April 6, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 5A
Hemingway among the stars of April library programs
W
elcome to spring, library
friends and visitors!
Hopefully you were
all at our annual springtime library
event at the Chamber Hall this past
Wednesday, we hosted our member
and volunteer appreciation lun-
cheon. We enjoyed a delicious meal
and shared warmth and friend-
ship, as we expressed our deepest
appreciation to our members and
volunteers for all the hard work and
time put into keeping our library
the efficient place it has been for 91
years. Many thanks also to those of
you who were unable to join us!
Looking ahead to next week,
at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11,
we will be hosting the final HRAP
lecture of the 2017-2018 series. This
month our speaker will be Katie
Voelke, director of the North Coast
Land Conservancy. Her presenta-
tion is entitled “Life in the Coastal
Edge.”
AT THE LIBRARY
CARLA O’REILLY
Cannon Beach Reads, our
reading/discussion group, will
meet at the library on Wednesday,
April 18, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. This
month the members have been
reading For Whom the Bell Tolls,
by Ernest Hemingway. The book
tells the story of Robert Jordan, a
young American in the International
Brigades attached to an antifascist
guerilla unit in the mountains of
Spain. The book tells of loyalty and
courage, love and defeat, and the
tragic death of an ideal. As always,
new members will be welcomed
warmly!
Mark your calendars, our next
membership meeting will be at 10
CANNON BEACH LIBRARY
Celebrating volunteers at the 2016 library dinner in Cannon Beach.
a.m. on Wednesday, May 2 — join
us for a delicious brunch and voting
for our officers and members of the
library board — you don’t want to
miss this important membership
meeting.
Calling all lovers of rare and old
literature! Memorial weekend, May
26 to May 28, we will be holding a
rare and old book sale. Doors will
be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all
weekend. You don’t want to miss
this special sale.
A couple of reminders: It is
time to pay your library mem-
bership dues of $10. This can be
done at the membership meeting
or by stopping by the library. Also,
this is the time of year to clean
out your bookshelves and closets
of already-read books. We are in
the process of collecting books
for our 4th of July book sale! You
may bring the books by the library
during the hours we’re open. Also,
we have tax cards available if you
would like to claim your donation.
The pricing committee encourages
you to bring the books by as soon
as possible, so they can be priced
and processed.
Enjoy the “warmth” of spring,
Library lovers — and if the weather
is rainy, you can still come to the li-
brary and read by the cozy fireplace!
Improving student performance is Fire Mountain’s mission
T
his is the first installment
of a new column submitted
by Fire Mountain School,
a local independent elementary
school located just south of Cannon
Beach and surrounded by the magic
of Oswald West State Park. Our
school’s goal is to nurture curious,
confident, creative problem solvers
and stewards of their home place.
By providing a foundation of
experiential, hands on education for
the whole child, the Fire Mountain
Community supports healthy, happy,
lifelong learners.
In the United States, how to best
educate our children is a constant
topic of debate, with educators and
lawmakers in a seeming spiral of
evaluating, reevaluating and mandat-
and examine the variety of approach-
es to education around the globe.
The news is full of education
statistics like this one: in 2015, U.S.
schools were ranked 24th and 38th in
the world in science and math. This
unhappy ranking is provided by the
program for International Student
Assessment and based on tests taken
every three years by 15-year-olds
around the world.
In 2015 in math and science the
U.S. fell behind all Asian coun-
tries, Finland, and most European
countries. We’re ranked lower than
Poland, Denmark, Estonia, Portu-
gal, Germany, New Zealand and
Slovenia.
For the last 15 years the focus of
U.S. education has largely shifted
EDUCATION TALKS
KATIE VOELKE
ing new approaches. We all want our
schools to produce citizens who are
healthy, happy, lifelong learners, but
how best to do that?
This column will look at this
question and more —we’ll investi-
gate education systems from around
the world and look at different
educational philosophies and styles
of teaching. Writers will be parents,
grandparents, and Alumni of our
north coast schools. We will cele-
brate great local school moments,
to assessment through testing. And
while math, science and reading are
relatively easy to test, we also know
that testing and teaching to those
tests leave huge gaps. For instance,
where are the reports about that
student who has an innate talent
for drawing or the one who knows
where their body is in space while
kicking a soccer ball? How are our
students faring in other areas? You
can’t necessarily test for all areas of
genius. According to Howard Gard-
ner of Harvard University there are
nine kinds of human intelligence. He
says that these differences “challenge
an educational system that assumes
that everyone can learn the same
materials in the same way and that a
uniform, universal measure suffices
to test student learning.”
In this column, we intend to re-
port on and be a part of a broad ed-
ucational conversation recognizing
that our education system is creating
the citizens of the future and in that
it shapes the world, our country and
our wonderful North Coast.
We launch this column during the
first days of spring and are ready to
celebrate! May Day Celebration is
coming up at Fire Mountain School
on May 6th. There will be music,
food, cake and best of all, dancing
around the May Pole. Bring your
families and friends, the whole com-
munity is welcome!
For more information, visit
Firemountainschool.org or contact
firemountainschool@gmail.com.
Rodeo, pokers stops and more at Fat Bike Fest
By Chris Olson
For EO Media Group
Fat bike enthusiasts will
descend on the quaint coast-
al village of Cannon Beach
the weekend of April 20 to
April 22 to enjoy the Oregon
Coast’s first Fat Bike Festival.
The weekend begins on
Friday as we enjoy a sunset
ride with Haystack Rock as
our background and plenty of
fun fat bike activities around
the bonfire including a slow
race, obstacle course, various
Fat bike skills competitions
and enjoy delicious beverages
from local craft brewers, Pub-
lic Coast and Pelican brewery
as we sit around the fire and
enjoy the setting sun at Tolo-
vana Beach.
Family and friends are
welcome to watch the Friday
night fat bike Rodeo and stay
for s’mores around the fire.
After enjoying dinner on
your own at one of the deli-
cious eateries around town,
retire for the evening at one of
the many wonderful Cannon
Beach hotel or vacation rental
properties.
Many of these are offer-
ing deals for the weekend in-
FILE PHOTO
Fat Bike weekend debuts in Cannon Beach.
cluding 15 percent off for all
registrants with Beachcomber
Vacation Homes.
The group meets back in
the late morning Saturday for
a 14-mile beach ride which
will take us from Ecola Creek,
past Haystack Rock, to Arch
Cape and back.
Along the way riders will
have several “poker stops”
to learn of the local ecology,
including members of the
Haystack Rock Awareness
Program the Haystack Rock
poker stop. Visitors will be
treated to clam chowder at
Mo’s and snacks along the
route while riding along the
beaches of Cannon Beach.
The day ends at Public
Coast Brewing where their
motto is, “Beaches forever,
beer for everyone!”
Riders and guests will
enjoy snacks, craft brewed
beer and prizes, including our
grand prize of a two-night
stay at Surfsand Resort, for
the best poker hands collected
during the days ride.
Visitors will have plenty
of time on Saturday afternoon
to browse, shop, eat, play, and
discover the many treasures
of Cannon Beach.
On Sunday, celebrate
Earth Day by joining forces
with Surfrider to participate
in a beach cleanup. Partici-
pants will help to clean up,
reuse and recycle as certain
plastics collected will be giv-
en to local artists to be made
into jewelry that will be sold
to help fund stewardship and
environmental educational
programs.
The weekend will be filled
with many fun fat bike activ-
ities but still plenty of time
to explore and enjoy Cannon
Beach.
Fat bikes will be avail-
able for people to demo if
they don’t yet have their own.
Bring family and friends to
this unique event.
For more information on
the weekend’s activities visit
the website www.BikeCan-
nonBeach.com.
KMUN to celebrate with a birthday party April 14
Coast Community Radio
will celebrate its 35th birth-
day with a party for the com-
munity on Saturday, April 14.
The bash will take place
from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Ru-
ins of the Astor Hotel, 1425
Commercial St. Astoria DJ
and Coast community radio
programmer Joey Altruda
will spin tunes. The event
will have a no-host bar as
well as snacks and birthday
cake for guests. Admission is
free, although donations will
be gratefully accepted for the
nonprofit organization. All
ages are welcome.
Founded by a small group
of local individuals, KMUN
went on the air on April 17,
1983, with Astorian Liam
Dunne voicing the first words:
“Welcome to the birth of a sta-
tion.”
Now called Coast Com-
munity Radio, KMUN is the
only community station in the
region, offering eclectic pro-
gramming in diverse genres
of music as well as local and
national public affairs, and
children’s programming. The
station is also an NPR affiliate.
Since its founding, Coast
Community Radio has liter-
ally weathered many a storm,
including the historic Great
Coastal Gale of 2007, when a
tree crashed down on the stu-
dio. Programmer David Paul
didn’t miss a beat and kept
right on going with his broad-
cast.
The station has also en-
powered by
dured a storm of a different
kind, the perennial threat to
defund the federal Corpora-
tion for Public Broadcasting,
which provides one-fourth of
the station’s budget.
The Tillicum Foundation
Board of Directors, which
oversees the station and sets
policy for it, is working to
make the organization less
reliant on the federal grant, in
part by seeking other grants
and holding various fundrais-
ers.
Experience Family Dining in
a Relaxed & Friendly
Environment
Serving Seafood, Pizza,
Sandwiches, Espressos, Beer,
Wine, Ice Cream and our
Homemade Desserts
We have a fabulous patio
where you can enjoy the
weather and your meal.
“TO-GO”
Orders Welcome
music fi rst
CANNON BEACH HISTORY CENTER AND MUSEUM
Dr. Cameron Smith at work in the field.
Anthrologists trace the
first voyagers to coast
On Thursday, April 19, at
4 p.m. the Cannon Beach His-
tory Center and Museum wel-
comes Dr. Cameron M. Smith
to discuss when man first
came to the Americas Smith
is an anthropology professor
at Portland State University
and is a highly recognized
scholar on human history, ar-
chaeology and evolution.
Smith will be discuss-
ing the old and new theories
about the earliest dispersals
of humans into the Ameri-
cas. Whether by land or sea,
these new archaeological
sites bring about new ques-
tions. His talk, “By Land, Sea
and Shore: New Evidence
and Theories on the Earliest
Human Dispersals into the
Americas,” will be free and
open to the public.
Smith has a Ph.D. in ar-
chaeology from Canada’s Si-
mon Fraser University and is
CANNON BEACH HISTORY CENTER AND MUSEUM
Cameron Smith lectures at
the history center.
a respected scholar, who has
published scientific works
in the American Journal of
Physical Anthropology, as
well as Scientific American,
Scientific American MIND
and more.
The museum is open from
11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday
through Monday and is dona-
tion based. The center is locat-
ed at 1387 South Spruce St.
SERVING
LUNCH &
DINNER
OPEN AT 11:30
Tuesday’s Open at 4pm
Delightful Beer
Garden • Ocean View Deck
Pool Tables • Darts
Full Bar ( including Bill’s Tavern brews )
but that’s not all...
Smoked Pork Ribs • Steak • Seafood
and much, much more!
156 N. Hemlock • Cannon Beach
Located in SOUTH Cannon Beach
Owned and Operated by the Cleary Family
3301 S. Hemlock St. • Tolovana Park
503.436.1130 • Minors Welcome
503.436.9551