OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Pride: ‘It takes bravery. I’m proud of everyone that showed’
Continued from Page A1
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
sang a prayer to bless the day.
“I’ve been loving getting
in touch with the kids
because, specifi cally, I want
to be the person that I didn’t
have growing up,” said
Kenneth Prince, a drag queen
who is gay and non-binary.
Prince, a local bartender
and barista, said they had
little to no support grow-
ing up in southeast Texas,
and would sometimes get
in fi ghts about their sexual
orientation. That’s why the
Pride event meant the world
to them.
“I didn’t think that this
town, being so little and so
red, that it would actually
have anything like this,” they
said. “I haven’t felt any nega-
tivity, and it’s honestly been
the world.”
After the success of last
year’s Pride march, United
Pendleton founders Aiden
Bork and Noah Wallace
decided to follow up with a
larger parade through town
this year, getting permission
and support from Turner
and Pendleton Police Chief
Chuck Byram. Police were
on every corner during the
parade, blocking off the
streets.
“This is Pendleton,” said
Bork, who is non-binary.
“Depending on where you
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A group of drag queens cheer and wave from a trailer Saturday, June 12, 2021, in downtown Pendleton as they ride away at
the end of the Proud Together Pride Parade.
are in the town, it seems that
there is a different side of
Pendleton that you see. And
I wanted to make it clear that
all of this is Pendleton.”
PFLAG Pendleton, a
group that has supported
the local LGBTQ commu-
nity since the mid-2000s,
also helped sponsor and
organize the event. But due
to a disagreement between
leaders of the two groups,
PFLAG as an organization
was not present.
“It was a conf lict of
views,” Bork said. “We
decided we wanted United
to stand on our own.”
Among the residents who
have seen first-hand how
Pendleton has changed is
35-year-old Ashley Jones,
who attended the event.
At age 12, Jones came out
as lesbian when she wore
rainbow suspenders and ran
through her school hallways
yelling she was gay.
“I was the only gay person
I knew in school,” she said.
In high school, Jones said
she had to change in a sepa-
rate room during gym class.
To attend prom with her girl-
friend, she said the school
forced her to bring along a
boy. And after kissing her
girlfriend in the hallway, she
was called to the principal’s
offi ce, where she said she was
threatened with suspension.
She fought back.
“I told them that’s not
OK,” she said. “It’s not OK
to allow other people to kiss
their signifi cant others in the
hallway and single me out.”
One day, she recalled, a
man even chased her down
the street with a bat, calling
her a name not appropriate
to print.
Things have come a long
way since then, Jones said.
Now, she works for Eastern
Oregon Center for Indepen-
dent Living, fi nding hous-
ing for people with HIV. The
organization donated $1,000
to United Pendleton at the
event.
“It takes a lot of bravery
to come down here and know
that the whole town is seeing
you here and you could possi-
bly be in the newspaper,”
she said. “It takes bravery.
I’m proud of everyone that
showed.”
She added: “Love is
greater than hate.”
Museum:
Continued from Page A1
us for a manageable price,”
McBee said. “Amy and the
EO board helped us tremen-
dously by seeing the value of
a children’s museum in our
community and pricing the
building in a way that we
could purchase it.”
McBee, who was the
nonprofi t’s fi rst board presi-
dent and served four years as
an unpaid executive director,
wrote a grant proposal to the
Meyer Memorial Foundation.
After securing the building,
the board and nearly 200
people rolled up their sleeves
with exhibit planning, fund-
raising efforts, recruiting
volunteers and more.
Pendleton experienced a
harsh winter in 1994 when
McBee, her husband, John,
and their three children, ages
1, 3 and 5, returned to East-
ern Oregon. With snow blan-
keting the region in October,
McBee longed for a safe and
educational venue where
young families could take
their children and have fun
throughout the year.
Organizing a public meet-
ing to gauge interest and
brainstorm ideas, McBee said
at least 40 people showed up
and expressed enthusiasm.
Thus, the initial eff ort began
with many people joining
committees.
“ We wo r ke d ve r y
intensely for a full year and
were able to open up after
just one year,” McBee said.
Surviving the
shutdown
And just as it took a
village to see McBee’s
dream come to fruition, it
took a community to ensure
the museum would survive
a lengthy closure because of
the global pandemic. Tight
finances aren’t new to the
museum. It nearly fell victim
to the Great Recession, clos-
ing out 2009 with a $33,000
defi cit.
During the pandemic
closure, Engle said the chil-
dren’s museum focused on
paying the bills. Also, the
organization wanted to main-
tain visibility and bring in
revenue.
For more than a dozen
years, the children’s museum
hosted the Doxie Dash each
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Ricardo Lara, 7, pieces together a hospital out of large blue
blocks on Saturday, June 12, 2021, at the Children’s Museum
of Eastern Oregon in Pendleton. The museum reopened June
1 after a 444-day closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Dr. Greg Jones, dentist for Fourth Street Dental, inspects a patient’s teeth during an exam
Thursday, June 10, 2021, at the offi ce’s Hermiston location.
Care:
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Children’s Museum of Eastern Oregon in Pendleton re-
opened on June 1, 2021, after a 444-day closure due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
June as its major fundraiser.
In 2020, museum officials
hoped it only would be
postponed, but continued
pandemic-related restric-
tions nixed the event. With
things just beginning to open
up, Chavez-Sierra and Garri-
gues said the board decided
to forgo the Doxie Dash this
year, instead opting to focus
on the museum’s upcoming
25-year anniversary.
In addition to a pair of
rummage sales that board
members spearheaded, the
museum’s toy store was open
on Saturdays. And when the
Pendleton Farmers Market
resumed, the store opened
on Fridays, too. The annual
appeal, Engle said, high-
lighted the museum’s basic
needs of paying its insurance
and utilities.
“It was diffi cult because
we knew a lot of people in
town were struggling,” Engle
said. “To ask them to give
when they’re struggling was
hard to do.”
However, she said the
response from the commu-
n it y wa s hea r t wa r m-
ing. Answering the call,
the end-of-the-year effort
brought in nearly $8,000.
Board members, who
maintain the museum’s
social media presence,
recorded their own story
times, conducted family-fun
challenges and posted virtual
child-related activities.
“We tried a few things
online,” Garrigues said. “We
didn’t want to lose contact
with the community.”
But nothing replaces the
hands-on interactive experi-
ence of going to the museum,
he said. With the doors open
again, the board, Engle and
McBee are excited to see it
thrive again.
“A child’s work is play,
and this wonderful nonprofi t
has been able to provide chil-
dren and families a fun place
to learn and play together for
many years,” McBee said.
The Children’s Museum
of Eastern Oregon is at 400
S. Main St. For more infor-
mation, visit www.cmeo.org,
Facebook or Instagram.
emergency services during
the spring of 2020, to help
preserve personal protec-
tive equipment that was in
extremely short supply.
In a weekly survey of
13,000 dentists nationwide by
the American Dental Asso-
ciation, 76% of dentists said
their offi ce was only open
for emergency patients and
18% said they were closed
completely on March 23,
2020. Those numbers slowly
shrunk over the year, and by
December, 39% described
their practice as operating
normally and 60% said they
were open but seeing fewer
patients than usual.
Jones said dentists already
practiced many of the guide-
lines for preventing COVID-
19 transmission even before
the pandemic, including
instrument sterilization and
wearing gloves and masks
while working on patients.
But they have also added
new precautions, including
more frequent sanitization
of the waiting room area and
temperature checks when
patients arrive.
Cancer screenings
One of the times delay-
ing preventative care can
have the most serious conse-
quences is when cancer is
involved.
Dr. Nattamol Hosiriluck,
a hematologist with Tri-Cit-
ies Cancer Center, which
has offices in Hermiston,
said she has seen a few cases
of people whose cancer is
more advanced after delay-
ing a routine screening, such
as a mammogram, because
they were trying to avoid
catching COVID-19.
“Right now, the queue
is really long to get a colo-
noscopy, so if you delayed
a colonoscopy I would say
book it down because it
could be a few months from
now,” she said.
Some cancers grow faster
than others, she said, but in
certain cases, not catching
something for an extra six
months could be fatal.
Hosiriluck said while
cancer patients are in treat-
ment, they have a higher
risk of severe cases of
COVID-19, so she strongly
encourages patients to get
vaccinated before treatment.
“If they’re not willing to
get the shot, I recommend
careful social distancing,
because they’re more at
risk,” she said.
Eye exams
Some patients put off eye
care during the pandemic.
Dr. Michelle Monkman,
Get help with COVID affected unpaid rent
Obtenga ayuda con el alquiler para renta atrasada
si a sido afectado por COVID
an optometrist with Vision
Pendleton, said they were
shut down for fi ve weeks in
spring of 2020, then opened
to lower patient volumes.
Things have been rebound-
ing, however, as people
who have gotten vaccinated
have felt more comfortable
coming in.
Mon k man said she
hadn’t personally seen
anyone lose vision because
they hadn’t caught some-
thing soon enough after
skipping appointments
during the pandemic. But
she had seen people live
longer with easily fi xable
issues like cataracts. One
of her biggest concerns, she
said, is seeing people try to
wear their contacts much
longer than recommended
rather than come in for a
new prescription.
If someone wea r s
contacts for five or six
months that were meant
to replaced monthly, she
said, they can cause serious
problems, including blood
vessels growing into the
cornea, dry eyes, scratches
in the cornea and infections.
If people are wonder-
ing whether to book an eye
appointment, Monkman
said, “I think it’s time.”
“Eyes need to be, espe-
cially in the elderly popu-
lation, checked yearly,”
she said.
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