Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 2003)
Service clubs prepare for holiday season of giving By STEVE FAIRCHILD Staff Writer On Thursday, Nov. 27 from noon to 2 p.m., doz- ens of valley volunteers will forgo their “family festivities” to serve a com- plete home-cooked Thanksgiving meal in the Jubilee Park pavilion in CJ to those in need. The meal will consist of turkey, ham, candied yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vege- tables, rolls, butter, coffee, punch and pies. It’s an annual tradition dished up in the valley for years by the Cave Junction Cares Program. The program began with six volunteers who saw a need to help feed families during Thanksgiv- ing and Christmas. Since then it has mushroomed into one of the largest vol- unteer events in the valley. In its first year of ser- vice in 1989 CJ Cares served approximately 50 people. This year between 250 and 300 people will be served hot meals with the help of volunteers and area businesses. Lynn Boucher, coordi- nator of Cave Junction Ca- res Program, “gives up” her family holiday meals to help make sure people in need are fed. It’s some- thing she transplanted to the valley when she moved from California. “It’s open to every- body,” Boucher said of the Thanksgiving dinner. “Business owners come and they sit with the peo- ple that don’t have as much. If you don’t have anybody to share the day with please spend it with us.” Boucher encourages her volunteers to help serve the all-you-can-eat meals and then to sit with the people being served and make them feel com- fortable. Volunteers are always needed. CJ Cares can be contacted at 592-6855. Once Thanksgiving dinner is served, CJ Cares will prepare for its annual Christmas Meal. That event will include two Santa Clauses, one to give toys during dinner and one to deliver toys to those in need, including the elderly, who are homebound. Other programs are also trying to make sure that everyone in the valley has a good Thanksgiving and a merry Christmas. Bear Images offered 47 free turkeys to those in need this year. Anyone in need of the main dish was able to pick one up at Bear Images. As Christmas ap- proaches barrels will be placed around town to col- lect non-perishable food items, and baskets will be placed at area businesses to collect toys for the an- nual Illinois Valley Christ- mas Basket and Toy Give- (Continued on page 8) Turkey time calendar lists various closures Various businesses and organizations will ob- serve special days off for the Thanksgiving holiday. As this week’s issue of “Illinois Valley News” was published a day earlier than usual, the office will be open until 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26, and closed on Thursday, Nov. 27 for Thanksgiving. The office will be open for business from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with regular deadlines on Friday the 28th. SOFCU in Cave Junc- tion will be closed Thurs- day and Friday, as will public schools and the DMV office in CJ. Cave Junction City Hall also will be closed both days. Klamath First Bank, Home Valley Bank and Evergreen Federal Bank will be closed the 27th, but open Friday, as will post offices and the U.S. Forest Service’s I.V. Ranger Dis- trict office. Most stores will be closed for Thanksgiving, although Shop Smart Food Warehouse will be open until 2 p.m.; then open all day Friday. Some valley consumer sites will feature Thanks- giving meals. Those that have ad- vised the “Noose” they’ll be open are Stevereno’s Family Restaurant, Almost Heaven Resort, Junction Inn, Z Coffee, and Art’s Red Garter Steakhouse & Saloon. Dave’s Perfect Pizza and Taylor’s Sau- sage Country Store, as well as Shop Smart, are offering pre-Thanksgiving specials. Foris Vineyards will con- duct an open house on Fri- day and Saturday, Nov. 28-29. Because of Thanksgiving the ‘Illinois Valley Noose’ office will close at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26 and reopen at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28. Enjoy the holiday! Toll-free phoning proposed Turkeys ‘not dumb,’ but tasty The American turkey is probably never more popular than during the Thanksgiving holiday. During the rest of the year this much-maligned bird doesn’t get a shred of respect. Why? Turkeys may be the top choice for the holi- day feast, but the live birds don’t have much of a repu- tation for smarts. The re- sult -- the turkey has be- come synonymous with dumb. Tom Savage, a poultry scientist in the Oregon State University (OSU) Animal Sciences Dept., is tired of all the ridicule tur- keys have had to endure. A nationally known poultry geneticist, Savage has studied turkeys, chickens and other birds throughout his 30-year career and has conducted numerous stud- ies on ways to improve turkey production and meat quality. The researcher has spent a lot of time with turkeys, the winged kind, and feels strongly that the use of the turkey as a metaphor for stupidity is unfair and inaccurate. “I’ve always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and char- acter, and keen awareness of their surroundings,” said Savage. “The dumb tag simply doesn’t fit.” Backing up his claim, Savage referred to a story about how turkeys are so stupid that they sometimes look up at clouds overhead while it’s raining and keep staring skyward until they drown. Although he has never heard of this actually hap- pening, Savage noted that some turkeys do cock their heads back, stare up at the sky and hold that position for up to a minute or more. But the behavior is a genetically caused nervous disorder called tetani toti- collar spasms, he said. Savage studied and identi- fied the condition in the early 1990s. “It’s an example of how misunderstood animal behavior becomes identi- fied as proof that the ani- mal is extremely lacking in intelligence,” Savage said. He admits that some of the turkey’s unique charac- teristics probably do en- courage people to think turkeys are stupid. For example, domestic turkeys tend to look awk- ward, particularly when they are running. Savage counters that this is be- cause they have been bred to be heavy, meaty birds, much larger than their sleeker wild cousins. Also, domestic turkeys often run and flap their wings, trying to fly but failing to get air- borne because they are simply too massive to get off the ground. People who observe this behavior may con- clude that the turkey is too dumb to realize that it is capable of flight. Savage responds that wild turkeys are very good fliers so it’s not unusual that domesticated turkeys instinctively try to fly. A realist, Savage ac- knowledges that improving the turkey’s reputation for intelligence is an uphill battle. Just the same, he insists on doing what he can do to debunk the myth of the dumb turkey. “I’m an advocate for turkeys,” he said, “except on Thanksgiving.” By BRITT FAIRCHILD Staff Writer Imagine telephoning a Grants Pass or Glendale number without paying long-distance charges. Sound good? Members of an area citizens advisory task force -- with one member being Illinois Valley Community Response Team (IVCRT) Executive Director George Fence -- think so. For more than a year the task force has worked with the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC) and various phone companies to establish a toll-free calling zone con- necting Josephine and Jackson counties, as well as Glendale in Douglas County. The plan is anticipated to reduce phone-bill costs, for customers who regu- larly make calls outside of their current toll-free zones, by eliminating the per-minute charges. Establishing an ex- tended area of service (EAS) also means that di- aling 1-541 before the phone numbers in areas included in the zone would be eliminated. However, the imple- mentation of a regional calling area would change the standard rate charged by phone companies; that rate will vary depending on how many customers are within each exchange, or local calling area. “Residents need to be careful (when deciding to join or not join the EAS),” said Emily Ring, IVCRT outreach coordinator. To help educate resi- (Continued on page 8) LBMS sex education fears seem resolved Three Rivers School District board hears parents, pastors By BRITT FAIRCHILD Staff Writer Some parents feel that the seventh- and eighth- graders who participated separately in sex education classes at Lorna Byrne Middle School (LBMS) learned “a little too much too soon.” Several Illinois Valley pastors and parents ad- dressed Three Rivers School District (TRSD) Board members regarding the matter during their regular meeting in the LBMS library on Wednes- day night, Nov. 19. Their concerns how- ever, didn’t overshadow the course of the meeting, nor the feeling of overall pride in the new school among those in attendance. An official dedication of the new school was held prior to the meeting. For many of the parents and other community members who came it was an oppor- tunity to tour the school for the first time. “This is a wonderful facility, isn’t it?” Bridge- view Community Church Pastor Charles Bridges asked the audience at the meeting. Most of the dozen or so in attendance nodded or voiced their agreements. Bridges was the first to speak during a public com- ment period. He told the board that a meeting he and other area pastors at- tended with LBMS Princi- pal Peter Maluk was a good step toward perhaps reworking the current pro- gram so that it still fol- lowed state educational guidelines, but presented material in a more “age- appropriate” manner. Questions were raised among various parents and others in the community when they began hearing stories from their children, and other students and adults, about what was being taught in class. “We understand it’s a hard issue for the school board and educators,” Bridges said. “I’m not here to denigrate that. We would like to work with the school board and the schools.” TRSD Superintendent Dr. Dave Burgess and board Chairman Dave Toler, likewise noted their interest in working with the pastors and parents on ways to better inform them (Continued on page 8) School fund-raiser BRICK LEGACY -- Lorna Byrne Middle School students (from left) McKenzie Yeoman, Raesha Yeoman, Kelcie Yeoman and Steven Paul sold bricks from the old LBMS building Wednesday, Nov. 19 to raise funds for school activities. The engraved bricks are engraved with the name of the buyer and the school year he or she at- tended. See ’Here, There & Everywhere’ for more details. (Photo by Britt Fairchild)