LOCAL
Thursday, May 21, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
Essential workers organize counterprotest
‘Essential not
Sacrifi cial’
demonstration
set for noon on
May 30
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — When
one group of Hermiston-area
residents rallies on May 30
to protest restrictions put in
place to slow the spread of
COVID-19, some essential
workers those rules could
help protect are planning to
make their voices heard in
counterprotest.
Deidre Torres is spear-
heading a demonstration
she calls “Essential not Sac-
rifi cial” that will take place
at noon on May 30, the
same time as the “Herm-
iston Freedom Rally” pro-
test downtown. Participants
plan to meet in their vehi-
cles in the Bi-Mart parking
lot, displaying signs calling
for a safe reopening plan,
and drive through town in
a socially distanced form of
protest.
“We’ll be following the
(Centers for Disease Control
EO fi le photo
A “Heroes Work Here” sign honors essential workers at Guardian Angel Homes in Hermiston
in April. Deidre Torres hopes people will parade through town in support of social distancing
rules that protect essential workers on May 30.
and Prevention) guidelines
to protect people, prevent
exposure and keep everyone
safe,” she said.
Torres said she isn’t
against reopening busi-
nesses again in some form,
but she objects to ideas
espoused by at least some
organizers
of
Reopen
Hermiston that businesses
shouldn’t be required to fol-
low safety rules, such as
wearing masks, and that
mass gatherings should start
again immediately.
“I’m not necessarily
against reopening, I’m just
against a complete, unilat-
eral reopening without a sci-
ence-based plan,” she said.
She said she just wants to
make sure that local govern-
ment offi cials know that not
everyone agrees that every-
thing should be opened up
now. She said many essen-
tial workers she knows are
also worried not only about
getting the virus, but also
spreading it to others who
are more vulnerable.
“Everyone has made
sacrifi ces,” she said. “I’m
not able to attend my little
brother’s graduation cere-
mony. I’ve been quarantin-
ing for two months. I hav-
en’t hugged my mother for
The Salvation Army thrift store is
now open and ready for business
two months.”
Rebecca Wallace Corff,
who is helping Torres orga-
nize the event, said hospital
workers are often “gagged”
by privacy laws that don’t
allow them to discuss details
of what they have personally
seen while treating COVID-
19 patients. But as a hospi-
tal worker herself, what she
can say is the things she has
seen are enough to make
her scared that people aren’t
taking the virus seriously
enough.
“It’s a horrible disease,”
she said. “You don’t want
to get it, and you don’t want
your kids to get it.”
She said she hopes peo-
ple will see the counter-
protest and realize there is
a “silent majority” that are
in favor of practicing social
distancing.
A Gallup poll published
May 19 found that 54%
of Americans were “very
confi dent” social distanc-
ing measures saved lives,
while 31% of respondents
said they were “moderately
confi dent.”
Wallace Corff said she
understands that when
human beings are scared,
they retreat to a place of
denial as a way to handle
their fears. But she said if
people don’t trust the gov-
ernment, she hopes they
will trust doctors, nurses
and other health care profes-
sionals who want everyone
to be safe and healthy.
With dueling protests in
Hermiston set for the same
day, Essential not Sacrifi cial
participants are encouraged
to stay in their vehicles and
not interact with protesters
in either camp. A code of
conduct for the event can be
found on the Essential not
Sacrifi cial Facebook page.
Hermiston Herald
CONGRATULATIONS
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON
—
The Salvation Army was
stretched thin.
The organization’s thrift
store — its top source of
income — closed in March
along with most other retail
business in Oregon. At the
same time, more people
started showing up at the
noon meal offered six days
a week at Salvation Army
headquarters.
“Instead of 30 or 40 peo-
ple a day,” said Corps Offi cer
DeWayne Halstad, “all of a
sudden, it went up to 75, 100,
125, all the way up to about
150. It blew us away. There
were a lot of people we had
never seen before.”
They varied demograph-
ically from young children
with their parents to senior
citizens. To encourage social
distancing, the lunch crew
put meals in to-go containers
and told diners to take them
off-site. Eventually, the num-
bers dipped back down a lit-
tle, but hovers around 100.
Feeding so many is expen-
sive, especially without
income from the store.
“We lost about $80,000
from the store that would
have helped with our feeding
program,” he said.
On Tuesday, when the
thrift store reopened, Hals-
tad seemed visibly relieved.
Money would start fl owing
back into the coffers. Cus-
tomers, many who had called
asking when the store would
reopen, were coming back.
They didn’t need much
urging. The store opened
early at about 9:30 a.m. on
Tuesday and immediately
people trickled in and started
browsing. Six or seven
employees, ringing up pur-
chases, stocking shelves and
cleaning, wore bright red
masks emblazoned in white
with “The Salvation Army.”
Manager Rocky Newtson
greeted familiar customers
by name as they entered the
store.
“Hi, how are you,” she
called. “It’s good to see our
people coming back.”
When one unmasked cus-
tomer unexpectedly hugged
her, she was caught off-
guard, but relaxed into it for
a second. The man wandered
toward the clothing racks
and was soon engrossed in
shopping.
Before COVID-19, Newt-
son said 150 to 180 peo-
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Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Iesha Brown, an employee of the Salvation Army Thrift Store, sorts through donated items
on Tuesday shortly after the store reopened.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Averyal Thomas waits on a customer at the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Tuesday, the day
the store reopened, after closing because of COVID-19 two months earlier.
ple visited the store each
day, with some 120 of them
making purchases. In the
fi rst hour after reopening on
Tuesday, about 30 shoppers
came and went, most carry-
ing purchased items.
Patrons
will
notice
changes. Hand sanitizer
is available at cashier sta-
tions, which will eventually
feature plexiglass sneeze
shields. Dressing rooms are
unavailable. Employees rou-
tinely sanitize point-of-sale
machines, doors and carts.
Halstad didn’t seem wor-
ried about all those peo-
ple out there cleaning and
purging their homes while
self-quarantining who will
eventually fi nd their way
to the store with boxes and
bags. He laughed at a photo
he’d seen posted on Facebook
of a car fi lled with donations,
ready for the day the Salva-
tion Army reopened. The
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store will eventually get del-
uged, he said, but until then,
bring it on.
Halstad praised those
who helped the local Salva-
tion Army feed an increased
number of visitors during the
time of reduced income from
the store.
“The community has
been very supportive,” he
said. “We put it out on Face-
book that we needed food
and people responded.”
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