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Vol. 42, Issue 52
USPS 455960
December 23, 2020
Your Independent Community News Since 1890
Pacific County Resident Local Community joins together to start the Emergency Meal Program By Karen S. Carter When the COVID-19 death attributed to COVID pandemic hit and caused the
first lockdown in Washington, Bethany Barnard along with her husband Mark and Joe Basil got together to figure out how they could help by filling a need in the community. They ended up forming the Emergency Meal Program and were joined by many organizations and individuals from the community to make the program a success. “Our community is small but our hearts are big and our goal is to help support our community,” Stated Bethany in a Facebook post on November 12. The goal was to deliver hot, homemade meals to people who were impacted by COVID. They started in March and with the help of the Raymond Elks #1292, the program’s fiscal sponsor, they ended up serving 9,380 meals over the course of 6 months during the spring and summer. “March 24 was our very first meal,” said Bethany. “We started that morning with 78 individuals signed up and by the end of that day, we had delivered 103 meals. That’s how much word was getting out.” “Initially, we did 20 weeks of meal delivery of hot, home-cooked meals,” she continued. “We had delivery drivers delivering to homes of those in need of a meal, either families or individuals.” People who signed up for the program got a hold of Bethany or Joe by phone or through a message on Facebook. Because of confidentiality concerns the only information that was taken Gretchen Sagen was the delivery address and how many people ate dinner at that address. “During the break, when we weren’t doing the meals, By GEORGE KUNKE Gretchen Sagen became the first Clerk/Treasurer to we gave them food vouchers so they could go to Pioneer become certified for the city of Raymond. Sagen is in her 23rd year of working for Raymond and and get any type of groceries has been in the clerk role for four years. She received her Certified Municipal Clerk certification in July of 2015. “I've worked diligently the last five years for the Master Municipal Clerk certification and am honored to have re- By GEORGE KUNKE, ceived it,” Sagen told the Herald Monday morning. “I love geoakunke@gmail.com my job and the community we live in. I love giving back SOUTH BEND – Approxiand serving the citizens of Raymond.” mately two years ago the South Last Friday, December 18, 2020, the Pacific County Health and Human Services received confirmation that a Pacific County resident who tested positive for COVID-19 has died as a result of COVID-19. This is the fourth death from COVID attributed to Pacific County. Additional positive COVID cases jumped by another 36 individuals last week. This brings the total cases to 545 since the beginning of the pandemic. 56 cases are currently active. The current case rate per 100k over 14 days is 323. Active cases are currently spread throughout all parts of Pacific County. The PCDOH encourages the public to limit nonessential travel, maintain social distancing of at least six feet between persons, and practice personal protective measures to include: correctly wearing a mask/face covering in public, washing hands often with soapy water for at least 20 seconds, and avoid touching your face. For up to date information and guidance, please monitor the Pacific County Health and Human Services Facebook page or visit: www.pacificcountycovid19.com.
Sagen earns certification
Photo by Karen S. Carter The Peacekeeper Society Drive Thru Food Distribution shut down 3rd Street in Raymond on Saturday, December 12 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. while people collected much-needed food and supplies.
that could support them,” said Bethany. “We wanted to support Pioneer as Pioneer has been a great partner in providing relief [through EMP].” Once the holiday season started, the EMP restarted to cover the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. These once a week hot meals helped local families who have been struggling. Over 1842 meals were delivered each Wednesday. “We did what we called the Holiday Edition,” said Bethany. “We delivered the meals for the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We wanted to give those families a break. We wanted to give folks a little bit of relief so it was more than just the meals. We gave stuff like cleaning supplies or hand sanitizer. There has always been just a little bit of something extra we would try to give.”
The Peacekeeper Society Drive Thru Food Distribution happened on Saturday, December 12 and temporarily shut down 3rd street in Raymond for the afternoon and helped 1073 families. This event gave out $7500 in gift cards, $7500 in supplies and over 40,000 lbs of food. This event was a joint effort put together by the Raymond Elks, EMP, the Peacekeeper Society (out of Yakima), Chinook Indian Nation, Shoalwater Bay Tribe, and local community members. For more information about the Peacekeeper Society can be found online at peacekeepersociety.com or on their Facebook page. The program has raised $30k since March to help out with supplying the meals. The EMP has been run by volunteers who work tirelessly to provide the meal. “We had so many sponsors,” said Bethany. “We had so many generous folks.
The folks in our community did probably 75% of the donations.” In a post from December 17 on her Facebook page, Bethany stated “We are blessed to have so many wonderful people sacrifice their time to make this program happen; our hands are up to cooks, organizers, to delivery drivers! Joe & Virginia Basil, Ron & Linda Brummel, Kathy Holland, Val Walker (Nick Brooks for letting us borrow her today as she was a lifesaver), Aimee Betrozoff, Chuck Gurr, Ruth Ann Redding, Holly Meyer, Jaime R. Souvenir & Madison Souvenir, Julie Miller-Gardner & Kyra Gardner, Kathryn Staats, Kristi Karchesy, Kate Languell, Liliana Ayala, Lisa Crites, Lyndsey Owen Klusman, Teresa Ariss, Nancy Kay Hasu, Nichole Page & Lainee, Ronda Ardell Rowe, Chadandshanna Coty, See meal Page A4
Willapa Players will transform church into new playhouse
Bend United Methodist Church Congregation contacted the Willapa Players about appropriating the church for their playhouse. The deal finally went down in late November. According to Lisa Olsen, former Chairperson of the Methodist church, “The deed transferring the property was filed on November 25th and the amount was $35,000 (and) $25,000 of that was a gift from our congreWillapa Harbor gation toHospital the Willapa Players, so isthey pleasedcould to announce purchase the property. 360-875-5526 the arrival of our new The other $10,000 was theirs. 800 Alder Street South Bend, WA 98586 Fuji Aspire (Cristalle) The deed was transferred from Digital Mammography System. South Bend United Methodist This will provide lower radiation dose, Church to the Willapa Players, comfort paddle compression and faster exams times. but the money went to the Pacific Now excepting appointment. Northwest Conference.” Please call 360-875-4505 to set an appointment. The Willapa Players are a non-profit organization and were Services in drastic need of a new facility • Vinyl Window Replacement for their plays because the Han• Re-Roofing nan Playhouse is falling apart. It • Low Slope (Flat) was not possible for the church • Repairs to just hand over the building. • Roof Cleanings The Willapa Players Board now • Gutters Serving Western has full control of the church and Washington since they own all the former church 1959 2730 Simpson Ave lands, which includes the parkFREE Estimates Hoquiam ing in front of the church and ROOFDI#168N8 the area between the coffee stand
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and the church. There is also handicapped parking on the far side of the building. President of the Willapa Players Russ Wiitala said the Players were first approached about obtaining the church in the fall of 2018. “The congregation took a vote and they voted, unanimously, to give us the church,” Wiitala said. “However, the Northwest Methodist Conference wanted money. The South Bend Congregation had $25,000 dollars and I pitched in $10,000 of my own and we made an offer. The Northwest Methodist Conference countered with an offer of $35,000 dollars, plus half the money from selling the playhouse. We accepted their offer and I am very happy with the final deal. “Along the way, we learned that Oberlin University owned the surrounding parking lot. Joel Penoyar got busy and managed to get a quit deed from Oberlin University for the parking lots. Much of the back and forth was done by Phil Davis, who put in a good amount of time putting this together. Now that we have the church, it is my job to coordinate it's conversion. “Having the church solves many problems for us,” Wiitala said. “The old building needed a lot of work to fix it. I had come up with a way to do most of that on the cheap, but that plan is no longer needed. Personally, I believe the wood in that building alone is worth a lot of money.” Wiitala went into detail about what work needs to be done for the transformation from church to theater. “The church is much better for our purposes,” Wiitala said. “It is larger and in very good shape. The only grants we need right now are for building a stage and adding the lighting
and curtains. We want to build a thoroughly modern playhouse/ event center. We have to build a stage and raise the seating for the viewing of the audience. We also want to install a complete LED lighting system. I have already had a conference call with PNTA's lighting/staging expert. I do not have any estimates for that job yet. The estimate for the stage came in at just over $16,000. “We will begin with the minimum of lighting and add to it as we obtain more grants. We will retain the stained glass windows and cover them with a curtain during a show. If I were to guess on the total needed, it would be around $50,000. “It will be a playhouse/event center,” Wiitala said. “We plan on having music, dance and acting. It will be a more intimate setting and in that way will complement the Raymond Theatre that can host larger presentations. We will be willing to rent it out for weddings and anything else that won't interfere with our performance schedule. We plan on keeping the building as busy as possible. “The parking situation will have to be assessed,” Wiitala said. “The Elixir Coffee stop has already volunteered their parking lot for shows. I'm thinking we have parking for around twenty cars on our property alone. “We have begun initial investigation into creating a drive-in theater, projecting the movie on the side of the building,” Wiitala said. “I was just checking on equipment. It would take around $1,000 for that to happen. We hope to team up with the Raymond Theatre. They could provide the movie and concessions. We have to wait this virus out. I hope to have our first stage performance by the fall of 2021. It would be great if we could fit
something else in sooner. We had MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) come to the Hannan Playhouse for a presentation, for instance.” According to Willapa Players Treasurer/Secretary Emily Popovich, Phil Davis worked very hard with the Conference and Congregation and used help from Joel Penoyar to make the Congregation’s wishes and our dreams a reality. “We are currently moving props and equipment from the Hannan Playhouse to their new home,” Popovich said. “We will be placing the property for sale. Part of the money from the sale will go to pay the Conference for the Church and part of it, the Conference has allowed the Players to retain for remodeling our new facility. “The entire altar area has to be removed to provide a stage,” Popovich said. “The seating area needs to be elevated so the stage can be seen. There are other areas that need to be adjusted for our needs. “We'll have plenty of room to store props and costumes,” Popovich said. “There is space to have dressing rooms as well as the main theater. There is a great heating system and no leaks. “We do not have a projected date for projects to be completed and the first performance to occur,” Popovich said. “We are currently looking for funding for the stage and seating projects. Tax-deductible donations can be made to the Willapa Players. “We are so thankful the South Bend Methodists thought of us as they were thinking of disbanding,” Popovich added. “Phil Davis and others worked hard to make sure we got a good deal for the Church. We can't wait to get the stage built and be ready to perform for everyone.”
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