REGION
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Faces of the Rainbow
Gathering attracts
people from all
corners of U.S.
PENDLETON
Food stamps worth double at
farmers market this month
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
“Shuttle” went to the first Rainbow Gathering in 1972
and said he keeps returning to help keep the people
safe at the gathering.
Food stamps will literally
go further than they used to
at the Pendleton Farmers
Market.
During July, the market
and Umatilla County Public
Health will offer up to $10
in matching funds for the
Supplemental
Nutrition
Assistance Program recip-
ients who buy fruits, vege-
tables and other unprepared
foods at the weekly market.
Hal
McCune,
the
nonprofit’s president, said
the farmers market has
accepted SNAP benefits,
better known as food
stamps, for the past 10 years,
“It really gives some
of these folks a lot more
buying power than they
used to have,” he said.
McCune said market
patrons spend about $800 in
food stamps every month in
an exchange system where
money from the SNAP elec-
tronic benefits transfer card
is exchanged for tokens that
can be spent at market stalls.
SNAP users typically
save the last of their monthly
allotment of benefits for the
farmers market, McCune
said, but the matching
program will allow them
to potentially double the
budget they can spend at the
market.
“It’s like Christmas in
July,” he said.
According to a market
EO file photo
Sunlight falls on a some cherry tomatoes on display
at a booth at the Pendleton Farmers Market.
press release, the Oregon
Food Bank conducted a
community
food-system
assessment in Pendleton
in March, which identified
the farmers market’s SNAP
match program as a need.
The assessment resulted in a
$2,000 grant from the food
bank and the county’s health
department.
The Pendleton Farmers
Market is the only farmers
market in Umatilla and
Morrow counties that
accepts a SNAP card,
although the county is also
providing funding to the
Milton-Freewater Farmers
Market to acquire a card
machine.
Even though the SNAP
match program will close
at the end of the month or
when the grant funding runs
out, McCune said it was an
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Khy and his dog, Lady.
Gas station and mini-mart
coming to Highland Avenue
East Oregonian
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Zia Martinis, right, and “Papa Bear” stand for a photo
outside the Rainbow Gathering.
Man dies at Rainbow Gathering;
identity still unknown
EO Media Group
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer is investigating the
death of an unidentified male at the Rainbow Gathering
southwest of John Day.
Multiple officers from the Forest Service, Oregon State
Police and Grant County Sheriff’s Office responded to
the gathering off of Forest Road 24, according to a July 2
press release from Palmer.
An unidentified man collapsed near a makeshift
medical station at the gathering. An emergency room
doctor from Kentucky who was attending the gathering
provided medical treatment, and CPR was attempted for
15-20 minutes without success.
The sheriff’s office is attempting to identify the man.
Investigation at the gathering provided no leads to identify
the deceased.
The man was removed from the scene and transported
to Driskill Memorial Chapel in John Day where finger-
prints were obtained. The fingerprints will be sent to the
Oregon State Police Identification Bureau.
Once the sheriff’s office determines the man’s identity,
the office will attempt to notify next of kin.
Hermiston is getting a
new gas station on the corner
of Southwest 11th Street
and Highland Avenue.
The project at 1120 W.
Highland Ave. will include
a mini-mart, fuel station and
laundry facility run by the
owners of the Metro Marts
in the Tri-Cities area.
Carrie Sullivan, project
manager
from
LCR
Construction of Richland,
said they are hoping to
finish construction by the
end of October. A building
permit filed with the city
shows plans for a 3,826-
square- foot convenience
store and 1,554-square-
foot laundromat plus fuel
canopy.
According to a recent
report compiled by Assis-
tant City Manager Mark
Morgan for the city’s public
infrastructure committee,
while Hermiston experi-
ences about 31 percent more
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
LRC Construction works on a new mini-mart, gas
station and laundromat on the corner of Highland
Avenue and SW 11th Street/Highway 207, Hermiston.
retail sales than expected for
a town of its size, it sells 35
percent less fuel. A 2013
study showed gasoline sales
within the Hermiston city
limits were $7,682,993 at
the time.
The city council recently
added multi-family residen-
tial and mini storage units as
conditional uses for roughly
and basket designs when
designing the logo and
met with CTUIR member
Thomas Morning Owl, who
shared the Umatilla, Walla
Walla and Cayuse tribes’
creation story.
In the logo, the individual
tribes are depicted through
three mountains.
“Reoccurring
themes
of nature, this idea of land-
scape, mountains within the
creation story that Thomas
shared was really what I was
trying to achieve with this
concept in taking a look at
the bigger picture, the area
in which the tribe is located
and its direct connection to
the people and applying that
to a contemporary and clean
design,” Pascual said.
The current logo was hand
drawn by Lonnie Alexander,
a Yellowhawk nurse who
worked there for more than
20 years.
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eight acres of property
along Highland Avenue
running west of 11th Street,
including the corner prop-
erty where the Metro Mart
will go. Eastern Oregon
Development, LLC just got
the final plat approved to
build a mini-storage facility
on Highland just west of the
gas station project.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.com or drop off to the attention of
Tammy Malgesini at 333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers
Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-966-0818 with questions.
Yellowhawk Health Center unveils new logo
When the Yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center opens
its new clinic this fall, it will
come with a new logo.
Yellowhawk
unveiled
its new logo, which will be
paired with the new Umatilla
Indian Reservation facility.
“We really felt that it was
time to update our look as
we move into our brand-new
clinic,” said Shawna Gavin,
chairwoman of the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation Health
Commission, in a statement.
“We are very pleased with
this logo and the connection it
displays to our community.”
According to a press
release, the logo was
designed by Navajo graphic
designer Victor Pascual, who
is based out of Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
Pascual researched histor-
ical documents, beadwork
important promotional tool
to inform the community
that the market accepts food
stamps.
SNAP is a federal
program under the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
that provides money for
food to low-income fami-
lies, a majority of which live
well below the poverty line.
The USDA has found
that $1.84 in gross domestic
product is produced for
every dollar of SNAP bene-
fits.
McCune said SNAP
enjoys support from local
food vendors because it
allows them to expand their
customer base.
The market is 4 p.m. to
7 p.m. every Friday on the
300 block of South Main
Street. There will be four
markets in July.
HERMISTON
MISSION
East Oregonian
Page 3A
East Oregonian
By RYLAN BOGGS
EO Media Group
Shuttle
“Shuttle” never counted
how many Rainbow Gather-
ings he’s been to, but he was
at the first one in 1972.
He’s worked on the
parking crews and estimates
he’s helped park three
quarters of a million cars.
He strives to make the gath-
ering a safe and enjoyable
place for people to attend,
and tries to greet people at
the gate with a joke.
“If you drive 3,400 miles
with two kids in diapers, the
last thing you want is some-
body aggro at the gates. You
want somebody who makes
you laugh,” Shuttle said.
Now 64, he cannot
breathe much dust for health
reasons. Instead he helps
with safety, making sure
everyone at the gathering
is properly hydrated and
touring camps with fire pits
to ensure they have a shovel
and at least five gallons of
water on hand.
“My whole goal, over my
lifetime with the family, has
been to keep the family safe.
From each other, from the
police and from outsiders,”
Shuttle said.
Zia
This is Zia Martinis’ first
annual gathering. She first
experienced the Rainbow
Family at a regional
gathering in Maui 1999. A
young mother on the island
with a military husband, she
felt isolated. Then, someone
invited her to the Rainbow
Gathering and told her “you
can come home.”
“It was freedom. It was
family. It was like I felt like
I belonged,” she said.
The feeling of family
is what attracted her to the
gathering, but it has also
taught her valuable life
skills.
“I’m an urban girl. I’m
a black woman born in
Berkeley, but I get to come
out here,” she said. “I’ve
read my books. I know how
to build my fires. I know
how to take care of my
woods.”
She said, in a world
reliant on electricity and
infrastructure, being able
to survive outdoors is a
valuable skill.
Khy
Khy prefers life on the
road. He said he’s tried the
whole “adulting thing,” but
after his house burned down
and he was laid off from his
job, he decided it wasn’t for
him.
This is his first national
gathering, but he said he
attended a smaller one in
Florida.
“It’s a way to get away
from Babylon and all the
nonsense of the world,” he
said, describing “Babylon”
as modern society and the
dollar.
Without it, he is less
stressed. He travels with
his dog, Lady, hitchhiking
where he can and walking
when he can’t.
Over the last nine
months, he has traveled
from Florida to Oregon to
attend the gathering.
East Oregonian
Family Fun!
Rotary Breakfast
Vendor Booths
Classic Car Show in the Park
Eastern Oregon Art Show
Club 24 Glow Run
Chain Saw Wood Carvers
KOHU/The Q Cash Machine
Kids Zone
Cultural Event to follow Fun Fest