4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 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
OUR VIEW
Cancer center fundraising deserves praise
t’s difficult to express in words the
devastation that a cancer diagnosis
inflicts.
First, there’s the emotional roller-
coaster — am I going to die? Can I beat
this? What have I done to deserve this?
How will I support my loved ones?
That’s followed by the physical toll
of surgery, chemotherapy and drug treat-
ments, which can reduce a person to a
shell of their former self and make it dif-
ficult to get out of bed, much less work
and carry on a normal life.
And then there’s the financial burden.
The costs of modern health care often
drive patients to bankruptcy and destroy
nest eggs built with a lifetime of care-
ful saving. For those living paycheck to
paycheck or lacking adequate medical
coverage, the impact can be even more
catastrophic.
For decades, cancer patients from
the North Coast dealing with all of this
had to travel inland for specialist care,
including chemotherapy, adding gas,
meals, time and stress to their burden.
Friends or family members had to drive
them to Portland or Longview, a mini-
mum of 50 miles and often almost 100
miles each way.
While the hardworking staffs at our
hospitals in Astoria, Seaside and Ilwaco
have been able to provide quality care
for many kinds of serious ailments,
much specialist cancer treatment had
been beyond their capabilities.
Fast forward to today.
Cancer care is available right here in
Astoria.
The CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer
Collaborative with Oregon Health &
Science University opened in Astoria in
October.
The treatment facility and specialty
clinic cost $16 million, $13 million of
which came from bonds.
That left $3 million to raise from
donations.
I
As reported last week, the Columbia
Memorial Hospital Foundation hit that
target in a remarkable grassroots effort.
How that happened is a commendable
story that does this community proud
and deserves thunderous applause.
Former Astoria Mayor Willis Van
Dusen helped lead the way, spend-
ing hours using his contacts from busi-
ness and civic life to ask for support.
Columbia Memorial CEO Erik Thorsen,
Dr. Jeffrey Leinassar, foundation board
chairman Michael Autio and foundation
executive director Penny Cowden were
key players, too.
They began back in May 2015. They
just kept asking and asking until the job
was done, using all their considerable
powers of persuasion.
More than 700 people donated and a
large sum was raised from smaller dona-
tions. Such projects, however, need big
benefactors, and several families and
businesses stepped forward. The 15 top
donors gave more than $50,000 each.
It was especially creditable that hos-
pital staff members pitched in, too.
Perhaps more than any other group, they
realized the value of what they were
supporting.
Now administrators expect about
3,000 patients to be treated each year at
our region’s first cancer therapy center.
That’s 3,000 of our neighbors and
loved ones stricken by all forms of can-
cer who will have the opportunity for
crucial treatment close to home.
The foundation’s successful cam-
paign must rank as one of the North
Coast’s most significant success stories
of recent years.
They saw a need. They identified oth-
ers who stepped forward.
They asked and the community gave
generously.
To all involved, please accept our
thanks. You have truly done something
to make a difference in people’s lives.
PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK
Getting to know the community
onnect the dots.
It’s a phrase I’ve used often
when describing how what
appears to be random, unrelated infor-
mation creates a complete picture when
connected.
I joined the Daily Astorian as
publisher on Dec. 1, and had only ever
visited here once before. However, my
husband and I have always vacationed on
the central Oregon coast
and hoped to someday
move to the ocean.
Since we’ve been here,
we find that we have
connections we hadn’t
expected.
KARI
The office coor-
BORGEN
dinator at The Baker
City Herald, my last
newspaper, was born and raised here. Our
Daily Astorian classified representative,
Danielle Fisher, graduated from Baker
High School, as did her mother, Sharon,
who was my sister’s classmate.
We sold our old boat to a man from
Portland who moored it at Hammond.
(Yes, we wish we still had that boat now.)
A couple we met in Seaside has a friend
who recently bought a house near my
husband’s family ranch in Baker County.
A Daily Astorian letter writer shared
that she also graduated from Baker High
School.
Of course, many I’ve met have
business or professional connections in
common. It’s not a small state, but we all
get around.
Oregon newspaper circles are small,
and former Daily Astorian managing edi-
tor Patrick Webb and I had served on the
Associated Press News Executives board
at the same time. When I was cleaning
out my desk drawers at the Baker City
Herald to move here, I found a postcard
Patrick sent years ago of the Astoria
Column. Ironic that the picture had
stayed in my desk drawer until then.
A friend and fellow publisher in
Crescent City and Brookings retired last
Design is outsourced — to us
C
The ad design team for the EO Media
Group, serving 10 newspapers, is located
here in Astoria.
Information for an ad to be published
in John Day, for example, is sent to our
team in Astoria, which creates it and
sends it back to be composed with their
news pages and printed. It’s our good for-
tune to have a talented group of designers
employed here to share.
But it’s not just us ...
The Daily Astorian press and mail-
room crew prints and assembles nine
weekly or bi-weekly and two monthly
newspapers in addition to The Daily
Astorian five days a week.
... it’s you ...
Kari Borgen photos
In 2015, daughter Laura Borgen (art at left) and AVA artist in residence Stirling
Gorsuch (art at right) shared gallery space at OSU.
year, and sent me a book — Peter Stark’s
“Astoria.” That was months before I
applied for this position. Who knew?
On opening an issue of Coast
Weekend last month, I was pleasantly
surprised to see that Stirling Gorsuch had
been chosen as the Astoria Visual Arts
artist in residence. Stirling shared senior
art show space with my daughter Laura,
a fellow Oregon State University fine arts
grad.
Perhaps most unexpected, in review-
ing a Daily Astorian map of voting
precincts in a recent issue, I was stunned
to see a “Chadwell” voting precinct.
Chadwell is my maiden name, and not a
very common one. My dad can’t remem-
ber any family or connections to Clatsop
County. But certainly my new home and
my genealogy are somehow tied together
in a way I can’t yet explain.
Taken in addition to the welcome
from people I’ve met here, the comfort-
able small-town vibe and familiar daily
newspaper routines, the random dots
have become lines connecting us to our
new home.
Daily newspaper routines
What happens within our walls at The
Daily Astorian offices on Exchange Street
is a mystery to many of our readers. Most
people know that we have reporters and
editors and a team that runs the printing
press. Plus, the office staff who you call
for a subscription or classified ad. And, of
course, our business partners who deliver
the newspaper to you — our carriers. As
editor Jim Van Nostrand pointed out last
week, between staff, correspondents and
carriers we provide work for more than
80 people here.
What do they all do? I’ll use this col-
umn to share some fun facts every month.
Hundreds of our subscribers read The
Daily Astorian — all of it (news, adver-
tising, classifieds, crosswords) — without
newsprint. Their subscription is for
access to the e-edition and website, avail-
able 24x7 online. It’s our fastest-growing
subscriber segment.
... and me
One of the first questions I get when
I introduce myself as publisher is “What
does a publisher do?” My role here at the
Daily A is publisher and revenue director.
In a nutshell, I’m the general manager
and sales director.
As a business, our goals are to create
professional, credible journalism and
information products that reflect our com-
munity values and interests. When we
do that, we gain more readers and sub-
scribers. More readers buy more products
from our advertisers. Advertisers have
more money to buy more advertising to
reach more customers. We all prosper.
So, the better I know our community
and local businesses, the better I’m able
to make all of those things happen. Have
ideas on how you think we can improve?
Let me know — kborgen@dailyastorian.
com.
Husband Kerry and springer spaniels Brutus and Brody on a December walk on the beach.