OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
East Oregonian
Ukraine:
church organizations, one
of which is located in West
Ukraine and housing roughly
60 refugees from the eastern
side of the country. Another
church receiving funds is
holding over 400 refugees and
loading vans full of supplies to
take into the most dangerous
and war-torn areas of Ukraine.
The Dempseys are also assist-
ing similar refugees who left
everything behind to escape
to freedom, many of which are
women and children.
“I think what people like
about the way we’re send-
ing money is that it’s really
cool to see the pictures of
these people that have specif-
ically received money,” Ian
Dempsey said. “To be able to
see things getting directly into
the hands of the Ukrainian
people gives a full sense of
who it’s going to and who it
helps.”
The donations are going
toward medical supplies,
food, gas for supply distri-
bution, bedding for refugees,
financial support for individ-
uals fleeing the country and
defensive gear for Ukrainian
fighters.
Following the large local
contributions at the Ukraine
demonstration, Morrison is
hoping to continue efforts in
La Grande to provide continu-
ing fundraising. The Demp-
seys proceed to send out
ongoing donations to these
local connections in Ukraine,
staying in the loop with regu-
lar updates on what supplies
are needed the most.
In addition to the Anne
Morrison-Ukraine Fund,
several other La Grande resi-
dents have ties to Ukraine and
are putting together efforts to
garner donations to reliable
sources. Fuji and Jim Kreider
lived in Odesa, Ukraine, for a
year in 2003, staying in touch
with a close friend, Nataly
Kartasheva, who is now living
in the Netherlands and helping
refugees afford transportation,
temporary residence and safe
traveling.
Arie Farnam, another La
Grande resident, came from
the Czech Republic and has
to avoid them, with vehicle
weight or length limits.”
Air por t Commission
Chair Jim Webster said
there was “a lot of good
information from Pendle-
ton Air Museum folks and
other members of the public”
during the meeting, and
a good number of people
“with a long history in Pend-
leton showed up in favor of
keeping and improving the
guardhouses, and stating why
they’re important. There was
support for maintaining the
history.”
But, he added, the
commission has not received
a statement from the city or
planning department request-
ing an opinion.
“That’s usually the direc-
tion discussions flow,” he
said. “So we’re not at a deci-
sion point yet.”
Kelly, however, said he
was under the impression
the airport commission
could initiate and forward a
recommendation to the city
for approval.
“If we have to go to the
city planning department
first, then the city council,
we will,” he said. “We could
come up with a detailed
proposal.”
the project would wrap up in
six months to a year.
“If we get governments
involved, and apply for grants
to fund the project, it could
take two years or more,” he
said.
Harold Nelson of Pendle-
ton Aircraft Services offered
a similar suggestion, at least
for renovating the guard
shacks, if not improving their
environs.
“This community can
come together and take care of
them, without city support,”
he said. “Local log house
builders might well donate
logs to replace those most
damaged, or all of them.”
He said the last mainte-
nance work on the shacks
probably was Chris Demi-
anew’s Eagle Scout project
about 30 years ago.
Demianew, a teacher at
Sunridge Middle School,
Pendleton, said his proj-
ect was to replace the guard
shacks’ roofing.
“I got donated materials
from Tum-a-Lum and the
city helped cover some of the
costs,” he recalled. “My proj-
ect was completed in 1993 or
1994. I had a friend’s parents
who were professional
carpenters who assisted on
the guidance and helped with
reroofing the buildings. I was
17 years old when I did my
project.”
Nelson said the airport
commission doesn’t favor
bulldozing the guardhouses,
but the city and airport
commissions for decades
have not taken care of them.
“Just let the many citizens
who care about them do it,”
Nelson said. “Get the Air
Museum and VFW involved.
We don’t need grants for
restoration.”
He also said this could
use the cooperation of the
Radisson. The Pendleton
Air Museum could provide
artifacts and informative
plaques for its foyer, he said,
Continued from Page A1
Reaching out
T he Dempseys a re
exhausting all resources
to help similar families in
need, both fleeing Ukraine
and those still residing in the
country. The couple is work-
ing with lasting connections
they made during their time
in Ukraine, sending dona-
tions from family, friends
and colleagues directly to
the hands in need. Through
the Anne Morrison-Ukraine
Fund, local efforts in La
Grande directly benefit these
humanitarian efforts.
“The folks that we’re
connected with in Kyiv are all
church organizations mostly,”
Ian Dempsey said. “We’ve
given some money to friends in
need, like a friend who has five
kids. When they evacuated,
they were not able to bring
most of their clothes and most
of the kids did not even have a
pair of shoes when they left.”
Most connections involve
WWII:
Continued from Page A1
Kelly (U.S. Army, retired),
presented the commis-
sion with three options
for the guardhouses: tear
them down, move them to
preserve them or preserve
them in place. Kelly said the
museum recommends restor-
ing the shacks where they
have always been.
“Moving the concrete,
stone masonry and hewn
timber guardhouses would
be more difficult and expen-
sive than transporting smaller,
lighter wooden buildings,” he
said. “The process would risk
damage to the 81 year-old
structures.”
He also spoke against
rerouting traffic around the
venerable structures.
“Let people drive between
them as was intended in 1941,”
he said. “Set up a truck route
Anne Morrison/Contributed Photo
Supplies and bedding stand at the ready in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Fundraising efforts have helped transport donations from La Grande to those in
need in war-torn areas of Ukraine.
Decades since last
work on shacks
Honema n n said he
would like to form a group
or committee from a cross
section of stakeholders to
determine the way forward,
work on funding grants and
preserve the town’s history.
Kelly said he would prefer
to keep such a project local,
use volunteers, online fund-
raising and donations of
equipment and labor from
Pendleton constr uction
companies. Surveyors, engi-
neers or architects could
donate blueprints and visual-
izations to present to the plan-
ning department and council.
Going this route, he asserted,
been helping migrate disabled
individuals in Ukraine out of
danger.
and the hotel in return could
help support the guard shack
project. And the clients at the
Pendleton UAS Range “are
another obvious source of
support, should more money
be needed,” he said.
Nelson stressed the history
of the airport is important.
“The heroics of the men
who served at Pendleton
Field,” he said, “gave Amer-
ican morale a boost when it
was most needed.”
Former Oregon National
Guard Adjutant General
Fred Rees of Helix spoke in
favor of restoration during
the Pendleton Air Museum’s
dinner April 18 commemo-
rating the 80th anniversary
of the Doolittle Raid. The
U.S. Army Air Forces volun-
teers for the Raid passed
often through the gates of
the guardhouses in 1941 and
early 1942. Rees said the
Oregon Military Depart-
ment favored building a plaza
around the shacks.
Continuing the efforts
Those involved and in
close contact with front-line
Ukrainians see no immediate
end in sight to the dispute with
Russia,
Ian Dempsey noted that
donations go a long way,
especially with the U.S. dollar
going a long way in Ukraine
— the average monthly salary
in the country is roughly the
equivalent of $200 in the
United States.
T he A n ne Mor r i-
son-Ukraine Fund is accept-
ing donations th rough
PayPal, which can be sent to
amorrison@eoni.com. The
Kreiders’ trusted volunteer
from Odesa, Ukraine help-
ing refugees flee the country
can be helped via PayPal at
Pranzhu@gmail.com.
“No one really knows
how this will end, or when,”
Ian Dempsey said. “I pray
that these free countries
around the world continue to
come together to help these
people in need.”
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