OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2016
A calling to Cannon Beach
SOUTHERN
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
EXPOSURE
Cherilyn and David
Frei pose for a por-
trait with their dogs
Angel and Grace at
Providence Seaside
Hospital. The Freis
hope to bring a pet
therapy program to
the hospital.
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
B y
R.J.
M aRx
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Danny Miller
EO Media Group
T
alk about a power couple.
Cherilyn and David Frei combine
charisma and credentials with the
empathy and initiative to touch lives.
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2006
The U.S. Coast Guard had a busy weekend responding to a couple of
cases off the Oregon Coast. The action prompted a warning to boaters to
learn how to use their safety equipment.
Three Oregon men clung to an ice chest for 6 1/2 hours in 65-degree
water after their boat sank in the Paciic Ocean south of Tillamook, accord-
ing to the Coast Guard.
Astoria and its surrounding areas are getting a little more
attention these days.
While the last movie shot here has yet to be released, ilming of
another motion picture, “Into the Wild,” is well under way.
“Into the Wild” tells the story of a top Emory University grad-
uate who abandons his privileged life and hitchhikes to Alaska,
where his soul-searching journey into nature ends in death.
His travels take him through Oregon — one reason for the
ilm to be partly shot here, said Frank Hildebrand, head of
production.
“We picked Astoria because of the scenic aspects,” Hildeb-
rand said.
For many years, signs have popped up on the Youngs Bay Bridge, Lief
Erikson Drive and other spots in Astoria to publicize local events such as the
Scandinavian Festival and the Regatta.
Now those signs are under attack by the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation, the Astoria City Council heard Monday night.
Dean Fuller, who recently took over as ODOT’s district manager, seems
bent on enforcing the letter of the law, which bans non-trafic-related signs
on state rights-of-way. However, Public Works Director Ken Cook said that
for years there was an unwritten agreement with previous ODOT managers
for posting the event signs.
50 years ago — 1966
The Freis arrived on the North
Coast a little more than six weeks ago
from New York City. Longtime vaca-
tioners here, David Frei’s screensaver
is his two Brittany spaniels running
near Haystack Rock — a picture taken
15 years ago.
Sorry if I sound a little starstruck.
The Freis have masterfully combined
a love of animals and compassion for
humankind in a way that is real and not
saccharine.
Before all this sounds like hyper-
bole, consider this about Cherilyn Frei.
As director of family support services at
Ronald McDonald House in New York
City, she counseled families with dying
children. She was called by the Ameri-
can Red Cross as part of the grief recov-
ery team in Newtown, Connecticut, after
the shootings of 26 people in 2012.
A scientist by training, Frei is an
environmental chemist who worked in
the soft drink industry. At Starbucks, she
was on the original Frappuccino team.
At Pepsi, she concocted Crystal Pepsi.
In 2001, Frei left corporate life for a
master’s degree at Seattle University. “I
thought I was going back for an MBA,”
she said. “It turned out to be a master’s
in theology and ministry.”
Her degree opened new vistas and
brought her in touch with human trag-
edy. Her irst week on the job — Sep-
tember 2001 — she was called on to
provide assistance for veterans suffer-
ing from post-traumatic stress disorder
in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11
terror attacks.
At Ronald McDonald House in
New York City, she provided social,
emotional and spiritual support ser-
vices for an 84-bed residential facil-
ity for pediatric oncology patients and
their families. She developed the Care-
giver’s Integrative Wellness Program
and Angel on a Leash therapy dog
program in 2006. It was through her
efforts that Ronald McDonald House
designed and opened an in-house well-
ness center in June 2015.
A certiied Catholic chaplain, Frei
intends to bring this level of commit-
ment to the North Coast community.
Her job as director of mission integration
and spiritual care at Providence Seaside
Hospital enabled the Freis to envision
and launch their dream life in Cannon
Beach.
The department’s mission is “tradi-
tion, messaging and marketing” through
the Sisters of Providence, who founded
the health care ministry 150 years ago.
“I’m responsible for volunteer services
and outreach, representing the hospital
in the community,” she said. “It’s a call-
ing, a vocation.”
The people of Seaside “love service
to the poor, vulnerable and the disen-
franchised,” she said. “They love seeing
change in their community and keeping
it local, learning and growing.”
She plans to develop and train new
leaders, provided needed services to the
elderly and shut-ins and “engage the
people in the community to engage with
us.”
The Freis hope to bring a pet therapy
program to Providence Seaside. Pio-
neers in the ield, it was through their
efforts that New York City’s Sloan-Ket-
tering Memorial Hospital instituted its
program for cancer patients.
A new ‘leash’ on life
“David Frei’s voice has become as
familiar as the woof of a beloved fam-
ily pet during his 26 years as the lead
commentator of the Westminster Ken-
nel Club Dog Show,” The New York
Times wrote in February in announc-
ing the broadcast announcer’s decision
to sign with NBC and the National Dog
Show, leaving Westminster, the nation’s
premier dog show.
When the USA Network and
NBC went into a bidding war, NBC
upped the ante and wagged the
National Dog Show in front of him,
with an audience three times the size.
David Frei called his 27th and inal
Westminster show in February.
“NBC told me I could live anywhere
and do my job,” he said. “When we’d
lived in Seattle, we’d come down here
and said we’ll retire here someday.”
Frei’s interest in dogs began not as a
child, but when he inherited an Afghan
hound after a breakup with a girlfriend.
“When my girlfriend and I moved into
our irst house, my girlfriend said, ‘Let’s
get a dog.’ I said, ‘What kind?’ and she
said, ‘An Afghan hound.’ I said, ‘What
the hell’s that?’ We got the dog. Three
weeks later the girl left and the dog
stayed.”
Their athleticism and elegance
appealed to Frei, and he “began dab-
bling” as a breeder, owner and handler.
Frei co-bred and co-owned many
champion Afghans, including Ch.
Stormhill’s Who’s Zoomin Who, the
top Afghan in 1989 and the top-winning
female in the history of the breed. Frei
is a past president of the Afghan Hound
Club of America.
His second book, “Angel on a
Leash: Therapy Dogs and the Lives
They Touch,” a “best book” award-win-
ner from the Dog Writers Association of
America, details his work and observa-
tions in the world of therapy dogs.
As a consultant for NBC Sports,
Frei’s broadcast schedule includes not
only the National Dog Show, but the
“Kitten Summer Games” on the Hall-
mark Channel, and “The Kennel Club of
Beverly Hills,” on NBC. “Kitten Sum-
mer Games” features felines in athletic
challenges. The program — featuring
“cat-letes” performing kitten gymnastics
— airs Aug. 5, hosted by Beth Stern with
announcers Frei and his longtime West-
minster partner, Mary Carillo.
Back to the coast
After 14 years in New York City,
“Cheri had this job pop up in front of
her,” David Frei said.
“This job” was at Providence
Seaside.
Cherilyn Frei lew out ahead, while
David and a buddy headed westward
with Angel, a Cavalier King Charles
spaniel and Grace, a Brittany.
Now the couple is biding their time
in a hotel and hope to close on their
condo any day.
Cannon Beach is “like heaven,”
David Frei said. “It’s a great place for
dogs and a great place for my family.
I’m excited about being here.”
Meanwhile, Angel and Grace are
slowly adapting to life on the left coast.
“We’ve not put them in sand yet,” he
added. “Their idea of a bird is a pigeon.
Our bird now is going to be a seagull.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor of
the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
Gazette.
Trump getting even Trumpier!
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
Increased traffic volume and ferry service delays caused by low
water in the ferry channel resulted in lines of cars like this at
ferry landings in Astoria and Megler. Traffic jam will be eliminated
by opening of the Astoria Bridge, expected late in July.
When European settlers came to the new world, they were
prone to name their new homes after the old familiar places.
Homesick folks have been doing that ever since, all across the
U.S.
Presumably this is the reason why some of the people up on
Navy Heights have taken it upon themselves to name the place
“Emerald Heights.”
The “Emerald” is a favorite in Eugene. They call it the “Emer-
ald Empire” down there, there is an Emerald Street, and the U. of
Oregon Daily Emerald.
We presume that homesick U. of Oregon exiles decided the
colony here ought to have a familiar name.
We natives now ind ourselves in the position of the Indians
who saw the white man calmly rename their rivers and moun-
tains to suit himself.
The Indians apparently resented this, so far as records remain
of their reactions, and we ind it quite easy to sympathize with
them.
“Emerald” is a dandy name down around Eugene, but we
aren’t yet ready to have our town named “New Eugene” or some-
thing like that. We sort of like the old, familiar names. The Navy
built Navy Heights, and it’s a good name to help us remember
the long years of friendly association with the Navy here. So far
as this newspaper is concerned, Navy Heights is the name and we
will stick to it.
Artillery shells are splashing into the Paciic Ocean with regular fre-
quency at Camp Rilea during the two weeks annual training of the 2nd Auto-
matic Weapons battalion.
The ive- battery battalion is practicing with M-42 self-propelled guns,
They started iring at ground targets Friday and will continue shooting at air
and ground targets this week.
75 years ago — 1941
The Oregon-Washington bridge board of trustees today
decided to consider a new site to the east of the Tongue Point
naval air station for the proposed Columbia River bridge.
This decision was reached after Lieutenant Commander
George H. Hasselman, commanding oficer at the air station, tes-
tiied that erection of the bridge west of the air station would con-
stitute a grave hazard for the operation of aircraft from the naval
air station.
oes anybody else have the
sense that Donald Trump is
slipping off the rails? His speeches
have always had a rambling, free
association quality, but a couple
of the recent ones have, as the
Republican political consultant
Mike Murphy put it, passed from
the category of rant to the category
of full on “drunk wedding toast.”
D
Trump’s verbal style has always
been distinct. He doesn’t really
speak in sentences or paragraphs. His
speeches are punctuated by ive- or
six-word jabs that are sort of strung
together by connections that can only
be understood through chaos theory:
“They want the wall … I dominated
with the evangelicals … I won in a
landslide … We can’t be the stupid
people anymore.”
Occasionally Trump will attempt
a sentence longer than eight words,
but no matter what subject he starts
the sentence with, by the end he has
been pulled over to the subject of him-
self. Here’s an example from the Mike
Pence announcement speech: “So one
of the primary reasons I chose Mike
was I looked at Indiana, and I won Indi-
ana big.” There’s sort of a gravitational
narcissistic pull that takes command
whenever he attempts to utter a com-
pound thought.
Trump has also always been a little
engine fueled by wounded pride. For
example, writing in BuzzFeed, McKay
Coppins recalls the fusillade of abuse
he received from Trump after writing
an unlattering proile (he called Mar-a-
Lago a “nice, if slightly dated, hotel”).
Trump was so inlamed he tweeted
retaliation at Coppins several times
a day and at odd hours, calling him a
“dishonest slob” and “true garbage with
There’s sort of a gravitational
narcissistic pull that takes
command whenever he attempts
to utter a compound thought.
no credibility.” The attacks
ging loop.
went on impressively for
If you had to do a rough
over two years, which must
diagram of the Trump
rank Coppins in the top
remarks it would be some-
100,000 on the list of people
thing like this: Pence …
Donald Trump resents.
I was right about Iraq …
Over the past few weeks
Pence … Hillary Clinton is
these longstanding Trump
a crooked liar … I was right
patterns have gone into
about “Brexit” … Pence …
hyperdrive. This is a unique
Hillary Clinton’s ads are
moment in American polit-
illed with lies … We’re
David
ical history in which the
going to bring back the coal
Brooks
mental stability of one of the
industry … Christians love
major party nominees is the dominating me … Pence … I talk to statisticians …
subject of conversation.
Pence is good looking … My hotel in
Everybody is telling Trump to Washington is really coming along fan-
ratchet it down and be more sober, but tastically … Pence.
at a rally near Cincinnati this month and
Donald Trump is in his moment of
in his Pence announcement speech on greatest triumph, but he seems more
Saturday, Trump launched his verbal resentful and embattled than ever. Most
rocket ship straight through the strato- political conventions are happy corona-
sphere, and it landed somewhere on the tions, but this one may come to feel like
dark side of Planet Debbie.
the Alamo of aggrieved counterattacks.
The Pence announcement was truly
Maybe as Trump has gotten more
the strangest vice-presidential unveil- successful his estimation of what sort
ing in recent political history. Rico- of adoration he deserves has increased
cheting around the verbal wilds for while the outside criticism has gotten
more than twice as long as the man he more pronounced. This combination
was introducing, Trump even refused is bound to leave his ego threat sensors
to remain onstage and gaze on admir- permanently inlamed. So even if Can-
ingly as Pence lattered him. It was like didate Trump is told to make a normal
watching a guy lose interest in a wed- political point, Inner Boy Trump will
ding when the bride appears.
hijack the microphone for another bout
The structure of his mental peram- of resentful boasting.
bulations also seems to have changed.
Suddenly the global climate favors
Formerly, as I said, his speeches had a a Trump candidacy. Some forms of dis-
random, free-form quality. But on Sat- order — like a inancial crisis — send
urday his remarks had a distinct through voters for the calm supple thinker. But
line, anchored by the talking points his other forms of disorder — blood in the
campaign had written down on pieces streets — send them scurrying for the
of paper. But Trump could not keep his brutal strongman.
If the string of horriic events con-
attention focused on this through line
— since the subject was someone else tinues, Trump could win the presidency.
— so every 30 seconds or so he would And he could win it even though he has
shoot off on a resentment-illed brag- less and less control over himself.