Profile: Dan Bender, Pipe-Smith

Linn-Benton Community College is home to a wide assortment of people from all walks of life with varied hopes, dreams, goals, and interests. While no one student shines brighter than the rest, there are an unmistakable few who strike interest as individuals. One such student is Dan Bender, General Education student here at LBCC, and his hobby of crafting tobacco pipes is becoming more and more intriguing.

Students who venture out to the smoke shack can't help but be amazed but his skill. "He has one shaped like a dragon claw holding a stone" says LBCC student Megan Seek. "He usually has more pipes on him or in his truck to show off other than the one he is smoking out of" and if you ask him, he has no problem opening his backpack or walking to his truck and returning to show off his incredible works of art.

Bender developed his enthusiasm for wood carving at a young age. His grandmother, Christine Wechensky, is a now retired Master Carpenter who loved to teach her children and grand children about the creativity and passion that goes into making these works of art. "I used to love just watching her work," says Bender, taking a long pull from his tobacco pipe, "My whole family inherited a bit of her wood working skills and my focus is on making tobacco pipes".

Bender is usually a quiet man who can be seen often on campus smoking from his self-made pipes. Having only been making these tobacco pipes for about 13 months, Bender still considers him self an amateur. Not one to boast overtly about him self, Bender keeps mostly to himself. That is, until the question arises that strikes interest in all who witness, "Where did you get that pipe?" Soon, this usually self contained man opens up and is more than happy to discuss the ins and outs of his hobby.

Bender has made over 30 wooden tobacco pipes by hand and has sold some for as much as $140. His aunt takes them to Saturday Market in Salem and sells them for him when he finishes one of these works of art that he is willing to part with. Though the process of pipe making seems long, Bender has no complaints about the time he puts into every piece.

He starts out with an idea that he sketches in his art pad. His inspirations come from everywhere and he spends alot of time drawing, erasing, and re-drawing each idea before beginning work. He then purchases a small block of wood, his favorite being Briar wood. These blocks of wood or "Blanks" can cost anywhere from $20 to $70 each. Working in his lean-to shed turned work shop, Bender has a variety of tools he uses to carve out each piece. From dremal to lathe,  drill press to  hand sander and buffing wheel, Bender puts alot of time into each piece.

"After I sand it by hand with 4-600 grit sand paper, I use a special wax called Carnuba Wax to make the finish" said Bender. "I also lathe and melt together Ebonite and Acrylic to create each stem for each individual pipe." Added with the process of wood staining, buffing, and occasionally having to repeat a few steps, should he find a flaw, each pipe can take over a month beginning to end.

"One time I was approached by a man named Coburn Grabenhorst at the market who turned out to be a pipe collector and he really liked Dan's pipes", said Aunt Theresa Bender. "He has over 300 pipes in his collection from the Nepoleonic Era to Danish Freehand pipes and he even invited Dan over to see his collection". This only strengthened Bender's love of his craft, as well as taught him to put his signature on each piece which Coburn pointed out was essential if you want your work to become more well known.

Due to interest in his tobacco pipes, Bender is unable to take many commissions because, as would seem obvious, he is only one man and most who have had a chance to hear about his pipes want a Dan Bender original for themselves even if just as an art piece if not to actually smoke out of. However he is still very willing to talking about this hobby he loves and who know, maybe he will be famous some day and you can say' I knew him when...'.

For more information about this skilled craftsmen, he can often be found at the Takena Hall smoke shack, standing around, quietly smoking his pipes, and as stated before, he is very willing to talk to anyone who would like to know more about his passion for pipe making.

Albany Photo Scavanger Hunt

Dear LBCC students. Today we would like to inform you about an incredible event that takes place every year here in Albany. The event is held by the Albany Downtown Association or ADA. What they do is give out these cards with pictures of historic places around Albany for you to track down. Under each picture is a space to record where you found them by street or common location to prove that you found the correct spot.

The Albany Downtown Association is located at 240 2nd Ave. SW #120. Any students interested in taking part in this event has two choices about how to be involved. The first choice would be to simply go into the ADA and ask for a score card to begin the hunt. This seems the best way because the kind volunteers have no issue with giving out little hints and ideas on how to find the targets.

The second way to get ahold of a scavenger hunt score card is to print one off the Albany Downtown Association's website at the following link, http://albanydowntown.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Scavenger-Hunt-Spring2013.pdf. This way you are able to start thinking about whether you may have already seen these places before you ever go downtown.

So as not to worry anyone, all locations are located in the Albany downtown area. "There are no tricks", says Mary, a volunteer helping to capture the community's interest, "Why would we call it a downtown scavenger hunt if you had to go some where else to find places?"

With summer finally arriving, this scavenger hunt is a great opportunity for families to get together and enjoy and walk through Albany's historic district and explore. "Once you start looking for specific details in the architecture of the building, you start noticing things that you never noticed before," says William, another volunteer, "I think seeing the difference between what was then and what is now is sure to spark interest in anyone interested in the history of their own town."

William also volunteers at the Albany Regional Museum located at 136 S Lyon St. as a tour guide. Here, one can walk through and see many different examples of how Albany has changed over time and as Mary hinted to me earlier, half of the locations to be found in the scavenger hunt can be referenced right in that room. A room full of historical artifacts and stories about our town.

As an added bonus, the Albany Regional Museum is also in coalition with Blue Sun Inc, an organization that works together with LBCC and the community to help support our veterans, who have returned from fighting for our country and are currently unemployed.

Participants should turn in their score cards by May 20th to be entered in the grand prize drawing and on the 22nd, the winner will be revealed at the Albany City Council Meeting. This mysterious prize is still yet to be revealed but why would they call it a grand prize if it isn't grand? Hurry in and pick up your score card and be a part of the history of your town today!

Smoking at LBCC

Linn-Benton Community College, gateway to the future? Maybe or maybe not... Alot has been said over time about what people can and can't do on campus. Depending on when and where you are, the rules seem to change. Many people can't seem to get all the rules strait because there is no clear picture of what is and isn't allowed. Take, for example, smoking on campus. Many of the faculty will add rules and regulations for what is and what isn't acceptable in their course syllibus at the begining of each term. However, once a smoker decides to excercise his ability to smoke, someone inevitablly tell him that there is to be yet further restrictions on their smoking habits.

Marcene Olson of Campus security said " There are no changes as of now for the designated smoking areas" and that no official decision has yet been made as to the future of smoking on campus and that we students will just have to wait and see how things go from here. "As OSU has recently changed to a non-smoking campus, we are watching them to see if there arise any added cost, conflicts, administrative headaches, or if it's met with success."

LBCC offers educational opportinitys for people of manys different cultures and backrounds. Some of these people smoke cigarettes. Some of those people who smoke cigarettes are less willing to keep LBCC campus's designated smoking areas clear of cigarette butts and trash than others. For this reason, there is much talk around campus about removing some of these designated smoking areas and with Oregon's Clean Air Act, that just may be a possibility.

This plan seems like a punishment to many cigarette smoking students who feel that it is unfair to move these areas to other areas of campus or to simply lower the number of smoking areas all together. LBCC has allowed smoking on campus for some time, and this isn't the first time that there have been issues with the smoking areas. Many students are not even aware that when smoking in the 'smoke shacks' the designated smoking areas, they are to only smoke on the open side -> _] of these places and not behind them in the walkways, crosswalks, or parking lots.

Smoking is restricted to designated smoking areas. There is talk around campus, these smoking areas are soon to be either moved or removed all together. Is this fair to people who smoke? Chemekita Community College has outlawed all smoking on campus and LBCC may be next.

"It's so stupid," says LBCC student Dan Bender on the topic of removing smoking from campus, "We already have to be huddled together in the parking lots like plague victims but now we might have to walk to the street and line up like bums waiting for a hand out?" This view is shared by many cigarette addicted students here at the college.

Jennifer Fisher, also a student at LBCC, said "I hate hearing people talking about how it's so unfair to them to have to walk past us 'smokers' and have to breathe in our second hand smoke." Fisher, after taking a long and obviously satasfying drag off her cigarette continued, "We have to walk around campus and deal with all types of smells like bad perfume or deodorant. What's next? No perfume or cologne on campus because someone complained about that too?"

Many instructors enclude the rules regarding smoking on campus in their class syllabus every term yet the rules are often not followed. LBCC Safety Committee has discussed this issue on several occasions. Students have continuously choosen to smoke where ever they please and throw cigarette butts on the ground where ever they go.

I don't want to be the person who points out all the names of the people who are either staff on campus or the ones who tell new students misleading information that seem to just cause further problems. What I want to do is to simple point out mistakes that have been made to set the record strait.

Blood Testing At LBCC

Linn-Benton Community College now offers an opportunity to learn vital facts about yourself each term. Those students enrolled in Lifetime Health and Fitness or LHF, are able to get this done by phlebotomists from Samaritan Health who come once a term to draw your blood and send back your results. Students enrolled in Circuit Weight Training can also get this done; however, they require a $20 fee. Faculty members and their spouses can also have this done for this same fee.

What do we associate in our minds when we think about blood? Pain? Injury? Death? How about life? Did you know keeping appraised on your blood glucose, lipid panel, and cholesterol levels can save your life? 250,000 people die each year due to blood related illness before they get the chance to reach the hospital.

When I say illness, I mean many things from heart disease and diabetes to heart attacks and strokes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that in the year 2010, Heart disease had claimed 597,689 lives, Diabetes claimed 69,071 lives, and Stroke or cerebrovascular diseases claimed 129,476 lives.

Did you know that by being aware of these blood levels can prolong your life span? Well, knowing what you’re up against isn’t where it ends but the knowledge you either do or do not have an issue enables you to make any lifestyle changes needed to save your life.

LHF instructor Brad Carman said “Between 300 and 400 students opt for this testing each term”, which is usually the 3rd week of each term. “When you get your results, you can even give them straight to your doctor to either act on or put on file for future reference”, said Carman, “Results range from Lipid Panel, blood glucose level, cholesterol, and indications whether you may be diabetic.”

LBCC Athletics Department secretary Gayle Rushing said that “only students enrolled in these classes are eligible for testing”. Rushing was very clear that if students are interested in blood testing, they must sign up for one of these classes. “We don’t want students thinking that just anyone can do it,” says Rushing, “We just don’t have enough people from Good Samaritan coming to accommodate more students than are currently in class”. Can you imagine the line of people who would show up if it was open to everyone?

“You want to fast for 12 hours before you have your blood drawn”, says Richard Gibbs, Athletics and Health Instructor, “You want to be fasting so your levels reflect your normal state as opposed to giving a false score due to food you just ate”.

Gibbs has personally participated in this even before and believes that keeping informed is quite important. Gibbs related to this writer that he has seen many people who have recieved their results and were able to make lifestyle changes that they didn’t even know were needed.

For anyone who may be interested in having this information, enroll in LFH or Weight Training and become master of your own future. For anyone currently enrolled who has missed sign up or are unable to attend the event, a second chance to have this done will take place at the Benton Center at a date that will be given to those interested parties. Protect your future. Think ahead. Be prepared.