REGION
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Students complete project with a special purpose
According to Gutierrez,
Gus hugged his mom and gave
everyone on the team high fi ves
upon receiving the chair.
Meghan Owens, lead of pro-
gramming and electrical for Con-
fi dential, has been with the team
for four years. Like Gutierrez,
most of her community service
has been through her robotics
team, she said, and like Guti-
errez, Owens gets a lot from her
service.
“We get really connected with
our community,” she said.
She added she has learned
much about the people of her
community, as well as the area’s
history, businesses and services.
She also said Gus was happy
about the chair, even though he
had an accident on his fi rst drive.
Umatilla robotics
students build off-road
wheelchair for a young
Baker City boy
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
UMATILLA — Gus Macy,
the 6-year-old son of Levi
and Karla of Baker City, is set
for a very enjoyable summer,
according to his mother. Team
Confi dential, the Umatilla High
School robotics team, is respon-
sible for some of his latest sum-
mertime plans.
The team made a wheelchair
specifi cally for Gus, who has
spina bifi da and is unable to use
his legs.
“What we determined to do
as a robotics club is to give him
a chance to have more activities
with his family outside of normal
wheelchair activity,” Team Con-
fi dential coach and UHS teacher
Kyle Sipe said.
He described it as a “trike,
retrofi tted into an e-bike.” It’s
electric, so Gus, who is unable
to peddle a bicycle, can use his
thumb to control the throttle and
operate the chair.
Karla Macy said such chairs,
built for off -road adventuring,
can cost more than $20,000. This
one, she said, will make a big
diff erence in her son’s life.
“This is a new and exciting
way for him to get around,” she
said.
A heartfelt project
Sipe said this was not only
a big project for his students
— it was meaningful. Students
planned the chair’s construction
during the pandemic lockdown of
2020-21. When they couldn’t see
one another in person, they dia-
Gus’ new adventures
started with a spill
Umatilla School District/Contributed Photo
Gus Macy, 6, of Baker City, in spring 2022 tries out the wheelchair Umatilla High School students built for him.
grammed the chair remotely.
Students conversed with each
other via the internet about the
build. When the coronavirus
restrictions ended, team members
got together once again. At least
35 students pitched in on this
project, working whenever they
had a free moment.
“I couldn’t hazard a guess as
to how many hours they spent,
but it was a lot,” Sipe said.
Heidi Sipe, Umatilla School
superintendent and wife to the
robotics teacher, also worked to
make this gift possible. She said
their eff ort was like other work
they have done in the past.
“I always do the organizing
and fi nancing piece, and Kyle
makes the real work happen,” she
said.
The superintendent said she
discovered this need while at a
Baker City woman
sentenced to 73 months
Pearl Naomi Adair
previously sent to
prison on Union
County charges
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — A
Baker City woman who
has been convicted of mul-
tiple crimes in diff erent
areas of Baker County
since 2019, including Baker
City, Durkee and Halfway,
has been sentenced to 73
months in prison.
Pearl Naomi Adair, 41,
who is described as home-
less in court records, was
sentenced on Wednesday,
June 22, by Judge Matt
Shirtcliff in Baker County
Circuit Court on two con-
victions in Baker County
Adair will be incarcer-
ated at the Coff ee Creek
Correctional Facility, the
women’s state prison in
Wilsonville.
She had been sent to
Coff ee Creek on April 21,
2022, to serve a 17-month
sentence on a Union County
case. Adair pleaded guilty
in April 2021 to fi rst-de-
gree theft for stealing an
antique sewing machine
from a La Grande business
in December 2020. She was
sentenced to 24 months of
probation on that convic-
tion, but her probation was
revoked in March 2022
because she failed to report
to her probation offi cer or
complete substance abuse
treatment as required,
according to Union County
court records.
Adair was returned from
Coff ee Creek to the Baker
County Jail on May 25 at
the request of her attorney,
Robert Whitnah of Baker
City, prior to the June 22
sentencing, Baker County
District Attorney Greg M.
Baxter said.
Adair has been in cus-
tody, either in the Baker
County Jail or at Coff ee
Creek, since early October
2021, Baxter said.
Prior to sentencing
Adair, Shirtcliff noted her
recurring criminal history,
most recently an Oct. 6,
2021, incident in which she
entered a house in Baker
City while the couple who
lived there were home.
Adair pleaded guilty
June 22 to fi rst-degree bur-
glary, a Class A felony,
in that case. She was sen-
tenced to 26 months in
prison on that charge,
Baxter said.
Two other charges, for
third-degree theft and sec-
ond-degree criminal tres-
passing, were dismissed.
The resident of the home
took cellphone videos
showing Adair in his back-
yard on the evening of Oct.
6, 2021.
According to a police
report, when the resident
confronted Adair and told
her to drop the items she
was holding, she claimed
the items belonged to her.
Baker City Police
arrested Adair on Oct. 7,
2021.
The rest of the 73-month
sentence includes the
17 months on the Union
County theft and 30 months
on a fi rst-degree burglary
conviction in Baker County
in 2021. That prison sen-
tence was initially sus-
pended, Baxter said.
Shirtcliff imposed the
three prison sentences —
26, 17 and 30 months — to
run consecutively, yielding
the total term of 73 months.
Baxter said he argued for
the sentences to run con-
secutively rather than con-
currently — in which case
Adair would have served a
maximum of 30 months, the
longest of the three terms
— because “there were sep-
arate victims and she had
been given multiple oppor-
tunities to better herself
while on probation.”
The 30-month sen-
tence was based on Adair
pleading guilty April
23, 2021, to fi rst-degree
burglary. She admitted
spending a night in the
Eldorado Motel in Baker
City in February 2021
without paying for it,
according to court records.
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legislative meeting. Gus’ mom
was a speaker at the meeting and
advocating as an early childhood
intervention educator.
“I met her there and was really
inspired by her,” Heidi Sipe said.
They stayed in touch and dis-
cussed the possibility of the Uma-
tilla robotics team helping Gus.
The robotics team often is
busy, but their schedule opened
up during the pandemic. There
was no in-person school and com-
petitions were canceled.
“The kids needed a project,”
she said.
Local companies and people
also were willing to fund the
project. Cattle Drive Leather Co.
was the primary sponsor.
The Lorence Family and
Evangeline Gifts were sponsors,
too, and Amazon Web Services
helped fund the team’s trip to
Baker City to deliver the bike to
Gus.
Team program fostering
community involvement
Avery Gutierrez, Confi den-
tial offi cer and member for three
years, said she was happy about
this project. She said she hadn’t
done community service work
previous to joining Confi den-
tial. Lately, she has performed
yard work and helped out in other
ways with her team.
She said this sort of work
brings her closer to others and
she enjoys learning new skills.
Though the wheelchair project is
not robotics, per se, it did involve
wiring and more.
“We started by getting mea-
surements — his height and
weight — and we worked to adjust
it to his needs,” Gutierrez said.
“It only took him about fi ve
minutes to fi gure out how to tip
it over,” Karla Macy said.
Gus steered it into a curb and
took a tumble. But she said Gus
was fi ne, and Team Confi den-
tial built the chair with safety
in mind. A car seat, with a fi ve-
point harness, is part of the
wheelchair. And he has a helmet.
“What’s really good about
it is that it’s a pretty good size,
and I think it’s something he
can use,” she said. “I think this
is something that can last him
his whole life, with some minor
adjustments.”
Gus’ mother expressed much
gratitude for the chair and the
kindness of the robotics team.
According to Macy, the
robotics team spoke with Gus
when designing the chair. Later,
when they met him in person,
one student presented him with a
stuff ed toy.
“Those students from Uma-
tilla have been so awesome,” she
said.
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