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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2019)
OFF PAGE ONE Saturday, November 30, 2019 East Oregonian A11 Child care: 4 out of 5 respondents said they’ve missed time at work or school Continued from Page A1 in Pendleton, but across the whole BMCC system, which includes Hermiston, Board- man, and Milton-Freewater. Parks and rec survey Among a list of proposals in a 2018 Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department survey, an after-school pro- gram for elementary school students was the only pro- posal where a majority of respondents labeled it “very important.” A year later, Pendleton Parks and Rec turned the demand into reality. At the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, the department launched the after-school program at the Pendleton Early Learning Center, Washington Ele- mentary School, Sherwood Heights Elementary School, and McKay Creek Elemen- tary School. The city partnered with the InterMountain Educa- tion Service District to cre- ate a curriculum for the program, and at a recent after-school session at Sher- wood Heights, the children were finger-deep in it. Under the watchful eyes of after-school aides Tammy Hillmick and Kayla Frazier, the students piled pennies onto a makeshift boat of tin foil and masking tape to see how long their skiffs were buoyant before sinking to the bottom of a container of water. Parks and Recreation Director Liam Hughes and Recreation Supervisor Jon Bullard said they used their previous experience with after-school programs to launch Pendleton’s program smoothly. The pair said they hadn’t heard any complaints, and the program was able to Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Instructor Tammy Hillmick watches as a group of students test aluminum foil boats during a science experiment in the af- ter-school program at Sherwood Heights Elementary School on Nov. 19, 2019. draw many after-school employees, including Hill- mick and Frazier, from the Pendleton School District, where they work as edu- cational assistants during school hours. One hundred sixteen stu- dents are enrolled in the pro- gram across four schools, and Hughes said there’s capacity for more. If there’s one area where the program has fallen short of expectations, it’s in its scholarship fund. The after-school program is available to all Pendleton elementary students for $8 per day, but the program also offers a reduced rate for low-income families. Hughes originally wanted to raise $40,000 for the scholarship fund for the year, but has only raised $18,000 so far. But Hughes said only 17% of after-school stu- dents need scholarships, less than expected, and if the numbers hold up, the department will only need $25,000 for the year to sus- tain the fund. Additionally, the depart- ment plans to use the Dec. 7 Breakfast with Santa event to further bolster the schol- arship fund. Hughes said the depart- ment will eventually issue another survey to after- school parents to determine what is and isn’t working with the program. Pendleton Children’s Center When Katy Stinchfield moved to Pendleton with her husband and infant daughter in June 2018, she expected to have more child care options. But as she looked around town for a provider, she was frequently waitlisted. “Some wouldn’t even take down my name or num- ber,” she said, their waitlists were that long. For Stinchfield, it was more a case of accessibility instead of affordability, but some day cares were offer- ing their services for as much as $1,000 per month. Stinchfield works from home while her husband works for the U.S. Forest Service, and while they’re usually able to juggle child care duties, there are gaps in their schedule where they have to seek outside help. Stinchfield’s needs led her to becoming the board president of the recently revived Pendleton Chil- dren’s Center, a nonprofit that aims to solve problems like hers. With the children’s cen- ter, Stinchfield now has the ability to mold the kind of high-quality child care cen- ter she would like to put her child in. Kathryn Brown, the chil- dren center’s secretary, said the organization started a decade ago when some community members came together to try to address the need for child care. Brown is a former pub- lisher of the East Oregonian and is the vice president of the EO Media Group, the newspaper’s parent company. But the group had trou- ble getting off the ground as the economy was recov- ering from a recession, and as some board members left town, the organization went into hibernation. In the meantime, Brown said private sector day cares have yet to address the needs of the city’s child care shortage, as evidenced by personal anecdotes like Stinchfield’s experience and previous survey data. Additionally, she said Pendleton’s top employ- ers like Hill Meat Co. are becoming attuned to the fact that it’s hard to recruit and retain employees when they can’t find adequate affordable child care. With the aim of launch- ing a child care center in the 2020s, Brown said the nonprofit will soon unveil a survey meant to gauge the community’s child care needs. While the survey will help chart the children cen- ter’s course, Brown said she expected the organization to address the need for infant care. Once the group identified community needs, Brown said the children’s center will begin fundraising and looking for a facility. Casting: ‘Out of Character’ to spotlight Eastern Oregon actors and landscapes Continued from Page A1 from March through July. The men describe their project as a fantasy docu- mentary involving live-ac- tion role playing, more commonly known as LARP. The movie, which Hill described as “Lord of the Rings” meets “Best of Show,” has a couple of plot layers. “It’s a character story of six seemingly everyday people who portray differ- ent characters in competi- tion to win $100,000,” Hill said. “They are everyday heroes on an epic quest.” The six characters are working together against other teams in the com- petition. Each actor’s role has a sub-character which is assumed 12 hours a day. The fantasy pseudo-docu- mentary will feature each of them doing side inter- views about their strategy in the vein of reality shows like “Survivor.” The extra twist of playing a charac- ter who plays another char- acter will bring some real- ity paradigm shifts, O’Dell said. “It’s going to be like meta, meta, meta,” he said, grinning. The film features six principal roles, some fea- tured extras and 80-150 regular extras. The latter Staff photo by Kathy Aney Kate Brizendine talks to the directors of “Out of Character” during a casting call on Monday night at Pendleton Center for the Arts. will participate in a bat- tle scene in the middle of a big, open field and in other scenes. Filming will take place in Eastern Ore- gon with an all-Eastern Oregon cast. “The film will highlight the talent of Eastern Ore- gon as well as the beauty of the area,” Hill said. As they conduct their interviews, the men are looking for actors with strong, but realistic, personalities. “Film, in general, sets actors up to fail because if you play too big, if you act too much, it doesn’t trans- late into film,” O’Dell said. “A lot of people trained for stage acting, they’re used to acting with their whole body. Their whole physical- ity is being used to inter- pret their lines. In film, you see exactly what the camera sees and that kind of physi- cal performance can be too big. We’re looking for peo- ple who can easily access their own personalities. Then they just say lines as themselves. That’s perfect for the camera.” Though neither Hill nor O’Dell has directed a fea- ture-length film before, each man brings broad experience to the effort. Hill is an actor and writer who did theater and stand-up comedy in New York and Alaska and has a national radio award through his work as BMCC’s recruiter. O’Dell attended the Stella Adler Studio of Act- ing in New York City and co-founded the Secondhand Theatre Company there. Hill and O’Dell acted together in a short comedy film called “Vampire Pio- neers from Lake Terror.” The Eastern Ore- gon Film Festival in La Grande has designated “Out of Character” as its current sponsored project. Those wishing to donate to EOFF’s Filmmaker Support Fund will find a “Donate” button at eofilmfest.com. Would-be supporters may also go to the movie’s Face- book or Twitter pages. ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0810. OregonSaves: 70% participation by employees at businesses that have signed up Continued from Page A1 then choose from more than a dozen options and strate- gies for the state to invest their savings with the goal of maximizing those funds by their expected retirement date. The program was estab- lished by the Oregon Leg- islature in 2015. California and Illinois have similar programs, but neither have experienced the success of OregonSaves. “We’ve all got a stake in this because Oregonians who have assets, who have saved, are going to higher quality of retirement life and they will be less of burden on state and local budgets that are already stretched,” said State Trea- surer Tobias Read. Kim Stegeman, CEO and co-founder of the Rose City Rollers roller derby league in Portland, learned of the program from a passing comment at her gym. Once she dug into the details and found out how it could ben- efit her employees, she was in. “I wanted to be some- one who was encouraging my staff to start saving and planning for retirement,” Stegeman said. “I wish I would have started invest- ing when I was like 24, and now I’m playing catch-up. I don’t want that for my employees.” According to Stege- man, the program only took about 15 minutes to set up on her end, and the help available from State Trea- sury employees made the process efficient. Her book- keeper easily implemented the retirement savings pro- gram into the firm’s Quick- books payroll. According to Parker, the program is designed to mesh well with all types of payroll tools used by small business. Luke Huffstutter, owner of Anastasia Salon, said he had an easy time setting up his business with Oregon- Saves and recommended other business small busi- ness owners join in. “I think it’s really important the state has cre- ated something that makes the process easier for peo- ple to participate. Statistics show that when auto-deduc- tions are available for peo- ple, they choose to save at a much higher rate,” he said. According to Huffs- tutter, about 80% of his 45 employees decided to participate. Parker said that Oregon- Saves is seeing about 70% participation by employ- ees at businesses that have signed up. Parker said the state is working to make set-up pro- cess even quicker and less time consuming for busi- nesses. The biggest chal- lenge is getting the word out, he said. “Our challenge with OregonSaves is making sure employers know about the program and know they have support. We have two people on the ground that can do in-person trainings for employers and employ- ees,” Parker said. “We’re mindful and appreciate that the employers are the gateway to helping these employees.” Parker added that Ore- gonSaves helps employees in sectors where retirement benefits aren’t traditionally offered, such as in restau- rants, small retail shops and even the cannabis industry.
