A6 THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2022
Nick Rosenberger/Spokesman
The Tavita family gathers together at Novelen and Joseph’s house on Sept. 17 in Redmond.
Tavitas
Continued from A1
“Dance is a way of expression — of joy,
sorrow, pain and love,” Jake said. “Dance is
a universal language.”
According to Eric Sande, the director of
the Redmond Chamber of Commerce, the
Tavitas have been participating in Music
on the Green almost since it began. The
chamber has made it a tradition to close
out the summer concert series with them.
“They’re just great people,” Sande said.
“They bring a sense of community, a sense
of peace. They’re just an amazing asset to
Redmond.”
Sande said the Tavitas are always a high-
light of the series. He said the chamber
handed out close to a thousand leis to con-
certgoers during the family’s performance
at the 2022 Music on the Green.
GENERATIONAL STORIES
Novelen, who’s parents are Hawaiian
and Filipino, and Joseph, who’s parents
are Samoan, have always danced. Novelen
grew up dancing hula with her family in
San Francisco. She said they were a family
that performed at all kinds of parties.
Joseph and Novelen met as 13 and
12-year-olds at a dance class, falling in
love in between dance sessions. As a cou-
ple, the continued dancing and, when they
later had kids, passed it down to the next
generation.
According to Novelen, she danced
when she was pregnant with all of her
seven children and danced until she had
them, then danced right after. Her daugh-
ters did the same with their kids. Novelen
and Joseph now have 14 grandchildren.
“We just never stopped dancing,” said
the now 60-year-old Novelen. “I love
dancing, I don’t want to stop.”
She added that even if she’s in a wheel-
chair someday, she’ll find a way to dance
with her hands.
Honor flight
Continued from A1
Anderson eventually ended
up with 5,000 other troops on
an Italian passenger ship req-
uisitioned for wartime. The
chow “wasn’t all that great,” he
said, but his time in the mili-
tary was pretty good compared
to those who served in Viet-
nam. When soldiers came back
from that conflict, Anderson
said they were spat on and dis-
respected.
The welcome home in
Redmond Sept. 24 at the De-
schutes County Fair & Expo
Center was possibly the most
meaningful moment of the
Honor Flight trip, he said. Vet-
erans finally received some
recognition and appreciation
for their service, he said..
Don DeLand, a Vietnam
veteran and vice president of
Honor Flight of Central Ore-
gon, said the trips are based on
three principles: camaraderie,
remembrance and healing.
“A lot of the healing went on
in Washington, D.C.,” DeLand
said. “But this,” he said, noting
the crowd, “is the most healing
thing we could do.”
Dane Prevatt, the presi-
dent of Honor Flight of Cen-
tral Oregon, echoed DeLand’s
statements. He said that it was
great to see the welcome all the
veterans received at the air-
ports both in D.C. and when
they got home to Central Or-
egon.
“They never got this. 60 or
70 years ago they never got a
welcome home,” he said. “So to
give it to them now ... it’s better
late than never, so it’s awesome
to be able to provide this.”
Prevatt said he loves giving
veterans the news that they’ll
get to go to Washington. The
veterans get really excited
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Glen Gray lives in a trailer near Redmond.
“You dance with your heart and soul,”
Jake said. “You dance with your eyes. You
dance with your heart.”
Although their parents made them
dance when they were kids, even when
they wanted to play video games and hang
out with friends instead, the younger Ta-
vitas now appreciate their parent’s dedica-
tion. Many said they were thankful for the
physical connection to their heritage.
“In our culture, dance is a big part of
our lives and it’s a way to keep our culture
alive,” Jake said. “We keep the family tradi-
tion alive.”
Novelen said she’s happy to know that
dancing is passing down to her children
and grandchildren.
“It makes us feel good and now I can
rest,” she said.
Lynnette, who married into a different
culture, said she doesn’t always realize how
appreciative she is of her own.
“But it’s still in us and it’s crazy and it
makes me cry when I see it through our
kids, because it’s still in them,” Lynnette
said through tears. “It’s still in them and I
think that’s what’s reassuring is being able
to know that we can pass some things like
that on.”
TEACHING THE COMMUNITY
Even though the Tavitas have busy lives
and outside jobs — Keanu works in ma-
sonry, Jake is a nursing asssitant, Joseph
works in construction — they always
make time for each other. Every Saturday,
the family gathers at Novelen and Joseph’s
house by American Legion Park to eat and
drink and dance.
The Tavitas, however, are not just enter-
tainers — they’re also teachers who bring
students into their family. Jake, Crys-
tal and Lynnette are next in line to teach
those in the community who are inter-
ested in learning about Polynesian culture.
Over the decades, they’ve taught a cou-
ple hundred students.
Much of their dancing, they said, is on
the modern side, rather than following the
strict rules of traditional Polynesian dance.
The Merrie Monarch festival in Hawaii,
for instance, is an annual competition that
focuses on traditional, old school dances
that have more chanting and rules.
While they are still rooted in traditional
principles, the family tries to honor their
culture in their own way. They use iPods
or CDs at their performances and some-
times dance to modern songs in English
and artists like Meghan Trainor.
“We’re kind of going forward into the
future because you don’t want to be stuck
in the past for too long,” Jake said. “You
got to adapt every day.”
And, Jake added, they try to represent
all cultures and dances across Polynesia
— from the slow movements of Hawaiian
hula to slap-heavy Samoan style and the
shaking hips of Tahitian dance.
They try to honor all the islands, Jake
said, and named their group Hokule’a, af-
ter the first canoe to sail across the South
Pacific and discover the Hawaiian islands.
In turn, they’re trying to bring those cul-
tures to Central Oregon. Hokule’a, he said,
means star of gladness.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit
Oregon, the family stopped teaching and
performing. Their tried practicing at
home and over Zoom, but it didn’t have
the same feel when they weren’t all to-
gether.
Two years later, the family is slowly get-
ting back to where they used to be.
“Being isolated like that from our cul-
ture and from our dances … I was lost. I
was like ‘What am I doing?’” Jake said. “I
don’t have anything else if I’m not danc-
ing.”
With the success of recent shows and
the calming of the pandemic, the family’s
passion for dancing has been rekindled,
they said.
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@redmondspokesman.com
“A lot of the healing went on in
Washington, D.C. But this is the
most healing thing we could do.
— Don DeLand, Vietnam veteran and vice president of Honor Flight
of Central Oregon
when told they’ll be going on
an all-expense paid trip to the
nation’s capital.
“They’re all stoked,” he said.
“They’re all elated. It’s like they
won something.”
Prevatt said one of his fa-
vorite memories from Honor
Flight was when they took
Vietnam veteran Gregory
Turnbow to the Vietnam Me-
morial Wall in 2021 and found
the name of his friend who was
killed in action. When Prevatt
returned in 2022, he ran down
to the wall after everyone
had gone through and got a
graphite rubbing of his friend’s
name: Robert Romero.
Prevatt gave the rubbing to
Turnbow at the welcome home
ceremony and said there was
instant emotion.
“It was awesome to be able
to bring that to him,” Prevatt
said.
Pat Bowe, a Vietnam veteran
who served in the 173rd Air-
borne Brigade and is the com-
mander of the VFW Post 8138
in Sisters, said it’s important to
study history and have remem-
brance events.
“It’s pretty emotional,” he
said.
He said there’s so much
history in the some 250 years
since the United States de-
clared independence, and he
hopes that people can appre-
ciate it.
Redmond Mayor George
Endicott also participated in
this year’s flight. Helped pass
a city proclamation that desig-
nated Sept. 24, 2022, as Honor
Flight of Central Oregon Wel-
come Home Day.
“In times of great danger,
the men and women of our
armed forces have been reso-
lute, putting their lives at risk
when we needed them most.
And, making those sacrifices,
they ask for nothing in return,”
said DeLand as he read the
proclamation out loud. “The
strength of American society
lies in community groups ded-
icated to betterment of those
around them — Honor Flight
of Central Oregon embodies
that sentiment.”
Along with Arlington Na-
tional Cemetery, local vets also
visited the Smithsonian Mu-
seum, Naval Cemetery, Lin-
coln Memorial and memorials
for WWII, Vietnam and Ko-
rea. Each of the veterans also
received a handmade patriotic
quilt from the Central Oregon
Quilting Guild when they re-
turned to Redmond.
Donors consisted of a long
list of supporters including
local philanthropist Dr. John
Pavlicek, VFW and the Amer-
ican Legion Honor Guard,
Dutch Bros — which donated
over $50,000 to Honor Flight
— and Oregon Veterans Mo-
torcycle Association, among
others.
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com
Gray
Continued from A1
he said, while the second suc-
cumbed to multiple myeloma
— a type of cancer that forms in
plasma cells.
“It’s been an interesting life
since my last wife died,” Gray
said. “There was no cure. I
stayed with her until she died.”
Gray has had cancer as well
and had an operation to remove
his kidney. He currently uses a
cane to walk and is preparing
for another surgery. Gray’s fu-
ture is almost as complicated as
his past. He was homeless when
he was younger and hopped
trains, making it all the way to
Florida then up to Minnesota
and back to Oregon.
He spent six months in the
Job Corps before going AWOL
and wanted to join the Navy
like his father, who served as an
underwater welder, but strug-
gled to pass the test and went
into masonry instead. He even-
tually began operating front-
end loaders until he retired.
Thirty-six years later, Gray
said he lives on $1,300 a month
from earnings he made as a
front-end load operator and
considers himself retired, not
homeless.
“I consider myself as an in-
dividual,” he said. “People out
here are considered homeless.
You know, they don’t have a lot
of food like I do, a lot of the ac-
commodations that I do.”
A lifelong Central Orego-
nian, Gray said he just wants
to enjoy his retirement but get-
ting an apartment is difficult.
“I tried to get all my means
lowered but sometimes it’s a
little harder than it should be,”
Gray said.
“Apartment (rent is) like sky
high so I can’t move into an
apartment because it’d eat my
whole check up.”
Most landlords won’t con-
sider renting to Gray because
of a criminal history that dates
back to 1986. Many charges
have been dismissed but, ac-
cording to Deschutes County
Circuity Court records, he has
been convicted of four felonies
and nine class-A misdemean-
ors.
Although Gray won’t talk
about what happened, he said
that his relationship with his
three daughters and two sons
fell apart after his first wife
died and he put them up for
adoption. While he’s in contact
with a couple of them, he’s not
legally allowed to talk to the
How to help
For suggestions on
how to help the
region’s residents
experiencing
homelessness, contact
the Homeless
Leadership Coalition by
email at info@
cohomeless.org.
others.
“I’m a bad dad,” Gray said.
“(I) placed them in voluntarily.
They have better education,
they’re in a different home.”
Gray has learned to live
with his past and has fam-
ily and a community among
the junipers. After his second
wife passed away from cancer,
Gray’s sister — Jessica — had
already been living in the juni-
pers and asked him to join her.
“She kinda twisted my arm,”
he said.
He lived in another travel
trailer nearby, until people
came through and tore it up
for copper. He said not many
of those who live in the juni-
pers are like that. Instead, a
lot of them are there for each
other.
“People out here, they’re
mellow,” he said, “they’re nice.”
He’s lived in his current spot
for the last year in a renovated
trailer donated by Central
Oregon Veterans Outreach
and lives near Jessica and her
daughter along with Jessi-
ca’s boyfriend, Josh, and their
neighbors Christy, Adrian,
Shane and Michelle.
Every Friday, COVO drives
along the bumpy and dusty
road with a shower trailer that
Gray is able to use, as well as
bringing supplies like water
tanks and propane.
He said he and his neighbors
clean up the area all the time
and that he’s been doing a little
rockwork from camp to camp,
finishing five different camps.
He built some rock walls to
create a viewpoint and a bar-
rier at the top of his hill.
“It’s a life out here,” he said.
Gray said he thought they’d
likely be getting kicked out
of the area soon but said that
he doesn’t have any plans for
when that might happen.
For the time being, however,
Gray is trying his best to enjoy
his retirement and neon-col-
ored Slurpees as he prepares
for his next surgery.