The Clackamas print., October 20, 1993, Page 5, Image 5

Pg. 5 The Clackamas Print
Wednesdav^October 20f 1993
Powell realizes dream of skating in Olympics
by Anjanette Booth
StaffWriter
photo by Anjanette Booth
Brandon Powell takes time between his responsibilities at
school and the ice rink to relax.
As a child we all dream of
going to the Olympics and bring­
ing home the gold. For one
Clackamas student, that dream may
come true in the 1998 Winter
Games.
Brandon Powell, a 20-
year-old sophomore, has been fig­
ure skating for the past 13 years.
When Powell was 7, his parents
took him to the Clackamas Town
Center where he saw the ice skat­
ing rink. “All I wanted to do was
skate,” Powell said. His career in
figure skating took off from there.
Powell dedicated his first
eight years in skating to singles
skating. The past five years he has
changed his tastes to pair skating.
His partner, for the past three years,
has been 16-year-old Erin
Covington from Clackamas High
School. “Erin is a good partner.
She has a lot of potential. We get
along really well; she is like a little
sister,” Powell said of his relation­
ship with his partner.
Powell practices five days
a week, from 5:45 to 9 a.m. A lot
of practice, instruction from his
coach, Patrick Page, and routine
choreography from Barbara Flow­
ers all help in preparing him for
the seven competitions he partici­
pates in each year. Four or five of
those competitions are non-quali­
fying competition to just be seen by
judges. The two main competi­
tions of the year are Sectionals in
December and Junior Nationals in
January.
The two have qualified
for Junior Nationals the past two
years, placing 10th the first year
and fifth last year. “We will qualify
in Nationals definitely this year
and hopefully win,” Powell said.
He plans for his partner
and him to move up to the senior
level next year; which will make
them eligible to qualify for the
Olympic Games. In order to ad­
vance to this level, the pair have to
perform a routine in front of a
panel of judges. There are no age
restrictions for senior level com­
petition, so skill level definitely
prevails.
Being an Olympic hope­
ful doesn’t always leave a lot of
time for other things such as school,
friends and family. “I miss a lot of
class time, but that’s why I go to
community college; so I can have
that leeway,” Powell explained.
Time spent with friends is also cut
short due to such early hours on the
ice. Powell doesn’t seem to mind
giving up these parts of his life for
skating. “You have to give up to
get”
Figure skating doesn’t
only take away from Powell’s free
time. His parents are 100 percent
behind his figure skating career
and work very hard to make it
possible.* Money is a major factor
in keeping Olympic dreams alive.
“My parents have given up a lot to
keep me skating. My dad works
two jobs and my mom works one,”
Powell said of his parents’ efforts.
This year, the skating pair
are trying hard to find sponsors to
take some of the $20,000 a year
burden off their parents’ shoul­
ders.
“The 1998 Olympics is
our long-distance goal,” Powell
said. Other goals for Powell are
professional skating, teaching and
maybe participating in some ice
shows. Although Powell doesn’t
know definitely what the future
may hold for him, he always knows
that ice skating will be a part of it.
Europe trip proves enriching for '93 Focus on Women
by Nate Clark
Staff Writer
" A group Of‘49 women,
ranging in age from 20 to 83,
recently took a 15-day European
tour of Germany, Switzerland,
Austria and Italy, sponsored by
Clackamas’ Focus on Women.
The purpose of the trip
was “to provide a European travel
experience for women who other­
wise might not have a way to go or
someone to go with,” said Linda
Vogt, who, along with Carol Evans,
planned the trip.
“We decided it would be
a good idea to offer (it)through
Focus on Women,” Vogt contin­
ued. “I believe that providing
opportunities for women to travel
in a safe environment is a very
enriching experience for them.
There were many women who were
surprised to find they could do
something like this on their own;
besides, it’s really a lot of fun.
What’s more fun than travel­
ing? It’s interesting and you
find something different every
day.”
The Focus on Women
program sponsors alotof events,
but this one is intended to be
done every other year. This is
the second of such trips to Eu­
rope; the first was in 1991. The
tripcost$2,400, which includes
transportation and hotel ac­
commodations for the 15-day
tripand two meals a day.
“I enjoyed it im­
mensely because we went to
some very beautiful small towns
such as Lucerne (Switzerland),
Salzburg,
Vienna
and
Innsbruck (all three in Aus­
tria), and there were a lot of.
opportunities for people to ex­
plore and wander the cobble­
stone streets, and shop and
sample the European food,”
says Vogt
Forty-nine women spent 15 days traveling through Europe, a trip that was sponsored by
Focus On Women.
stiKtentsrejoicet a new
computerized library automation
; system has been implemented at
the library in the Dye Learning
Center, ..'' ■ '
“Libraries have been
computerizing since the mid-
70’s, and this is just a way for us