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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2001)
APRIL 15, 2001 Smoke Signals 3 Dream of a Veterans7 Memorial Comes Closer to Reality Community packs into the Willamina VFW Hall to bid on donated items. By Willie Mercier The recent Veterans' Memorial din ner and auction in Willamina was an evening of hopes and dreams. The event was held on Friday, March 30 at the VFW Hall. The Tribe's Veteran's Ad Hoc Me morial Committee conducted their first dinner and auction to raise money for the Veteran's Memorial. The memorial, designed by Tribal member and former Marine Steve Bobb, will honor all Veterans, Tribal and non-Tribal, from the Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan com munities. The memorial is designed to honor women Veterans as well as men and features a man and a woman stand ing side-by-side in traditional regalia. Four granite pillars, each repre senting the four U.S. Military branches, will surround the statues. The memorial will be located on the Tribal campus between the Gover nance Center and the Community Center. The dinner and auction fund raising event raised just over $7,000 from items that were donated to thei memorial effort. y "The memorial has been on my mind for a long time," said Tribal El der Marce Norwest to the packed house of more than 200 people. "I've been to a lot of Veteran events, we have carried the flags for them, and I have seen a lot of memorials. I felt sad because we didn't have one to honor our Veterans." The event marked the first of what the Veteran's Memorial Committee hopes to be many successful fundfaising events. The committee plans to raise $300,000. Golf, softball and basket ball tournaments will be held along in L. r r- , . J V -ST . k t . ' ik. ' : . ' i TV J ! I Mi Fundraiser The Veterans' Ad Hoc Memorial Committee raised just over $7,000 for the planned Veterans' Memorial with a dinner and fundraiser at the VFW Hall in Willamina. The dinner was the first in series of fundraisers aimed at establishing a memorial that will honor all Veterans in the Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan areas. Tribal Elder Val Grout (above) kicked off the event with an fnvocation. Earlier, Grout helped Committee Chair man Lew Younger prepare dinner for the more than 200 guests that packed the hall. Television personality - Wayne Faligowski (right), the host of the HP High Five Challenge game show on Portland's KPTV channel 12, hosted the auction and personally donated several hun dred dollars in merchandise to the fundraiser. Several items were donated by local individuals and businesses to help raise money for the memorial. Among the items donated were gift certificates, hats, jack ets, Pendleton blankets, original photogra phy and a television. with other events to achieve their goal. The memorial will be completed in three phases, with the final dedica tion scheduled for Memorial Day 2003. Fundraising efforts will con tinue until that time. This project is not funded by casino profits, in fact just the opposite. In dividual committee members have pledged $100 each to go towards the funding of the memorial. "I think all service is important," said former Oregon Senator Eliza beth Furse of the memorial effort in Grand Ronde. "I think the service of Veterans is one of the services that we as a nation provide. I think ser vice has an enormous value and ser vice has no gender men and women serve. I really honor the Tribes for recognizing the service of men and women. "I think it is another example of the generosity of Indian people to recog nize the whole community," said Furse. "It is an extraordinary ges ture of generosity." For more information about the me morial, how to donate to the memo rial effort and how to get loved ones names on the memorial call 503-879-4584 or toll-free at 1-877-645-2641. If you receive the voice message, please leave your name and phone number and your call will be returned. mm 9 Thank you to all the local individuals, organizations and businesses that donated so generously of their time, items and goodwill. The Tribal Membership Community Meetings for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde will be held to share information on current Tribal plans and to gather information for goal setting. Comments will be used in guiding programs, projects and grant applications. Included will be a review of recent projects, key achievements in following up on last year's comments and additional information from the Social &. Economic survey. Your participation is needed, appreciated and makes a difference. Thursday 6:00 to 8:30 pm Lane Community College (LCC) Forum Building (Room 308) 4000 East 30th Avenue Three miles south of Eugene. A half mile west of 1-5 Exit 189 on 30th Avenue. (From Eugene take Exit 189 but go a half mile along side 1-5, on McVay Highway, to get to 30th Ave.) Go west on 30th Ave., left onto Eldon Schafer Drive and then around the college to the south parking lot (parking lot L). The meeting is In the Forum Building (Bldg.17) Room 308. mb I Saturday Grand Ronde Community Center 11:30 am to 2:00 pm (Tribal Campus) One mile north of Highway 18 on Grand Ronde Road. For additional information call the Policy & Planning Department at 503-879-2260 or 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2260. If you can not attend and wish to comment on Tribal goal setting please write to: Kim Rogers, Policy 8i Planning Department, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347. I I I I I I I I L SMOKE SIGNALS is available to anyone at no cost. Fill out this form with your name and address, mail to: Smoke Signals, Attn: Justin Phillips, 961S Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347 OLD ADDRESS: (Please Print) NEW ADDRESS: GRAND RONDE ROLL : Hollywood or Grand Ronde? Tribal Council members Reyn Leno (top) and Ed Pearsall (bottom) were recently interviewed by Pete Springer of the Oregon Public Broadcasting television station in Portland. The interviews took place in back of the Tribal Governance Center in Grand Ronde. The topic of the interview was Tribal in vestments. Smoke Signals will publish information re garding the airing of the in terviews in a future issue. The Grand Ronde Tribe and the Umatilla Tribe were re cently featured on an OPB special called "The Oregon Story." - -. - ' , , in . f? ( " , i
