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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
GUEST COLUMN
WINGS empowers education for women
W
hat can we in our community do
to improve the lives and prospects
of our local women and children,
who have so much potential to make Clatsop
County a more vibrant and equitable place to
live and work?
We can give them WINGS!
We are gearing up for the 16th year for
WINGS (Women Interested in Going to
School) and close to 800
women have taken advantage
of this free conference. It
offers sessions with college
staff, who provide useful
information and timelines to
get started on an educational
track. Sessions include infor-
SARA
mation on earning a GED,
MEYER
costs and financial support
options, learning about Lives in Transition
(LIT), conquering math anxiety, Clatsop
Community College degrees and certificate
programs.
This one-day conference also includes a
LATINA WINGS track in the morning, with
Spanish-speaking staff volunteering their time
to help women know that they can come to
the community college to gain English skills
and further their education. More importantly,
they’ll learn that the college welcomes them.
What is great about WINGS is that women
will begin the day with trepidation about their
perceived barriers to learning, and leave with
relief and enthusiasm as they figure out they
can and should get on with their education, be
it seeking a degree, a GED or workforce job
training. The conference is packed with how
to plan and begin, what support and programs
are available, and who can assist them.
This year the WINGS conference takes
place this Saturday, Feb. 10 at Clatsop
REGISTER
It’s not too late to sign up for Saturday’s
conference. If you or someone you know
would benefit from attending WINGS, have
them register for free at wings-clatsop.com
or call Pat at 503-717-1852 (503-338-2379
for Spanish).
The Daily Astorian
Michelle Hartman is an alumnus of the WINGS conference, which helped her secure a
$4,000 entrepreneurial scholarship at Clatsop Community College. ‘Don’t be afraid to
do it,’ Hartman told The Daily Astorian’s readers in 2017, ‘because once you’re in there,
you’ll feel so much better, just knowing that people care.’
Community College. Registration opens at 8
a.m. and wraps up by 3:30. It is free to all par-
ticipants, with breakfast, lunch, and child care
provided. The morning begins with a “can do”
speaker and greetings from people in leader-
ship. We hear the real work done and accom-
plished from WINGS graduates. Attendees see
and hear about the community that supports
their education. To broaden the world of work
potential, there is a presentation from women
working in non-traditional jobs.
Everyone working this WINGS conference
volunteers their time and knowledge because
we know how important a good education is.
Members of Astoria and Seaside American
Association of University Women (AAUW)
and staff and faculty at the community college
organized this conference beginning in 2002
to give women the information, support and
encouragement needed to return to school.
The day focuses on moms who had to quit
their educations to raise kids, enter the
workforce, or just weren’t ready for college
after high school. We reached out to women
who might be ready to increase their skills to
advance in work.
AAUW had its beginnings in 1881, when
too few women were allowed to obtain
college degrees. Some of those graduates
knew they needed to have an organization
that would speak out for education and equity
issues, and further their own craving for learn-
ing. AAUW is a national organization with
more than 115,000 members today.
The Astoria Branch formed in 1927 and
the Seaside Branch followed in 1942. Both
branches continue advocating for that inclu-
sive dialogue that can come with an educated
and informed community. We invite the pub-
lic to attend our programs, and join AAUW if
they support our mission of advancing equity
for women and girls through advocacy, educa-
tion, philanthropy, and research.
Please, if you or someone you know
would benefit from attending WINGS, have
them register for free at wings-clatsop.com or
call Pat at 503-717-1852 (503-338-2379 for
Spanish).
Money donations are tax-deductible and
greatly appreciated. Send checks to CCC
Foundation (put WINGS on the informa-
tion line) and mail to CCC College, 1651
Lexington Ave. Astoria, OR 97103.
Sara Meyer of Astoria is a member of the
American Association of University Women
and co-chair of the WINGS conference.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Secret to success is ‘good genes, wine and chocolate’
popular fixture in the community,
Marion Blake and her daughter
Mary Blake — the retired director
of Sunset Empire Park and Recreation
District — live together. Marion will be
100 years old this year and a big celebra-
tion is planned.
“Marion Blake was an avid golfer,
before age caught up with her,” Chel-
sea Gorrow wrote in a 2014 Daily Asto-
rian profile. “She now uses a cane with
four feet to get around.
But that’s the only vis-
ible sign that she’s 96
years old. The petite and
fit woman wears glittery
nail polish, stylish white-
framed glasses, pink lip-
R.J. MARX stick and gold jewelry,
including a beautiful
bangle bracelet and fashionable rings. Her
daughter shared that Marion Blake weighs
the same as she did in college.”
Four years later, all still holds true. We
caught up with the Blakes at their Seaside
home, alongside canine friends Ruby and
Sunshine.
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Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Marion Blake, right, poses for a photo with her daughter, Mary Blake.
♦ ♦ ♦
Q: When is your birthday?
Marion: April 29. I’ll be 100 in two-
and-a-half months.
I was born in 1918 in Denver, Colo-
rado. I was raised in Denver. My mother
died when I was 13. And my father was a
pharmacist. Actually, I had kind of a sad
childhood, then I had a dynamite college
career at Colorado State in Fort Collins.
I married the big man on campus.
Football, basketball and track.
Q: You started a family?
Marion: We married and had our first
child in 1941. My husband was a veteri-
narian. He taught medicine and surgery at
the University of Missouri, and then we
moved to Phoenix where he had a small
animal clinic. I worked in the practice
with him as surgical assistant and girl Fri-
day. I played golf and had a lovely time at
the salt mine.
Mary: My father’s father was also a
veterinarian.
Q: Did you have other children?
Marion: I have three daughters. Two
of them have gone to their happy hunting
grounds. Very bad.
Mary: I was the baby and I wouldn’t
have changed that for love or money.
Q: How did you get to Seaside?
Mary: This was the house my mother
and sister and her husband decided to live
in together. Once my mother settled in
here, my oldest sister wanted to be close.
Everybody was pretty happy. Unfortu-
nately my sister’s husband got cancer,
then he survived that. My sister got can-
One of Marion Blake’s pets sits obediently at her feet.
cer, and she didn’t (survive). Her husband
died of a broken heart.
Marion: I think I adjust to my circum-
stances. Two daughters and a husband
gone. I’m super, super blessed to be living
with my daughter. That’s what’s making
my life so pleasant.
Q: You’ve always had a great
relationship?
Marion: Very good.
Q: I don’t want to ask what is your
secret … but what is your secret?
Marion: The secret is good genes, red
wine and dark chocolate. And I like a dry
“martooni.” It’s good for partying.
I’m still playing bridge four days a
week. I play duplicate. I play at the Asto-
ria Country Club, at the Bob Chisholm
Community Center once a week and twice
a week in Astoria at the senior center.
It’s fun, but it’s very competitive. I
have good partners.
I watch a lot of TV.
Q: What do you like?
Marion: I watch Stephen Colbert. I am
a night owl. I get in the sack and I watch
until 1 a.m.
Q: And you wake up when?
Marion: I wake up at six and at seven.
I don’t waste a lot of time sleeping too
much.
Mary: She does her stretches when
she gets up. She’s very flexible. She was a
swimmer and swings on the swings higher
than anybody else.
Marion: I’m a big sports fan.
Q: What’s your favorite sport?
Marion: Football.
Q: Pro or college?
Marion: Pro.
Q: What’s your favorite team?
Marion: Well, the Seahawks.
Mary: And also the Denver Broncos.
We were big fans when John Elway was
the quarterback.
Q: Who’s your favorite president?
Marion: Oh, the one now! (rolls eyes.)
Mary: When Hillary was there it was
really quite a moment to be able to vote
for a woman president. She (Marion) fol-
lows that really closely.
Marion: I like Rachel Maddow. I like
her coverage.
Q: Are there others in town who are
your age?
Marion: I’m always the oldest one in
the crowd.
Q: Any regrets?
Marion: No regrets over the years.
Accent the positive.
Q: What do you have planned for
your birthday?
Mary: We are going to do a party out
at the club. We did a big party for her on
the 90th with a slide presentation, so we
were able to pull up some of the terrific
pictures.
Q: Any goals for the new year?
Marion: Just play more bridge and
kick butt.
Q: Whose butt are you going to
kick? The other bridge players?
Marion: Oh yes, the opponents!
Mary: I always knew she was going
to be 100, so I asked her, “When are you
thinking about passing?” She said: “Oh, I
think I’m going to live forever.”
I said, “Well, that’s very spiritual but
what does that mean?” She said, “114, 117
— that would be OK.”
She’s a real inspiration. Whenever any-
thing comes up, she’s always eager to get
into the car, go for a walk with Ruby —
it’s amazing.
And she didn’t want to go to assisted
living. She said: “You know there are a lot
of old people there.”
Marion: Heaven forbid assisted living!
The way I feel now, I have a lot of time
ahead of me on this planet.
Mary: She says: “I don’t mind a rou-
tine, but I hate a rut.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.