February 18, 2021
free
V E R N O N I A’ S
Volume 15 Issue 4
reflecting the spirit of our community
Boots on the Ground Stomps Re-opening From COVID
Christmas Offering Goal!
Funds will support local
firefighters with new
equipment
By Scott Laird
When Vernonia Christian
Church Pastor Sam Hough announced
his plans to use this year’s annual
Christmas Offering to support local
acle Goal” of raising a total of $9,000,
which would purchase a new turnout
set (pants and jackets firefighters wear)
for VRFPD, and an additional “Mira-
cle, Miracle Goal” of $12,500 which
would purchase three sets of turnouts.
Hough invited the entire Ver-
nonia community to join in the offer-
ing, which ran from Thanksgiving un-
VRFPD Chief Dean Smith (left) and volunteers received a check from the Vernonia
Christian Church's Boots on the Ground campaign on Sunday, February 7. The
funds, part of the church's annual Christmas Offering which raised over $18,000
will be used to purchase new boots, helmets, turnouts, and fire hose nozzles for the
department. Photo courtesy of Vernonia Christian Church.
firefighters, he had no idea just how
successful the campaign would be.
Vernonia Christian’s Boots on
the Ground campaign set a goal of rais-
ing $7,200 to purchase eight pairs of
new boots and 10 new helmets for vol-
unteers with the Vernonia Rural Fire
Protection District (VRFPD); that goal
would also allow the congregation to
support International Disaster Emer-
gency Service (IDES) Oregon Fire Re-
lief to help families effected by the La-
bor Day wildfires this past year, along
with support for the mission work of
New Church Plants in Oregon, which
helps establish new churches in the
state. Vernonia Christian set a “Mir-
inside
7
Ready to Respond
11
The Best Day Ever
13
The Good Ol’ Days
til January 31.
“In a time when we’re all so
divided in our country, this was some-
thing we wanted to do to bring the com-
munity together, for a good cause that
serves everyone,” said Pastor Hough.
“This season we all needed something
to feel good about.”
The church reached its initial
goal quickly, and just kept going, pass-
ing both Miracle Goals and raising
over $18,000 before they were done.
While the majority of the funds came
from the church congregation, several
thousand dollars were contributed by
community members from outside the
continued on page 6
Dropping COVID case numbers Monday, February 8. The District is cur-
are allowing life to begin to return to nor- rently on-schedule to expand that open-
mal in Vernonia and in other parts of Or- ing to 3 rd through 5 th graders on February
egon.
22.
On Tuesday, February 9, Oregon
While restrictions are being re-
Governor Kate Brown announced a re- laxed it’s still important to continue to
laxing of restrictions in 10 Oregon coun- follow good practices: face coverings,
ties, including Columbia and Clatsop, frequent hand washing, and physical dis-
and Portland’s tri-county region (Mult- tancing.
nomah, Washington, and
Clackamas), as they moved
out of the “Extreme Risk”
category, beginning Friday,
February 12.
Those reduced re-
strictions, allow bars and
restaurants to resume in-door
dining, and gyms, churches,
museums, and theaters to re-
open, all at 25% of capacity.
Prior to Governor
Brown’s
announcement,
the Vernonia School Dis-
trict was already allowed to
move forward with plans to
Vernonia Schools welcomed back kindergarten
re-open, and welcomed kin-
through 2 nd graders for in-person learning on
dergarten through 2 nd grad-
February 8, almost a year after COVID restrictions
ers for in-person learning on
required distance learning.
VSD Exploring Starlink
Internet for Mist School
The Vernonia School District’s
Mist School could become the first school
in Oregon to begin receiving broadband
internet service through the new Starlink
technology.
Superintendent Aaron Miller
told the Vernonia School Board at their
February 11 meeting that the District is
close to finalizing a deal with Starlink, a
satellite internet constellation being con-
structed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX com-
pany. The constellation will consist of
thousands of mass-produced small satel-
lites in low earth orbit, working in com-
bination with ground receivers.
“While not inexpensive, it will
provide equitable, excellent service,”
Miller told the Board in his written re-
port. “Mist will likely be the first public
school in Oregon to obtain this newly de-
veloped service,” he added.
According to their website,
Starlink is now delivering initial beta
service both domestically and interna-
tionally, and will continue expansion to
near global coverage of the populated
world in 2021. During these beta trials,
continued on page 11
The Dark Divide:
A Conversation with Robert Michael Pyle
The renowned naturalist and
author talks about seeing
himself portrayed in a fictional
movie about his life, which was
partially filmed in Vernonia
By Scott Laird
Robert Michael Pyle is a Pa-
cific Northwest treasure, famed for his
work in natural history and biology,
and his books that document life and all
the living things that inhabit our region.
He has called the quiet town of Grays
River, Washington, across the Colum-
bia River in the Willapa Hills, home for
the last 45 years.
Well known in specific aca-
demic circles for his research into his
specialty – butterflies, he is also known
for being approachable and community
oriented; he’s a regular contributor to
the Columbia River Reader, a monthly
publication out of Longview. Across a
storied career he has taught, lectured,
led field trips and natural history semi-
nars, and authored an impressive list of
work, including 25 books of nonfiction,
poetry, short stories, and his first novel,
Magdalena Mountain, published in
2018, along with magazine columns.
He even collaborated with former Nir-
vana bassist Krist Novoselic, his neigh-
bor in Deep River, Washington, on But-
terfly Launches From Spar Pole, an
eleven-track audio album of acoustic
music with spoken word song-poems
inspired by the natural world. His best
known books are Wintergreen: Ram-
bles in a Ravaged Land, which loving-
ly describes his adopted home region
while also discussing the perils of too
much logging, and Skytime in Greys
River, which has just been released in a
new edition.
Now Robert Michael Pyle
and his work are reaching a new audi-
ence and becoming better known – his
other well known book, Where Big-
foot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide,
continued on page 8