4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ JULY 1, 2017
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
E XTRAORDINARY P EOPLE
Don and Pat Stewart
C ATHERINE J. R OURKE
For the Siuslaw News
_____________
W
orking on his feet all
day as the former
owner-manager of
local markets never stopped Don
Stewart from stepping up to lend
somebody a hand. Nor did running
around as a working mom with
three boys deter his wife, Pat, from
going the extra mile to help others.
Together, the couple has devoted
more than 50 years to numerous
local causes.
“In a grocery store, you’re never
sitting on your rear,” Don said.
“We’ve always worked and love
being busy,” Pat added.
“Volunteering keeps us active,
meeting new people and enjoying
new experiences.”
But it was when they retired
more than a dozen years ago that
they dramatically expanded their
charitable efforts. In 2007, the cou-
ple received a Florence First
Citizen of the Year award for their
combined volunteer endeavors.
“Florence is such a generous
community full of so many people
who just keep on giving,” Don
said.
“And it’s amazing how the town
is run by volunteers,” said Pat.
“These big hearts are everywhere
you look.”
As the scholarship chair and
board secretary of Western Lane
Community Foundation, Pat and
her fellow volunteers recently
awarded $38,000 in college and
vocational education scholarships
to 23 local high school students.
the Food Share board and
The foundation also
another six years on the
manages grant funding for
Habitat board while serving
area nonprofits.
eight years on the Lane
“These endowments are
County Boundary
established by a multitude
Commission — a position
of communitywide donors
appointed by the governor.
through the foundation,”
How did the full-time
Pat explained. “It’s about
working parents find the
local people helping local
time for so much volunteer-
people.”
ing?
While that may sound
“I saw volunteering as the
like enough volunteering to
time we spent sitting on the
keep her busy, Pat’s heart-
bleachers at school functions
felt outreach doesn’t end
when the kids were young,”
there. She delivers Meals
Don said. “We always made
on Wheels every
time for our children, so
Wednesday and serves as a
once they’re grown, you just
deacon at New Life
channel that time into com-
Lutheran Church.
munity projects.”
A former human
“You don’t figure it out;
resources administrator at
you
just do it because you
Peace Harbor Medical
PHOTO BY CATHERINE ROURKE
Center who continued
Don and Pat Stewart have devoted more than 50 love it,” Pat said. “It feels so
working part-time after
years of volunteering service to the Florence good when you deliver a
meal or give in some way. I
retirement, Pat has commit- community.
get so much more back than
ted 35 years to the hospital.
I give.”
In tandem with her full-
Humanity, eventually serving as its
As Oregon natives, Don and Pat
time job, she was a founding mem-
president for two years.
have roots deeply planted in com-
ber of the local Soroptimists, treas-
But Don didn’t just sit on
munity spirit. Don began his retail
urer for SEAcoast Entertainment,
boards. Instead, he hammered,
grocery career as a box boy in
membership chair of Friends of the
painted, installed roofs and laid
1956 and met Pat in high school
Library and a Food Share volun-
concrete for Habitat construction
that same year. After serving in the
teer for several years.
projects as well.
Navy at Okinawa, he married Pat
Pat also conducted fundraising
“I’ve been working with Habitat
and became an assistant manager
for the Hospital Auxiliary and
for as long as they would have
for an IGA market in Corvallis
served as a longtime board mem-
me,” Don said with a laugh.
before transferring as manager of
ber of Habitat for Humanity.
“When I first started there, we
its Florence store in 1962.
Meanwhile, her husband kept
were building house number 10.
Don eventually bought the busi-
busy beyond stocking the shelves.
This year we finished house num-
ness and ran it with a partner
Don has been a member of Rotary
ber 28.”
before purchasing the Heceta
Florence for 49 years, serving as
But just like his wife, one volun-
Market, which he ran for 23 years.
its president from 1974-75, and
teer project isn’t enough for Don.
“I never felt like an outsider
remains active on the foundation
He delivered Meals on Wheels, sat
here,” said Don, noting that
board to this day. After retiring in
on the Dunes City Planning
Florence at the time bustled as a
2005, he began helping Habitat for
Commission, devoted six years to
fishing and logging town. “It was a
wonderful and accepting place.”
For Pat, “it was the other end of
the world for a girl from Portland.”
With a background as a legal
secretary, she worked for a local
insurance company as well as the
Chamber of Commerce before
becoming executive secretary to
the administrator and board at
Western Lane Hospital.
Her position then evolved into
human resources administration
when the new hospital opened in
1990.
“I’ve been here for 55 years and
love it,” she said. “I’m really just a
small-town girl.”
Now more than a dozen years
past retirement with nine grand-
children, the Stewarts have no
plans of slowing down.
“There’s nothing better than giv-
ing to people in need,” Don said.
“When you see the gratitude in the
families and the positive changes
in the children we house at
Habitat, it is so rewarding.”
Pat echoes the same sense of
deep satisfaction that volunteering
bestows.
“Paying it forward and giving it
away is the most wonderful thing,”
she said. “Gratitude for everything
is the key to a good life.”
Catherine J. Rourke is an
award-winning journalist, author
and book editor who teaches
creative writing at the Florence
Regional Arts Alliance.
Email CJReditor@gmail.com.
LETTERS
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N O PARTISAN PERSPECTIVE
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
In America’s current hyper partisan
environment, where one’s “Blue vs. Red”
perspective often trumps reality, it seems
historic fact, basic economics or scientif-
ic knowledge are coveniently overlooked
when necessary.
These partisan “realities” explain why
many Americans seem willing to disre-
gard their own observations and common
sense when they conflict with their
sociopolitical beliefs.
The debate over climate change is one
example of this. While most scientists
and 190 of 192 of the world’s govern-
ments support the CO2-related Global
Warming conclusions of the Paris
Climate Accord, there are those who are
climate change deniers simply because of
partisanship. This even occurs in the rural
midwest, where some of the very same
deniers of climate change have witnessed
its effect first hand.
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WHERE TO WRITE
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
itarian countries.
Also, if I were in the writer’s position, I
would think twice before accusing the news-
paper and “the left” of toxic rhetoric after my
candidate built his political image on what I
see as vile smears that brought civil discourse
down to a new low.
— Rollin Olson
Florence
—Jeffrey Shear
Florence
P UBLIC DISCOURSE AT A NEW LOW
Regarding the recent letter “Toxic Rhetoric
Leads To Real Violence” (June 28), it seems
to me the writer misunderstands the role of a
free press in a democratic republic.
Its purpose is to report — and comment as
opinion — on those in power to keep them
accountable to the public. The press’s respon-
sibility is not to act as cheerleaders or propa-
gandists; that is the role of the press in author-
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respect-
ing an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press, or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of griev-
ances.
Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News
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
541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com.
James Rand
Jenna Bartlett
Ned Hickson
Erik Chalhoub
For example, the Gulf Coast of the
Mississippi Delta, where some of the fastest
rising sea levels anywhere are observed —
almost 6 inches since 2005.
Yet, residents of this same area, when inter-
viewed, exhibit one of the highest rates of cli-
mate change denial — with many responding
that this phenomenon is a “hoax.”
It’s going to be hard to overlook climate
change from under water.
Pres. Donald Trump
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
www.merkley.senate.gov
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 ( 4 th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
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