LOCAL
Thursday, december 16, 2021
The ObserVer — A7
VOICES
An unintentional holiday tradition
By SARAH ZOLLNER CASE
Special to The Observer
Lisa britton/Baker City Herald
BELLA stores in Baker City and La Grande are donating 10% of sales
during December 2021 to three local organizations, with shoppers
deciding how much goes to each.
BELLA fundraising
campaign aims to ‘Give
More’ to local groups
By LISA BRITTON
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Every
“kerplunk” that echoes in
a BELLA store this month
means one more dollar for a
local charity.
In December, the shops
— one in Baker City, 2023
Main St., and one in La
Grande, 1216 Adams Ave. —
are raising money for three
organizations chosen by the
staff.
“They’re three organiza-
tions we’ve supported for a
long time,” said owner Bev-
erly Calder.
The organizations bene-
fitting from the stores’ con-
tributions are the La Grande
Angel Fund, which is a food
bank for homeless youth;
Baker Relief Nursery, which
serves families with children
younger than 6; and the Baker
City Quiet Zone, which seeks
to reduce train whistles and
improve railroad crossings.
BELLA is donating 10%
of December sales to these
causes, and the recipients are
determined by customers.
“We’re going to let the
people decide,” Calder said.
The theme for the month,
she said, is “Give More.”
, MBA
For every $10 spent, a cus-
tomer is given a hazelnut or
walnut to put in a stocking
labeled for the charity. Each
nut represents $1 for the
organization.
“It’s really so heart-
warming to watch people
consider where the dona-
tion should go,” Calder said.
“Many customers have
involved their kids and let the
kids help decide.”
Calder said education is
part of the fundraiser as well
— her staff members know
the background of each orga-
nization, and share the stories
with customers.
“We’ve been giving out a
lot of brochures,” she said.
In addition to the stock-
ings, a raffle will increase the
fundraising.
Calder said BELLA
received a donation from a
woman who was raised in
Baker City and heard about
the “Give More” fundraiser.
The donor — who wanted to
remain anonymous — con-
tributed $300 for the raffle.
Calder said BELLA added
another $100, and the com-
bined $400 will be split for a
$200 shopping spree in both
stores.
Each shop is selling raffle
tickets for the shopping spree,
and the proceeds from the
tickets will go the charity
that receives the most nuts in
each location.
Calder said the stockings
are emptied each night, and
shoppers in the La Grande
store are supporting Baker
City causes just as much
as the Baker customers are
donating to the Angel Fund.
“People like to see
everyone benefit,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with
this and you hope, at the end
of the day, that our enthu-
siasm is infectious.”
One year when I was in
third or fourth grade, my
family’s Christmas plans
were interrupted by forces
of nature. As the holiday
approached, Mom baked
in preparation for our trip
three hours south to my
grandparents’ house. She
made several fruit pies
to contribute to the much
anticipated Christmas
dinner we would enjoy with
my grandparents, aunts,
uncles and cousins.
Our intention was
to wake up Christmas
morning in our own beds,
open gifts around our tree,
eat breakfast and then pile
into the car and head to
Roseburg for a few days’
visit. What happened
instead was disappointing
to say the least. A winter
storm rolled in, and the east
wind swept through our
suburban town and left the
roads encased in thick ice.
To make matters worse, our
neighborhood was perched
high on a hill, and our
neighborhood street that
led to the main road was
treacherous and impass-
able. Driving on it in a car
full of kids was out of the
question.
We were crestfallen.
Of course we looked for-
ward to opening the gifts
under the tree, but our fam-
ily’s approach to Christmas
gifts was relatively low
key. We knew there weren’t
any Barbie Dream Houses
or Nintendo gaming sys-
tems to be found, nothing
amazing enough to distract
us from being stuck inside
at home when we wanted to
be somewhere else.
When we woke up
Christmas morning,
my parents had hatched
a cheer-up plan. After
opening gifts, they
announced that we were
having pie and ice cream
for breakfast. Mom laid out
the spread of pies and we
cut into all of them. We had
free rein to build the break-
fast plate of our dreams:
Choose your favorite kind
or try some of each. Warm
it up in the microwave if
you want. Plop a scoop of
ice cream on top. It was
decadent and unexpected,
and it raised the spirits in
the room 110%.
Not surprisingly, we
three kids immediately
decided that henceforth,
Breakfast Pie was the
new Christmas Normal,
and should be planned
accordingly.
For more than three
decades, as my brothers
and I grew up, moved out,
and established our adult
lives, we kept on. Every
Christmas, we would wake
up in our own homes with
our partners and kids, open
gifts around our respective
trees, and then drive across
town to my parents’ house,
where we would open more
gifts and tuck into a pie
buffet. Over the years, as
spouses and partners joined
our crew, or when other
extended family members
joined us for the holiday,
they were always surprised
and delighted by the magic
of Breakfast Pie.
The truth is that Break-
fast Pie was the most con-
stant part of our Christmas
celebration for many years.
The tradition came with us
when my parents moved
from that house on the hill
in the suburbs to a neigh-
borhood in the city. Long
after an ugly family rift
severed our relationship
to my mom’s sister and
her kids — the cousins
we were so excited to see
the year of the ice storm
— Breakfast Pie was
our holiday companion.
The church we grew up
in folded, and we found
new places to worship on
Christmas Eve, but Break-
fast Pie kept the faith. Our
grandparents passed and
there was no longer a house
in Roseburg to visit, but
Breakfast Pie was still with
us.
I ate Breakfast Pie in
a bathrobe at my parents’
house the year I was mis-
carrying on Christmas
ANYONE CAN WRITE
Nearly 40 years in the business have taught me that readers are bom-
barded and overwhelmed with facts. What we long for, though, is
meaning and a connection at a deeper and more universal level.
And that’s why The Observer will be running, from time to time, stories
from students who are in my writing class, which I’ve been teaching for
the past 10 years in Portland.
I take great satisfaction in helping so-called nonwriters find and write
stories from their lives and experiences. They walk into my room
believing they don’t have what it takes to be a writer. I remind them if
they follow their hearts, they will discover they are storytellers.
As we all are at our core.
Some of these stories have nothing to do with La Grande or Union
County. They do, however, have everything to do with life.
If you are interested in contacting me to tell me your story, I’d like to hear
from you.
—Tom Hallman Jr., tbhbook@aol.com
Tom Hallman Jr. is a Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writer for The Oregonian.
He’s also a writing coach and has an affinity for Union County.
morning, and again years
later, we gathered for pie
the first Christmas after my
young son died. There was
something comforting and
connecting in this shared
rhythm of our holiday, joy
in the midst of grief and
disappointment, some-
thing solid and familiar
when other parts of life
were unpredictable and
unwelcome.
In the beginning, mom
made the pies, and there
were always at least three
or four to choose from.
Apple, peach, blueberry
and pumpkin made reg-
ular appearances. Later,
my brother’s wife, who had
lost her mother to cancer
when she was 19, started
bringing a homemade
lemon meringue pie every
year; it was her mother’s
famous recipe. I added a
Tollhouse pie, because if
you’re going to eat des-
sert in the morning, why
stop short of chocolate? Of
course there was ice cream
and whipped cream too.
We’re not animals.
And that’s how a nutri-
tionally questionable meal
that started in the 1980s as
a consolation prize for dis-
appointed grade schoolers
became the stuff of family
legend — a treasured tradi-
tion and a hallmark of the
holiday.
For the past two years,
various factors including
the coronavirus pandemic
have colluded to bring an
end to the era of Breakfast
Pie. Will we ever gather as
an extended family and eat
ourselves into a carb coma
before 11 a.m. again? Hard
to say. But for 35 years,
this enduring family tra-
dition did what we needed
it to. Breakfast Pie got us
through that first disap-
pointing Christmas, and
showed us that even some-
thing frivolous can become
a meaningful touch point
for family connection.
NOTICE
To the residence of Union
County. This notice is meant
only to teach, inform,
and educated purpose only.
Lose Weight Now,
in La Grande
Doddsy from EOAlive lost 40 pounds so far
Did you know that the State of Oregon has no laws to protect your
animals on your property. Your dogs and cats have no rights on their
property. Even the owners of dogs and cats have no help from the state.
Our neighbors (renters) 30 feet away from my dogs decided upon
themselves to place many frequency devices next to our home. They stop
the dogs barking and keep them away from their yard. The whole
surrounding area is affected. All of our neighbors who have one or more
dogs are affected by these devices.
, MBA
Scan the code to watch Doddsy on video tell his story
James R. Kopp, MD, MBA
Weight Loss Physician
"If you struggle to lose weight and keep it off, come see
me. Our program helps men, women, and adolescents lose
10 to 150+ pounds safely, rapidly, and healthfully. Scan the
code and watch Doddy's video. Please call my office, and
Kathy will schedule your Free No-obligation Consultation to
learn how we can help you too. Then you decide what you'd
like to do. I look forward to meeting you."
—Dr. Kopp
Call 541-963-9844
Or visit MetTrimMD.com/LaGrandeOR
to Schedule your Free No-obligation Consultation
MetTrimMD La Grande
907 Washington Ave, La Grande, OR 97850
MetTrimMD.com/LaGrandeOR | 541-963-9844
*Personalized plans. Individual results vary.
It is probably not known by many that these frequency devices cause
a great deal of pain, illness and stress. Our dogs would cry and mourn for
hours before we knew what was happening. Because of our dog’s pain they
just added more devices. Keep in mind that our neighbors recorded our
dogs (3) on 3 separate occasions. Union County Animal Control advised us
there was nothing they could do. Our dogs were not considered nuisance
barkers on any of the 3 recordings. If they were nuisance barkers the fine
is 150.00 dollars. Union County Sheriff ’s office also advised us there was
nothing they could do. Both officials advised us to hire an attorney and let
them know the outcome.
We said we will do just that.
We hired an attorney. His name is Geordie Duckler. He can be reached
at 503-546-8052.
If anyone has any problems with neighbors hurting their animals this is
the best person to hire.
He is very knowledgeable and very helpful.
If there is any attorney that would be interested in taking on this
company that sells and builds these devices let me know. They express how
they don’t hurt animals, that is a false statement in my opinion. Just ask
my dogs, they will show you because they are smart. I have recordings and
documents freely given if someone desires to protect our animals.
My address: PO BOX 2995,
La Grande OR 97850.
Teresa McLucas
Cove OR.