Hermiston man dies after fi ght
THE
Memorial service scheduled for today Page 3
2016 WHO’S WHO
Hermiston
Herald
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2016
HermistonHerald.com
$1.00
2016
IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN
Business and Medical Directory
www.eastoregonian.com
www.hermistonherald.com
SPECIAL SECTION INCLUDED INSIDE
TRADING PURPLE FOR PINK
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVE ROHRMAN
Students and staff from Hermiston High School show their support for a teacher at rival Pendleton High School who is battling cancer on
Tuesday. Many at the school wore pink and made signs in an effort to try to convince the Ellen DeGeneres Show to have teacher Kathryn
Youngman on the show.
School puts Pendleton
rivalry aside to support
teacher battling cancer
ABOUT TOWN
Hermiston
chamber rolls out
the red carpet
The Hermiston Cham-
ber of Commerce is roll-
ing out the red carpet for
its annual Distinguished
Citizens Awards Banquet.
The event is Wednesday,
Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Herm-
iston Conference Center,
415 S. Highway 395. Tick-
ets are $30 each and can be
purchased at the Hermiston
chamber, by calling 541-
567-6151 or at www.herm-
istonchamber.com.
Award categories in-
clude man, woman and
business of the year, the
chamber Award of Merit
and Spirit of Excellence
Award, the Outstanding
Young Citizen Award,
the Hermiston School
District educators and
administrator of the year,
and Fire Service Award.
The dinner is catered
by Columbia River Ca-
tering Co and a no-host
bar is available by The
Pheasant Blue Collar Bar
& Grill.
School district
releases 2016-
2017 calendar
By SAM BARBEE
Staff Writer
A
brief stroll through the
hallways of Hermiston
High School reveals a
campaign that’s gain-
ing steam. Throughout
the high school are pink
shirts, pink shoes. pink jackets,
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There’s a lot of pink, and it’s
for a good reason. Following
Pendleton High School’s lead,
Hermiston has undertaken a
campaign to get former Hermis-
ton Spanish teacher and current
Pendleton Spanish teacher Kath-
ryn Youngman, who is currently
battling cancer for the third time
while teaching, on TV. The cam-
paign was started in the hopes of
getting Youngman on the popu-
lar daytime talk show, “The El-
len DeGeneres Show.”
“A couple of our kids got text
messages or emails or something
from some of the Pendleton ASB
kids, and they asked me to start
looking at it and they told me that
the Pendleton kids wanted us to
do pink,” Hermiston Associat-
ed Student Body advisor Dave
Rohrman said. “My ASB kids
met that period and they were just
like, ‘Hey this is something we
can do that’s nice for people. We
don’t have any expectation for re-
ward. And it would be kinda cool
to get her on ‘Ellen.’
“When it was presented to
me, I didn’t have much of a
choice. The kids were gonna do
it one way or another.”
WHO’S WHO
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Pendleton High School Spanish teacher Kathryn Youngman goes over some Spanish phases with her
fourth year students on Wednesday in Pendleton.
After Rohrman heard the stu-
dents’ pitch, he showed it to the
administration.
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them to approve it,” Rohrman
said.
That was Monday morn-
ing. By Tuesday, the campaign
had spread on social media to
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Three-time Olympic gold med-
alist Kerri Walsh, former Ore-
gon Ducks quarterback Vernon
Adams, current Oregon State
basketball player Tres Tinkle
and current Atlanta Falcons de-
fensive end Vic Beasley each
noticed the campaign and helped
push it along.
“In an hour it started blowing
up,” Rohrman said. “We put it
out in an email to the staff. We
put it out on social media. We
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‘#YoungmanOnEllen.’”
Hermiston and Pendleton
have now added a “Pink Out”
for the Feb. 2 game between the
Buckaroos and the Bulldogs.
“Stuff like this is gonna make
it so much easier just to get
kids involved,” Rohrman said.
“We’re having a lot of fun.”
But more than just fun, there
is a lot of learning going on, as
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visor, Rohrman, a history teach-
er, is learning on the job about
how to use social media effec-
tively while surrounded by a
handful of students who already
know it intimately. Rohrman
himself has gotten a baptism by
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Facebook, but he’s also giving
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ing back.
He said he’s been impressed
by the level of participation sur-
See CANCER, A18
Umatilla Electric selects its next general manager
Robert Echenrode
will succeed Steve
Eldrige in March
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Staff Writer
The Umatilla Electric Co-
operative has found a new gen-
eral manager from within its
own ranks.
Engineering Manager Rob-
ert Echenrode will be promot-
ed to the co-op’s top job begin-
ning March 8. Echenrode takes
over for Steve Eldrige, who
announced his retirement last
spring.
“It was an honor to be
considered to follow such a
distinguished group of lead-
ers,” Echenrode said in an
announcement Thursday. “I
want to help build on the past
achievements of our employ-
ees.”
Echenrode, 54, started
working at UEC in March
2013 and has 25 years of ex-
perience with rural electric co-
See ECHENRODE, A18
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Robert Echenrode, who is currently the engineering manager for
Umatilla Electric Cooperative, has been selected as general manager
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Hermiston
School
District will begin school
on Aug. 29 and end on
June 7 for the 2016-2017
school year.
The school board ap-
proved the calendar on
Monday.
Winter break will run
from Dec. 21, 2016 to
Jan. 2, 2017 and spring
break will fall on March
27-31, 2017. Students
will get a four-day week-
end for Veterans Day and
for Presidents Day, and
three days off the week of
Thanksgiving. Gradua-
tion will be June 3, 2017.
For the full calen-
dar hermiston.k12.or.us/
community/district-cal-
endars.
Area libraries
off er job
search help
Umatilla County res-
idents looking for job
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useful resources through
their local library.
A new job search engine
is available through all 12
Umatilla County public
libraries. Library patrons
can use LearningExpress
Library to search the Job &
Career Accelerator Center.
This new feature allows ac-
cess to more than 5 million
job postings from leading
job boards, government
and corporate sites, online
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UHFUXLWPHQW
sites and more. In addition
to job postings, the cen-
ter can help users with
updating or creating re-
sumes and cover letters,
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plication forms and pre-
paring for job interviews.
Staff at any of the pub-
lic libraries in the county
can assist users in get-
ting started with using
any of the features in
LearningExpress Library.
For more information,
call or stop by your local
library or contact Dan Feil,
library district administra-
tive assistant, at 541-276-
6449 or dan@ucsld.org.