Friday, August 27, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5
New reporter Bengel is a familiar face
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
A familiar face is back
with The Astorian.
Erick
Bengel,
who
worked as a reporter and
the Coast Weekend edi-
tor for the paper from 2015
to 2019, will cover criminal
justice, social services and
county government this time
around.
“I’ve always envied the
person who occupied this
beat,” he said. “It always
seemed like an essential
challenge … I like that it is
a serious beat and has very
sharp edges to it.”
Bengel fi lled in for report-
ers over the years
serious and system-
and dabbled in the
atic way,” Bengel
beat during his two
said.
years at the Cannon
Journalism fi rst
Beach Gazette.
came on Bengel’s
“But this is the
radar at Portland
fi rst time I’ve been
State, where he was
able to own it,” he Erick Bengel a news writer, the
said.
arts and culture edi-
When Bengel left The tor and eventually the edi-
Astorian in 2019, he moved tor-in-chief at the universi-
to New York to get a mas- ty’s student newspaper, The
ter’s degree in journalism at Vanguard.
Columbia University.
Bengel
fi rst
joined
With a bachelor’s degree The Astorian through the
from Portland State Univer- Snowden internship program
sity in philosophy and polit- in 2011, where he fi rst saw
ical science, he had never the service that local journal-
formally studied journalism ism fi lls.
outside of a few high school
“We give people the infor-
classes.
mation they need to navigate
“I wanted to study it in a their day-to-day lives and
communities,” he said. “It
has an immediacy that often-
times large-scale reporting
fails to capture because you
are reading about your neigh-
bors, you are reading about
locations you know well —
an immediacy and an inti-
macy. Insofar as you think
anything local is important
— local elections, local ser-
vices — local journalism is
incredibly important.”
As for Bengel’s long-
term goals, he hopes to keep
broadening his horizons
within journalism.
“At this point, I am try-
ing to get good at diff erent
modes and forms of journal-
ism and that is what excited
me about this beat,” he said.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Elks off er Most Valuable
Student scholarships
All high school seniors in Oregon
who are U.S. citizens can apply to the
Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship
Program.
The application process is handled
online, with applicants being judged
on academics, leadership, community
engagement and fi nancial need.
Applicants will be judged at four lev-
els with the opportunity to earn schol-
arships at the local, district, state and
national level. The top male and female
students will advance from the local
Masudur Khan, second from left, at the 2021 Asian American Hotel Owners
Association Convention and Trade Show.
lodge level to the district level, and
from there onto the state and national
competitions.
At the national level, two fi rst-place
students earn $50,000 each, two sec-
ond-place students earn $40,000 and
two $30,000 third-place students will be
awarded. The remaining 14 fi nalists will
each receive $20,000 and 480 runners-up
will receive scholarships of $4,000 for a
total of $2,440,000 nationwide.
Students wanting to apply for the
scholarships do not have to have an affi l-
iation with the Order of Elks. The dead-
line to apply is Nov. 15.
For applications and additional infor-
mation, visit elks.org/scholars/scholar-
ships/mvs.cfm.
Coast Weekend
welcomes new editor
By GRIFFIN REILLY
The Astorian
Khan is awarded association
philanthropy award
On the third day of the 2021 Asian
American Hotel Owners Association
Convention and Trade Show, the asso-
ciation recognized achievement and
excellence in the hospitality industry
with its annual awards.
Masudur Khan, co-owner and man-
aging director for Seaside Lodging LLC,
won the Philanthropy Outreach Award.
He co-owns and operates 13 hotels on
the Oregon Coast and operates two
hotels in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The award is given to an individual
deeply involved with helping human-
ity through philanthropic and charitable
activities, domestically or overseas.
The association is the largest hotel
owners association in the world. The
nearly 20,000 members own 60% of
hotels in the United States.
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Nikki Davidson is the new editor of Coast Weekend.
Also available for those not attend-
ing a four-year college or university, the
Oregon State Elks Association off ers a
vocational grant scholarship for those
attending a program specifi c to a trade
or profession. Adult learners are also
eligible to apply for this scholarship.
Applications are now open and must
be received by midnight on March 1,
2022. For more information and to apply
visit oregonelks.org/student-contests/
scholarship/.
Interested students, families or
high schools can contact their local
lodge or the Oregon State Elks Asso-
ciation Scholarship Chair Mary Danca
at emjade@opendoor.com for more
information.
Though Nikki David-
son’s career in journal-
ism has taken her all over
the country, her landing
in Astoria will be her fi rst
taste of Oregon.
Davidson is taking over
as the new editor of Coast
Weekend, a weekly arts
and entertainment publica-
tion featured in The Asto-
rian and Chinook Observer.
She hopes telling the
stories of a region with
such rich history will help
her get familiar with the
area, as well as let her
explore one of her biggest
interests.
“I’m very interested in
history,” she said. “I really
want to delve into the
quirky history stories that
people don’t hear about as
often — the ones that seem
like they’re lost in time.”
Davidson started her
time in journalism at the
University of Northern
Iowa, where she was edi-
tor of the school’s paper.
At the same time, she jug-
gled working for a local
public access station and
as an associate producer
for Iowa Public Radio.
She has had reporting
and anchor roles at tele-
vision stations in Michi-
gan, South Carolina, Iowa,
Minnesota and Louisiana.
While often diffi cult,
Davidson said her time
in broadcast journalism
exposed her to the value of
visual media in storytell-
ing, something she hopes
to incorporate into her
work with Coast Weekend.
“We can do multimedia,
maybe some videos — just
to really showcase the area
and the people in a way that
print alone can’t do,” she
said. “I think it can really
complement the work that
we’re doing here.”
In an area as beauti-
ful as the North Coast,
she said, creating that type
of content shouldn’t be a
problem.
“It seems like a really
awesome place to be,” she
said.
Davidson said over-
seeing Coast Weekend is
somewhat of a perfect sit-
uation for her, since it
allows her to stick beside
her husband in the U.S.
Coast Guard while indulg-
ing her passions for story-
telling and journalism.
Her husband, Patrick,
is stationed at Cape Disap-
pointment in Washington
state. Previously, the cou-
ple lived in Louisiana.
“You don’t always nec-
essarily get to choose
where you end up in jour-
nalism,” Davidson said.
“Getting the ability to do
what has been my passion
in life in the place that we
are is really what attracted
me to this.”
facebook.com/seasidesignal
DINING
on the
NORTH COAST
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GEARHART • SEASIDE
Rae Ray Sunshine, Kelly Ray’s children’s entertainment persona, poses with the Seaside sign.
ItzOk2bU: Store tailored toward children
Continued from Page A1
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• Breakfast
• Lunch
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• Junior Menu
RESTAURANT & LOUNGE
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E
RIL Y’
S
supplies, craft projects and
other novelties, for sale. The
Rays assemble and custom
paint starter ukuleles, which
in the past fi ve years have
become “the new recorder
of the time,” Kelly said.
Ultimately, they don’t
want to cultivate a high-vol-
ume retail environment
where patrons are herded
through with the expectation
to buy something and then
simply leave.
“I want them to have a
very unique, personal expe-
rience,” Kelly said. “Our
philosophy is hands-on:
Come in and pick up the
ukulele, touch the drums,
have fun.”
Cary
off ers
private
music lessons on gui-
tar, piano, drums and uku-
lele, while Kelly focuses
on the visual arts side of the
establishment.
For $15, plus the cost of
materials, families can join
Kelly in the studio and work
on art projects. Music les-
sons are $60 per hour, but
Cary charges by the min-
ute, without a minimum,
since many beginners don’t
have the dexterity and atten-
tion span for a full hour of
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Photos by Katherine Lacaze
LEFT: ItzOk2bU, in downtown Seaside. RIGHT: ItzOk2bU, in downtown Seaside, is a unique art
and music store, where families are invited to explore diff erent instruments or do art projects.
The owners, Kelly and Cary Ray, also off er private lessons.
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practicing a new instrument,
Kelly explained.
Artistic outlet
ItzOk2bU is tailored
toward children, as Kelly
believes children “need to be
able to express themselves
in whatever manner they see
fi t.” At many schools, there
is a lack art programs, or
they’ve been stifl ed by the
pandemic.
“If we can provide the
outlet that (children) don’t
have available right now to
them, it’s great,” she said.
However, Cary and Kelly
work with beginners of all
ages. Kelly fi nds it particu-
larly rewarding to introduce
a child or a novice to a new
artform and watch their cre-
ativity burgeon. She also
enjoys getting to revisit and
explore the arts through new
eyes.
Kelly and Cary’s plan
for ItzOk2bU and the ser-
vices they can provide con-
tinues to unfold. They
recently developed enter-
tainment personas, Rae Ray
Sunshine and Mr. Fun, who
will become the leads of a
weekly YouTube show they
plan to produce. The show
will promote a message of
acceptance, caring and love,
Kelly said. Rae Ray Sun-
shine also will be available
for appearances at birthday
parties and festivals once the
pandemic has subsided.
Kelly imagines hosting
private paint and sip nights
in homes and businesses, for
patrons and their friends.
Another
aspect
of
ItZok2bU is providing an
in-house studio for photogra-
phy and video services, with
a special focus on creating
celebration-of-life videos.
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