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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2016 Camp Rosenbaum: ‘We all have a vested interest in these kids’ Continued from Page 1A while a couple of his new friends slowly buried his body in the sand. “I actually have never been this close” to the ocean before, Gritton said, waiting for his turn with the counselors clad in wetsuits, taking groups of life- vested children to frolic in the waves. Camp Rosenbaum is full of irsts for kids, who get to play on the beach, build sandcastles, ride horses, visit Fort Clatsop, slide down hills on cardboard boxes, ish for trout, cook s’mo- res, make leather and bead art and shoot ire hoses. “A lot of these kids don’t even get three meals a day,” said Melissa Sonsalla, an employee of Home Forward and Camp Rosenbaum’s sole staffer. “Here they do.” Sonsalla said the camp only takes about 60 percent of appli- cants, mostly from the Portland metro area. The kids who apply represent only a fraction of the more than 1,000 kids in the Port- land metro alone who are eligi- ble, she said. Along with their artistic creations, kids get to take home clothes, shoes and books collected by volunteers. “The advantage we have here is that people are so com- mitted to camp,” Sonsalla said, adding that many of the vol- unteers at camp spend the year doing fundraisers and gather- ing supplies for their activities, before spending an entire week with the kids. Hearts and minds Outside a log cabin at Camp Rilea Thursday, oficers Matt Huspek and David McCar- thy let kids crawl all over their police cruiser and motorcycles, after taking them through Gang Resistance Education and Train- ing, an oficer-taught program covering youth violence, delin- quency and gang involvement. “We’re trying to encour- age them to have a community that’s much better than a gang,” McCarthy said, adding it helps giving kids an early positive experience with police. Sonsalla said Portland police oficers, who often worked as guards at the camp, became more involved in the 1990s after seeing the beneit of reach- ing out to kids early, and started joining the staff as counselors. Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Alan Welbourn, back, and other Camp Rosenbaum camp- ers share a laugh while riding a bus from Camp Rilea to Sunset Beach for a sandcastle-building competition. Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Camp Rosenbaum held a camp derby using wooden race cars cut out by Jim Cunning- ham, former U.S. Air Force pilot and commander of the Oregon Air National Guard, and finished by campers. Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Kids at Camp Rosenbaum trained as firefighters, haul- ing victims out of burning structures and shooting fire hoses to squelch fires. Another supporter of the camp is Jim Cunningham, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot and general, and a former com- mander of the Oregon Air National Guard. Cunningham, who cuts out the pinewood rac- ers for a camp derby among children, said he wasn’t too enamored initially about coming to camp, but was hooked within the irst day. “It’s in my best interest that these become productive citi- zens,” said Cunningham, who also works with youth offenders trying to complete high school. “Bottom line is, we all have a vested interest in these kids.” Rosenbaum’s camp At age 12, Rosenbaum escaped out the window of his schoolhouse in Vienna, Austria, Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian On his first trip to the beach, 10-year-old Doran Gritton was buried in the sand and took a dip in the Pacific Ocean. leeing the Nazis. He was taken in by the Church of England before reuniting with his parents two years later and moving to Aberdeen, Washington, in 1941. The experience deined Rosenbaum, who joined the U.S. Army at 18, wanting to ight Nazis, but he was deployed to the Philippines. After the war, Rosenbaum was an insurance salesman. He retired as a brig- adier general from the Oregon Air National Guard and served for 15 years as the director of the Housing Authority of Portland, two worlds that came together during a summer family vaca- tion to Gearhart that included a trip to an empty Camp Rilea. “I just remember him walk- ing around and saying ‘What a waste,’” said his daughter, Lori Rosenbaum-Krasnowsky, who has attended and volunteered at camp most of her life. Rosenbaum went all the way to the governor with his idea, and the Air National Guard/ Housing Authority of Portland Camp started in 1970, renamed after its founder within a few years. Underpinning each day of camp are Rosenbaum’s eth- ics of good citizenship, such as being loyal, fair, sharing, caring and working together. Rosen- baum died in 2010, but several of his descendants still volun- teer at the camp, carrying out his legacy. “He grew to admire the coun- try he was adopted into,” Rosen- baum-Krasnowsky said of her father. “Bottom line, this was his way of giving back and teaching kids to be good citizens.” Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Lori Rosenbaum-Krasnowsky, daughter of Camp Rosen- baum founder Fred Rosenbaum, has attended camp and counseled youth for most of her life. Several Rosenbaums are still involved at the camp. Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Counselors at Camp Rosenbaum were greeted by lines of high-fives Friday after revealing their service to campers, who spent the week enjoying summer camp and learning how to be good citizens. Mo’s: Planning Commission’s decision may be appealed to the City Council Continued from Page 1A The Astoria Planning Com- mission voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the project after hearing endorse- ments from former Mayor Wil- lis Van Dusen and other com- munity leaders, along with objections from some residents worried about the impact of the restaurant on the Astoria Riv- erwalk, parking and smaller competitors. Van Dusen said he had tried to bring Mo’s to Astoria when he was mayor. He said he had looked at the old train depot by the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the restaurant site at the former Red Lion Inn at the Port of Astoria and at Pier 39, but described the end of 15th Street as the “perfect location.” The former mayor said Van Dusen Beverages, his family’s company, had been doing busi- ness with Mo’s for 30 years. “This is the perfect use,” he said. “It’s the perfect family. It really is.” Loran Mathews, a civic leader active with the Scandi- navian Midsummer Festival, reminded commissioners of plans for a Scandinavian her- itage monument at People’s Park nearby. He said the Riv- erwalk, the Astoria Riverfront Trolley and projects like the restaurant help connect the city to the river. “I think that this will do nothing but enhance that area,” Mathews said. River views Mo’s, according to plan- ners, will have banks of win- dows with river views and an outdoor patio and dining area. Planners say the chowder pro- duction plant will be separated from the restaurant by win- dows so patrons can watch how the chowder is made. The restaurant will have 31 parking spaces. The city will meet with Mo’s after a year to assess trafic impacts. Bancroft said Mo’s could employ about 30 full-time and 50 part-time workers. She did not say when the restaurant might open. The chowder production plant will help the chain build capacity, Bancroft said, since all the chowder is now made in Newport. Mo’s, founded by Mohava Marie Niemi in 1946, has locations in Newport, Otter Rock, Lincoln City, Cannon Beach, Florence and PDX. Some are uneasy When people learned in June that Vintage Hardware would have to move to make way for a Mo’s, many ral- lied behind the local antique shop and complained about the inluence of a chain restaurant on downtown Astoria, which prides itself as eclectic. Vintage Hardware has found a new home at Bargains Galore on Marine Drive, but some are still uneasy about Mo’s. Dan O’Donnell, a web developer who lives on 15th Street, worries about parking and riverfront access for pedes- trians and bicyclists. His main objection to Mo’s, though, is the production plant, which he called a “clam chowder factory.” He questioned whether the plant is really an accessory use for the restaurant, since it would take up roughly 40 per- cent of the space, and won- dered about odor and truck trafic. “That’s not an accessory usage. That’s setting up a fac- tory downtown,” said O’Don- nell, who might appeal the Planning Commission’s deci- sion to the City Council. The Planning Commission has allowed similar produc- tion facilities as accessory uses to retail operations on the riv- erfront, most notably for Buoy Beer Co. off Eighth Street, so there is precedent. Dave Pearson, the president of the Planning Commission, was bemused anyone would object to a chowder plant on a riverfront that was once crammed with canneries. “Making chowder in Asto- ria? It’s hard to believe we’d ever discuss that in a town that had 38 canneries at one time along the waterfront,” Pear- son said. “This is as minimal impact as it gets in my view for manufacturing on the water- front. It kind of its with our heritage.” ‘Dodged a bullet’ Commissioner Sean Fitz- patrick, however, was con- licted. The new restaurant and production plant is in the Urban Core, the uninished portion of the Riverfront Vision Plan, which guides land use on the river. In the discussion over the other sections of the River- front Vision Plan, Fitzpatrick said, “virtually everyone that has spoken has said no hotels, no condos and no restaurants on the north side of the trolley tracks.” Commissioner Jan Mitch- ell, who, like Fitzpatrick, wants the city to complete the Urban Core as soon as possible, said the city may have actually “dodged a bullet.” A decade ago, when real estate speculators were eying the banks of the Columbia River, the space where Mo’s plans the restaurant and chow- der plant had a green light from the city for a condo project that would have exceeded maxi- mum building height. Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Young people ride in a roller coaster ride at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds on opening day of the fair on Tuesday. Fair: Festivities conclude Saturday evening with Market Animal Auction Continued from Page 1A Traveling with reptiles is a family business for the Ritchey’s. Paulette’s hus- band, Richard, goes around the northwest with various critters to show-off at schools, librar- ies and birthday parties. Some fairgoers shuddered when looking at the full-grown rat- tlesnake rattling its tail behind the glass, but others stood on step stools to get a closer look. “Most times the kids are gung-ho, but if they’re scared, it can help them overcome their fears,” Paulette said. The traveling reptile zoo is just one of many attractions this year, including carnival rides and games, food, music, a trac- tor pull, talent shows and the annual mutton busting event for children to attempt to ride buck- ing sheep around a stadium. This year’s theme, “Go For the Blue,” draws from the upcoming Rio Olympics is meant to encourage partici- pants who enter art or show an animal. The auctions going on Axel Peon prepares to ride an amusement attraction during opening day of the Clatsop County Fair on Tuesday. throughout the course of the fair will be a place to show cat- tle, rabbits, chicken and other animals that have been raised by local 4H groups. In preparation for the upcoming shows, the young livestock owners jumped in and out of the animals’ pens, on Tuesday, to feed them, shave them or shovel their droppings. The annual fair will run until Saturday evening when concludes with the Market Animal Auction. Another lagship event will include a performance by country singer Craig Morgan on Thursday evening. Whether you’re looking to spin upside down, hold an alli- gator or ride a sheep, different thrills await at the fair that’s been a part of Clatsop County for over a century.
