Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2002)
First citizens honored at Town & Country Banquet 50 < HEPPNER unes VOL 121 NO 4 8 Pages Wednesday, January 23,2002 Benefit dinner, auction planned for Matheny lone youth group sponsors ' souper bowl of caring Tracy Griffith and Amellia Peck dish up food in the kitchen at Blanchet House. Jeff Hunt and Johnny Collin serve lunch at Blanchet House on a recent service trip. lunch at Blanchet House on ser For the third year lone Youth vice trips since 1991. To support those in need Group is involving area churches in the "Souper Bow l of Caring" closer to home, the youth group on Super Bowl Sunday. “The is also collecting cans of soup (or Souper Bow l of Caring is a na dry soup mixes) on that Sunday. tional effort to glorify God and The food collected will be deliv care for ‘the least of these our ered to the Heppner Neighbor brothers and sisters’ by encour hood Center for the needy of aging people to give at least one South Morrow County. The youth group is wrapping dollar as they leave worship on Sunday, Feb 3." said a spokes up its collection of hygiene prod person. The money collected is ucts for the Macdonald Center in Portland. Anyone with donations then given to a charity lone Youth Group chose to may leave them at area churches give collected money to the or at lone High School. "lone Youth Group appreci Blanchet House soup kitchen in ates the generosity of the local Portland Blanchet House, lo cated on the comer of NW Glisan communities in supporting these and 4th Avenue, houses 32 men projects.” said a group spokes in recovery or homeless, plus person. serves breakfast, lunch and din ner Monday through Saturday NEWS DEADLINE and brunch every Sunday. All Monday, 5 p.m. meals are free. Youth group members have been serving B> Jeri McKlligott Morrow County. Heppner Oregon A benefit for the David Matheny family will be held on Saturday, February 16, at the Hermiston Community Center. Matheny. a local fanner, was injured Sept. 9 in a horseback riding accident. A prime rib dinner will be served starting at 6:30 p.m. with a social hour preceding the din ner at 5:30 p.m. The evening will include entertainment by Lindy Gravelle, a Heppner native who spent many years in Nashville as a singer and songwriter, now' re siding in Bend. The auction will get under way at 7:30 p.m. with a silent auction and a bidding auction with Ford Bonney as auctioneer. Auction items include pheasant hunting packages; deer hunting packages; a vacation package to Steamboat Springs, Colorado; weekend golf packages and lodg ing; vacation packages, a limited edition Browning 7mm collec tor’s rifle; Farm City Pro-Rodeo box seats; Pendleton Round-Up tickets; PBR tickets, furniture: a lOOx black Stetson hat; and a Rich Boyer hand-tooled saddle. Dinner tickets are available at S25 each at Gardner's in Heppner, Morrow County Grain Growers in Heppner. RoeMark's and Wilcox Furniture in Hermis ton and Milarky’s and Loftus Jewelers in Pendleton Checks should be made pay able to BPOF. #358 Special Charitable Fund. Donations may be mailed to: Friends Helping Friends, P.O. Box 381, Lexing ton. OR 97839. All donations and proceeds from this event will help with the many projects un derway to help bring Dave home. For more information, con tact Judy or Sonja at 1 -800-452- 7396 or 541-989-8221. Tree lights to come down Heppner downtown tree lights may now be removed The city left the lights on through the Town and Country festivities but the lights have now been turned off for economical reasons. Volunteers are reminded that an extender hook is available for loan at the chamber office to as sist in removal 10% O FF CALKINS PARTS aJ 15% OFF ALL FLEETGUARD FILTERS Solo gtHtd through I'e h ru a r y Oth M orrow County G rain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 lor Ijrm rçgipmont m it our « b ut» it »»» m r jjw t Steve Rhea of Heppner was selected the Heppner Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year and June Crowell. lone, was chosen woman of the year at the annual Town and Country Banquet held Thursday night at the llcppner Elks Club Miller Manufacturing of Heppner, owned by Kevin and Candy Chick, was honored as Business of the Year. Heppner High School science teacher Steve Brownfield received the Educator of the Year aw ard. John Edmundson. Heppner, the Life time Achievement award, and Julie Proctor. Heppner High School senior, the Student of the Year award. Man of the Year Rhea was honored for his many contri butions to the Heppner commu nity. He has been a member of the Heppner Volunteer Fire De partment since 1987 and has been instrumental in many fire and rescue operations. He is an active member of the Heppner United Methodist Church, serv ing as a trustee and singing in the choir. He has coached Little League, both Major League Baseball and Senior Softball, and Colt basketball. He has umpired numerous Little League games and has refereed many youth and alumni basketball games. He has also spent many hours working on the George Waterland Little League field. Rhea has served in every of fice of the Heppner Lions and has coordinated and worked on the creek cleanup for many years. He is a member of the Odd Fel lows Lodge and has gone through all the club's chairs over the years. Fie has been on the Hepp ner Ducks Unlimited committee since its inception 15 years ago and has been chairman of the DU banquet and fund-raiser for the past 13 years. He has also worked in vari ous capacities during the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo and Heppner St. Patrick's Day cele bration. Rhea was bom and raised in Morrow County, graduating from Heppner High School in 1972. He attended OSU and received an associate’s degree in liberal arts from Blue Mountain Com munity College. He is employed with VanMarter and Kahl Insur ance in Heppner. He and his wife, Molly, have two children, Macy, who is attending college, and Trevor, who is a junior at Heppner High School. Woman of the Year June Crowell was bom and raised in the Heppner area. She married Howard Crowell and has lived ever since in the lone area. Crowell has worked in the banking field most of her life. “She became more than a man ager at the Bank of Eastern Ore gon, but became a friend to all," said presenter Dick Allen. “Ifany bank thought that they needed a training film on how employees should treat customers, June would be the star teacher." Since retiring. Crowell has made over 100 quilts which have been given to Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner. Walla Walla Veterans Hospital, The Dalles Veterans Hospital, the Domestic Violence Center in Pendleton and the Morrow County Sheriffs Office. "June wanted to make sure that a beau tiful quilt was given to any child who was removed from the home by Children's Service or the sheriff s office," said Allen. "If a fund raiser is happening. June is there to help, usually being the first to arrive and the last to leave,” he added. Crowell is a member of the lone American l egion Auxiliary Unit 95. the Willows Grange, the lone Topic Club. 4-H sewing and the Good Neighbors Committee. She is a lay reader, has been a Sunday school teacher and cur rently serves as the secretary- treasurer of the Altar Society at St. Williams Church in lone Crowell has also been known to provide transportation to those in need of rides to the doctor or pharmacy. Crowell and her husband have three children Business of the Year recipi ents. Kevin and Candy Chick of Miller Manufacturing. Heppner. purchased their business from Joe and BonnaRac Miller. Ac cording to presenter Bill Kuhn, the Millers took the Chicks “un der their wing and taught them the business.” "The two parties grew very close, with the old owners mentoring the new ," said Kuhn. Miller Manufacturing now has five full-time employees oc cupying a site at the South Mor row Industrial Park at the former Kinzua Mill site. The business fabricates high quality bale forks and agricultural attachments, selling its products to sites as far away as Syracuse, New York and I.ubbock Texas. It makes over 150 bale forks and 200 agricul tural attachments a year and advertises with its ow n web site. “It has a reputation for quality work that is unexcelled," said Kuhn. “This business show s how local ideas from local residents can be started from scratch, bloom into successful business and then successfully undergo an ownership and generational change that allows the business to expand. This business is a local and unqualified success.” The Chick family also in cludes children Autum. Emily. Quinn and Eric. John Edmundson. named winner of the 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award, has been instrumental in numerous com munity service projects in the area. Each year Edmundson "spruces up" the three “Welcome to Heppner" signs, sanding, re painting and varnishing, redoes the Volkswalk shamrocks painted on Heppner sidew alks as well as repainting the large green Shamrock in the intersection of Willow and Main. He is involved in hanging banners throughout the Main Street area, helps hang ing the dow ntown tree lights dur ing the Christmas season and helps decorate parade floats for the Chamber of Commerce of which he is past president. He also works with students and young people who have been as signed community service through the juvenile court sys tem. Edmundson is a past chair of the Morrow County Tourism Committee, a member of the Scenic Byway Coalition and the Heppner Coordinating Council. He spearheaded the Jail "n Bail project during the Celebrate Heppner festivities to raise funds for the chamber. He even volun teered to act as"pooper scooper" doing "wheelbarrow and shovel drills and formations" in the Morrow County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Parade. He is active in the Senior Center and his church. "Both he and I have a mutual distaste." said presenter Cara Osmin. “That is seeing litter on our sidewalks, streets and roads. He has spurred people into adopting stretches of highw ay in and out of Heppner as well as Lexington, and I believe be yond." "He has a terrific sense of finding balance and gaining un derstanding in situations that arise in our community," contin ued Osmin. "He is fair, sensitive and caring of our citizens and the community. When some people look at something that is needing to be done, fixed, sanded, ham mered or what have you in the community and just complain, he always seems to look at those same situations as opportunities to volunteer his time and make Heppner a better place to live." Citizen Educator of the Year Steve Brownfield has taught sci ence at Heppner High School for almost 31 years. "His calm de meanor is so contagious that even the junior high students are quiet and calm in his classes.” Continual page 2 Kevin and Candv Chick Steve Rhea June Crowell John Edmundson Stes e Brownfield Julie Proctor
