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The INDEPENDENT, July 3, 2003
Princess Bernice will represent Vernonia Seniors
Bernice Frey will represent
the Vernonia Senior Center this
year as a princess in the My
Fair Lady Pageant. Frey is an
experienced volunteer at the
Senior Center and a dedicated
quilter.
Frey was born in Riverside,
California, and moved to Ver
nonia in 1976. She is widowed,
has five children, 12 grandchil
dren and 33 great-grandchil
dren. In addition, she has
opened her arms and her home
to 75 foster children over the
years, three of whom became
perm anent members of her
family. Beginning in 1970, she
worked exclusively with handi
capped foster children.
“My heart went out to chil
dren without fam ilies,” Frey
said. She describes herself as
a giver, not a taker, and ex
pressed the feeling that she
had gained great personal re
wards from the time and effort
she gave to her foster kids. She
found the hardest part of help
ing kids was to let them strug
gle to accomplish for them
selves, instead of doing every
thing for them. She tried to in
still the belief that “the world
owes you a living, but you must
work hard to collect it" into her
child raising.
Her current, continuing, vol
unteer efforts are in quilting and
giving time to the Vernonia Se
nior Center and other seniors.
Frey gets great satisfaction
from completing quilts. She is
working on completing 33 quilts
so each of her great-grandchil
dren will have a quilt upon
graduation. Since 1987, Frey
has been secretary at the sen
ior center and has served on
the Columbia County Council
of Seniors. She began her
service on the Council of Se
niors in order to find out how
the funding for seniors worked,
but she has continued her in
volvement in order to try and
help assure needed services
are available for seniors.
Frey likes a challenge, too.
When told something can’t be
done, she wants to prove that it
can be done. She describes
her current challenge as help
ing the Senior Center continue
to provide as many services as
possible. When asked what
she did to be chosen as
princess to the My Fair Lady
court, Frey stated, typically,
that she did not feel she’d done
enough volunteer work to earn
it, but she had been chosen, so
she would try to deserve the
honor.
Wave to Princess Bernice
when you see her in Vernonia’s
4th of July Parade.
Bernice Frey with a small part of her doll collection
Columbia
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Food £r Clothing Contests i
Animal Judging
Food Preservation
Old Time Threshing Machine Demos
Saturday
3:30 p.m.
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Gates Close
11:00 p.m.Wednesday & Thursday
12:00 a.m. Friday & Saturday
6:00 p.m. Sunday