August 17, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A
‘I could just be working during the summer, working at a restaurant down in Cannon Beach,
but this is helping me get to where I want to be in the future.’
Rebecca Sprengeler, a recent Warrenton High School graduate who works on marketing and social media for the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District
MORE THAN JUST
Clatsop Works intern Rebecca Sprengeler.
A SUMMER JOB
Clatsop Works
connects
students to
workforce
By Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
Rebecca Sprengeler felt
bad not being able to take on
shifts at her usual summer
job at Pelican Brewing Co.
in Cannon Beach, despite the
need for help during the busy
tourist season.
But the recent Warrenton
High School graduate received
a job offer managing social
media and helping to market
the Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District in Seaside,
more in line with her goal of
becoming a graphic designer.
“I could just be working
during the summer, working
at a restaurant down in Can-
non Beach, but this is helping
me get to where I want to be
in the future,” Sprengeler said.
Sprengeler is one of 16 stu-
dents in Clatsop Works, a new
summer internship program to
give local students an intro-
duction to the workforce.
Interns from Astoria,
Warrenton and Knappa high
schools, along with Clatsop
Community College, have
taken up a wide variety of
full-time jobs around the
county with Sunset Empire,
Bergerson Construction Inc.,
Englund Marine & Industrial
Supply Co., Columbia Me-
morial Hospital, Providence
Seaside Hospital, Hampton
EDWARD STRATTON PHOTOS
Mike Ward, a sawmill, logyard and truck shop manager at Hampton Lumber’s Warrenton mill,
shows Clatsop Works interns the area where fresh-cut lumber is stacked before being kiln-dried.
Lumber, Ocean Crest Chevro-
let Buick GMC, Lum’s Auto
Center, the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program, Martin
North Hospitality and Ricken-
bach Construction Inc.
Students spend each
Wednesday in profession-
al development workshops
learning customer service,
safety, communication and
other skills.
Local school districts and
the college provided funding
for the internship program’s
coordinator, Anna Stamper,
who led students through the
process of applying and inter-
viewing for jobs.
“It’s very real-world,”
Stamper said. “The students
negotiate their pay rate.”
One early entrant was
Hampton Lumber, which last
year took on two local high
schoolers as part of a pilot
program. Cliff Tuttle, who
oversees special projects for
Hampton Lumber, said he’d
spoken with Craig Hoppes,
superintendent of Astoria
schools, about how to get
kids more engaged in school
and ready for the workforce.
Hampton Lumber has also
helped expand career-tech-
nical courses at Astoria High
School.
“Everywhere, Hampton
tries to take on interns,” he
said. “It was a natural fit. We
were surprised by the num-
ber of kids who did not know
about the opportunities” local-
ly.
Hampton employs more
than 140 people, with an av-
erage wage of above $22 an
hour. The mill interviewed
several candidates and set-
tled on Will Berezay, a senior
at Astoria High School who
started late last month work-
ing 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shifts
on the mill’s cleanup crew,
where most employees get
their start.
“I knew I would be shov-
eling sawdust,” Berezay said.
“I wasn’t expecting much. I
was just ready to get my hands
dirty.”
Mentoring Berezay is Jama
Evans, who after decades in
day care took a job on the
mill’s cleanup and planing
crews. Evans teaches Berezay
proper work and safety habits
at the mill, a maze of wood,
metal, concrete and heavy ma-
chinery. The two make visits
to Hampton Lumber’s export
docks, corporate offices and
tree farms, learning all aspects
of the business from trees to
lumber.
Skyler Archibald, execu-
tive director of Sunset Em-
pire, said the agency created
a marketing position just for
Sprengeler, who has experi-
ence in graphic design and
photography, and to bolster
the recreation district’s public
presence. Sprengeler receives
relative autonomy to cover the
district’s programs and create
a newsletter, and will also help
design a new website.
“She’s a member of our
management team,” Archibald
said. “She sits in when we’re
discussing policies. It’s just
holding her to a standard
we hold all our employees
to, about punctuality and re-
sponsibility and those sorts of
things.”
Employers agree that the
internship program isn’t about
finding a pool of new employ-
ees so much as exposing the
area’s youth to local opportu-
nities and how to be a good
employee.
A native of Seaside, Ar-
chibald said he hadn’t desired
coming back to the area be-
cause low wages, a high cost
of living and the seasonal na-
ture of business made living
locally a challenge. But the re-
gion has developed new career
opportunities with education,
health care and local govern-
ment he wanted to share with
young people.
Stamper had about five
weeks to arrange the work
sites for students. With more
time next year, she hopes to
expand the pool of govern-
ment, education, fisheries,
manufacturing and other ma-
jor local industries taking part.
“Some of the business-
es could afford it, but they
couldn’t dedicate a mentor,”
Stamper said. “They need to
have the ability to do the train-
ing and put them into a posi-
tion they can learn and grow
from.”
She is also looking for
more funding sources to help
low-income students take part.
Kevin Leahy, the direc-
tor of Clatsop Economic De-
velopment Resources, who
oversees Stamper, said the
goal is to expand the intern-
ship program next summer to
24 students. Similar intern-
ship programs in Washington
County have more than 100
participants.
The Northwest Regional
Education Service District,
which oversees a hub focused
on expanding career-techni-
cal learning opportunities, is
also looking to export Clatsop
Works’ model to Columbia
and Tillamook counties in the
next couple of years, Stamper
said.
“To have this momentum
in our first year is really prom-
ising,” Leahy said.
OBITUARIES
Wilma Jane Fague Nelson
Emerald Isle, North Carolina
Dec. 8, 1938 — Aug. 2, 2018
Wilma Jane Fague Nelson, 79, of Emerald
Wilma was preceded in death by her par-
Isle, died Aug. 2, 2018, at Carteret Memorial ents, husband, and brother, Richard Allen
Hospital in Morehead City, North Carolina, Fague. She is survived by three daughters,
surrounded by her loving family.
Denice Nelson Keeter of Raleigh, Deborah
Wilma was born Dec. 8, 1938,
Jane Nelson of Emerald Isle and
to the late William James and Dor-
Katie Nelson Locke of Enfield; one
othy Ann Dow Fague in Portland,
son, Ralph William Nelson of Ra-
leigh; two granddaughters, Addie
Oregon. She graduated from Sea-
side High in 1956, where she met
Dow Keeter and Katherine Harrison
her husband, Donald Albert Nelson.
Keeter, both of Raleigh; two grand-
sons, John Richard Locke Jr. and his
They were married and moved to
wife, Pamela, of
North Carolina, first landing in En-
field, and eventually making their
Enfield and William Nelson
home by the sea in Emerald Isle.
Locke of Red Oak; one adored
Wilma was feisty and fully in
great-grandson, Landyn Nelson
charge. After her husband died, she
Wilma Nelson
Locke; and one sister, Patricia Ann
held court from her home on the
Fague Robison of Rogers, Arkansas.
Point in Emerald Isle, where she kept
A reception and celebration of
everyone in line, including the Army Corps life were held Aug. 7 at the Historic Episcopal
of Engineers, Coastal Area Management Act Church of the Advent in Enfield. Burial took
(CAMA), the U.S. Coast Guard and the Emer- place at Elmwood Cemetery.
ald Isle Police Department. She was a mother
Memorial donations may be made directly
figure, as well, to various kayakers, boaters, to the Historic Episcopal Church of the Ad-
kiteboarders, paddleboarders and hordes of vent, in care of Dr. Elton Newbern, treasur-
er, 4894 Thirteen Bridges Road, Enfield, NC
adoring friends, neighbors and children.
She was an excellent hostess, cook, artist 27823 or online at bit.ly/WFNelson
and shell collector. She was funny, kind and
Letchworth-Sykes Funeral Service is han-
generous, but possessed a wicked wit. For all dling the arrangements for the Nelson family.
these gifts, and for many others, she will be Online condolences may be directed to the
family at www.garrettsykesfs.com
sorely missed but never forgotten.
Newly hatched pipefish
at Seaside Aquarium
Seaside Signal
SEASIDE AQUARIUM
Pipefish at the Seaside Aquarium.
The Seaside Aquarium’s pipefish are having
babies. This relative of the seahorse passes eggs
from the female to the male, who carries them
in a specialized pouch until they hatch, reported
Tiffany Boothe of the aquarium.
They are very small only about 1/2 in length
and only as thick as a single strand of hair. The
pipefish have found a home at the aquarium for
a little more than a year and a half, Boothe said.
They are a local fish that lives in the region’s
estuaries, found most places where eel grass is
plentiful.
Each pipefish had about 30 babies, she said.
“All in total we are attempting to raise 61 newly
hatched pipefish.”
The biggest hurdle when raising these small
fish is a good food source, she added. “We will
do plankton tows daily and supplement with a
special type of brine shrimp.”
If there were a
vaccine against
cancer, wouldn’t
you get it for
your kids?
er nt
m
m ve
Su gs E
vin
Sa
s es
les Seri
d
r
e
r
o tu
e C na
g
Fre ect Si
on
l
se
Call now for your free In-Home Consultation!
Oregon Coast 503-738-5242 • Lincoln City 541-994-9954
SW Washington 503-738-5242 • www.budgetblinds.com
Blinds • Shutters • Shades Drapes • Home Automation
©2018 Budget Blinds, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Budget Blinds is a trademark of Budget Blinds, LLC and a Home Franchise Concepts
Brand. Each franchise independently owned and operated.
HPV vaccine is cancer prevention. Talk to the doctor about vaccinating your
11-12 year old sons and daughters against HPV.
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/teens
Clatsop County
Department of
Public Health
503-325-8500