SEASIDE SCORES PAYBACK IN WIN OVER HENLEY SPORTS • 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 46
ONE DOLLAR
Astoria schools
offer students
free breakfasts
Meals could
help student
performance
By EDWARD
STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Astoria is joining the
ranks of school districts
offering free breakfast to
all students in an effort to
increase student participa-
tion and improve academic
performance.
The school district has
been offering free break-
fast at Lewis and Clark and
John Jacob Astor elemen-
tary schools. Michael Kelly,
the district’s director of food
services, said that while one-
third of students at the ele-
mentary level took advantage
of school breakfasts, only 16
percent of middle and high
schoolers who were eligi-
ble for free or reduced-price
meals did.
Across most school dis-
tricts, educators see a lower
number of older children
accessing subsidized meals.
“By opening it up to every-
body, we’re kind of hoping it
gets through stigma,” Kelly
said.
Other school districts,
such as Warrenton-Ham-
mond and Seaside, have
offered free breakfast to all
students for a number of
years. On average, more than
half of the families in the
county have a low-enough
income to qualify for free and
reduced-price meals.
An estimated 22 million
children nationally utilize free
and reduced-price lunches,
along with 12 million for
breakfast and 4 million for
summer meal programs.
Students who start their
day with a healthy breakfast
saw an average increase of
1.5 days in attendance and a
17.5 percent increase in stan-
dardized test performance,
according to No Kid Hungry,
a national campaign to end
child hunger.
The hope is that as stu-
dents socialize in the morn-
ing, they will draw in friends
to get breakfast, Kelly said.
His hope is to bring partici-
pation at the middle and high
school levels in line with that
of elementary schools.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Kevin Widener rides the bus from Seaside to Cannon Beach.
Elected and homeless
Transit district
board member
struggles to
find housing
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
ANNON BEACH — Kevin
Widener enjoys sitting on the
Sunset Empire Transportation
District board. It’s a role he’s well-
suited for as a loyal bus rider him-
self, a fact he campaigned on when
he was first elected in 2013.
But it would be a lot easier to
serve if Widener had somewhere
to live. For the past month, he has
been homeless.
“It would just be nice to have an
address in the county I represent,”
he said.
Some of the difficulties are what
one would expect.
“What’s difficult about prepar-
ing for a meeting?” he asked. “Not
being able to take a bath and wash
my hair when I don’t have a shower
or hot water, is something.”
But perhaps what is most dif-
ficult, Widener said, is a sense of
confusion over how he got to this
crossroads in the first place.
“It’s a strange relationship,” he
said. “Feeling like I’ve been able to
help others and not be able to help
myself.”
C
The Daily Astorian
Michael Kelly, the director of food services at the As-
toria School District, said he hopes to double the rate
of children getting free school breakfasts at the middle
and high school level.
New musical
festival coming
to Cannon Beach
A fundraiser
for local arts
association
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
For the first North Coast
Music Festival, Cara Mico
wants to start small.
Scheduled for Sept. 29
ABOVE: Kevin Widener waits for the bus to arrive at a stop in Sea-
side. BELOW: Kevin Widener’s bus arrives at a stop in Seaside be-
fore heading toward Cannon Beach.
in the city park, the Can-
non Beach Arts Association
will host local band Adams
and Costello along with The
Beatniks from Seattle to open
what Mico hopes to grow
into a community tradition.
“The idea is to have a few
of these throughout the year
to get people excited, to build
interest, to get people excited
about a new idea,” said Mico,
The struggle
Originally from eastern Wash-
ington, Widener moved to
See WIDENER, Page 7A
See FESTIVAL, Page 7A
Woman to bike across Oregon to honor parents
Hardaway’s
parents died
of lung cancer
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
an. 12, 2018 marked 15
years since the death of Liz
Hardaway’s father from lung
cancer. It also was the start
of one of the most remark-
able challenges she has ever
accepted.
That was the date she
signed up to bike from Cannon
Beach to Boise, Idaho, to raise
money for cancer research.
J
Hardaway, 47, of Wilsonville,
also lost her mother to lung
cancer 23 years ago.
“For me it was a very per-
sonal, ‘Why?’” she said. “I
thought this was just a great
way to honor my parents.”
Hardaway, an access and
reimbursement manager at
pharmaceutical company Bris-
tol-Myers Squibb, will cere-
moniously dip her toes in the
Pacific Ocean on Wednes-
day near Haystack Rock.
Then, Hardaway and a team of
co-workers will ride 225 miles
east toward Boise.
The team represents the
first leg of the fifth annual
Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer Ride.
After Boise, six other teams
and a total of 109 riders plan to
stop in Salt Lake City, Denver,
Indianapolis and Kansas City
before reaching the Atlantic
Ocean in Long Branch, New
Jersey, on Sept. 25.
The goal of the ride is to
raise $1 million for the V
Foundation, a nonprofit that
promotes cancer research.
More than $466,000 had been
raised as of Friday afternoon
on the ride’s website.
Hardaway’s team, Mission
Possible, had raised more than
$61,400, more than $5,000
of which came from her own
fundraising through friends,
family and neighbors.
“You realize how important
what you’re doing is for the
patients dealing with cancer,”
Hardaway said.
Hardaway had little expe-
rience riding bikes, save a few
short biking trips on the Ore-
gon Coast. When she started
training in the spring, learning
how to stay upright was one of
her first hurdles.
See HARDAWAY, Page 7A
Liz Hardaway will ride from
Cannon Beach to Boise to
raise money for cancer re-
search.