On Wednesday, Aug. 24, Hoodenpyl Park in the heart of Glenwood was filled with community members there to wish Clause McKenzie a happy 60th birthday and celebrate his 15-year anniversary of owning Glenwood General Store. It’s hard to pull off a surprise party out in the open in a small town, but I’d say Clause was very surprised as his brother convinced him to take a little walk to the park. It was our opportunity to let Claude know how greatly we appreciate all he does for our community and how special he is to all of us here. Claude’s sisters and brothers were there, along with his mom, Alicia, to be part of the celebration. Congratulations on two milestones, Claude, and thank you for all you do.
Our Glenwood cowgirls continue to amaze and make us proud. Peyton Sanchey, a Glenwood sophomore, and Joslyn Arnold, a junior, recently competed in the Sherman County Fair Rodeo and came home winners. Peyton and her beautiful horse Sister placed first in barrels against many other Northwest Pro Rodeo Association (NPRA) women barrel racers, coming home with a paycheck and her first rodeo buckle. Joslyn placed first in break-away roping against a large field of NRPA women ropers and also came home with a nice paycheck and a buckle.
To make the evening even more special, those cowgirls got to compete with School Superintendent Elyse Mengarelli. As Joslyn’s mom said, how many kids get to travel to and compete in rodeos with their superintendent? Peyton had just come off a third place finish in barrels in Heppner, also an NRPA-sanctioned rodeo. These girls are on fire, competing against more experienced women and showing them how it’s done. We are all so eager to follow their journey in High School Rodeo competition this year, starting this month in Longview. Watch these girls. They’re going far in rodeo, for sure.
Younger Glenwood cowgirls Jocee and Jentry Hoctor participated in the August Junior Rodeo in Milton-Freewater, then hurried home to compete in the West Klickitat Posse Club playday in White Salmon. What a full weekend for those cowgirls. Both the Junior Rodeo and Playdays are based on a cumulative time for the season, and there are a few more competitions before the season ends for both events ends, but they’re doing very well. Jocee and her horse Grace really flew around the barrels on Sunday, making the fastest time of any barrel racers, even among the adults. Her mom, Jaecee, was right behind her with a very fast time. Most of all, they’re having a lot of fun and really honing their skills.
Glenwood School started their 2022-23 school year last Aug. 24, with nine new students added to the student body. That’s great news for our small school. After Labor Day weekend, there may be a few more new students.
Some big news for our high school students is the addition of another sport, cross country. We have some great runners here and it’s going to be a lot of fun. The high school kids also have a wider variety of classes to choose from this school year. Just two of the new classes available are Teacher Academy, a credit class for students who might be considering a career in education, and a drama class, which will be a great plus for our many talented student actresses and actors. In addition, there are clubs students can join, focusing on subjects in which they expressed interest last spring when surveyed by Ms. Mengarelli. Time is built into the schedule for students to participate in the clubs of their choice. This school year is off to a great start and will be very enriching for all our students.
This news comes a bit late, but here are some results from the Klickitat County Fair. The Mt. Adams Community 4-H beef club, under the leadership of Mike Woodward, represented their club well at the county fair last week. Blaine and Joslyn Arnold, Tye Murray, Klayton and Gracie Schmid, and Jocee Hoctor all showed their handsome steers. Jocee’s steer, Johnny Cash, received champion in his market weight class. In Showmanship, Jocee and Blaine were both called back for the championship round in the Intermediate age group, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, out of 16 participants in the Intermediate age group. In Seniors, Joslyn and Klayton also made it to the final round.
The Patterson kids, Wyatt, Emma, and Anita, all did well with their pigs this year. Wyatt’s and Emma’s pigs both placed third in their market classes. In the intermediate showmanship age group, Wyatt got called back for the championship round. Their little sister Anita, age 6, did very well showing a pig in the peewee division. Keeping it in the family, their cousin Paislee LaVallie received Grand Champion Novice Showman with her pig. Another club member, Ariana Berge, received Reserve Champion Showman with her age division.
Joining Anita showing pigs in the peewee division were a few other adorable little Glenwood girls. Natalie Miller, age 3, and Sophia Bensel and Rigynn Mengarelli Walker, both age 5, did very well moving their pigs around. They received goodie bags full of lots of fun things as their reward for being brave enough to get out there and show in front of a large audience.
All the Glenwood kids did great with their pigs this year, no matter where they placed in their showing. Due to the cold, wet spring followed by this long period of very high temperatures, some pigs raised by kids in the Mt. Adams Community 4-H swine club did not make weight so could not compete in market class. That should not take away from how hard all the kids worked hard raising their pigs this year. I hope they know, we here in their hometown are very proud of how well they all did at the fair.
The kids showing and selling market animals and their parents want all those who bid on and purchased animals to know how very much they are appreciated. For those kids, raising, showing, and selling their market animals helps them build up nice college funds and they thank all who supported them at the stock sale.
In horse classes, Jentry Hoctor and her good horse Geronimo did very well. They received Grand Champion ribbons for western pleasure and English pleasure, and Reserve Champion ribbons for discipline rail and bareback.
Congratulations to all our Glenwood and Mt. Adams Community 4-H kids on another successful county fair. Your hard work certainly paid off this year.
Jocee Hoctor and her horse Grace placed second in the intermediate barrels during the Western Games on Tuesday night. The way they flew around those barrels was a sight to see, for sure. Way to go, Jocee.
In the Family Penning competition on Thursday evening, the Hoctor family, Jaecee, Josh, Jocee (age 12), and Jentry (age 8), placed second, finishing just a second or so behind the first-place team. You can tell, moving and penning cattle isn’t something that family just does for sport, it’s a normal part of their Mt. Adams Angus Ranch work. Others from our community also competed in the penning. I don’t have a complete list so don’t want to mention some and leave others out, but they all did well in penning.
Josh and Jaecee also competed in Team Branding on Friday evening, along with Travis Miller, John Stephens, Elyse Mengarelli, and Casey and Joslyn Arnold. That’s a pretty tough event, but, judging by their smiles, they all had a great time out there in the arena.
In the Still Life building, the exquisitely beautiful quilt made by Terry Arnold received a Reserve Champion ribbon. Rich Wheelhouse received a Reserve Champion ribbon for his elderberry wine. Congratulations to them both. Natalie Miller, age 3, received some red and blue ribbons for her art work and marigold flower. She’s learned early how fun the fair can be. Other Glenwood community members also did very well with their entries but I didn’t receive a list of those results. They all deserve recognition and congratulations.
Coming home from the school dinner last Monday evening, I just had to stop and take some photos of our pretty little post office. The flower boxes and planters are so full and beautiful and make that little old building a pretty focal point, not just for all of us who live here, but for visitors to our small town. I learned that Linda Johnson is the person who has donated many hours and her gardening skills to make it look so nice. Thank you, Linda.
Jennifer Hallenbeck provided the following information for our local kids. Kids Jam for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade will begin soon! Mark your calendars for Friday, Sept. 23 from 6-8 p.m. Kids Jam will be on the second and fourth Friday each month, until May. We look forward to seeing your kids for this night of fun Bible learning!
Youth Group for grades 6-12 will begin again the Sunday after Labor Day, Sept. 11. Youth group is an opportunity for our teens to come together for a night of fun, food, and Bible learning. We meet every Sunday from 6-7:30 p.m. at the church. We also go on fun outings throughout the school year and Winter Camp over President’s Day weekend.
Mary Pierce writes about the community of Glenwood every other week in Columbia Gorge News. Please send any news items to gmpierce09@gmail.com.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.