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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2018)
2A • February 9, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com FROM SURFING TO SERVING Surf instructor becomes Cannon Beach Police Department’s newest officer By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette efore becoming Cannon Beach’s newest police of- ficer, Cody Dietel could be found at the Cannon Beach Surf Shop teaching surf lessons. Summer after summer, Di- etel remembers coming to Can- non Beach with his family to surf. Each time he would get his rentals from the surf shop, until about five years ago when asked the shop’s owner, Mark Meke- nas, about a job. “I met him when we he was a kid, known him most of his life,” Mekenas said. “We’re going to B miss him around the shop, but we encouraged him to go. We’re proud of him.” What brought Dietel to Can- non Beach was his love for the water and the sport. But as his fondness for the community grew, so did his desire to serve it. His opportunity to do so came when the police officer position came open last year. “It may not be the most de- sired profession right now. But it’s a job where you have to be willing to put others before your- self,” Dietel said. “That’s some- thing everywhere needs and de- serves.” Dietel was sworn in at Tues- day’s City Council meeting. He will be sent to a policy acade- my in March before starting his training period with the de- partment. He is replacing Josh Gregory, who left the position last spring to become a sergeant with Seaside Police Depart- ment. “He’s down to earth, he has a good head on his shoulders and understands the community,” said Cannon Beach Police Chief Jason Schermerhorn. Dietel grew up in Hawkin- son, Washington. His initial interest in first responder work started in high school when a friend’s father encouraged him to apply for the firefighter ca- det program. He took interest, and briefly studied fire science at Lower Columbia College and general studies at Washington State University. He currently Cody Dietel lives in Seaside, and when he’s not work- ing, can be found on his surfboard or in his garage doing some woodworking. With this being his first job in policing, he said he expects there to be challenges. He expects to be facing difficult situations he has yet to encounter so far in his 30-year-old life. “It’ll be different. But they are similar in that they are both com- munity-oriented,” Dietel said. Overall, he said he’s excited for this new chapter in the rela- tionship between himself and Cannon Beach. “I’ve been coming to Cannon Beach for more than 25 years. Getting to work with the com- munity like this means a great deal to me,” Dietel said. ‘IT MAY NOT BE THE MOST DESIRED PROFESSION RIGHT NOW. BUT IT’S A JOB WHERE YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO PUT OTHERS BEFORE YOURSELF.’ —Cody Dietel Volunteer firefighter stays close to home in Cannon Beach Avila is also a student ‘We grew up with emergency planning…. I feel like I should be scared. But growing up we did all the drills. You can’t live in fear of what happens next.’ By Brenna Visser Cannon Beach Gazette Firefighters have always had a steady presence in Sil- via Avila’s life. Born and raised in Cannon Beach, she would get to know them as they would stop in for coffee at her job at Cheri’s Cafe & Cannon Beach Cook- ie. She even remembers put- ting on firefighting gear her- self as a kindergartner during a school field trip to the fire station. But perhaps where she was most intimately familiar was at her aunt’s house, when firefighters and paramedics responded when her cousin’s seizures would get out of hand. “I felt very helpless. I want- ed to change that feeling, be- cause I wanted to be able to help,” Avila, 19, said. “That’s —Silvia Avila BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE Silvia Avila at the Cannon Beach fire station. where my passion progressed from.” Moments like these in- spired her senior Pacifica proj- ect at Seaside High School, where she chose to volunteer at the fire station and enroll in Community Emergency Re- sponse Team training. Even as her project came to a close, her passion for medicine and the desire to help led to her eventually be- coming a Cannon Beach vol- unteer firefighter herself the spring of 2016. “I guess they just couldn’t get rid of me,” she laughed. A year later, Avila now splits her time between vol- unteer firefighting and study- ing EMT and paramedic studies at Lane Community College in Eugene with her brother, who also is a volun- teer firefighter. Avila said one of her fa- vorite aspects of the work is the camaraderie. She craves learning new skills like pre- paring IV fluids and injury prevention techniques. But working in a commu- nity where she has such close ties has also presented per- sonal challenges. “My biggest challenge was definitely going on scene to my cousin’s car accident. That was a traumatic mo- ment,” Avila said. Avila remembers being asked to do traffic control — a task she had done multiple times before since she is not yet qualified to conduct some of the emergency tactics nec- essary in a major car accident. “At the end of the call we’re debriefing, another member of the team was de- scribing her, and it immedi- ately started to click. I asked if anyone recognized her name, and it was her,” she said. “She was in the hospital for about three months. It was all very hard to process.” If anything, the accident only emboldened her desire to protect the community she grew up loving, she said. “Growing up in Cannon Beach felt very safe. It was kind of surreal. My cousins and I would play on the beach, pretend we’re tourists out on the town, going back to our hotel,” she said. “Cannon Beach is special. I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be.” If there’s one thing she doesn’t love about Cannon Beach, she said it would be “the impending tsunami, I guess.” As a child in a beach town, the value of emergency preparedness was taught ear- ly in her family, and some- thing that has guided her life. “We grew up with emer- gency planning. We have gone through many warn- ings,” she said. “Whenever we’d hear about a warning we’d stay up, drinking coffee and watching the news with our go-bags ready to go. It was almost like a family ac- tivity. “I feel like I should be scared,” she continued. “But growing up we did all the drills. You can’t live in fear of what happens next.” 100’ Wide Lot! 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