Oregon Chapter to hold meeting in September

Two things happened in the Oregon town of Tualatian in 1951:

1. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Hall that was built on Seneca Street.
2. The Tualatin River was inundated with crawfish.

So, the good people of the city did what most cities and towns would do, it threw a party and proclaimed it the first annual Crawfish Festival. The sordid history of the celebration includes a battle with Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, a town that proclaims itself the “Crawfish Capitol of the World.” At one point a self-proclaimed Voodoo Queen who lived in Breaux Bridge placed a hex on the Tualatian celebration. Although the hex (and a major riot in the 1970s) nearly ruined the festival the event neverless returned stronger than ever. An estimated 12,000 people were expected to join in the fun for the 2009 event which took place this past weekend August 7-9.

So while we’re sort of sorry the first meeting of the Oregon ACDIS Chapter has to wait until September 18, maybe its a good idea to avoid all talk of voodoo and crawfish when attempting to concentrate on the most appropriate documentation for malnutrition and congestive heart failure.

The meeting is slated for Friday, September 18, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Meridian Park Hospital, 19300 SW 65th Ave., Tualatin, OR. Graciously accomodating those who have had their education and travel budgets trimmed, group organizer Linda Haynes, RHIT, CCDS, says she’ll have a conference line established for those who want to participate but can’t make the trip. If you do plan to attend, call her at 503/692-8864 or e-mail her at lhaynes@lhs.org.

I have no doubt there’ll still be some yummy crawfish for Oregonian day trippers to enjoy so come for the CDI information and stay for supper.