6 A
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2018
Earth Day
from 1A
“We will be located outdoors
off the boardwalk next to our
amazing river,” Miltenberger
said. “There will be booths rep-
resenting many aspects of our
environment, including many
activities that will involve and
educate our children. Also,
there will be information on
whales, poetry, music, dance,
hopefully drums and I even
heard rumors about costumes.”
The first “Earth Day” was
the brainchild of Wisconsin
Sen. Gaylord Nelson and took
place mostly on college cam-
puses. Nelson was a World War
II veteran, a three-term senator
and a recipient of the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He envisioned the day as a
sort of environmental teach-in
and convinced students, faculty
and administrators on more
than 2,000 campuses across the
Volunteers
from 1A
Oregon Coast Military
Museum
Filled with hundreds of
pieces of authentic memorabilia
from the five U.S. armed serv-
ices displayed in carefully craft-
ed exhibitions, the Oregon
Coast
Military
Museum
(OCMM) has been recounting
the history of military service to
Florence residents and visitors.
People who stop by the muse-
um can browse the gift shop,
view the displays or get a guid-
ed tour by one of the many
docents who volunteer at the
museum — one of whom is
James Dale Guy.
“I’m just a plain old guy, but
I go by Dale,” Guy said.
A former Marine, the Oregon
native came to Florence by way
of Bend, after retiring from a
long career as a salesman for
Sysco Corporation, a food dis-
tribution company for restau-
rants.
“It was a good job and the
food industry was good to me,
as you can see,” Guy said, pat-
ting his belly. “Then I retired
and lived in Bend, but it gets
cold over there in the winter. As
I got older, I didn’t like shovel-
ing snow.”
Guy and his wife found their
way to Florence three years ago
to get away from the weather.
They’ve been happy here ever
since.
“This is a really great town,
especially for people my age,”
he said. “Keep it a secret, don’t
tell anyone.”
When he arrived in town,
Guy began to look for places to
volunteer.
“You can always sit around
so long before you have to do
something,” Guy said. “The
Lord and the world have been
good to me, and Oregon has
been good to me, and I’ve got to
give back.”
He saw an article in the
newspaper about OCMM and
thought it would be a good fit,
given his background.
He had enlisted in the Marine
Corps just out of high school,
not wanting to go into the Navy
because he “liked the ground,”
he said. The Marines had other
plans for him.
“Yeah, they put me on a
Navy Ship. I was sailing over
all the places in the South
Pacific as a radio telegraph
operator, taking Morse code,”
he said. “I was a cryptographer,
deciphering some coded mes-
sages from other countries dur-
ing the Cold War.”
Using his background and
love of history, Guy has been
giving tours to OCMM visitors
since last summer and the job
keeps him on his toes.
“The tour starts with the
Civil War and First World War,
and works around to Vietnam,”
Guy explained. “I’ve been
given some study stuff to
answer the questions that the
people have.
“Let’s take the visitors who
were in the Air Force. They’re
looking at the Air Force stuff,
and they’re going to be critical.
They want to make sure that
that’s authentic stuff. Same with
the Marines and Army. You
nation to participate.
It wasn’t until a few years
later that Florence had it’s first
hint of non-traditional environ-
mental awareness.
Stu Henderson, a recent
transplant at the time, thought it
might be good for people to
take better care of the river and
the ocean.
“The water in the river was
dirty and there were very few
fish or birds around. The pollu-
tion created by decades of
industrial production had con-
taminated the Siuslaw River
and many locations on the
banks of the river, and I just
wanted to tell people what was
going on, in a mellow way,” he
said.
Henderson is now a
well-known artist in his own
right, but at the time he had
just finished working with
renowned lithographer, Robert
Rauschenberg, in L.A.
Henderson had spent three
years learning lithography, a
type of printing, while working
at the same studio as
Rauschenberg. During that
time, Rauschenberg created
what was to become the iconic
poster for the first Earth Day.
A few years later, Henderson
and his wife Joanne moved to
Florence. The couple were dis-
appointed that there was no
local recognition of what had
become a major nation-wide
event.
So Henderson created a sim-
ple, hand-painted poster for
Earth Day, and hung it at the
end of Bay Street, facing
Highway 101.
That was the area’s first
Earth Day event.
There were a few attempts at
organizing some form of offi-
cial event over the next three
decades, but these efforts never
came to fruition in a sustained
way.
That will change this year as
organizers said the festival is
geared towards educating the
next generation to the impor-
tance of safeguarding the plan-
et from degradation.
Henderson is pleased to see a
more comprehensive event to
educate the public and feels the
effort will be rewarded.
“I am glad that there will be
a more robust effort to share
information and to network
with members of the communi-
ty about things that not only
impact us but will have a long-
term effect on later genera-
tions,” he said.
Miltenberger also wants the
community to be aware of other
activities that will be held on or
around Earth Day, which will
showcase different aspects of
the broad-based efforts she
feels are necessary to educate
people and to protect the plan-
et.
“We want to encourage peo-
ple to take advantage of all of
learn a lot from the people that
come in.”
The museum is run almost
entirely by volunteers of all
ages, except one paid position.
Volunteers like Guy take the
information the visitors give
and constantly upgrade the dis-
plays to ensure authenticity.
It’s that constant learning that
makes him feel fulfilled, he
said.
“I think history should be
important to everybody because
what we’re doing today, in
effect it happened in the past.
History affects our politics.
That’s how it affects me. You
can understand a little bit
what’s going on today because
of what happened in the past,
some good, some not so good.”
And Guy thinks museums are
the best place to learn history.
The majority of the items on
display in the museum, he
explained, are either donated or
loaned by people’s own collec-
tions.
“Stuff that community mem-
bers collected from their par-
ents or grandparents, they’ve
been very generous to share it
with everyone, which is really
nice,” he said. “This stuff goes
way back to the Civil War.”
And it’s that authenticity that
gives museums a real sense of
history, beyond the pages of a
book.
“You can touch it,” Guy said.
“You can read all sorts of
books, but a lot of that is opin-
ions, in my estimation. You can
read five books about Vietnam,
but unless you can see the actu-
al things, or talk to people that
were there, you need authentic-
ity.”
Guy pointed to the newly
installed Coast Guard exhibit at
OCMM as an example of why
the museum is important to
Florence, which has recently
been designated a U.S. Coast
Guard City due to the area’s
strong partnership with Coast
Guard Station Siuslaw River.
“We had kind of a token dis-
play of the Coast Guard, but
now we’ve enhanced it,” Guy
said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff
here from the Coast Guard. We
have uniforms and films you
can sit down and listen to the
whole story of the Coast
Guard.”
The museum just doesn’t tell
the story of the military, it’s an
ever-evolving history of the
people in the region, and a tes-
tament to those volunteers who
make it run.
“This would be a sad place if
we didn’t have volunteers, it
really would be,” Guy said. “I
think volunteers in this town
keep it going.
“I think that volunteering
helps the community be stable.
You see it in all facets of our
community. My wife volunteers
at Habitat for Humanity. It’s
needed. Most of those people
that volunteer, they do it
because they care. They’re not
doing it for money.”
Instead, they do it because
they want a better place to live.
“Look at the people who
clean up the beach,” Guy said.
“They do it because they want a
nice beach. You can see people
are picking up trash because
they care. This is a pretty neat
little town, a well-kept secret.
“Don’t tell anyone.”
needs to tell anyone what to do.
We get the most compliments
on food and us and we love it.”
Thies was working the
Friday afternoon shift with four
other volunteers for the Helping
Hands Coalition, an organiza-
tion with one simple goal: help-
ing.
Helping Hands Coalition
“We named ourselves ‘Fun-
day Friday,’” Jo-Anna Thies
said. “It’s the best crew, we get
along, everybody knows what
needs to get done so nobody
See
Volunteer
Florence Food Share provides food to those who
are hungry in our community. If you have four
hours a week available, we are in need of vol-
unteers to staff our Front Desk and also act as
Guides as clients walk through the pantry. Please
call our volunteer coordinator, Sarah Lovejoy,
@ 541-997-9110 (Monday – Friday, before noon)
to learn more about volunteering. info@lorence-
foodshare.org 2190 Spruce Street.
• wood fl oors
• granite counters
• wood stove
Get
involved
Donate
Do your part and
Volunteers needed for new home construction, home repairs, general
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volunteer today
to help support
these local
non-proft
Assisting those in need in our Community.
Free Hot Meals Mon-Wed-Fri
12:30 AM - 1:30 PM
organizations in
our community!
HELPING HANDS COALITION
New Life Lutheran Church,
2100 Spruce St, next to Foodshare,
Call 541-997-5057 to Volunteer
Memory Care Respite
of Florence
Your Memory Care Respite Center needs you!
Seeking volunteers for our Coffee Club:
Conversation & companionship in a caring
setting while providing respite for caregivers.
Contact us at memcarerespite@gmail.com
Volunteer
Donate
• vinyl windows
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• fenced pasture
• lovely creek!
@OregonPacBank
1601 15th Street • Florence, OR 97439
541-902-0304
Great Futures Start Here
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involved
• large outdoor deck
• newer furnace
• water heater
• insulation
541-997-7121 opbc.com
of Western Lane County
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Features:
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BOYS & GIRLS CLUB
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Association, Healthcare for All
Oregon Florence Chapter,
Florence Food Share and
Oregon Wild.
Primarily,
Miltenberger
wants to provide a fun, inform-
ative event that will educate,
entertain and inspire discussion
and, ultimately, action.
“The most important thing
the public can do is come,
check us out and bring children
and grandchildren to participate
in our hands on activities,” she
said. “Public participation is
our big motivation for doing
this in upcoming years. People
can also bring old cell phones,
ink cartridges, and bubble wrap
to recycle. Bring a chair if you
plan to stay a while and enjoy
our large variety of entertain-
ment.”
For more information on
Sunday’s Earth Day Festival,
call 503-705-0310.
We are proud to provide solutions to our
local business owners.
VOLUNTEERS 10A
12
to
2
90310 Highway 101, North Florence
the other earth related events
that are happening this week-
end. These include the Siuslaw
Cyclists Earth Day ride and
activities at Honeyman Park,”
she said. “Vision Quest is pre-
senting a series on birds at the
library on Saturday morning, a
bird watch on Sunday and there
is a free screening of the film,
‘Wasted! The Story of Food
Waste’ on Thursday at City
Lights Cinemas.”
Miltenberger is also encour-
aged by the participation of
other local groups.
“Businesses and organiza-
tions are still joining our cause
but these are the ones, so far,
who are either participating in a
booth or in donating goods and
services,” she said, listing
Shipping Solutions, the Rhody
Express and taxi service, the
Florence
ORganizes
Environmental Team, Florence
Master Recyclers, the Siuslaw
Chapter of Surfriders, EMAC,
Join the Peace Harbor Hospital Volunteers.
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in a caring organization.
Peace Harbor
Volunteers
400 9th Street, Florence, OR 97439
541-997-8412 ext. 2218
Do your part and
volunteer today
to help support
these local
Meals on Wheels are available to people over the
age of 60 who cannot get out much due to illness
or advanced age and who are not eating properly,
regardless of income. Cafe 60 is available for those
who prefer to make new friends in a dining room
setting.
1570 Kingwood • PO Box 2313, Florence
541-997-5673
laneseniormeals.org
Operating Monday, Wednesday and Friday
non-proft
organizations in
our community!
Saving men one
PSA test at a time.
541-997-6626
maribob@oregonfast.net
Someone to talk to...
who understands!