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An encore reading of “Voices of the Guard” will be held Feb. 4
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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