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Update: Clark County Health Department Records Highest COVID-19 Activity Rate Ever

Vancouver, WA — Clark County Public Health just released their latest COVID-19 update. The last update was issued Thursday, Aug. 26. Clark County has hit its highest COVID-19 activity rate (523 cases per 100,000) since the pandemic broke out in March 2020.

Cases

• 1,602 additional cases (confirmed and probable) since last update

• 29,725 confirmed cases to date (+1,243 since last update)

• 2,730 antigen probable cases to date (+359 since last update) 

• 1,561 active cases (in isolation period)

• 23.3% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 cases and persons under investigation for COVID-19 (awaiting test results)

• 134 COVID-19 cases and 1 person under investigation for COVID-19 hospitalized

Deaths

• 306 total deaths to date (274 confirmed, 32 suspect)

• 1 new confirmed death since last update: Man in his 50s with underlying conditions

Rates

• COVID-19 activity rate is 523.0 cases per 100,000 over 14 days (up from 397.4 cases per 100,000 last week). 

• COVID-19 new hospital admission rate is 13.6 per 100,000 people over 7 days (up from 9.4 per 100,000 last week)

Learn more on the COVID-19 data webpage: https://clark.wa.gov/public-health/covid-19-data 

You can find more frequent case updates on the state Department of Health data dashboard: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/DataDashboard.

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Tifi’s Sweet Treats: 12 Year-Old Baker Goes Into Business

Camas, WA — Twelve-year-old Camas resident Stephanie Gonzales loves to bake so much she’s turned baking into a business. It’s called Tifi’s Sweet Treats.

The middle schooler has been baking for several years, and focuses on cupcakes, scones, cheesecake cupcakes, pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread), muffins, banana bread, and corn bread. 

“I’ve loved baking for the past few years,” she said. “People just tell me what they want and I make it. My mom taught me, and I’ve learned a lot on YouTube with shows like Natasha’s Kitchen, Domestic Geek, and Stay at Home Chef.”

For now, Stephanie’s sweet treat baking business can be reached at @tifissweetreats on Instagram.

“My aunt calls Tifi so that’s why we named the site Tifi’s Sweet Treats,” she said. 

She wants to start a website.

Her favorites are scones: strawberry and carrot. Her cheesecake cupcakes come in vanilla and chocolate, and she also loves making Funfetti cupcake. Her muffins are available in blueberry, banana, and chocolate chip.

To place your order just send her a DM via Instagram.

Sweet Treats
Pan dulce conchas.
Sweet Treats
Cupcakes by Tifi’s Sweet Treats.
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The Cove, Specializing in Seafood, Opens Its Doors Today

Vancouver, WA — The owners of The Hammond Kitchen and Craft Bar have done it again! This time, it’s called The Cove and the restaurant specializes in seafood. They’ve really done a remarkable job!

At Thursday’s sneak preview, we got to visit this exciting new venue, located at Vancouver’s Tidewater Cove (5731 SE Columbia Way) along the Columbia River, sampling their delicious cuisine while receiving impeccable service.

The modern style restaurant sits right at the Tidewater Cove marina and has stellar views.

Diners may select dishes from the raw bar, which features sushi, crab and shrimp towers, poki, fresh oysters and jumbo peel and eat shrimp.

I started off with their heirloom tomato Ceasar salad (arugula, fresh mozzarella, ceaser dressing, herb pesto, and grated reggiano parmesan). I really enjoyed it. The shrimp tower is exquisite (chopped poached shrimp, seasoned rice, avocado, mango, pickled ginger and aioli).

My entree the wood grilled ora king salmon (charred corn, spinach, asparagus pesto, chimichurri, and warm tomato salad). It’s excellent! 

There’s also a sophisticated wine list, delightful cocktails and beer on draft, along with soft drinks.

The Hammond’s Executive Chef is taking their reins at The Cove, and you will see some familiar faces there, as well. The food is excellent, and the location is a nice escape!

The Cove is open 3-9 Tuesday-Sunday.

Lunch isn’t offered at this time. Stay tuned for changes to the hours.

The Cove
King Orca Salmon.
The Cove
Heirloom Tomato Caesar salad.

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Thursday’s Concert at Crown Park Rescheduled to Aug. 17 Due to Heat

CAMAS, WA — Due to extreme heat conditions forecasted for later this week, Thursday’s concert featuring Dancehall Days has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 17.  

Summer Concerts in the Park wraps it up with your favorite ‘70s/‘80s Classic Rock hits performed by Dancehall Days!  The concert will be held Tuesday, Aug. 17, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at Crown Park (122 NE 17thAve.).  Registration is not required for this event.

Dancehall Days will end this year’s shortened concert series with a blast of upbeat, fun and danceable classic tunes from the ‘70s and ‘80s.   You won’t want to miss this powerhouse band of vocal talent and musical skill!  Check out their music here:  https://www.dhdband.com/music  

No food vendors will be on site, but picnic dinners are welcome.   A few small picnic tables are available upon a first-come, first-served basis.  Chairs and blankets are encouraged.  Alcohol and dogs/pets are not allowed in the park. 

Washington State COVID guidelines are in effect.  Masks must be worn by unvaccinated individuals; social distancing is not required. 

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Fern Prairie ART FEST Features 15 Local Artists July 31-August 1

Fern Prairie, WA — The second annual Fern Prairie ART FEST is a two-day event connecting local artists and the community on Saturday and Sunday, July 31 and August 1 from 10am to 4pm. The ART FEST is staged in the peaceful and tranquil setting of Shangri-La Farm, located 1.5 miles north of Lacamas Lake just outside the city limits of Camas, Washington. A total of 15 artists will participate in the juried show.

“These fine artists are excited to show and sell their work at ART FEST,” said organizer and local artist Liz Pike. Liz will be joined by artists Sarah Bang, Bev Birdwell, Tom Daniels, Derek Danielson, Cheryl Folkers, Dave Garbot, David Gerton, Suzanne Grover, Charlene Hale, Gail Haskett, Amy Jan Ernst, Cheryl Mathieson, Keith Russell and Diane Springer. Original work includes paintings in oils, acrylics and watercolor, pastels, mixed media, pottery, ceramics, fused and enamel glass, jewelry, pen and ink, wood, cast metal and copper mixed media.

The public is invited to take in original works of art surrounded by the beautiful gardens at Shangri-La Farm. Attendees will park at rented Grove Field Airport parking lot, 632 NE 267th Avenue, Camas, WA. Guests may either walk the 1/4 mile trail through the woods to Shangri-La Farm or take the free “Sunflower Mobile” shuttle service. The Sunflower Mobile is an art piece all on its own, hand painted by Liz Pike in oils on fiberglass in her signature sunflower motif. The free shuttle will be available to transport attendees from the airport parking lot to Shangri-La Farm on both days, Saturday and Sunday, July 31 and August 1 between 10am and 4pm.

For more information, contact Liz Pike at 360-281-8720 or email pikeadvertising@comcast.net

Art Fest
By Sara Bang.
Art Fest
By Amy Jan Ernst
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Camas School District’s BookMoBus: Every Wednesday Through August 11

Camas, WA — The Camas School District’s BookMoBus program is a weekly summer event that happens every Wednesday through August 11 at these alternating locations: Helen Baller, Woodburn and Dorothy Fox Elementary schools.

As part of the summer recovery program (which supports more than 300 students), it’s helping Camas students that need extra work on literacy. 

“For elementary school students, the summer recovery program helps students that need extra work on literacy, at the middle school level it helps them with math and literacy, and for high school it’s about credit recovery,” said Diane Loghry, CSD Director of Early Learning. “We work to provide something that’s consistent for all.”

You don’t need to be part of the recovery program to participate.

BookMoBus is made possible by generous grants came from Camas-Washougal Community Chest and General Federation of Women’s Club, and The Standard.

Run by Jen Scott, a teacher on special assignment, and high school volunteers, such as Abigail Malone and Madison Scott, the events alternate each week between the three aforementioned schools: Helen Baller, Dorothy Fox and Woodburn.

The next event is today at Helen Baller from 9 am-12:30 pm. Next Wednesday it will be at Woodburn from 9-11 am, and then at Dorothy Fox from noon-2 pm.

Students are able to check out books (on the honor system), participate in readings, and pre-K students are encouraged to pick up summer learning packets to help them prepare for Kindergarten. Parents can check out books, too.

Guest readers include school board members Corey McEnry and Erika Cox, as well as Julie Mueller, Bryan Graham, and CSD’s Interim Superintendent, Doug Hood.

BookMoBus

The librarian counted 250 people at the last BookMoBus event at Dorothy Fox and Woodburn.

“The BookMoBus program started in summer of 2019,” said Scott. “Last summer we weren’t able to do it, and so we came back bigger this year with a bus. The real goal is to encourage reading and so we provide an opportunity to keep them reading over summer. 

“Recently in the last two weeks we rolled out 200 new books. It’s coming from requests from families about which types of books interest them. I get the requests and that’s what’s getting them back into reading more. Popular requests are graphic novels, Dragon Masters, and Dog Man, which is like the Diary of a Wimpy kid series.”

Loghry said early learning classes were among the first to open last Fall, and said she’s proud of the efforts coming from teachers.

“Teachers worked really hard and they continue to work hard,” said Loghry. “They advocate to bring kids into the building. I think students learned a lot of thing this year: patience, grit, flexibility, resilience.” 

BookMoBus
Inside the converted BookMoBus.

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Events: Summer Fun! Free Movies Return to Crown Park!

Camas, WA  –  The City of Camas Parks & Recreation’s free Movies in the Park series returns to Crown Park!  Two movies will be shown this year with the voted top-pick movie “Onward” kicking off this year’s short series and the live version of the Lion King ending the season.  

On Friday, July 30, “Onward,” a Disney/Pixar collaboration, tells the story of two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley, who get an unexpected opportunity to spend one more day with their late dad and embark on an extraordinary quest aboard Barley’s epic van Guinevere.  The movie will begin at 9 pm at the Crown Park shelter (NE Everett & NE 17th Ave.).

On Friday, August 20, the 2019 Disney live re-make of the movie favorite the “Lion King” will show at 8:30 pm, and will include pre-movie activities starting at 7:30 pm.  This 2019 live-action remake of the original animated version tells the same story of the young lion prince who, after the murder of his father, flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.  The well-known original songs are featured in the movie, making this new version a new favorite! 

Movies in the Park is in its 14th year (after a hiatus in 2020) and shows movies that are rated G or PG, to adhere to our family-friendly events criteria.  At the beginning of 2019, selected K-8 classrooms in the Camas School District were able to cast their votes for their favorite movies.  The top two winning movies from that vote are the ones we are sharing with our community this year. 

The Movies in the Park series is sponsored by Camas United Methodist Church.  At this time, movies will not feature a food vendor, so plan to bring your favorite dinner, movie snacks and drinks to the park.  Food can also be purchased at Top Burger, located across the street from the park, or from a variety of restaurants in downtown Camas, four blocks away.   Bring chairs or blankets for seating and note that, to allow fair viewing, chairs are placed in one-half of the park viewing area and blankets in the other half.  This is a free event.  No registration is required.  And, please note that alcohol and animals are not allowed in Crown Park. 

Movies in the Park is coordinated by Camas Parks and Recreation. 

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Clark County COVID-19 Activity Rate Drops to 67.5 Cases Per 100,000

The Clark County Health Department is now issuing weekly COVID-19 reports. The last update was issued Thursday, July 1. Here is the latest data:

  • 138 additional cases (confirmed and probable) since last update
  • 24,540 confirmed cases to date (+111 since last update)
  • 1,564 antigen probable cases to date (+27 since last update) 
  • 155 active cases (in isolation period)
  • 2.6% of hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 cases and persons under investigation for COVID-19 (awaiting test results)

Deaths

  • 288 total deaths to date (254 confirmed, 34 suspect)
  • 1 new confirmed death since last update: a woman 80+ years old with underlying health conditions

Rates

  • COVID-19 activity rate is 67.5 cases per 100,000 over 14 days (down from 95.4 cases per 100,000 last week)
  • COVID-19 new hospital admission rate is 1.8 per 100,000 people over 7 days (down from 2.2 per 100,000 last week)

Learn more at the Clark County COVID-19 data webpage: https://clark.wa.gov/public-health/covid-19-data 

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CW Chamber Announces New Washougal Summerfest July 23-24

Washougal, WA – The Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce plans to host Washougal Summerfest Beer Garden in Reflection Plaza, 1703 Main Street, in beautiful downtown Washougal, on Friday and Saturday, July 23 and July 24 from 4 pm-11 pm each day.

This new community event is open to the public and features live music by rock and roll band “The Hot Shots,” along with dancing, great beer, and good cheer!  This event is for those 21 and older.  Admission is $5.

“With the State fully re-opening at the end of June, the Chamber wanted a celebration as things return to normal,” said Jennifer Senescu, Executive Director of the Chamber.  “We have been through a lot the past 15 months, it’s time to come together as a community.” 

Recently, the Board of Directors at the Chamber had approved hosting two events, one in Washougal this Fall and one in Camas over the traditional Camas Days weekend. However, this week, Chamber officials were notified their Special Events Application with the City of Camas to hold a smaller hybrid of Camas Days was denied by Camas City officials. 

Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Burton said Camas was unable to accommodate the request due to police staffing issues. Vacations for officers were approved months ago given the cancellation of Camas Days by former Mayor Barry McDonnell.

The Chamber then approached the City of Washougal, where officials provided rapid approval for Washougal Summerfest on July 23 and 24. 

“We appreciate the City of Washougal’s flexibility and graciousness in approving this event so quickly. The Chamber’s involvement in Washougal is long overdue and our entire Board of Directors is delighted that we are hosting an event to promote downtown Washougal,” said Senescu. 

The Chamber is in the process of obtaining approval for an Oktoberfest in downtown Camas. 

Washougal
www.clarkcountyrelocations.com

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Dr. Cynthia Bye: Do You Love Sugar? … So Do All Cancers

Vancouver, WA — New research has found an association between early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC) and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). EO-CRC is defined as being diagnosed with colorectal cancer before age 50. The Nurses’ Health Study 2, a prospective study followed roughly 95,000 female nurses between 1991-2015. The participants who consumed 2 or more SSBs per day in adulthood had a more than doubled risk of EO-CRC when compared with those who consumed less than 1 serving per week. This risk rose by 16% for each additional SSB serving per day. SSBs, which include sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, and fruit drinks, make up almost 40% of added sugar in diets in the US and 12% of Americans consume 3 or more of these daily. A cola has about 39 grams of sugar, which is approximately 10 tsp of sugar per can. That’s a lot of sugar. 200 years ago, the average American consumed 2 pounds of sugar per year. Today the average American consumes 152 pounds of sugar annually. My goodness, that is 30 five-pound bags of sugar per year.

Consumption of added sugar has become a real problem for the United States. In 2013, the American Heart Association (AHA) published a study attributing 25,000 deaths in the United States to added sugar. In 2019, the AHA published a study that found consuming more than two sweetened drinks per day increased their risk of death by 21%. Excess sugar intake can lead to weight gain, insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes, all of which can contribute to inflammation and cancer. Additionally, tumor cells take up more sugar (glucose) than healthy cells. In a presentation by Dr. Johannes Czernin from UCLA, he states that tumor cells take up 30 times more glucose than healthy cells. This increased glucose uptake is used diagnostically for cancer patients. For Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, patients must fast for at least 6 hours before their imaging and no carbs/s. for at least 24 hours to starve the cancer cells. Then they are injected with a sugar that has a radioactive tracer tagged onto it.  The PET scan tracks the uptake of sugar/radioactive tracer throughout the body and identifies the areas with the highest consumption. These areas with high consumption of high sugar/tracer, show up as hot spots on imaging indicate the presence of cancer because cancer loves sugar.

Not only is the cancer being fed with the sugar, but the sugar also increases insulin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).  As the name suggests, growth factors make cancer grow. Insulin also increases inflammation. At the end of the day, it all comes down to inflammation. We tell our patients that inflammation is the cause of all disease and it is a common thread we see in our cancer patients. Short-term inflammation can be beneficial for things like wound healing or your body fighting off an infection like influenza. But chronic inflammation is the villain here. Symptoms of inflammation can be vague like joint pain, allergies, fatigue, or poor digestion. These symptoms are like your car’s check engine light and they’re telling you that something isn’t right. When your check engine light is on, you take your car to the mechanic so they can diagnose the problem. The same should be true for your body; you should be working with a Naturopathic physician who can connect the dots to determine why your body’s check engine light is on.

Dr. Cynthia Bye, ND, FABNO, is a Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology (FABNO), the only FABNO located in southwest Washington, she did a residency at Cancer Treatment Centers of American, and she has been working in cancer care for 20 years. There are less than 150 Naturopathic doctors in the United States and Canada that have been board certified as FABNO. She works with you to figure out why your check engine light is on.  Through a full review of the system, head to toe she connects the dots as to why it’s on. She works with you to teach you how to take care of yourself. To create lasting lifestyle changes and turn off the “check engine light”.

Each person and each cancer are different, and Dr. Bye utilizes individualized therapies based on your needs. The goal is to work with cancer patients to identify causative factors that cause inflammation. Many things cause inflammation. Dr. Bye supports cancer patients as they go through their treatments with well-researched protocols to reduce side effects without interfering with the treatment, tie up circulating tumor cells to reduce the risk of metastasis, and help cancer patients recover from their treatments. Once treatment is finished, she works with patients to help them recover from radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery using protocols to decrease recurrence risk if they no longer have evidence of disease. For patients with residual disease after treatment, we support their recovery, improve their quality of life, and work to slow down the cancer process. 

Even though signs of chronic inflammation are like a check engine light, your body is not like a car. If your car breaks down, you buy a new one….. You only get one body, and it is the vehicle through which you experience your life. When your “light” comes on, being proactive by changing your lifestyle, and taking charge of your health is the best investment you can make. An easy way to start is by taking the sugar out of your life.  Dr. Bye, works with cancer patients, family members of cancer patients, and individuals looking to reduce their risk of cancer.

To learn more, visit www.cynthiabye.com

Hur J, Otegbeye E, Joh H, et al. Sugar-sweetened beverage intake in adulthood and adolescence and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women. Gut. Published Online First: 06 May 2021. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323450

Malik, V. S., Li, Y., Pan, A., De Koning, L., Schernhammer, E., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B. (2019). Long-Term consumption of Sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages and risk of mortality in us adults. Circulation,139(18), 2113-2125. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.118.037401

PET/CT Cancer Imaging: Cancers Eat a lot of Sugar [Video file]. (2013, August 1). Retrieved from https://www.simmsmanncenter.ucla.edu/center_events/petct-cancer-imaging-cancers-eat-a-lot-of-sugar/

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