Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1995)
6 February 3, 1995 Warm Springs, Oregon SpilyayTymoo Gerald Smith achieves life-long goal; is named 1996 Olympic Boxing Team manager As a member of the St. Pats boxing club in Madras, Oregon, Gerald Smith says that he was only nine years old when he started boxing. After three years he took a five year respite from the sport and again resumed his career at still a young age of sixteen. At the age of nineteen and attending Portland State University, Gerald was boxing under the tutelage of a man who twice fought Floyd Patterson ( Dick Wagner ) and started working the corner when Wagner was unavailable. This was Gerald's first experience in handling boxers and he enjoyed it. From 1986 to 1992, Gerald was the elected president of the USA Boxing Association in Oregon but says that he is more involved on the national and international scene. In 1994, Gerald was selected to participate as a team manager for the John Hancock 1 995 Pan American trials that were held in Portland Oregon, January 20 to 22. At the 1994 annual USA Boxing Inc. meeting held in San Jose, California, it was announced that Smith was selected as the 1996 Olympic Team Manager for the XXVI Olympics, July 20 to August 4 in Atlanta, Georgia. All this did not just happen over night, says Smith. "It was a long, hard road. I credit boxing with giving me the dedication and perseverance it took to graduate from college. I wanted to give back what I received from my experience in the sport, so that meant helping others learn self discipline and become more confident in their abilities." In 1988 Gerald made it into the elite rank of referees, being one of 24 in the nation chosen to referee the semi-finals USA boxing championships. As a boxing team manager and the ex-president of the USA boxing association of Oregon, Gerald preparation, philosophy, up to has traveled to many parts of the competitions. A boxer the world and has met many doesn't have to be a world amateur and famous boxers, champion to make it all In 1990 he coached the USA worthwhile. Back in 1992 my boxing team that went to goal was to work in an Halifax, Nova Scotia for the adminstrative position at the USA vs Canada dual match. In 1996 Olympics at Atlanta, 1 992 he traveled to Europe for Georgia. My dream came true the USA vs PolandIreland dual sooner than I thought. What in Warsaw. On January 30 started out as a way to repay through February 20, 1995 boxing fourteen years ago and Gerald was selected to seeing what I have participate as a team manager accomplished, makes me feel for the Cordova Cardin great. " Tournament in Metanzas, Smith is an enrolled Warm Cuba Springs tribal member but is As Team Manager, Gerald currently living in Portland with is involved with administrative his wife Gloria, and three sons work, making travel James, Lonnie and Alex. His arrangements, taking care of parents are the late Lloyd Sr. passports, training sites, and Manuelita Smith. He has equipment, and seeing that two brothers, Ernie Henderson, details are taken care of. Smith Lloyd Smith Jr. (Shag) and two admits, "I love everything about sisters, Jeri Smith of Warm my involvement in boxing, from Springs, and Trudie Narum of the conditioning, mental Arizona. Photos and text by Bob Medina I K.sr h c-x tin) V'V 7 i Gerald Smith, left, poses with 1976 Olympic gold medalist Leo Randolph, Pan Am head coach Tom Mustin, 1988 Olympic coach Tom Coulter and two-time Olympic coach Rosevelt Sanders. F1 1 1 "?SSkr- X n crzii LJ I 3 fa. YJt wtiX'H"" "t rt I 21 giwiiiyiM'lw.iiiliiiiw m mrtiiinin-iir- . L rs "I ' , , 3 A USE 'fr,. - X 1 The 1995 Pan American Boxing trials brought many fighters to Portland 'January 20-22. ! -'1 Portland's ve San Jose, Ca ry own Derrell Dixon competes against.Ftobert Geer, a ilifomia boxer. 1 . , ..... ., Gaming facility work continues at fast pace-Continued from page 1 attain an Associate's degree in busi ness from Central Oregon Commu nity College and a Bachelor's degree from Marylhurst. While taking classes at Marylhurst on weekends, jrolyn was able to maintain a nearly . rfect 4.0grade point average. These j.ood grades proved beneficial to her as she earned a fellowship through the First National Development In stitute, a master's degree program offered by Falmouth. In 1989, Aurolyn moved to Min nesota to begin work on her Master's degree. During the summers, Aurolyn worked for the 3M Company at their headquarters in St. Paul. She was one of 17,000 employees. It was this work at 3M and her work with the Confederated Tribes that attracted the Little Six Casino to Aurolyn. She was hired in 1991 as special assistant to the executive committee and director of strategic planning. Busy is an understatement when speaking of her job at Little Six. At the time of her hire, Little Six had just opened Mystic Lake Casino, the largest Indian owned casino in the country at the time, which employed 1,800 people. Aurolyn was the first woman on the management team and Warm Springs Elementary News- Calendar Updates Jan. 3 1 -Awards AssemblyK-2 1:50 pm;Gr. 3-5 2:40 pm Feb. 2- No AM Kindergarten Feb. 3-No SchoolBldg. inservice End of 2nd Quarter Feb. 20-No School-President' Day Feb. 28-A wards AssemblyK-2 8:50 am; Gr.3-5 9:30 am March 20-24-No school Spring Break March 3 1 -Awards AssemblyK-2 1:50 pm; Gr.3-5 2:30 pm April 7- Early DismissalNo Kindergarten. End of 3rd Quarter April 24-Awards AssemblyK-2 1:50 pm; Gr. 3-5 2:30 pm May 24-Early dismissal-No Kindergarten. Bldg. inservice. May 29-No school. Memorial Day May 3 1 - A wards AssemblyK-2 8:50 Fifth grade students to visit Buff This year the WSE fifth grade students will visit Buff Elementary with their classroom teacher. The teacher will spend the day at Buff and be available to the students throughout the day. The students will ride the bus from the campus area to town with the sixth grade students. Breakfast and lunch is available at the Buff cafeteria. Students will be assigned three or four to each classroom at Buff and will be a part of the classroom in every way (class work, recess, lunch, etc.) Please be sure to sign and return the permission slip that you receive for your fifth grader. Gasses will be visiting on the following schedule, so be sure to mark your calendar Harry Phillips, Wednesday, January 18th; Laurie Espenel, Wednesday, January 25th; Deanna LaPage, Wednesday, February 1st; John Nelson, Wednesday, February 15th; Kathy Cooper, Wednesday, February 22nd. Parental Assistance Requested!! Just a reminder that students should not bring gum, candy, seeds and pop to school. Healthy snacks for after school are still okay, especially if your child is waiting for the late bus to go home. First and second grade students eat lunch at 1 1 : 10 a.m. and there are many times that children say they are hungry while waiting for the 4 p.m. bus. Students should not bring large amounts of money to school (even to buy pepperoni and jerky). If your child does bring a large amount of money for a special purpose, please tell them to bring it to the office for safe keeping until after school. Most teachers request that students not bring toys (walkmans, hand held computer games, etc.) to school. If your child brings a toy to school and it is damaged, lost or stolen, the school will not be , responsible forrepairorreplacement. Hoop Shoot Free Throw Contest The following students qualified to represent Warm Springs Elementary at the Elks National Hoop Shoot Free Throw Contest which was held at the Madras High School gym on January 15th. 8 to 9 Year old: Davey Culpus, Isaiah Tewee, Brent Graybael, Owens Mares, Preston Smith, Kayleen Clements, Cyrille Mitchell, Turina Wallulatum, Maurica Cortez & Jayleen Main. 10 to 1 1 Year old: Kevin Smith, Charles Stwyer, Joshua Sohappy, Stephen Govenor, Nathan Napyer, Candice Miller, Nicole Main, Dcidra Johnson, Mayanne Aguilar & Susee Davis. 12 to 13 Year old: Melanie Red Dog & Lula Ann Smith WSE Students Select New Name for Cafeteria Students were asked to submit suggested names for the Warm Springs Elementary School cafeteria, the names that were submitted by classes were: The Eagle's Nest Cafe, The Eagle's Nest, The Food Palace, The Vegetable Patch, Eagle Perch Cafe and Eagle Spirit Cafe. By classroom vote the WSE cafeteria will now be known as Eagle Spirit Cafe. Mrs. LaPage's class submitted the winning entry and each student from her class will receive a gift from Sunny Delight. Be on the lookout for "little critters" This time of year we seen an increase in the cases of headlice in classrooms. Children are sharing coats and hats with other students which ups the risk that your child will come in contact with someone who has headlice. Encourage your children to wear their own clothing to help prevent exposure. We do not want to exclude children who have headlice, but if children are not treated right away when the parents are contacted by the school, we will have to do an exclusion. Thank you for your cooperation! Alternative Education Telephone Number Alternative Education has gotten pretty settled into their new "home". A few calls are still coming into the Elementary School for AE, which now has a direct line. Rob Hastenings, TabithaHart-SchuIzandAnnMorrell can be reached at 553-1 1 20. Is it already near the end of the second quarter of school? Time does fly by when you're having fun, and this year has been fun! We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your prompt response when contacted by the school regarding your child's meal account. Please keep in mind that if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the breakfast or lunch program, contact us and we'll try and help. It's so nice to be able to work together this year and we look forward to even greater future years. Thank you! Important Notice!!! Due to the recent postage increase the school newsletter will be sent home with students beginning February 2nd, rather than one to each household that has elementary age students. If you do not receive a newsletter the first and third Friday of each month, you may come by the office to pick one up. it, was "tough", Aurolyn says with a smile. , Her first assignment was to assess the internal audit function and to formulate the 1993 business plan. She was also required to develop a corporate survey which was distrib uted among all employees. The sur vey rated 30 areas including supervi sor competency, communications, incentives, benefits, facilities, and numerous other subjects. The infor mation on the completed surveys were documented and were used as a tool to "find out growing pains". . Aurolyn also helped develop the casino's business plan, one that had not existed before. "They were in such a huge market area, they reacted to the market demand. The business plan helped them....become proactive rather than reactive." She also conducted a cultural awareness workshop for Little Six upper management. "The majority of management was white, upper class male from the east coast. They were the best in the industry but not keen on cultural sensitivity." The training included some firsts for the management team: an introduction to the tribal council, a Sioux prayer ceremony and the telling of a legend concerning teamwork. "The legend spoke of how geese fly in a formation of teamwork, help, leadership and encouraging and assisting when wounded, sick or shot down," Aurolyn says. The three-day retreat resulted in the team prioritizing and noting strengths and weaknesses and for mulatingdetails in creating a business plan. "From all this, we developed our corporate strategy." Through this procedure, "we re alized the casino was too small." Work began immediately to build the Dakota Country Casino. Dakota Country, at 3 1 9,000 square feet, was three times larger and employed 4,500. Aurolyn was the chairperson of the casinoexpansion team. Weekly meetings were help with executives, informing them of all phases of construction. An 18-month job was' crunched into six months. "Con struction often went around the clock." The casino was finished on schedule. "Fast track is nothing new to me. The difference is I don't have a team of experts. I'm it. No one else has experience in casino develop ment. That's why we have Gaming Consultants International helping us," says Aurolyn. The Little Six corporation bought two companies, with a value of at least $5 million, a year. T conducted the due diligence process for business acquisition. Little Six has a consult ing business, so Aurolyn traveled to other gaming tribes throughout the country to assist them in starting gaming enterprises. We pointed out, Aurolyn says, that "they didn't have to give away their profits" to outside managers. "There are other alterna tives than management contracts. Also part of her job was public relations for the casino and to share information on Indian gaming with state legislators. In April 1993, Chief Delvis Heath called from Washington, DC, saying the tribal delegation would like to stop by for a visit. Aurolyn gave them the royal treatment, complete with limo pickup at the airport. They toured the facility and had dinner with the chairman of the board. "The delegation recognized the benefits of gaming. They were impressed there was no alcohol in the facility. They were impressed with the security measures and the state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. At that point, I think they kept me in mind for when it was time" to start up a gaming operation in Warm Springs. All this may sound like hard work, but the up side were the perks. Limos, fine dining, the works. But, it came to an end in December 1993. She made a decision to leave and head west. Life outside the fast-moving casino life is much different than the everyday workaday life. "I had to get a sense of my value system when I left. What's important to me is being close to my 13-year-old son Ty." Aurolyn moved to Seattle in January 1994, working as regional vice president of National Center for American Indian Enterprise Devel opment. Funded by the Department of Commerce, Aurolyn's office provided consulting services to In dian owned business and tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. "It was my first experience with a non profit organization....It was three jobs in one and I got frustrated." She left the big city behind and made her way home in July 1 994. "I was on my way to Minnesota with my son to attend a powwow when I was asked to work with the Tribe's gaming enter prise...." Her decision to come home "put an end to my vacation," says Aurolyn. The Gaming Work Group selected Aurolyn gaming facility general manager last month. "It's been my personal goal to join the tribal orga nization in a general manager capac ity. It offers me greater responsibil ity and challenge. I'm also excited that the Tribes, like Little Six, will be owning and operating the facility oui seives. "The special intent of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was to es tablish a mean of strong tribal eco nomic development for Indian people and strong tribal governments for Indian communities. I think the Tribes have a strong, stable govern ment but this offers us a unique business venture." Aurolyn is obviously pleased that the gaming facility will be located at Kah-Nee-Ta. The beauty of the resort will add greatly to the ambiance of the gaming enterprise. "Kah-Nee-Ta is a high-quality convention center, giving us exposure in tourism. It gives us a spring board for more growth," Aurolyn says. Speaking of the gaming industry in general, Aurolyn says, "Gaming is a growing business and change is inevitable. How our people adapt and accept change will determine the success of the enterprise. The op portunity for our people to grow and advance is here, not only for direct employment but potential spin-off business opportunities as well. "I'm not going to kid anybody. It's a 24-hour operation and some people won't want to be on the graveyard shift.. ..It will be very busy on weekends and holidays. It might not be the industry for everybody," concludes Aurolyn. " i . "N,, ( f Aurotyn Stwyer is gaming general manager