A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
CLUPNY:
continued from Page A1
work. But it’s satisfying
work, because you’re
helping kids and that’s my
focus.”
Clupny was recently
honored at the Greater
Hermiston Area Cham-
ber of Commerce’s
Distinguished Citizens
Awards with the Merit
Award, and presenter
Jesus Rome, who coor-
dinates CASA for the
area, said he had asked
Clupny to speak with
him at the National
CASA Convention in
March because of the
integrity and passion
Clupny shows in advo-
cating for children.
“He called me the
poster child, but I
thought I was just doing
my job,” Clupny said.
CASA is one of many
organizations
Clupny
volunteers for. He said
his first real volunteer-
ing experience was as
a teenager in Califor-
nia when he worked
with a local Hispanic
community group to
create a Spanish-lan-
guage library. Later, in
McMinville in his ear-
ly twenties he helped
settle Vietnamese ref-
ugees. Since he moved
to Hermiston in 1978
to work as a speech
pathologist for the In-
terMountain Education
Service District (he is
now mostly retired, oth-
er than some consulting
work for the Hermiston
School District), Clupny
has continued to collect
new causes to donate his
time to.
He is a member of the
Lions Club, a subdeacon
at the Catholic church, a
member of the Knights
of Columbus, part of the
prison ministry at Two
Rivers Correctional In-
stitution, co-facilitator
of a Parkinson’s support
group and longtime sup-
porter of Meadowwood
Springs camp for kids
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
FROM PAGE A1
with learning disabili-
ties.
He has been a Boy
Scout troop leader, a
volunteer firefighter and
a Stanfield city council-
or.
Each volunteer op-
portunity along the way
has been inspired by a
friend or co-worker who
blazed the trail then in-
spired Clupny to follow
them.
“It’s just a body of
work that accumulates
over time,” he said.
“I’m lucky at 64 to be as
healthy and as active as
I am.”
The religious work
at TRCI has been one
of the more interesting
things he’s volunteered
for, Clupny said. Even
though people just want
to lock up the “bad peo-
ple” and forget about
them, he said it stuck
with him when the pris-
on was being built and
someone remarked that
there would be Cath-
olic men in there who
would need ministered
to. He said he feels he
has learned from the in-
mates as much as he has
taught them.
“There are very intel-
ligent people in prison,”
he said. “There are peo-
ple who have changed
their hearts in prison,
and I’ve seen it.”
Clupny said when he
moved to Hermiston in
his twenties, he never
thought he’d stay long
enough to become an
“oldy moldy” in town.
But he ended up estab-
lishing a career, marry-
ing his wife Carol and
raising two kids here.
Now, he said, he “can’t
go
anywhere
with-
out seeing someone I
know.”
“I found a place to
blossom and I’d like to
stay blossomed for a
while around here,” he
said.
Contact Jade Mc-
Dowell at jmcdowell@
eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.
Hermiston business celebrates 40th anniversary
“Some people don’t want
to bother,” Platt said.
Of course, there are still
people in Eastern Oregon
who appreciate the value of a
good, high-quality work boot
or cowboy boot that has been
properly worn in. For those
customers, Platt saves that
favorite pair of boots with
a new sole or heel. He said
some of his customers have
been coming to him for al-
most as long as he has been
in business.
Despite the change in how
shoes are manufactured, he
said the basic tools for fixing
them are “still pretty much
the same.”
Platt grew up in the McK-
ay Creek area, and learned the
trade from a cobbler shop in
Pendleton in the 1970s. He
had gone off to college but
came home to work after he
ran out of money, and a cob-
bler offered to train him up in
the art of shoe and boot repair.
When Platt heard that a cob-
bler in Hermiston was selling
their business, he decided
to take it over and moved to
Hermiston.
Platt said he used to bring
his children to work and let
them entertain themselves
in a playpen or, as they got
older, help greet customers.
Despite all that exposure to
the industry, none of his three
children wanted to follow in
their father’s footsteps and
become a cobbler. He never
took on anyone to train, ei-
ther, since business started
declining around the time that
he would have considered it.
Still, Platt keeps on work-
ing, adapting to the changing
industry and adapting to the
challenges that come with
being a downtown business
owner. He said one of the
keys is to remember is good
old-fashioned customer ser-
vice.
“Just be here when you
tell people you’re going to be
here, and treat everyone the
same,” he said.
Desert Cobbler is located
at 120 N.E. Third St.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Leading the charge for
the Bulldogs will be seniors
Valen Wyse and C.J. Hen-
don, who are the lone two
returning state placers from
2016.
Wyse, the defending
152-pound state champion,
moved up to 170 pounds this
season and comes into the
tournament off a second con-
secutive district title which
helped him earn the No. 1
seed in the state bracket.
Meanwhile,
Hendon
earned a third place finish
last season and comes into
the state tournament with the
No. 1 seed at 138 pounds.
Other returners with
state experience include
Adrian Tuia (No. 2 seed at
145), Julio Leiva (No. 7 at
170), Joey Gutierrez (No.
3 at 182), Kenny Bevan
(No. 5 at 220) and Beau
Blake (No. 5 at 285). All
five wrestlers come in fol-
lowing top-2 finishes at
districts and are determined
to turn in a much better per-
formance at state this time
around and Wyse said that
the key to victory starts
with those five.
“When we had to pull it
together as a team we did
it at the Oregon Classic
Tournament last month,”
Wyse said. “So if we can
get that mojo going again
at the state tournament and
put it together, beat up on
people wrestle like bullies,
it’s definitely going to pay
off for us.”
Hermiston will finish up
their week of practice with
a light workout on Thurs-
day afternoon before pack-
ing up and making the trek
to Portland. Larson said
that after a real hard week
of workouts last week, this
week has been more fo-
cused on fine-tuning tech-
niques and making sure the
guys stay fresh enough to
wrestle at their best come
Friday.
“We talked (Monday)
about just getting on mat
and wrestling the guy in
front of you,” Larson said.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s a
Crater guy or a kid from
Bend or wherever, you step
on mat and wrestle as hard
as you can and give all ef-
fort you have and the out-
come will be there at the
end of the six minutes or
the end of the tournament
with the team points.
“I really feel the guys are
fired up and excited to get
there so I think we’re go-
ing to roll in there and guys
will compete and give best
effort for sure.”
—————
Contact Eric Singer at
esinger@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0839.
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Dale Platt, owner of Des-
ert Cobbler in Hermiston,
knows that they don’t make
shoes like they used to. Al-
though his business cele-
brates its 40th anniversary on
Wednesday, he’s had to adapt
along the way.
“When I first came here I
just did shoe and boot repair,”
he said. “Now I do a little bit
of everything.”
“Everything”
includes
making leather saddle bags,
belts, holsters and knife
sheaths. Platt has some stan-
dard sizes on hand, but he
can also tailor-make holsters
or sheaths to fit the weapon
someone brings in.
Over the years, shoes and
boots have become cheaper,
but also more cheaply made.
Footwear has gotten more
casual (meaning less leath-
er) and the way the shoes
are put together by machines
makes it harder (and more
expensive) to repair. All that
has taught people to think
of their shoes as something
disposable that are not worth
repairing.
STATE:
continued from Page A1
“Some guys are going
to have to wrestle over
their head at the state tour-
nament,” Wyse said, “but
that’s what we’re here for.”
Hermiston head coach
Kyle Larson said that he’s
not necessarily worried
about the numbers game,
as much as he’s focused on
making sure his guys wres-
tle hard and wrestle well.
“Some years it makes
a difference, some years
it doesn’t. We’ve taken 18
to the tournament and won
state titles, and we’ve had
11 and won state titles,”
Larson said. “We just have
to worry about the things
we can control and score as
many points as we can, and
that’s how we’re going to
win this tournament.”
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE McDOWELL
Dale Platt has owned and operated the Desert Cobbler in Hermiston
for 40 years, celebrating four decades in business this week.
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