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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2018)
HERMISTON TRAPSHOOTING TEAM FINISHES SEVENTH IN THE NATION >> SEE A10 WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2018 $1.00 HermistonHerald.com INSIDE “ We are unable to secure enough volunteers to have an ongoing volunteer program on a long-term basis. ” FUN TIMES Funfest attendees worked to beat the heat during Splash and Dash, live entertainment and the Cool Rides Car Show. PAGE A3, A15 Paula Hall, Director and CEO of Community Action Program of East Central Oregon Helping the helpers PUMP IT Gas stations in Umatilla County can face fines if patrons pump their own gas. PAGE A7 RISKY BUSINESS Local convenience stores use video surveillance, low cash supplies and other measures to reduce robberies. PAGE A11 BY THE WAY Farm-City Pro Rodeo to get national spotlight The Farm-City Pro Rodeo is going nation- wide this August. The rodeo, in its 31st year in Hermiston, will get a bit of the national spot- light as its Saturday per- formance will be televised on CBS Sports on Sunday, August 19 at 6 p.m. “We want to fill every seat,” said David Bothum, a member of the rodeo board. “We’ve been work- ing on this show since April. People have volun- teered their time and put in hard work. We’re going to make it look good.” Only three other stops on the Wrangler Tour — Prescott, Arizona and Nampa and Caldwell, Idaho — will get the CBS Sports coverage. And people can keep up with the action all week. For the first time, each night’s performance will be streamed live at ProRodeoTV.com. For more on this year’s signature Hermiston rodeo, our guide will be inserted into the Aug. 1 edition. • • • Students from Uma- tilla High School Key See BTW, Page A16 STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Volunteers Maricie Myers, from left, Jan Maitland and George Fuchs sort through donated items on Tuesday at the Agape House in Hermiston. By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER F ood banks, warming shelters and dona- tion centers are all held together by a sometimes invisible force: volun- teers. But finding people to fill those roles has become increasingly difficult due to an aging volunteer base and a lack of new peo- ple stepping in. Paula Hall, director and CEO of Commu- nity Action Program of East Central Oregon, said they tend to have more luck when they go out and search for volunteers for a spe- cific project, such as the Dancing with the Stars event, or the Homelessness Point in Time Count. “We don’t have a large pool of volun- teers,” Hall said. “It seems to be more suc- cessful if the volunteer project is a time-lim- ited duration instead of ongoing.” CAPECO serves as a regional hub for ser- vices to low-income and disadvantaged peo- ple, and many volunteer efforts for things like food banks are coordinated through spe- cific agencies. But she said there are difficul- ties with getting consistent volunteers. “We are unable to secure enough volun- teers to have an ongoing volunteer program on a long-term basis,” she said. “We have volunteers who want to come in and do a couple hours once every couple of weeks. It’s very hard to build a volunteer base on those inquiries.” STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Mark Gomolski, at left, of Hermiston loads food into a box while volunteering at the Agape House on Tuesday in Hermiston. Also photographed are volunteers Kyran Miller and Maria Trevino. The organization utilizes volunteers for its food delivery program, as well as peo- ple to work at warehouses and local food pantries. Hall said CAPECO tracks volunteers and volunteer hours, and has seen a trend in the past few years. “We don’t see new people of the younger generation entering into volunteering,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because people are See VOLUNTEER, Page A16 Hermiston High graduation to return to Toyota center HERMISTON HERALD The Hermiston School Board agreed at a meeting last week that the district will once again hold gradua- tion at the Toyota Center in 2019. Hermiston High School Princi- pal Tom Spoo made a brief presenta- tion to the board, discussing the pos- itives and negatives of the venue. He said the new location’s capacity was one of the biggest benefits, as the school no longer had to give students a limited number of tickets for family members. “Limiting it to three or four tickets is not an option,” said board member Dave Smith. This year’s graduation at the Toy- ota Center had about 4,400 attendees, which equated to more than 10 audi- ence members for each of the 342 stu- dents graduating. Spoo said the main issues with the Toyota Center were traffic getting there and crowd management after students gathered on the lawn to meet their families. Ahead of the 2018 graduation, the school board considered multiple options, including Kennison Field and the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center. But those options would have been more expensive than the Toy- ota Center, in part because the dis- trict would still plan to get the high school gym ready in case of inclem- ent weather, and would not have held as many people. Board members said they did not need to formally vote on the deci- sion, but unanimously agreed to hold graduation at the Kennewick center in 2019. STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY A crowd of about 4,400 people watched the Hermiston High School Class of 2018 graduate last month at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
