HOOD RIVER — Hood River Valley High School’s mascot, a carved wooden eagle that sits outside the football field, recently received a long-needed facelift.
Emily Adams, a junior at Hood River Valley High School and a member of the National Honor Society, decided that, after many years of exposure to sun and rain, the eagle could use a makeover. She contacted school officials and asked for permission to take the eagle home and repair the many cracks and splits and give it a fresh coat of paint. The eagle was completed and placed back on its pedestal on June 5, in time for senior graduation.
“It took about a month of scraping and sanding to clean off the years of varnish and old paint,” Adams said. “And another month to repair all the splits in a way that will hopefully last for years to come. I’m very happy with the way it came out.”
Why would someone want to take on such a project? “I am an artist in my spare time, and I knew I could tackle something like this if I could just get it back to my workshop,” she said. “As a member of the National Honor Society, we are encouraged to engage in community service, and I thought that this was a great project that would benefit the high school.”
Through a little sleuthing she learned that the eagle was originally commissioned by Coach Bruce Burton, a local dentist and football coach for many years. Burton began as an assistant coach in 1980 and later became head coach in 1993. He stepped away for a time to become president of the Academy of General Dentistry in 2005, but returned as an assistant coach after his term. In all, Burton coached football in Hood River for more than 30 years.
“Football coaches changed my life when I was young, and I always wanted to pay it forward,” said Burton in a 2020 Columbia Gorge News article, “Burtons Say Goodbye.”
“It’s an honor to help restore something that was given to the school by Coach Burton. I hope he will be happy to see that his eagle is still going strong and will be here for many years to come,” said Adams.
The original artist and the year the eagle was made is still unknown. If anyone has any information, contact the high school so the artist can be recognized. A metal plaque will be placed on the base to recognize Coach Burton’s contribution to the school.
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Christopher Adams is a tree fruit entomologist at Oregon State University stationed at Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Experiment Station in Hood River.
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