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WELCOME HOME
Flight gives county chance to celebrate
its veterans
The Tavita family performs as Hokule’a Ohana at
Music on the Green on Sept. 7 in Redmond.
Photo courtesy Redmond Chamber of Commerce
Dance like
everyone is
watching
Tavita family channels Polynesian roots
through music, expression
BY NICK ROSENBERGER
Redmond Spokesman
The Tavitas have never known a life without
dance.
With flashing colors, flowers and stomping feet,
the family has long been an integral part of the
Redmond community, with their Hokule’a dance
performances now stretching across three gener-
ations.
“It’s just in us. It’s in our blood,” said Novelen
Tavita, the matriarch who brought her family
from San Francisco to Terrebonne in the early
1990s with her husband, Joseph.
They found a two-bedroom house in the small
town and squeezed in their seven kids: Tenise,
Lynnette “Cici,” Crystal, Young, Jake, Donnie and
Keanu.
When they first arrived in the High Desert, the
Tavitas started performing traditional hulas and
Polynesian dances at the Redmond Fair, when it
was located near Fred Meyer, and began perform-
ing at Music on the Green more tha 18 years ago.
“The rest is history” said Jake Tavita, one of
those seven children.
For the Tavitas, dance is a way to connect with
their history, their culture and the Central Oregon
community.
“It is nice to share our culture with everybody
else that actually hasn’t had that experience or
hasn’t been to Hawaii,” said Crystal. “We try to
bring that here.”
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman photos
Veterans line up with flags on Sept. 24 to welcome home participants of the Honor Flight of Central Oregon at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.
BY NICK ROSENBERGER • Redmond Spokesman
W
ith the Ridgeview High School Band blasting military hymns, the city of
Redmond on Saturday welcomed home veterans who participated in this
year’s Honor Flight of Central Oregon.
son said. “It felt pretty good.”
Honor Flight of Central Oregon, the local
Anderson said it was his first time stepping
chapter of a national nonprofit organization
foot in Washington, D.C., having served aboard
that flies veterans on an all-expenses paid trip
ships from 1944 to 1946 that brought him first
to Washington, D.C., brought local veterans to
to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, then to de-
the country’s capital. Veterans included those
who served in World War II, Vietnam and Ko- liver supplies to Bikini Atoll, where the United
rea.
States tested nuclear bombs.
See Honor flight / A6
Kenneth Anderson, a 95-year-old WWII
veteran who served in the Navy, said he was
An attendee embraces a veteran after returning
able to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Un-
known Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. home from the Honor Flight of Central Oregon at
the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on Sept.
He said it was an honor to do so.
“It was a very impressive ceremony,” Ander- 24 in Redmond.
See Tavitas / A6
LOCAL BUSINESS
Man carves out life among
the sage and juniper trees
BY NICK ROSENBERGER
Redmond Spokesman
Fresh Produce
Local store connects with customers, A4
Glen Gray smiled as he drank his neon blue and
red 7-Eleven Slurpee. The 59-year-old didn’t seem to
mind the 96-degree heat blasting Redmond on a late
summer day as he slurped, leaving a splatter of red
ice on his salt and pepper beard.
“I always get them for my daughter and every-
body,” Gray had said earlier, laughing and adding
that he was more like a godfather to his partner’s
daughter.
Despite a difficult life, Gray still smiles a lot while
living in a remodeled travel trailer amidst the juni-
pers and sage brush north of the Redmond Airport
and
Highway 126. For Gray, it was a choice to move
into the brush after his second wife died.
“I didn’t want to be alone,” he said.
His first wife died from a pulmonary embolism,
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
See Gray / A6
Glen Gray at the trailer that he lives in near
Redmond.
WEATHER FORECAST
INSIDE
Calendar A2
Sports A8
Coffee Break A10
Classifieds A12
THIS WEEK’S FORECAST SPONSORED BY
Volume 113, No 4
USPS 778-040
TUESDAY
Partly cloudy
WEDNESDAY
Partly cloudy
THURSDAY
Partly cloudy
FRIDAY
Sunny
SATURDAY
Sunny
SUNDAY
Sunny
MONDAY
Sunny
88/46
79/43
73/41
76/44
76/45
70/42
68/42
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