Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2004)
SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 3, 2004 St. Patrick’s Day in Heppner March 11-14 Irish Hoop Shoot What makes a hoop shoot Irish'? Maybe it is the lineage o f the participants, the spirit o f com petition, or ju st the fact that it is part o f the Wee Bit O ’ Ireland celebration in Heppner. The shoot is tree, sponsored by the Colts basketball program. O rganizer Rod W ilson says it is meant to be a tun time for all and a contribution to the w eekend’s festivities. The first o f three divisions will begin shooting at 10 a.m ., Saturday, M arch 13 in the drivew ay o f the Bank o f Eastern O regon. T he age groups will be 5-7, 8-10, and 11 - 13. Certificates redeemable at local businesses will be awarded to the top three scorers in each division. Shooting will use a “round-the-w orld” set-up. Each participant’s score will be the total num ber o f attem pts he or she needs for m aking a shot from each o f seven spots on the semi-circle. N o matter the weather, Wilson knows the hoop shoot will draw several enthusiastic participants. And he knows, too, that the adults will be enthusiastic about the recent change in location o f the hoop shoot, for they will be able to watch from under the protection o f the nearby covered walkway. KUMA Coffee Hour T he original St. P at’s w eekend event consisted o f Pendleton’s radio station KUMA’s Coffee Hour’s broadcasting from the showroom o f Jim Farley’s car dealership in Heppner. From that sim ple form at o f the ho st’s visiting with som e o f H eppner’s first Irish fam ilies’ representatives, the w eekend celebration has grown to include a wide variety o f events for all ages. Still, however, KUM A returns each year to broadcast live from Heppner. Now a one-hour-plus variety show hosted by Tom Melton and a sidekick, the program begins Saturday, March 13 at 10 a.m., broadcasting from the Elks building. In keeping w ith the em phasis on H eppner’s Irish heritage, the G rand M arshall o f this y e a r’s parade, Bob Kilkenny, will be one o f the first introductions on the Coffee Hour. Kilkenny’s father settled on Hinton Creek, where a fourth generation Kilkenny family now resides. Other introductions, interspersed with toe-tapping music and some joke telling, will include visiting dignitaries and the M orrow County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Court. Before a standing-room-only crowd, the Irish and the Irish-for-a-day will entertain with music and humor. Scheduling o f all perform ers for the K U M A C offee H our is yet to be com pleted, but a staple o f the show is John D oherty and the Irish Singers. This som etim es-row dy group can m ove the crow d to tears, to hand clapping, and to laughter w ith their renditions o f Irish ballads, other songs, and stories. Joining them on stage will be a talented local w riter and singer, Joe Lindsay, who has written some energetic Irish-Heppner-related songs for the weekend events. The local w om en’s group, The Sentimentalists, will offer some soothing vocals. The strings o f Shenanigans and Mulligan Stew will impress the audience, as these fiddle students o f Peg Willis o f Pendleton contribute their talents to the hour’s entertainment. One segment the audience looks forward to is the brogue contest. Anyone who wishes to compete simply recites a poem, sings a song, or tells a story in his or her best Irish-sounding voice. The audience decides the winners o f the cash prizes for first, second, and third place. A nd speaking o f prizes during the coffee hour, the second draw ing for a $100 pot o ’ gold will m ake another com m em orative button owner very happy. And it will surely m ean a leprechaun is close by. MCCAC ready for St. Pat’s The m em bers o f M orrow County Creative Arts and C rafts will be selling item s on Friday, M arch 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, M arch 14 from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., at Les Schwab. M olly Day com es with paintings on turkey feathers, pen and ink on bone and paintings on leaves, along with clay pot bells. Mary Ella Johnson will be bringing her crocheted cotton and wool rugs o f various sizes. These are one-of-a-kind accent rugs. Sandra H aynes will be show ing w orks o f colored pencil, graphite draw ings and small scratchboards. She will have prints o f western subjects and wildlife and also prints o f pen and ink. Prints o f western subjects and wildlife will also be available on tiles. Cards o f each set o f a num ber o f different subjects o f wildlife and western subjects will also be available. H aynes will be at Les Schw ab on Friday and Saturday. She will also be the featured artist at the M orrow County Museum. You will also be able to see Haynes at a reception in the museum on Friday from 1:30-3:30 p.m. The M ural Society will have the painting o f the next m ural on display in the w indow o f Les Schwab. The Mural Society will be taking orders for G iclee (print on canvas) o f the next mural or any part o f the mural you would like a print on canvas made. Only preordered prints will be made. Contact Bob and Sharon H arrison at 989-8496 or Betty C arlson at 676-5302 to preorder a print. Collector’s item celebration button In the fifth year o f the “Wee Bit O ’ Ireland" celebration, a com m em orative 2.5” button was designed. Each y e a r's button is uniquely designed by a local artist, num bered, and sold at local businesses and at the information booth on Main Street. Each year’s limited edition sells out, making the button m ore precious to collectors, o f w hom few have com plete collections. The $3 button has three chances o f w inning $100 during the weekend o f the celebration. Drawings will be held at the Friday night Auction and on Saturday at the m orning’s K U M ACoffee Hour and at the evening’s Trail Band Concert. The button designed for 2004 is com m em orating the Lewis and Clark Expedition. O ur little leprechaun seem s to be spotting the new trail right along with Lewis and Clark. Proceeds from button sales help to fund w eekend activities at the next annual celebration. f esis From 2-4 p.m ., on Saturday, M arch 13 celebrants can experience m ore things Irish by sitting in at the Ceili (pronounced "kaylee”.) This variety show, held in the warmth ■of the Elks building, is em ceed by M ike Duffy, o f the Irish Singers, and offers a fast-paced two hours o f entertainment. If it is Irish, it can be humorous, and John Doherty and the Irish Singers will be on hand to guarantee laughter. They will continue their repertoire o f traditional Irish songs, with their signature sound. Joe Lindsay will return to the stage to delight the audience with his original songs and renditions o f other Irish tunes. Shenanigans have delighted audiences with their fiddle music for several years now, and these youths seem to enjoy their playing as m uch as or m ore than the listeners do. Their Ceili performance will showcase the talent they will be taking to their special sessions with some Irish fiddlers in Ireland this summer. Joining them on stage for som e m usic will be the younger fiddlers, Mulligan Stew. Rounding out the afternoon show, step-dancing and piping are expected to contribute to the Irish atm osphere that makes the Heppner celebration “the next best thing to being in Ireland.” Shuttle Service More than a wee distance exists among some weekend events, so St. Pat’s Saturday shuttle service will surely prove useful. V olunteer leprechauns will be m aking their stops throughout the day, at one-hour intervals, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Brightly colored sidew alk signs will m ark the stops, from the Willow Creek RV Park south o f Heppner to the Sheep Dog Trials north o f town. The service is free and the drivers are eager to get celebrants w here they w ant to be. They also stress that they will make every effort to maintain the schedule, though unforeseen circumstances might create brief delays from time to time. The stops: Willow Creek RV Park, Heppner Hardware (S o u th e a st M ain an d M ay S tre e ts), M o rro w C o u n ty Fairgrounds, Sheep Dog Trials at the T hom pson Ranch, Riverside Street near the Agricultural Exhibition and parking. Main Street across from the library/museum/city park, Forest Service Building (west com er o f M ain and M ay Streets. O n Saturday evening, if details can be w orked out, the shuttle will also provide transportation to the 7:30 p.m. Trail Band Concert at the elem entary school. Enjoy two parades, Cruz-In and Great Green Two parades will take place in Heppner on Saturday, M arch 13 as part o f the 22nd annual St. Patrick’s celebration. At noon vintage vehicles will cruise M ain Street as part o f the 4th annual St. Paddy’s Cruz-In. All participants will assemble at 11 a.m. at the Kinzua Mill site office. The public will be able to view the entrants after the parade w hen the vehicles are parked on W illow Street, where judging will also take place. Three plaque awards will be given for Leprechaun’s Choice, M ustang Award, and Ju d g es’ C hoice. A $5 registration fee will also include a dash plaque o f the entrant. As this is one o f the earliest gatherings in O regon for auto aficionados, organizers expect the weather, as usual, to affect the number o f Cruz-In entries. One organizer thinks that this y e a r’s event will top previous years in num bers. He acknow ledged, how ever, that som e ow ners will w ait for a weather report before m aking a decision, and som e will wait until the m orning o f the event to have a look at the sky before deciding whether to cruise to Heppner or not. An enthusiastic crowd will welcome the hardy. T he G reat G reen Parade will be held at 1 p.m . on Main Street. For further information regarding the Cruz-In, call 676- 9949 or the H eppner C ham ber office at 676-5536, or visit the website www.heppner.net. A speedy sheep m ay delight the ow ner of the $300- prize ticket, but m ore com m on is the ew e that m eanders, checks out the crowd, and takes its tim e in choosing when to “drop her pellets” on the grid. The cheerleaders are patient, however, knowing that eventually the sheep w ill make someone happy, and they will have som e leftover funds to help them with uniform and camp expenses. Cheerleaders w ill have tickets for sale as o f M arch 1, and they w ill be on site Saturday m orning, with the rem aining tickets. By calling 676-5257, a person can buy tickets in advance. Sheep dog trials No event better typifies the Irish heritage ofH eppner, than do the Sheep Dog Trials. The handlers and their dogs gather three m iles north ofH eppner, along Highw ay 74, on Saturday, M arch 13 at 8:30 a.m. to begin the entertaining competition that w ill reach a conclusion on Sunday afternoon. The Sheep D og Trials w ere added to H ep p n e r’s tribute to its Irish settlers 21 years ago. Since then, the event has relocated from the rodeo grounds to the Thompson Ranch, which was founded in the sheep industry. Today’s organizer, Mary Hamilton, has served for twelve years, even though she m oved from H eppner to Walla Walla several years ago. H eppner’s event is one o f the calendar year’s earliest o f those sanctioned by the U.S. B order C ollie H andlers Association. M arch’s still-scant hours o f daylight dictate that entries be limited to about 55 teams (handlers and dogs) each day. By earning points in the sanctioned trials, o f which there are ju st over 100 in the United States and Canada each year, teams work to be included am ong the 150 that qualify for the National Finals competition. This year’s finals will be held in South D akota in Septem ber. The St. P at’s W eekend trials attract com petitors from all over the N orthwest, from as far aw ay as C alifornia, A laska, British C olum bia, and even Alberta, Canada. D uring the tw o one-day trials, each team com petes for prize m oney and points. Day m onies will go to about six places each day, and the top 20 percent in the rankings will earn points in the USBCH Association. On Sunday, the over all w inning team o f the tw o days will receive a trophy sponsored by the Thompson Ranch. The class in which a handler enters a dog can depend on the dog's age and level o f training. Dogs in the open class are usually at least three years old. A sheep dog can usually compete until it is nine years old. Essential training takes about tw o years, and then m ore tim e is spent "seasoning” a dog, getting it used to different venues and types o f sheep. Handlers represent a w ide variety o f ages. H am ilton reports that, currently, one o f the best is Derek Fisher, w ho just turned 23. Patrick Shannahan, o f C aldw ell, ID, has w on the Heppner trials more often than any other competitor, winning w ith several different dogs. Shannahan is a past N ational C ham pion. Scott G len, o f A lberta, C anada, has w on m ore than once and was runner-up in the Nationals two years ago. Ham ilton finds interesting that H eppner has “such a huge turnout for this trial.” She believes that the reason lies mostly in the Skye Krebs sheep, which "offer a great challenge to the dogs and are alw ays healthy and even.” Secondly, Ham ilton reports, “thfc Thom psons offer such a lovely place for the trial. They do lots o f work to get ready.“ Though the early spring w eather is often inclem ent and overnight accom m odations in H eppner are lim ited, com petitors are willing to travel from surrounding communities each day and “keep com ing back year after year.” Spectators w ho are dressed for the w eather are encouraged at the trials. They will witness the manipulation o f sheep through a course that measures the working bond forged by handler and dog. A shuttle bus will provide transportation from M ain Street to the site hourly on Saturday. O ’Ducky Race “On your mark, get s e t... float.” And the race will be on. The O ’D ucky Race starts at the M ay Street B ridge, in front o f the courthouse at 3 p.m . on Saturday, M arch 13. D epending on the strength o f the W illow C reek current, the wee winners o f the annual race will be floating to the finish line at the footbridge by the m useum building and the RV Park about 15 or 20 m inutes later. Entering a duck (plastic) in the race is simple and could result in a prize o f $ 100, $75, $50, $25, or $ 10. The first five places are paid. Duck entries will be for sale on M ain Street Grand Marshall Bob Kilkenny will lead the “Wee Bit near the TV office until shortly before race tim e. Each entry O ’ Ireland” Parade in his antique vehicle. Kilkenny is honored costs $3, o r tw o for $5. as a m em ber o f one o f the area’s prominent Irish families. The luck o f the Irish has been with m any a visitor, as Follow ing close behind will be the restored Paddy well as local participants, over the years. At least one o f the Wagon fam iliar since the early days o f this celebration. The prizes last year had to be m ailed to a w inner from Beaverton. expertise o f a recent returnee-retiree, Gary Jones, has brought Proceeds from the O 'D u c k y Race help to finance the Colt the green vehicle back to life, w ith his guarantee that it can football program. easily com plete the parade route. Y oungsters w ho participate in the Parade this year m ight think that the C elebration C om m ittee found the leprechauns' pot o f gold. They will each receive a $ 1 “gold” The Bisbee Gallery will be opening on Friday, March coin. All participants have an opportunity to w in special 12, with a reception honoring local artist, Sandra Haynes. The recognition, as judges will be looking for the best entry in each reception will begin at 1:30 p.m. o f sixteen categories: commercial Irish float; non-profit Irish Haynes was bom in Oregon and was raised in a family float; ju n io r Irish character (under 12 years); senior Irish that considers wilderness, the old west and creativity a normal character (12 years+); fam ily group Irish character; Irish and necessary part o f life. bicycle; Irish g o lf cart; custom vehicle; bands and m usical H er w ork has w on aw ards throughout the w estern groups; dance or drill groups; com m ercial Irish group; non states, including the Phippen M useum Show in Prescott, AZ, profit Irish group; pre-1945 antique vehicle; post-1945 antique The 4 9 ’ers Show in Death Valley, CA, The Western Heritage vehicle; parade/special event car; and the Irish open class Show in Great Falls, M T and m any others. She w orks in oil, (sometimes called “miscellaneous”). pencil, m ixed media, pen and ink and scratchboard. Haynes The parade begins at 1 p.m ., on Saturday, M arch 13 has always had a particular interest in anim als and the western so entrants need to be signed in at G reen Feed at the north life. H er research lately has been m ore focused on the part end ofHeppner by noon. Entry forms and additional information that wom en have played in the settling o f the western states. m ay be requested by cal I ing (541) 676-9961 o r (5 4 1 )6 7 6 - Haynes has developed her style o f art through the years 5536. w ith a realism m arked by a heightened sense o f color and Great Green Parade Local artist to be honored at Morrow County Museum Ewe-Do Bingo A sheep with attitude can create a tense atm osphere at the Ewe-Do Bingo event sponsored by the H eppner Junior High and High School Cheerleaders. Simply put, a ewe (female sheep) will be released on Saturday, M arch 13 at 2 p.m. into a fenced area, at the com er o f C enter and M ain, containing a grid o f 200 num bered spaces. A nyone w ho w ants to take a chance can pick a num ber, buy a $5 ticket, and hope that the sheep is positioned over that num bered space when she clears her bow els.... t/ m ovem ent. She is se lf taught and her life-tim e o f close encounters with her subjects shows in the personal details and vivid expressions o f both anim als and humans. It is alw ays a pleasure when people recognize the joy and passion that shows through in the images that she creates. In the town ofHeppner, which she calls home, Haynes lives by the following thought: “ M ost o f us go to our graves with our m usic still inside us. My jo urney o f Earth has been forever shaped by the ability to draw and so, w ith great pleasure, I will dedicate the rest o f m y life to creating my ‘music’.” „
