INSIDE SPORTS | BROTHER-SISTER DUO RULE THE PLATE >> PAGE A9
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2018
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HermistonHerald.com
INSIDE
DIPLOMA TIME
Blue Mountain Community
College graduates took
many paths to their degree.
PAGE A3
NEW ERA
R I D E
Eastern Oregon Telecom
celebrates new building and
new ownership.
PAGE A8, A15
LIGHTEN UP
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife is working to
make hunting and fishing
regulations simpler.
PAGE A10
BY THE WAY
By the way: New
ice cream shop in
Hermiston
Hermiston has a new
shop selling cool treats,
just in time for tempera-
tures that are expected
to reach well above 90
degrees this week.
Helados la Michoac-
ana sells various flavors
of ice cream made directly
by the store using fresh
fruit and other natural fla-
vors. It also sells other
treats, most of them fruit-
based, including strawber-
ries and cream, cheese-
cake, shaved ice, and
bianocos (a sort of fruit
salad).
The store is owned
by Jesus Higareda, who
also owns a Helados la
Michoacana in Pasco. It
is located at 1875 N First
St., Suite C, next to Fiesta
Foods. For now hours vary
while new staff are being
trained but regular hours
are expected to be 10 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Monday through
Thursday and 10 a.m. to
10 p.m. Friday through
Sunday.
• • •
The Hermiston Police
Department took some
space on their Facebook
page last week to thank
the Umatilla Police Offi-
cer’s Association for
helping one of their own
through the association’s
annual golf tournament,
which raises money for
local charitable causes.
See BTW, Page A16
Hermiston Corvette
turns heads at
Tri-Cities car show
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
W
illiam and Christy
McMillen’s
1976
Chevrolet Corvette
Stingray is a thing of beauty.
And it’s not just the McMil-
lens who think their car is some-
thing special. The root beer-col-
ored Corvette recently took home
the top prize at one of the larg-
est Corvette shows in the Pacific
Northwest, beating out more than
240 other Corvettes for the Deal-
er’s Choice award at Corvettes on
the Columbia in the Tri-Cities.
“There were a lot of really
beautiful cars up there,” William
said. “I was shocked when we
won.”
They had been a little disap-
pointed not to win any awards in
their class, Christy said, but when
the final award of the night came
the emcee started talking about
how the winners had five kids and
eight grandkids vying to inherit
the car someday.
“We looked at each other and
thought, ‘No way!,’” she said.
The McMillens are relatively
new to the car show circuit. Wil-
liam brought home the Corvette
about three years ago. Forced into
early retirement by an autoim-
mune disorder, he bought a clas-
sic car because knew he needed
something to focus his energy on.
He had loved Stingrays ever since
high school, when a friend drove
into the school parking lot with an
orange one from the early 1970s.
“It was the first Corvette I was
actually able to touch,” he said. “I
fell in love with that body style
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
A Corvette emblem adorns the fuel tank hatch on a 1976 Corvette Stingray owned by William McMillan
of Hermiston.
“There were a lot of
really beautiful cars up
there. I was shocked
when we won.”
William McMillen
that day.”
He always dreamed of own-
ing one in retirement. And when
retirement came sooner than
expected, he told Christy that a
friend was driving him to a doc-
tor’s appointment in Portland.
Instead, they were headed there
to look at Corvettes they had seen
advertised online.
See CORVETTE, Page A16
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
William McMillan washes his 1976 Corvette Stingray in the
driveway of his home Friday in Hermiston.
Migrant education program keeps kids on the move caught up
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
A group of seventh and
eighth-graders were given one task:
make a boat out of foil and plastic
straws. And the goal? Hold as many
pennies as possible without sinking
the boat.
Though the boats were not always
seaworthy, the students learned
about buoyancy in one of several les-
sons at the migrant education sum-
mer school program in Hermiston.
Run by the InterMountain Edu-
cation Service District, there are
programs throughout the sum-
mer at different locations in Uma-
tilla and Morrow County, includ-
ing Boardman, Hermiston, Irrigon,
Milton-Freewater and Umatilla.
Each program runs for about three
weeks. The classes focus on reading
and math instruction and, as of this
year, science, for students between
pre-kindergarten and eighth grade.
For students to qualify for the
migrant education program, their
families have to have moved in the
past three years to find work in the
fields of agriculture, forestry or
fishing.
The classes are split up by grade
level, with a fifth/sixth grade and
seventh/eighth grade blend.
Because of the short session, pro-
gram coordinator Loretta Fitterer
said teachers have to target specific
concepts.
“At the lowest level it may be
letter sounds,” she said. “The next
step may be sight words, and for
See MIGRANT, Page A16
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Sixth-grader Karla Llamas places pennies in her tinfoil boat during a
science class for ESL students Friday at Sunset Elementary School in
Hermiston.