4A • June 17, 2016 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Views from the Rock
invitation to
Cannon Beach is launchpad An
the purple martin
for Bob Quick’s journey
I
SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Troy Easton, Lt. Chris Wilbur, Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn and Bob Quick.
W
hat a way to make a friend — in the back of an
ambulance as you’re suffering cardiac failure.
Landscaper Bob Quick of Roy, Utah
— just west of Ogden — led an unhealthy
lifestyle. He paid the price in 2004.
“I could tell he was dying as soon as I saw him, for sure,”
paramedic Troy Easton said. “Complete cardiac failure, ash-
en, blood pressure, 80 over nothing, he was real anxious, you
know you’re dying. He said, ‘Please do everything you can to
save my life.’”
Easton, fi rst on the scene, said Quick had no pulse and was
not breathing when they “let him have it,” shocking him with
360 joules from a defi brillator.
For three-and-a-half minutes, Quick’s life hung in the balance.
As Quick, now 55, entered the “white light,” he recounted
last week in Cannon Beach, “I said, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to
change,’ and I woke up three days later.”
“I’m not sure whether I had a choice to save him or not,
but he wouldn’t have had a very good lifestyle,” Easton said.
“Not very many people come back.”
Quick’s survival was a result of Easton’s quick action
and subsequent medical treatment — stents, bypass surgery,
and multiple cardiac procedures, according to Easton. Quick
suffered so much damage — the lower third of his heart was
dead — he required a pacemaker defi brillator for survival.
San Diego to St. Augustine
Less than a decade later, in 2013, Quick had built himself
into shape and proposed a unique thank-you for the emergency
responders who came to his assistance. He conceived a plan to
bicycle from coast to coast, the fi rst man to embark on a trans-
continental ride with 16 heart stents and a defi brillator.
Easton and his wife Marla, owners of Easton Health and
Safety Solutions in Ogden, sponsored the ride from San Diego,
California, to St. Augustine, Florida.
The 91-day journey went through Southern California’s Im-
perial Valley, where temperatures reached 114 degrees on the
ride. Quick and his son, Conrad, rode at night when necessary,
“It was an appreciation ride and thank-you to public safety
for their response,” Easton said. “Bob’s job was to go shake
hands and kiss babies.”
“Say hello to your hometown heroes, because that’s what
they are,” Quick said. “The ones that never hear a thank-you.”
When they landed back in Salt Lake City, they were greeted
by fi refi ghters and emergency personnel lined on the runway
in a V-formation.
Onward to Cannon Beach
Quick, along with the Eastons and their two daughters,
arrived June 7 in Cannon Beach via RV to launch the fi rst leg
of Quick’s second transcontinental journey, a 3,400-mile trek
from Cannon Beach to Fire Island, New York.
This time, Troy Easton will pedal alongside Quick.
“Being the fi rst paramedic to save him, I said, ‘I’ll go with
you,’” Easton, 48, said. “I’ve got to watch him. He’s a go-get-
ter, he’s done amazing things but I’ve got to reel him back. It
won’t be much of an journey if we kill him.”
Quick had never been to Oregon, and originally suggested
San Francisco as their launch point.
Easton vetoed that. “Bob wanted to take me through
Nevada,” he said. “We were going to go from San Francisco
CANNON BEACH GAZETTE/SUBMITTED PHOTO
Th e route Bob Quick and Troy Easton will follow on their
ride.
to Nevada from Reno to Salt Lake — 512 miles of sheer hell.
Why would you do that? You could cook an egg on the hood
of your car.”
Easton’s daughters had recently vacationed in Cannon
Beach, and loved the city and its scenic beauty.
He successfully pitched the idea to Quick: “We’re going
to Haystack, Jack!”
Quick agreed, and began preparation for the trip, which
would conclude 3,400 miles away.
He got a “tune-up” from medical personnel, including
another stent, implanted through the groin up the femoral
artery. “The key was getting him ready internally, externally,
mind for the next ride,” Easton said.
The Eastons used the same tests on Quick they use for
performance testing of fi re and police personnel.
This ride expands the original goals of the 2013 trip. Along
with thank-yous to emergency services, Quick and his team hope
to raise awareness of physical fi tness and health, and they are
raising funds to provide iPads to schools service autistic children.
Quick’s grandson, Bruce, 6, is autistic.
On the road
Quick and Easton, who took off June 1, were headed for
Salem and then to Bend.
The northern route promises cooler weather and scenic
beauty, along with the opportunity to participate in a three-
day event planned for St. Jude Medical in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. They’ll then take 250 miles of trail from St. Paul
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
With food, tents, sleeping bags and stoves, “We’ve got
everything we need,” Easton said.
They plan to travel about 50 miles a day. To prevent diar-
rhea or cramps, they eat glutamates and protein — to maintain
their energy, they’ll need about 8,700 calories per day.
“We’ve been training hard the last little while,” Easton said.
“But once that heart rate goes up over your threshold and
that lactic acid is rocking and you’ve still got seven miles up
that hill still that’s so heartbreaking, when you’re riding a
140-pound bike. I’m used to a 17-pound bike.”
This should be a wakeup call for all of us — you don’t
have to suffer a heart attack to participate in life, the “full
catastrophe.” Your crowning moment is right now.
The journey offers inspiration to “seize the day” — before
the day seizes you.
‘Start moving and grooving’
Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason
Schermerhorn and Lt. Chris Wilbur off ered
a salute to Troy Easton and Bob Quick
before their fi rst leg Wednesday morning.
“It’s such a good endeavor for a good
cause,” Schermerhorn said. “He’s says he’s
thankful for law enforcement and fi re and
medical for everything they do because
of the battles he’s been through with his
drug addiction and getting clean. I’m
honored to have met him, and just the
work he’s doing to help others is a great
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testament to what he’s doing.”
The rescue component is one all law
enforcement offi cers must face, wheth-
er in Cannon Beach or Chicago. “We’ve
performed CPR countless number of
times and it’s very hard to bring people
back,” Schermerhorn said. “When you
have that opportunity, it’s good to know
CPR does work. With him, what a great
tribute and that he’s now able to change
others’ lives as well. For all the things he’s
been through with the stents and the
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pacemaker, it’s very courageous.”
“When we saved Bob he was way
down low,” Easton said. “He’s so inspir-
ing — I was a fl ight paramedic and
had a huge accident a year ago. I got
addicted to pain pills, gained a bunch of
weight. It’s come full circle and now he’s
saving me, You never know. If you’ve got
coronary artery disease, face overweight
and obesity, diabetes, addiction — start
moving and grooving, and you can pull
yourself out of it.”
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have had many wonderful bird adventures this last
month including becoming a bird whisperer to purple
martins. Here’s how it happened!
Just after Mother’s Day, some wonderful friends helped
me put up a structure for purple martin nesting. (Thank you
to Shoaib, Kara, John and Scott.) It’s a 25-foot tall T-shaped
bar with a winch. The crossbars have eight gourds hanging
from them. It is about 40 feet from my house on the edge
of Neawanna
Creek, perfect
nesting territory
BIRD NOTES
for the martins.
SUSAN
BOAC
Each morning
when I woke up
at 5:30 a.m., I
played the purple
martin dawn song on my back porch. This is done to attract
the scouts that are out looking for more purple martin bird
habitat as they migrate and fl y around in the area.
Nothing seemed to be happening, no martins in sight. I
thought of another approach. Hearing of a colony of purple
martins in Astoria, I decided to stop by for a talk. Each
morning on my way to work as I crossed the old Young’s
Bay Bridge I took a right and stopped at the Yacht Club —
you know, right there where the gillnetters park their boats
and talked to the purple martin colony. I said “Hey, I know
this great new place in Seaside! It’s affordable housing,
it’s so close to water, in a quiet neighborhood and close to
the beach! Well, it worked! That Saturday, a purple martin
showed up! And on Sunday he landed on the crossbars then
checked out each of the gourds. (so much fun to watch, I
got nothing done that day!) The next day, he brought back a
friend! I haven’t witnessed them putting in nesting material
but they do come back and visit the affordable housing
frequently and I hope we soon have purple martins nesting
in Seaside.
Please join us for a special bird walk sponsored by Ecola
Creek Awareness Project, Sunday, June 26, 9 a.m. to noon.
We’re going to retrace Mike Patterson’s walk around Can-
non Beach that he described during the Friends of Haystack
Rock lecture series last winter. We’ll be walking from the
Lagoon Trail across the beach to Haystack Rock through
a neighborhood and back to the Lagoon hopefully in three
hours.
Also our First Sunday bird walks continue to happen.
The next one will be on July 3, so if you’re in town, join
us 9 a.m. at the lagoon trail on Second Street. As a group,
we decide where the best birding is and bird until about 11.
Bring binoculars and wear appropriate clothing. Everyone is
welcome!
Susan has spent her life enjoying the great outdoors from
the lakes and woods of Northern Minnesota, Mount Adams
in Washington and now the Oregon beach environs. After
spending many pleasurable hours driving her avid birder
parents around, she has taken up birding as a passion, to
the mixed emotions of her husband Scott. The Boacs reside
on Neawanna Creek in Seaside where their backyard is a
birder’s paradise.
LETTERS
Budget control?
I was dismayed to read about the Cannon Beach budget
plans (“Cannon Beach boosts budget by a third,” The Daily
Astorian, May 6). Acquiring property in the tsunami inunda-
tion zone sounds like a horrible idea.
The idea that “as you enter town we want something we
can be very proud of” indicates that there will be a massive
building project ahead, with associated tax increases. If the city
truly wants to beautify, I would suggest spending the money
on underground utilities, better maintaining landscaping in
parking areas and paving streets.
Also interesting was money budgeted for a “salary sur-
vey.” Will the taxpayers ever see the results, or will it be like
the last expensive survey?
Since this type of survey is commonly used to justify sala-
ry increases, if the results show employees are overpaid, will
it quietly be fi led away? How about some transparency here?
Philip Hall
Cannon Beach
Ways to greatness
We won’t pay for eternity if you are “feeling the Bern,”
according to Thomas Friedman (“Politicians and the lies that
matter,” The Daily Astorian, June 2).
Here is the truth. The conservatives want you to think that
a Bernie Sanders administration will make you pay taxes for
eternity, but history (and I lived the history) points out that
it’s not true. History has been kind to many of the Boomers. I
paid $90 a quarter at Cal State University, Los Angeles in the
early 1970s. That’s because the top federal tax rates were at 50
percent for earned income, 70 percent for unearned income
and 32 percent for capital gains.
Education was subsidized — then came Reagan. The
conservatives’ goal is to starve government by cutting taxes
for the wealthy and businesses so we can’t afford to have a
functioning democratic society. This has almost been accom-
plished. That’s why there is so much anger.
How will a Bernie administration or a socialistic adminis-
tration accomplish the great ideas? It’s easy:
1. Raise the ceiling on Social Security so the wealthy pay
more into the program. No tax increase on everyone, just the
wealthy.
2. Charge a .025 fee on high -speed stock transactions to
pay for college. No tax increase.
3. Medicare for all is paid for by paying a tax instead of a
premium. What’s the difference? We already pay into Medi-
care, so we keep on making the payment and voila, Medicare
for all. No tax increase.
4. Break up the banks and large corporations by activating
the Sherman Antitrust Act.
5. Bring back Glass-Steagall Act.
So, these are the ways we can make America great again
… more equality.
Pamela Jacobson
Arch Cape
See Letters, Page 5A
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