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10A • May 19, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com Student group spreads the love By Katherine Lacaze For EO Media Group Seaside High School’s Breaking the Silence group is preparing to douse Seaside with messages of positivity when they take to the streets for a Happiness Sprinkling on May 24. They will be marching with dozens of their fellow students and teachers, as well as any community members who care to join. By carrying signs with positive messages, wearing yellow, handing out paper stars to passers-by along the way and playing uplifting music, they hope to spread joy and kindness in the community. Shirley Yates, the faculty ad- viser for the Seaside group, said the students want “a climate change, where people are all treated equal and with honor.” The idea for the Happiness Sprinkling was borrowed from the Anacortes Center for Hap- piness, which put on a similar demonstration in Anacortes, Wash., in May 2012. Since then, the Happiness Sprinkling Project has spread, first nation- wide and now worldwide. Breaking the silence After a public incident of bullying at the high school earlier this year, a few stu- dents were moved to estab- lish a group that would take a stand against not only bully- ing but all forms of violence, prejudice and abuse, and also provide a positive voice in the school and larger community. “You can’t control the way you are,” said junior Celeste Kerr, who initiated the move- ment along with Jasmine Hewitt, Faythe Koontz and Lev Grossman Karl Marlantes James Owen Get Lit on literature KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR EO MEDIA GROUP Seaside High School members, who call themselves Silence Breakers, are organizing a Sea- side version of a Happiness Sprinkling starting at 2 p.m. May 24. Brittany Case. “We shouldn’t be ridiculed in a school that’s supposed to be safe. If it is a safe, healthy environment, it’s not going to include that kind of stuff in our lives.” Student Aaron Kiser de- scribed how too often at school, one will be looking at other individuals and see that “something is happening or someone is crying.” “It’s always easy to be quiet and not say a word,” he said. “You’re just passing by or you’re busy.” Yet, he added, while at first it may seem difficult to approach those people, talk to them and ask what’s going on, doing so can make a signifi- cant difference. “Just asking someone if they’re OK can save a life,” agreed fellow student Kodie Stark. Hence, Breaking the Si- lence was deemed a fitting description and title for what the students hope to accom- plish by uniting with one an- other. Bullying has affected each of the members in one way or another. Some are the victims of bullying, some for- mer perpetrators, and others were witnesses. A few had taken each role at one point or another. They have seen the negative ramifications of bullying, including self-harm and suicide, and want to make a difference. “In order for a change to happen, everyone has to do something about it,” group member Autumn Benthien said. “That’s kind of what we’re doing. We’re trying to make that change and get ev- eryone to not only see what they’re doing, but also help people with their struggles.” When a tragedy occurs as a result of bullying, people of- ten are shaken up and willing to change, but “that’s not how it should be,” Kiser said, add- ing people should be kind to one another “every single day without something like that happening.” “It should never have to come to that,” he said. Fellow student Lola Pas- er-Johnson echoed that senti- ment. “It’s sad to think that some- one has to take their life in or- der for people to see that it’s a big thing, that someone has to kill themselves in order for people to realize, ‘Wow, bully- ing is a big deal,’” she said. On May 24 at 2 p.m. the students will leave the school starting from the entrance fac- ing Holladay Drive and march downtown. The Silence Break- ers are inviting community members and students from other schools to participate in the Happiness Sprinkling and march with them. They re- quest that all participants wear yellow. For more information, contact Yates at 503-738-5586. Students step up for Laundry Love High-schoolers volunteer for local program By Katherine Lacaze For EO Media Group What can a handful of coins, some laundry detergent and friendly service do for a person? Two Seaside High School students have spent months learning the answer to this question by volunteering for the local Laundry Love program. “It’s a small way to make a big difference,” senior Marys- ol Alcantar said. Alcantar and fellow senior Channene Prendergast are doing their Pacifica Projects with Laundry Love, a nation- wide charity that has been administered at the local lev- el by nonprofit At the Water’s Gate for about four years. It is held from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. the second Saturday of each month at The Laundromat off U.S. Highway 101. The students’ involvement began in October 2016, when they helped sort clothes and set up for the annual Winter Clothing Giveaway at the No- vember Laundry Love. Since Molly Gloss KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR EO MEDIA GROUP Seniors Marysol Alcanta and Channene Prendergast. then, Alcantar has attended and assisted with each Laun- dry Love event, an ongoing experience that has made an impact on her. “To me, this was new,” she said. “I had never really vol- unteered in any way, and I like it a lot. I feel like I’ll probably keep going still, even after we graduate.” Her desire to continue helping with the program is fueled by the response of the people who are served, about 20 to 25 per month. Many of them are regulars who come each time. “They’re just as excited to get their clothes cleaned as they were the month before,” she said. “It’s nice to see how they react toward the help they get.” In addition to providing funds for each individual or family to do two loads of laun- dry, the program also offers free hygienic products — in- cluding socks, soap, deodorant and toothpaste — and coffee and snacks or a small meal. As many of the people who attend the Laundry Love events are homeless or underprivileged, and don’t have the opportunity to readily purchase those items, “we definitely want to look out for them,” Prendergast said. The program is funded by do- nations to At the Water’s Gate from the local community, as well as donors across Oregon and Washington. Prendergast, who usually works on weekends, mostly is aiding the program from behind the scenes. She assists Shirley Yates – who runs At the Water’s Gate with her hus- band, Carl — at the office. Some of her responsibilities include organizing supplies, updating records, shopping for hygienic items, contacting news outlets, advertising the monthly events and other ad- ministrative work. Diving in deeper As with any Pacifica Proj- ect — a requirement for grad- uation at Seaside High School — the students must tie in their volunteer work to the topics of their senior papers. Alcantar’s senior paper is focused on school bullying. At first, she said, she wasn’t sure how the two would relate, but while gathering information, she learned how students can be bullied for their clothing or appearance. This connection was made more pronounced as some of the Laundry Love attendees bring their school- aged children. Alcantar dis- covered that “for them to struggle not to be able to have clothes or wash them as often, they could get bullied at school for it,” she said. Prendergast’s paper ex- plored the idea of gender equality in the workforce. During her time assisting with Laundry Love, she came to find most of the other vol- unteers also were women. A question she addressed in her paper was whether socially reinforced stereotypes about compassion or nurturing be- ing feminine qualities played a role in that outcome. “I discovered it’s mostly society that stereotypes gen- ders into thinking they have to do things,” she said, adding these stereotypes then often perpetuate themselves. Sixth annual event celebrates fiction By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette Author Molly Gloss says that much of her writing is inspired by what does not exist. In her case, the story she seeks to tell is one of pioneer women of the American West, a genre best known for cowboys, gun fights and the eternal romance of rid- ing off into the sunset. “I have had a lifetime passion of reading Western fiction,” Gloss said. “But what I couldn’t find was the great Western novel with a woman at the center of it.” The fourth-generation Oregonian will be sharing her experience about those stories and how she arrived at them with four other best- selling authors at the sixth annual Get Lit on the Beach, May 19 through 21 in Can- non Beach. Organized by the Tolova- na Arts Colony, Get Lit will include a series of presen- tations and networking op- portunities from Lev Gross- man, Karl Marlantes, James Owen and, the ‘Master of Ceremonies,’ Terry Brooks — authors whose genres cover history, Western, fan- tasy and speculative fiction, Tolovana Arts Colony Chair Watt Childress said. “People will have the opportunity to have a close relationship with these au- thors. It’s different than go- ing to just a book signing,” Childress said. “You also have an opportunity to get those folks personally.” Taking the plunge This will be Gloss’ first time at Get Lit. She is best known for her novels “The Jump-Off Creek,” “The Dazzle of Day,” “Wild Life,” “The Hearts of Hors- es” and “Falling From Hors- es.” Her work has earned several awards, including an Oregon Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Booksell- ers Award. Gloss always knew she wanted to be a writer, but didn’t take the serious plunge until she was in her 30s, after her son was born. “Writing became the one place I could just be Molly instead of a mother and a wife,” Gloss said. A lot of Gloss’ inspira- tion comes from digging into the past, whether that means reading memoirs of people in the West during the First World War, manuals on how to break horses from that era, or even living on a ranch in Idaho by herself to fully un- derstand the lifestyle. The old Western cowboy trope is often considered a relic of a bygone era. But Gloss said it is a theme that is becoming more and more culturally relevant. “The American cowboy hero has a lot of good qual- ities: He’s self-reliant and brave,” Gloss said. “But he also has a dark side, one fascinated with violence and guns, gangs and deadbeat fathers. The mythology of the West continues to shape American culture.” It’s a culture, she said, that is still shaping the Unit- ed States’ current political climate, even the president himself. “(President Donald Trump) is not really trying to be a cowboy hero, but his role can be demonstrated as the swaggering sheriff who runs the town,” she said. In Gloss’ work, tough- ness and resiliency is not gendered, and the romance of open fields unfettered by fences is an all but univer- sal love. By sharing more narratives about the women behind the scenes — wom- en breaking in horses and keeping the lives of pioneers afloat — she said she hopes to nudge the narrative in a different direction. Truth in fiction Widening that narrative is particularly significant in a time that some call a “post- truth era,” dominated by the discussion of alternative facts and fake news, Gloss said. “Fiction is where we can point to the truth,” she said. “Fiction is more significant than it ever has been. It’s where you get your sourc- es of empathy, where you discover you have more in common with a character than you realize. It’s not about the facts then, it’s about how people live their lives, and discovering truth within that.” Full pass tickets are $85; the Friday evening recep- tion is $30; and the Saturday night dinner and keynote speaker presentation is $70. Tickets may still be available on-site or at www.getlitat- thebeach.com. 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