2014 To the Editor, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all who helped make this years Prom amazing! Our theme this year was “Pathway to the Stars.” Prom was held at Meriwether Golf Course in Hillsboro, Oregon. It was a terrific venue with good food! Thank you to all the chaperones! A special thank you to Stacy Adams for all her hard work and time planning and organizing! A huge thank you to Todd and Tammy Sullivan for all their contributions! Thank you Lisa Edgar of Vernonia Florist for the beautiful flowers, and the assortment of decorations! I appreciate all that volunteered their time! I think Prom 2014 was a great success! Thank you! Sincerely Junior Class Adviser Melissa Zavales To the Editor, A few people have been seen volunteering their time doing projects around our city. Sally Harrison and Shirlee Daughtry started a year-long project of raising funds for their projects. They made and sold postcards of Vernonia (there are still some for sale at Sentry) and bags and T-shirts. These are for sale at Larry’s at the Lake. With this money they made a new Vernonia Lake sign. Sally did the illustrations and then took it to a sign company for the finished product. They also painted the iron gate at the cemetery. Shirlee has spent many hours raking leaves at the cemetery. Donna Webb took on the project of cleaning and refinishing the wooden garbage cans and re-doing the log benches downtown. She had the help of Skip Goodman who took off the top layer of the benches; her father Claude Leriche then sanded them, then Donna finished them off with three coats of marine varnish. Dale Webb swept the sidewalks from the Lake to the Museum. People seem to forget that even if the City puts in the sidewalks they then become the property owners responsibility. Our community needs a lot more people like these if we want to keep our city looking neat and attractive. You don’t have to take on a huge project, there are small things you could do like keeping the weeds out of the 5 plants at Shay Park or those at Hawkins Park. There are several garbage cans that haven’t had flowers planted in them. Perhaps you could adopt one of those. Don’t wait to be asked, if you see something that needs doing, JUST DO IT! A big thanks to all of the people who do volunteer in our city and hopefully you will inspire others to do the same. Dede Webb Vernonia Upcoming Events Summer Meal Program starts Mon- day, June 9, 11:30 AM-1:00 PM at Grace Family Fellowship, 957 State Ave. Free lunches weekdays for all kids 18 and under. Bike Friendly Business Workshop - Tuesday, June 10, 6:00 PM at the Blue House Café, 919 Bridge St. To attend contact Drew Barbier at drewbarbier.columbiacountyore- gon@outlook.com or call 309-712- 6629. Vernonia Area Chamber of Com- merce Meeting - Wednesday, June 11, 6:30-7:30 PM at the WOEC board room, 652 Rose Ave. Summer Reading Programs starts Tuesday, June 17, 10:30-11:30 AM at the Vernonia Library, 701 Weed Ave. Vacation Bible School - June 23rd- 27th, 9:00 AM-12:15 PM at the Ver- nonia Christian Church, 410 North St. Ages: Going into K-6th grade. To register call Susan M. 503-429- 0181 or go to www.vacationbible- school.com/vernoniavbs. Mobile Mammography - Wednes- day, June 25, 9:00 AM-12:00 PM at the Vernonia Health Clinic, 510 Bridge St. Call to schedule an ap- pointment: 503-681-4035 or 503- 936-7149. Certified women tech- nologist from Tuality Healthcare. Titus & Son’s, Inc. find us on facebook Vernonia’s Voice HOW TO SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Vernonia’s Voice welcomes and requests your thoughts, opinions and ideas. Please include your name, address and phone number, limit your letters to 300 words or less. Vernonia’s Voice reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted. We will print letters space permit- ting. Deadline is the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month. Email: scott@ vernoniasvoice.com or mail to: Letters, PO Box 55, Vernonia, OR 97064. Serving Your Communty Since 1987 55670 Timber Road Vernonia, OR 97064 CCB# 55056 General Contractor Dan Titus Owner Ph. (503) 429-5005 Fax (503) 429-0005