ROUND-UP
Thursday, September 14, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
MILITARY: SeaBees have been helping
with the hay and barns volunteer group
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Farmers Ending Hunger accepted two $5,000 checks toward the effort on
Wednesday at the Pendleton Round-Up.
Pendleton Round-Up helps
Farmers Ending Hunger
Organization receives
$10K in donations
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
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© 2017 Pacific Power
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
John Burt, executive director of Farmers Ending Hun-
ger, hangs a banner Wednesday for Farmers Ending
Hunger Day at the organization’s booth inside the
Round-Up Grounds.
acre” to help cover those
costs.
Bob Hale, president of
River Point Farms in Herm-
iston, said the company
has contributed to Farmers
Ending Hunger since the
very beginning.
“I think it’s in the spirit
of agriculture in general,”
Hale said. “We want to
make sure everybody gets to
eat equally. We think it’s all
part of the process, to feed
people. It isn’t just business.
It’s a way of life.”
The partnership with the
Round-Up was finalized
in May during the annual
Portland Rose Festival.
Rodeo royalty joined with
Farmers Ending Hunger to
help pack food boxes at the
Oregon Food Bank, which
are then distributed among a
network of 21 regional food
banks and 970 partner agen-
cies, including CAPECO in
Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam
and Wheeler counties.
John Burt, executive
director of Farmers Ending
Hunger, said the Round-Up
started as an agricultural
event, and the partnership
between the two groups only
seemed natural.
“To recognize the bounty
of this area at harvest time
makes sense,” Burt said.
Burt made no secret of his
excitement for the partner-
ship as he unfurled the large
“Farmers Ending Hunger
Day” banner, describing it
as a huge milestone for his
organization. He hopes to
see it evolve into an annual
celebration;.
“To be sought out and
asked by the Round-Up, that
is just huge,” Burt said. “To
me personally, that means
we’ve arrived.”
To learn more about
Farmers Ending Hunger or
to make a contribution, visit
www.farmersendinghunger.
com.
Still, the members of
Troop D wrote “Let ’Er
Buck” on their cannons and
were noted in media reports
for their resiliency.
The military remains
involved
with
the
Round-Up in other ways.
The Oregon Air National
Guard will perform a
flyover for Saturday’s
championship round during
the grand entry, Round-Up
publicity director Randy
Thomas said.
Throughout the week, the
Round-Up has also received
a helping hand from the
U.S. Naval Construction
Battalion, better known as
the Seabees.
Based out of the
Boardman Bombing Range,
Jesse Canisalez, a second
class equipment operator,
said up to seven members
of the Seabees have been
helping with the hay and
barns volunteer group.
Volunteering to take
care of livestock is a part
of a broader effort from
the bombing range to do
more community outreach,
Canisalez said.
While many of their
efforts have been focused
on Hermiston, Canisalez
said the goal is to continue
volunteering at Round-Up
in the future.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
You’re invited:
Dinner and answers on us!
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Fred Ziari, founder of Farmers Ending Hunger, said
Wednesday’s partnership with the Pendleton Round-
Up was a perfect match.
Oregonians’ business.”
This year alone, Farmers
Ending Hunger has been
responsible for donating 5
million pounds of ready-
to-eat food to the Oregon
Food Bank. Roughly 80
percent of those donations
comes from Eastern Oregon,
where farmers grow more
than 200 different types of
crops.
Top contributors include
Amstad Produce, which
gives 30 tons of potatoes
every month. River Point
Farms, the country’s largest
grower and processor of
onions, also kicks in 20-30
tons of produce every month.
Threemile Canyon Farms
contributes 20 beef cows
every month, which are
processed into hamburger
meat.
“All the food is given by
the farmers for free,” Ziari
said. “This is what you buy
at Safeway and grocery
stores. It’s the same quality.”
What is not free is the
packaging and transporta-
tion to ship that food to food
banks across the state. That’s
where Wednesday’s cash
donations come in handy.
Members of the public can
also sign up to “adopt an
Boyer said “everyone
has their falls” during
training, which was met
with some razzing from
his fellow color guard
members, who said Boyer
took more than a few.
The mounted color guard
will make the most of their
trip to Pendleton, making
additional
appearances
at Wednesday’s Happy
Canyon Night Show and
Friday’s Westward Ho!
Parade.
Following last year’s
visit from the U.S. Marine
Corps. mounted color
guard, Round-Up General
Manager Casey Beard
wants to make the military
a permanent presence at the
Round-Up.
“Patriotism and milita-
rism are in our charter,” he
said.
The Round-Up history
with the military stretches
back all the way to the
early years of the rodeo
According
to
Beard,
Round-Up champions Lee
Caldwell and Dell Blancett
formed Company D as a
patriotic response to the
U.S. entry into World War
I, which marks its 100th
anniversary this year.
The mounted troop
was sworn in at Happy
Canyon and trained at the
Round-Up Grounds, but
were converted to artillery
when they arrived in
Germany.
F F O
At its heart, the Pendleton
Round-Up — like most
rodeos around the West — is
an ode to the working class
farm and ranch lifestyle, and
a celebration of the region’s
agricultural roots.
So when the Round-Up
Association agreed to a
three-year partnership with
Farmers Ending Hunger
earlier this year, both sides
agreed it was a natural fit.
Wednesday
marked
the first ever Farmers
Ending Hunger Day at
the Round-Up, raising
awareness and support for
the organization’s mission
of
eliminating
hunger
statewide. The group also
received cash donations
of $5,000 each from River
Point Farms and Northwest
Farm Credit Services, which
were presented just outside
the Round-Up Grounds.
Farmers Ending Hunger
was founded in 2006 by Fred
Ziari, of Hermiston, upon
hearing that Oregon was
one of the most food inse-
cure states in the country.
According to the Oregon
Food Bank, about 644,000
Oregonians do not have
access to enough affordable,
nutritious food, of which
223,480 are children.
Ziari, who serves as CEO
of IRZ Consulting, reached
out to colleagues and local
farmers to see if they would
be interested in pitching in
to help solve the problem.
Without exception, he said
the farming community was
on board.
“We shouldn’t have
hunger in our state,” Ziari
said. “Agriculture is our
business, but food is all
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Four members of Army’s mounted color guard
perform Wednesday in the Pendleton Round-Up.
F F O
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Team Abrahamson of the Colville tribe from Omak, Washington, takes an early
lead in the second heat of the Indian Relay race on Wednesday at the Pendleton
Round-Up.
that had been attached to
poles or the ground.
As diners swarmed the
soldiers after the show
finished, it was hard to
believe that some of the
men who had just conducted
target practice on top of a
moving animal had as little
as six months of experience
on horseback.
Horsemanship is not
a requirement to join the
Commanding
General’s
Mounted Color Guard,
formed in 1992 and based
in Fort Riley, Kansas.
First Sgt. Jason Ther-
kelsen explained how the
infantrymen and engineers
and other disparate Army
positions who have already
served tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan sign up for a
two-year tour on horseback.
Color guard members go
through 30 days of horse
training, including 40 hours
on bareback before trav-
eling to rodeos and horse
shows across the country.
While every member
of the color guard looked
skilled behind the reins,
Sgt. Cecil Sanderson stood
out during his portion of the
presentation.
The color guard’s senior
rider, Sanderson was the
only member who wielded
a shotgun for the first half
of the course, eviscerating
his targets with crowd-safe
ammunition, then switching
to a revolver and continuing
to drop targets.
Sanderson’s talents were
reflective of a childhood
spent around his horse-
training father and as a
competitor in mounted
shooting competitions.
After joining the Army
and serving in Afghanistan,
Sanderson was a natural
fit for the mounted color
guard.
“If I can be in the Army
and ride horses, that’s two
of my favorite things,” he
said.
On the other end of the
spectrum was Specialist
Connor Boyer, who had
zero horseback experience
despite growing up around
cattle.
68˚
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