NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Chamber adds electronic sign
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The Grant
County Chamber of Com-
merce installed a new read-
erboard last month in front of
its oﬃ ce at 301 W. Main St. in
John Day.
The chamber’s manager,
Tammy Bremner, said the elec-
tronic sign was two years in the
making.
A couple of years ago, at
a chamber board meeting,
Bremner said, board mem-
ber Taci Philbrook noted the
Chamber of Commerce needed
a new sign. The old sign, she
said, was not grabbing people’s
attention.
The other members, accord-
ing to Bremner, asked her what
kind of sign she had in mind.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A crane operator with Carlson Signs out of Bend installs a sign
at the Grant County Chamber of Commerce in John Day on April,
27, 2022.
So, according to Bremner,
Philbrook did some research
and came back to the board
with design options, a com-
pany that could install the rea-
derboard and the cost.
Looking at a price tag of
$28,000 for the project, the
chamber budgeted for the sign
for two years.
Another reason the cham-
ber decided to put in the elec-
tronic sign was to promote
local events.
Bremner noted that the
chamber had recently invested
in a new website, which has a
calendar. However, she said,
it is diﬃ cult to get groups to
tell the chamber when they are
having an event.
The readerboard, she said,
is an excellent way to help
advertise things that are going
on in Grant County. Also,
Bremner added, the reader-
board is another way to tell
people they are the county’s
chamber and where people can
drop by for tourist information.
The readerboard was put in
by Carlson Signs out of Bend.
Installing the sign entailed
bringing in an excavator,
which allowed the board to use
a local contractor, Tidewater
Construction. Bremner said the
Chamber of Commerce board
looks for “good, positive ways
to spend money.”
Marine Medal of Honor recipient, 84, dies in Bend
By GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
BEND — A Vietnam vet
and Medal of Honor recipient
who lived his last days in Bend
died last week.
Retired Marine Sgt. Maj.
John Lee Canley was 84.
Canley received the Medal
of Honor in 2018 for his
actions 50 years earlier in the
Tet Oﬀ ensive in the Vietnam
War, and 13 years after sup-
porters started working to rec-
ognize his heroism and brav-
ery. Of the 3,511 recipients,
he was the 298th Marine and
the ﬁ rst living Black man to
receive the medal, the nation’s
highest military honor.
Canley died peacefully
Wednesday, May 11, sur-
rounded by family at the home
of his daughter, Patricia Sar-
gent, following a 20-year ﬁ ght
with prostate cancer, relatives
told The Bulletin.
His death came three years
to the day after the death of
longtime Bend resident and
Medal of Honor recipient Rob-
ert Dale Maxwell, then the old-
est living recipient.
Canley lived in Oxnard,
California, but regularly vis-
ited Central Oregon starting
in 2004, when Sargent moved
to Deschutes County. His
ex-wife, Viktoria Fenech, and
two stepsons also live in the
county.
A lifelong ﬁ tness buﬀ , Can-
ley enjoyed running in his
daughter’s former neighbor-
Marine Cpl. Daisha Johnson
Submitted Photo
President Donald J. Trump
places the Medal of Honor
around the neck of retired U.S.
Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. John L.
Canley at the White House on
Oct. 17, 2018.
hood of Eagle Crest in Red-
mond, and taking in the scen-
ery at Smith Rock.
“He always talked about
how beautiful it was here,”
Sargent said. “He loved to sit
out on the patio. He always
talked about the big sky, and
how beautiful and blue it was.”
But the longtime Southern
Californian didn’t care for the
cold and rarely traveled here in
winter, Sargent said.
Canley was in fact born in
Caledonia, Arkansas, in 1937.
At 15, he joined the Marine
Corps using documentation
belonging to his older brother.
Canley’s daughter said he
“grew up” in the Marines.
He was 30 when he was
deployed to Vietnam in Jan-
uary 1968 as a company gun-
nery sergeant, leading many
men around a decade younger
than him. The Tet Oﬀ ensive, a
nationwide series of simultane-
ous attacks by the North Viet-
namese, had just begun.
According to Canley’s
Medal of Honor citation, from
Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 1968, he
fought oﬀ multiple attacks as
his unit rapidly moved along
a highway toward Hue City
to relieve friendly forces that
were surrounded. Despite
being wounded, he repeatedly
rushed across ﬁ re-swept terrain
to carry his wounded Marines
to safety.
Canley took command after
his commanding oﬃ cer was
severely wounded, and led
his company into Hue City.
For three days, he led attacks
against multiple, fortiﬁ ed
enemy positions while again
braving enemy ﬁ re to carry
wounded Marines to safety.
“By his undaunted courage,
selﬂ ess sacriﬁ ce, and unwaver-
ing devotion to duty, Gunnery
Sergeant Canley reﬂ ected great
credit upon himself and upheld
the highest traditions of the
Marine Corps and the United
States Naval Service,” his cita-
tion reads.
Canley was described as
quiet and not one to brag or tout
his many military decorations.
“The number one thing
with him is, he cared about his
troops,” said Canley’s step-
son, David Fenech. “He was a
Marine’s Marine.” Sargent said
her father was just that way.
“He didn’t advertise that he
was a Medal of Honor recipi-
ent,” Sargent said. “My dad
was not a showboat kind of
leader. That’s not who he was.”
Though he was a reserved
presence, relatives attest to
Canley regularly visiting hos-
pitals, schools and military
sites, even on his visits to Cen-
tral Oregon. He attended his
granddaughter’s graduation
from Redmond Proﬁ ciency
Academy. He even appeared
in Redmond’s 2019 Fourth of
July parade, riding on a ﬂ oat
for his daughter’s employer,
Consumer Cellular.
The last time he visited was
December, after it was learned
his prostate cancer had spread
to his bones. It would be the
ﬁ rst winter he’d spend here.
Canley will be buried at
Arlington National Cemetery.
A ceremony to commission a
U.S. Navy ship named in his
honor, the USS John Canley, is
scheduled for next month.
He was unable to attend an
earlier ceremony to weld his
name to the ship’s keel, though
he sent a speech to be read
aloud.
Canley’s presence in Bend
was not known to the larger
veterans community, accord-
ing to Dick Tobiason, a recipi-
ent of the Purple Heart and vet-
eran of the Tet Oﬀ ensive.
Tobiason, who has worked
to recognize Medal of Honor
recipients, said he was sur-
prised this week to learn there
had been another recipient liv-
ing in Bend.
A3
Walking for a cause
Man walking cross-
country hopes
to start camp for
homeless vets
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Thirty-
four-year-old Afghanistan
veteran Jake Sansing has
walked across America four
times. Now taking his ﬁ fth
trip across the country, Sans-
ing says this will be his last.
“This time I will wind
up collecting all the states
except Hawaii,” Sansing told
the Eagle on Thursday, May
12, during a stopover in John
Day.
He got to town by walk-
ing along the shoulder of
Highway 26, pushing a
small cart with his personal
belongings and a sign that
reads “Jake walks America.”
The idea to walk across
the country started in Sep-
tember 2013 following
Sansing’s separation from
the Army and subsequent
homelessness.
“I started walking in
between towns to look for
work. I realized walking was
helping my (post-traumatic
stress disorder), so I decided
to walk across America just
to see what it would do for
me.”
Sansing says he got
addicted to walking during
his ﬁ rst cross-country trek
and started walking for vari-
ous charities, with supporters
donating a certain amount of
money per mile. The ﬁ rst
charity Sansing walked for
was Shot at Life, a group that
provides vaccines for chil-
dren in developing countries.
After Shot at Life, Sans-
ing walked for the Wounded
Warrior Project and St.
Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Sansing estimates he raised
around $20,000 for each of
the charities he’s walked for
over the years.
“That just kind of gave
me a sense of purpose,” he
said. “I woke up every day
like it was my job. I wasn’t
getting paid for it, but it was
making a diﬀ erence. I was
just walking, that’s all I had
to do.”
The routes Sansing takes
on his travels are largely
unplanned.
“I never had any long-
term plans,” he said. “It
seemed pretty useless to plan
anything for too long because
something would always
come up. I usually tried to
follow the best weather and
shortest distance between
water sources.”
Sansing doesn’t have a
full account of how many
miles he’s walked in his ﬁ ve
trips across America.
“I calculated 10,000
miles the ﬁ rst three years I
did it, which is why that’s in
the title of my book,” he said.
These days Sansing pro-
motes the book, titled “Walk-
ing America: A 10,000 Mile
Guide to Self Healing,”
during his travels across the
country.
“I had the idea to sell my
book and save the money
and get some land some-
where, but I wasn’t able to
reach enough people,” Sans-
ing said. Since he started
self-promoting, he’s sold
around 400 copies.
That is ultimately the
reason Sansing stopped in
John Day. When Sansing
travels, he ships his books
around 100 miles ahead of
him, which he describes as
a four- or ﬁ ve-day walk. He
then picks up the shipment
of books and either sells
them in town or signs them
and ships them to anybody
who has placed an order on
his website during his travels
from one city to the next.
The ﬁ nal stop for Sansing
is going to be back in Ore-
gon. Wanting to settle “some-
where between Newport and
Sweet Home,” Sansing says
he plans on opening a camp-
ground for homeless veter-
ans with the money from his
book sales.
“Oregon has been my
favorite state,” he said.
“That’s why I want to set-
tle here and why I want the
campground here.”
Sansing says he doesn’t
think he’ll get the itch to
walk across America again
after his ﬁ fth trip concludes.
“I’m ready to settle down
and move on to something
else.”
Still, he plans to keep his
options open.
“I might ﬁ nd someone else
to run the campground in a
few years and maybe go walk
another country,” he said.
“I’ve already walked
across America. Maybe go
over to Africa or something.
“’Jake Walks with Lions’ or
something like that.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING
FRIDAY, MAY 20
’62 Days planning
meeting
• 7 p.m., Sel’s Brewery,
113 Washington St., Canyon
City
Regular weekly meeting of
the Whiskey Gulch Gang to
plan this year’s ’62 Days fes-
tivities. Anyone who wants
to help is welcome. For more
information, call Colby Farrell
at 541-620-0874.
FRIDAY & SATURDAY,
MAY 20 & 21
20th annual Grant
County Quilt Show
• 9 a.m., Trowbridge
Pavilion, Grant County Fair-
grounds, 411 NW Bridge St.,
John Day
W HAT’S
HAPPENING
The Grant County Piece-
makers Quilting Guild pres-
ents its 20th annual show,
featuring 150 quilts by Grant
County residents as well as an
art show by the Juniper Arts
Council, vendors, food, door
prizes and demonstrations.
Admission is $7 for both days.
Doors open at 9 a.m. and the
show goes until 6 p.m. on
Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday.
Quilts can be dropped oﬀ at
the pavilion between 7 a.m.
and 6 p.m. on Thursday, May
19. There is no charge to
enter a quilt. People’s Choice
Awards will be given out for
each day of the show. For
more information, call Karen
Hinton at 541-620-0120.
SUNDAY, MAY 22
Quilting workshop
• 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Trow-
bridge Pavilion, Grant County
Fairgrounds, 411 NW Bridge
St., John Day
The Grant County Piece-
makers Quilting Guild will
present a workshop by mas-
ter quilter and teacher Sharon
Holliday Mitchell. The fea-
tured pattern will be “Knot
Today” by It’s Sew Emma.
Registration costs $25. To reg-
ister, contact Karen Hinton at
Congratulations Grant Union
Golf Team for Winning District!
541-620-0120.
Ghost Town Blues Band
• 6 p.m., Diamond Hitch
Mule Ranch, Highway 19,
Kimberly
The award-winning blues
band, whose new album,
“Shine,” debuted at No. 1 on
the Billboard Blues Chart,
will play a concert at the Dia-
mond Hitch Mule Ranch.
Street tacos from Guyon
Springs will be available
for purchase. Patrons are
advised to bring their own
chairs and drinks. Admission
is $20 at the gate, and camp-
ing is available for a $15 fee.
For more information, call
541-934-2140.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25
“Understanding Loved
Ones with Dementia”
• 10 a.m., ﬁ rst ﬂ oor con-
ference room, Blue Mountain
Hospital, 170 Ford Road, John
Day
Dr. Robyn Jennings, a
family physician at Straw-
berry Wilderness Community
Clinic, and Rod Harwood,
older adult behavioral health
coordinator at Greater Oregon
Behavioral Health Inc., will
lead this free 90-minute class.
They will present information
about dementia, provide train-
ing for family caregivers, and
discuss resources for Grant
County families aﬀ ected by
dementia.
Do you have a community
event you’d like to publicize?
Email information to editor@
bmeagle.com. The deadline is
noon Friday for publication
the following Wednesday.
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101 NE 1st Ave.
John Day, OR 97845
541-575-2717
Put the finishing touch on your barbecue with
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235 N Canyon City Blvd. | John Day
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