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Wednesday,
March 21,
2018
E AST O REGONIAN
East Oregoni
an
Spring
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
Page 1C
Sports 2
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$1.00
INSIDE
PARTY TIME
WALKOUT
Hermiston High School
students and one fifth
grader leave class to
protest gun violence.
PAGE A6
FIRST
STEPS
THE
Find out which artist
from The Voice is visiting
Pendleton this summer.
PAGE A3
HOMELESS HIKE
Point in time count of
homeless increased ten-
fold in Umatilla County.
PAGE A12
BY THE WAY
Wyden to visit
Eastern Oregon
next month
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
will make a six-county
tour of Eastern Oregon
in April, including town
halls in Umatilla and
Boardman.
According to a news
release, Wyden will be at
Umatilla High School at
9:30 a.m. on April 3. The
following day, Wyden will
visit Riverside Senior/
Junior High School in
Boardman at 9:15 a.m.
Since he was elected
senator in 1996, Wyden
has held town halls in all
36 Oregon counties every
year. When he finishes this
tour, he will have appeared
at 887 town halls.
“Throwing open the
doors of government for
town halls where anybody
can come to ask any ques-
tion is a huge part of what
I call the ‘Oregon Way,’”
he said in a statement.
“Participatory democracy
is alive and well in our
state, and I look forward
very much to hearing from
Eastern Oregon at these
town halls.”
• • •
This week is National
Ag Week, so if you get a
chance, thank a farmer or
someone who contributes
to our region’s agricultural
industry.
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL.
Charles Clupny shows off the gear he plans to take with him on a 1,000 mile trek along the Camino de Santiago.
Local advocate Charles Clupny plans 1,000-mile Camino de Santiago hike for CASA
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
W
hen pop stars and poets write of walking
a thousand miles for someone, they prob-
ably don’t mean it literally.
Charles Clupny does.
Clupny, a longtime Hermiston vol-
unteer for Court-Appointed Special Advocates, plans to walk
1,000 miles through Europe to raise money for CASA this
spring. Clupny will take three months hiking the Camino de
Santiago through the mountains and valleys of Spain and
France, exploring various historical towns and buildings along
the way.
“I’ve been planning this for five years,” he said.
Clupny has already done 500 miles of the trek with his fam-
ily when his wife Carol Clupny walked it to raise awareness of
Parkinson’s disease, which she has. He said he knew then that
someday he would want to do the whole thing by himself and
take his time at the stops along the way.
The Camino de Santiago — also known as the Way of St.
James in English — has roots as a Christian pilgrimage in the
Middle Ages. Its network of trails through western Europe is
often symbolized by a scallop shell.
Clupny said along the Camino are hostels and houses open
to travelers at a low price and restaurants often have a dis-
counted “pilgrim’s menu.” He plans to spend 60 to 65 euros
a day (about $75 to $80 U.S. dollars) during his pilgrimage.
“They’ll have four to five items (on the pilgrim’s menu) that
are a three-course meal, so I’m not going to starve,” he said.
He plans to travel light, with about 28 pounds of essentials
in a lightweight pack, a pair of walking sticks, jacket, boots,
hat and the clothes on his back. Carol, who has walked por-
tions of the Camino de Santiago three times, will do 200 miles
with him before splitting off to see friends.
“Then I’ll have my 1,000 miles, just not all at once,” she
said.
She said the Camino has a “draw to it” that is hard to explain
to people who have never experienced it.
“I don’t know what it is,” she said.
See HIKE, A18
See BTW, A18
Cinco de Mayo celebration moving to EOTEC
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
For the third time in six years,
Hermiston’s Cinco de Mayo cele-
bration is moving to a new venue
because it outgrew its previous one.
A free community Cinco de Mayo
celebration will be held at the East-
ern Oregon Trade and Event Center,
1705 East Airport Road, on May 5-6.
The two-day event will include
live entertainment, food vendors, a
beer garden, carnival, family activi-
ties and will correspond with a bull-
fighting competition in the rodeo
arena.
“Every year it’s been growing and
growing,” said Hermiston Cinco de
Mayo board president Moises Lopez.
A discarded idea by Umatilla
County in December to create a hotel
assessment to fund more tourism
highlighted struggles in Hermiston to
create events that attract the kinds of
crowds that Pendleton sees multiple
times per year. Cinco de Mayo stands
out as a modest exception — Herm-
iston parks and recreation director
Larry Fetter estimated 8,000 people
showed up to the two-day celebra-
tion held at Butte Park last year, just
smaller than the city’s Fourth of July
celebration.
In 2016 an estimated 5,000 peo-
ple showed to a one-day Cinco de
Mayo celebration downtown, which
had become the new home of Cinco
de Mayo after the event outgrew its
2012 home at McKenzie Park.
See CINCO DE MAYO, Page A18
STAFF PHOTO BY TAMMY MALGESINI
Sergio Barreto of Umatilla takes his horse through the paces during
the dancing horse competition at the 2017 Hermiston Cinco de Mayo
celebration at Butte Park.