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B&G Club
director
placed on
paid leave
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15
FEBRUARY
21
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2015
$1.00
RHODY ROYAL
S IUSLAW , M APLETON
STUDENTS SELECTED TO REPRESENT ANNUAL FESTIVAL
SENIOR COUR T – PRINCESSES
Board continues
to seek solutions for
financial struggles
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Courtney King
Siuslaw News
Trista Lane
Alize Giselle
Castellanos
Joseph Dotson
Jonathan Griffes
Adelaide
Ficcadenti
Ariana Galvan
Mendez
Olivia Moore
Elizabeth Perez
PHOTOS COURTESY OF PARENTS AND SIUSLAW SCHOOL DISTRICT
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Award-winning
documentary of interest
to students, adults
ontinuing a tradition that
began more than 100 years
ago in 1908, five Siuslaw
High School senior girls, four
Siuslaw High School senior boys,
one Mapleton Elementary girl and
four Siuslaw Elementary girls
joined the Rhododendron Festival’s
2015 “Rock ’n’ Rhody”-themed
royal court.
The Rhododendron Festival High
School Court is comprised of five
outstanding young women:
Courtney King, Trista Lane, Natalie
Madden, Kennedy Roylance and
Bailey Wells.
The four outstanding young men
are Keoni Castro, Trey Cornish,
Joseph Dotson and Jonathan Griffes.
This is the Rhody Festival’s second
year with boys included in the
scholarship competition.
Applicants had to provide refer-
ences, fill out an application and
describe their personal achieve-
ments and goals. They also said
which college they would prefer to
attend.
Choice in college varied from rel-
atively close, like Central Oregon
Community College, Corban
University, George Fox University,
Lane Community College and
Oregon State University, to those a
little farther away, like Brigham
Young University Idaho.
The mission of the Rhododendron
Court program is to provide scholar-
ships for higher education, to pro-
mote community outreach and vol-
unteerism and to offer networking
and mentoring opportunities to out-
standing young women and young
men in a program that perpetuates
an appreciation for Rhododendron
Festival history and tradition.
The Junior Court is comprised of
five young ladies: Alize Giselle
Castellanos, Adelaide Ficcadenti,
Olivia Moore and Elizabeth Perez
of Siuslaw, and Ariana Galvan
Mendez of Mapleton.
Beginning in March, court mem-
bers will visit community events,
business leaders, senior living cen-
ters, youth organizations and civic
groups. Court members also receive
one-on-one mentorship.
The members of the senior court
will showcase their talents in the
Rhododendron Showcase on
Wednesday, May 6, where they will
compete for the titles of Queen
Rhododendra and King of the Coast
in addition to scholarship money.
Herb Enthusiasts learn history, uses of cannabis
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
Spoiler alert. This movie has nothing
to do with hunting, bears, hibernation,
cute cuddly cubs or the California state
flag. It’s about human interaction and
one couple’s unique American odyssey,
spanning 60 days, 30 states and five
small towns named Bear.
This award-winning documentary, by
husband-and-wife filmmaking team
Sarah Sellman and Greg Grano, both 25,
is coming to City Lights Cinemas
Tuesday, Feb. 24, because of the efforts
of
Mapleton
School
District
Superintendent Jodi O’Mara.
“A former colleague I taught with
introduced me to the documentary,
‘American Bear — An Adventure in
Kindness,’” O’Mara said. “I looked at it
and spoke with Michael Falter of City
Lights Cinemas. He had been talking
with the filmmakers for another theater
that he manages.”
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Joanne Whitney,
chief pharmacist
at the Florence
Bi-Mart, and
Nome McBride,
a master herbalist
based in Eugene,
address more
than 50 people at
the Florence Herb
Enthusiasts’ Feb.
19 meeting about
cannabis.
Siuslaw News
BEAR 6A
The Florence Herb Enthusiasts invited herbalist
Nome McBride and Joanne Whitney, chief phar-
macist at Bi-Mart in Florence, to speak about
cannabis at their Thursday, Feb. 19, meeting.
McBride covered history, types and uses of
cannabis. Whitney answered questions about the
interaction of cannabis with pharmaceuticals and
provided input from the medical community.
“I was a little surprised when I was asked to do
this presentation, but I’m glad to,” McBride said.
He has spoken at five previous meetings of the
Herb Enthusiasts.
“I’m for cannabis,” he said. “I’m for every herb
and the use of every herb in the correct dosage at
the correct time, and that time may or may not
occur in your lifetime. But it is good to respect
every herb for the uses that it can have.”
According to McBride’s research, cannabis is
an ancient plant with origins in the Himalayas. It
spread, along with colonialism, to South America
PHOTO BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
and into North America.
“Cannabis is definitely the most bred plant on
earth,” he said. “It’s probably the oldest recorded
plant in human history.”
There are many strains and uses for cannabis.
SPORTS — B
INSIDE
S AT U R D AY
Obituaries
Opinion
SideShow
Sports
Trey Cornish
JUNIOR COUR T – PRINCESSES
Bear’ comes
to Florence
B1
B7
A5
A2
Bailey Wells
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Keoni Castro
C
‘American
Angling
Classifieds
Community
Courts
Kennedy Roylance
SENIOR COUR T – PRINCES
Last weekend Boys and Girls Club of
Western Lane County Board of Directors
President Mike Smith placed club
Executive Director Jonathan Hicks on
paid administrative leave, effective
immediately, according to club secretary
and media liaison Bob Forsythe.
“We are in a restructuring mode and we
needed to make that move for several rea-
sons,” Forsythe said. “Hicks and his fam-
ily have already moved to the Bend area,
so he was only here either one or two
days a week, depending on which week
of the month. It’s also something we real-
ly needed to do as a part of the restructur-
ing process the board is doing.”
Hicks has served as executive director
of the club since Feb. 1, 2013. He was
initially hired as the club’s athletic direc-
tor in 2012.
Forsythe said the club’s board is con-
tinuing negotiations with Oregon Pacific
Bank on restructuring options to ease
financial pressures and allow the club to
continue operating.
The Boys and Girls Club currently
operates an after-school program in
cooperation with the Siuslaw School
District; the ABC Preschool program
and the Quality Child Care of Florence
daycare facility, as well as numerous
sports and other programs.
See
Natalie Madden
Your
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Parts of the cannabis plant are used in medicines,
food and the manufacture of clothing and building
materials. Male cannabis is called hemp, which
means “useful,” and has antifungal properties.
See
HERBS 4A