WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
UPDATES
Hermiston
Herald
wins 2020
General
Excellence
award
The
Hermiston
Herald was notifi ed
shortly before its print
deadline on Tues-
day, Sept. 29, that
the newspaper has
won the 2020 Gen-
eral Excellence Award
for its category in the
Oregon
Newspaper
Publishers Associa-
tion’s Better Newspa-
per Contest.
The Herald placed
fi rst over newspapers
in size category D,
while the Hood River
News came in sec-
ond and the Newport
News-Times came in
third.
The annual con-
test for newspapers
in Oregon looked at
a sample of newspa-
pers in February, July
and November of
2019 to determine the
winners.
The Herald’s sis-
ter paper, the East
Oregonian, also won
fi rst place for Gen-
eral Excellence in its
size category, beating
out the Daily Astorian
and Grants Pass Daily
Courier.
Newspapers
also
submitted samples of
articles, photos, spe-
cial sections and front
page designs for judg-
ing in individual cat-
egories. The Herm-
iston Herald placed
third for Best Cover-
age of Business and
Economic Issues, plus
second and third for
Best Spot News Cov-
erage. It was unknown
as of deadline which
articles
qualifi ed
the paper for those
awards.
The Oregon News-
paper
Publishers
Association is a trade
association of news-
papers in Oregon,
organized to promote
issues of common
interest to print media.
For more informa-
tion and results from
the contest, see next
week’s
Hermiston
Herald.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Volunteers pick up litter along the railroad tracks in Hermiston during the I Love My City event on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020.
Spreading the love
‘I Love My City’ event rallies volunteers for good deeds
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
GET INVOLVED
It’s been a rough year, but mem-
bers of several area churches were
determined to make it a brighter
one for Hermiston residents on
Saturday, Sept. 26.
“A lot of folks are just strug-
gling mentally so much because
of the quarantine, and this is just
our small way to bring some sun-
shine,” said New Hope Commu-
nity Church Pastor Chris Hankel.
Volunteers spread out across
the city, doing good deeds as they
went. Some cleared weeds out
of the landscaping along High-
way 395 or picked up litter along
the railroad tracks through town.
Others held a free car wash, set
up drive-thru prayer booths, paid
for peoples’ laundry at local laun-
dromats or paid for meals in the
McDonald’s drive-thru.
The day of service was part of
a larger movement called I Love
My City, which local churches
partnered to form in 2016 to bring
hope to people after acts of vio-
lence rocked the town. They have
held several events since then,
including free gift-wrapping out-
To get information about
future events or to sign up to
participate, go to
www.ilovehermiston.com.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Volunteers wash a car for free in the Ace Hardware parking lot in Hermiston
during the I Love My City event on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020.
“PEOPLE HAVE BEEN GRATEFUL
AND HAPPY AND THAT’S BEEN
THE BIGGEST BLESSING, SEEING
PEOPLE HAPPY.”
— Claudia Meza, who washed cars during the I Love My City event
side of Walmart during the Christ-
mas season and an annual spring
cleanup. The spring cleanup was
canceled due to the pandemic, but
Hankel said they decided to bring
back a smaller version of it this
month.
He didn’t know exactly how
many people ended up volunteer-
ing on Saturday, but said he knew
there were about 100 that came
from New Hope.
Other
involved
churches
included Hermiston Assembly of
God, Faith Presbyterian, Rekin-
dle, Hermiston Seventh-Day
Adventist and Templo Fe Esper-
anza Y Amor.
“We love Hermiston and we
want people to know God loves
Hermiston,” Hankel said.
On Sept. 26, while helping
wash cars for free in the parking
See Love, Page A10
‘Not your typical
90-year-old’
Hermiston woman celebrates
birthday with former students
around the world
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Photo contributed by Kara Campbell
Mary Doherty is pictured in her classroom in Bahrain during her tenure there.
INSIDE
A3 Hermiston School District
breaks ground on a new softball
complex
A3 Distance learning brings
challenges for schools’ support staff
Teachers come and go through-
out a student’s career, but many
people have that one special edu-
cator who shaped their life in a
way they’ll never forget.
Mary Doherty is one of those
teachers.
On Sept. 23, hundreds of
Doherty’s former students living
in more than 30 different countries
A7 Umatilla Electric Cooperative
moves to an independent model of
power purchases
joined a virtual party over Zoom
for her 90th birthday. She spent
two hours greeting students by
name and reminiscing with them
about their time in her classroom
decades ago.
“She remembered every stu-
dent,” Yen Sullivan, a former stu-
dent, said. “I was shocked.”
Doherty was raised in Hermis-
ton and returned after her retire-
ment in 1995, but in between,
she spent most of her time teach-
ing overseas, in countries includ-
ing Venezuela, France, Belgium,
Japan, Spain and Bahrain.
See Teacher, Page A10
A8 Hermiston City Council cre-
ates a local improvement district for
industrial park