Notwithstanding vandals, wildfire, and a long rocky climb, the Fun Group’s first holiday star is still glowing. With six or eight stars to their name, the group is still going strong, said organizer Tony Foote.
That first star, poised on a ridge just east of The Dalles above historic Highway 30, took eight men about a month to create around 20 years ago. Carrying all their material up the hill, they built the star — an angular, 40-foot construction of plastic conduit pipe with wires run through it — and lowered it down to hang against the basalt cliff that crowns the hill.
That year, vandals pushed the star over the cliff, according to notes from an early Fun Group member. Gathering the pieces, they hoisted it back up.
The next year, it was vandalized again. This time, the group reconstructed their star at the bottom, and John Sherr Sr. flew a wooden pallet of water buckets and cement sacks from shop to hill. Three poles hooked onto the star, spike-pounded into the stone, and poured over with concrete anchor it securely.
A couple of wildfires have scoured the cliff over the years, Foote said — sparing the star where it sheltered against the basalt but incinerating the climbing ropes, which were needed for maintenance when Gabe Red Cloud took on the dangerous job of swinging down over the cliff to change blown-out, deteriorated bulbs and keep the star shining.
The Fun Group’s stars have grown in number to “six or eight,” and the nonprofit has about 28 members. Most of the stars are safer creatures, which plug into electrical outlets; the original still requires gas to fire its generators.
All shine from the Starlight Parade till New Year’s Day, about 4 p.m. to early morning.
For Foote, who does the admin work, it’s the fellowship with other star-lighters, renewed at annual parties, that’s kept him invested as the constellation grew.
Foote’s memories begin with “three fellows sitting in Phil Pashek’s potting shed on a warm, pleasant Sunday in mid-August,” he said.
“Ken Proctor, John Wood and Phil Pashek were visiting, each talking about the good old days,” Foote recalled. A drive in Phil’s Parklane Mercury took them to Bert Hodges’ home, and in the course of an ice tea on the patio, Bert revealed a building project: A passel of stars he was building in the street below his house.
They decided to place their first project on Hodges’ ranch. The cows didn’t mind.
Allen Peterson, Tony Fasulo, Jerry Kelly and electrician Ron McHale also teamed up, and after multiple trips to the large rock, some measuring, and some evaluation, the new star and attendant generators were loaded into a shed. Winches and pulleys, meant to draw the lot uphill, only moved it about 10 feet; in the end, the builders carried material on their own backs.
Since then, gas lights have given way to LED. Every few nights, volunteers haul propane up the narrow, muddy lane across Hodges’ land, now county property, supplying the star’s generators. Every evening, someone sets the timer and fires up the star.
Foote remembers one night when the star stayed dark. “We had some treacherous years ... three feet of snow we had to plow away, and that was only one night we didn’t make it,” he said. “We got tangled up in a bunch of rocks out in the field ... Just couldn’t see where the road was.”
“We’ve not missed a year since we started, right through COVID,” added Foote, who hopes they can keep the constellation glowing well into the future, “as long as we can keep maintaining enough money to buy the propane and materials.
“We’re in the process of doing [a new star] right now for a member,” Foote noted. “I think we’re pretty well maxed out. A lot of us are getting older, and we’re trying to get some young guys ... and we don’t have that kind of budget,” he added. The founding members built stars with their own money. “We’re getting younger people. And I think it’ll always keep going.
“We have lots of comments, and truck drivers doing down the freeway write to us,” he said. “They see these big stars, as they go down the highway. Everybody knows about it.”
Fun Group subsists entirely on donations, required for maintenance, propane, and other works. Donations to Fun Group or inquiries can be mailed to Tony Foote at 673 Brentwood Drive, The Dalles, OR 97058-9709.
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