A4
V IEWPOINT
Hood River News,
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
O ur readers write
JOE PETSHOW
Publisher/President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
TOM LANCTOT
Past President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
CHELSEA MARR
General Manager
KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
Editor
JODY THOMPSON
Advertising Manager
TONY METHVIN
Columbia Gorge Press Manager
DICK NAFSINGER
Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011)
DAVID MARVIN
Production Manager
Family
investment
My husband John and I recently
completed a wonderful parenting
class at The Next Door with Karin
Tauscher as our awesome teacher.
She used the tried and true “In-
credible Years” curriculum that
gave us so many tools to help with
our two-year old twins. The rela-
tionships we made with other class
parents in the trenches will be so
valuable too. Plus the class includ-
ed childcare and dinner for a
crazy-low, grant-supported price.
This is one of many wonderful ser-
vices provided to our community
by The Next Door. Parents of kids
ages 2-8 can sign up now for the
next round of the class, starting
June 23. Call Nancy Johanson Paul
at 541-436-0319 for more info. It will
be a wonderful investment in your
family!
Jessica Metta
Hood River
Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area.
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
OREGON NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Printed on
recycled paper.
Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County
Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News,
P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796
Member of the Associated Press
Summer’s Here
Celebrate, but with caution
T
oday’s compendium of summer events points to
matters of both caution and celebration.
Worth celebrating is the reminder that Families
in the Park (Thursdays in August) and Movies in
the Park (Saturdays starting July 11) are on the
schedule once more. Gathering on summer nights in Jack-
son Park for music, movies and barbecue or bring-your-
own picnic is one of Hood River’s greatest pleasures, all
seasons considered. Community Education and Parks and
Recreation collaborate on these tried-and-true Hood River
traditions.
Add to that the return of Hood River County Fair July
22-25. There is nothing like the fair, and this year’s enter-
tainment lineup will be a sure draw, along with the fun of
the rides, checking out the animals and artwork, and all
the rest.
But the fair is not just a spectator sport. Anyone can
get involved, and this year more is being done to draw
people in, with classes in preparing people in the ways
and means of entering Open Class competition. From hor-
ticulture to collections, the fair is a prime avenue to shar-
ing what you love with others in the community.
Fair books are scheduled for distribution this week to
stores and other locations throughout Hood River, Park-
dale, Odell and Cascade Locks.
Pick one up and peruse it, then delve into the fine
print: that’s where you find the scores of details about
how to participate, be it as an entrant or observer.
The businesses supporting the Fair book, Community
Ed/Parks and Rec events in the parks, are deserving of
support; they are what sustain these truly local, ongoing
annual programs that provide opportunities for educa-
tion, entertainment, and community.
■
And now to the cautionary. More and more children
are moving about on the sidewalks and streets, as well as
people of all ages aboard bicycles and other two-wheel
conveyances. Residents have experienced some close calls
with people on non-motorized vehicles, and it can be
tricky going for pedestrians, too, given unclear or even ab-
sent signage at busy intersections, and crosswalks and
other surface markings that have faded. (The new bicycle
lane indicators on State Street stand out well, but know-
ing that bicycles are present is one thing, having one
silently approach at 25 miles an hour is another.)
Remember that bicycles can appear as if in an instant;
with more of them on the roads and streets, it’s healthy to
take a second look when entering an intersection or back-
ing out of a parking space.
Other cautions with hot weather present and July 4
weekend approaching: the waters can be cold, so be an in-
formed swimmer and don’t go solo. Also, use locations
that are meant for public water recreation.
Finally, fireworks. The fire danger is officially at
“High,” and tinder-dry conditions combined with the
prevalence of ignitable noisemakers create a recipe for
trouble. Please use all due caution when handling any
kind of fireworks. For starters, make sure you have a
filled bucket and have a hose available.
This is bound to be a hot, dry summer. Emergency re-
sponders will be busy enough without accidents that, with
simple common sense, are preventable.
W HERE TO WRITE
President — Barack Obama, White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington D.C., 20500
E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
U.S. Senators — Jeff Merkley, SDB-40B, Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753; E-mail:
oregon@merkley.senate.gov; Ron Wyden, 717 Hart Office Building,
Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244.
Web address: www.senate.gov/member/or/wyden/general/
2nd Congressional District Representative — Greg
Walden, 14 N. Central Ave., Suite 112, Medford, OR 97504. Phone:
541-776-4646;
E-mail: www.walden.house.gov/contactgreg
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Overcoming, and understanding,
the tourist’s PTSQ Syndrome
By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
O
News editor
n Sunday I found myself
crossing a busy street in
Cannon Beach, though I
was stopped short of a
rash and dangerous act.
“There’s a crosswalk right over
there,” said Lorre, stopping me
with that gentle pinch of the
elbow that only a wife can quite
pull off.
She was right. Just a few steps
up, those diagonal stripes that sig-
nify civilization.
There I was, my sack of post-
cards freshly purchased, the post
office in view just across the way
next to the picturesque general
store. And as I gawped around the
pretty town square I came an
ankle’s width away from jaywalk-
ing. I hate it when people do that.
I realized in an instant: I had
turned into a tourist.
And it was kind of a cool feeling.
But I admit that decades of liv-
ing in a tourist town — yes, that is
what Hood River is — seemed to
melt away like that pistachio cone
as, there in that lovely coast vil-
lage, I did those classic tourist
things: Meandering down the side-
walk, stepping out into traffic, and
placing my tractor beam on the
signs reading “ice cream” and
“souvenirs” and “cold drinks.”
Realizing what I had done, I
began to mind my step (with
Lorre’s help), literally and figura-
tively, and to conduct my behavior
a little more like a savvy local.
I get how someone visiting our
fair city, with its beautiful shops
and gorgeous views, can get
caught up in the moment. Cannon
Beach, while far smaller overall
and in the scope of its town core,
shares with Hood River those de-
lights both elegant and organic,
with businesses and other town
features that seem refined and in-
grained at the same time: the well-
heeled pubs and coffee shops in
both towns, a set of stairs that
lead you from a commercial dis-
trict to an amazing natural feature
(Indian Creek Trail or the Colum-
bia River in our case, the Pacific
Ocean in the case of Cannon
Beach).
We were there while visiting
friends in Gearhart and wanted to
check out the broad beach in front
of town. The sunny conditions,
gentle surf and warm sands were
a delight to the senses, and seeing
Haystack Rock up close for the
first time was a real pleasure.
It was just plain great to smell
the salt air, which is the only
thing Cannon Beach has on Hood
River.
Like here, what it also has is
visitors galore.
Once I snapped out of my
PTSQS (Picturesque Town Square
Syndrome) I thought of the
Things That Tourists Do but I re-
alized that my PTSQS should
make me more understanding of:
■ The Corner Gawkers: stopping
at a corner to have a look around
or consult the map, then acting all
irritated when a driver stops be-
cause they think you want to
cross.
■ The Five-Abreast Family
Stroll: our sidewalks are in places
wide enough for mom, dad and the
three kids to walk in a phalanx, at
one mile an hour, peering in all
the shop windows, but the side-
walks are rarely wide enough to
get around them.
■ The Talking Loud Like It’s the
Living Room. Tourists definitely
do that, but sometimes not as loud
as the locals.
■
Small touches I liked in Cannon
Beach included the ample — and
free — public parking lot located a
block from the Picturesque Town
Square. (But the paint on some of
the 10 Minute Parking spaces are
worn away to read “O Min Ark-
ing.”)
I also liked the two benches in
front of the downtown market:
signs reading Democrats on one,
Republicans on the other and an
unlabeled one in the middle. Unaf-
filiated? Tea Party? Libertarians?
And finally the trash can lids at
the beach stairs, with their plays
on Beatles lyrics: “Yesterday, all
my troubles seemed so far
away/when I threw all my own
trash away”— in script literally
welded into the lids.
Not much trash on that broad,
beautiful beach, something locals
and visitors can keep in mind
when they visit our beaches and
parks, but I did see one blue bag:
some dog owner who feels it is
enough to put Rex’s poop in a bag
and okay to leave it for someone
else to pick up. At first it rankled,
but then I realized: after a mile-
long walk, all I had seen was one
blue bag.
Can we say the same on the far
shorter strolls and strands we call
Event Site, your local school
grounds, or Nichols basin beach?
Recent report shows outdoor
education means big business
T
he Gray Family Foundation
recently commissioned a
comprehensive analysis of
the economic impacts of tra-
ditional camp-based outdoor
school programs.
The results of the study show
that Outdoor School programs pro-
vide communities with significant
numbers of interesting and high
quality jobs in rural areas.
The study utilizes current infor-
mation from two existing programs
and scales those job functions
statewide, providing an analysis of
the impact if every Oregon fifth or
sixth grader had the opportunity to
attend a full week of Outdoor
School. The potential economic im-
pact is substantial; the program
could reasonably expect to generate
more than 1,000 FTE jobs and more
than $28 million in income in Ore-
gon.
Many of the newly created jobs
would be primarily located in rural
areas where structural unemploy-
ment is particularly acute.
Outdoor school programs play a
legacy role in many communities,
providing multiple generations of
families with deep connections to
Oregon’s natural areas. Programs
take place outdoors, usually in
rural camp settings: in forests,
fields, mountains, deserts, rivers,
streams, tide pools, and next to the
Pacific Ocean. Living and working
in these spaces fosters health and
wellbeing, but at the same time,
many rural communities struggle
to stay economically viable.
“Outdoor education is potentially
a big business for Oregon’s econo-
my. Investing in the business of out-
door and environmental literacy al-
lows multiple generations of Orego-
nians to participate in our land-
scapes in ways that encourage local
economies to thrive. By investing in
an outdoor education sector the
state would also be investing in cre-
ating family wage jobs in the educa-
tion, natural resources, and food
services sectors, as well as the
working lands sectors of agricul-
ture, ranching, farming, fisheries,
and forestry,” said Lara Chris-
tensen, program director for the
Gray Family Foundation.
In addition to the economic im-
pacts, Outdoor School provides a
high quality education program for
students. The Gray Family Founda-
tion regularly receives feedback
from teachers who report that stu-
dents who attend Outdoor School
perform better on science, math,
and reading tests than students who
do not attend.
“The Gray Family Foundation
was founded on the belief that fos-
tering an understanding and ap-
preciation for the natural world is
a crucial part of a child’s educa-
tion, so this is an ideal area of
focus for us,” said Nancy Bales,
executive director of the Gray
Family Foundation. “Now the
hard work begins to fund this pro-
gram and make week-long outdoor
education experiences a reality in
every Oregon middle school stu-
dent’s education.”
The IMPLAN model for the Ore-
gon economy was used to derive
the relevant employment and in-
come expenditure multipliers
needed in the analysis. The full re-
port is available on the Gray Fami-
ly Foundation website,
grayff.org/outdoor-school-for-
everyone.
■
Launched in 2007 as the Gray
Family Fund of The Oregon Com-
munity Foundation, the mission of
Gray Family Foundation is to en-
gage the people of Oregon to be-
come active stewards of their nat-
ural and built communities by
championing accessible, experien-
tial education programs that en-
courage integrated understanding
of community and natural sys-
tems and inspiring action to en-
hance our natural and built com-
munities. Since 2007, the Gray
Family Foundation has awarded
more than $7.8 million in grants
statewide.