Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2016)
MC-' ^5?@K iMr*'- iQfjr* * BgY Jy HR# |<fSR ST < • / W / ? ; ’ ,■ V /•<>. is ^ s « ’7^'--. .arÆ*.» ■ M T b a M S F ■'.. ■<.' ' Sjfr-^ww An encore reading of “Voices of the Guard” will be held Feb. 4 “T hat’s when it happened. JCiCCecC his driver ancC his assistant g u n n e r ... TCe was mortaCCy w ounded ... his Cast words, he w a n ted to know how his guys w e r e ... BY CASSIDY WHITE Five years ago Frances Richey, a writer and poet from W est Virginia, was asked to write a hom ecom ing poem for the Oregon National Guard. W hat started as a poem flourished into a book, now called “ Voices o f the Guard.” j W hen contacted about writing the homecoming poem for the Oregon National Guard, Richey agreed to do it as long as she could interview some service members and their spouses, h i the summer of 2010, they were told they could call Richey for a phone interview. The interviews were scheduled for 20 minutes and according to Richey, each one, without exception, went for an hour and a half. A fter talking to the service members and their fam ilies, Richey was left with 12 hours of recording. She soon realized th at the stories these service members had to tell transcended a single poem. It was at this point that the idea of a “ Voices of the Guard” first came to be. Richey was adamant about the fact that she isn’t the author; the service m em bers o f the Oregon N ational and their fam ilies are the real authors of “ Voices of the Guard.” According to Richey, her contribution was to cut down the 12-hour tape to the heart of what each person wanted to say. Richey said, “ I realized that each person had his or her own rhythm and, you know, poetry is really music and rhythm and language. It’ s a lot about sound as well as whatever the subject matter is, and each one was talking in their own poetry.” “ I think the really important thing, at the end of the day, is that everybody realized that, you know, the real stars here are your Oregon National Guard service members and their fam ilies,” said Richey. TAn excerpt fr o m "Voices o f The QuarcC’ 4 Clackamas Print FEBRUARY 3,2016 theclackamasprint.com Illustration by Kathryn Smith A n encore reading of “ Voices of the Guard” will be held on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 530 p .m . at Camp Withycombe in the Oregon Humanities auditorium. Richey’ s reading will be paired with the “ Life After War” presentation by Jim Lommasson, a freelance photographer and writer who shares the stories of returning soldiers. RB Green, Veteran Affairs Coordinator, wanted to extend the invitation to this event farther than just the military com munity at Clackamas. Green said, “ I think one o f the greatest parts o f this whole idea is, more im portant that the veterans, the people who haven’t had any experience with that kind of subculture. It’ s really interesting and really great for you and the veteran to kind of be able to. converse in a w ay.” W hen Richey first shared “ Voices of the Guard” in 2010, it was to w elcom e the Oregon N ational Guard members who had been a part o f the longest oversea deploym ent since World War II, but the event was also a fund-raiser for the Military Family Scholarship Endowment. The Military Family Scholarship Endowment was started with one simple question: What is it that our veterans need at Clackamas Com m unity College? Shelly Parini, Associate Vice President o f College Relations and M arketing, set out to answer that very question. Parini said, “ A s I reached out to the Oregon National Guard... they said, ‘Boy if there is one thing you could do that would really help us while we’re serving our country and when they were deployed, was help our fam ilies, provide access to them so that they can go to school with scholarships.’ ” That was really the inspiration and starting point of the endowment. “ The idea is that for years and generations to come th is endow m ent w ill be there for b o th veterans and m ilitary fam ily members who are interested in getting an education at Clackamas Com m unity College,” continued Parini. According to Parini, the college has raised more than a quarter m illion dollars for the endowment and eventually would like to tap it o ff at a million. W ith the encore reading o f “ Voices o f the Guard” and the endow m ent we o ffer m ilitary fa m ily members, it’ s no wonder that this year the college was named the best veteran school in the Western United States by the Military Times. In addition, the college offers poetry readings for veteran students and faculty. At these events, veterans are able to write and read poem s from their experience as service members. W hen asked about the inspiration behind these even ts, Joe Ballard, student and literary laureate, said, “ I think it was really just to show support to veterans. I think there’ s a big veteran’ s com munity here; I’ m a veteran m yself, we just w ant to show support. W e’re always trying to lift up veterans and make this a good veterans school.” “ V oices o f th e G uard ” w ill be available for download through the C C C Foundation w ebsite, give.clackam as.edu. Merari Calderon Ruiz contributed to this report Clackamas Print FEBRUARY 3.2016 thedackamasprintcom 5
