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Morning Press: Breast cancer, car museum, light-rail contract

The Columbian
Published: October 5, 2014, 5:00pm

Will this weekend’s sunshine stick around for the work week? Check out the weather forecast.

Here’s a look at some of this weekend’s top stories:

Keeping cancer survivors in the pink

After years of providing care for breast cancer survivors, Dr. Allen Gabriel realized he wasn’t equipped to handle a key component of their recovery.

Gabriel, a plastic surgeon at PeaceHealth Medical Group Plastic Surgery, could reconstruct their breasts after mastectomy surgery but he didn’t know how to help heal the emotional scars.

“There’s a lot of deep issues that I cannot address,” Gabriel said.

He realized the community wasn’t equipped to provide that support either.

“There wasn’t an emotional piece of the healing process for women with breast cancer,” Gabriel said.

So in 2010, Gabriel and his wife, Dr. Cassie Gabriel, a Vancouver anesthesiologist, founded the nonprofit Pink Lemonade Project. The goal was to educate and empower the women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and the families who support them through the cancer journey. The Gabriels turned to local patients for program ideas that would meet that mission.

In the four years since, the nonprofit has grown substantially, from a small organization offering a retreat for cancer survivors to one with several programs that support the whole family. The nonprofit established a board of directors and hired two staff — Kim Read, program and marketing director, and Leslie Stose, events and development director — to help shape the nonprofit and share the mission of Pink Lemonade.

Read more about Project Lemonade and see all of our Breast Cancer awareness coverage on our special webpage.

Vintage Car Museum Revs Up in Hazel Dell

In 1954, 16-year-old Ron Wade fell in love with a 1941 Chevrolet Cabriolet. He bought it, and the car sparked a passion that turned into a career.

Now Wade, the owner of two companies that sell parts for classic cars and hot rods, is hoping to awaken the same kind of enthusiasm in others.

The Museum: Cars by Ron Wade is expected to open early next year. As an added draw to visitors, Wade has partnered with Mark Matthias, co-owner of Beaches Restaurant and Bar, to bring culinary offerings to the museum site.

As early as this month, Wade said he hopes to have food carts on the property. By spring, his plan is to house Clark County’s first-ever permanent food cart pod.

The museum will contain Wade’s personal collection of about 25 rare cars, as well as some temporary, visiting exhibits.

Learn more about the Wade’s plans here.

Safety officials discuss rescuing people with autism

When Kari Sullivan’s 14-year-old son, Nick, slipped and fell in the bathroom at summer camp this August, the experience she had with first responders was frustrating.

Nick, who has autism and difficulty communicating, couldn’t relay what was wrong. The medics weren’t able to diagnose him, and turned to Sullivan to decide how badly injured he was and whether it warranted a trip to the hospital.

“He wouldn’t walk on his left leg, so I knew he was injured,” Kari said.

Typically, her son masks minor injuries.

“Something was clearly different and wrong,” she said.

The Vancouver resident said she felt that the medics should have been better at communicating with her and Nick to pinpoint the injury. They just didn’t seem to understand how to work with someone who has autism. At one point, they even asked her if Nick did any “tricks.”

Learn what first responders learned here.

Vancouver will consider policy on Uber

The Vancouver City Council will have its first discussion Monday about Uber, a ride-sharing company that has been operating illegally in the city since this summer.

The council will be presented with potential policy decisions, ranging from shutting Uber down for failing to comply with the city’s taxi code to getting out of the ride-for-hire regulation business entirely and leaving it up to the state.

Middle-ground options include following the city of Spokane’s lead and crafting regulations for ride-sharing companies while easing some rules for taxi companies.

Assistant Vancouver City Attorney Brent Boger will lead Monday’s workshop with Lloyd Tyler and Carrie Lewellen, the city’s chief financial officer and treasurer. In a July 25 memo, Boger wrote that the smartphone-based ride service, which connects passengers with drivers who charge a flat fee, doesn’t comply with city taxicab requirements.

Join the debate on ride-sharing companies here.

C-Tran asks TriMet: Please terminate light-rail contract

C-Tran has formally asked TriMet to join it in mutually terminating a controversial light-rail contract the two agencies signed last year.

In a letter to TriMet last week, Vancouver Mayor and C-Tran board chairman Tim Leavitt said C-Tran believes the agreement is “unenforceable” and should be terminated. The contract spelled out how the two agencies would operate light rail as part of the defunct Columbia River Crossing project. The proposed Interstate 5 Bridge replacement folded earlier this year.

The letter followed months of discussion among C-Tran board members, mostly in closed-door executive sessions. A few board members, including Clark County Commissioner David Madore, have openly called for terminating the contract. Now it appears the majority of the C-Tran board agrees.

It’s unclear whether TriMet will agree to mutually end the pact. In July, TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane wrote a letter indicating his agency has no plans to kill the deal, which was left in limbo when the CRC died. The contract, which has no end date, would take effect only if the CRC is actually funded and built.

Find out more about the C-Tran contract here.

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