A4 • Friday, October 4, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Church concert leads the way in combatting hunger
SEEN FROM
SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
W
hen Carey Buerk tickles
the ivories at the Sea-
side United Methodist
Church at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct.
6, he’ll be continuing a six-year
tradition of reaching out to fi ght-
ing hunger in the community.
Hosted by Pastor John Tin-
dell and Seaside’s Mary Blake, the
event is more important than ever
as the number of hungry and liv-
ing with food insecurity grows.
“Not only is there a greater
need, but also a need that goes
deeper to kids and families, and
also people who are transient or
homeless,” Blake said. “I walk
twice a day in one of our parks. If
it wasn’t for the food pantries, a
lot of people wouldn’t have access
to food other than what they can
buy with the cans they collect.”
Funds from the concert will go
to the South County Food Bank,
one of several partner agencies to
participate in Clatsop Community
Action, the regional food bank.
Other partner agencies —
about a dozen in Clatsop County
— include Helping Hands Re-en-
try Outreach Center, the Cannon
Beach Food Center and St. Vin-
cent De Paul in Gearhart.
Buerk, who began piano les-
sons at the age of six, plays show
tunes, classic music and more.
“Anything I hear, I play it,” Buerk
said.
After reading of the need to
support the food bank, Buerk vol-
unteered in 2014 to play the fi rst
concert.
R.J. Marx
Mary Blake, Carey Buerk and Pastor John Tindell want to help fi ght hunger
in the region.
“We had a lot of momentum
to get the capital money to build
the building,” Blake recalled.
“We wanted to tap into people,
whether it was talent, time and
treasures. Yes, we needed money,
but we really needed commit-
ment of people to do things on a
sustainable year-round basis that
could bring attention and aware-
ness to the food pantry. Carey
said, ‘I can do that.’”
After Buerk connected with the
church, the choir got involved and
the community turned out.
The event evolved into more
than a concert, but about “build-
ing a relationship, this shared
community feeling where peo-
ple are having fun but they under-
stand the deep reason they are
there,” Blake said.
When the concept for the event
emerged, Tindell added, it was an
extension of what church mem-
Celebrating local artists and authors
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
A
few months ago I was
pleased to make the
acquaintance of local artist
Josh Fry whose stencil art I found
very eye-catching. Josh probably
gets a little weary of hearing his
work compared to the work of Roy
Lichtenstein, but the comparison is
inevitable. Lichtenstein pioneered
pop art along with his peers, Andy
Warhol, James Rosenquist, and
Jasper Johns. Josh Fry’s work, in
my opinion, is just as captivating.
It’s also easy to see right now as
19 pieces of it are hanging in the
main hall lobby area and the com-
munity room of the Seaside Pub-
lic Library.
“It’s a real honor to have my
artwork in my local library,” Fry
said in an email when I said I
planned mentioning it in this col-
umn. “It’s excellent to get these
paintings in front of eyes!” He said
he’s been working as an artist in
Seaside for many years and this
exhibit is another way to introduce
his work to the community.
Fry’s medium is spray paint.
The show, called “Comics and Pop
Culture in Spray Paint” is comic
art, done in the style of comics.
I liked every piece so much, it’s
impossible to name a favorite.
I was also delighted to attend
last week’s “Lunch in the Loft” at
Beach Books featuring the novel-
ist Linda B. Myers. Her most most
recent book, “Fog Coast Run-
away” is set in Seaside and Astoria
in the 1890s.
Over chicken sandwiches,
cucumber salad and yummy cook-
ies, Myers shared with about a
dozen people that even though
“Fog Coast Runaway” is techni-
cally historical fi ction, she is pri-
marily a murder mystery writer.
“You’ve got to have a murder!”
she exclaimed.
I think the audience was sur-
prised to learn that once upon
a time, Seaside drew a wealthy
crowd of visitors, not just from
Portland, but also San Francisco.
Myers said the heroine of her
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
Eve Marx
Linda B. Myers enjoyed herself at
Beach Books. Her historical novel,
“Fog Coast Runaway” takes place in
Seaside.
story, a 13-year-old girl named
Adelia, was drawn along the lines
of another strong and determined
girl, Mattie Ross, in the novel
“True Grit,” published in 1968 by
Charles Portis.
“The motto of my book, like
his, is if you don’t like the family
you were born into, create another
one,” Myers said.
Seaside has long been regarded
a vacation town but, more recently,
a good place for artists. And writ-
ers. Literary writers, in my opin-
ion, are artists. Their medium
is language. The surge of inter-
est in things artistic, including
Art Walk and events like Lunch
in the Loft, is inspiring. Also, you
can’t beat the lunch itself catered
by none other than Beach Books’
most immediate neighbor, Dough
Dough Bakery.
I spoke with Karen Emmerling,
the proprietor of Beach Books,
about upcoming events. On Octo-
ber 23 Jackie Shannon Hollis,
author of “This Particular Happi-
ness: A Childless Love Story” will
be reading and giving a talk. Hol-
lis, a lifelong Oregonian, once
dreamed of being either a June
Taylor dancer or a race car driver.
Her memoir explores the com-
plexities of being a wife, daughter,
friend, and sister and, as a woman
who didn’t have children herself,
her important role supporting the
children in her life.
My personal joy lately is alert-
ing others about the great work of
the artists and writers all around
me even if I’m not doing much in
the way of creativity these days
myself.
October 30, by the way, is
Small Business Saturday.
Get out there to support local
business — and artists.
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING SALES
MANAGER
Sarah Silver-Tecza
MULTIMEDIA
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Kim McCaw
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
John D. Bruijn
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
IF YOU GO
On Sunday, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m., the
United Methodist hosts local
pianist Carey Buerk. Proceeds go
to the South County Communi-
ty Food Bank. The event is free,
donations appreciated; 241 N.
Holladay Drive, Seaside.
bers already been doing. “They
had long supported the commu-
nity food bank. This was another
way of supporting it.”
The South County Food
Bank’s mission is to provide
three-to-fi ve days of nutritious
emergency food to low-income
families living in South Clatsop
County.
With a monthly average of 28
volunteers, the food pantry serves
250 households a month, 618
individuals and 42 homeless.
File photo
Concerts have raised more than
$6,000 so far, Blake said.
What is happening in Clatsop
County is an expression of what’s
going on in the wider world, Tin-
dell said. “Locally, this is an
expression of what’s going on in
the wider world. Homelessness is
an expression of poverty, which
includes food hunger.”
The coming holiday season
is especially important for local
food pantries, Blake said, with a
call for not only canned foods but
fresh produce, “what you would
call ‘real’ food.’”
“Real food is essentially from
the garden,” Blake said. “It has
more nutrients. Instead of just cal-
ories other than just trying to fi ll a
person’s stomach, you’re trying to
be nutritious as well.”
Food insecurity affects all
aspects of a person’s life, she con-
tinued, “because not only are they
hungry, they don’t know where
their next meal is coming from.
It’s really hard to laugh and play
and be light-hearted when you’re
hungry. Fighting food insecurity
is that idea of how can we make
that more accessible. It’s paying
attention to the larger issue of not
only when your stomach growls,
but also what that does to you.”
Along with local food pantries,
meal programs in the schools,
Meals on Wheels and food drives
are designed to meet the grow-
ing need.
For church members, helping
the hungry is not only a once-a-
year concert.
“We encourage people to come
every Sunday and bring food,”
Tindell said. “The bottom line, if
you don’t have food to eat, every-
thing is negatively affected. It’s
just a basic thought, a premise of
how to help people.”
County Commissioner addresses AFL-CIO
County Commissioner Lianne
Thompson delivered these
remarks to the 2019 AFL-CIO
Convention at the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center on Sept.
20.
hank you to the union lead-
ership that honored me
with their invitation to wel-
come you here to Seaside.
I’m welcoming you today
on behalf of the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners, who
serve as the governing body of
Clatsop County.
I welcome you, I honor you,
and I’m grateful for the work you
do. You are the salt of the Earth.
You already know this, but let
me say it out loud: It is your work
that supports the world. Your
work provides the foundation of
our world.
Let’s hear it for the working
people!
I am third-generation trade
union. My granddads came off
the farms of mid-Michigan to go
to work in the auto factories as
UAW members.
My dad was a Teamster; he
drove a beer truck.
I was an AFSCME union stew-
ard and an NEA member when I
taught at the community college
in Astoria.
And who is a working person?
You are. I am. Every one of us
who throws their heart and mind
and body into our work, we are
the working people.
I’ve been thinking long and
hard and deep about what to say
to you today, ever since Debbie
told me about being able to have a
few words with you.
What could I say? What would
make a difference to you, make
you understand how important
you are, how much your work
matters, how essential it is that
you provide grass roots leader-
ship for a world that shifting and
lurching off course in too many
ways.
So, I asked a guy who was giv-
ing me a ride back to the car deal-
ership, where I was getting some
work done. “I get to address the
AFL-CIO Convention,” I told
him. “What do you think I should
say to them?”
Eric didn’t miss a beat.
T
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Cara Mico
Esther Moberg
TUNNEL
ECHOES
LIANNE THOMPSON
He answered right to the point,
and here’s his advice, as a fellow
working-class guy:
1. Take personal responsibility.
2. Do your own research, don’t
accept anybody’s version of real-
ity as the whole truth, and don’t
be afraid to change your mind.
3. Treat other people the way
you want to be treated.
Working class wisdom, from
a working-class guy. Makes very
good sense to me.
I’d add something to what he
said.
My dad, that Teamster beer
truck driver used to say, “Let your
conscience be your guide.” Let
me say it again: “Let your con-
science be your guide.”
What that means for me is
‘DEMAND LEADERS
WHO LIFT YOU UP,
WHO SEE YOUR
BEST SELF, AND
HELP YOU BE THAT
BEST SELF.’
that I have to look for the best
in myself and do it. Say the kind
thing to somebody, do the kind
act for somebody. Be sweet. Be
generous.
I also have to deal with the
worst in myself and own up to it.
I have to listen to what I’m saying
and watch what I’m doing.
When I’m a cranky heifer,
I have to own it and apolo-
gize. Some days I do a lot of
apologizing.
I also have to be kind to
myself, compassionate and for-
giving when I’m not doing right.
Beating up on myself doesn’t
help.
Sometimes I do that anyway.
Do right, be kind to myself so I
can be kind to others.
When I give Grandma’s advice
to my grandson, I say, “Do good,
have fun, make money.”
“Do good; let your conscience
be your guide.”
“Have fun, because a life with-
out joy isn’t worth living. Have
fun. Give yourself joy.”
“Make money, because some-
body has to pay the bills.”
Which brings me back around
to you, working people. You cre-
ate the wealth. You make it possi-
ble for everything else to happen,
because you do the work that cre-
ates the wealth.
Rejoice in the power that rises
in you.
You can turn this country and
this world around by feeling the
power of doing good, feeling joy,
and making this world better by
your work.
At the meeting of the Associ-
ation of Oregon Counties, I gave
feedback to the Governor through
her energy policy advisor about
HB 2020. “Everyone wants to
save the planet. Everyone. But
don’t do it through top-down pol-
icies imposed on people. Do it
through grass-roots efforts. Listen
to the people who will pay for it.”
I know people who have ade-
quate and stable income from
trust funds, pensions, inherited
wealth, or reliable jobs. Adequate
and stable income. And if you’re
someone who does have ade-
quate and stable income, and you
don’t care about people who don’t
enjoy adequate and stable income,
shame on you!
Now. Leaders. There are lead-
ers who want to feed you fear and
anger. They want you scared and
mean. Don’t do it.
Use your strength and your
courage to create and maintain
positive leadership. This is the
power of grass-roots, working
people to shift things for the good.
Don’t settle for leaders who
want you mean and stupid.
Demand leaders who lift you up,
who see your best self, and help
you be that best self.
And when you fail, when I fail,
we raise each other back up with
courage, kindness, and compas-
sion to live out the promise of the
Country we love.
Thank you for coming to Sea-
side, thank you for welcoming
me, and thank you for your work.
Seaside Signal
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