6 JANUARY 1, 2006
Smoke Signals
Gmid Ronde and Hike Celebrate
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Native Pop Star "Jana"
Tribal Council members Wink Soderberg and Wesley "Buddy" West at Nike's Tiger Woods Center.
ByTobyMcCIary
The month of November was cel
ebrated as Native American Heri
tage Month at the Nike World
Campus in Beaverton, Oregon. Nike
held many events through Novem
ber including Native American
storytelling, had a Native American
Hypnotist perform, lectures on Na
tive wellness and then had a closing
event held on Tuesday, November 22
at the Tiger Woods Center.
As part of the closing ceremony, the
Painted Sky Dancers took stage and
displayed a mix of Native and contem
porary with not only music but their
dancing as well.
The dancers work really hard," said
President of Painted Sky Mary Hager.
This was just a beautiful event."
Indian Tacos were complimentary
and there was a raffle held for those in
attendance. Tribal Council members
Wink Soderberg and Wesley "Buddy"
West also joined the festivities. The cer
emony was open to all Nike employees
in which about 150 showed up.
To end the event, Native Pop Star
Jana performed. Jana is a three time
NAMMY (Native American Grammy)
Award winner and with her ability to
incorporate Native American influ
ences with adult contemporary, she is
changing the face of pop music. H
Memorial Will Honor The Logging Industry
MEMORIAL continued
from front page
Willamina had long been looking
for ways to bring traffic off of
Highway 18 and into Willamina's
downtown area.
The idea came to Bobb and his
wife, Connie, while driving back up
Highway 101 after enjoying a
Porsche show down in California.
Just outside one of the towns,
Arcadia, he thinks, the couple saw
a memorial dedicated to fishermen
lost at sea.
"So I thought, why couldn't we do
that same thing with people who
had lost their lives in the timber
industry," said Bobb.
On first hearing the news, the
business community was very ex
cited, said Bobb. And then it ran
hot and cold, back and forth for a
few years. Finally, about three
years ago, Willamina resident and
drug store owner Bob Burr said,
'"Let's see if we can actually try to
make this happen.'"
. Dr. Gary Brooks, a Willamina
dentist and member of the local
Kiwanis Club, was enlisted to write
the first grant, for $10,000, to the
Spirit Mountain Community Fund
for Steve and Billy Bobb to develop
the one-quarter sized statue that
now serves as a model for what's
to come. Brooks also helped set up
the non-profit corporation through
the Kiwanis Club that will be used
to raise funds for the project.
"We're going to do this in phases,"
said Bobb. The statue itself is
Phase One. Then will come the
name collecting, because this
statue will honor loggers killed in
action across the state. The names
will be etched in granite, as cur
rently envisioned. There will be
"some kind of roof over it." There
will be site preparation when the
site is determined. At the end, a
plaque will dedicate the statue "to
the hardworking men and women
who made their living in the tim
ber industry," said Bobb.
The prototype statue's first stop
was Coyote Joe's, where
restauranteur Roily Heuser said
that Bobb unveiled it at for a couple
of local meetings here, including one
for the Kiwanis Club. "Everybody
thinks it's a fantastic sculpture,"
said Heuser. The statue has been
on display at Coyote Joe's for a few
months already. "They're really,
really impressed with the artistic
design that Steve did."
Bobb said that the plan now is to
take the prototype down to the Pa
cific Logging Show in Eugene in
February, and to keep it moving
among different industry events over
the next year.
Because the project is seeking
the names of loggers from across
the state, this added attention will
help draw in loggers and logger
families, said Bobb. And all that
interest should translate into vis
its to Willamina from folks all
across the state.
Bobb went ahead and began work
on designing and sculpting a small
version "so people can see what we're
talking about," he said.
As with the Veterans Memorial,
Bobb enlisted the services of a
model, in this case, Tribal member
' til'- c X
V.
Kevin Hofenbredl. "We got him into
logging attire, all the right stuff, and
put him on one of the poles used for
logging shows, and took some pic
tures," said Bobb.
"People from the area lent me all
kinds of stuff. The spurs, the belt it
self, the cork boots. We got lots of in
put from local loggers in getting things
correct," he said.
The design took a year to complete.
The location for the ultimate statue
is still being considered. And as with
the successful Veterans Memorial
project, many of the processes are be
ing used for this one, too.
Bobb's son, Billy Bobb, who built his
own "Wildfire Bronze" foundry for cast
ing bronze statues (see Smoke Sig
nals, 3104) and who also works
with his dad at Salem Sign, will do
the enlargement and the castings
for the finished product.
In the old days, sculptors had to
take measurements from the pro
totypes and extrapolate them to the
full-sized statue, said Steve Bobb.
Today, with computers, the Bobbs
will send the prototype out to a com
pany that will digitize the proto
type. It will glue together enough
hard, high density foam material
to carve out the finished piece, and
then "close cut" the foam brick.
"Then you have to coat it in clay
and re-sculpt the details back in,"
said Bobb. "I'll do part and Billy
will do part."
For the Veterans Memorial, Bobb
worked on fifty separate pieces be
fore welding the whole thing to
gether. The Bobbs will use a similar
process for this one, he said.
But before all that happens, re
tired logger Roy Zimbrick will be
collecting funds for the project.
Zimbrick, who cut trees for
Willamina Lumber for 51 years,
and who served as Vice President
and member of the Board of Di
rectors of the Association of Or
egon Loggers, will be taking the
prototype around to raise the
funding necessary for completing
the project.
"I hope that it will enlighten
some of the readers that we should
manage our forests better than we
do," said Zimbrick.
"Steve Bobb and Roy Zimbrick,"
said Dr. Brooks, "they're the vision
behind the project."