4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ JANUARY 27, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
E XTRAORDINARY P EOPLE
Stephen Fowler & Noah Schultz
C ATHERINE J. R OURKE
For the Siuslaw News
_____________
T
heir faces look bright, enthu-
siastic and full of hope. But
there was a time seven years
ago when those faces appeared lost,
lifeless and scared in the police blot-
ter instead of a column that spot-
lights admirable human qualities.
Stephen Fowler and Noah Schultz
have turned their lives completely
around as they both turn 24 this
week. The two youth offenders from
Portland, currently residing at Camp
Florence, have done their time as
well as their homework in prepara-
tion for a promising future. And now
they have a story to share about
writing their way from detention to
redemption to create a new screen-
play for their lives.
Like most troubled teens, it all
began with difficult childhoods and
broken homes.
“I didn’t have a father or parents
like most people,” said Stephen, who
was placed in foster care at age 6. “I
had no proper guidance.”
Noah was just a boy when he first
witnessed violence in the street.
Feeling alienated and misunderstood
like many children with ADHD, he
fell in with the wrong crowd. At age
13, he joined a gang.
“It gave me a sense of unity and a
safety net in a dangerous neighbor-
hood,” Noah said. “But it also led me
down a dark road to a lot of mistakes.”
The young men didn’t know each
other at age 17 when they became
involved in separate offenses that led
them to appear in the same court-
room on the same day. Tried as
adults, they were committed to the
custody of the Oregon Youth
Authority, the state correctional pro-
gram for rehabilitating youth offend-
ers, and sent to MacLaren Youth
Correctional Facility.
“I went from one zoo to another,”
Stephen said. “But I was more con-
cerned about remaining true to
myself. I still had values and vowed
to keep them.”
Noah made a different vow: to
abandon gang life forever. It was at
MacLaren that the young men would
find a way to uphold their pledge
when the Hope Partnership program
introduced them to creative writing.
Through the power of the written
and spoken word, Stephen and Noah
discovered the capacity to transform
their lives and transcend their cir-
cumstances.
“The creative process has no fil-
ters and allows you to be yourself,”
Noah said. “It brought everything to
life for me. I found my voice and
my self-worth through writing. For
the first time, I had something of
value to share and felt understood.
Creative writing was the place I
always returned to whenever I felt
angry, or confused. Telling your
story puts you back in control.”
Stephen found a way to express
his values in a poem titled
“Foundation.”
“Poetry opened up a whole new
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ROURKE
Stephen Fowler, left, and Noah Schultz, right, will present their
“Give Youth a Voice” program and poetry at FRAA on Feb. 20.
door,” he said. “It gave me clarity
about who I was and allowed me to
say whatever I wanted. Your voice
matters and the world needs to know
your story. I always had a desire to
love and help others. But you have
to love and accept yourself first and
writing helped me do that.”
After the pitfalls of broken homes
and broken lives, Noah and Stephen
began picking up the pieces to build
a future. They earned college
degrees in human development and
hosted a “Verbal Escape” poetry
event in 2013, finding freedom
through the written and spoken
word.
They arrived last year at Camp
Florence, a work-study program, to
prepare for their final transition into
the community. Now the two have
teamed up to develop “Verbal
Escape” into a curriculum to help
juvenile delinquents discover their
voices.
“We want to give back by helping
youths with adverse childhood expe-
riences,” Noah said. “The earlier
they tell their stories, the greater the
potential for their personal develop-
ment.”
With a mission to prevent all teens
from falling into drugs, gangs and
lives of crime, Stephen and Noah
plan to teach “Verbal Escape” at
schools and youth facilities across
the state and the nation. They will be
introducing it at Siuslaw High
School with a program called “Give
Youth a Voice,” in which students
will learn how to tell their stories
through poetry and music.
“Young people really need to
develop their voices and discover
who they are through creative writ-
ing,” said Noah, who has published
a book of poems titled “Morse Code
Kisses.” “The written and spoken
word is huge in developing a strong
positive personal narrative as a way
to identify yourself.”
The men are applying for grants
and seeking sponsorships for their
program, which has gained the sup-
port of several local businesses,
community organizations and indi-
viduals. Meanwhile, they will pres-
ent their message and poetry on
Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Florence
Regional Arts Alliance.
Instead of focusing on their sordid
past, Stephen and Noah created a
positive vision that holds a vital key
about the human capacity to over-
come adversity. In writing their way
from despair and difficulty to hope
and opportunity, they have discov-
ered a tool more powerful than drugs
and guns, a therapy more potent than
any remedy in a bottle and a way to
serve others. Their story represents a
triumph that will inspire people of
all ages to tell one of their own.
For more info about the “Give
Youth a Voice” program and events,
call 503-910-3625.
______________________
Catherine J. Rourke is an award-
winning writer, journalist and book
editor who teaches creative writing
at the Florence Regional Arts
Alliance. She may be contacted at
CJReditor@gmail.com.
LETTERS
Thank you for recycling
Thank you to those who are recycling ink jet
cartridges and old cell phones.
The Siuslaw Genealogy Society uses the
money from these to pay for family history
websites, which are then offered for free to the
public at the Siuslaw Public Library.
The society’s meetings are open to all and
held the third Wednesday of each month at 7
p.m. at the library.
Call 541-991-0885 for questions.
Pat Rongey
Florence
Tribute to Bob
It’s been some time since Bob Jackson sold
his “mini-marina” at Westlake on Siltcoos Lake,
where I keep a small sailboat for part of each
year. But even after Bob and his wife Peggy
sold their home and marina and moved to
Greentrees in Florence, I couldn’t walk the
docks down to my boat without thinking of him.
And now because of his recent passing, it will
be no different, except the memories of him will
become more poignant.
He was a little banty rooster of a man with a
crooked smile and a warmth about him that
made you feel when talking to him that he had
been a lifelong pal. On sailing days, I used to
head out to the sailboat to catch the wind when
it was just right — enough to push the boat
along at a good clip, but not so blustery that it
became overpowering. But I soon learned that
when planning my departure, I needed to factor
some “Bob” time.
For inevitably, we would end up leaning
against the masonry wall by his driveway shoot-
ing the breeze. Mostly it was him talking and
me listening. About the old days when he was
growing up in Westlake, putting together his
first car, adventures with his Uncle Dewey the
moonshiner, rowing across the lake to work at
the Booth mill, and harrowing speed runs over
gravel roads that gave him the adrenaline rush
he seemed to crave as a young man.
Or he might talk about his World War II days
in the Navy, his time on the USS Indianapolis, a
cruiser sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the
Pacific in 1945 after Bob was transferred to
become an “airdale” crewman on amphibious
aircraft in the South Pacific.
During our visits he might break out some of
his latest drawings — mostly of the sleek-look-
ing historic cars with which he had a lifelong
love affair. Often he would tell stories about his
days working in the Booth veneer plant or
around the barge-mounted “whirley-cranes” on
the Umpqua River.
If I was lucky, he would invite me into the
house for coffee and some of his gentle wife
Peggy’s home-made goodies, and tell me about
some of his latest writing projects that resulted
in three books of his memories and drawings. I
was honored to write the preface for one of the
books.
With Bob’s death, the central coast has lost a
great source of local history and tales about the
rough and tumble early days of this place. But
we’re lucky that with his artwork and writing,
he documented so much for us and future gen-
erations.
Even as he breezed through his 70s, 80s and
into his 90s he remained active, physically
strong, with a creative mind always curious
about the world he lived in. I can remember him
standing on the dock swinging a huge scythe
underwater to cut aquatic weeds, work that did-
n’t seem to faze him but would wear out men
decades younger than him. For years, he took it
as his personal responsibility to take a boat
down the Siltcoos Outlet and saw up fallen trees
that blocked the waterway.
In my mind, he was the admiral of the
“Siltcoos Navy,” once towing me back to the
dock when my motor conked out just as it was
getting dark. He told me once how he took his
“party boat” out once to gather up Boy Scouts
from Camp Baker after howling winds came up
and blew them all over the lake while on a
kayaking excursion.
The memories of Bob will endure, along with
his writing and drawings. Many Florence old-
timers probably still have paper napkins tucked
away with cartoonish images of themselves
drawn by Bob, who liked to doodle on napkins
at local coffee shops. Somehow, I can’t get the
thought out of my mind that as Bob approached
St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he asked a favor
before Bob passed through.
“Make one more drawing — of me,” maybe
St. Peter asked. “Here’s a pen and a napkin.”
And of course, Bob would have been happy
to oblige.
Larry Bacon
Florence
Perish or flee
L ETTERS
TO THE
E DITOR P OLICY
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor concerning issues affecting the Florence area
and Lane County. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All
letters should be limited to about 300 words and must include the writer’s full name, address and
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Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not
guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Libelous and
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Write to: Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
In response to Mr. Cavarno’s letter of Jan. 16
(“Terrorist-Free Nation”), I hold to all I said in
my previous letter.
The fearful in the audience should consider
that, since 9/11, only 47 people in the United
States have died as the result of terrorist vio-
lence, while in one recent year alone, there were
30,000 homicides.
The crux of my letter remains the question: If
you were in a deeply war-torn nation and were
faced either with perishing or fleeing, what
would be your choice?
Curt Buttke
Florence
USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2016 © Siuslaw News
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WHERE TO WRITE
Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National
Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore.
Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax
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Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us