PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 19, 2021
Sunny’s
STORY
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
S
unny thinks you’re beautiful. The
same way Keanu Reeves thinks
you’re breathtaking.
“Keizer is a beautiful place, the people
who live here are beautiful. That’s why I
try to pick up after everybody,” Sunny
said.
Sunny has the same quiet, magnan-
imous vibe as his more famous coun-
terpart exudes in seemingly every
interaction.
Keizer residents are just as likely to
spot Sunny pedaling along River Road
North, panhandling either next to Shari’s
or at the Interstate 5 off ramps, hauling
another load of useful items he found
at a neighborhood garage sale or even
picking up trash in public spaces. In a
town seen as unforgiving by some in the
shelterless community, Sunny earned a
pass.
He’s almost always willing to engage
a stranger in conversation and selfi es
with him pop up on local social media
networks with surprising regularity.
When he is panhandling, there’s always
an element of gratitude for the assis-
tance and kindnesses he receives.
A few months ago, he made headlines
for interfering with another man’s verbal
harassment and attempted assault of a
sandwich shop employee.
He’s made several signs to indicate to
drivers that their car may be in need of
some repair or other. A few months ago,
my wife exited the north I-5 off -ramp
and spotted Sunny shuffl ing through
his signs, as she drove by. Sunny's sign
her know that one of her headlights had
burnt out. After the
2019 holiday lights
parade, Keizertimes
ran a front page
photo of him making
the rounds as Santa
on a bike. Weeks
later, I arrived at the
offi ce to fi nd fi ve
pages of a pocket
notepad on the fl oor
just inside the door.
It was a note from
Sunny thanking us
for noticing him
in such a grand
way. The note he
wrote our staff ,
and others he’s
penned that were
posted to social
media, are achingly
sincere.
Sunny said he relearned how to read,
in part, by picking up week-old editions
of the Keizertimes out of recycling recep-
tacles. He had to relearn how to walk,
Sunny, who lives shelterless in the Keizer community, rides down River Road Santa as Santa
in the 2019 holiday light parade.
FILE PHOTO, Keizertimes
how to speak and how to write after a
devastating motorcycle accident about
20 years ago.
I would take
a bullet for
any one of
the offi cers
in this town.
— S NN
“I had bought the bike off a friend
who made a huge mistake and was going
to jail. He needed money for his family
and he said the bike was worth $50,000.
I gave him $10,000 and told him the bike
would be waiting for him when he got
out,” Sunny said.
The bike always seemed more pow-
erful than he could handle, he said.
Catastrophe struck when he ended up
on a rural highway between Keizer and
McMinnville. As he rode, a driver in front
of him began “playing games,” brake
checking and fi shtailing the car when
he tried to pass. When he did make it
past, he sped up to increase the distance
between the two vehicles. He was check-
ing his mirror to see if the other driver
had given up and wasn’t paying atten-
tion to the road in front of him, or the
cars that had come to a stop at a signal.
He swerved to avoid the back-up and
went off the road. Everything that came
next was brief and painful. He hit one
sign and fl ew off the bike, he remembers
being suspended in the air and looking
around, then he hit another sign. There
was another brief stoppage of time and
then he hit the ground. He whipped
himself to one side of a chair and then
the other as he recollected the incident,
opening alternating eyes wide to exag-
gerate what he felt in the moment.
Serendipity appears to have played a
major role in his survival.