LOCAL
A6 — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2022
VOICES
Carpool off ers chance to learn from others
By VICTORIA CROSS
Special to The Observer
When most immigrants
picture the United States,
they think of Manhattan,
Las Vegas and Hollywood.
Few consider Scappoose,
where I eventually landed
when I arrived from Russia.
When my father visited
me, he asked: “Where is
America?”
I told him: “This is it.”
Like most immigrants
who come to the United
States, I did not drive and
relied on public transpor-
tation. When I got a job in
downtown Portland, I had
to fi nd a way to make the
20-mile trip each day. Even-
tually, someone suggested I
join a carpool. It was a new
concept. When my Amer-
ican friends asked me if we
had carpools in Russia, I
said we did, but called them
trains.
The carpool I joined had
been founded 10 years ear-
lier. After a phone call, I
was invited to join, and on
the fi rst day, I stood with
my husband on St. Helens
Road to wait for a red Ford
to arrive and pick me up.
I was nervous when
I thought about the
40-minute drive to the city.
What would I talk about
with these strangers? What
if they didn’t like me?
And then the red car
stopped, and the door
opened.
“Hi,” the driver said. “I
am Anne.”
My husband suspiciously
looked inside the car,
kissed me goodbye and let
me go. On the fi rst day, it
was just the driver and me.
Anne was very talkative.
Relieved, I just sat and lis-
tened. But the next day the
whole team went to work,
and I met the rest of my
carpool.
I knew I was on
probation.
The rules were simple:
No smoking and you could
sleep.
In this little bubble, I
learned how to communi-
cate, discovered what was
appropriate to discuss and
how to dress so people at
work wouldn’t take a look
at my outfi t and ask me if I
planned to go to the opera
that night.
Each day I worked on
my language skills. I’d
studied English in school,
but it was a British version
of English language.
At fi rst, it was diffi cult
to communicate. I’d heard
just some of the words,
and because it was not my
native language, I had to
assume what was conver-
sation about. But as I grew
more comfortable, I started
to relax. All of the car-
pool members were Ore-
gonians, and some of them
didn’t travel much outside
the state. They were curious
about what I ate and where
I shopped for groceries.
can read American litera-
ture, watch movies and TV
shows, but only when you
can acquaint yourself with
ordinary people on regular
basis it become real.
By communicating about
everyday life, you learn
about the culture. I found
more similarities than dif-
ferences. People have the
same family values and work
ethics even though commu-
nication styles are diff erent.
This carpool was a gift.
I learned just by observing
my fellow carpool mem-
bers. Through listening,
observing and trying to
adapt the new culture I
learned about myself. I
learned my strengths and
weaknesses.
And then the carpool
ended.
My husband and I
moved, and I no longer
needed a ride to the city.
I moved on and started a
new chapter in my life and
journey.
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 fi nd and write sto-
ries 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 affi nity for Union County.
Through these conversa-
tions were learned about
each other.
In time, I learned the
American version of small
talk.
My buddies traveled
with coff ee mugs. Travel
mugs were absolutely new
for me. It was cool to see
people working on the
streets with cups of coff ee.
I bought those travel mugs
for my Russian friends and
family as souvenirs.
This carpool was a
vehicle that brought me
to American culture. You
Fundraising for bike playgrounds nears fi nish line
Foundations
promise matching
funds for Wallowa
project
HOW TO DONATE
Donations to the bicycle
playground to be built in
Wallowa can be made to
Building Healthy Families, 207
NE Park, Enterprise, OR 97828.
For more information, call Ron
Pickens at 541-426-9411.
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — The
finish line is in sight in
efforts to raise money
to build a bicycle play-
ground in Wallowa, with
those behind the project
having raised about 93%
of the estimated $329,500
needed, Ron Pickens said
Friday, May 6.
“The biggest thing
right now is we have two
foundations that have rec-
ommended we use their
funds as a matching
opportunity within the
community,”
Pickens said.
He said the Reser
Family Foundation has
pledged a match of
$12,000 and the Round-
house Foundation has
pledged $10,000, in addi-
tion to the $15,000 Round-
house already has given.
Added to the approxi-
mately $306,000 already
acquired, the two pledges
will take the project’s
funding over the top of
what is needed, he said.
The final payment to the
American Ramp Co.,
which is building the
park, is due in early July,
Pickens said.
A teacher at the Wal-
lowa County Alternative
“Within the past
three weeks, the
price (of materials)
has already jumped.
We want to make
sure we have a
little extra in our
coff ers.”
— Ron Pickens,
Building
Healthy
Families
American Ramp Co./Contributed Graphic
School, Pickens works at
Building Healthy Fami-
lies in Enterprise. He was
instrumental in last year’s
refurbishment of the skate
park in Enterprise. But
he’s long had a desire to
have a similar facility in
Wallowa since transporta-
tion to Enterprise is diffi-
cult for youths.
The promised matching
funds also would help
build a fund that could
go toward maintenance
costs and the rising cost of
materials.
“Within the past three
weeks, the price (of mate-
A recent version of the planned bicycle playground shows what is slated to be built at Wallowa School in 2022. The mound at the top of the
graphic is to be regraded to provide more concrete area for other elements.
rials) has already jumped,”
Pickens said. “We want to
make sure we have a little
extra in our coff ers.”
For example, he said,
a bicycle-repair station,
such as was installed at
the Enterprise skate park,
had been priced at about
$2,000. It’s now up to
$2,300-2,400.
Such a station would
allow an individual to
put their bike on a rack
and use tools available
for minor repairs. It also
includes an air pump to
inflate tires.
Pickens said a recent
fundraising venture was
successful, when the orga-
nizers of the playground
project held a raffle for a
flight in and breakfast for
two at the Minam River
Lodge. Courtney Lyman
of Enterprise won the
raffle.
Coming up Pickens
said he plans to make a
presentation at the May 18
meeting of the Wallowa
County Board of Com-
missioners. On May 4, the
commissioners expressed
interest in supporting
the playground — pos-
sibly even financially —
but said they would like
more information on the
project.
Some of the commis-
sioners and spectators
were unclear on the dif-
ference between the Wal-
lowa bike playground, a
proposed trail-with-rails
project between Elgin and
Joseph, the Enterprise
skate park and a pump
track proposed for Enter-
prise. Of the latter two,
the first exists and the
latter is still in the plan-
ning stages.
Pickens said he has
scheduled a grand opening
of the Wallowa play-
ground for Saturday, Aug.
20. Although the itinerary
is still to be finalized, he
hopes to have BMX stunt
riders and motivational
speakers there.
Wallowa County Board of Commissioners eyes creating road service district
county funds.
The governing
board will be
just like the
one for the
Wallowa Lake
County Ser-
Roberts
vice District —
it’ll have separate commis-
sioners and a separate budget
meeting.
“What it does is it puts
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such measure.
“There are counties in
Montana that have done it
already,” he said.
Roberts declined to com-
ment further pending the out-
come of research, but said
when the commissioners —
including Todd Nash — get
started on May 18, it will
be the beginning of a long
process.
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that money from the payment
in lieu of taxes back into the
general fund,” Roberts said,
“which then allows us to fully
staff our sheriff ’s offi ce or
other work that we may have
been putting aside because
we didn’t have the funds to
do it.”
Commissioner John
Hillock said counties outside
of Oregon have already taken
2
that funding
gap by pro-
viding funding
for schools,
road main-
tenance and
other county
Nash
services.
Roberts said the SRS
money will go into the new
road service district and not
into what are considered
N
ENTERPRISE — A new
road service district for Wal-
lowa County will soon be in
the works after the board of
commissioners agreed to put
the wheels in motion to take
advantage of a piece of legisla-
tion that “fi xes a bad piece of
federal rulemaking,” as Susan
Roberts, board chair, said.
At the end of the com-
missioners’ regular meeting
Wednesday, May 4, Roberts
said that at the next meeting,
May 18, the commissioners
will start work on a road
service district. She’s been
working with a law group
that’s been doing research
for the commissioners to put
together paperwork to free
up payment in lieu of taxes
(PILT) money and create a
road district.
Funds
received
through the
Secure Rural
Schools pro-
gram provides
Hillock
additional
funding to rural counties
across mostly the western
United States, according to
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s web-
site. The counties that gener-
ally receive SRS funding are
those that have large tracks
of public, tax-exempt forest-
land. In the latter part of the
1990s, timber receipts from
the U.S. Forest Service and
the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment began to fall, impacting
many rural counties that
received a portion of those
dollars from timber harvests
to fund services. The SRS
program is designed to bridge
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