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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2018)
Friday, November 2, 2018 OFF PAGE ONE ENDE: Bernice Ende started long riding with no experience and little money Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A eventually moved to north- west Montana, where she opened a dance studio and ballet school. Once she retired in 2003, she began looking for a life change and decided to give long riding a try. “I felt the pull of the open road,” she wrote on her web- site. “Adventure called, the need to go, see, do. A win- dow of opportunity opened and I climbed out.” Ende said she started long riding with no experience and little money, sleeping under a tarp she brought with her and subsisting on cans of tuna, tortillas, and cream cheese. According to Ende, she first got involved with speak- ing engagements by play- ing piano and telling her life story at local senior centers in exchange for meals. Ende said that although the country might be going through a politically divisive time, the main lesson she learned during this time was how unified the country was in its kindness, as evidenced by the food, water, and shel- ter strangers provided for her on her various journeys. She gained enough noto- riety over the years that sev- eral sponsors have stepped forward to financially sup- port her lifestyle, but she still has a minimalist streak. The book tour’s tight schedule means Ende needed to eschew a long horse ride for a 1969 Ford pickup, but Montana Spirit and Liska Pearl are still coming along for the ride in a horse trailer tied to the back. Instead of booking hotels or crashing on couches, Ende showed off the horse trailer’s small storage space, which she fashioned into a sleeping quarters with a few blankets and personal items. Ende decided to come Staff photo by E.J. Harris Author Bernice Ende feeds alfalfa to her Norwegian Fjord horse, Montana Spirit, on Thursday at the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds. to Pendleton through Liska Pearl, who originally resided in Pendleton. In 2015, one of Ende’s horses died and word got out through the Pacific North- west Fjord Promotional Group, a nonprofit that pro- motes the horse breed. At the time, the Pendleton nonprofit Rebecca Adams had founded, Dream Catcher Therapeutics, was going through a transition. An organization focused on helping kids with dis- abilities by doing activities with horses, Dream Catcher was in the process of getting a new board, director, and location. Suddenly, Adams had a surplus of horses. When she learned about Ende’s situation through the group, she started research- ing Ende’s long riding career and reached out to offer Liska Pearl. Although the horse had mostly been involved with leading and grooming activ- ities, Adams said she felt a connection with Ende and agreed to personally trans- port the mare to Ende’s cabin in Trego, Montana. A friendship between Adams and Ende ensued and Liska Pearl has been with the itinerant Montanan ever since. Ende said Liska Pearl took a couple of years to adjust to the travails of long riding, which often puts horses in stressful situations like walk- ing through urban areas and crossing grated bridges. Adams said most horses stay in the same pens, are taken to the same events, and are transported in the same trailers, creating a routine. With long riding, horses are asked to respond to a chang- ing set of circumstances every day. “It’s the routine of uncer- tainty,” she said. Ende’s tour will take her through 19 states and offi- cially ends in Fort Edward, New York, in 2019, the 100th anniversary of the year Congress approved the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. She wants to press on after Fort Edward to do a reading at Harvard University, the site of some personal feminist history. “I come from a long line of suffragettes,” she said. Ende’s great-aunt was Linda James Benitt, the first woman to graduate from Harvard’s school of pub- lic health. Ende said she finds inspiration for her rides through her great-aunt and other famous feminist figures. Once she departs Pend- leton, she’ll head south to events in Prineville, Klamath Falls and beyond. During one of her future legs, she’ll be joined by a crew filming a documentary about her. And once she’s done promoting her book, she’ll unload Montana Spirit and Liska Pearl and reward her- self with another long ride. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. VOLUNTEERS: Also deliver friendship and safety Continued from 1A Staff photo by Jade McDowell Hermiston Senior Center volunteers Gary Reisland, left, Virginia Beebe, center, and Darlene Reisland, right, helped a Meals on Wheels patron get help. ting with people who don’t get many visitors as they drop off meals, and in some cases even return on their own time to visit with people or help them out with small things around the house. During his time deliver- ing meals, Riesland said he has found people who have fallen, and in some cases after he has alerted fam- ily or the police that some- one didn’t answer the door, the person has been found deceased. He has also reported cases of elder abuse that have led to law enforce- ment getting a senior out of a bad situation. In the most recent case, Wilcox didn’t come to the door as usual but he could hear her yelling from the liv- ing room. She didn’t answer his questions but repeated over and over again, “Call Pam!” “I knew something was wrong,” he said. The Rieslands returned to the senior center and told vice president Vir- ginia Beebe, who happens to be Wilcox’s cousin. She got in touch with Lincoln, who rushed over to find her mother on the floor, weak and disoriented, and called an ambulance. Beebe said volunteers will always follow up with emergency contacts if some- one doesn’t answer the door when they were supposed to be home. It’s a service that can be just as important as the food provided on Tues- days and Thursdays. Lincoln said she is grate- ful that someone besides her is helping keep an eye on her mom after Lincoln’s father died about two months ago. “It’s more than just deliv- ering meals, they deliver friendship and safety,” she said. She said their family will be coming up with bet- ter protocols to make sure her mother stays safe while maintaining her indepen- dence, and urged other fam- ilies with elderly members living alone to discuss med- ical alert bracelets, daily phone check-ins or other safety precautions in case of a medical emergency. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. CINEMA: Goodwill announced that it planned to open a store in early 2016 Continued from 1A property. Pendleton Cinema owner Bruce Humphrey had been trying to sell the property for eight years when Goodwill Industries of the Columbia agreed to buy it in 2015, and as soon as the deal went through, he promptly closed the movie theater and the property’s other occu- pant, DG Gifts, moved to Westgate. Although Goodwill announced that it planned to open a new store in the building in early 2016, little visible activity happened at the site beyond mov- ing Goodwill’s collection trailer to the parking lot. Later that year, Goodwill Carrington bought the property, which spans an entire block, for $250,000 officials said they were no longer interested in starting a new store in the Pendle- ton Cinema building, citing concerns over labor costs and the distance the Pend- leton store would be from Goodwill Industries of the Columbia’s headquarters in Kennewick. Goodwill offered to sell the property to the city of Pendleton for $550,000 to accommodate a new fire sta- tion, a slight discount from the property $600,000 pur- chase price, but the city opted to place the station on South- east Court Avenue instead. Goodwill put the prop- erty back on the market, and by the time Carrington bought it, the building had been vacant for more than three years. Carrington bought the property, which spans an entire block, for $250,000, less than half of what Good- will originally paid. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. Staff photo by E.J. Harris The Pendleton Cinema building has been sold to the Carrington Co. of Eureka, Calif. OHA: The state hospital has 210 beds and 256 aid-and-assist patients Continued from 1A in jails, prisons or hospital emergency rooms. The number of defendants sent to hospitals because they have been judged unable to aid in their own defense has doubled in the past six years, Allen said. Such clients gen- erally remain under state care until they are deemed fit to stand trial. The state hospital has 210 beds but 256 aid-and- assist patients, according to the Health Authority’s Oct. 29 budget request to the Legislature. To meet the demand, state hospital officials have used about 20 beds meant for civilly committed patients. The new Junction City unit would allow the hospital to restore capacity for civilly committed patients, accord- ing to an email from Robb Cowie, a spokesman for the Health Authority. The Junction City hospi- tal opened more than three years ago with about 100 beds to house patients from central and southern Oregon counties. “Since opening, the need has been so high that the campus has been serving all Oregon counties,” Cowie wrote. When there’s a shortage of beds, patients are diverted to acute care psychiatric wings of local hospitals, he said. State lawmakers on Wednesday convened the first meeting of a steering committee that will pro- pose policies to keep men- tally ill Oregonians out of the criminal justice system. The effort is financed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assis- tance and The Pew Charita- ble Trusts. Researchers at the non- profit Council of State Gov- ernments Justice Center are helping the committee iden- tify the number of Orego- nians who are arrested most often. Those individuals tend to have mental health or sub- stance abuse challenges, said Steve Allen, a policy advisor at the council. “The best way to sup- port people with behavioral health needs is to connect them with treatment in their local communities” rather than sending them to jail, said Allen. Paris Achen: pachen@ portlandtribune.com or 503-363-0888. Achen is a reporter for the Portland Tribune working for the Oregon Capital Bureau, a collaboration of EO Media Group, Pamplin Media Group and Salem Reporter. Destiny Theatres Fri - Wed, Nov. 2 - Nov. 7, 2018 Subject to change. Check times daily. Hermiston Stadium 8 Hwy 395 & Theatre Ln - 567-1556 MoviesInHermiston.com D ISNEY ’ S N UTCRACKER (PG) G OSNELL (PG-13) B OHEMIAN R HAPSODY (PG-13) T HE H ATE Y OU G IVE (PG-13) O LD M AN AND T HE G UN (PG-13) H UNTER K ILLER (R-17) H ALLOWEEN (R-17) G OOSEBUMPS 2 (PG) $5. 50 Bargain Tuesdays** **ALL DAY TUESDAY, MOST MOVIES. Check ONLINE for more information!