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Hood River News, Wednesday, May 20, 2015
A11
PINE GROVE NEWS
John Stehlik named
Wy’East Firefighter
of the Year
By DEBRA LARAWAY
Pine Grove correspondent
I am slow/late getting
this infor mation in the
paper but felt it should still
be reported. Unfortunately,
with all the recent passing
of neighbors and friends, I
thought I should remind
everyone that for interment
arrangements at the Pine
Grove Butte Cemetery, Jean
Godfrey is the Secretary
and can be reached on her
cell at 541-490-7713. Randy
Holmstrom is the Sexton
(grounds keeper) and can
be reached on his cell at 541-
380-1130.
Now for the late report-
ing of the Wy ‘East Fire Dis-
trict Annual Appreciation
dinner, which was held Sat-
urday, Feb. 7 at the Hood
River Inn Columbia Room.
The room was decorated
with a February theme and
the meal was quite tasty.
Our thanks to the Hood
River Inn staff and chef for
our delicious meal.
Officers of each fire sta-
tion were introduced and
then service awards were
given out. Ten year pins
went to Ryan Dethman,
Kev i n L o n g a n d Pe p e
Rivera. A 25 year pin went
to Lee Lage, a 30 year pin to
Joey Sheirbon, a 40 year pin
to Jim Wells, and a 45 year
pin to Butch Still. Those
amount of years say a lot
for the commitment of our
volunteers and our thanks
to you.
We have a new award this
year and it will be called the
“Firefighter of the Year.”
.John Stehlik was chosen
for this and the other new
award is “EMS Provider of
the Year 2014,” going to
Chrystal Akin-Bruce. “Stu-
dent Firefighter of the Year
2014” was Rafael Contrbras.
All members are eligible for
these awards and congratu-
lations to these fire volun-
teers deserving of the
recognition.
We then went into our dif-
ferent awards for mishaps
or screw-ups within the fire
departments. For Odell, the
award went to Tony Guisto,
whose name will be on the
plaque forever as “Toast Em
To n y. ” T h e “ H o t L i n e
Award” for Pine Grove went
to Steve Bickford for “Sit-
tin.” Many try to avoid
these awards, but those who
win them are more than
happy to tell you what to
avoid to not win!
It has also always been
customary within the de-
partments to give silver
baby cups to new parents.
John and Merridy Stehlik
for their son Luke, Peter
and Sarah Cushman for
their daughter Zella, Pepe
and Maria Rivera for their
daughter Vida, Jeremy and
Kelsey Cervantes for their
daughter Lydia, and Rafael
Contreras and Cecilia Gan-
dara for their daughter Alli-
son. Welcome future fire
volunteers and EMS! New
members for the depart-
ments are David Rummel
(wife Mea g an) for Pine
Grove and for Odell, Nora
Contreras, Tom Fur row
(Roberta), Diego Vaca, Jose
Villegas, Chris Voyles. Wel-
come new members to each
station and to Wy ‘East Fire
District.
Chief Greg Borton also
gave mention of past fire
department members, hon-
orary members and past
Charter members, one of
which Bill Laraway was one
of our last. The night ended
with a skit by Jon Laraway
performing a ventriloquist
a c t a s s i s t e d by h i s
“dummy” Dwight Moe and
we enjoyed the light look at
fire department procedures.
Door prize tickets were
drawn and table decora-
tions given to all the win-
ners (all of the gals) and we
appreciate both de par t-
ments for hosting this din-
ner. Special thanks to Ryan
Willis and John Stehlik for
choosing the venue and set-
ting things up. It is a great
night of fun and visiting
and appreciating our volun-
teers and their families.
■
Call Debra Laraway at 541-
386-3316 with your news of
the Pine Grove community.
Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
AT THE Pine Grove Fire Department auction in March, John Stehlik
shows his lighter side, playing up the charms of an orange easy
chair newly up for bid. Stehlik was named Wy’east Fire District Fire-
fighter of the Year.
Submitted photo
PATTI ANN MONZIE, owner of Momma Monzie's Doggie Delights, with official taste testers Max and Barkley.
New business profile
‘Momma Monzie’s Doggie
Delights’ swift success
BY TRISHA WALKER
News staff writer
It all began on Facebook.
Patti Ann Monzie, a retired U.S.
Forest Service employee, posted a
couple of pictures of the treats she
was making for her Greater Swiss
Mountain Dogs, Max and Barkley,
and her grand-Beagle three days
before Christmas 2014.
The post was for her sister in
Montana, who had requested a
visual explanation of what
Monzie meant when she said
she was “making bones.”
Five minutes later, someone
asked if they could order the
treats. And the requests kept
coming.
She didn’t take any orders
on Christmas Eve, but still,
she baked 54 dozen dog treats
in two days to send to cus-
tomers in time for the holiday.
“That was crazy because
you don’t ever start something
like that before Christmas,”
Monzie said.
She didn’t take any more or-
ders until the end of the year
“to see if it was just a fluke,”
she explained. January 1, she
decided to try again just to see
what would happen.
What happened is that Momma
Monzie’s Doggie Delights was
born. Through Facebook and word
of mouth, orders have been steadi-
ly flying out the door, both locally
and nationally — she has cus-
tomers in Massachusetts, Florida,
Georgia, Montana, North Dakota,
Idaho and Washington State.
“The dog treat business was not
on my mind,” she said. “I was re-
tired and having fun playing with
my dogs. I had no intention of
starting a business.”
She initially baked her all-natur-
al dog treats in her home kitchen,
but when she started selling in re-
tail establishments — in March,
Hood River businesses Rosauers
and Gorge Dog were the first to
pick up the treats, and she has
since expanded to Cascade Pet
Waucoma hosts author Steve Martini May 23
Waucoma Bookstore is host-
ing New York Times best-
selling thriller author Steve
Martini for a book signing on
May 23 from 1-3 p.m. at the
bookstore, located at 212 Oak
St., Hood River. Martini will be
signing “The Enemy Within,”
the latest book in the Paul
Madriani series.
Defending an innocent
young man, defense attorney
Paul Madriani uncovers a
morass of corruption and
greed that leads to the highest
levels of political power. It
leads Madriani into a vortex of
corruption, and at its center, a
devious killer poised to strike
again
Martini is the author of nu-
merous New York Times best-
sellers, including Trader of
Secrets, The Rule of Nine,
Guardian of Lies, Shadow of
Power, and others featuring
defense attorney Paul Madri-
ani. He has practiced law in
California in state and federal
courts and has served as an ad-
ministrative law judge and su-
pervising hearing officer. He
lives in the Pacific Northwest.
June 1
Call for
Appointment
Camp in Odell, Dickey Farms in
Bingen, Gorge Groomers and Pet
Supply in White Salmon, and
Dinah’s Doghouse in The Dalles —
she had to find a commercial
kitchen, as Oregon law prohibits
food products sold to the public to
be made in home kitchens.
“So that’s when my whole life re-
ally changed,” she said. “I didn’t
know anything about starting a
business.”
She turned to the internet for
help and learned how to apply for a
license, how to buy UPC codes and
liability insurance, how to find a
licensed community kitchen, and
how to start buying in bulk. She
also began meeting with Fritz El-
lett, Columbia Gorge Community
College small business advisor.
“He’s been wonderful,” Monzie
said, providing her with spread-
sheets and class recommendations.
“It’s so un-Forest Service! It’s a
whole new world.”
So she uses the community
kitchen located on GCCC’s The
Dalles campus. It takes her two
days to make each batch, mixing
the dough and baking one day, cool-
ing and packaging the next.
How big is a batch? “I made 1,500
cookies last week,” she said.
She hand-makes every treat,
from mixing the dough, to cutting
of the cookies, to packaging —
“with love!” — in bags. On her
Facebook page, she sells them by
the dozen; in stores, they go by the
ounce. Soon, she’ll have a website,
in the final stages of production by
local web designer Chris Frazier,
and said the treats will be sold by
the ounce and by the dozen there.
She has a monthly give-away on
her Facebook page for a free
dozen dog treats, and whoever
happens to order the 100th
dozen gets theirs for free.
About a week ago, she sent
out a package of treats to a
winner in Massachusetts,
who had ordered the 500th
dozen.
“I’ve met so many really
nice people” through the busi-
ness, Monzie said. “Our dogs
are our families, and we want
to give them safe, nutritious,
good-tasting treats.”
Her treats have no added
sugar, are gluten-free, preser-
vative-free and contain all
human-grade products. The
recipes she uses for her treats
— she has two flavors avail-
abl e, b e e f a n d p u m p k i n -
peanut butter — are “super simple,
but they like them.”
Cat owners have also found her,
she said — they just break the
treats into pieces.
The next step? Continued expan-
sion.
“I want to do more already, but I
have to remind myself I’ve only
been in business for five months,”
she said.
Planned or not, she’s enjoying
her new career, and feels very
blessed by the way her business
has taken off.
“I am seriously thankful to all
the people who support small busi-
nesses like mine and trust me to
m a ke t r e a t s f o r t h e i r d o g s, ”
Monzie said. “It’s absolutely amaz-
ing, the outpouring of support I’ve
gotten.”