Wednesday,April21,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
3
Rebuild-It Center celebrates Earth
Day, reorganized facility
Hard to recycle
plastics
collected
April 24
Trisha Walker
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
Gorge Rebuild-It Center
will be the site of a free, hard
to recycle plastics collection
event on Saturday, April 24
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in
honor of Earth Day.
Plastics that can’t go in
the blue bin — see sidebar,
below — can be brought to
the old Produce Kountry
site, located next to Gorge
Rebuild-It Center, 995 Tucker
Road, Hood River. The event
has been organized by Board
Member Julie Tucker (also
owner and project manager
for Emerald Systems LLC)
and Cindy Allen, the center’s
bookkeeper.
Gorge Rebuild-It has also
partnered with Anson’s Bike
Buddies and will have free
bikes to give away during
the event (children must be
present to receive a bike,
which are limited to supply
on hand).
In the days leading up to
the recycling event, Gorge
Rebuild-It Center is welcom-
ing the community to come
and check out the newly
reorganized facility — and
consider donating quality
items for resale.
The center has under-
gone many changes since
Executive Director Steve
Carlson was hired by the
Gorge Rebuild-It board of
directors in September 2019.
The longtime nonprofit
was in a state of economic
decline, and he immedi-
ately got to work reducing
overhead, he said — which
included reducing staff to
Carlson himself.
“Items of value were sold
as fast as possible and the
process of cleaning up the
Gorge Rebuild-It Center hosts a recycling event April 24. At right,
center staff in front of the main building.
Contributed photos
facility began,” he said. After
months of cleaning and
$10,000 spent on dump fees
— “mostly hard to sell items,”
Carlson said — the year 2020
was looking brighter. He had
even started to take steps to
rehire staff.
And then, on the morning
of Feb. 7, 2020, Carlson came
into work to find a lock had
been cut, the store trashed
and items missing — includ-
ing the store’s point of sale
system and video surveil-
lance equipment, which was
another setback.
As was the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Carlson was forced to lay off
himself and close the facility
for five weeks.
“Fast forward to May 1,
2020 — with funds again
dwindling, it was time to
reopen and get back to work,
without any new staff,” he
said. “The community rose to
the occasion, and donations
and sales increased.”
By late October, the center
was able to hire its first staff
member, with a second soon
following — there are now
five employees. That winter,
they reorganized the entire
store and created a more
effective drive-through dona-
tion area.
Carlson said that by sum-
mer, the center “is positioned
to serve the community
effectively.” Gorge Rebuild-It
Center has furniture like
chairs, as well as some sport-
ing goods, also for sale.
With rising costs of build-
ing materials, he added that
the center is a great place
to find materials that would
otherwise be diverted to
the landfill. He lists some of
those items on the center’s
Facebook page, www.face-
book.com/GorgeRebuildIt.
And they sell fast.
“Donations are welcome
— people bring in wonderful
stuff,” he said. Acceptable
donations fluctuate with
market conditions and the
facility’s capacity; donations
are accepted daily up to one
hour before closing.
Because the center is a
nonprofit, donations may
be tax deductible “if your
donation is in good used
condition or better,” accord-
ing to its website, rebuildit.
org. Donation guidelines and
contact information are also
on the website.
Gorge Rebuild-It Center
is open Tuesday through
Saturday from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. Face coverings are
required, and card payment
is preferred.
Plastic popup depot
A pilot program that
collects otherwise unrecycla-
ble plastics is scheduled at
Gorge Rebuild-It Center on
Spring community clean up event canceled
The Spring Community
Clean Up Event 2021 that
usually takes place in May
of each year is canceled,
according to a press release
from the City of The Dalles
Public Works. To maintain
social distancing and mini-
mize the possible spread of
COVID-19, the decision was
made to again cancel the
Spring Community Clean Up
event.
However, long time
Spring Community Clean
Up co-sponsor, The Dalles
Disposal, is accepting yard
debris, from The Dalles city
residents only, at no charge
during the month of April
2021 if taken to the transfer
station at 1317 West First
Street Monday through
Friday between 9 a.m. and
5 p.m.
Landscape care compa-
nies and non-residential
properties are not eligible for
“They don’t get to have
a first day of middle school
high school or a normal
Staff 'just hitting or
senior year,” she said.
Staff work with students on
our stride'
social skills and emotional
Continued from page 1 health along with academics,
Preston said. Hosaka said life
skills are part of education
said HROA’s challenge has
and many students deal with
been to remain flexible and
adult problems and situa-
“not get too systematic” as
the program has grown.
tions like work-life balance
She said many students and and family responsibilities.
families joined the pro-
Counselors and teachers
work together to combine
gram because they weren’t
social and emotional edu-
comfortable returning to
in-person learning during the cation with more traditional
pandemic.
academic study, Preston said.
“I’m glad it wasn’t my first
“Teachers are the brains
year,” Running said. A school and counselors are the
board member told her
heart,” she said.
“thank god we had this,” at a
Lyon, hired as a middle
meeting last week, she said.
school science and visual arts
Preston said this year has
teacher, said she was trained
been especially difficult for
as a teacher but works as a
students in transitionary
“learning coach.” A group of
years of their academic
high schoolers sat together
career.
working in her room a few
EDUCATOR
squeezable bottles and vari-
ous molded lab equipment
■ No. 5 polypropylene (PP)
like ketchup bottles, most
yogurt tubes, syrup bottles,
bottle caps and packing tape
■ No. 6 polystyrene (PS)
like disposable plates and
cutlery, cafeteria trays, meat
trays, carryout containers
and packing peanuts
■ No. 7 (other plastics) like
juice bottles, plastic lum-
ber, safety glasses, and gas
containers
For more information,
email womaninthehood@
gmail.com.
EVOLUTION: BIOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE #26
HOOD RIVER
THE DALLES
WHITE SALMON
Gorge News
One more article on blood clotting. The clotting of blood in a body is
so complex it tires the mind when an attempt is given to understand
it. If you are interested I have copied 24 pages from a book written by a
biochemist who gives a real good explanation of this difficult process that
we laymen can understand. I will send them to you it you wish. Blood
coagulation is a cascade process. It is a process that has very precise
steps for it to function properly. There are approximately 24 different
proteins, which in themselves are extremely difficult to understand that
make up the cascade. These proteins must work in order at the precise
time at the proper place or the animal will bleed out. It is a process that
includes so many parts acting in unison that it simply could not have
occurred by chance random mutations. Looking at this process one would
see immediately that it is impossible to expect it to “come together” over
millions of years piece by piece. All the animals on earth would have died
off from simply bleeding to death waiting for their blood to clot when
it needed to. Once again we can not criticize Darwin for he could not
“see” this fine biochemical process. We can. This one single process has so
many complicated components that make it work that it would be very
unreasonable to demand that it just mutated into place over millions of
years. Look it up if you dare. Or contact me for the papers.
ColumbiaGorgeNews.com
g.d. fischer | zionman@netcnct.net | 541-296-8578
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this special offer. For more
information on this option
contact The Dalles Disposal
at 541-298-5149.
The release stated, “It was
tough to give up this annual
city-wide spring-cleaning
tradition for a second year
in a row. We appreciate
everyone who has made this
event a success in the past.
We hope to be able to hold
the event again in 2022.”
desks over from Dandy the
rabbit and kindergartner
Mathews.
Hosaka said staff feel
like they’re “just hitting our
stride.”
Running said the pro-
gram is working towards
keeping its building open on
weekends. She wants to start
offering academic achieve-
ment testing and teacher
support to local homeschool
students. She hopes to offer
summer programs to make
up for any gains that may
have been lost due to the
pandemic.
Many students have
made gains this year, rather
than stagnating, despite the
pandemic, Running said. She
believes schools around the
world will be able to make up
losses.
“Kids are pretty resilient,”
Running said.
JONATHAN KARA
Specializing in
Land Use Law
Real Estate Law
Municipal Law
Environmental Law
541
gear
up!
RUN, HIKE, CAMP
Saturday, April 24. Accepted
materials:
■ No. 3 polyvinyl chloride
(PVC or V) like clear food
packaging, wire/cable insu-
lation, shower curtains, lawn
chairs and children’s toys
■ No. 4 low-density poly-
ethylene (LDPE) like dry
cleaning bags, bread bags,
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