TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
The Official Newspaper
of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow
Heppner
GAZETTE-TIMES
U.S.P.S. 240-420
Morrow County’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper
Published weekly by Sykes Publishing, LLC and entered as periodical matter at the
Post Office at Heppner, Oregon under the Act of March 3, 1879. Periodical postage
paid at Heppner, Oregon. Office at 188 W. Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676-
9228. Fax (541) 676-9211. E-mail: editor@rapidserve.net or david@rapidserve.
net. Web site: www.heppner.net. Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner
Gazette-Times, P.O. Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836. Subscriptions: $30 in
Morrow County; $24 senior rate (in Morrow County only; 65 years or older); $36
elsewhere; $30 student subscriptions.
David Sykes ..............................................................................................Publisher
Andrea Di Salvo ............................................................................................ Editor
All News and Advertising Deadline is Monday at 5 p.m.
For Advertising: advertising deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Cost for a display ad is $5 per
column inch. Cost for classified ad is 50¢ per word. Cost for Card of Thanks is $10 up to
100 words. Cost for a classified display ad is $5.75 per column inch.
For Public/Legal Notices: public/legal notices deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Dates for pub-
lication must be specified. Affidavits must be required at the time of submission. Affidavits
require three weeks to process after last date of publication (a sooner return date must be
specified if required).
For Obituaries: Obituaries are published in the Heppner GT at no charge and are edited to
meet news guidelines. Families wishing to include information not included in the guidelines
or who wish to have the obituary written in a certain way must purchase advertising space
for the obituary.
For Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor MUST be signed by the author. The Heppner
GT will not publish unsigned letters. All letters MUST include the author’s address and phone
number for use by the GT office. The GT reserves the right to edit letters. The GT is not
responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters. Any letters expressing thanks will
be placed in the classifieds under “Card of Thanks” at a cost of $10.
Marriage Licenses
The Morrow County Clerk’s office has released the
following report of marriage licenses:
June 25, 2015: -Ofelia Rubi Cisneros Zavalza, 23,
of Irrigon and Luis Campos, 24, of Irrigon.
-Mr. Anthony Bruce Fetters, 50, of Farmington, MO
and Angela Suzanne Lasiter, 42, of Farmington, MO.
June 29, 2015: -Michael Ray Masterson, 46, of Hep-
pner and Betty Jo Colvin, 45, of Heppner.
Neighborhood Center
closed July 3
The Neighborhood Center staff and volunteers would
like to remind everyone that the center will be closed
Friday, July 3, in celebration of the Fourth of July on
Saturday.
Normal hours of operation are Monday through
Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The food pantry is open
Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Grange to hold
community sale
The Lexington Grange will host a community sale
Saturday, July 11, from 9 am to 4 p.m.
Anyone can purchase a space to sell items, and
anything can be sold from old clothing to crafts or food
and furniture. A space will cost $20. Application for
a space can be found at http://lexgrange726.wix.com/
grange#!events/ch8j. Email lex.grange726@gmail.com
with any questions.
We will be closed
Saturday July
4th, have a safe &
Happy 4th of July!
MURRAY'S DRUG - 217 N MAIN PHONE 676-9158
Letters from Iraq
Editor’s note: Sheena
Christman, Ione native
and graduate of Ione High
School, is volunteering with
World Orphans in northern
Iraq. She is sending home
weekly updates to family
and friends, which the G-T
was lucky enough to also
receive. We plan on publish-
ing these updates as space
allows. She writes:
I am happy to report
that I arrived safely in
northern Iraq on Tuesday,
May 26, 2015. The flight
was long—it took more
than 24 hours to travel from
Salt Lake City to Chicago,
Chicago to Vienna, and
Vienna to Erbil—but it
was an uneventful flight.
It’s then another two-hour
drive from Erbil to Soran,
where I am staying with the
Ray family for three weeks
and then the Buxton fam-
ily for four weeks. Nicole
Leeper, a World Orphan’s
employee, traveled to Iraq
on the same flight as me.
1. World Orphans.
As most of you know, I
am volunteering this sum-
mer with World Orphans
in northern Iraq. World
Orphans is a Christian or-
ganization headquartered
in Castle Rock, CO. It cur-
rently works in 14 devel-
oping countries around
the world, and it began
working in Soran, Iraq ap-
proximately six years ago
when the Ray family moved
to town. It offers two types
of programs: it operates a
community center for the
local Kurdish population,
and it recently constructed
several refugee camps for
Iraqi families who were
forced to flee their homes
after the Islamic State took
control of large portions of
western Iraq.
2. Soran, Iraq. Soran
is located in the mountains
of northern Iraq, close to
the Iraqi-Turkish and Iraqi-
Iranian borders. Because
Soran is in the north, it is
under the control of the
Kurdish Regional Govern-
Shabuk Kurds at The Refuge Community Center, day 1. L-R: Nicole Leeper, Authara, Nar-
meem, Khowla, unknown, unknown, Sheena Christman, unknown. –Contributed photo
ment. Soran has a popula-
tion of roughly 125,000
people (with refugees, it’s
jumped to 135,000). Most
of the locals are ethnic
Kurds-Sunni Muslims,
though there is a small
Orthodox Christian com-
munity in the city as well.
Interestingly, northern Iraq,
including Soran, has hot
summers (it’s supposed to
hit 108º on Wednesday) and
cold, snowy winters.
3. The Refuge Com-
munity Center and Refu-
gee Camps. In my first week
in Soran, I visited all three
refugee camps (Kawlokan
Village, Rwandz Camp,
and Akoyan Camp) and The
Refuge Community Center.
The refugee camps house
both Yazidis and Shabuk
Kurds. The Shabuk Kurds’
first language is Arabic, so
I have been able to practice
my not-so-great Arabic
language skills with them.
So far, we have managed
to share names, family in-
formation (e.g. number
of kids, relatives, marital
status, etc.), and carry on
some simple conversations.
As for the Yazidis, there are
two different groups. One
group speaks both Sorani
Kurdish (first language)
and some Arabic (second
language), meaning we
are able to communicate a
bit. However, the second
group of Yazidis speaks
only Kurmanji Kurdish, so
visiting them requires a lot
of hand motions. Because
of the language barrier, this
group of Yazidis taught us
(Nicole and me) how to
say hello and count to 10
in Kurmanji. Perhaps by
the end of my stay I will
have picked up a few useful
phrases in Kurmanji.
The Shabuk Kurds are
Shiite Muslims from Bar-
tala, Iraq, a city near Mosul.
In 2014, they were forced to
flee their homes after their
Sunni neighbors told ISIS
where they lived. Fortu-
nately, another Sunni neigh-
bor told them that ISIS was
headed their way and, as
a result, they were able to
flee to safety in the Kurdish
region before ISIS arrived
in Bartala. The Shabuks
had less than two hours to
gather their belongings and
head north.
All-together, World Or-
phans is supporting 18 Sha-
buk Kurdish families. On
my first day in Soran, these
families moved from The
Refuge Community Center,
where they had lived since
fleeing ISIS about eight
months ago, to their new
homes at Kawlokan Vil-
lage. Rather than tents, they
now have more permanent
(cinderblock) “homes.”
In addition to the
Shabuk Kurdish families,
World Orphans is also help-
ing over 85 Yazidi families
(or approximately 500 peo-
ple) from Shingal Mountain
(aka Mount Sinjar). The
Yazidis tend to be more
private and reserved, so we
don’t know many of their
stories. However, at least
one Yazidi family squeezed
20-plus family members
into a car, and drove eight
hours to the Kurdish region
of northern Iraq in order to
escape ISIS.
The Yazidi families
live in two camps: Camp
Akoyan and Rwandz Camp.
To learn more about the
Buxton family (my hosts),
visit: http://flickerflame.
org/. To learn more about
The Refuge Initiative, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/
therefuge.soran. To learn
more about World Orphans
and to support World Or-
phans’ work in Iraq, visit:
http://worldorphans.org/
iraq-emergency-fund/.
BMCC releases spring term honor roll
Pendleton—Blue
Mountain Community
College spring term 2015
honor roll recognition went
to the following full-time
students:
President’s List (4.0
GPA): Selene Andrade,
Andrea Angeles, Kai Arbo-
gast, Yvette Barrera, Sergio
Briones, Jessica Calvillo
Mendoza, Jairo Carcia,
Kandan Evans, Miguel
Flores, Macy Gibbs, Paige
Grieb, Luz Ibarra, Jessica
Kempken, Will Lepage,
Andrew Martinez, Juana
Martinez Vazquez, Jennifer
Matlack, Fabian Meza, Ma-
rino Pena, Jasmine Puerta,
Jennifer Rodriguez, Emily
Sepulveda, Lizeth Zuniga.
Dean’s List (3.40 to
3.84 GPA): Jorge Aguilar,
Ruby Barrera, Rachel Hol-
land, Makenzi Hughes,
Jason Juarez, Nicole
Kempken, Belinda Lomas,
Kevin Madrigal, Misael
Madrigal, Lacey Mashos,
Zuleyma Medel Rodrguez,
Lily Mills, Luis Olvera,
Jesus Onate, Skyler Palmer,
Stephanie Ponce, Daniel
Rodriguez, Maria Rodri-
guez, Betty Rowlette, Rubi
Salazar, Alisha Sorensen,
Stephanie Stokoe, Edith
Velasco.
Honor Roll (3.0 to
3.39 GPA): Caitlynn Bai-
ley, James Creason, Dawn
Eddy, Luis Gonzalez, Zach-
ary Irzyk, Stephanie Mad-
rigal, Cheyanne Matlack
Ernesto Mendoza, Tyler
Mills, Esmeralda Murillo,
Erica Nelson, Jesus Pa-
checo, Brandy Quezada-
Hermosillo, Georgina Rios,
Joseph Rupe, Savannah
Seewald, Gilberto Silva,
Riley Sollman-Lawson,
Kylar Sorensen.
Irrigon man graduates MCHD
from Bismarck State announces
BISMARCK, ND—
“BSC students are
Dustin Osborne of Irri- great; it is always gratifying holiday
gon graduated from Bis- when the honor roll comes
marck State College with out and students like Dustin closures
an A.A.S. in power plant get the credit they deserve
technology during the col-
lege’s 75 th Commencement
Ceremony on May 15 at the
Bismarck Event Center.
Osborne also was
named to the President’s
Honor Roll for the Spring
2015 semester at the col-
lege.
for their focus and hard
work,” said Dave Clark,
BSC interim president.
Students must maintain
at least a 3.5 grade point on
a 4.0 scale while enrolled in
at least 12 semester hours of
classes to qualify.
BURNING
BAN
Effective June 29, 2015, the Fire Chief
of the Town of Lexington is imposing a
CLOSED SEASON for open burning
based on local fire safety concerns.
This burning ban is for the Town of Lexington.
A reminder that open burning also in-
cludes a “burn barrel.”
The closed season will remain in effect
until further notice this fall as per ORS 478.960.
Pioneer Memorial Clin-
ic in Heppner and Irrigon
Medical Clinic will both
be closed on Friday, July 3,
for the Independence Day
holiday. Pioneer Memo-
rial Hospital’s laboratory
and radiology departments
will also be closed for non-
emergent services.
WE PRINT!
INESS CAR
BUS TERHE DS
AD
LET
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O
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F L YE R S
AND MORE!
The Heppner
Gazette-Times
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