10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015
'ragonÀ ies: Data goes into nationwide database
Continued from Page 1A
20 samples from the Yeon Pond that
were sent to a national testing center.
The next day, another class also col-
lected 20 samples from a pond off the
Fort to Sea Trail.
“Their data actually goes into a na-
tionwide database,” Astoria High School
biology teacher Nick Baisley said.
Lewis and Clark National Histori-
cal Park in Astoria is one of more than
50 national parks across the country to
partake in the project. It is the only na-
tional park in Oregon to join.
Carla Cole, a natural resource pro-
gram manager at the park, found out
about the project while attending a na-
tional conference in Oakland, Calif.,
earlier this year.
She assured the organizers the local
park has active community engage-
ment and education programs that
could be used for the project.
“We were really set up to jump in
and join in the effort,” she said.
Citizen scientists
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years ago at the Acadia National Park
in Maine. More than 800 citizen sci-
entists have participated since then,
contributing more than 4,000 volunteer
hours.
The samples are sent to either the
University of Maine, U.S. Geological
Survey or Dartmouth College laborato-
ries to analyze the mercury.
Along with under-
standing the impact of
mercury and connecting
people with the national
parks, another focus of
the project is to support
youth engagement.
Cathy Peterson, the national park’s
education program director, said peo-
ple often think science projects must be
done in laboratories with strict proto-
cols. Sometimes it does, but this project
is an example of how local students can
help, Peterson said.
Peterson hopes to expand upon the
project and work with more local class-
es.
“We worked with biology teacher
Nick Baisley for a while about doing
some kind of hands-on work with his
students,” Peterson said. “So when this
came up, we connected with him.”
Cole said she went into the biology
class beforehand to show the students
pictures of the nymphs. She explained
KRZGUDJRQÀLHVVSHQGDERXW¿YH\HDUV
underwater before becoming winged
adults.
“They really stand out against the
other aquatic insects,” Cole said. “They
kind of look like crickets. They have
these incredible lower jaws that can
dart out and extent to snatch up prey.”
At the Yeon Pond last week, the
students knew what they were looking
for. Besides the nymphs, the students
enjoyed seeing other waterlife such as
carp, newts and snails.
“The more we get them outside,
the better,” Baisley said.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:
Sam Colson, a soph-
omore at Astoria High
School, looks for drag-
onfly larvae in the Yeon
Pond Sept. 30.
Astoria High School
students look for
dragonfly larvae in the
Yeon Pond on Sept. 30.
The collecting process
is part of the Dragon-
fly Mercury Project, a
nationwide initiative to
asses mercury pollution
levels and its effect on
the environment.
An exoskeleton of a
dragonfly larvae sits on
a table.
A dragonfly larvae,
called a dragonfly
nymph, bottom, swims
in a sample tray after
being collected by
Astoria High School
students Sept. 30.
Photos by Joshua Bessex
The Daily Astorian
Hunger: The program depends on volunteers nowadays
Continued from Page 1A
Key person
Mardell Bullis was dressed
in a jungle-themed apron
and kitchen headscarf as she
poured coffee for whoever
walked in the doors of the
senior center for lunch in late
September.
Even through years of che-
mo treatments, Bullis arrived
at the center at 6 a.m. each day
to have a hot lunch on the ta-
ble by noon.
“I’m tired, but that’s life
— it can suck,” Bullis said.
“Luckily, this never felt like
just a job. I love the people I
serve.”
Bullis, 61, thought she
would be nearing retirement
by now. But a second bout
with cancer and a stack of
chemo treatment bills extend-
ed her time as the sole cook
for the south peninsula’s se-
nior nutrition program.
The program is part of the
Coastal Community Action
Program, which aims to help
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CCAP, which sponsors six
lunch sites throughout Grays
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also offers transportation to
doctor appointments, housing
placement for the homeless,
and job placement assistance.
The community action pro-
gram took over the operations
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Council Endeavors, when
that Ilwaco-based group ran
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years ago.
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rived to scrape macaroni and
cheese off pans as a favor 26
years ago, volunteers provid-
Katheryn Houghton/EO Media Group
When Mardell Bullis, left, and Brenda Molsby began work-
ing for the Ilwaco Senior Nutrition Program more than 20
years ago, there were nine full-time staffers. Today, a lack
of funding has shrunk the program to two.
ed extra support for the paid
staff. But as the program be-
gan having money problems,
when people quit or retired,
they weren’t replaced. This
left the shrinking number of
employees with larger work-
loads.
Bullis watched the kitchen
drop from nine employees to
two.
Today, the program de-
pends on volunteers.
“The cuts can’t affect our
clients so they hit us,” Bullis
said. “We would never turn
anyone down for a meal.”
Bullis cooks roughly 350
meals a week. Half of the
meals are served at Ilwaco
Community Building while
the remaining meals go to-
ward the home-delivery ser-
vice — a way for senior citi-
zens who can’t cook anymore
to avoid having to move into a
nursing home.
“For some people, this is
the only way they can have a
nutritious lunch,” she said.
A customer who calls
himself Bullis’ “wingman”
laughed, “That’s right, old
people may eat less, but we
still need to eat.”
Crunching numbers
The program coordinator
Stephanie Glover said the
nutrition program was never
meant to rely on government
funding.
“It’s supposed to run off
local efforts,” she said .
Through the Older Amer-
icans Act, which passed in
1965, the Olympic Area
Agency on Aging reimburses
the nutrition program $3.75
for each meal served on site,
and $3.90 for each home de-
livery. However, each meal
costs roughly $8.50 to make.
Since the program’s start,
donations have covered the
remaining costs. But today,
the average person donates 76
cents per meal served at the
center and 24 cents for deliv-
ered meals.
Norah LeBlanc, a program
manager, said while it is al-
ways hard to keep a non prof-
it funded, there’s extra stress
when maintaining a commer-
cial kitchen with high health
standards.
“There’s never enough
money when trying to meet
the needs of a community,”
she said. “With the nutrition
program, we’re always in the
hole.”
Looking to the future
Glover said the program’s
largest support comes from
volunteers in their 60s. But
people are retiring later in life,
meaning they don’t have time
for volunteer work.
Glover, who is in her 60s,
used herself as an example as
someone who will pass the
traditional retirement age.
“I thought at this point in
life I would be slowly step-
ping down, training someone
else who is younger and full
of new ideas,” she said.
This year, her title grew to
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“There was just no one
else. So, I just put on another
hat and am doing the job the
best I know how,” she said.
“There are still some volun-
teers out there to help, too.”
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volunteers at the Ilwaco site,
but most of the work still falls
to Bullis and the only other
staffer at her site, 70-year-old
Brenda Molsby.
When Molsby isn’t run-
ning the delivery service on
Mondays and Wednesdays,
she often helps Bullis prep in
the kitchen.
“We stay for the clients,”
Bullis said.
Molsby laughed, “If I tell
the clients I’m retiring, they
say ‘No, you’re not.’ I guess
I’ll be here until the place
closes down.”
Bullis said some people
who could use the program
view it as a soup kitchen and
don’t attend out of pride —
which means possible clients
who could pay never walk in
the door.
“We depend on the com-
munity just as much as they
need us,” she said. “Come in,
eat a good meal, and leave us
some money in return — we
will always take the money
you can give.”
If someone doesn’t have
the ability to attend the lunch-
es, Bullis said they can volun-
teer, donate food, or sponsor
someone else’s meal.
Bullis said it’s hard not to
worry about what will happen
to the lunch program in the
future.
“I can’t let myself stress
over what I can’t help,” she
said. “When we are gone,
the company will have to
figure it out, and they will.
Everyone is replaceable. The
moment we forget that, we
think of ourselves as too im-
portant.”
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