10A • January 26, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
When mutual respect, inclusion go hand-in-hand
Tillamook County
resident celebrates
civil rights icon
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
MANZANITA — When LaNi-
cia Williams moved to Tillamook
County a few years ago, it was the
first place she had lived without any
sort of celebration for Martin Lu-
ther King Jr. Day.
“I just didn’t know what to do
with myself. I was used to being a
part of something,” she said.
Williams decided to change that
last year by starting the Oregon
Coast Love Coalition, an activist
group that focuses on equity educa-
tion and creating inclusive events of
all religions, races, nationalities and
sexuality. Last year, she prepared
a community breakfast with a fo-
cus on racial issues. This year, the
coalition expanded celebrating the
LaNicia Williams
holiday with three days of events,
including a movie with commu-
nity dialogue, presentations about
civil rights leaders at the Hoffman
Center for the Arts in Manzanita
and a day of service. More than 40
volunteers were registered to help
build six different homes around
Tillamook County for Habitat for
Humanity.
“Traditionally, Martin Luther
King Jr. Day is celebrated as a day
of service,” Williams said. “We live
in an individualistic society. We for-
get that people have needs around
us..”
It’s important to Williams to
plan these events, she said, because
in a time where there is an “upheav-
al of political and social climate,”
people need to find what bonds
them together.
“It seems like (the community)
doesn’t have a lot of diversity, but it
does. And it is growing,” Williams
said. “I think it’s time to stop focus-
ing on what separates us and to start
focusing on what bonds us, which
to me is love.”
Part of what inspired Williams to
bring people together comes from
the struggles of feeling different
herself after moving to the coast.
As a black woman in a county that
is 84 percent white, Williams not-
ed difficult conversations with her
neighbors about race. Her devout
faith also separated her from her
peers, she said.
“Back in California, I grew up
in church. When I moved here, I
almost lost spirituality, because I
never had lived around a population
where most don’t have a belief in
God the same way I did,” Williams
said. “I had to learn to be respect-
ful of different viewpoints, holding
my truths but not casting down my
opinion upon others. I matured to a
place of listening.”
It’s a lesson she hopes her coali-
tion can continue to teach by incor-
porating new inclusion mentorship
programs through the Tillamook
and Neah-Kah-Nie school districts,
as well as continuing to bring dif-
ferent people to the table to talk
about equity issues past just one
day of the year in January.
“You don’t have to agree on ev-
erything to live with each other, to
live in a world of inclusion,” she
said. “To move forward, how do we
get different thinkers in the same
room and find that we have more
commonalities than we think?”
WOMEN’S EXPO
A gathering of businesses and en-
trepreneurs comes to Seaside in
February.
Oregon Coast
Women’s Expo
The Oregon Coast Women’s
Expo is an annual gathering of
women in business, entrepreneurs,
change-makers and dreamers. The
one-day event brings together women
vendors showcasing unique products
and services from the Oregon coast,
guest speakers, awards ceremony and
celebration of creative entrepreneurs
and the womanly spirit, Feb. 18, 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center in Seaside.
Lifelong love of theater fuels dream for Seaside’s Katherine Lacaze
Lacaze from Page 1A
and will appear this year in
“Noises Off” at the Coaster.
She also plans to do the cho-
reography for “Musical of
Musicals” at the Coaster this
summer.
In addition, Lacaze is
directing “Peter Pan” this
spring for the Astor Street
Opry Company and a one-act
health-related play sponsored
by Providence Seaside Hos-
pital.
Eventually, she said, she
would like to establish a non-
profit Clatsop Children’s The-
atre Company.
“I love theater in general,”
she said. “It allows me to ex-
plore the world around me. It
gives me different perspec-
tives. I can explore grief and
difficult hardships in a safe
place.”
Lacaze, who moved to
Seaside four years ago to be
a reporter for the Seaside Sig-
nal, said she wanted to help
Eventually, Lacaze
said, she would
like to establish a
nonprofit Clatsop
Children’s Theatre
Company.
the community develop activ-
ities for children, something
she felt was missing.
“I feel this community
doesn’t have a lot of afford-
able outlets for children,” said
Lacaze.
“This is such a tourist-ori-
ented town. We work hard to
provide activities for tourists.
But we also say we’re a fami-
ly-oriented town, and we need
to provide fun, enjoyable and
educational activities for chil-
dren, something they can take
pride in.”
Lacaze’s idea of partnering
with the Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District fits
COURTESY KATHERINE LACAZE
The cast of last year’s production, “Alice in Wonderland.”
well with the district’s goals,
said Skyler Archibald, district
director.
“Certain interests are well
represented — such as athlet-
ics — but this one was not,”
Archibald said. “We want to
provide positive activities for
children, and this was right up
play last summer.
While she had some as-
sistance with “Alice in Won-
derland” last year, thanks to
friend Ellen Jensen, who also
performs at the Coaster The-
atre, and the Coaster’s cos-
tume designer, Judith Light,
Lacaze did most of the pro-
our alley.
The recreation district
offered rehearsal space and
some business structure to
support Lacaze. “It was a
good partnership for both of
us.”
Jeremy Mills State Farm
Insurance also sponsored the
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duction work herself, which
presented some challenges.
“The plays might not have
been the highest caliber, but
we were giving the kids a
chance they could get excited
about,” Lacaze said. “When
the kids were in their cos-
tumes, they had so much fun.
I love providing that. And the
kids are so forgiving when it
comes to the production. I’m
such a perfectionist, but the
kids don’t see it that way.”
Lacaze also enjoyed intro-
ducing theater to the children,
many who were on the stage
for the first time.
“The kids came out of their
shells,” she said. “They were
proud of themselves and what
they had accomplished.”
Archibald, whose daugh-
ter was in the play, called the
performances “amazing.”
Lacaze, he said, “pulled
it all together. She had some
long days and long rehearsals,
but I think the children will
fondly remember it.”
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