Representatives of Brookings-Harbor charities gather after receiving donations from Emblem Club 265.

Following a flag retirement ceremony, club members presented donations to service organizations in the community.

At the March 9 meeting at the Brookings Elks Lodge, checks were presented to Brookings Elks Lodge Food Baskets Program, Oasis Shelter Home, Brookings-Harbor Community Helpers Inc. Food Share, South Coast Humane Society, Soroptimists International, Guardians from Above, Outreach Gospel Mission, His Haven of Hope and the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall committee.

The Emblem Club also contributed money to its own projects, such as Americanism, which includes the Military Mail program; scholarships; drug awareness programs; and Pot of Gold, which provides prostheses for cancer victims, said Terry Clawson, club president.

The final presentations of the evening were  prizes for the students who won the Americanism Essay Contest.

Les Cohen, Brookings-Harbor Chamber of Commerce executive director, places tiara on Ashley Lueckfeld while princesses Sarah Lyne Miller, Kelly Aldrich and Shalynn Doan await their turn. The Pilot/Bill Schlichting

The five princesses attended their Toastmasters Speechcraft graduation ceremony Tuesday at the Chetco Community Public Library, and then they put their public speaking skills to the test when the they received their tiaras Thursday during the Brookings-Harbor Chamber of Commerce forum luncheon at the Brookings Inn Resort.

Each year the Chetco Chatterers Toastmasters Club provides a six-week training program to help the young women hone their speaking skills in preparation for their appearance at the Azalea Festival pageant on May 1 at Brookings Church of the Nazarene.

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – Those who looked through a high-powered telescope toward St. George Reef  Lighthouse southwest of Brookings on Feb. 27, might have glimpsed mammals not observed there in several years –  people.

After three years away from the North Coast icon, members of the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society arrived by helicopter to find most things as they left them, with a few surprises.

“The galley window was broken out … but the sleeping bags were dry  and even smelled fresh,” said Preservation Society work coordinator Terry McNamara.

Two stories below the broken galley window, at the base of the tower, equipment weighing in excess of 10,000 pounds had shifted several feet across the base of the lighthouse and a large concrete slab covering a ventilation shaft was broken in two, presumably by winter swells that the lighthouse, seven miles off the coast of Crescent City, has endured since its lens was lit Oct. 20, 1892.

A certain amount of winter damage is expected and the last few years have nothing on 1952, when a wave actually broke a window in the lantern room 145 feet above sea level and sent water cascading down the tower steps.

A dozen acts performed for the annual Brookings-Harbor High School talent show Thursday night, but in the end it was the duo with an original song that impressed the judges the most.

Junior Liz Lindley, accompanied on guitar by Senior Mitch Harrison, sang their original song “Change” to win first place in the annual contest sponsored by the Sophomore Leadership Class.

Winning second place was Liz Ha, a senior who performed “Concerto Pour Une Juene Pille” by Richard Clayderman. Ha performed a piano solo. The panel of judges chose freshman McAlla Murdock, who performed a Celtic-style violin solo.

There is still time to submit an entry into the Brookings Merchants Association’s logo contest to win $100 in cash, plus additional fame and fortune.

The winner will be interviewed on “Your Community” on KBSC TV cable channel 9, and be featured with the winning logo in an article in the Curry Coastal Pilot.

The logo will be used on all the newly formed merchants association’s advertising and displayed in all member stores and offices.