Wednesday, November 21, 2018
OFF PAGE ONE
GIVING: Dinner kicking off the Red Kettle Campaign doubled in attendance
Page 12A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
row Counties reported
total revenue of $200,821
in 2013 but a net loss of
$26,370, according to its
tax filings, which are pub-
lic records because it is a
nonprofit organization. The
most recent filing avail-
able from Guidestar.org,
which specializes in gath-
ering and providing data on
nonprofits, shows the local
United Way had total reve-
nue in 2015 of $241,270 and
cleared $23,333.
Nicholson said donations
are returning to better levels
but the days of United Way
of Umatilla and Morrow
Counties seeing $500,000
in revenue are done.
“There’s just too much
competition,
so
many
causes,” she said.
The Salvation Army
in Pendleton is feeling
that pinch. Capt. Ricky
Scruggs said revenue is
down $60,000 from last
year. But the dinner kick-
ing off the Red Kettle Cam-
paign doubled in atten-
dance from 2017 and sold
out. Scruggs attributed that
to the board stepping up to
fight the decline in revenue
with a better push for the big
fundraiser.
While that is good, he
said, the charity has plenty
of rungs to climb to get back
to better funding totals.
To help that, The Sal-
vation Arm got a jump on
the giving season. Scruggs
said the bell ringers and ket-
tles usually go out follow-
ing Thanksgiving and con-
clude Dec. 24, Christmas
Eve. The end date remains
the same, he said, but the
campaign began Friday. The
Salvation Army will have
up to five kettles in Pendle-
ton and five in Hermiston.
He said the funds they bring
in cover about 25 percent of
organization’s cost.
Nicholson said nonprofits
are the same as other organi-
zations and must adapt and
seek new ways to gain rev-
enue to keep providing ser-
vices. That’s why the United
Way of Umatilla and Mor-
row Counties followed the
United Way of Walla Walla
County and joined the “100
Docs Campaign,” she said,
in which a handful of local
doctors ask 100 more doc-
tors to give $1,000.
“If you can get 100 docs
to give $1,000 each, you just
made $100,000,” she said.
“I haven’t gotten any $1,000
checks yet, but I’m hopeful.
And even if we got one, that
would $1,000 more than we
had before.”
Her organization also
is encouraging banks and
other professional establish-
ments to allow employees to
wear jeans for a day if they
give $5 to the United Way.
That move resulted in $265
last year with nary any pub-
licity, she said, so maybe
this year that could jump to
$1,000.
“That’s a lot of hot
meals,” Nicholson said.
She also made a pitch
for Giving Tuesday, which
refers to the Tuesday after
Thanksgiving
Thursday,
Black Friday and Cyber
Monday. She said the sav-
ings from those events
could help local nonprofits.
“If you’re a person who
doesn’t need a food bank or
a domestic violence shel-
ter,” she said, “it’s easy to
just say we have these won-
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
Jack Hodgdon of Pendleton drops a donation into a Salvation Army bell ringer’s donation bucket outside of the
Bi-Mart on Tuesday in Pendleton.
Bell ring-
er Kevin
Jernstrom
of Pendle-
ton wishes
customers to
try and keep
warn while
volunteering
for the Sal-
vation Army
outside of
Bi-Mart on
Tuesday in
Pendleton.
This was
Jernstrom’s
first time vol-
unteering as
a bell ringer.
derful services and forget
they won’t be here if we
don’t support them.”
But money is not the only
way locals can give.
Scruggs said The Sal-
vation Army needs vol-
unteers, even on the ket-
tles. The volunteers bring
in more donations, he said.
And while volunteers pro-
liferate for The Salvation
Army’s Thanksgiving din-
ner, the charity can use vol-
unteers all year.
Combating
homeless-
ness and helping people
meet basic needs, he said,
does not go away with the
holidays.
VOLUNTEERS: With enough help warming station could be open 24 hours a day
Continued from 1A
as soon as she’s done.
Richter said she con-
tinues to come back to the
warming station year after
year because of the people
she serves.
She described the home-
less who patronize the
warming station as consis-
tently grateful for the ser-
vices the nonprofit Neigh-
bor 2 Neighbor Pendleton
provides, eager to help out
with chores around the facil-
ity and enforcing the rules
when a resident starts acting
erratically.
Richter said a lodger has
never complained about
any of the meals the warm-
ing station has served, even
the year when volunteer staff
had to figure out creative
ways to re-serve Top Ramen
on multiple nights.
Although she isn’t always
sure of their validity, Rich-
ter finds value in the stories
from the people who stay at
the warming station.
One time, a man passed
through who claimed he had
navigated the world by boat.
She was skeptical until he
produced a magazine article
that profiled his journeys.
Richter thanks the busi-
nesses that donate food to
the station, including Big
John’s Hometown Pizza,
Roosters Country Kitchen,
and Elizabethan Manor, an
assisted living facility.
While Richter is a dedi-
cated volunteer, she echoed
Neighbor 2 Neighbor’s con-
cern over the lack of volun-
teers at the warming station.
If there were more people
willing to volunteer their
time, Richter said, the warm-
ing station could be open 24
hours per day. — Antonio
Sierra
Tina Fox | CASA
Tina Fox is a big believer
in the power one person has
to make a difference.
That’s why she became a
CASA — a court-appointed
special advocate — in April
2016.
“We’re a caring, stable
person a child can count on
during the upheaval they
experience as they go into
foster care,” she said.
CASAs get to know each
child assigned to them, and
their parents, and study the
ins and outs of their case.
They act as advocates for the
children, share their opinion
with judges on what’s best
for the child and encourage
parents to take care of what
they need to in their life to
become the best option for
their child. Without a third-
party adult advocating for a
child in the system, she said,
they can quickly become
“pawns in somebody else’s
game.”
Fox said so far all of the
children for whom she has
been a CASA have ultimately
been reunited with their par-
ents. She finds it rewarding
when she runs into them in
the grocery store and sees a
loving interaction between
the parent and child, or when
she sees the child doing well
in school.
Often the problems that
caused a child to be taken
from a home in the first place
stem from the parent not
ever being taught basic skills
they need, she said, which
creates a “breeding ground
for failure.”
“I feel like people just
need a little bit of encourage-
ment and to believe in them-
selves, and if they get a little
encouragement, it’s amazing
what they can do,” she said.
Fox said she has always
enjoyed spending time with
children. When a health
challenge stopped her from
being able to work full-
time, she chose being a
CASA as a way to continue
contributing.
“I was able to work
around my own schedule
and slowly build up over
time,” she said.
In July, after a grant
allowed Umatilla-Morrow
County Head Start to hire
a part-time volunteer coor-
dinator in Pendleton, Fox
stepped into that position.
She continues to volunteer
as a CASA outside her paid
hours as a coordinator.
Fox said she often gets
calls from foster parents, ask-
ing that a CASA be assigned
to the child they are foster-
ing. Fox said she doesn’t like
putting children on a waiting
list, but that’s what she has to
do. Even with some CASAs
taking multiple cases at
once, in October there were
73 children with a CASA in
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties, and 106 on the waiting
list.
“It’s sad there’s so much
need and we can’t meet it,”
she said. — Jade McDowell
Susan Badger Doyle |
Heritage Station Museum
Digging through history
is Susan Badger Doyle’s
thing.
Doyle, 77, volunteers at
the Umatilla County His-
torical Society’s Heritage
Station Museum, Pendle-
ton, helping to document
and catalog the vast collec-
tion, including the 14,000
old photos that captured
something specific to Pend-
leton or the rest of Umatilla
County. The museum has
thousands more of general
images, such as period agri-
cultural equipment.
“I really love history, and
historical items,” she said.
“They have stories. They
just bring the past alive to
me.”
Take the museum’s
acquisition of a tin container
that resembles a small coffee
pot. The cylinder has a han-
dle and a lid and spout. The
underside of the spout has a
spike.
Doyle said it was for
drinking beer. Beer cans at
the time lacked pull tabs,
thus the spike to puncture
the can.
Doyle studied anthropol-
ogy and afterward earned
a Ph.D. in American stud-
ies in 1991 from the Univer-
sity of New Mexico. She is
an author and was director of
the California Trail Interpre-
tive Center, Elko, Nevada.
Doyle is a document editor
and handled original diaries
for the Montana Historical
Society’s 2000 publication
of “Journeys to the Land
of Gold: Emigrant Diaries
from the Bozeman Trail,
1863-1866.”
Document editors work
with primary sources, such
as original manuscripts, she
explained, but they don’t
change any words. Rather,
they add footnotes and the
like to provide context and
valuable information to the
reader. Modern museums
are the same, she said, with
the focus on interpretation
to help people understand
history.
She and her husband,
radiologist Roger Blair,
moved to Pendleton in 1997,
and right off they became
members of the Umatilla
County Historical Society.
She served on its board and
was president, but she did not
start volunteering until 2011.
She said that came at the
nudging from the Historical
Society’s Executive Director
Barbara Lund-Jones.
“They just needed some-
one to work on the collec-
tion,” Doyle said. “I volun-
teered and started right in.”
The museum receives all
kinds of items, she said, from
embroidered pillow cases to
the old printing press from
The Weston Leader, which
ceased operations in the
mid-1940s. Items that have a
story are real treasures.
“We want the stories that
go with them,” she said.
Doyle said she has no
desire to slow down. She
said that is the advantage of
retirement. — Phil Wright
Chris Hull | ASPIRE
As high schoolers try to
figure out what they want
to do after graduation, Chris
Hull helps them by asking
the right questions.
The retired Hermiston
and Stanfield teacher is an
ASPIRE mentor, volunteer-
ing weekly at Hermiston
High School.
Each week she meets with
four to five students, seeing
a total of about 20 a month.
She talks to students about
their goals after high school,
and helps them understand
how to get there.
“The ASPIRE mentoring
program is designed to help
kids figure out what they
want to be,” Hull said.
Though
she’s
long
worked with kids, both as a
special education teacher and
as a court-appointed special
advocate, this is Hull’s first
year as an ASPIRE mentor.
The program is optional,
and students can join at any
grade level. Hull said she
tends to see more junior and
senior students.
“I get a variety,” Hull
said. “There are kids that
don’t have a clue, and aren’t
really motivated to be think-
ing about it. One girl told me
she didn’t really have a pas-
sion — she just wanted to
get out of high school, get a
job and have a house.”
In those situations, Hull
said she will encourage stu-
dents to try and come up
with some ideas for their
next meeting.
“My assignment to her
was, ‘I want you to think
about something you really
like,’” she said.
Hull will also do some of
her own research to help stu-
dents. One boy told her he
wanted to be a physician’s
assistant, and for their next
meeting, Hull came with
some information about the
education requirements for
that job.
Hull also helps students
figure out how they’ll pay
for their plans.
“I always ask them, ‘Are
you independently wealthy?
Do you have money buried
away?’ They always look at
me and giggle,” Hull said.
“We talk about scholarships,
letters of recommendation,
how it’s important to get
those done early.”
Though she retired in
2003, Hull has continued
to regularly attend school
events, and almost every
school board meeting.
“I don’t know if it’s from
different generations,” she
said.
“People who stay with
jobs for a long time. I’ve
worked in two places, and
they were both in Uma-
tilla County. You get a sense
of loyalty to the place you
worked, and I think that
comes from building close
relationships with the people
you work with.” — Jayati
Ramakrishnan
ODDS: Keyshawn was one of 250 applicants for the Beat the Odds scholarship
Continued from 1A
to settle in Pendleton when he
was in third grade, although
his family’s life was still tran-
sitory as he spent much of his
fifth grade year moving from
motel to motel.
“I’ve had to grow up a
lot faster than other kids,” he
said.
Keyshawn said his father
hasn’t been involved with his
life since he was 2, and when
his mom “didn’t do the right
things” — he didn’t want to
go into detail out of respect
for his mother and his mom
declined to comment — his
living situation became a lot
more tenuous.
That’s when Stacey and
Ken Jacobs stepped in.
Stacey, who was a librar-
ian at Washington Elemen-
tary School at the time,
remembers Keyshawn came
into school one day upset
that being separated from his
mother meant that he would
have to move away and ruin
his perfect attendance.
She recalled that Key-
shawn as a very bright stu-
dent who always excelled in
school, and along with her
husband Ken, a teacher at
Sunridge Middle School, they
agreed to take in Keyshawn,
with his brother eventually
joining him.
Keyshawn stayed with the
Jacobs family on-and-off for
a couple of months between
fifth and sixth grades. Since
then, Keyshawn said his fami-
ly’s situation has grown much
more stable and his mom is
now his “biggest supporter.”
Keyshawn said he was one
of 250 applicants for the Beat
the Odds scholarship, a field
that was eventually trimmed
to 25.
Once he made the cut, he
did a video interview with
the Stand For Children Ore-
gon board, which helped
him secure one of the 13
scholarships.
Lindner, the nonprofit’s
marketing and communi-
cations director, said Stand
for Children was able to
expand its group of win-
ners from 10 to 13 and the
amount it awarded to each
recipient from $10,000 to
$16,000 each.
Stand for Children Ore-
gon usually has all the win-
ners speak at an event in Port-
land, but because the winning
group had been expanded, the
organization needed to select
one student to speak on their
behalf.
Keyshawn was bestowed
that honor, and he was able to
share his story for a new audi-
ence once again.
Stand for Children also
produced a sleek video that
summarized his story and
recorded scenes of him run-
ning track or singing in the
choir.
As the video nears its end,
Keyshawn said he wants to
attend Oregon State Univer-
sity and pursue a career in
human services.
“If you have a lot of hard-
ships, then take those and
make them into opportuni-
ties,” he says in the video
as a last piece of advice. “If
you’re positive, then you’ll
have a better outlook on life
and you’ll have a better out-
look on education and every-
thing else in your life.”