10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
People stand under paintings on the walls of the Liberty Theater. The paintings were cleaned but not retouched during the renovation.
Theater: ‘Oh, my goodness This is so beautiful’
Continued from Page 1A
An evening concert featured
Ken Lavigne, a Canadian tenor,
who brought his touring “The
Road to Carnegie Hall” show.
Rosemary Baker-Monaghan,
the Liberty’s executive direc-
tor, described the theater as the
“community’s treasure.”
She said she has often heard
stories from colleagues at League
of Historic American Theatres
conferences about cities with
memorable theaters that had
been torn down over the years.
“And Astoria doesn’t have
to say that,” she said. “It could
have gone either way.”
The theater’s actual 90th an-
niversary is on April 4 and the
10th anniversary of the reopen-
ing is on June 10th.
“My favorite thing, if some-
one has never been in here, espe-
cially if they’re from Portland, is
to bring them in and take them up
the ramp with minimum lights on
and have them go into the balcony
and sit down and then turn on the
lights,” Baker-Monaghan said.
“Because the reaction is al-
ways the same: `Oh, my good-
ness. This is so beautiful. I had
no idea there was something like
this in Astoria.’”
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Tables are set up in the McTavish Room for a celebration din-
ner during the Liberty Theater open house event Saturday.
People watch a puppet show performed by Jeanne Rich
and Jackie Welborn, behind the curtain, and Doug Rich,
during the Liberty Theater open house event Saturday.
Park:6KHKRSHVWR¿QGWLPHIRUDQRWKHUYROXQWHHUSURMHFWDFURVVDQRWKHUERUGHU
Continued from Page 1A
HOW TO HELP:
The Portland chapter has ac-
Those interested in
tive projects in Ecuador, Tanza-
donating to the Portland
nia and Haiti. All the engineering
chapter of Engineers
is done in the United States, then
Without Borders can
travel teams go down to help
visit www.ewbportland.
org/donate. To volunteer,
build the projects.
visit at www.ewbport-
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land.org/involvement
small coastal village, the Port-
land chapter coordinates with
its partner nongovernmental or-
ganization, Ecuador Tierra Viva, vember was to help build a rain-
to assess the needs of the com- water catchment.
munity.
Park said the village had no
The focus of the trip in No- pure drinking water and relies on
fresh water being hauled in by
trucks. Since the village is on the
coast, much of the water avail-
able is undrinkable salt water.
The travel team worked with
locals to revitalize an out-of-ser-
vice 21,000-gallon water tank,
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By the end of the two weeks, the
group had developed an opera-
tional rainwater catchment now
collecting water to help sustain
the village during the dry season.
During her time in Ecuador,
Park was amazed at how friend-
ly everyone was to her and the
travel team. She especially no-
ticed the hospitality while going
door to door for an initial assess-
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town.
“We went around house to
house to know the needs of the
community. It was the friendliest
community I’ve ever been in in
my life,” Park said. “Everyone
wanted to see us and chased us
down to ask when we were com-
ing to their house.”
The locals invited Park and
the team to the beach one day,
which Park said was gorgeous.
Between swimming in the ocean
and relaxing on the beach, Park
soaked in the culture. She no-
ticed how the locals dug out ca-
QRHVWR¿VKRUZHQWLQWRWKHIRU-
est with machetes and came back
with food. Much of the travel in
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trucks on bumpy roads.
Overall, Park said, the ex-
perience was perfect for her by
mixing her love of travel with
her passion for environmental
engineering. She also learned
from other engineers in the
group.
Now back home in Rainier,
Park is busy with post-assess-
ment paperwork from the trip.
She meets every other week
with the Portland chapter, which
she joined in June.
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for another volunteer project
across another border.
“I would like to go again. It’s
a matter of when we get the next
project planned,” Park said. “We
are doing post-assessment, then
WKHQH[WSKDVHLV¿JXULQJRXWWKH
next project.”
— Kyle Spurr
Teens: Total project budget was $12,000
Continued from Page 1A
and members from the city
of Astoria, Clatsop County,
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sociation and the community
at large.
Over a five-year period,
the program brings together
a diverse cross-section of the
community to teach leader-
ship skills. Three separate
cohorts of about 30 people
each within that five-year
period take classes and raise
at least $5,000 for a com-
munity project, in exchange
for a $5,000 match from the
Ford Family Foundation.
A first cohort in 2010 in-
stalled the disc golf course
near the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds. The second in
2012 used their fundraiser
for work on the disc golf
course.
Charlene Larsen, a local
recruiter for the leadership
program, said an initial idea
for the third cohort in 2014
was to increase the nine-
hole disc golf course to 18,
making it a draw for region-
al tournaments. But Larsen
said the teen members of this
cohort spoke up, wanting a
space of their own.
“There really aren’t a lot
of areas where they can go
and hang out, and not have
to spend money,” said Made-
line Ishikawa, a member of
the Columbia River Estuary
Study Taskforce (CREST)
and the leadership program.
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
In one of her first ribbon cuttings as mayor, Arline LaMear helps open the teen center
Friday evening at the new Astoria Recreation Center, backed by members of the coalition
that worked together to raise funds and secure a grant from the Ford Family Foundation
to develop the center.
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
Christine Tapales, left, and Morgan Postlewait, juniors from
Warrenton and Astoria high schools, respectively, helped de-
velop the new teen center at the Astoria Recreation Center.
The city’s previous teen
center was hidden in the
basement of St. Mary Star
of the Sea. Ishikawa said
it gave the impression that
teens aren’t a high priority.
Once it had decided to
pursue improving the teen
center, 2014’s cohort created
a raffle for prizes including
a cruise with Columbia Riv-
er Eco Tours and stays at the
Cannery Pier Hotel. They
raised $3,500 through the
raffle. In-kind donations and
donated labor helped reach
the $5,000 mark, said Asto-
ria Parks and Recreation Di-
rector Angela Cosby, a mem-
ber of the cohort. The total
project budget was $12,000.
Jess Hampton, a coordi-
nator with Rural Develop-
ment Initiatives overseeing
the leadership program in
northwest Oregon, said al-
though Astoria’s five-year
cycle in the program has
come to an end, it has an op-
portunity to reapply.
Cosby’s department now
takes over the teen center
at 1555 W. Marine Drive,
which is free and meant for
youth in middle and high
school. It is open from when
school is out for the day to
7 p.m. Monday through Fri-
day, but is closed on week-
ends.
For more information,
visit www.astoriaparks.com
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
Members of the wide-ranging coalition behind the new teen
center in the Astoria Recreation Center scrunched in be-
tween its foosball table and gaming area Friday for a photo.