SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017
Academy
2017 BeachWalk
Florence Habitat for Humanity
Annual Fundraiser
Saturday, Sept. 9th
from 9am-1pm
Heceta Beach
F e at urin
P r o fess g
K ite Fly i o nal
in g Dis
p lay,
r efresh
ments,
a
nd
musi c
Robin D by
e Vou r.
from 1A
Lyddon continued, “The Boys and
Girls Club did a great job and I only
see this growing.”
Spayd and Tomeny covered the
entire cost of the course for the 13 stu-
dents. They hope to be able to offer
the course to the club again next year.
Davis said, “Thanks to dedicated
people like Sam Spayd and Terry
Tomeny, our kids really know that
great futures start here.”
Registration and Walk begins at the
North Jetty Parking Lot.
7 A
Florence Aviation Academy ends Aug.
25 with the chance for students to get
behind the controls of a plane.
PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON/ SIUSLAW NEWS
We need sponsors and we need teams!
Pick up registration forms for sponsors and donations at the
Florence Habitat for Humanity Offi ce.
2004 Highway 101 or call 541-902-9227 for more information.
Help provide safe and affordable housing to local families by building
new homes and expanding our neighborhood repair projects
Drinking
2285 Highway 101 • Florence, OR 97439
(541) 997-8866
New Glo Sugar Scrubs
All natural with 3 ingredients. All scrubs made in-house!
Coffee * Green Tea * Sweet Orange
C
& Hair Salon
m
Je
much
138 Maple Street
Florence
541-997-1844
FRESH
CRAB
Fresh In The Case
THIS WEEK:
Herb Broiled Albacore
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs Albacore loin cuts, boneless and skin-
less, ¾ inch thick
1Tbsp butter
1Tbsp vegetable oil
½ Tsp dried basil
Crab, Albacore
Tuna, Ling Cod,
Petrale Sole,
Snapper.
Steamers, Oysters,
Shrimp and more.
4 Tsp chopped parsley
1 Tsp Dijon mustard
¼ Cup lemon juice
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
½ Tsp lemon peel, coarsely grated
Directions
Rinse Albacore with cold water; pat dry with paper towels. In small saucepan, melt butter.
Add basil, parsley, mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Place Albacore in a
glass ceramic baking dish; top with ¾ of the marinade. Marinate in refrigerator at least 30
minutes, turning once. Drain Albacore, and discard used marinade. Place on well-greased
broiler pan; baste with reserved marinade. Broil 4-5 inches from source of heat for 3 min-
utes. Albacore should be pink in the center when removed from heat. Transfer to serving
platter and sprinkle with lemon peel. Makes 4 servings
THE KRAB KETTLE
280 Hwy. 101 (2 Blocks N. of Bridge) Florence
MONDAY-SUNDAY 10-6 • 541-997-8996
from 1A
Of course Nicole couldn’t give
up on her husband, so she insisted
that he go to college.
“He graduated with a 4.0 and
honors,” she beamed. “It was the
most amazing thing to see, and he
gained 40 pounds. He looked so
good with his chubby cheeks when
he graduated.”
Afterwards, they decided to
make a go of it in Florence, mov-
ing in with Nicole’s mother.
Her mother had also been an
alcoholic for most of her life and,
like her husband, Nicole refused to
give up on her.
“My mom went back and
forth,” Nicole recalled. “Alcohol
was her drug of choice. It cost her
job, and she thought that was all
she was worth. She was a born
leader.”
A few years before Nicole and
her husband moved to Florence,
her mother also hit rock bottom.
“I pulled up to the 7-11 here in
town and I looked up the
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
meetings,” Nicole said. “I sent her
a schedule. She laid in bed for two
days, and then walked into a meet-
ing. She was a mess. Alcohol with-
drawal was not pretty, but the
group here embraced her.
Whatever she needed, they were
there to help her. And they still are
amazing. I couldn’t be more proud
of her.”
With the help of her mother,
Nicole, who had been drinking
heavily since she was 15, also
began to curb her drinking.
“When we moved to Florence, I
felt like I needed to not drink
because of my mom,” she said.
“For a good two years I didn’t
have a single drink. I didn’t feel
comfortable drinking with my
mom around me.”
Nicole still drinks, but never in
her home. Her son has never seen
her drunk.
“I think that’s something that’s
very important. Seeing parents
drink in moderation, because it’s
not a bad thing,” she said.
As to when she drinks, “It has to
be a celebration or something,” she
said. “A birthday, a social occa-
sion.”
When asked why someone with
a history of alcoholism still drinks,
Nicole said, “I don’t know why I
still drink. I guess it’s a social
thing. I still look for acceptance,
even though I’m an adult and I
know better. I don’t know why I
have to drink when I’m out with
them.”
It’s normal to drink with
friends, she believes. A normalcy
that she’s known throughout all
her life.
But the idea of what constituted
normal shifted when she moved to
Florence.
In her youth, binge drinking
was normal, as were long weekend
parties at her father’s house. Loud
arguments began as the days wore
on, sometimes leading to physical
altercations. An unhinged world
teetering on a hazy and dangerous
edge.
But now, normalcy means
something completely different.
“I’m not scared I’ll drink
more,” she said. “I don’t use it as a
tool to escape from anything
because my life is pretty good. I
don’t feel that I need it.”
She trusts her own limits. She
also trusts her friends will look out
for her, and that the community
that surrounds her will not let her
fall back into old habits.
And it’s that community that
will prevent her son from falling
into the same traps Nicole’s family
had fallen into.
“I feel confident that if someone
saw my boy doing something, they
would tell me,” she said. “People
would say, ‘Hey, I saw what your
child was doing at that party.’ That
makes me feel comfortable.
Raising a child, that is probably
the most reassuring thing.
“I have met some of the most
amazing mothers. My whole adult
life, I’ve never had a support sys-
tem that I do here.”
It’s that communal help that
Healthy Directions wants to foster
when it comes to youth drinking.
“Our goal is to start a discussion
about underage drinking,” Lane
County
Community
Health
Analyst Emily Buff Bear said.
“We’re decades behind in commu-
nity readiness (surrounding alco-
hol), but that’s what community
coalitions are all about.”
Abby’s Legendary Pizza in
Florence, along with other com-
munity businesses, are a major part
of that community push, both with
following state guidelines and pre-
senting a responsible view of
drinking.
In 2012, Abby’s was given a
violation for serving alcohol to a
minor by the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission (OLCC).
Abby’s General Manager Kristi
Robinson spoke of that time.
“It was an assistant manager
who did not look at the dates on
the ID. She got it wrong and she
personally got a fine. And then
Abby’s got a fine and had to get an
age verification machine,” she
said.
Now, Abby’s has to pay a year-
ly charge for the machine, on top
of the fines that the assistant man-
ager and the restaurant itself
received.
But checking ID’s isn’t the only
reason that Abby’s is being recog-
nized by Healthy Directions. The
coalition believes the pizza estab-
lishment is responsible in the way
it presents and serves alcohol to
the public.
Yes, Abby’s has video games
and is decidedly geared toward
families, but it is extremely cog-
nizant in the way it serves and
presents alcohol.
The location has multiple print-
ed warnings about underage drink-
ing surrounding its alcohol selec-
tion — age restrictions, the health
effects of alcohol, the dangers of
impairment.
In fact, those signs are more
noticeable than the alcohol adver-
tisements themselves.
Robinson points out that Abby’s
is always hyper-aware of how
much an individual is drinking and
staff members are more than will-
ing to cut people off when some-
one reaches their limit.
Abby’s will be just one part of a
group of local establishments that
will be recognized for being fami-
ly friendly by Healthy Directions.
In what it dubs “Florence Area
Family Friendly Retail,” the coali-
tion will recognize a number of
establishments who serve respon-
sibly.
Healthy Directions wants to
focus on the positives, recognizing
those establishments that have a
healthy environment in hopes to
encourage other establishments to
follow suit.
The coalition also has a variety
of other programs it’s planning to
implement in Florence.
“We’re partnering with the
school district, the City of
Florence and the police depart-
ment,” Buff Bear said.
Healthy Directions will work
with OLCC to conduct server
training regarding underage drink-
ing.
It will have parent education
nights at the Siuslaw and Mapleton
school districts.
It also hopes to bring to
Florence a diversion class for
minor possession violations, a pro-
gram that many youth drinkers
must attend once they are caught in
violation of the law.
“They have one at Lane County
Youth Services in Eugene,” Buff
Bear said. “It happens once a
month, but we think it is a hardship
for Florence families to get there.”
Healthy Directions will also be
working closely with the police
department, including going after
“shoulder taps” and parties.
For youth who cannot obtain
alcohol from a family member or
friend, they sometimes use the
“shoulder tap” tactic. That is when
a youth will walk up to a stranger
outside of an establishment that
sells alcohol, offer money, and
hope that the stranger will procure
liquor.
Florence area police will look to
curb this practice through sting
operations.
The police will also focus on
parties.
“Party dispersal is where police
go out to different areas where the
youth are known to drink and they
write a MIP (Minor in
Possession),” Buff Bear said. “It’s
a heightened enforcement. The
idea is not to write a bunch of
MIPs, but let the youth know
we’re stepping up enforcement.”
While these steps can make
small, immediate impacts on youth
drinking, it’s the involvement with
the community that will ultimately
change youth drinking in the long
term.
“The most influential person in
a youth’s life is their parents,” Buff
Bear said. “It’s not inevitable for
youth to drink. You can have
healthy modeling, you can set a
certain standard.”
The grant funding Healthy
Directions will only last for two
years, but youth drinking is an
issue that will be debated for years
to come.
“My goal is that there’s commu-
nity discussion around underage
drinking,” Buff Bear said. “My
goal is that any of the coalition
members leave this experience
with a knowledge around preven-
tion science.”
Nicole, when she was younger,
didn’t have a community to help
her.
Between the ages of 15 and 27,
she moved 19 times.
“I was scared to be in one place
for too long. I was afraid some-
thing was going to happen. I just
didn’t feel safe,” she said.
But here, in Florence, she
believes that she can make a dif-
ference. Because it is a small com-
munity, one that cares.
“I have a big heart,” she said.
“My past dictates who I am, and I
always worry about that. But the
kids are the ones who need our
help. There are a ton of people out
there who have kids now that grew
up like I did.”
And Nicole, along with her
mother, her husband, her son, her
friends, her co-workers, the
schools, the police, the businesses
and the nearly 10,000 people who
live in the Siuslaw community,
will help those kids — through lis-
tening, talking and asking ques-
tions.
The discussion is difficult, one
that cuts to the heart of what some
view as a cultural and monetary
identity for Oregon.
Do we put too much emphasis
on alcohol consumption in our
daily lives? Do we ignore the legal
intoxicants in pursuit of illicit
ones? Do we look at youth drink-
ing as an inevitability, and in the
process encourage it? Do we
demonize youth who do drink,
instead of looking to understand
their situation? Can businesses
look at their own culpability in
youth drinking and take pains to
change it, like Abby’s? Can par-
ents and family members do the
same?
The list of questions is endless.
Only as a community will they be
answered.
And if they are answered, those
involved believe, the kids will be
all right.