WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
Dream Team puts focus on fun
Athletes of all abilities meet for weekly softball game
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
On Tuesday nights at Herm-
iston’s Field of Dreams, a very
unusual softball game takes shape.
Both teams wear the same green
T-shirts, emblazoned with the
words “Dream Team.” There are
half a dozen shortstops, but zero
outs. The game is only two innings
long.
The weekly games are part of
an annual tradition that takes place
each spring when special needs
athletes from age 6 and to young
adult play together, helped along
by members of local Little League
teams. On Tuesday, May 4, the
Devin Oil Marlins softball team
and the Hermiston Generating Car-
dinals baseball team were taking
their turn.
“My favorite part is at the end of
each game, when they ask, ‘When
do we get to play again?’ ” Coach
Tasha Bleyenberg said.
She and Coach Kristi Smalley
gather their 18 players each week
at 6 p.m. They start out by pair-
ing up Dream Team athletes with
Little League athletes for a game
of catch to warm up, then lead
everyone in some stretches before
the athletes divide into two teams
and the game begins.
“Are we gonna have some fun
tonight?” Smalley asked every-
one during the May 4 game, while
everyone enthusiastically chimes
back that fun is the focus.
David Shasteen, age 9, said he
has been on the Dream Team for
several years now. His favorite part
is getting to swing the bat.
There are no strikes — players
get to hit the ball as many times
as they need, either from a ball
pitched by a coach or a T-ball tee
— and David said he usually hits
the ball right away.
“But sometimes I miss the ball
on the fourth time or the second
time,” he said.
The players’ skill varies widely.
During the fi rst inning, one player
wandered toward third base after
hitting the ball before her Lit-
tle League buddies got her going
in the right direction toward fi rst
base, while the next hit a line drive
past third base and jogged quickly
straight to fi rst.
All players run one base at a
time, until the last batter brings
everyone home.
Outfi elders send the ball back to
the pitcher instead of to a base, and
See Dream Team, Page A10
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Members of the Dream Team raise their hands and cheer following a game at Hermiston’s Field of Dreams on
Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
The Dream Team’s Nathaniel Shasteen, accompanied by a pair of Cardinals
players, runs toward second base at Hermiston’s Field of Dreams on
Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
Foster parents open their homes to children in need
resource parents to stop by and
pick things out for free.
If Osuna was asked to advise
people who are thinking about
doing foster care but are feeling
intimidated, she said it would be
that “the kids are worth it.”
“The journey isn’t a walk in the
park by any means, but these kids
deserve love and a safe place,” she
said.
May is National Foster
Care Month
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
For Bianca Osuna, being a fos-
ter parent is a dream come true.
“I know it sounds kind of
cheesy, but I didn’t dream of being
a fi refi ghter when I was growing
up, I dreamed of being a mom,”
she said.
When Osuna didn’t end up
having biological children, she
turned to the foster care system
three years ago as a way to still
provide a home for children. Her
fi rst placement — a set of four
siblings — lasted about a year.
She has continued to care for
other children since, and said she
has enjoyed the “ever-learning”
experience.
Many of the children who come
into her home after a last-minute
phone call from the Department
of Human Services are coming
from very diffi cult situations, such
as homes with drugs and abuse.
Osuna said she has had to learn a
lot about parenting in a diff erent
way than the way she was raised.
“People think, ‘How hard can
it be? It’s just babysitting,’ ” she
INSIDE
‘We need more kiddos’
Michelle Davis/Contributed Photo
Michelle Davis and her husband, Al, have been doing foster care for about
fi ve years total.
said. “But it’s not. It’s retraining
the brain from trauma.”
Osuna has no regrets, however,
about becoming what DHS now
calls a “resource parent.” Even her
fi rst experience, when she went
from having no children to hav-
ing four dropped off at a moment’s
notice, was a rewarding one she
said she would do again. She
enjoyed taking the kids around to
their sports and other activities and
spending time with them at home.
A3 Shortage of lifeguards
aff ecting swimming lessons
schedule
“I was like a chicken with my
head cut off and I loved it,” she
said.
There is plenty of support for
resource parents, too, she said.
Kids have case workers and court
appointed special advocates and
counselors, and parents have train-
ings and support groups. A new
nonprofi t called Sweet Potato’s
Closet, which opened last year,
provides a large selection of cloth-
ing, hygiene items and more for
A5 Concert set to raise money
for cystic fi brosis research
Michelle Davis and her husband
did foster care for the past two and
a half years in Oregon, and for
about three years before that while
they were living in Kansas.
She and her husband have two
biological children, but decided
they had room in their home for
more.
“We thought, you know what?
We need more kiddos in the
house,” she said.
The Davises have spent on aver-
age about a year with each child or
sibling set they’ve taken into their
home. They also frequently pro-
vide respite care, which provides
temporary child care for a child in
the foster system while the person
or family they are living with does
something else, such as traveling
out of town for a business trip.
Davis said if someone wants to
dip their toe into the world of foster
A7 Gift card proposal would
benefi t local restaurants
care to see how they like it, doing
respite care for a day or two at a
time can be a good way to start.
There’s always a risk that bio-
logical children and foster children
in the same home might not get
along well, similar to biological
siblings, but Davis said her chil-
dren have always been great about
accepting everyone.
“My oldest just turned 9 yester-
day and he has the biggest heart of
gold,” she said. “He just accepts
anyone who comes in.”
She said the other day when she
asked her 4-year-old where babies
come from, he answered that
someone comes and drops them
off , of course.
No more empty nesters
Tonya Wilson and her husband
are just coming up on one year
of doing foster care. So far they
have welcomed three teenagers, all
related, into their home.
“We’re empty nesters, and we
suck at it,” she said when asked
why they decided to get certifi ed
as foster parents. “It’s so quiet and
empty.”
Wilson said it can take up to a
year to get approved to be a fos-
ter parent, but in this case she and
her husband were fi rst approved as
See Foster, Page A10
A9 Initiative petition concerns
Oregon farmers, ranchers