SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017
Pacific Coast Wind
Ensemble plays Saturday
The Pacific Coast Wind
Ensemble will perform a bene-
fit concert Saturday, May 6, at
the Presbyterian Church of the
Siuslaw, beginning at 2 p.m.
The program will feature
marches, medleys, show tunes,
a Dixieland number, an over-
ture or two and more. Plus
something special: To highlight
the closing of Ringling Bros.
and Barnum and Bailey Circus,
the band will cover that most
iconic of circus marches:
“Entry of the Gladiators.”
The band is currently led by
director Tom Muller, from
Waldport, whose knowledge
and enthusiasm have combined
to create a lively program for
the band’s annual Spring
Concert.
A donation of $10 per person
is suggested, with steep dis-
counts for families.
Proceeds from this concert
will be donated to Siuslaw
High School’s band program.
For further information, con-
tact Eric Bigler, band secretary,
at 541-563-7642 or email him
at ebigler@europa.com.
Respite
not a reduction in both.
The solution to the
Memory
Loss
Respite
Center’s immediate needs for
additional
staffing
and
their rent is clear: the center
needs caring individuals to
donate their time as volun-
teers and those with the
financial ability to make a
tax deductible donation to
the Memory Loss Center.
For more information on
the Memory Loss Respite
Center at the Florence Senior
Center, call 541-902-8539
or
visit
www.florence
seniorcenter.org.
Another motivating factor in
the quest for improved aca-
demic performance is the more
tangible incentive of Club
Bucks.
Club Bucks are awarded to
club members for a number of
reasons, including receiving
good grades on their report
cards and helping out at the
club with clean-up and event
preparations.
Kids can also earn Club
Bucks by allowing Aaron to
review their homework after
turning it in and receiving
grades from their teachers. This
gives staff an idea of the aca-
demic progress of the individ-
ual students and reinforces the
correct answers with the stu-
dents.
Bucks earned can then be
redeemed at the Club Store for
school supplies, snacks and
other items.
Each month there is a special
prize for Club Buck recipients
and the monthly special can be
almost anything, with this
month’s prize being the highly
desired Fidget Spinner, a
device that helps “fidgety” stu-
dents concentrate by giving
them something to work with
their hands.
The recent academic success
of the students that attend the
Boys and Girls Club is not sur-
prising to Aaron. She feels the
discussion groups get the
young people thinking about
the big picture and another pro-
gram offered encourages them
to think of the everyday details.
“We have also started our
‘Game of Life,’ which is part of
the Money Matters program,”
Aaron said. “The kids all
choose careers, lifestyles,
whether or not they have chil-
dren, and if so, how many and
how old they are, and their
starting bank balance. They
will also be choosing an apart-
ment or house, purchasing a car
and figuring out their utilities,
childcare and grocery bills.”
The combination of under-
standing the complexity of
real life situations and dis-
cussing the larger issues that
young people face has been
well received by club mem-
bers.
Results are in and they are
very good.
“These programs have had a
huge impact on the kids, even
without them knowing it.
When I first made them partic-
ipate, I was met with whines
and groans, because the kids
didn’t want to have to sit and
learn anymore. But now, they
are excited about attending
every week, and look forward
to playing the games,” Aaron
said. “They are seeing that
COURTESY PHOTO
hard work and effort goes a
long ways. This is a super
smart and competitive bunch.”
For more information on the
Boys and Girls Club of
Western Lane County, call
Boys and Girls Club after
school programs help club
members attain academic
success and learn real life
lessons they can use after
graduation.
WE BUY GUNS
FLORENCE GUN SHOP
B U Y, S E L L & T R A D E
539 H IGHWAY 101, F LORENCE
(541) 997-0500
WWW . FLORENCEGUNSHOP . COM
Saturday
May 6
Present
8th Annual
FLORENCE GREEN FAIR 2017
Explore the exciting possibilities of going green on the Oregon Coast
Over
Speakers
&
Demonstrations
30
Exhibitors
Eco
Activities For s
id
K
Health &
Wellness
Center
Special Screening @ 1pm
10am-4pm
Florence Events Center
715 Quince St., Florence
Admission is $3
OR FREE with canned donation to
Mapleton Food Share
or
by bringing in your
plastic planter pots to be recycled
Give Take
or
Give
Take
unwanted items
things you can use
10:30am to 4:00pm
Anything you need and can use!
Sponsored by:
NO
You can give:
We cannot accept:
books, DVDs/CDs,
Garden ware, IT, Tools,
Clothes/shoes, small
furniture, small
electrical items, toys
Large furniture
Major appliances
Broken and dirty items
Lane County Waste Management
541-997-8233
IC
4
County Transfer & Recycling
02-7
1) 9 55
AL
OS
P
COAST DIS
AL
IL E
Nothing broken or dirty please
just things someone else can use!
YES
M
9:00am to 2:00pm
Your Chance to pass on things you no longer
need and pick up something you do for FREE!
V
R
SE
“Our purpose is three fold.
First is to provide socialization
for the person with memory
loss. Equally important is to
provide respite for the caregiv-
er, and, thirdly, we want to
provide a service to the com-
munity,” Duncan said.
Unfortunately, the center is
finding it more difficult to ful-
fill this mission. The respite
center runs entirely on volun-
teer staffing and those volun-
teers are becoming harder to
find.
The center also needs an
infusion of funds to pay the
Florence Senior Center’s
monthly rental fees.
As such, volunteers are con-
cerned that the services they
offer will soon be unavailable
to members of the community.
“We’ve had volunteers that
have been with us for years an
years. As with any volunteer
organization, there are times
when some volunteers decide
to move on. So, we have had
to close one day a week, on
Wednesdays, because we are
unable to staff the center that
day,” Duncan said.
Memory care clients pay a
minimal daily fee that goes to
paying the monthly charges
for the space used. The center
also offers scholarships to
those who cannot afford the
daily fee of $10.
The center’s programs are
based on the model accepted
by the state as the strategy best
suited to preserve the dignity
and self sufficiency of a per-
son afflicted with memory loss
for as long as possible.
“We use the ‘best friends’
model here, which has been
accepted by the State of
Oregon as the best approach
for dealing with people with
memory loss,” Duncan said.
The “best friends” approach
is as simple as it sounds.
The volunteers at the respite
center are trained in tech-
niques that honor a person’s
life experience and their intrin-
sic value as an important
member of the community in
which they live.
Volunteers then incorporate
those experiences and the per-
sonal history of clients into the
daily discussions and activities
in which they participate.
The center operates primari-
ly on donations and the daily
fee charged to patients. The
$10 charge clients pay
includes a healthy lunch and
four hours of caring, attentive
and engaged client supervi-
sion.
Duncan and Memory Loss
Respite Center volunteers are
dismayed by the reduction in
service hours they were
recently forced to implement.
Mostly because the need for
their services is rising, with
trends showing an increase
from 9.9 percent of the popu-
lation having Alzheimer’s to
more than 33 percent by 2030.
This increase is likely to
lead to an additional increase
of 38 percent in Medicaid
costs by the year 2025.
The Alzheimer’s Assoc-
iation, the primary advocacy
group for victims of the ill-
ness, estimates that nearly
1,500 Oregonians die each
year from the disease, making
it the sixth leading cause of
death in the state.
These are trends that speak
to the need for increased fund-
ing and additional services —
from 1A
4
from 1A
Club
CEN
(5 TR
10 A
E W I TH A S