A6 The SpokeSman • TueSday, december 6, 2022
Library
Continued from A1
The new building will be two
stories, with an outdoor patio
for community gatherings. For
adults, there will be meeting
rooms and co-working spaces
geared to telecommuters. The
largest meeting space will be
able to hold 240 people. There
will also be dedicated spaces for
teens and children. It will be a
net zero energy building, pow-
ered by solar panels installed on
its roof. There will be a drive-up
book drop and pickup. A De-
schutes County ballot drop box
will also return to the site once
construction is finished.
“The number one thing peo-
ple wanted to see in Redmond
were interactive children’s dis-
covery spaces, so that’s a big
piece of this library,” said Todd
Dunkleberg, director of the De-
schutes County Library.
According to Dunkleberg, the
library is working with an archi-
tecture firm that helped design
exhibits for OMSI in Portland.
Together, they will plan out the
children’s spaces. He said there
will be a number of interactive
elements in the space.
Still, it’s hard to see Jessie Hill
come down. Originally called
the Redmond Grade School,
Jessie Hill was the first modern
grade school built in Redmond.
It replaced a 1910 two-story
wooden structure that sat on the
same site. In 1948, the name of
the school was changed to Jessie
Hill School in honor of one of
Redmond’s early teachers. It was
converted to a library in 1996.
“Probably one of the hardest
parts of this (is) that we will be
demolishing the current build-
ing,” said Dunkleberg.
Library officials said they
tried to think of ways to reno-
rendering courtesy deschutes public Library
This rendering of the second floor of the Redmond Public Library, which will have shelves of books for browsing and a number of small meeting rooms.
vate the current space, but said
nothing they could do would
meet the growing needs in the
area. Dunkleberg said the new
building is likely to last for 50-
100 years.
“Really what we’re design-
ing it for and gearing it for is
the future population that is
coming to Redmond, knowing
by the year 2040 we’re going to
have a much larger population
and that building will be able to
serve that population,” he said.
In the meantime, the library’s
collection will move to a build-
ing in the Redmond Design
Open house sessions
The library is hosing a number of open house drop-in sessions to
share construction details and answer questions.
Thursday, Dec. 8
8-10 a.m. and 4:30–6:30 p.m. (evening hours will have Spanish
fluency)
Thursday, December 15
8–10:00 a.m.
Center strip mall, near Wilson’s
Furniture. The 5,000-square-
foot space will remain open to
the public throughout construc-
tion. Dunkleberg said they plan
to move some of their program-
ming and story time to other ar-
eas in the city.
The new library is expected
to open in fall 2024.
█
Reporter: ttrainor@
redmondspokesman.com
Toast
Getting involved
Continued from A1
The one-hour weekly meet-
ings are heavily structured.
They include roles including
president, toastmaster, gram-
marian, timer, humorist and
speaker. Attendees have timed
slots to give “toasts” and the
humorist makes jokes for a few
minutes. The speaker has to give
a five-to-seven minute presenta-
tion to the entire group.
Evaluators give constructive
feedback at the end of the meet-
ing. Throughout it, members
have multiple opportunities to
chime in as well. It’s feedback,
and tips for improvement, that
most speakers yearn for.
“Most of us are here because
we want to learn to commu-
nicate better,” said Cheri Red-
grave, owner of non-dairy milk
substitute company Cheri’s Ha-
zel Cream. “Whether it’s with
our families, whether or not it’s
with our colleagues, our non-
profits, the people that we work
with every day — we need to be
able to speak with them clearly
and concisely.”
Redgrave said members im-
prove by watching and learning
from each other, and from posi-
tive reinforcement.
Sewing
Continued from A1
She then attended college at
San Francisco State University,
with the goal of working as a
screenwriter. Her student job
was at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts,
which introduced her to the
millions of questions that craft-
ers needed answers to, and the
part-time work kept her con-
nected to sewing.
After graduation, she moved
to Los Angeles to try out a ca-
reer behind the camera for TV
and movies, but found work-
ing in Hollywood “an insanely
stressful occupation.” She kept
herself sane by sewing, and
eventually started to record
videos with her husband from
their cramped apartment. Each
nick rosenberger/Spokesman
The Redmond Library will temporarily relocate to 2127 S Hwy 97 as
the historic downtown location will be torn down and replaced with a
new two-story library.
The redmond Toastmasters club meets every Tuesday for an hour at
the church of christ at 925 nW 7th St. in redmond at 12 p.m.
Those interested can sit in on a meeting to watch and learn more
about the club. They will also be hosting an open house on Jan. 10
from 12-1 p.m. at the church of christ.
Full membership costs $60 for six months and includes four hours of
practice per month.
additionally, Toastmasters International includes a resource library,
podcasts, videos, 300 skillset competencies, 11 specialized learning
paths, an international convention and — for ambitious individuals
— the annual World championship of public Speaking.
nick rosenberger/Spokesman
Eric Rogers speaks during a Toastmasters meeting at the Church of Christ on Nov. 29 in Redmond.
“The thing that’s so interest-
ing about Toastmasters is we
don’t have a teacher,” Redgrave
said. “Nobody stands up here
and tells us how to be better
speaker. We’re all teachers.”
Eric Rogers, a private inves-
tigator, started with the club
about two months ago. He
joined in part to prepare for fu-
video was geared toward help-
ing crafters solve “some creative,
technical thing you’re trying
to accomplish.” She had a plan
from the beginning — complet-
ing a library of 70 videos be-
fore sending them out into the
public.
“I guess I wanted us to be an
encyclopedia,” said Opartny. “I
wanted people when they found
me to find just a tranche of vid-
eos.”
Opartny said she didn’t nec-
essarily have a career in mind
at the time, but did notice that
people were finding her videos
and leaving positive comments
and making recommendations
for other videos they’d like to
see.
About nine years ago, she and
her husband came to the con-
ture public speaking opportu-
nities. As people become more
skilled in their careers, they are
often asked to speak in front of
others. Joining Toastmasters, he
said, was a way to get prepared
for those moments.
“I still get nervous,” he said.
“But now it’s at a much more
manageable level.”
Rogers said Toastmasters is
a supportive environment that
can help people at every level
of public speaking. Some be-
ginners just need help getting
over the fear of standing in front
of a crowd, while experienced
speakers can work on eye con-
tact, body language and voice
inflection.
courtesy photo
Tova Opartny, also known as Professor Pincushion, uses well-shot, well-
lit sewing videos to teach skills.
clusion that Los Angeles wasn’t
for them. They chose Redmond
as the setting for a lifestyle and
career change.
Soon after they arrived,
Opartny said the quality and
quantity of their videos went
up, as did the audience. They
briefly joined a collective of
other craft content makers,
which introduced them to an
even larger audience. Now, the
“I wish I would’ve joined this
much sooner,” Rogers said.
For many, there’s more to
Toastmasters than just finding
ways to get over the nerves or
improving skills. The commu-
nity, they said, lets them fail for-
ward without pressure.
“Our diversity is our
strength,” Redgrave said. “We
bring together people from all
different backgrounds, all jobs,
all different ages. And we’re all
together on a level playing field.”
According to Teresa Sch-
weitzer, the owner of herbal
product company T’s Tonics,
Toastmasters gives them per-
mission to be vulnerable in a
safe space and learn through
trial and error.
“One of the things that’s so
wonderful about Toastmas-
ters is it helps us feel confident
in getting good appropriate
feedback when we’re speak-
ing,” said Weimer, who owns
Herringbone Bookstore with
her husband. “That’s one of the
things that Toastmasters creates
is a calm, safe environment for
anyone to get up. If we’re going
to fail, fail in front of friends so
you can pick yourself up and
move on.”
For Karen Bond, president
of the Redmond club, Toast-
masters is a well of support and
something to fall back on in
times of difficulty.
“This group has helped me
keep my sanity,” Bond said.
videos are easy to find in most
feeds and bring in reliable view-
ership. Videos like “How to re-
pair a hole in a t-shirt” has been
seen more than 7 million times.
Nearly every video she does
gets hundreds of thousands of
viewers.
Those videos now range in
theme, from tackling a proj-
ect from start to finish, like
“How to sew a quilt.” Others
are short and tackle specific
bugaboos, like “How to add a
button placket to a garment”
or “How to sew a French knot
stitch.” Some are geared toward
helping crafters choose which
sewing machines and fabrics
they should buy, others answer
questions submitted from the
audience.
The pandemic was very ben-
eficial to viewership, she said.
Many people took up new, in-
door and solitary hobbies. Sew-
ing was one of them.
Opartny stars in many of the
videos, sporting different hair
colors and freshly manicured
nails, which stand out in the
tight shots of needle and thread.
When she took up a pen and
paper, Opartny tried to take that
same attitude and style to her
book.
“I wanted to write it in the
cheeky, playful tone I have,” she
said.
You can find signed copies of
the book at both Herringbone
Books in Redmond and the
Stitchin’ Post in Sisters. It can
also be purchased online at Am-
azon, Target, Barnes and Noble
and others.
█
Reporter: nrosenberger@
redmondspokesman.com