A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017
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BY THE WAY
BTW
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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lydia and Hobs Hurty relax on the couch during a past holiday season in their family’s Stanfield home.
CHRISTMAS
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being celebrated. As a Chris-
tian, she said it’s about God
sending his son, Jesus —
which is worthy of celebra-
tion. That celebration, she
said, can include decorating,
parties, practicing traditions
and singing.
“But don’t lose sight of
what we’re actually cele-
brating,” she said.
“In a culture and lifestyle
that’s busy and complicated,
it’s easy to go through the
Christmas season forgetting
to stop and think and pon-
der and pause about the true
meaning,” added Rev. John
Hurty, pastor of the Stanfield
Baptist Church and Maria’s
husband.
Countdown to
Christmas
Although the Hurtys
didn’t grow up formally cel-
ebrating the advent season in
a traditional way, they have
incorporated practices both
at church and in their fam-
ily home.
John said as the kids
have grown up — Nathan,
19; Lydia, 17; Sisay, 16;
Norah, 13 and Hobs, 13 —
they developed a family tra-
dition of gathering every-
one together to read. With
an undergraduate degree
in history, John sometimes
chooses books about histor-
ical figures or they read a
chapter from the Bible.
“We try to read vari-
ous things together and
pray together,” John said.
“Christmas is a variation of
that.”
The advent tradition, John
said, is a tool that a family
can use to try to focus on the
meaning of Christmas. In
Latin, advent simply means
“coming.” The traditional
celebration of advent begins
with the four Sundays lead-
ing up to Christmas.
“It’s kind of like a count-
down to Christmas,” Maria
explained.
After using various devo-
tional guides over the past
few years, the Hurtys found
many of them technical and
full of verbiage from profes-
sional theologians. With a
goal of writing advent devo-
tionals that would hold their
children’s interest, Maria
published “Christmas Crazy
to Jesus Joy!”
Each of the 24 days lead-
ing up to Christmas has a
Bible verse and commentary
written by Maria. The book,
available on Amazon.com,
touches on such topics as the
pressure to impress others,
the “buy, buy, buy” mental-
ity and highlighting the birth
of Jesus and a personal rela-
tionship with Christ.
“Christmas Crazy to
Jesus Joy!” was a big hit
with the Hurty family. Son
Nathan said the photos and
family memories makes it
fun. And, it’s easy to follow.
“It’s definitely written in
a way that stuff isn’t going
to fly over your head,” he
said. “It’s more designed for
the normal person’s theolog-
ical understanding.”
Indicating that people
don’t have to go deep into
debt in order to give to oth-
ers, Maria suggests filling
stockings with blessings.
She shares about the touch-
ing sentiments of a hand-
written note from her then
10-year-old son, Hobs.
“I love you more than
TV,” melted the mom’s heart
more than any store-bought
gift ever could.
While her holiday habits
aren’t “perfect,” Maria said
she’s learning to celebrate
better. In addition, she rec-
ognizes there’s no right or
wrong way.
“My value and worth is
what God does for me, not
how I perform,” she said.
“Look at your motivations
for what you do. Are you
doing it to wow the neigh-
bors or is it enhancing your
celebration of the birth of
Jesus?”
iston Foods was knocked
down quickly on Tuesday,
but not before it sent a col-
umn of smoke into the sky
south of Hermiston.
Daryl Fuchs, harvest
supervisor, said the cause
was still unknown. He said
the excavator was work-
ing on the scrap metal pile
when it caught fire.
• • •
Hermiston
resident
Sandra Vandever recently
became a 12-gallon donor
during the Nov. 20 Ameri-
can Red Cross blood drive
held at Good Shepherd
Medical Center.
Volunteer Patti Perkins
said a total of 34 units were
collected from 46 donors.
The canteen was provided
by Our Lady of Angels
Catholic Church.
The next drive is Mon-
day, Dec. 18 from 12:30-6
p.m., also at Good Shep-
herd, 610 N.W. 11th St.
Perkins said walk-ins are
welcome, but it’s help-
ful if donors schedule an
appointment by calling
800-448-3543. For more
information, contact Per-
kins at pzperchek@charter.
net or 541-571-5372.
• • •
A handful of sure-shot-
ted basketball players will
advance to the North-
east District Hoop Shoot
(Jan. 7 at Sandstone Mid-
dle School in Hermiston)
after taking top honors in
their age groups during the
Dec. 2 Hermiston Elks
Hoop Shoot Competition,
which drew about 50 area
youths ages 8-13. Moving
on are Alexia Sanguino
of West Park Elementary
School, Adrian Gonza-
les of Sunset Elementary
Retired pastor paints God’s creation
By TAMMY MALGESINI
COMMUNITY EDITOR
Nearly two dozen new
oil paintings are featured in
an exhibit by Hermiston art-
ist Jim Simpson.
A retired minister, Simp-
son finds inspiration in
God’s creation. Featuring
landscape art, his newest
works are inspired by the
shores and wilderness areas
along the Columbia River.
Familiar scenes include six
depicting the McNary Wild-
life Area. Other notable
locations captured by the
stroke of Simpson’s brush
are the Blue Mountains,
Warehouse Beach, the John
Day Basin and Helix.
The public is invited to
“A Brush with Life” Sat-
urday from 4-8 p.m. at the
home of Jim and Sue Simp-
son, 370 W. Moore Ave.,
Simpson
Hermiston. The framed
works, ranging from 8-by-
10 to 38-by-30, are also for
sale during the exhibit and
reception.
Simpson’s new work
is based on many years of
painting outdoors, and the
plein air style is obvious in
his studio work.
“It’s taken almost 50
years of painting outdoors
to enable me to paint in
a swift and free-flowing
style,” Simpson said. “(It)
takes time to learn value,
color and composition —
the ‘big three’ of success-
ful art.”
Simpson began painting
in the mid-1970s. He picked
up his brush wherever his
career as a pastor took him,
from Texas, New Mexico,
Montana, California and
finally Oregon. When he
began pastoring the Herm-
iston First Christian Church
in 1997, Simpson found
himself too busy to paint.
He laid aside his brush
and palette several times
over the decades while shep-
herding churches. Shortly
after retiring in 2002, Simp-
son renewed his interest in
painting.
His works have been
featured locally at Pendle-
ton Center for the Arts, the
Walla Walla Art Center and
an annual artist competition
in Joseph. Simpson’s also
has been an exhibitor in the
Lawrence Gallery in Sher-
idan, the Gabriel Gallery
in Laguna Beach, Califor-
nia, and the Outlaw Gallery
in Kalispell, Montana. His
paintings have also hung in
local banks, storefronts and
art shows in Hermiston.
In addition to private
instruction, Simpson taught
landscape painting at Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege in Hermiston. Also an
accomplished
musician,
Simpson plays banjo and
harmonica with the Butter-
creek Boys.
For
more
informa-
tion, contact Simpson at
jmspaint@eotnet.net
or
541-656-8453.
Examining Oregon education against other states
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Oregonians have heard
before that their graduation
rates are some of the lowest
in the country. The Oregon
Department of Education
has released its statewide
report card, and some data
compiled by the state’s
Legislative Policy and
Research Office sheds addi-
tional light on how Oregon
students don’t always face
a level playing field when
compared with other states.
The state report card
included data on gradu-
ation and dropout rates,
school funding, atten-
dance, test results and prog-
ress for students in specific
demographics.
Numbers for the two
reports did not always
match up, and the data com-
paring various states was
pulled from several differ-
ent years. For some data
points, the year was not
specified.
The data from the Legis-
lative Policy and Research
Office was compiled after
a request from State Rep-
resentative Greg Smith’s
office, made in hopes of
better understanding why
Oregon’s graduation rates
are suffering. They asked
for a side-by-side compari-
son of Oregon and 10 other
states: five high-performing
states, and five comparable
Western states.
Against high-perform-
ing states Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New Jer-
sey, Vermont and Minne-
sota, and western states
Colorado, Utah, Washing-
ton, Nevada and Arizona,
the data showed how Ore-
gon stacked up in eleven
categories.
Among the findings:
• Oregon displayed lower
scores than the other states
in most categories. Ore-
gon’s graduation rate was
72 percent, lower than all
the states listed except for
Nevada, at 70 percent. New
Jersey’s graduation rate was
highest, at 89 percent.
• Oregon also had one of
the shortest school years,
with students in school 161
days. Only Colorado’s was
shorter, at 160 days. Most
other states listed attended
school for 180 days.
• Oregon had 22.18
pupils per teacher, one of
the highest. Utah and Ari-
zona had comparable ratios,
while Vermont’s was the
lowest, at 10.59 and new
Jersey’s was 11.96.
• Oregon and Washing-
ton had the highest per-
centages of chronic absen-
teeism, at 22.7 and 24.8
percent, respectively.
• Oregon also requires
24 credits to graduate, tied
with New Jersey for the
highest number among the
states surveyed. Massachu-
setts and Colorado have no
statewide credit require-
ment, and Connecticut,
Vermont and Washington
require 20 credits.
On the Oregon state-
wide report card, the ODE
reported that its teach-
er-to-student
ratio
is
decreasing, and was at
20.26 for 2016-2017 (aver-
age of all three school lev-
els). It said 95 percent of
its funding goes to school
buildings and student ser-
vices, and that it spent
$11,241 per student in
2015-2016.
Data for the state report
card is available at the
state’s education website.
School, Layla Chavez
of McNary Heights Ele-
mentary School, Julian
Gomez of Irrigon Elemen-
tary School, Leslie Rivera
of Clara Brownell Middle
School and Ronaldo Tor-
res of Armand Larive Mid-
dle School.
Other second and first
place finishers in their
division during the local
competition
included
Girls 8-9: Rocio Garay
of Windy River, Dulce
Valencia of West Park.
Boys 8-9: Jose Perez of
McNary Heights, Car-
son Cyganik of McKay
Creek. Girls 10-11: Ash-
lynn Cutburth of Sun-
set, Lorelai Keefauver
of Highland Hills. Boys
10-11: Micheal Mon-
tez of McNary Heights,
Blaze Hoffman of Desert
View. Girls 12-13: Laura
Molina of Irrigon Jr/Sr
High, Chloe Gomez of
Riverside Jr/Sr High. Boys
12-13: Alexis Armenta
of Clara Brownell, Jesus
Montes Martinez of Riv-
erside Jr/Sr High.
Winners of the district
competition will advance
to the Oregon State Hoop
Shoot Feb. 10 at Alder
Creek Middle School in
Milwaukie. The Elks Hoop
Shoot culminates with
the National Hoop Shoot
Finals, which are April
21 in Chicago. For more
information, contact local
Hoop Shoot director Ernie
Kern of Hermiston Elks
Lodge No. 1845 at eandk-
kern@yahoo.com.
———
You can submit items
for our weekly By The
Way column by email-
ing your tips to editor@
hermistonherald.com
or share them on social
media using the hashtag
#HHBTW.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Plastics, unclean tin food cans and other items sit in an
aluminum recycling container at a recycling center off of
Harper Road on Thursday in Pendleton.
RECYCLING
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and Styrofoam to more
hazardous waste like used
syringes.
Many Chinese recyclers
have already stopped tak-
ing shipments, leaving U.S.
waste collectors scram-
bling. The Department of
Environmental Quality has
issued “disposal concur-
rances” to 12 transfer sta-
tions so far allowing them
to send recycling to the
landfill because they have
no more room to store it.
Sanitary Disposal is
in a better position. Most
of the recyclable materi-
als it takes in — including
newspaper, glass, wood,
cardboard, electronics, tin
and aluminum — are sent
to domestic buyers, and the
company has enough room
to store bales of plastic for
the foreseeable future. But
Sanitary Disposal Presi-
dent Mike Jewett said other
transfer stations that were
previously sending materi-
als to China are now trying
to find a domestic home for
them, causing a glut in the
market that Jewett hopes to
ride out for a while.
“We’re
stockpiling
more,” he said.
Recyclables are the
sixth largest export from
the United States to China,
according to the Oregon
Refuse and Recycling
Association. As the mar-
ket fluctuates, careless or
intentional dumping of
non-recyclable materials
into drop-off sites like the
one Sanitary Disposal has
on Harper Road in Herm-
iston can cause a thin profit
margin to turn into a loss.
“Recycling is expensive
enough as it is to collect,
and then if we have to toss
it, that’s really expensive,
and that reflects on every-
one’s (garbage collection)
rates,” Jewett said.
Not following the rules
on recycling can have a
larger impact than most
people realize. Signs at
the collection depots state
that window glass and
light bulbs should not be
dumped into the containers
for clear glass, for exam-
ple, but people do it any-
way. If the window breaks
before a Sanitary Disposal
employee spots it and pulls
it out, the entire load of
glass has to be dumped in a
landfill rather than risk the
lead-tainted window glass
being recycled into a food
or beverage container.
“Suddenly you’ve got
30 tons of glass that are
useless,” Kik said.
They also get a lot of
clear plastic mixed in with
the glass, and people tend
to not be able to tell the
difference between tin and
aluminum (hint: if it sticks
to a magnet, it’s tin; if not,
it’s aluminum) or don’t
bother to rinse the food out
of the containers or pull the
paper labels off.
Kik said another one he
sees frequently is people
throwing Styrofoam pieces
and packing peanuts into
the cardboard dumpster.
“The Styrofoam just
kills the load,” he said. “A
lot of places will just bale it
up with all of that in there.
We pull it out, but a lot of
people don’t and I guess
that’s what caused the
problem with China.”
Staff time spent remov-
ing packing peanuts from a
load of cardboard or haul-
ing
lead-contaminated
glass to a landfill instead
of selling it adds up. Jew-
ett and Kik said the more
people can follow the
rules posted on signs at the
depots, the better.