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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 2019)
Friday, June 28, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5 Great food, convivial atmosphere at the Chisholm Center ‘THE BOB’ DARREN GOOCH L ast week as I was tapping away at the keyboard in my offi ce, I was interrupted by a volunteer from our congregate Senior Meal Program here at the center. Her urgency unnerved me a bit as she told me that my pres- ence was required in the kitchen. “There’s a problem and we need you now!” she exclaimed. My thoughts raced as I ran through the endless number of emergencies in my mind. Fire? Water leak? Heart attack? “Not that, please, not that!” I thought to myself. I hurried into the main hall to fi nd a group of our seniors, rem- nants of the lunch hour already passed, still seated at the tables. A rousing, though slightly off- key, version of “Happy Birthday” greeted my ears and our meal site coordinator, Chris Duffy, walked from the kitchen cradling a Costco sheet cake. I’ll never know how The Bob Chisholm Community Center. they managed to fi t 50 candles on there, but I did successfully draw enough breath to blow them all out. I have spent nearly all 16 years of my time with the park district at the Bob Chisholm Community Center and I have gotten to know almost all of the seniors that attend our lunch, many of whom have been here since I started all those years ago. I have also seen many faces come and go, some moved on to other areas, some have since passed, but all have contributed in some way or another to the con- tinued growth of this fantastic program. The meal program is a partner- ship between the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District and Northwest Senior and Disability Services. It serves both a congre- gate group and a home-bound pop- ulation with meals fi ve days per week. Just last month alone, the site provided 895 meals through the efforts of our Meal Site Coordinator and his crew of 25 volunteers. Program funding comes from federal sources via the Older Americans Act nutrition programs. Funds make their way from the federal level down to the state level through the Department of Human Services and then to Northwest Senior and Disability Services who administer the senior meal pro- grams in our region. Our program is one of just a few here in Clatsop County. If you are like many of our din- ers here at the center, you enjoy sit- ting down for a nice lunch with familiar faces and having some pleasant conversation, something I appreciate more and more the older I get. For those 60 and over, the meal is a suggested $3 dona- tion and those under 60 can enjoy a meal for $6.75. Not only is it a great value, the friendships that develop help keep the spirit young. Lunch is served at 11:45 a.m. promptly, so don’t be late! Every month, The BOB will bring you information on current events and items of interest here at the center. See you next month! Stranded in Seaside, and a lucky rendezvous with old friends GUEST COLUMN CATHY GIGANTE-BROWN S ometimes it takes a vil- lage to turn a negative into a positive. Near the end of a picture-per- fect Northern Oregon Coast vaca- tion, my New York-based family and I found ourselves stranded in Paradise. En route to Seaside, the sec- ond we pulled out of a Cannon Beach parking lot, our rental car’s “check air” light beamed. Our Kia crawled down South Hemlock, the front passenger-side tire hope- lessly fl at. My husband Peter guided the Optima into a spot next to Greaver Gallery. In the trunk, under all our luggage, no spare. On hold 15 minutes with Fox Rent A Car’s roadside assistance, we fi nally hung up and left a message. What to do? An elderly man weeding his garden at the corner of South Hemlock and East Monroe gave us the number of Gary’s Service Center. “Gary’s a good guy, hon- est,” he told us and wished us luck. Cathy Gigante-Brown Cathy Gigante-Brown, Eve Marx, David Brown and Peter Brown. Unlike Fox, Gary answered the phone immediately, even though it was after business hours. He offered to send a fl atbed truck to pick up the car if nothing else panned out. Meanwhile, I received a dozen helpful texts from my friend Eve Marx (a local journalist), who was helping us sort this all out. Eve’s encouraging IMs like: “Don’t let it ruin your adventure…seriously, there are much worse places to break down…” really helped. If we could get to Seaside, Eve suggested the Sandy Cove Inn and shot me their number. The Sandy Cove Inn was extremely helpful. Though they didn’t have a room for three avail- able, they suggested the Motel 6 on Highway 101, which was practi- cally next door to Les Schwab Tire Center. I thanked them profusely. Just in case we couldn’t make it to Seaside, I Googled the clos- est hotel in Cannon Beach—the Waves on West 2nd. The front desk offered to send the hotel’s van so we didn’t have to walk a half mile to the Waves, dragging our suitcases. It was a minor miracle that Fox phoned back. Instead of a spare, many rental companies now opted for a fl at fi x kit (a foam canister and an air pump that plugged into the lighter jack…who knew?). Peter checked the trunk again and found it. It worked. Sort of. Our Kia limped the nine miles to Seaside on 101. We kept our eyes glued to the dashboard’s tire gauge which slowly crept down from 26 pounds of pressure to 18. Motel 6 loomed on the horizon like a beacon of hope. Miraculously, they had a vacancy. The receptionist was extremely accommodating. Notic- ing my silver hair, she politely inquired if “Mom was a senior.” Although I was four months shy of the “60” milestone, she gave us a discount anyway. This softened the blow of a blown-out tire. Hungry, cranky and tired, the Browns sought refuge in Ruby’s, which happened to be next door to Motel 6. We drowned our sorrows in root beer and pulled pork. A few minutes later, Eve, our leather-jacketed angel, rescued us in her SUV. (Her husband, our friend R.J., the editor of this fi ne paper, was covering a town meet- ing for a story.) Not only was Eve’s hug hugely reassuring but she promised us a spectacular sunset. And delivered! The three of us piled into Eve’s Jeep and were treated to a grand tour of her and R.J.’s adopted home: Seaside, Gearhart and the surrounding communities. Gen- tly loping from one street to the next, Eve pointed out her favorite coffee shop, cool restaurants and pubs, spots where the elk hung out and led us through the tall grasses to Gearhart Beach, where the sun ducked behind layers of clouds, painting the sky pink and gold. By the time we got to the Marx homestead, R.J. was back from his assignment. We talked, laughed and caught up. Thanks to good friends — and the kindness of several strangers — a stressful day ended on a super-happy note. It all came full circle the next morning. As Jake at Les Schwab replaced our tire and got us on the road in record time, Peter couldn’t help but notice the “Brooklyn” tattoo on Jake’s forearm — his daughter’s name and our home- town. Maybe it was fate to get “stranded” in Seaside. Or as Eve puts it, a happy accident. Thanks, Seaside. We’ll be back! Catherine Gigante-Brown is a New York-based journalist and novelist whose latest work, “Bet- ter than Sisters,” is available from Volossal Publishing. Certifi ed or not certifi ed: Which dog trainer should you choose? hen I was 30, an acquaintance told me that in his native language, my name means “gullible” — to which I responded, “Seriously?” It was funny then and still is now. But some gull- ibility has consequences. And sometimes, gullibil- ity is farmed. That farming is often called “marketing.” I have no problem with marketing; small business owners like myself must rely on good marketing for our good work to become known. Notice I say good marketing — emphasis on good. Most of us can agree that good marketing should not exploit the innocence of others, nor put others at risk, especially not by misleading them. Yet such exploitation occurs every day, and there seems no way to stop it. We can all, however, do a little to min- imize its power over us by educating ourselves and then helping others under- stand. Today I hope to help you understand a lit- tle more about dog trainer marketing. One thing that we dog trainers do is share vid- eos. I won’t be talking at length about this today, but do want to mention that just because the results in a video look great, that does not mean how the results were achieved were great. In dog training, the process is just as important as the end result, and it should be a do not harm — emotional or physical — process. Another thing many of W CANINE CORNER RAIN JORDAN & DAHLIA us do is lead with our cre- dentials. Credentials are very important because they tell the public how qualifi ed a trainer is or is not. Yet this is where things can get very confus- ing for the public; after all, how are you supposed to know what each credential means, where it came from, whether it’s reputable? Given that dog training is an unregulated industry, absolutely anyone can call themselves a “master dog trainer” or a “dog behavior- ist” even if they’ve never taken a single dog training or behavior class. There’s more bad news: Some of these folks then open dog trainer “schools” that “cer- tify” new trainers after as little as week or two. The good news is that there are professional certifying organizations with ethics rules for professional, certi- fi ed trainers. The independent test- ing and certifi cation organi- zation for dog trainers and canine behavior consultants is the Certifi cation Council for Professional Dog Train- ers. The CCPDT sets the global standard for rigor- ous exams that demonstrate mastery in humane, sci- ence-based dog training. To become certifi ed, a trainer / behavior consultant must fi rst show documentation of several hundred hours working with clients’ and clients’ dogs, then pass a strictly proctored, objec- tive, several hundred ques- tion examination, must abide by the code of eth- ics, and must update her education every year. A professional dog trainer or canine behavior con- sultant is certifi ed by the CCPDT if there is either a CBCC-KA, CPDT-KSA, or CPDT-KA associated with her name; check CCPDT. org to confi rm your train- er’s credentials. Then there are the most respected schools. Certifi ed Dog Trainer Profession- als are graduates of the top program of the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Train- ing and Behavior and hold the title KPA CTP (Cer- tifi ed Training Partner). CTCs (certifi cants in train- ing and counseling) are graduates of the Academy for Dog Trainers. Train- ers who graduated from KPA or ADT are generally considered the go-to pro- fessionals in the industry. (Still, always do your own investigation!) There are many other, newer train- ing schools. Some of them are, and some are not, com- mitted to humane — force- free, fear-free, pain-free — practices. Some may unfortunately provide a certifi cate but call it “certi- fi cation” while others, hav- ing little direct involvement in the fi eld of training pro- fessional dog trainers, pro- vide merely permission to teach and/or test and title you and your dog. Beware of these marketed as trainer “certifi cation.” “Certifi - cation” means a trainer’s mastery has been inde- pendently assessed, that the trainer has passed an exhaustive, objective exam to demonstrate mastery. A “certifi cate” is a piece of paper that says some- one attended a class or met other cursory requirements. Last but not least, there are CAABs and VBs: Cer- tifi ed Applied Animal Behaviorists and Veterinary Behaviorists. Only CAABs and VBs can honestly call themselves “behaviorists” since in the animal behav- ior industry, one must have a doctorate degree or equivalent in animal behav- ior to call oneself a “behav- iorist” or be a veterinarian who completed additional courses and residency in animal behavior to earn the title veterinary behaviorist. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help deciphering qualifi cations or behavior! We’re all in this together for the dogs. Rain Jordan, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, is a certifi ed canine behavior and train- ing professional. Visit her at www.expertcanine.com. Tackle Your Savings Goals Share Certificate Rates You’ll Cheer For! Now’s the time to score the best share certificate dividend rates in years. Come to TLC for regular and IRA share certificates, with terms from 12 to 60 months. And here’s the kicker: we’re federally insured! Liz Fibre Family Member Since 1992 Cannon Beach Library 503.842.7523 Annual Fourth of July Book Sale 2315 N Roosevelt Dr, Seaside 85 W Marine Dr, Astoria Coming Soon to Warrenton! July 4th, 5th, 6thnK6* Thursday—S70day, 10am—5pm 1000’s of Books at Bargain Prices! 131 N. Hemlock Cannon Beach 503.436.1391 info@cannonbeachlibrary.org A DIVISION OF CREDIT UNION Federally Insured By NCUA