WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
FROM PAGE A1
Student uses personal connection with books as inspiration in essay contest
favorites being “Before I
Fall,” “The Fault in Our
HERMISTON HERALD
Stars” and “If I Stay.”
Daisy Paredes, an Ar-
Parades said her favorite
mand
Larive
Middle part about reading, howev-
School eighth-grader, loves er, is not the stories them-
reading more than many of selves, but the characters
her peers at school.
and how she can relate to
She said, on average, she them.
reads anywhere from 15 to
“I can really connect
30 books every two to three with them, which allows
weeks weeks, and maybe me to really connect with
more during the summer myself,” he said.
time.
Parades said through
At least a couple of times mentally experiencing what
a month, Paredes said she characters go through, she
and her mother go to the prepares for situations in
Hermiston Public Library her own life.
where she checks out about
So last month, when
30 books to take home. She Paredes’ language arts
said she can’t get enough teacher, Cory Applegate,
of young adult novels that offered her students a
KDYH D URPDQWLF ÀDLU KHU chance to participate in an
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
essay contest asking them
to highlight why reading
matters in today’s society,
she already had a topic in
mind.
That night, she went
straight home and wrote an
essay that, instead of focus-
ing on why literacy matters
in today’s work place as
most of her peers did, fo-
cused on how she has con-
nected with herself through
reading. She turned in the
essay the next day.
Paredes said she and her
teacher worked through
her essay for the next two
weeks, and she made some
adjustments and edits to
make it stronger. Then,
more than a week ago,
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place in the Altrusa Liter-
ary Committee’s contest.
As a reward for winning
the contest, she received a
$100 gift card to Barnes &
Noble. ALMS eighth-grad-
er Hannah Johnson placed
second in the essay contest
and received a $50 Barnes
& Noble gift card. The two
joined 13 of their peers in
a writing workshop with
young adult author Mau-
reen McQuerry, who visit-
ed the school last week.
By this week, Paredes
said she had already spent
her $100 gift card, buy-
ing about 10 of her favor-
ite books she otherwise
wouldn’t have been able to
afford.
“Books are expensive,”
she said. “I am so glad I
won so I could purchase
some of my favorites.”
Paredes said she also
found extra inspiration by
participating in McQuer-
ry’s workshop.
Paredes said she likes to
write in her spare time and
has tried to write a story or
two on her own, but she
always gets frustrated and
abandons her work. She
said by working with Mc-
Querry, she was inspired
WR ¿QLVK D \RXQJDGXOW UR-
mance story that she start-
ed when she attended the
workshop.
“I’m inspired right now,”
she said. “Hopefully that
sticks around for a while.”
Parades said her favorite
tip she received from Mc-
Querry’s workshop came
when the students were
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their new stories. She said
McQuerry told them they
had to identify something
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cause readers to sympathize
with the characters, while
also catching their atten-
tion.
“That was really help-
ful,” she said. “She was
pretty cool. She had a lot of
tips that made me realize a
lot of things.”
Paredes said if she is
able to enter another writ-
ing contest next year in
high school, she will.
“I loved doing this,” she
said.
HEALTH:
continued from page A1
FUNDING:
ly walk a few steps without
needing to stop and take a few
breaths.
“It felt like I had been hit
by a truck,” he said.
About six weeks later, after
his chest healed from the sur-
gery, Berrey was booked into
what is known as phase two of
cardiac rehabilitation therapy
through Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center’s cardiopulmonary
rehabilitation program. Doc-
tors had told him his heart
would never pump more than
30 to 35 percent and that he
needed a pacemaker to moni-
tor his irregular heart beat, but
Berrey said he wanted to try
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“My doctor didn’t blame
me for not wanting (the pace-
maker), but they heavily sug-
gested it,” he said. “I wouldn’t
be talked out of starting the
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Following a lengthy inter-
view with GSMC rehabilitation
program specialists, Berrey was
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that he would complete daily at
the facility where they would be
able to monitor his heart rhythms
and blood pressure closely. He
also enrolled in the program’s
weekly classes on topics such as
heart health, heart healthy reci-
pes, how the heart operates and
exercise and stress management.
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cult for him. He said he complet-
ed only a few-minute increments
on machines such as a treadmill
and a stationary bike, but, be-
cause of his condition, he felt
like he was running a marathon.
“I thought they were trying
to kill me,” he said laughing.
“Then, you realize it is actually
helping. You start to feel better.”
Berrey said, thanks to the
strict planning and positive en-
couragement he received from
the rehabilitation program spe-
cialists, he improved his heart
pump health to 40 to 45 percent,
which doctors had originally
told him would be impossible.
Although he still has a heart
murmur, he and doctors hope,
with continued success in the
GSMC program, it will go away,
and he won’t need a pacemaker.
“It really is a miracle. I do
think it is God that did this,” he
said. “I’m a pastor, and my fam-
ily and I prayed about it, but I
also don’t think it wouldn’t have
been possible if it wasn’t for (re-
habilitation program staff).”
Berrey said the staff in the
program care for each patient
who comes in to see them as if
“What people are forgetting is we are also
adding 28,000 additional … students in the
state because of full-day kindergarten, which
actually equates to us getting about 95 per-
cent of (the $7.235 billion),” he said.
“This is, I think, the biggest challenge we
get because the legislators go, ‘What are you
talking about? We are giving you $600 mil-
lion more,’ but until they understand this, it
is the biggest challenge. That is why the gov-
ernor’s initial proposal of $6.9 billion was
so far south and, I’ll be honest, laughable. It
would have been catastrophic for schools in
Oregon.”
Smith said, under the proposed $7.235
billion budget, districts across the state will
actually lose about $47 per student.
Because the Hermiston School District
has more inexperienced teachers, the state
will pay it less. The school district will re-
ceive $111 less per student if the education
budget was approved as currently presented,
Smith said.
Because the district’s enrollment is ex-
pected to grow, however, HSD will be more
fortunate than other districts in the state.
Smith and Superintendent Fred Maiocco
recommended the board pass budget param-
eters that include a projected growth in the
district of 50 students, which they said was
“modest.”
Smith said if the board were to accept a
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budget planning parameters, the district
would face $400,000 in reductions.
“You are going to want to strongly look at
that 50 (student enrollment) growth because
things get ugly really quick if you don’t
take the option to consider that number and
growth,” he said.
Smith also recommended the board main-
tain at least an 8 percent ending-fund balance
because, under the current budget proposal,
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ing in from the state to allow the district to
increase that number to pre-recession levels.
Smith also recommended the board allow
the district to possibly access the Public Em-
ployees Retirement System reserve fund if
state revenue falls below what is currently
projected to avoid mid-year staff and pro-
gram reductions.
“With this $7.235 billion, there is no new
programs, no additional new and exciting
educational opportunities,” he said. “The
current assumptions does not allow for any
additional modular procurement for growth
… We know that will be needed in future
years.”
Smith said if legislators approve an edu-
cation budget for more than what is currently
being proposed, the board will have the op-
portunity to set those funds aside in a reserve
account and possibly use them in the event of
another recession.
Smith said, however, that many people
who were initially optimistic about the state
negotiating for a budget in the amount of at
least $7.5 billion, which would allow districts
to maintain the status quo, are not feeling so
positive now.
The board approved the recommended
budget perameters, with board member Don
Ranking voting opposed.
WATER:
continued from page A1
will become a reality with-
in the next six months. He
said the unity behind the
project to increase available
water in the area has helped
it gain support.
“Every one of the critical
groundwater areas, every
one of the municipalities,
every one of the irrigation
districts, horse pastures, big
operations, medium-size
operations, we’ve tried to
impact everybody, and it’s
been a lot of work,” he
said. “We’ve got it teed up
to do that. Frankly, people
said that will be its failure,
and just the opposite, that
has been its success. People
have said that the basin uni-
fying behind this effort is
what’s got it the momentum
that it has today, and that’s
continued from page A1
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Paula Hagel, an exercise physiologist at Good Shepherd Medical Center, checks Hermiston resident
Gene Berrey’s blood pressure after a workout in the hospital’s cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program
Thursday afternoon.
they are their own family, which
is one of the major reasons he
believes he and so many others
have been successful.
If it wasn’t for the efforts of
Tony Garberg, director of car-
diopulmonary services and re-
spiratory therapist, and his staff,
however, the program wouldn’t
have even existed. In 2008, Gar-
berg said, because of physician
rule changes through Medicare
and Medicaid, the hospital had to
discontinue its previous program.
He was contacted by the hospital
that year about researching a new
program, which included a pul-
monary element, and agreed.
Garberg spent the next four
years developing a comprehen-
sive program with Paula Hagel,
the hospital’s wellness coordi-
nator at the time who is now the
program’s exercise physiologist.
Garberg said the goal was to
come up with a program that
best suited patients in eastern
Oregon. The effort proved to be
a tremendous success, he said.
Since starting back up in
2011-12, the program has large-
ly remained at capacity. He said
the only way a patient can enter
the phase two of their program
is if someone graduates from the
36-week session. He said the pro-
gram can take up to 24 patients at
a time and currently has patients
on a waiting list to enroll.
Garberg said he thinks he has
one of the best jobs at the hospi-
tal and enjoys helping people get
back in shape after a major heart
complication. He said he and his
staff help people improve not
only their heart, but their quality
of living, as well.
a really important lesson
for us moving forward.”
Northeast Oregon Water
Association Director J.R.
Cook said the largest piece
of funding available for the
infrastructure,
including
lines necessary to move
the water freed up with ad-
ditional water rights, will
be considered by the Or-
egon Legislature in two
separate bills, which to-
tal more than $50 million
for state projects. Cook
also applied for another
$900,000 from a separate
economic development
fund, and that money is
also currently included in
the governor’s proposed
budget.
With the infrastructure
and the additional water,
Port General Manager
Kim Puzey said the proj-
ect will significantly im-
pact the local economy.
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Staff in the Good Shepherd Medical Center’s cardiopulmonary
rehabilitation program use a variety of equipment, including heart rate
monitors, to track their patients as they exercise. The equipment allows
staff to keep a close eye on patients’ progress and overall health.
“This is where I love to spend
my time,” he said. “I work up-
stairs, too, and I get to see a lot
of the short-term recovery, but
this has been a blast. You see the
ones that continue on to phase
two, and you see the difference
it makes in their life.”
Hagel said the program still
has people enrolled who have
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She said one man, who is now
in phase three of the program,
which is more of a health-main-
tenance exercise plan and exer-
cise club, has been coming for
the last three to three and a half
years. Berrey is also currently
completing phase three.
Berrey said he completed
phase two of his program, which
is covered under his insurance,
and now comes daily for phase
three, which, for $50 a month,
costs less than a gym. He said
each day he exercises on four to
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tinue improving his heart health,
and he’s never felt better.
“What we have is a
$40 million asset that
the commissioners have
a fiduciary responsibili-
ty toward, and they have
been able, through more
than 30 months of nego-
tiation and deliberation,
to make this available to
the public at large and
to this region,” he said.
“That, being coupled with
what I believe to be the
$54.6 million appropri-
ation in the governor’s
budget, makes available
extraordinary
potential
for this region in terms of
agricultural production,
value-added agricultur-
al jobs, trade and trans-
portation and all of the
associated employment
around this industry. We
think that it will be hun-
dreds of millions, if not
in the billions, of dollars
of economic impact in the
“I would have never believe
that I could feel this well, and I
didn’t even know that I was un-
healthy before,” he said.
Berrey said he has made
friends with other people in the
program. He said the bond with
those friends is stronger than
with others because they can all
relate to enduring some of the
same uphill battles.
“We all have something in
common,” he said.
Garberg said he is just happy
the hospital has such a program.
He said staff hope to eventually
expand it to offer more opportu-
nities to improve more people’s
health and quality of life.
He said the hospital could use
a couple more pieces of equip-
ment, and, eventually, he would
like to expand current operations
to two rooms so phase two pa-
tients can be separate from those
in phase three.
“We’re kind of running out of
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up pretty fast.”
decades to come.”
Puzey said the port will
make available about 100
cubic feet per second of
water from the Columbia
River to water users in the
area, but the amount of
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cerns. He said water users
will pay $5,000 per cfs an-
nually.
Although planning for
this specific agreement
began in 2012, Puzey said
some people have worked
for years to acquire more
water for the region.
“(This agreement oc-
curred) because of the
work of some of the wa-
ter users in this area over
a generation to bring us
to where we are today,”
he said. “One of those
individuals is the late
Chester Prior. I’m really
sorry that Chet couldn’t
be here today to see this.
He worked tirelessly for a
generation to get us to this
point, and as Craig (Reed-
er) mentioned, we’re still
not there. This is a huge
piece, but there is still a
lot to put together.”