A6
COMMUNITY
East Oregonian
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
HOT OFF THE GRIDDLE FOR BREAKFAST WITH SANTA
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Seeley Hemphill off ers up pancakes to guests Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, at Pendleton Parks and Rec-
reation’s Breakfast with Santa at the Pendleton Recreation Center. The breakfast, prepared and
served by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Let’er Buck Post 922, was a fundraiser for the department’s
youth scholarship fund.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Madalyn Hutchison greets Santa Claus on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, during Breakfast
with Santa at the Pendleton Recreation Center.
EOCI club raises $5,000 for CAPECO
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Commu-
nity Action Program of East Central
Oregon in September received
a $5,000 donation from a club at
Eastern Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution, Pendleton.
The donation is a result of
EOCI’s Enrichment Club, accord-
ing to a press release from the
club via Ron Miles, supervising
executive assistant at the medi-
um-security prison. The club is
a fundraising group consisting
entirely of incarcerated men. The
fi rst club of its kind in the prison,
its goal is to enrich the lives of the
men in the facility, organize pro-so-
cial events and make donations to
charitable causes, according to the
press release.
The club in July coordinated a
fundraiser partnering with Domi-
no’s Pizza. Nearly 1,200 pizzas
were purchased during the event
that allowed the donation to be
made to CAPECO, which provides
services to low income individuals
in Eastern Oregon.
“CAPECO is a wonderful
organization that provides many
services to struggling individuals.
As a club we chose to make a dona-
tion to this organization because of
the vast number of services they
off er,” club President Phillip Luna
said in the release.
He also explained working with
a local establishment such as Domi-
no’s was an important point.
“We understand that many busi-
nesses are struggling during this
time,” according to Luna, “and we
wanted to make sure that a Pend-
leton business benefi ted from our
fundraiser. We are grateful Domi-
no’s was willing to work with us,
and we are hopeful that more estab-
lishments in the community will be
willing to support EOCI fundrais-
ers in the future.”
The club was started in March
stemming from a Department of
Corrections initiative called the
Oregon Way, a state-wide philo-
sophical approach to corrections
based on the belief that human-
izing the prison environment
is benefi cial for employees and
improves the outcome for incar-
cerated individuals.
The fundraising events in the
institution create opportunities
for positive interactions between
security staff and the incarcerated,
improving outcomes for incarcer-
ated individuals.
In addition, the club challenges
men housed at EOCI to extend
empathy beyond a line of view that
ends with a razor-wired chain link
fence.
“In that sense, the Enrichment
Club is more than just a fundraising
group – it’s an investment. It’s an
investment in empathy, in people,
and in our communities,” the press
release stated.
The Enrichment Club has
a gover nment-like str ucture
consisting of a general caucus and
fi ve leadership positions that are
decided by election. Determin-
ing which fundraisers to pursue
is a time-consuming process and
each idea is scrutinized to ensure
it meets all of the necessary crite-
ria and furthers the goals of the
Department of Corrections. Once
a selection is made, the club lead-
ership members work in tandem
with correctional staff to plan the
Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution/Contributed Photo
Men of the Enrichment Club at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution,
Pendleton, raised $5,000 in September 2021 to donate to the Community
Action Program of East Central Oregon.
event. The process is tedious, as
the logistics of ordering and deliv-
ering within the institution can be
challenging.
All club positions are volun-
tary; many of the club members
have full-time work assignments
in addition to time spent on club
activities.
There are close to 1,600 incar-
cerated individuals at EOCI, and
the great majority will be released
sometime in the future. In Oregon,
life sentences constitute a small
minority of the approximately
12,000 incarcerated individuals.
This statistic, the press release
stated, “validates the need for this
type of club in a correctional setting
as many of the men housed there
will become part of a community
in the future.”
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