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MAY 1, 2024
5
Tribal librarian wins nationwide contest
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals editor
When Tribal Librarian Kathy
Cole first received a congratulatory
email for being one of eight librar-
ians throughout the country who
had won an all-expenses paid trip
to Boston, her first thought was, “Is
this spam?”
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she
said.
After showing the email to a
colleague, Cole phoned the sender,
Anna Cesary.
Cesary is the executive assistant
to Jeff Kinney, author of the me-
ga-bestselling “Diary of a Wimpy
Kid” series. Kinney launched a na-
tionwide search last fall to coincide
with the release of his 18th book
in the series, “No Brainer,” with
the goal of finding extraordinary
librarians and treating them to a
fun-filled weekend trip in Boston.
“Kathy’s reaction was one of my
favorites,” Cesary said. “She was
just so shocked that she had won.”
Cole was nominated for the honor
by Tribal Family & Community
Partnership Coordinator Rebecca
Ambrose.
Selecting the winners was a
collaborative process between
Kinney’s team at Wimpy Kid Inc.
and his publisher, Abrams Books,
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Librarian Kathy Cole was recognized as a first-class librarian as part
of the nationwide campaign for author Jeff Kinney’s latest book “Diary of a
Wimpy Kid: No Brainer.” Cole’s prize package includes a paid trip to Boston,
Mass., to meet Kinney and tour the Wimpy Kid studio.
according to Cesary.
“This was a nationwide contest
and as such, we received hun-
dreds of submissions,” Cesary said.
“Kathy’s nominator detailed an
impressive library program spear-
headed by Kathy, an extremely
thoughtful array of quality offer-
ings for her community. Just one
example is that Kathy coordinates
Blind-Date-With-A-Book events,
which caught our eye.”
Cole will spend the weekend of
June 7-9 in Boston, which will in-
clude sightseeing, food and library
excursions. It concludes with a
field trip to Kinney’s bookstore,
An Unlikely Story, in Plainville,
Massachusetts and a tour of the
Wimpy Kid studio.
“It will be my first time in Boston
and I’m excited for everything, es-
pecially the Boston Public Library,”
Cole said.
Additionally, Kinney will donate
50 books to the Tribal library.
“The trip to Boston in June will
be a fun-filled and truly memo-
rable weekend, we hope,” Cesary
said. “Our winners are exceptional
librarians and really, the spirit of
the weekend is celebration. We
want to recognize and honor these
librarians for doing what they do
and we think it will feel special to
get them in the same room as one
another.”
She added, “This is the first time
Jeff has sponsored anything quite
like this. In fact, news of winning
this contest was so unbelievable to
some of our librarians that we had
to legitimize by following up with
articles.”
Cole has served as the Tribal
librarian for 4 years and credits
Library Aide Crystal Bigelow for
helping her run a diverse program.
“It’s just the two of us here and
she’s always in the middle of every-
thing with me,” she said.
‘I try to always be really humble’
BALLER continued
from front page
all-tournament for his work at the
state tournament in Pendleton, was
one of five players in his league to
be named to the all-defensive team
and was named the News-Register
Athlete of the Year.
Additionally, Cohen’s 26-point
game in post-season play was the
highest in the tournament and his
free-throw percentage was second
highest after Willamina’s game
against Regis High School on Fri-
day, March 1.
It was a fitting conclusion to his
high school basketball career after
years of daily practice, gym work-
outs and time spent studying his
craft via YouTube technique videos
and games.
When asked about these accom-
plishments, Cohen is decidedly
modest.
“I try to always be really humble,”
he said. “It’s a nice feeling to be
recognized like that but I always
feel you should stay really calm and
stable with your emotions and not
get too excited.”
For Cohen, emerging as a strong
basketball player came between
fourth- and fifth-grade, when he
would sit for hours on the kitchen
floor and dribble a basketball to
the video game NBA Baller Beats,
which he said is similar to Guitar
Hero but the objective is to bounce
the ball to the beat.
“For the next two full years I
think, he drove me nuts with the
sound because it was right near
our living room wooden floor where
the T.V. was, but you could see him
getting better every day,” Rich said
with a smile. “He came back the
next year and the coach was like,
‘What happened to Cohen?’ At that
point, he was just shining and that
carried over into AAU ball as well.”
When he was in middle school, Co-
Tribal Elder named CLUSI
Elders Honor Day queen
Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Phyllis Brown was named queen of the
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians
Elders Honor Day.
The event was held Friday and Saturday, March 15-16, at the
Three Rivers Casino Resort in Florence and was open to Tribal
Elders from across the state to gather, visit and celebrate.
Brown was selected as queen on Friday after her name was drawn
in a raffle. She was crowned with a cedar bark headpiece, wrapped
in a Pendleton blanket and given a gift basket.
~ Contains information from the The Voice of CLUSI
hen was called up to the high school
level for summer league ball, where
he was competing against kids who
were much bigger and older.
“He’s always been a pass-first
player,” Rich said. “So kids love to
play with him because he’s not one
of those kids who scores 30 points a
game. He could, but he’s unselfish
with how he plays.”
This season, Cohen and his fellow
Willamina Bulldogs were deter-
mined to secure a spot to compete in
the state tournament in Pendleton.
“We were really focused on win-
ning, not any high-point games,
just get in every game and get a
win,” he said.
Even on days when Cohen isn’t
playing basketball, it’s still top of
mind.
“Whenever I come home and want
to watch something, it’s YouTube
basketball, two hours a day,” he
said. “Playing basketball can range
from an hour to five hours, however
long I can stay in the gym. I’m al-
ways trying to learn and get better.”
Added Rich, “It’s always been a
really big focus and he would spend
a large majority of his sophomore
and junior years getting to school
at 6 a.m., and he would work out
until 8 a.m., and then he wouldn’t
get home until almost 9 p.m. after
evening practice…That’s an idea
of how hard he works.”
Cohen’s mom, Sunni Ulestad, is
proud of her son’s work ethic in bas-
ketball and in how he lives his life.
“I think I would just like to say
besides his basketball achievements,
he is such a humble human being,”
she said. “He is kind, young kids look
up to him and he’s one of the hardest
working kids I know. He has never
let a single thing get in the way of
the success he’s had on the court.
He really is the best son I could have
ever imagined…made it really easy
being his mom. I can’t wait to see
what he does in the future, on and
off the basketball court.”
When he’s not practicing basket-
ball, Cohen enjoys playing the gui-
tar. He’s also an honor roll student
and was inducted into the National
Honor Society last year.
Now that his final high school sea-
son has concluded, Haller is focused
on the next phase of life: College
ball. He’s been invited to open gyms
with players from Linn-Benton
Community College and George Fox
University. He also plays for a men’s
basketball league in Salem.
“I’ve just been all around, trying
to get in front of coaches, trying to
practice and get better,” he said.
Future basketball endeavors in-
clude an all-state tournament with
other Oregon 2A league players in
June and Native American bas-
ketball invitational tournament in
Phoenix in July.
No matter what the next phase of
life brings, Cohen sees basketball
as always being a part of it.
“I think I really just like be-
ing able to play with friends, you
know?” he said. “Also, just the
competitiveness when you can get
the right people around you. It’s
nice when you can go to a gym
and have people around you who
are also your friends compete at a
really high level. You can tell who
works hard and who doesn’t. I re-
ally feel basketball is a community
no matter where you go.”