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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager OUR VIEW E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK A circle of giving — and giving back By DAVID PERO The Daily Astorian Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Members of the public were invited to walk the new track during the grand opening of Patriot Hall at Clatsop Community College in Astoria on Tuesday. • Clatsop Community College, which this week conducted its grand opening ceremony for Patriot Hall, the cavernous three-story gymnasium which was redeveloped in a $16 mil- lion project that began in 2015. The project was paid for through a countywide bond measure and state money that state Sen. Betsy Johnson helped secure. Johnson was a guest speaker at the event and called the project “bold and transformational” and lauded the community for making the project happen during her stirring remarks. The 30,000-square-foot building features a bas- ketball court with 540 seats, studio and office space, classrooms, expanded cardiovascular and weight training areas and a third floor elevated track with views of the picturesque Columbia River. The hall’s design also makes its energy use 70 percent more efficient than other buildings of the same type. College President Christopher Breitmeyer gave a special thanks to the college’s neighbors for their patience through the construction. The ribbon for the opening was cut by the third-floor track and the Swenson family, longtime supporters of the college, ran the first official lap. The college plans to conduct a rededication of the building on Nov. 11, in honor of the old Patriot Hall’s origi- nal dedication on the first Armistice Day in 1921. • U.S. Army National Guard Col. Dean Perez, who has led the statewide Oregon Training Command headquartered at the Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Center for the past four years. Perez recently turned over command to Lt. Col. Noel Hoback, of Grants Pass, at a ceremony in Salem and will be heading for a two-year duty tour at the Pentagon in October. Perez said he plans to return to Astoria when his new tour con- cludes. • The Cannon Beach Museum and History Center, which recently staged its annual Cannon Beach Cottage and Garden Tour. The tour offered more than 500 people who signed up a chance to visit homes with creative architecture, sce- nic landscaping and historical significance, this year in the city’s north part of town. The event also included concerts, a luncheon and a garden tea. • The Willapacific Branch of the American Association of University Women, which is celebrating its 70th year on the Long Beach Peninsula. The AAUW’s mission is to advance equity for women through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research, and the branch promotes that mission with a variety of events that include the recognition of six Ilwaco and Naselle high school junior women who excel in science, technology and math. Each year it also awards a scholarship to an Ilwaco senior. CALLOUTS • Members of Congress who have ignored suggestions from Oregon U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along with U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, to change the way the federal gov- ernment pays for fighting fires on public lands. The federal government doesn’t treat fighting wildfires like combating and recovery from other natural disasters from a budgeting stand- point. Instead of putting money aside in a separate account for the specific purpose like it does for other natural disasters, it underfunds wildfire fighting efforts and lumps it into the budgets of agencies including the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Those agencies then have to essentially bor- row money from other places within their own budgets to use to fight the big blazes. That often leaves the agencies with less money to do other primary work like thinning overcrowded for- ests, which play a role in the severity of the fires. Congress needs to listen to Wyden and the Oregon delegation, since the cost of fires across Oregon this year continues to grow. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. F all is here — our coast’s tradi- tional time of transition. The weather gets grumpy, children are back in class and tourism fades. But what doesn’t slow is the region’s renowned spirit of gener- osity and giving, supporting a wide variety of organizations and causes which enrich our lives. If anything, autumn brings out the spirit even more as organizations seek support to help those in need, especially in preparation for the coming winter months. The com- munity always responds by volun- teering and giving — both at home and at work — creating a continuous circle of giving and giving back. You don’t have to look hard for examples. For instance, Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation volunteers have both contributed and spent countless hours raising millions of dollars toward the hospital’s new state-of-the-art cancer center, which is scheduled to open next month. The Knight Cancer Collaborative, a partnership with Oregon Health & Science University, is located next to the hospital and is the only facility of its type on the North Coast. It will provide an enormous benefit to the entire region. “This has been one of the great- est community-supported projects that I have witnessed in my career,” CMH Chief Executive Officer Erik Thorsen said in a recent Daily Astorian news story. Likewise, that circle of giving and giving back resonates with the hospital’s 600 employees, who play a tremendous role in numerous local nonprofits and events. According to Penny Cowden, the CMH Foundation’s executive director, the employees have also set up a “Friendship Fund” to help others at work who may face financial hardships. At the county’s largest employer, Georgia Pacific’s Wauna Mill, donations from employees and the company provide the largest percentage of money that the Clatsop County United Way receives and passes on to nonprofit agencies each year. The mill’s 750 employees also support a variety of local organizations along with educational programs in the Knappa Submitted Photo Sue Farmer, the interim executive director of The Harbor, left, and Jerry Sandness, store director at Fred Meyer, right, hold a $5,000 check from Fred Meyer employees to the domestic violence and sex- ual abuse prevention group. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation volunteers have both contributed and spent countless hours raising millions of dollars toward the hospital’s new state- of-the-art cancer center. School District and at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Fundraising, volunteering and giving back are part of the mill’s daily culture because the giving stays locally, according to Kristi Ward, the mill’s public information officer. “We give to our local community because we want a healthy and thriving community and we want to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors and the children that we see every day,” she said. In Warrenton, the 325 employees at the Fred Meyer store give to a yearly campaign that can either go to the Fred Meyer Foundation or the United Way. The foundation assists local nonprofits with a focus on the needs of youth and feeding the hun- gry. This year, the Warrenton Fred Meyer had the largest percentage of associates who gave to the campaign of any store in the company, accord- ing to store director Jerry Sandness. The employees chose to direct a donation to The Harbor, a local nonprofit with a mission of provid- ing advocacy, prevention, support and hope for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. Last year, The Harbor aided more than 1,400 people who were “in dark hours of need,” according to Sue Farmer, the organization’s interim executive director. Earlier this week, Sandness and the employees presented a $5,000 check to Farmer and The Harbor’s staff to aid the organization’s efforts. Sandness said the store and its employees are also strong supporters of the Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank, among others. Giving back is part of the company’s longtime fabric — it’s been a sup- porter of Junior Achievement for the past 43 years. While we don’t often write about fundraising campaigns and check presentations on our Opinions page, those examples are only three of dozens — if not hundreds — that occur each year throughout the region. Providence Seaside Hospital, U.S. Bank, Pacific Power, Hampton Mills, Martin Hospitality, Northwest Natural and a great many more regional businesses and their employees are strong, active sup- porters of giving. At The Daily Astorian, we try to highlight that news each week in our Shoutouts on this page and on the pages of our Community section. We also publish our annual Giving Back guide in October that spot- lights the wide variety of nonprofit organizations across the region and the good work they do. All of the region’s organizations make a difference, and there’s a story to tell about each. While we can’t attend every event or presenta- tion, we always want to publish the news and pictures from them. Let us know about them at news@dailyas- torian.com and we’ll make sure the community knows about them, too. LETTER TO THE EDITOR The Community Store here was a hamlet of a store, once, called The Community Store. How heartened I was, as a young man, to find the kind of place that I’d only glimpsed in folksy TV shows and movies. It had the type of community, tribalism and intimacy that was being erased from the land- scape. It was the antithesis of the supermarket, one stop shopping, and the big box store. A place where cashiers would put something in a bag, without rig- ging it up — at least at full price — because they knew a person’s needs were more pressing. How many times did I have to avoid tripping over children playing in an isle, wit- T ness someone strumming an instru- ment, sharing a home-cooked meal, taking a nap in the loft, or sharing the joys, tribulations and sorrows of life? One travel guide referred to The Community Store as the “local hippie hangout.” I thought it was heaven. I imagined, one day, there would be a little co-op on Alameda Street, and one in Alderbrook; that these tiny stores would start to pepper our city’s landscape and begin to rebuild a sense of neighborhood and shared responsibility; stores with their own quirky little identities; stores that knew the name of every child and elder in their neighborhood, and took care of them, as their own. Once the manager of The Com- munity Store said to me, “You live out by Deborah’s; she’s out of town, why don’t you go by and water her plants?” In a nation where peo- ple sometimes see other people attacked, and do nothing, it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever heard. Now, the Astoria Co-op wants to spend $8 million on a store, in a tsu- nami zone (“Astoria Co-op launches capital campaign for new $8 mil- lion grocery in Mill Pond,” The Daily Astorian, Sept. 18). It’s not a dream I share, or rationale I under- stand, but I’ve been mistaken about so much. M. ALEX “SASHA” MILLER Astoria