Feb 2024 | Page 8

A perfect fireplace setting
8 February 2024 Pamplin Media Group

Charbonneau Arts Association

By CATHI MCLAIN

Looking ahead to festivals , concerts

Whether you are home for the winter or enjoying the snowbird life in a desert climate , there ’ s always time to enjoy the arts . From the variety of festivals and music events held in warm-climate areas , to the indoor events
MCLAIN we have scheduled here at
Charbonneau , you ’ re never far from an opportunity to enjoy something creative .
Feb . 11 will mark the first Music Stage event for 2024 , with the Bottleneck Blues Band performing from 7-9 p . m . in the Charbonneau Clubhouse Dining Room . Tickets are on sale for $ 20 via Charbonneauarts . org and at the Activity Center reception desk . Optional buffet dinner will also be available . The band was founded 14 years ago with the goal of performing at the Waterfront Blues Festival , which they accomplished . Performers include Noah Bell on lead guitar and lead vocals , Don Worth on drums , Joseph Conrad on bass and Rich Landar on keyboard . In 2015 , Bottleneck
Blues Band was named Best New Blues Band by Cascade Blues Association and nominated for Best CD of the Year Award . The band has played all over Oregon , Washington and Idaho at clubs and major festivals . In the beginning they described their music as “ red hot funky blues ,” but now they refer to it as simply “ Dance Blues .” So , bring your dancing shoes , or just your appreciative ear , to join in the fun of live music .
April 21 will be the next event on the schedule at Charbonneau Clubhouse , featuring Southern Nights Country Western Band . Led by Charbonneau ’ s own Wayne Richards , award-winning songwriter and “ consummate performer and storyteller ,” the event will be a toe-tapper . The music will be preceded by a complimentary line dancing class led by Kat Nichols , so by the time the music starts you ’ ll be ready to dance the night away in the Fireplace Room . Tickets go on sale in March , and details will be provided via email posts and in this publication .
Year-end Donation Match Challenge
Thank you to all who made contributions to Charbonneau Arts Association during our Donation Match Challenge in December . This was our fifth end-of-the-year outreach , and it was very successful . Several members of our board of directors promised to match up to $ 2,500 in new donations and many of you responded positively , with donations totaling $ 4,150 . This will serve as a very positive foundation as we begin a new year of events and fund-raising for area high school arts programs .
2024 Festivals : Jazz and arts
Charbonneau Arts is already working on plans for the 2024 festivals . The board decided it will be best to separate the jazz festival from the arts festival , into a newly reimagined Wilsonville Jazz Festival @ Charbonneau , scheduled for Aug . 11-12 in the Pavilion and Dining Room , and Festival of the Arts @ Charbonneau , Oct . 11-13 . The music stage committee is busy recruiting toplevel talent for the ticketed jazz festival and will soon be announcing the line-up . Those who attended the event in 2023 were blown away by Tom Grant and Friends , Sara Saul Combo and Mel Brown B3 Organ Group . We hope to have those performers return and add to the list as well .
Be sure to save the weekend of Oct . 11-13 for the 40th Annual Festival of the Arts @ Charbonneau . The event has been rebranded to be consistent with the jazz festival title . Plans are already underway to make this a signature year for fine art , fine crafts and student art . Both events benefit from the time and talents of our volunteers , so please let us know if you ’ d like to join in the fun of planning , or just working a shift or two during the weekend . Contact Cathi McLain at cathi @ mclainco . com if you are interested .
Wilsonville arts grant
We are pleased to announce the award of an arts , culture and heritage grant from the city of Wilsonville for $ 3,500 that will help us to enhance our marketing efforts for the Festival of the Arts and Jazz Festival . We plan to boost our social media presence and
expand our advertising to improve attendance at our two upcoming festivals . The city of Wilsonville has previously provided significant grants to support the festival , and we are very grateful for their generosity toward the arts .
2024 board officers
CAA is actively recruiting new board members to replace retiring members . We are still seeking someone with an accounting or bookkeeping background to help with the treasurer duties . In the meantime , the new officers for 2024 are John McLain , president and co-treasurer ; Elaine Swyt , vice president ; Lindy Anderson , co-treasurer ; and Rose Mason , secretary . Cathi McLain will again serve as festival organizing chair , and Eric Hoem and Mary Closson will continue recruiting sponsors . Ginny Merriman and Sue Traeger are our high school liaisons , and Carol Riley has recently joined the board as an at-large member . We are small but mighty and have fun while we ’ re at it ! If you ’ d like to join in that fun , please contact John McLain at john @ mclainco . com . You don ’ t have to be an artist to participate , just have some skills and enthusiasm for organizing and fund-raising . We , like many of you , will be heading to warmer climes this month , but will still be meeting via Zoom and keeping things moving for the music stage events and arts festival events . We treasure our ability to contribute to the quality of life here in Charbonneau , and , near or far , it ’ s a joy . We hope we ’ re not alone in that effort and welcome new members .
Meanwhile , we ’ ll see you at a concert soon !

Charbonneau Book Club

By DAVID MAUK

A perfect fireplace setting

The air was chilly , the day was damp , the fire warmed like sips of steaming tea . No wait , that ’ s an opening sentence for fiction ! That , though , was the scene for the January meeting of the Charbonneau Nonfiction Book Group . Sitting around the fireplace of the old Clubhouse , with a storm outside , our discussion of “ The Ghost Map ” reflected its dark time and place in 1854 London .
The story of hunting the source of a deadly cholera outbreak in a Dickens-type district of Victoria , London became a transformative event that has since shaped public health , sanitation and medicine . Two very different men — science-minded medical doctor John Snow and local parish priest Henry Whitehead — bucked the confirmation biases of that era with a steady determination to stop the lethal spread of cholera .
One death after another , after another . Entire families dead in only a few days . Young and old . Despite the apparent indiscriminate nature of this gruesome human suffering , patterns emerged that these two men pieced together on their own . The challenges were enormous in figuring out how the puzzle fit together . They compiled data of who went where , breathed what air , had contact with whom , drank from which well , used what sewer , and the locations where they died .
It came down to mapping those deaths , the walking routes , the wells , the sewers and importantly the water used
The next book selection is ‘ 1776 ’ by
David McCullough . for drinking . Many mysteries needed to be solved along the way , such as why workhouse residents largely survived , as did the neighborhood brewers , and those living in the home for aged women . The death map , marking the ghosts of former lives , displayed that the unlikely source at the center was a well with the freshest , most popular water supply . And then , there was the final piece of the puzzle to place .
At the beginning was the death of Baby Lewis , a little girl . When the deaths migrated beyond her , the puzzle got flipped over , the pieces scattered until near the end of the epidemic , when the baby ’ s father died in the same house . This gave rise to science being applied to the vast number of discoveries , linking their commonalities . It took John Snow ’ s methodical analysis , and Henry Whitehead ’ s relentless house-to-house canvassing that completed the puzzle . This landmark case is the before-andafter dividing line in epidemiology , and continues to be referenced in statistics and disease mapping today , as we witnessed firsthand during the COVID pandemic .
The next book for our group is David McCullough ’ s eminent , highly readable classic , “ 1776 .” Our meeting will be Feb . 5 at 1:30 p . m . in the second-floor board room of the Activity Center . We welcome new members to join us for good books and lively discussion .

Sunshine

� From Page 7
MAY appointment ! Probably could start WW3 on what ’ s happening to our medical system .
Our team feels blessed to be able to offer help for our local residents . Remember , it ’ s not all about surgery … regular aches , pain and minor disabilities count too . We offer a veritable plethora of items that could bring relief . Gel Pacs for pain , canes , walkers , bath aids and so on . Just check us out to see what we ’ ve got in stock .
As always , we do ask that you return things within a normal time frame ? Post-surgery that is usually approximately two months — sorry , we can ’ t stretch that out to five or six months . Each category has a limited supply of items ( walkers , wheel chairs , etc .) and we try to make it fair so our residents all have a chance to borrow what they need . We know you understand .
Looks like we ’ re off to a VERY wet winter ; grass has turned to pure mud ! Stay dry and safe until you see spring around the bend .