September 22, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 11A
Bridging the cultural divide
Exchange
program brings
Costa Rican
visitors to
Cannon Beach
By Brenna Visser
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Members of the Cannon Beach Chorus practice under the
direction of Dr. John Buehler, right, as the group prepares
for upcoming performances.
Community chorus still
‘healthy’ after 30 years
Chorus from Page 1A
Buehler, who started on
as the conductor in 2010, is
the former director of choral
studies at Baker University
in Kansas and led a variety
of community and collegiate
choirs for more than 40 years.
He moved to Cannon Beach
to be closer to his grandkids,
but over the past eight years
Cannon Beach has managed
to stand out in the chorale de-
partment, as well.
“It’s amazing to be as
healthy as we are at 30 years,”
Buehler said. “Most commu-
nity choirs in a town the size
of Cannon Beach don’t grow
to include members from other
communities. When in this day
in age our area of existence
seems to be getting smaller,
every person brings that sense
of community (to the choir).”
But what is now a robust,
four-part choir was born from
the humble beginnings of a
dozen or so people in 1988
deciding within the walls of
a local recording studio that
starting a community choir
could be fun.
Carole Whitlock, a longtime
Cannon Beach resident, was
one those founding members.
The original director, Danny
Lawson, owned a recording
studio in Sandpiper Square at
the time, which served as the
group’s first rehearsal space.
“We worked in the same
building, and we talked about
how it would fun to organize
a group to sing,” she said. “So
we did.”
Whitlock sang with the
group until 2000, weathering
a number of venue and direc-
tor changes. Averaging only
12 to 20 members, the group
struggled to maintain enough
voices, but it didn’t stop them
from performing all over town
at venues like Cannon Beach
City Park, local churches, the
Coaster Theatre, and even-
tually Carnegie Hall in New
York City.
In the beginning, most
of the music the group sang
leaned toward rock ’n’ roll
and musical theater — a large
departure from the current
group’s classical bent.
“There weren’t a lot of op-
tions at the time for singing,
so it was a special opportuni-
ty,” Whitlock said.
Since then, Susan Glarum,
the one member of the chorus
who has been involved since
its founding, said she has seen
the status of the chorus ebb
and flow with regard to partic-
ipation, quality and style.
“It just keeps getting better
and better,” she said. “I look
forward to the camaraderie
when I come to practice. I
wouldn’t see all these people
other than right here, working
toward a common goal.”
For Buehler, so many peo-
ple coming from such dif-
ferent backgrounds to create
something together is what
makes directing a community
chorus special.
“For a specific moment,
we all focus on a product to-
gether — and I don’t know
how many things in life go
that way,” he said.
With diversity comes chal-
lenges as well. With a variety
of skill levels and ages, Bue-
hler is faced with the chal-
lenge of meeting everyone
where they are at in terms of
technique and musicianship.
But working on those chal-
lenges every Monday night is
what makes this job best, he
said.
“Music does things to us
when we do music,” he said.
“In our choir we can show
joy, despair, healing and hope.
It makes the community feel
more.”
Cannon Beach Gazette
There was a lot to take in
during Alfredo Marin’s first
trip to Oregon. Back home in
Costa Rica, Marin had never
seen sea lions like the ones in
Astoria, and the clam chow-
der challenged the stereotype
American’s had bad food, he
said.
“In Costa Rica, you think
Americans only have ham-
burgers and hot dogs, but
that’s definitely not the case
here,” Marin said.
The views of Haystack
Rock were impressive, and
Oregon’s scenery expansive,
but what stood out to Marin
about Cannon Beach after a
day was the feeling of com-
munity.
“I live in the capital, San
Jose, and we’ve lost that
sense of neighborhood feel,”
he said. “You can see the
community building in the
library, HRAP — in Costa
Rica there isn’t as many pro-
grams for everyone.”
Marin was one of the four
visitors apart of the annu-
al Partners of the Americas
program, a program started
in the early 1960s that facil-
itates cultural exchanges be-
tween South American coun-
tries and American states.
Every state is partnered with
a country, but Oregon is the
only state that still provides
month-long, statewide home
stays and tours for Costa Ri-
can visitors.
The goal of the program
is to facilitate that feeling of
community Marin described,
as well as a way to under-
stand and bridge cultural bar-
riers.
Jeanie McLaughlin has
been one of the Cannon
Beach coordinators of the
program for more than 20
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Visitors learn the art of printmaking at Imprint Gallery.
‘In Costa Rica,
you think Americans only have hamburgers and hot dogs,
but that’s definitely not the case here.’
Alfredo Marin,
Costa Rican visitor with Partners of the Americas program
years. She has participat-
ed in the exchange herself
by traveling to Costa Rica
twice, and said she first got
involved when she heard
about the program from a
friend in town. A former
Spanish teacher, McLaughlin
found she fell in love with the
chance to meet new people
and broaden her horizons.
“It’s a really nice pro-
gram,” McLaughlin said.
“Some of the Costa Ricans
know Oregon better than
some of us locals by the end
of it.”
By the end of September,
those in the program will
have stayed in four separate
Oregon cities for a week
each. In Cannon Beach, that
involved potlucks, coffee
shops, art gallery and na-
ture tours. While the trip is
focused on showcasing as
much of Oregon as possible,
these exchanges also provide
invaluable experience for ev-
eryone to exercise their En-
glish and Spanish.
The program has been
established for more than
50 years, but the number of
people apart of the program
has been on the decline, pres-
ident Ned Heavenrich said.
The average these days for
the coastal chapter sits at
around 20, when ideally the
group used to see numbers
around 50.
Heavenrich sees the de-
cline due to the fact most
members are retired and old-
er, and the program hasn’t
been attracting enough new
members to make up for the
natural attrition. Budget cuts
from the federal government
also has contributed to de-
clining numbers.
“You can’t get that per-
sonal, cultural connection
with someone without ex-
changes,” Heavenrich said.
“You can’t look up online
and learn about a family’s
passion or activities. We have
a lot to learn.”
And the lessons the pro-
gram originally sought out to
teach are still relevant today,
McLaughlin said,
“It’s relevant now more
than ever to promote peace
and understanding to coun-
tries south of the border And
we still need that a lot in our
political climate,” she said.
Marin, 38, is one of the
few in the program who is
not retired. His passion for
exchange programs came
from his mother, whom he
said hosted visitors from all
over the world growing up.
He hopes to keep the tradi-
tion alive in his own home.
“It’s a humbling experi-
ence. I feel very tiny when
I travel,” he said. “But so
much good can happen when
you learn from others.”
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