A8
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Integrated care center has virtual opening Fishtrap Fireside
Actual opening
will be Oct. 4
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — The
Hearts for Health Integrated
Care Center held its cere-
monial ribbon cutting Fri-
day, Sept. 10, with a virtual
gathering of about 95 peo-
ple due to coronavirus pan-
demic restrictions.
The actual ribbon was cut
the day before in a fi lmed
event when fund-raising
co-chairmen Gay Behnke
and Bob Crawford were on
site for the event.
But patients and staff
will have to wait another
few weeks for the center to
actually open its doors for
Winding Waters Commu-
nity Care Center and the
Wallowa Valley Center for
Wellness to be able to wel-
come patients.
“Both organizations will
begin providing services
in the new facility Oct. 4,”
said Tosca Rawls, public
relations and development
director for the Center for
Wellness.
Located just across Med-
ical Parkway from Wal-
lowa Memorial Hospital
near Wallowa Valley Senior
Living, the combined facil-
ities become a “health care
campus,” said Amy Busch,
development director for
the new center.
The “integrated” aspect
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Gay Behnke, left, and Bob Crawford cut the ribbon
Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, to ceremonially open the new
Hearts for Health Integrated Care Facility in Enterprise. A
virtual ceremony was held Friday and the facility is slated to
offi cially open Oct. 4. Behnke and Crawford are co-chairmen
of the fundraising board for the Wallowa Valley Center for
Wellness that funded the $9.1 million project.
of the facility means med-
ical, dental, mental health,
therapeutic, educational and
other health care-related ser-
vices all are off ered there.
There is even a “teaching
kitchen” included in the
facility.
“No one will ever know
why you pull into the park-
ing lot,” said Chantay Jett,
during the virtual gath-
ering. “Your visits are
confi dential.”
Jett is the executive
director of the Center for
Wellness.
“We just built the build-
ing that embodies what we
strive to be,” she said.
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Nic Powers, CEO of
Winding Waters, agreed.
“It will make a diff erence
in thousands of Wallowa
County residents,” he said.
In fact, the new center
is the culmination — and a
new step — in a partnership
that has been ongoing for
the past 10 years.
Offi cials who helped
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Ore., also was present
Friday. He called the facility
“a model for Americans.”
The senator has been
instrumental in helping
secure funding at the federal
level.
“We have literally the
all-star lineup of health
care providers … who will
continue to serve Wallowa
County well,” Wyden said.
State lawmakers who are
perhaps closer to the coun-
ty’s needs also attended.
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, said he was “not
comfortable with (being
included in a) very import-
ant persons section. I’d
change that meaning to a
very important project at a
very important place with
very important people and a
very important team led by
(hospital chief medical offi -
cer) Dr. Elizabeth Powers
and Chantay Jett.”
Hansell also noted the
important contribution of
state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner
Hayward, D-Portland/Bea-
verton, in showing the need
for the new center.
“It makes it possible for
the residents of Wallowa
County to get the kind of
integrated care they need,”
Hayward said.
Hansell then read a letter
given to him for the event
by former state Rep. Greg
Barreto, R-Cove, who was
unable to attend.
“It has been a privilege of
playing a small part“ in get-
ting the project done, Barre-
to’s letter read. “It saddens
me to know that Mike Wil-
son will not be taking part in
this opening. … He will be
sorely missed.”
Wilson remembered
Wilson, who had been a
senior associate at Westby
Associates, off ered his con-
sultation on a feasibility
study prior to undertaking
the project. He died in July,
Rawls said.
“He was instrumental in
the support and the funding
for this project,” she said.
Numerous other speakers
lamented Wilson’s absence
and invoked his memory as
the facility was opened.
“We’re carrying Mike’s
spirit through this event,”
said Mike Westby, CEO
of Westby Associates who
served as emcee for the vir-
tual gathering.
Numerous
others
who contributed money,
arranged for government
funding and donations from
foundations, in-kind dona-
tions and other means of
support were thanked as
the $9.1 million facility of
nearly 20,000 square feet
was opened.
“It’s important, not only
for health care but for build-
ing community,” Behnke
said. “It is everyone’s space.”
Westby agreed.
“It’s hard to believe
we’re here today to offi -
cially close out this cam-
paign,” he said. “It will be a
space for all to use.”
Wallowa County
gears up for ninth
season of readings
Three writers to
share in October
Chieftain staff
ENTERPRISE — Fish-
trap Fireside launches its
ninth season of readings
and stories from Wallowa
County writers on Friday,
Oct. 1, featuring 14-year-
old Ginger Berry, plus
longtime Fishtrap friends
Jim Dameron and Zanni
Schauffl er.
Fishtrap Fireside is a
monthly reading series
designed to feature diverse
voices of local writers.
Each month off ers a fresh
look at what people of the
West are thinking about
and writing down. Since
the program launched in
2013, more than 100 Wal-
lowa County writers have
stepped up to the podium
or logged on virtually to
share their work. Audiences
have enjoyed a variety of
genres including cowboy
poetry, fi ction, nonfi ction,
humor, memoir, sci-fi fan-
tasy, essay, travelogue, food
stories and much more.
“We’re off ering Fire-
side virtually again this
fall.” Fishtrap’s Program
Director Mike Midlo said.
“The advantage of that is
how many people can take
in these readings not only
here at home, but anywhere
around the country or the
world.”
Anyone anywhere can
take in Fireside online at
Fishtrap.org and Fishtrap’s
YouTube Channel.
October’s featured writ-
ers are:
• Ginger Berry, a
14-year-
old home-
schooled
freshman
attend-
ing
Oak
Meadow
Berry
H i g h
School.
Along with writing, she
enjoys cooking, read-
ing, dancing and playing
with her two dogs. She has
attended the past three sum-
mer Fishtraps.
• Jim Dameron, an essay-
ist and poet, who thinks of
himself as a contemplative
fellow with a bad memory
and a lim-
ited under-
standing of
the world,
w h i c h
means he
spends a lot
of time star-
Dameron
ing at blank
p a g e s .
That he managed to wran-
gle a few words into sen-
tences in order to read at
Fireside is something of an
obscure miracle. Still, he’s
won a few accolades along
the way and had more than
a few essays published
in well-known literary
journals.
• Zanni Schauffl er, who
was born and raised in
Portland, but has lived in
Enterprise for the past 14
years. She misses Portland
dearly, has struggled at
times in Wallowa County,
but
also
has a deep
love
for
this place.
Schauf-
fl er
has
published
her poems
Schauffl er
in
vari-
ous publications and is
the recipient of an Ore-
gon Literary Arts Fellow-
ship in Poetry. Currently,
she is working on a novel,
writing “poemish things,”
painting pictures, doing
some reading, developing
organization and clean-
ing strategies for her per-
petually messy house and
is participating as an avid
spectator in the Golden
Age of Television. She
works at the Joseph Post
Offi ce and lives with her
husband, Frank Helder-
man III, her cats Hum-
phrey and Blondie and her
big dog Ferdinand.
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Giving thanks
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