DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 101
ONE DOLLAR
Liberty
Theatre
fundraiser
starts strong
A $300,000 gala downtown
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Liberty Theatre raised $300,000 during a
gala this month, kick-starting a multiyear fundrais-
ing goal recently cut by a third.
Jennifer Crockett, the theater’s director, said
more than 260 people attended the gala on Nov.
10, contributing more than $1,100 in donations,
$11,000 in ticket sales, $18,200 from auctions and
raffles and $269,000 to a special appeal by state
Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose.
The theater had announced a $5 million capital
campaign over the next several years to modernize
the stage, backstage and concession areas. But the
theater learned the venue wouldn’t need as many
improvements as previously thought, lowering the
goal to $3.3 million, Crockett said.
Many of the proposed improvements are around
modernizing the theater to attract more perfor-
mances. The Commercial Street landmark under-
went a $6 million renovation between 1999 and
2006. But the offerings are still hampered by out-
dated equipment, such as a vintage 1925 curtain
system, rudimentary lighting and undersized per-
formance and backstage areas. The theater was
recently gifted a historic counter from the former
Owl Drugstore, but lacks the ability to offer a full
range of concessions.
“We are trending way below what other the-
aters make in concessions,” Crockett said. “We’re
missing about $47,000 a year, based on ticket sales.
Concessions are normally 20 percent of a theater’s
operating budget, and ours is only 6 percent.”
See FUNDRAISER, Page 7A
Arnie’s going
downtown in
Warrenton
TITLE
IN SIGHT
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
Seaside quarterback Payton Westerholm (6) celebrates more points on the scoreboard for the Gulls in a semifinal
victory over Gladstone. Seaside will play Banks on Saturday for the state championship. See Sports • 10A
UP NEXT: STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
• Banks Braves (10-1) vs Seaside Seagulls (10-1) • Saturday, 6 p.m. at Hillsboro Stadium
Radio: KSWB 840 AM • Online: nfhsnetwork.com/channels/oregon
Popular restaurant moving
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — Arnie’s Cafe, a popular
restaurant on Main Avenue across from Warrenton
High School, is moving downtown.
The restaurant’s owner, Crystal Green, is plan-
ning to remodel and open in the former Warrenton
Auto Parts, a Napa Auto Parts franchise on Main
Avenue a block from City Hall, in June.
The downtown core lost a longstanding local
breakfast option last year when Serendipity Caffe
was moved out by the Warrenton-Hammond
School District to make way for the new location
for the Warrenton Community Library.
Green, whose family moved to the area in the
1990s, worked at Arnie’s in the mid-2000s for pre-
vious owner Mary Garrett. She had jokingly told
Garrett to reach out if ever interested in selling,
and ended up taking over in 2015, remodeling the
restaurant and adding more homemade fare. The
restaurant has grown in popularity and doubled its
sales since the change, Green said.
The restaurant, Arnie’s for about 20 years,
has gone through several iterations, including
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
See ARNIE’S, Page 7A
Astoria woman with heart disease becomes peer mentor
Bernards
diagnosed about
10 years ago
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
fter years of learning how
to live with heart disease,
an Astoria woman is beginning
to teach.
Teresa Bernards, diagnosed
about 10 years ago, graduated
in October from the four-day
Science and Leadership Sym-
posium at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minnesota. She
was one of nearly 50 women
selected for the symposium,
A
which teaches how to provide
peer support for the disease
that affects about 48 million
women.
Bernards, 69, moved to
Astoria about 2 1/2 years ago
after teaching at the University
of Stuttgart in Germany. Now
retired, she regularly partici-
pates in the Columbia Memo-
rial Hospital cardiac rehabilita-
tion program.
The program has three
phases: consultations with a
Teresa Bernards will pro-
vide peer support to wom-
en with heart disease.
cardiologist about diet and
exercise needs and three
months of observed exercise
sessions followed by indepen-
dent workouts.
“It’s really uplifting to see
people come in and they’re
really, really ill. The staff gives
really great attention to people
and helps them make their own
program,” Bernards said. “You
have to push yourself, but with
each success, it pushes you
to continue. It’s a really good
cycle.”
Bernards learned about the
symposium through the local
program. She learned that peer
support programs coveted peo-
ple with teaching backgrounds.
“I thought, ‘Oh, this
would be really interesting,’
so I applied,” Bernards said.
“I felt really fortunate to be
included.”
Bernards watched several
hours of informational videos
before the symposium. But she
couldn’t prepare for the stories
she’d hear once she got there.
One young women already
had two heart transplants. One
was diagnosed despite previ-
ously running in marathons.
Another woman carries a large
photo of a soldier whose heart
now beats in her chest.
“It was just overwhelming
to listen to these stories, in all
cases very serious,” Bernards
said. “There were so many
things that were off my radar
that I didn’t know existed.”
With the training, Ber-
nards will now reach out to
people with the disease and a
See BERNARDS, Page 7A