Seaside Aquarium fundraiser to benefit nonprofits
The ‘Maine Event’ honors legacy of marine conservationists
SEASIDE — The Seaside Aquar-
ium will host the second annual “Maine
Event” fundraiser on Sunday, benefitting
the Friends of Haystack Rock and the North
Coast Land Conservancy.
The fundraiser is named for Neal and
Karen Maine, both passionate marine con-
servation advocates along the Oregon Coast
and beyond. The Maines have inspired edu-
cational programs such as Sea Week and the
Estuary Discovery Program.
The event will last from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
and all funds raised from admissions to the
aquarium will be split and donated to the
North Coast Land Conservancy and Friends
of Haystack Rock.
Today, intertidal life surrounding Hay-
stack Rock continues to thrive because of
Karen’s efforts that led to the creation of the
Haystack Rock Awareness Program, and the
program has inspired generations of marine
scientists and conservationists.
Neal is credited for co-founding the
North Coast Land Conservancy, an organi-
zation centered on the concept of approach-
Seaside Aquarium
Mother and daughter Harbor Seals ‘Greta’
and ‘Casey’ play at the Seaside Aquarium.
ing conservation cooperatively rather than
confrontationally. The idea was to engage
the community to do what was best for
people, plants and wildlife. Neal was also
involved with the Seaside Aquarium for
many years and served on its board from
1995 to 2020, expanding educational out-
reach and involvement in both the commu-
nity and the scientific world.
Continued from Page 8
Maritime Museum and the Port of Portland.
Montgomery’s childhood included ver-
bal abuse while playing on a boys’ Little
League team and appearing in an adver-
tisement highlighting pollution in the Wil-
lamette River. An athlete throughout high
school, she played volleyball for the Uni-
versity of Montana. Sports and the outdoors
continue to flavor her life. She now enjoys
kayaking, cycling and hiking.
Montgomery’s ancestors were North-
west pioneers. Her third great-grandpar-
ents, Chloe Clarke and William Willson,
sailed separately up the Columbia River to
reach Fort Vancouver in Washington Terri-
tory in 1837 and 1840. “As first a teacher
and carpenter with the Jason Lee mission-
aries, they met in Nisqually before mov-
ing to The Falls (Oregon City) and Salem,”
she noted. “Their original land claim makes
up today’s downtown Salem and Willa-
mette University.” Second great-grand-
father Joseph Kaye Gill founded the J.K.
Gill bookselling empire, which grew to
40 stores and lasted until 1999. He helped
found Ocean Park as a Methodist church
camp headquarters.
As a girl, Montgomery tossed a message
in a bottle into the Willamette River and
was delighted to receive a reply from a man
‘Humanity’s Grace’ is a fictional short story
collection by Dede Montgomery, available
through Amazon and at some North Coast
bookstores.
who discovered it. She borrowed that expe-
rience for her first novel, “Beyond the Rip-
ples,” with a bottle in the Columbia River
Seaside Aquarium
The Seaside Aquarium faces the Promenade and beach.
washing up at Westport, Washington. “That
started me on creative journey of writing
literary fiction,” she said.
When she progressed to “Humanity’s
Grace,” a nontraditional format intrigued
her. Minor characters took on larger roles.
“I was not excited about a true sequel,”
she said. One character had concluded the
first book with her father moving to Asto-
ria. “I set it in Astoria because that was the
last place that Annie’s dad lived in ‘Beyond
the Ripples.’” The character’s father
thought there was treasure buried at the
Astoria Column. In “Humanity’s Grace,”
Annie returns to Astoria for a memorial.
“I could have put it in any town, but I love
the Columbia River, the Riverwalk and the
Column.”
In promoting her new book, Montgom-
ery notes that her characters “meander
through sorrow and sadness, joy and regret,
as they remind the reader of the startling
and collective beauty of life’s connections.”
This is Montgomery’s key theme.
“There is so much about connections and
interconnections between people, you don’t
know about all these potential connections
if you don’t have an opportunity to engage.
They are synchronicity or serendipity, as
much as they are social. I don’t know if
it’s ‘god’ or just life energy,” Montgomery
said.
Aside from writing, Montgomery works
for Oregon Health & Science University
as an industrial hygienist, educating peo-
ple about workplace safety while promot-
ing wellness.
Unsurprisingly, some elements from her
vocation of 36 years have crept into the
lives of her fictional characters, including
electricians who work at a paper mill.
“I start on something and just write,” she
said. “It’s kind of stream of consciousness.
I am always getting ideas, I dictate ideas
into my phone.”
“I cannot remember ever having writer’s
block. It doesn’t happen to me,” she said.
Montgomery hopes to speak about her cre-
ativity in Astoria later this year. “The writing
itself gives me a huge joy. There is a satis-
faction in processing it. The editing process
— not the punctuation, but talking about
these ideas — is really wonderful,” she said.
Montgomery also recently published a
collection of blog posts, “Then, Now and
In-Between.” When her mother died a year
ago, readers responded to her grief. “I am
not going to make lots of money or get on
bestseller lists, but it’s when someone tells
me I have expressed what they couldn’t
express. People say ‘they loved the way I
did that.’ Life is full of sadness and joy and
you have to figure out how to get through
all this,” Montgomery said.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022 // 13