COMMUNITY
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
herMIsTOnheraLd.cOM • A7
Hermiston’s Bonifer
excels at state chess
tournament
By ANNIE FOWLER
STAFF WRITER
staff photo by Jade Mcdowell
Ozark Hippie Art & Creations will open March 30 in Stanfield.
New studio to offer art classes for kids
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A local artist is hop-
ing to increase art oppor-
tunities for young people
by opening an art studio in
Stanfield.
Kim La Plant plans to
teach art lessons to children
and teens at Ozark Hip-
pie Art & Creations, open-
ing March 30 at 135 W Coe
Ave. Her own artwork will
also be on sale at the studio
to help support the venture.
La Plant plans to charge
$10 per child for most les-
sons, with some offered
for free so that families
of any income wouldn’t
be left out. She said she
hopes students will pick up
some art skills, but also that
they will be able to benefit
from a creative outlet and
increased self-expression
and self-esteem.
“It will mostly be for the
kids to have a soft place to
land,” she said.
La Plant has been teach-
ing classes at Pendleton
Center for the Arts and has
worked with youth and art
in other settings, including
Head Start. The Hermiston
Public Library showcased
Photo contributed by Kim La Plant
Kim La Plant works with children at Pendleton Center for the
Arts.
her work — which often
features colorful water-
color representations of
nature — in December.
An art teacher made a
significant impact on La
Plant when she was grow-
ing up in the Ozarks. She
said kids on the west side
of Umatilla County have
few opportunities for art
classes outside of school,
which is what inspired her
to open Ozark Hippie Art &
Creations.
Things have come
together perfectly for her
to open the studio, she said,
from the affordable space
to donations from busi-
nesses, such as Hermiston’s
Details 2 Enjoy home decor
store. One day she and her
husband, Brian, were driv-
ing to the Tri-Cities and she
prayed to be able to find
40 chairs and three tables
she could afford for the art
classes.
“We turned the cor-
ner (at Goodwill) and they
were literally just wheeling
these out,” she said, gestur-
ing to the blue plastic chairs
lining the tables. “They had
just been donated, and there
were exactly 40.”
Art classes offered at
Ozark Hippie Art & Cre-
ations will include vari-
ous mediums, from acrylic
paint to wood burn-
ing. Speciality classes
will include mother-child
classes, father-child classes
and projects that pair chil-
dren and senior citizens
together. La Plant plans
to firm up the class sched-
ule soon, but expects to be
open Wednesday through
Saturday.
For more information,
visit the Ozark Hippie Art
& Creations Facebook
page, email ozarkhippie-
creations@gmail.com or
call 541-656-6754.
Students turn pages in book battle
school libraries, Fields
said. Each of the build-
ings hosted a double-elim-
ination bracket tournament
culminating in a final battle.
Winning teams advanced to
the Region 6 Tournament
in Baker City.
By HERMISTON HERALD
Secondary students in
the Hermiston School Dis-
trict recently held build-
ing-wide contests for the
Oregon Battle of the Books.
The top teams from each
school included an all-sev-
enth grade team from
Armand Larive Middle
School. The Raw Reading
Recruits included Joseph
Rovig, Elijah Robinson,
Jesus Herrera and Mauri-
cio Mendoza. The winning
team from Sandstone Mid-
dle School, who call them-
selves the Wonder Women,
are Alea Garrett, Ava Gar-
rett, Reagan Stanek and
Hailey Magallegenes. And,
the Hermiston High School
division winners featured
a veteran team — Jessica
Ferguson, Nadine Fergu-
son and Jerence Lyons —
Photo contributed by delia Fields
Sandstone Middle School Battle of the Books team, Wonder
Women: Alea Garrett, Ava Garrett, Reagan Stanek and
Hailey Magallegenes.
who had some extra fun
with their team name, cAP-
ITALIZE cORRECTLY,
said Delia Fields, the dis-
trict’s secondary librarian.
The annual reading
competition centers on a
selection of 16 books for
middle schoolers and 12
for high schoolers. Teams
of students answer compre-
hension questions about the
stories.
The students usually
compete in teams of three
or four students and often
have their book battles
during lunch times in their
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The game of chess is
more than just moving
pieces on the board. There
is an art to the game, and
more moves than offseason
baseball.
Hermiston junior Isaac
Bonifer has a handle on the
nuances of the game, and
that paid off last weekend
at the 52nd Annual Chess
for Success Oregon State
Tournament at the Ore-
gon Convention Center in
Portland.
Bonifer won two games,
lost two, and had another
finish in a draw, recording
2½ points — more than any
Hermiston player in the past
20 years — and finished
tied for fifth in the field of
22 players.
Joshua Grabinsky won
the state title, winning all
five of his matches.
Had Bonifer had won his
final game, he would have
placed second.
“I played the other kid’s
game and I shouldn’t have,”
he said. “He caught me
off guard. After a while I
slowed down and he got
mad. In the end he had more
pieces than me.”
This past weekend was
Bonifer’s second trip to the
state tournament. Last year
he won one of five games.
“I have only had one
other kid (Oscar Galdamaz)
who had gone two years in a
row,” Hermiston chess club
advisor Delia Fields said.
“Isaac has a chance to go
three times.”
While Fields is the advi-
sor, she admits she is not a
chess master. She gets help
from former Hermiston
teacher Dan Jamison, who
comes in and challenges the
players.
“Dan helps the kids think
through their game,” Fields
said. “Isaac has beaten Dan
a couple of time this year.”
Fields said the kids need
the extra push.
“They see a high level
of competition over there,”
she said of the state tour-
nament. “Some of those
kids have personal chess
coaches.”
Bonifer said he started
playing chess in the seventh
grade with his father, Luis.
“He used to be able to
beat me,” said Bonifer, who
also plays on the school’s
lacrosse team. “That has
changed. I beat him all the
time now.”
New gaming lounge
to open in Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Tech Tech Goose Gam-
ing will open its doors in
Hermiston on Thursday.
The new gaming lounge,
located at 182 E. Main St.,
will offer a pay-by-the-hour
gaming experience with a
variety of consoles and vir-
tual reality options.
Owner Douglas Sanders
is an Army National Guard
veteran and former TRCI
correctional officer, who was
born and raised in Hermis-
ton. He said he and his wife
are “highly involved” with
youth at Our Lady of Angels
Catholic Church.
“We realized there’s noth-
ing for them to do here,” he
said. “There’s the bowling
alley and the movie theater
and that’s about it.”
Sanders said he hoped
young people in the commu-
nity decide to come spend
time at Tech Tech Goose
Gaming. He plans to pro-
vide consoles ranging from
Xbox One to Nintendo
Switch, tabletop games such
as Dungeons and Dragons,
and a “full-immersion” vir-
tual reality gaming system.
He also hopes to bring in a
professional gamer from the
Tri-Cities to teach classes on
how to make money from
gaming.
Different levels of mem-
berships will help fre-
quent users save money, but
non-members will pay $9
per hour for most gaming
and $20 per virtual reality
session. Hours are 1-10 p.m.
on Mondays and Thursdays,
10 a.m. to midnight Fridays
and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to
10 p.m. on Sundays.
For
more
informa-
tion visit the Tech Tech
Goose Gaming Facebook
page or call Sanders at
541-720-5808.
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