Good Turn Day; Innovative Cancer Treatment; What Was Once Lost is Now Found; Senator Wants an Earful

Coast Radio News
Local News

2 May 2013

Scouts to do a good turn at Miller Park

One of the founding principles of scouting is to “do a good turn daily”.  Local Cub Scout leader Tim Del Villar says helping others is part of the Cub Scout Promise and the Scout Oath.

To further that aim, scouts will be gathering Saturday morning at Miller Park to do a series of ‘good turns’.   Many of the scouts will already be participating in a fund raiser for the local junior baseball association… playing in a 100-inning game.

During the down time when they’re not on the field, they’ll converge on the skate park to cut grass, pull weeds and otherwise help beautify the area.

It’s part of “All Scout Day”, a single day of community service for all scouts in the Greenwood District of the Oregon Trail Council.  Del Villar says Cub Scouting is for boys grade one through five.  Boy Scouts is for boys from 11 to 18 years old.

Town Hall Set for Saturday

Fifth District Oregon Senator Arnie Roblan wants an earful.

The Coos Bay Democrat will be hosting a ‘mid-session’ town hall this Saturday morning in Florence.

Roblan says the meeting will be a “great opportunity” to hear from constituents and says he looks forward to hearing from as many of his “friends, neighbors and fellow coastal residents as possible”.

The Town Hall meeting is hosted by the Florence Area Democrats and will be at Siuslaw Public Library Saturday morning at ten.

Siuslaw Public Library Director Steve Skidmore was tracked down by an Oak Park, Illinois resident last month so she could return his college class ring missing for 32 years. (photo courtesy Steve Skidmore)
Siuslaw Public Library Director Steve Skidmore was tracked down by an Oak Park, Illinois resident last month so she could return his college class ring missing for 32 years. (photo courtesy Steve Skidmore)

What was once lost is now found…

Steve Skidmore thought his college class ring was long gone.  32 years ago the Florence man and his young family lived in Oak Park Illinois.  Skidmore was a librarian at Roosevelt University in Chicago at the time when he lost his Baylor University class of 1970 ring.  He assumed it was misplaced when he took it off to wash his hands.

It turns out that wasn’t the case.

skidmore ring;jpg
The current resident of a home in Oak Park, Illinois found this ring in her back yard 32 years after the previous occupant lost it. (Oak Park Police Department Photo)

The ring showed up last month in Deb Quantock McCary’s back yard.  She and her husband were planting their garden when the found the ring in the dirt.  With the help of an Oak Park police officer and Baylor University officials they were able to match up the initials inscribed on the ring with the man who had lived in the house previously.

That man is the director at Siuslaw Public Library.  Steve Skidmore says he now believes he was working in the yard and took the ring off.

He had purchased a replacement, but said “this one means more to me”.

 

Teacher Says Innovative Treatment Makes A Difference

Tim Daugherty said the diagnosis, three years ago, was

totally unexpected.

Tim Daugherty — “It was a fluke.  It was a routine doctor visit.  My wife asked the doctor if he could give me a PSA test.  It came back, it was pretty elevated.  From there, the biopsy showed I had cancer.  Went to surgery, hormone therapy, radiation.”

The cancer had not been confined to the Prostate.  Doctors said some of it had spread to a lymph node.  Daugherty was 51 years old at the time and underwent the standard treatments.  But, his doctor suggested something in addition.

Dr. Brian Mehlhaff — “Provenge is one of the newer treatments that are being developed in a lot of different cancers, but specifically to prostate cancer.”

Dr. Brian Mehlhaff said Pro-venge is unique.

Dr. Brian Mehlhaff — “This is an individual tailored therapy using the patient’s own cells.”

Technicians harvested his white blood cells and then using the breakthrough method, trained them to attack prostate cancer cells.  Daugherty went through the process three times in 2012 and to date, he says, there is no sign of the cancer’s progression.