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Rodeo with sweet disposition and face to match
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VOL. 119_____ NO. 31
8 Pages
Wednesday, August 2,2000_______ Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Filmmakers include Heppner in OPB program
Everyone in Heppner knows
it's a unique place, but now,
thanks to a trio of Oregon film
makers, the whole state will too.
The three film makers, Chip
Whiting, T.J. Richard and Pat
Hart,
of
Ninety-Nine
Productions,
L.L.C.,
an
independent production company
based at Eugene, are in the
process of filming a program,
"Exploregon," for Oregon Public
Broadcasting.
They have selected 10 unique
sites in Oregon and plan to
feature one in each of 10
programs. Each of the programs
focuses on a town, or former
town, shaped dramatically by a
major event or industry.
Heppner, of course, was
selected
because
of
the
catastrophic 1903 flood which
left 250 people dead. During
their filming in Heppner, which
began on Friday, July 28,
"Celebrate
Heppner!"
day,
Whiting, Richard and Hart
visited with local people and also
stopped at the Morrow County
Museum, commenting that the
museum is probably "the best"
they had seen.
Other featured sites include:
-Crescent City, east of Eugene,
a railroad town.
-Scottsburg, near Drain, a
large town 100 years ago which
was wiped out by a flood.
-Jacksonville, near Ashland,
which was shaped by the gold
rush.
-Oakland, north of Roseburg,
which was moved for the
railroad.
-Toledo, on the coast, where a
large lumber mill was built
during WWII to process spruce
to build by-planes. By the time
the mill was built, however, the
war was over. Toledo continued
to produce lumber and was a big
town and the county seat at the
time. Back then Newport was
still a sleepy little village.
-Brownsville, near Albany,
which is purported to be
Oregon’s third oldest town and
had a large woolen mill at one
time;
-Shaniko, northwest of
Heppner, which was the wool
capital of the world from 1900-
1910. Back in its heyday, on one
day, $5 million is rumored to
have exchanged hands. Now
there are only five people living
there and "a lot of historic
buildings."
-Granite, which was an old
gold mining boom town.
•Bay Ocean, a coastal town
near Tillamook, touted by the
developer as the "next Atlantic
City," but was instead washed
away by the ocean.
The three say that their film is
not only driven by the central
99 Productions, L.L.C., film makers (left to right) T.J. Richard, Pat
Hart and Chip Whiting, film a portion of their OPB program in
Heppner.
story, but also by interviews of
the locals. The project also
entails extensive research.
"The facts are there, but a lot
of the old timers have stones first
hand that don't get passed on,"
said Hart. "It's been a great trip.
We've met a lot of great people.
Most everyone is anxious to tell
the stories."
The three say that if the
programs are well received, they
may extend their project.
All three of the film makers
worked for the same television
station, KVAL, a CBS affiliate in
Eugene, prior to starting their
own business a year ago. Before
they were able to begin filming,
they had to first do a pilot
program and sell their idea to
PBS. "It's hard to get a show on
PBS," said Whiting. "Especially
if you're not from Portland."
The project is sponsored by
the Oregon Forest Industries
Council.
Whiting, 36, who lives in
Eugene with his wife and two
children, started his career in
sales at a Medford television
station and then moved into
production.
Richard, 32, who lives in
Eugene with his wife and two
children, attended the U of O
prior to his employment with
KVAL.
Hart, 27, who also lives in
Eugene with his wife and child,
was the only one of the three
who had planned a career in film
early-on. He says he was the
ubiquitous student in high school
always carrying around a
camcorder. After high school he
enrolled in the broacasting
program at Lane Community
College in Eugene.
The date the program is
scheduled to be aired will be
announced later in the G-T.
Football camp
scheduled
South Morrow County Football
camp for grades 5-12 will be held
Aug. 7-10 from 5-9 p.m. at the
Heppner High School.
Cost is $25 per camper. Each
camper will receive a cap.
Registration forms are avail
able at Heppner and lone high
schools, and will also be available
at the beginning of the camp.
For more information, call Dale
Holland, 676-5034 or Greg Grant,
676-5257.
With a disposition as sweet
as her face, and a genuine love of
kids and animals, Princess
Rachel Mardell Faber will surely
preside over the 2000 Morrow
County Fair and Oregon Trail
Pro Rodeo with a kind and gentle
touch.
The auburn-haired beauty, with
naturally wavy hair, big hazel
eyes
that change
colors
depending on her mood, and a
dimple in her chin, is the
daughter of John and Karen
Luciani of Butter Creek and
Jonathan Faber of Boise, Idaho.
The 19-year-old princess, who
was bom in Umatilla, has had a
varied school career, all in the
Umatilla-Morrow County area.
The family moved from Umatilla
to Hermiston when she was four
years old. She attended the
Bethlehem Lutheran Preschool
and then Rocky Heights
Elementary in Hermiston. They
then moved to Pendleton where
she attended second and third
grades at Lincoln Elementary.
The
family
returned
to
Hermiston where she completed
elementary school at Rocky
Heights Elementary and then
attended Armand Larive Junior
High her seventh-grade year. She
attended eighth and ninth grades
at Hermiston Christian and then
transferred to Heppner High
School her sophomore year. She
commuted from Hermiston to the
ranch on Butter Creek to catch
the bus to HHS her sophomore
and junior years before the
family built their ranch on the
family
homestead.
Rachel
graduated from HHS this year
and plans to attend Blue
Mountain Community College
this fall. She is thinking of a
career in clothing design or as a
veterinarian assistant.
At HHS, Princess Rachel was
active in the OSSOM Club and
Wild Horse Club and played golf
her senior year. She is a also a
graduate of John Casablanca's
School
of
Modeling
at
Beaverton. During her senior
year, she worked at a teacher's
aide for Heppner Elementary
teacher Mary Ann Elguezabal.
"She loves children," says
mom Karen, who notes that
Rachel was also a teacher's aide
at Hermiston Christian. "She has
a mild disposition and is easy
going and very cheerful. She's
fun to have around." "But," adds
Karen,
"she's also very
opinionated and has high
morals." Rachel was baptized at
Bethlehem Lutheran Church and
is a member of Trinity Lutheran
Church in Hermiston.
Princess Rachel has been active
in 4-H off and on since she was
nine and has had both rabbit and
dog 4-H projects. She started
nding horses when she was 10
years old. She also
likes
photography and hanging out
with her friend Jennifer Dilley.
Rachel especially enjoys family
activities, boating and family
vacations to the coast. One of her
Princess Rachel Faber
Princess Rachel working as a teacher's aide with Heppner
Elementary School students.
favorite vacations with the
family was a trip all the way
down the Oregon coast.
A love of animals also rates
high on her list. Rachel has three
dogs of her own, Annie, a four-
year-old Dalmation; Bear, a six-
year-old American Eskimo; and
D-dog, a 10-12 week-old black
lab-mix "mutt" that was dropped
off at the ranch that she just had
to adopt (and which, according to
mom, is turning into an
expensive proposition with all
his vet bills). Their menagerie
also often includes grandfather
George Luciani's lab, Coalie,
who sometimes
thinks he
belongs to the family.
In addition to a busy court
schedule, Princess Rachel works
at Merle Norman Cosmetics in
Hermiston, where she sells
cosmetics and does make-overs,
and on the Luciani wheat ranch,
driving truck. Because of an
incident with a wheat truck, on
which she'd rather not elaborate,
Rachel laughs that she has been
instructed to "keep all eight on
the road."
Like many members of fair and
rodeo royalty. Princess Rachel's
family has a history of
involvement in FFA, 4-H , fair
and rodeo. Her mom, who is
from Moses Lake, WA, was a
Grant County Washington Rodeo
Court Princess in 1972 and
participated in horse shows.
Karen has worked for Wilcox
Furniture for 17 years, mainly in
Hermiston, but was also manager
at the Pendleton Wilcox store for
two years.
Rachel’s dad John was active
in FFA. He was bom in
Pendleton but has lived on Butter
Creek all of his life, first at Pine
City and then at the family ranch.
He operates a dry land wheat
ranch.
Her grandfather George
Luciani, Butter Creek, was a
member of the Morrow County
Fair Board for 12 years, from
1967-78, and grand marshal of
the parade in 1990.
All three of her dad's sisters
were court royalty. Sheila
Luciani Cozad, Lexington, was
Morrow County Fair Princess in
1968 and queen in 1969. Patti
Luciani Matheny, Sandhollow,
was Morrow County Fair and
Rodeo Princess in 1972 and
Karla Luciani Anderson, now
living in Cairo, Egypt, was
princess in 1965.
The princesses' family also
includes
grandmother
Bea
Luciani, at the Butter Creek
ranch; grandparents, Willard and
Dorothy Benson, Moses Lake;
grandmother, Mardell Faber,
Moses Lake, and grandfather, the
late Fred Faber; uncle Norman
Benson, Moses Lake; step
mother Gail Faber, Boise; step
sister Rachel Schultz, Boise; and
step-brother, Jeremy Schultz.
For the Morrow County Fair
and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo,
Rachel’s official horse is
Skipper's Dandy Lad, a 19-year-
old, light bay, registered Quarter
Horse with a lot of court
experience. He was a parade
horse for a year for the Pendleton
Round-Up Court. "He's sweet
and loving," says Rachel "He's a
babysitter-take-care-of-you kind
of horse, very talkative. He sticks
his nose out of the horse trailer
when we're driving down the
roade. He gets attracted to other
horses. He likes to have a buddy.
He may be old, but he's got get
up and go.”
Rachel's favorite experience so
continued page two
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