LOCAL
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
KIDS CLUB
dance has steadily dropped.
Kids Club served a total of
172 individual children in
2016-17, 116 in 2017-18 and
96 in 2018-19. Kids Club has
had 61 individual children
attend during the fi scal year
that started July 1, 2019
and runs to June 30. Few of
these children were one-time
drop-ins. The average child
attended Kids Club about
160 hours a year, according
to Community Connection
statistics.
Families on average pay
between $2-$3 an hour per
child to attend Kids Club.
Several circumstances
may have hurt attendance,
Thomas said, including La
Grande School District’s
switch from half day to full
day kindergarten in 2015,
which reduced parents
need for child care. The
school district in 2006 also
moved all sixth graders from
elementary schools to the La
Grande Middle School. Once
at the middle school, Thomas
said, many sixth graders
perceived themselves as too
old to attend Kids Club.
Kids Club, which has oper-
ated year round, is now open
to children age 5 to 12 each
school day from 7-8:30 a.m.
and 2:30-5:30 p.m. Children
play games in Riveria’s
gym, get meals and snacks,
participate in education
activities, including paint-
ing and science, technology,
engineering and math. The
youth also can do homework
in classrooms while receiv-
ing tutoring from Kids Club
instructors.
The club’s staff includes
Janine Thomas, who has
been with the program for
the past 16 years, the last 11
as its director.
“This is one of the great-
est jobs I have had,’’ Thomas
said. “It has been a great joy.
Every day is different, you
never know what you are
getting into.’’
Thomas said some
children like the program
so much that after they get
too old for it, they come back
in different capacities. One
13-year-old came back to
work as a volunteer and an-
other was hired to be a Kids
Club teacher.
Thomas said children at-
tending Kids Club sessions
in the afternoon have a lot of
pent up vigor.
“They have a lot of energy
because they have been
sitting behind desks all day,’’
she said.
Children coming in the
morning are a bit more
subdued.
“They are a little qui-
eter, they are sleepy heads,’’
Thomas said.
She said it was hard to ac-
cept the news that Kids Club
is closing.
“I do not want it to go
away,’’ she said.
Davidson said for Kids Club
needs an additional $75,000 in
2020-21 to continue running
past June. Davidson said the
possibility of donors coming
forward with that much fund-
ing is remote, but she is not
giving up hope.
“I’m an optimist,” David-
son said. “I always think the
glass is half full.”
Romney choked up as he
said he drew on his faith and
“oath before God” to an-
nounce he would vote guilty
on the fi rst charge, abuse of
power. He voted to acquit on
the second.
Both Bill Clinton in 1999
and Andrew Johnson in 1868
drew cross-party support
when they were left in offi ce
after an impeachment trial.
President Richard Nixon
resigned rather than face
revolt from his own party.
Ahead of voting, some of
the most closely watched sen-
ators took to the Senate fl oor
to tell their constituents, and
the nation, what they had
decided. The Senate chap-
lain opened the trial with
daily prayers for the senators,
including one Wednesday
seeking “integrity.”
Infl uential GOP Sen.
Lamar Alexander of Tennes-
see, who is retiring, worried
that a guilty verdict would
“pour gasoline on the fi re”
of the nation’s culture wars
over Trump. He said the
House proved its case but it
just didn’t rise to the level of
impeachment.
“It would rip the country
apart,” Alexander said before
his vote.
Other Republicans siding
with Trump said it was
time to end what McConnell
called the “circus” and move
on. Trump ally GOP Sen.
Lindsey Graham said it was
a “sham” designed to destroy
a presidency.
Most Democrats, though,
echoed the House managers’
warnings that Trump, if left
unchecked, would continue
to abuse the power of his
offi ce for personal political
gain and try to “cheat” again
ahead of the 2020 election.
During the nearly
three-week trial, House
Democrats prosecuting the
case argued that Trump
abused power like no other
president in history when
he pressured Ukraine to
investigate Biden and his
son, Hunter Biden, ahead of
the 2020 election.
They detailed an extraor-
dinary shadow diplomacy
run by Trump lawyer Rudy
Giuliani that set off alarms
at the highest levels of gov-
ernment. After Trump’s July
25 phone call with Ukraine,
Trump temporarily halted
U.S. aid to the struggling ally
battling hostile Russia at its
border. The money was even-
tually released in September
as Congress intervened.
When the House probed
Trump’s actions, the presi-
dent instructed White House
aides to defy congressional
subpoenas, leading to the
obstruction charge.
One key Democrat,
Alabama Sen. Doug Jones —
perhaps the most endan-
gered politically for reelec-
tion in a state where Trump
is popular — announced he
would vote to convict. “Sena-
tors are elected to make
tough choices,” Jones said.
Questions from the
Ukraine matter continue to
swirl. House Democrats may
yet summon former national
security adviser John Bolton
to testify about revelations
from his forthcoming book
that offer a fresh account
of Trump’s actions. Other
eyewitnesses and documents
are almost sure to surface.
In closing arguments for
the trial the lead prosecutor,
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,
appealed to senators’ sense
of decency, that “right mat-
ters” and “truth matters” and
that Trump “is not who you
are.’’
“The president’s basic lack
of character, his willingness
to cheat in the election - he’s
not going to stop,” Schiff
told The Associated Press
on Wednesday, predicting
more revelations would
become public. “It’s not going
to change, which means
that we are going to have to
remain eternally vigilant.”
Pelosi was initially reluc-
tant to launch impeachment
proceedings against Trump
when she took control of
the House after the 2018
election, dismissively telling
more liberal voices that “he’s
not worth it.’’
Trump and his GOP al-
lies in Congress argue that
Democrats have been trying
to undercut him from the
start.
But a whistleblower
complaint of his conversa-
tion with Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy set off
alarms. The call had been
placed the day after Mueller
announced the fi ndings of
his Russia probe.
When Trump told Pelosi in
September that the call was
perfect, she was stunned.
“Perfectly wrong,” she said.
Days later, the speaker an-
nounced the formal impeach-
ment inquiry.
The result was the quick-
est, most partisan impeach-
ment in U.S. history, with
no Republicans joining the
House Democrats to vote for
the charges, though one GOP
congressman left the party
and voted for impeachment
and two Democrats joined
Republicans to oppose. The
Republican Senate kept up
the pace with the fastest trial
ever, and the fi rst with no
witnesses or deliberations.
Trump’s legal team with
star attorney Alan Dershow-
itz made the sweeping, if
stunning, assertion that even
if the president engaged in
the quid pro quo as described,
it is not impeachable, because
politicians often view their
own political interest with
the national interest.
Continued from Page 1A
“It was a very diffi cult
decision,’’ said Margaret
Davidson, executive director
of Community Connection.
“We love the program. It (the
closure) is sad but the money
is not there.’’
On the bright side, La
Grande Parks and Recre-
ation director Stu Spence
said Wednesday morning the
city will be looking into ways
in which it might be able to
meet the needs the closure of
Kids Club will produce.
Community Connection
started Kids Club in 1995,
and it has operated at the
Riveria Activity Center since
2002. Davidson said Kids
Club has been running at a
defi cit the past three or four
years, primarily because it
has been unable to obtain
large grants from community
foundations that it once did.
The Ford Family Founda-
tion, the Collins Foundation
and the Oregon Community
Foundation are among the
foundations that have sup-
ported Kids Club in a big way
during much of its history.
Kids Club also has suf-
fered from declining atten-
dance in recent years.
The program served 241
individual children at its
peak in the 2007-2008 fi scal
year, and since then atten-
TRUMP
Continued from Page 1A
Trump has eagerly predicted
vindication, deploying the
verdict as a political anthem
in his reelection bid. The
president claims he did noth-
ing wrong, decrying the “witch
hunt” and “hoax” as exten-
sions of special counsel Robert
Mueller’s probe into Russian
2016 campaign interference
by those out to get him from
the start of his presidency.
Trump’s political cam-
paign tweeted videos, state-
ments and a cartoon dance
celebrating that he was
“vindicated.” Trump him-
self tweeted that he would
speak from the White House
on Thursday about “our
Country’s VICTORY on the
Impeachment Hoax.”
A majority of senators
expressed unease with
Trump’s pressure campaign
on Ukraine that resulted in
the two articles of impeach-
ment. But two-thirds “guilty”
votes would have been
needed to reach the Constitu-
tion’s bar of high crimes and
misdemeanors to convict and
remove Trump from offi ce.
The fi nal tallies fell far short.
On the fi rst article of
impeachment, abuse of power,
the vote was 52-48 favor-
ing acquittal. The second,
obstruction of Congress, also
produced a not guilty verdict,
53-47.
Only one Republican, Mitt
Romney of Utah, the party’s
defeated 2012 presidential
nominee, broke with the GOP.
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Local youth line up Tuesday to get snacks at Kids Club, a child care program in La Grande. Without funding, the program
will close in early June.
CCNO
Continued from Page 1A
impossible to give the way they do, it’d
be a mess. I think centralized is best.”
Hensley said having multiple food
pantries across the counties also helps
people access the food rather than make
them come to one central location.
“The more food bank partners we
have, the easier it is to access them,” he
said.
One reason CCNO does not handle
all community services is because the
grants that fund the organization often
are specifi c, Hensley said. There are
certain situations Community Connec-
tion cannot fi nancially help with, such
as gas money or a bus ticket. However,
the organization can provide referrals
to one of its partners — the Oregon
Department of Human Services, the La
Grande-based Center for Human De-
velopment, domestic violence shelters
and services such as Shelter From the
Storm, the Veterans Affairs offi ce and
churches. The partnerships work both
ways. Churches and other agencies
often refer people to CCNO for the ser-
vices the organization can provide.
“We are already handling quite a
bit,” Hensley said. “One issue is Oregon
housing and community services are
very restricted on their budgets.”
Hensley explained other organiza-
tions have the grant restrictions, so the
funds must go toward housing or health
and wellness programming and educa-
tion. The circumstances makes these
partnerships all the more important,
bridging the gaps to provide a full spec-
trum of assistance.
Not every organization in the area
partners with Community Connection.
Rise Inc. is a nonprofi t agency for
children with mental health challenges,
adults with developmental and other
disabilities, and aging adults. Rise, how-
ever, does not work with Community
Connection.
Rise, like CCNO, has multiple pro-
grams to address various needs, all of
which are federally funded and state
operated. While Community Connec-
tion and its partners offer programming
for aging adults, there are a limited
number of options for children with
mental health issues and adults with
disabilities as compared with the cover-
age from Rise.
Debbie Ewing, the Eastern Oregon
director for Rise, said a discussion about
partnering with Community Connec-
tion has not come up at this point.
Hensley said if there is an organization
in the area with services that CCNO
does not offer, a partnership is always
possible.
“We might hear about something an
agency is offering, services we don’t
have, and we get on board and meet
about working together,” Hensley
said.
In most cases, people who come to
CCNO for help are assigned a case
manager who will guide them to
services and follow up to ensure their
needs are being met. Community Con-
nection in 2019 handled 4,374 cases.
Hensley said having one-on-one, in-
person contact is key and helps people
feel connected.
“When there is a client in need of help,
we don’t want them sent all over the
place — they can get confused and tired,”
Hensley said. “We have a lot of programs
and partnerships, and while (clients)
may feel like they are being shuffl ed be-
tween agencies, they still have a central
place they can go back to.”
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