WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
COMMUNITY
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
1,000-mile journey for CASA Family Health & Fitness Day
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
The pack Charles Clupny
carried on his 1,000-mile
hike through Europe only
weighed 30 pounds, but he
brought back enough sto-
ries to last a lifetime.
“I have more pictures
than I know what to do
with,” he said.
Clupny started walk-
ing the Camino de Santiago
from Le Puy, France, to the
coast of Spain on April 12
and returned to the United
States on July 5. He used
the walk to raise money
($5,200 in all) and aware-
ness for Court Appointed
Special Advocates, which
assigns children in the fos-
ter care system a volunteer
“CASA” to act as a third-
party advocate on their
behalf in court.
From April 12 to May
1 — the first 200 miles —
Clupny and his wife Carol
walked together. They vis-
ited friends for a few days
at the end of the first leg,
then Carol flew home.
Clupny’s journey was
far from over, however. For
the next few weeks he jour-
neyed across mountains
and valleys for another 800
miles, waking at 5:30 a.m.
and walking 15 to 20 miles
a day.
“There were days that I
walked that I didn’t see any-
one all day, and I walked
eight to nine hours some
days,” he said.
Some days were difficult
as he walked rough, steep
paths up mountains led only
by a guidebook. He dodged
lightning strikes and took
shelter in a barn for an hour
and a half while it rained
“buckets.”
In the evenings, he would
arrive at one of the hotels
or other resting places des-
ignated for pilgrims on the
Camino and ask that they
call ahead to reserve his
next day’s resting place. He
would dine with other pil-
grims who were also spend-
ing the night there. If there
was WiFi, he would use a
messaging app to talk with
his wife.
Not all parts of the trail
were quiet. There were sec-
tions where Clupny passed
or was passed by travelers
from Finland, Russia, Italy,
South Korea and just about
any country he could think
of.
There was the woman
who called herself “Tur-
tle,” who was walking the
Camino de Santiago to quit
smoking and drinking. One
man, a fellow American,
saw Clupny’s CASA shirt
and said his children went
through the foster system.
A Bulgarian CEO spoke
Saturday, September 22, 2018
9am-2pm at Hermiston High School
FREE Health & Wellness
Event for All Ages
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY CHARLES CLUPNY
Charles Clupny on the Camino de Santiago in Europe.
perfect English. An Italian
named Luigi had started the
walk not from France but
from his own home in Italy.
The most memorable
person Clupny met was
Bülent, a Turkish television
star whom Clupny saw mul-
tiple times after lending him
some ibuprofen for his sore
knee.
As memorable as the peo-
ple were the places. Clupny
said he can’t pick just one
“favorite” place he saw on
his trek, but the most mem-
orable for him was a small
12th-century church he saw
after leaving the village of
Zubiri, Spain. A man pulled
up and offered to give him
a tour. It turned out that the
man, originally from South
Africa, had moved to Spain
to restore the old church
after seeing it on his own
pilgrimage.
“The doors were from
Roman times,” Clupny said.
“My goodness! It was like
walking through history.”
Another time, Clupny
visited a Benedictine mon-
astery that had been operat-
ing for 1,500 years. He was
touched by a mural of St.
Bernard on his death bed,
surrounded by his loved
ones and angels coming
down to take him home.
“The look on his face
was like ‘I want to go, but
I want to stay with you,’”
Clupny said.
That idea was especially
poignant to Clupny, whose
mother died while he was
on the final stretch of his
journey. He had sent her a
post card every day while
he was gone, and he plans
to compile those post cards
with photos of his trek into
a book to give to each of his
six siblings, dedicating it to
their mother.
After Clupny reached the
ocean and could go no fur-
ther, he bought a new set of
clothes in Madrid, spent a
few extra days in Spain, and
headed home.
“These are shoes I
bought in Madrid because
my wife told me not to
come home in the clothes I
wore on the trail,” he said,
pointing to his feet.
Umatilla
Morrow
County Head Start held a
dinner for him last week so
people could hear about the
trip and the $5,200 he raised
for CASA.
Training for anyone
interested in becoming a
Court Appointed Special
Advocate will be held in
offices at 502 W. Standard
Ave. in Hermiston Oct.
8-11 and Oct. 15-18 from
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more
information contact Tina
Fox, 541-278-6292.
• Teddy Bear Clinic
• Cooking Classes
• Dental Screens and Onsite
Treatment for Uninsured
• On-site Mammograms
• Yoga and Zumba sessions
• SHIBA
• Early childhood Activities
• Community Health Resources and
Programs
• Screenings:
• Blood pressures, lipid, A1c/diabetes,
hearing, vision, balance, body
composition, respiratory
health and more!!
• Helmet Fittings
• Giant Inflatable Colon
• Door Prizes
• Health Snacks
• And SO Much More for
Children, Seniors and
Everyone in Between!
Trustee to take over management of
Boardman dairies, Lost Valley Farm
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
A bankruptcy judge in
California will appoint a
trustee to operate Lost Val-
ley Farm, Oregon’s sec-
ond-largest dairy, after find-
ing owner Greg te Velde
is “unwilling, or unable to
comply with his duties as a
fiduciary.”
The ruling, handed down
Sept. 12, states te Velde has
continued his long-standing
pattern of drug use and gam-
bling while owing creditors
$160 million — including
$68 million to Rabobank, a
Netherlands-based agricul-
tural lender.
In addition to Lost Val-
ley Farm near Boardman, te
Velde will lose control of his
two dairies in California —
GJ te Velde Ranch in Tip-
ton, and Pacific Rim Dairy
in Corcoran — with a com-
bined total of 53,382 cattle.
When reached Friday, te
Velde said he had no com-
ment on the ruling.
The U.S. Department of
Justice asked Judge Fred-
erick Clement to appoint a
trustee for all three of te Vel-
de’s dairies, citing his alleged
drug use, gambling and lack
of financial transparency.
Since filing for bankruptcy,
te Velde has continued to
use methamphetamine two
or three times per week and
has gambled away $2,000 to
$7,000 per month, according
to court documents.
Te Velde has blamed his
financial problems not on
his lifestyle, but rather on
market forces outside his
control, such as low milk
prices and construction
cost overruns at Lost Val-
ley. But creditors in court
papers say they believe that
“darker forces have caused
his insolvency, or if not the
cause, preclude te Velde
from effectively resolving
his debt problems.”
Te Velde also does not
abide by the orders of the
bankruptcy court, Clem-
ent stated in his ruling.
For example, after declar-
ing bankruptcy, te Velde
borrowed $205,000 from
Pasco Farms without court
approval. Between May
8 and June 2, te Velde
was authorized to person-
ally withdraw $10,000,
but instead took $38,420,
explaining he was “unac-
customed to personal bank
accounts, took the cash he
needed, and authorized his
bookkeeper to pay his per-
sonal bills from the dairy
accounts.”
Lost Valley Farm opened
in April 2017 after receiving
a wastewater management
permit from the Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality and Department
of Agriculture, which jointly
manage the state’s confined
animal feeding operation, or
CAFO, program.
Almost immediately, the
dairy began racking up per-
mit violations, including 32
infractions related to waste
storage between June 28,
2017 and May 9, 2018. The
state attempted to revoke
the permit in June, though a
Multnomah County Circuit
Court judge ruled in August
that Lost Valley Farm could
stay in operation while te
Velde and regulators worked
out an agreement to get the
dairy back in compliance.
Lost Valley is within
the Lower Umatilla Basin
Groundwater Management
Area, established by DEQ
in 1990 for elevated levels
of groundwater nitrates. A
spokeswoman for the Ore-
gon Department of Agricul-
ture said regulators continue
to inspect the facility rou-
tinely, and have conducted
11 inspections since June 1.
Questions? Contact angie.treadwell@oregonstate.edu