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Research on sea stars and their vital role in protecting kelp forests.

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Fundraiser seeks to establish a scholarship for veterans and their dependents According to Devore, for every $10,000 they can get for the Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation, Inc. (SWOCC Foundation), they can do a $500 scholarship for an individual. This works because the interest on the money in the foundation would accrue to make it self-sustaining. The scholarship would be available not only to veterans but also to their families. “We don’t currently have, for SWOCC, a veteran’s scholarship, and so it’s just wanting to get it out,” Devore said. “Currently, you have the post-911 GI Bill, and those veterans go to school, and we also get a lot the dependents, either the spouse or the kids of disabled veterans, come to school here and get stuff, but you know, everybody needs a little help and a little bit of money to make ends meet.” Shana Brazil is the Veteran Services Coordinator for SWOCC and is the certifying official for the 911

By WILL LOHRE Country Media

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a veteran’s group at Southwestern Oregon Community College (SWOCC) was raising money for the SWOCC Fellowship to start a veteran’s scholarship. They raised about $5,000 of the necessary $10,000 to create a permanent 500$ yearly award, but this has stagnated through COVID. To get momentum going for the scholarship, Ryan Devore has kicked off a GoFundMe to get back on the right track. “They raised about $5,000 dollars for it, but you need to get $10,000, and then it will basically put that forward for a $500 scholarship forever,” Devore said. “So I was sitting there trying to figure out how to restart the thing, and I was looking into GoFundMe, and so that way if we get the other $5,000, then this year, or the next year, we can give some veteran, or some veteran’s kid a scholarship.”

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A winter wonderland on the Oregon Coast Mother Nature brought a surprise to the Oregon Coast last week as a once-in-a-decade storm dropped inches of snow over all of Coos County, with three to four inches of snow recorded all the way to Oregon’s beaches. The snow and extreme low temperatures led to hazardous road conditions, which forced all local schools to close Thursday and Friday. The winter weather also caused havoc on local businesses with many closing and others opening late. Trash pickup in Coos Bay was delayed Thursday, and even the post office was unable to deliver mail due to road conditions. By Friday afternoon, much of the snow had melted, with only snowmen built by area children holding on as a reminder of the rare storm. Photos by David Rupkalvis/For The World

Liberty Theatre moves closer to historic designation By WILL LOHRE Country Media

The State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation (SACHP) traveled to North Bend Friday, Feb. 17, to tour the Liberty Theatre to see if it met the criteria for recognition in the National Register of historic buildings. Committee members Stephen Dow Beckham (Chair), Mark Tveskov, Julie Osborne, Gwendolyn Trice, Stephen Mark, Heidi Slaybaugh, John Arroyo, and Jacqueline Cheung sat in consideration of the nomination. Robert Olguin, National Register Program Coordinator, was also present. The discussion took place on the stage at the Liberty Theatre. The four criteria by which

buildings are evaluated are: Criterion A: Association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. Criterion B: Association with the lives of persons significant in our past. Criterion C: Embodiment of the distinctive characteristic of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction. Criterion D: Properties that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.

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After the North Bend City Council approved the Liberty Theatre for consideration for the National Register of Historic Places, the SACHP visited the location. After they toured the area, the committee members discussed if the nomination would be approved. The Liberty Theatre was evaluated on several of the criteria. In consideration of Criteria A, the nomination asserts that the Liberty Theatre played a role in developing entertainment and recreation in North Bend. Its period of significance spanned from 1924 to 1959. From its opening in 1924 to 1955, it showed motion pictures and has housed the Little Theatre on the Bay since 1959. Little Theatre on the Bay is a community-

based nonprofit that offers live performances. The nomination also makes a case for preservation under Criteria C for its distinctive Moorish architecture. A Portland office, Tourtellotte & Hummel, designed the theater. The committee noted that there had been alterations to the building that included non-historic internal and external changes. However, beginning in 2015, the theater has worked on a multiphase restoration project to reinstate some of the original essence of the building. George Kramer, who nominated the Liberty Theatre, spoke to the committee about the merits of the nomination and the processes of the multiphase renovation project.

“It has been, I believe, for both Little Theatre on the Bay and for the City of North Bend, the community of North Bend, an incredibly successful series of events,” Kramer said. “They are great clients, and they have really taken the history of this theater to heart.” According to Kramer, it is the oldest standing theater in the South Coast region. It was one of the only places for entertainment in an isolated area at the time of its founding. After back and forth between Kramer and the committee, a motion to approve the nomination to the National Register, with amendments to include more of the history of minority representation in the area, was adopted unanimously.

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