November 13, 2015 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
Side Rail JON RAHL
How content partners help bring visitors to Seaside
We develop and create co-
pious amounts of content at
the City of Seaside Visitors
Bureau. The goal in all con-
tent development is to share
the many different experienc-
es that a visitor can have when
visiting Seaside and Oregon’s
North Coast. This is standard
practice for a destination mar-
keting organization like ours,
but I thought it might be fun
to share an example of how
far reaching that content can
go when shared with our state
and regional partners.
A little over two years
ago, we published a blog on
our website about Tillamook
Rock Lighthouse — com-
monly referred to as Terrible
Tilly. Our practice at that point
in time was built around pho-
Letters
Letters from Page 4A
and effective planner, to
the City Council to replace
the much-missed John
Duncan. This was a sig-
ni¿cant appointment that
went unreported in The
Daily Astorian. With Ms.
Cockrum’s help, the city
will soon have the legal
means to rescue Gearhart’s
ancient tradition.
Bill Berg
Kent Smith
Gearhart
Keep the dunes
protected for public
Who owns the dunes
along the prom in Seaside?
Two to three years ago I no-
ticed a homeowner using a
weed-whacker to cut down
the dune grasses in front of
his home along the prom in
order to improve his view
of the ocean horizon. While
his view from his house
may have brieÀy improved,
the rest of us were left with
the eyesore of hacked up
plants and the ensuing
weeds that took over.
I went to city of¿cials
to ask if homeowners
along the prom have the
right to do this, and was
told someone would go
talk to the person. Within
the next couple of years, I
counted two to three other
homeowners adopting the
practice of cutting the dune
plants, increasing weed
patches and eyesores.
Earlier this year I wrote
to the mayor and city coun-
cil members about this is-
sue, only one of whom re-
sponded with a lack luster
“I’ll-look-into-it.”
Today I went for my
usual walk along the dunes
and found to my horror that
another household has tak-
en it upon themselves to cut
down the dune plants, this
time right along a path I fre-
quently walk.
A few questions I would
like answered are: Who
owns the dunes? Do home-
owners along the prom
have the right to alter what
others and myself under-
stand to be public land? If
we allow this to continue,
what is next? Will we start
to see fences, private ¿re
pits and private benches
placed in these public ar-
eas?
I’ve heard tourists com-
ment on the unsightliness
of the cut areas as a home-
owner who walks that area
many times a week, I ¿nd
it appalling that a few peo-
ple are being allowed to
decimate what once was a
beautiful public view. City
ordinances and zoning laws
clearly indicate the city has
authority over the fore-
dune area please exercise
that authority and put an
end to this short-sighted,
sel¿sh practice, now.
Mary Borg
Seaside
tography and sharing great
photos every Sunday on our
Facebook page in a featured
we called “Seaside Sunday.”
But the photo was really just
one piece of the puzzle. Built
on the idea that every photo
has a story, we tried to write
a blog post every week on the
details behind that captured
image.
Enter the blog post on Ter-
rible Tilly. This particular post
was a little unique in its origin.
The photos were captured by
Rich Russell, husband of one
of our staffers at the time,
Veronica Russell. He had an
opportunity to go out on a
¿shing boat and capture some
up-close images of Terrible
Tilly that are extremely hard
to get. Veronica then took
JON RAHL
those photos and generated
a blog post that talked about
the history of this incredible
landmark that has graced our
coastline since the middle of
the 19th century.
We shared the photo and
the blog post on our own
channels, where it received
great reviews. But because
this piece of content was so
compelling, instead of getting
buried, it’s still making its
way around the world.
Our state partner, Trav-
el Oregon, does an amazing
job at creating content itself,
but they also depend on local
knowledge from partners like
us who live and breathe our
destination 365 days a year.
After an initial pitch of the
idea, a refreshed version of
the Terrible Tilly story went
live on TravelOregon.com a
few weeks ago. But it didn’t
stop there. The story and pho-
tos were shared on Travel Or-
egon’s social media channels,
where they started to go viral.
The article was so popular
that Travel Oregon boosted
the Facebook post, which
currently has reached more
than 330,000 people, has
been “liked” close to 5,000
times and shared more than
2,400 times. It’s also current-
ly in the top ten most-viewed
stories on TravelOregon.com
for all of 2015, with nearly
19,000 views and counting.
Not all content has an
anatomy quite like that, but
the content we do produce
lives forever on our website
and is picked up in searches
all the time. It’s why our web-
site and our partner websites
get so much traf¿c on topics
that are searched by consum-
ers all year long.
It’s appropriate to mention
that the writer of the story I just
touched on departed our orga-
nization this past week. Veron-
ica Russell, who’s been with us
for close to two and half years,
received a great opportunity
with the Providence Seaside
Hospital Foundation and start-
ed there this past Monday. I’d
like to publicly thank her for
the great work she did for us
and wish her all the very best
in her latest venture.
Have a thought or a question
about tourism in Seaside, or may-
be an idea for a future column?
Drop me an email at jrahl@
cityofseaside.us. Jon Rahl is the
director of tourism for the Sea-
side Visitors Bureau and assistant
general manager of the Seaside
Civic & Convention Center.
From cancer survivor to state ambassador
Seaside woman lobbies
in D.C. for the American
Cancer Society’s Cancer
Action Network
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
When Lois Fitzpatrick
heard the fateful words “you
have cancer” in 1995, she
worried she would not even
get to see her daughters, then
9 and 14 years old, advance
from elementary school and
graduate high school.
“It just tore my heart apart
for fear of them,” said the
63-year-old Seaside resident.
Now, two decades later,
she is the proud mother of
two daughters with graduate
degrees, a cancer survivor
and Oregon’s State Lead Am-
bassador for the American
Cancer Society’s Cancer Ac-
tion Network.
Fitzpatrick is embold-
ened in her advocacy work
by “a ¿re in my gut,” she
said. “It’s just the right thing
to do. I feel I speak for those
who cannot speak for them-
selves: those who are too
sick, too afraid, too worried,
who are dead and those who
do know yet that they may
have cancer.”
Becoming
cancer-free
Fitzpatrick’s journey start-
ed in 1995 when she was di-
agnosed with stage I breast
cancer — although her tu-
mor was closer to the size of
a stage II tumor. Physicians
told her she needed a double
mastectomy, but she declined
it, since the research she did
seemed to not warrant the
surgery. She went through
numerous other surgeries and
treatments, however.
Even after being diagnosed
cancer-free, she stays on top
of preventative measures and
screenings to this day.
“I try to do everything I
need to do, so if it comes back,
we catch it early,” she said.
In 1997, while working as
a lobbyist for the Montana Li-
brary Association, Fitzpatrick
was asked to testify on two
state bills related to cancer.
She did so as a private indi-
vidual. From there, she joined
the American Cancer Society
and switched to the American
Cancer Network after its cre-
ation in 2001.
Since becoming involved,
she said, “I have been work-
ing actively on changing
public policy, changing legis-
lation and protecting the lives
of people and trying to help
them live.”
Fitzpatrick moved to Sea-
side in 2009 after retiring and
went to the Cancer Action
Network’s headquarters in
Portland to resume her work
in Oregon. She is active both
in Salem and in Washington,
D.C.
Education and
advocacy
About four years ago,
Fitzpatrick became the lead
ambassador from Oregon for
the Cancer Action Network,
a nonpartisan liaison organi-
zation to the American Can-
cer Society. Funds received
by the network are not tax
deductible, which allows the
group to advocate on differ-
ent issues and lobby for legis-
lation. The network does not
endorse political candidates
but occasionally conducts
surveys on cancer issues with
candidates and then publiciz-
es responses on the organiza-
tion’s website.
The group stays neutral
because the affects of cancer
transcend political party, Fitz-
patrick said, adding cancer
“doesn’t care if you’re Re-
publican or Democrat, rich
or poor, young or old. It will
attack anyone at any age.”
Educating the public and
of¿cials is a big part of her
work. As a former librarian
and college professor, she
¿rmly believes information is
power.
‘It’s when you don’t act
on it, and you could’ve
acted on it, that’s when
you have the regrets.’
Lois Fitzpatrick
“I saw too many people
that didn’t understand the
journey and were terri¿ed
they didn’t understand there
were things that could be
done, that we can take charge
of our lives,” she said.
She wants people to have a
healthy, not debilitating, fear
of cancer — a fear that mo-
tivates them to get screened
regularly and to seek treat-
ment as early as possible.
“It’s when you don’t act on
it, and you could’ve acted on
it, that’s when you have the
regrets,” Fitzpatrick said.
Not only did her own ex-
perience empower her as an
advocate, but she also experi-
enced the death of her father
to lung cancer when she was
17.
She said it has inspired
her work. “I was determined
people were not going to die
anymore of this horrible dis-
ease and rob children of their
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SUBMITTED PHOTO
Lois Fitzpatrick (second from left), of Seaside, the lead am-
bassador from Oregon for the American Cancer Society Can-
cer Action Network, met with Oregon Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
in Washington D.C. for ASC CAN’s signature event, the annual
Leadership Summit and Lobby Day in September. Fitzpatrick
was accompanied by Cancer Action Network staff member
Noe Baker (left) and volunteer Paula Messenger (right).
parents and parents of their
children,” she said.
Current areas
of focus
During the network’s an-
nual Leadership Summit and
Lobby Day in Washington,
D.C, more than 700 volun-
teers from across the country
petitioned their legislators on
three key issues.
First, the volunteer lobbied
for congress to appropriate
$6 billion over the next two
years to the National Insti-
tutes of Health, with $1 bil-
lion going speci¿cally to the
National Cancer Institute for
cancer research.
“I’m alive because of re-
search that happened 30 years
ago,” Fitzpatrick said. “There
is a lot of research that is lit-
erally right on the cusp and
it may not be funded. We’re
really sure so much could
happen if we could get that
money to NCI and NIH.”
During this year’s Lead-
ership Summit, she said, they
heard from scientist who ex-
pressed concern about the dif-
¿culty in drawing young peo-
ple to the profession, and also
having young scientists move
to other countries, because of
a lack of funding in the U.S.
Secondly, the lobbyists
asked for support on HR
1220 and S 624, regarding
the Removing Barriers to
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Act of 2015. The legislation
would amend the Social Se-
curity Act to waive coinsur-
ance under Medicare for col-
orectal cancer screening tests,
regardless of whether thera-
peutic intervention is required
during screening
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Methodist
Church
241 N. Holladay Dr.
Seaside, OR
503-738-7562
Currently, there is a loop-
hole in Medicare, Fitzpatrick
said. When people go in for
screenings, which are free,
but doctors detect and re-
move polyps, or abnormal
growths, as a result of the test,
the procedure then gets billed
as diagnostic, which burdens
patients with co-payments
and co-insurance.
Fitzpatrick said she hopes
¿xing the loophole will
prompt more people to be
screened, especially since
colon cancer is very prevent-
able.
Lastly, the volunteers
focused on promoting HR
3119, regarding the Palliative
Care and Hospice Education
and Training Act.
Palliative care is a medical
sub-specialty that involves
professionals — which could
include doctors, nurses, ther-
apists, social workers, min-
isters, dietitians or others —
treating the symptoms, side
effects and emotional issues
experienced by patients with
serious illnesses and their
caregivers in order to give
them the best possible quality
of life. Palliative care is given
alongside curative care, and is
not hospice — a distinction
Fitzpatrick said is important
to make.
“It could turn into hospice
care, but we would prefer it
didn’t,” she said. The pur-
pose of palliative care “is to
give people back their lives,
to make them enjoy whatev-
er it is they enjoyed before,
whether it’s sitting and knit-
ting, painting, running mara-
thons, teaching.”
Fitzpatrick emphasized
caregivers because she be-
lieves the disease sometimes
can take an even greater toll
on them, as she saw through
her own experience.
“I was so busy doing treat-
ments, ¿ghting for my life.
They had to watch it, and they
were helpless,” she said of her
family.
HR 3119 would amend the
Public Health Service Act to
increase the number of palli-
ative care faculty at medical
and nursing schools to pro-
mote education and research
on the topic and to support
the development of careers
in academic palliative medi-
cine. The bill also would set
up grants and fellowships for
doctors and nurses to study
the topic.
Fitzpatrick said the Ore-
gon delegation was support-
ive of the legislation. Each
advocate focuses on the rep-
resentatives from his or her
congressional districts and
state, but Fitzpatrick said
“hearing from my colleagues
through the country, it sounds
like we made a lot of progress
this time.”
“We hope when these
things come up, they will
vote in support,” she said.
“They need to know the story
of cancer, the face of cancer.
They have to understand this
is human beings — that it’s
children, that it’s grandmas,
that it’s young people.”
The Cancer Action Net-
work group in Oregon now is
planning for a research forum
on palliative care in Novem-
ber. Additionally, they are
looking ahead to what they
want to do next legislative
session, Fitzpatrick said.
“There are so many differ-
ent things we need to work
on in Oregon that just would
make people’s lives better,”
she said.
To learn more or get in-
volved, visit ACSCAN.org/
Oregon.
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