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144th Year, No. 56
SPORTS, B1
REGONIAN
JANUARY 4-5, 2020
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OUR NEW NEIGHBORS
Couple takes
reins of
Pendleton’s
Salvation Army
Schulze family
finds adventure in
Middle East after
leaving Pendleton
DeWayne and Toni
Halstad transferred
from Richland, Wash.
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — A former
Pendleton couple is learn-
ing fi rsthand the difference
between people and politics.
Many Americans have uneasy
impressions of Saudi Arabia. We
read of mega oil deals, a monar-
chy headed by a vast royal fam-
ily, women’s rights abuses and a
journalist allegedly murdered by a
Saudi prince.
Chris and Noelle Schulze raised
a few eyebrows last summer when
they told family and friends they
planned to relocate to Saudi Arabia
with their four children.
After teaching for 15 years at
Sunridge Middle School, Chris
felt restless. The couple decided
an international experience would
bring adventure and widen their
children’s horizons. Chris signed
up with a service that apprised
him of opportunities with interna-
tional schools. With Noelle’s bless-
ing, Chris accepted an offer from
Aramco, a Saudi petroleum com-
pany that made $111 billion in 2018,
making it the largest company in
the world.
The family moved to Dhahran,
one of four Aramco communities.
The American-style town of about
11,000 residents has a golf course,
tennis courts, library, movie the-
ater, bike paths, squash courts and
a bowling alley and shopping in
nearby Khobar.
Chris teaches math and science
to children from all over the world.
“The kids are great. They come
from Italy, Africa, Columbia, Jor-
dan, Pakistan, India … it’s incred-
ibly diverse,” Chris said. “Most
speak some other language, but
they all have a good grasp of
English.”
On weekends, the family
explores the desert with a tour
guide or takes the train to Riyadh,
the capital of Saudi Arabia and the
country’s third largest city at 6.9
million people.
In the city, they observe a culture
See Adventure, Page A9
Editor’s Note: This story is part of
an annual series by the East Orego-
nian called “Our New Neighbors,”
which introduces the community to
people who have moved here in the
past year.
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Chris and Noelle Schulze and their children (from left to right) Theodore, 3, Adelade, 6, Samuel, 5,
and Rosalie, 1, moved last year from Pendleton to Saudi Arabia.
Contributed photo
Employees at a Starbucks in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, take selfi es with Rosalie Schulze, 1. The Schul-
ze family moved to Khobar last year so Rosalie’s father, Chris Schulze, could take a teaching job
at the international school there.
PENDLETON — In June 2019,
the Salvation Army Pendleton Corps
welcomed a pair of new directors, and
Umatilla County welcomed a pair of
new neighbors.
Maj. DeWayne Halstad and Maj.
Toni Halstad were transferred to
Pendleton to manage day-to-day oper-
ations at the Salvation Army after the
closure of their previous post in Rich-
land, Washington.
The pair, who have been with the
Salvation Army for several decades,
have bounced around the Pacifi c
Northwest in recent years, including
placements in La Grande, Butte, Mon-
tana, and Richland, Washington.
“We’ve always been fortunate
with our placements,” said DeWayne
Halstad.
DeWayne Halstad fi rst joined the
Salvation Army in Sunnyvale, Cali-
fornia, in 1977 when he was 16 years
old. From there, he worked throughout
California until the couple met in the
early 1980s shortly after Toni joined
the Salvation Army. The pair got mar-
ried in 1983 in Sunnyvale and have
worked together since.
“There’s nothing I’d rather do,” said
DeWayne Halstad of working with his
wife. “We make a really good team.”
In 1989, the Halstads attended the
Salvation Army College for Offi -
cer Training at Crestmont in Ran-
cho Palos Verdes, California, where
they were commissioned as lieuten-
ants. Shortly after being commis-
sioned, the Halstads moved to Boise,
Idaho, where they served as youth
pastors before moving to La Grande,
the beginning of their experience in
See Neighbors, Page A9
Red Cross needs volunteers in
Umatilla, Morrow counties
By ANDREW CUTLER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Nadine
McCrindle hasn’t been with the
Red Cross for very long, but she’s
already facing a challenge.
The new executive director of
the Red Cross region in Central
and Eastern Oregon is in need of
disaster response volunteers in
Northeast Oregon.
“The people that we have
that are specifi cally involved in
these types of disaster responses,
are really, really special human
beings,” she said. “On a larger
scale, they are often the same peo-
ple that will be
deployed to nat-
ural disasters that
happen across
the country, like
hurricanes, wild-
fi res, those types
of things. And
McCrindle
when you meet
them all in a large group, there’s
a specifi c type of person that does
this type of volunteer work, and
yeah, it’s really special.”
McCrindle, who joined the
Red Cross in October, knows
what being a volunteer is about.
Just one month after being hired
as executive director, she was
deployed to the Kincade Fire,
burning north of San Francisco.
The Kincade Fire forced about
190,000 evacuations and the Red
Cross Cascade Region supported
10% of the residents, helping
them relocate to the 15 shelters
that were set up. McCrindle was
deployed to Sonoma County for
10 days and served as a relief for
the local Sonoma responders who
needed rest, and gave them time
to check on their own families and
homes.
“I think one of the biggest
things that really touched my
See Volunteers, Page A9
Staff photo by Kathy Aney, File
Jennifer Fullerton of Umatilla watches as phle-
botomist Victor Reyna, of the Red Cross, tends
to her during a blood drive on Jan. 7, 2019, in the
basement of the Hermiston Public Library.