www.hoodrivernews.com
Hood River News, Wednesday, June 3, 2015
A9
Submitted photo
KELSE HEGGE, left, and McKenzie Hegge are ready to show off their chickens and coop
during the Tour de Coop event, taking place June 6.
‘Tour de Coop’ coming June 6
Tour de Coop — a tour of Hood
River chicken coops, most on the
Westside — takes place this Saturday,
June 6. Coops will be open from 11-2
p.m. (except for that at Ted James’
place, which will be open until 3 p.m.).
The tour is a fundraiser for Valley
Critters 4H Club and is the seventh
E VENTS
Continued from Page A1
lege and a new robot chal-
lenge called the “Andrew’s
Pizza Challenge” will also
be featured. In the pizza
challenge, student-built ro-
bots are guided in the
process of placing “pizza”
ingredients on a wooden
“dough” disk, with points
for speed and the most in-
gredients. Condiments in-
clude rings, squares, and
mini-baskets filled with ob-
jects.
First Friday also means
the opening of “Best of the
Gorge” art show at Colum-
bia Center for the Arts,
Third and Cascade streets.
In addition to the artists’
reception at 6 p.m., musi-
cian Kay Floria will per-
form.
C ENTER
Continued from Page A1
job for a few months, and
figured out exactly where
we stand financially and
paid all our debts,” Thom-
sen said. “She has been
working really hard since
January.”
This executive director-
ship is similar to her previ-
ous experience, VanOrman
said, although the two pro-
grams — Head Start and
the Adult Center — are dif-
ferent.
“In terms of administra-
tion, it’s similar, but in
ter ms of pro g rams, it’s
quite difference,” she said.
“With the Mid-Columbia
Children’s Council, I ex-
Friday’s ribbon cutting at the new city restroom and bicycle hub at Third and State celebrates
the conclusion of the downtown State Street Urban Renewal Project. The event starts at 4:30
p.m. and entails a ribbon cutting followed by a barbecue hosted by the city and contractors.
The community is invited. Past and current Urban Renewal Agency officials will be on hand,
and a plaque will be unveiled.
n Tour de Coop returns
Saturday — see page A9.
n Hood River Saturday
Market starts its 25th year,
at a new location, the Oak
Street Pub (formerly Horse
and Hound), 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
— see page A6.
n Emporium will be open
for all ages from 11 a.m. to 4
p.m. on Saturday.
n The Moth Lounge (for-
merly Pint Shack) hosts a
grand opening June 5, with
a dunk tank, DJ Elive and
more.
n June 7: a unique oppor-
tunity to learn from one of
the Gorge’s astronomy ex-
p e r t s, P a u l Ku i p e r o f
Mosier. His class, “Our
Solar System and Our
Galaxy,” happens at 7 p.m.
Sunday at Coe Building,
with later classes in the se-
ries moving to Goldendale
observatory. Cost is $50 per
person and $60 per family.
For details call Community
Education at 541-386-2055 or
go to hrcommunityed.org
(page 5 in the printed cata-
log).
For the second year in a
row, Hood River Valley High
School students are bring-
ing an Engineering Fair to
the June First Friday. Stu-
dent org anizer Victoria
Ko h n e r- F l a n a h a n s a i d ,
“The Fair an opportunity to
let kids engage with STEM
Programs in the Gorge.”
STEM stands for science,
technolo g y, engineering
and math. “There’s so much
going on here that the com-
munity still doesn’t know
about, or they’re wondering
how to get their kids in-
volved,” said Flanahan, a
junior. “The Fair will share
information and get every-
one engaged.”
The Engineering Fair
will take place as part of
First Friday in a closed
block of Oak Street between
First and Second Streets
from 5 to 7 p.m. Students
will demonstrate projects
from the robotics, engineer-
ing and electric car classes
at the high school. Hexi-
copters and even a robotic
submarine will be on dis-
play.
First Technology Chal-
lenge robotics teams from
panded it from three coun-
ties to five counties and we
had almost 100 employees
— here, we have two and a
half.”
An added bonus, said
Thomsen, is VanOrman’s
experience with “feeding
children, working with the
FDA, and with state and
federal money.” The cen-
ter’s Meals on Wheels pro-
gram follows USDA guide-
lines, of which she’s famil-
iar with.
Her work the past six
months has been “going
through things and seeing
what we have and what we
don’ t have,” VanOr man
said. Thomsen said that
Va n O r m a n h a s h a d t o
rewrite many of the cen-
ter’s policies and proce-
dures, including personnel,
financial management, and
investment policies.
It’s all in an effort to cap-
italize on the center’s full
potential.
“The center has a lot of
potential to be much bigger
than we are and offer more
programs, to expand our
existing programs,” said
Thomsen. “We really do
want to expand Meals on
Wheels and the people who
c o m e t o t h e c e n t e r fo r
lunches … We do have plans
to expand — there are other
services we think we can
provide.”
But more than that, it’s
an effort to make sure all
volunteers and patrons are
comfortable with the
changeover in administra-
tion.
“Everybody is clicking
along pretty well and we’re
always looking for ways to
improve or do it better,”
said Thomsen. “We’re see-
ing the light at the end of
the tunnel, but we have a
lot of work to do …
“Suzanne is going to be
an excellent executive di-
rector. She’s organized, and
she’s had years of experi-
ence writing policies and
procedures, in finance, in
working with USDA pro-
g r a m s . We ’ r e i n g o o d
hands.”
See pages A3 and A12 for
details on this and many
other First Friday events.
A new attraction for First
Friday will be the start of
the Emporium pop-up
gallery at Butler Bank Build-
ing, 301 Oak St. Emporium
will happen at Butler Bank
each First Friday through
summer, for 21 and over. Nu-
merous local artisans will
display and sell their cre-
ations, and there will be live
music and beverages for sale,
from 5-8 p.m.
Also on June 5-7:
Forecast
Sunny
68° / 54°
Thurs. June 4
Sunny
77° / 56°
Mostly Sunny
around the re gion have
been invited to a scrimmage
and spectators are welcome
to show their skills driving
a robot for a chance to win
prizes donated by down-
town businesses.
Flanahan and the rest of
the HRVHS students credit
the City of Hood River,
Hood River Hotel, North-
west Graphic Works and
downtown businesses for
contributing to the event
and the Gorge Tech Al-
liance for helping promote
the event. “The science,
technolo g y, engineering
and math programs in our
schools are providing amaz-
ing opportunities for stu-
dents like me,” Flanahan
said. “We feel so grateful to
be growing up here and
wanted to give back.” For
more information, contact
the Gorge Tech Alliance at
541-296-2266.
The fair is a way to help
Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
N ICHOLS P ROJECT U NDERWAY
Crews are doing trenching and other groundwork at the future site
of the Naito hotel and commercial building project at Nichols Boat
Basin on the Hood River waterfront. In the background is the Valero
service station at the base of Second Street.
Oregon Weather Map
Humidity 70%
Wind Speed NW 15 mph
Barometer 30.02 inches
Dewpoint 46°F
Visibility 10 miles
Last update June 2, 7:38 am PDT
Actual High / Low
AGRIMET HOOD RIVER OR
Lat: 45.6842 Long: -121.5181 Elev: 510
http://uspest.org
89° / 60°
Sat. June 6
Partly Cloudy
94° / 65°
Sun. June 7
Partly Cloudy
96° / 66°
May
May
May
May
May
May
May
This week’s Forecast
Mon. June 8
Tues. June 9
Partly Cloudy
Mostly Cloudy
541-386-1123
90° / 64°
Mostly sunny and warm,with a high of 96 degrees and an
overnight low of 54. Chance of precipitation is slight.
84° / 59°
@gVc #& JVRcd
6iaVcZV_TV
3140 W. Cascade, Hood River
give the Engineering pro-
gram momentum toward
the 2015-16 school year.
“Especially for kids plan-
n i n g o n a dv a n c i n g t o
awards in the First Technol-
ogy Challenge, outreach op-
portunities like this are re-
ally important,” said Flana-
han.
“It’s good practice, and
you get to take the elements
you learned and incorpo-
rate it to your robot next
year,” she said.
“Our main goal is to in-
spire kids to continue with
STEM throughout high
school by showing them
how much fun it can be.”
F lanahan noted that
while seniors might not be
able to attend the fair, due
to graduation, their pres-
ence will be felt.
“Our seniors have been
working with underclass-
men and their projects will
be shown,” she said.
■
The board is currently
looking for new members to
join Thomsen, secretary
Debra Laraway, and trea-
surer Paul Zastrow. Three
new board members have
recently joined — Beth Pe-
ters, Mooreen Morris and
Felipe Castaneda — but
more are always needed.
Daytime / Overnight
High / Low (°F)
Today June 3
Fri. June 5
F IRST F RIDAY R IBBON C UTTING
such event.
Coops can be toured in any order.
Maps are $3 and available at Little Bit
Ranch Supply, Gorge Grown Food Net-
work, and the OSU Extension office.
The highlight is the unusual coops,
from small to large, but also features
goats, rabbits, pigs, geese and kids.
Hood River Weather Forecast
Date
Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea
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BfR]Zej ARced
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
-
-
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-
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69/54
69/48
79/48
88/52
85/57
80/58
83/57
Updated Tuesday, June 2
at 7:41 a.m. PST
Data from www.weather.com
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