Six Hood River students graduate

How does one end a 12-year project?

If it ever truly ends.

The June 5 Hood River Valley High School commencement brought to a close, perhaps, Tracks to ‘26, a simple concept that yielded a complex product.

“Tracks” began in 2012. Once a year since then, I interviewed six Hood River County young people, chosen as kindergartners. The elementary principals at the time were asked to suggest one student; the parents were first contacted, and then the 6-year-olds were asked to participate. All six families approached agreed to do it. Those six leaps of faith paid off.

Initial interviews happened in May 2014, followed by annual installments published every late fall, starting in grade one and culminating in December 2025 with the now-seniors’ final answers. Annual questions included “What’s a good thing that happened to you this week?”; “What’s a challenge for you these days?”; and “What are your plans after school?”

Then the plan was to have one final meet-up, just before diploma time for the Class of ‘26. The main goal was a final group photo. And it took a bit of coordination in advance — via phone, text and email, and help of HRVHS staff — and in-the-moment wrangling, but the group photo shoot was arranged for graduation night.

Five of the six made it: Jess Aubert, Diego Bustos, Jayden Evans, Jack Miller and Nick Tuttle. Sofia Rodriquez was “in the house” but got delayed, and we needed to take the photo so that all concerned could be where they needed to be: joining their class for the procession into the stadium. It was a hectic and heady moment for these young people and, as important as this was, they had other things, and people, to focus on.

Gathering the Tracksters on graduation night gave me one “final” chance to see them, and I was able to talk, albeit briefly, with all six.

Other folks I made contact with Friday included Superintendent Bill Newton, who had no small role in “Tracks” formation: he was principal at Westside in 2014 and suggested Diego.

This amounted to a major compact that, to this day I am amazed the way it developed — and sustained. “Can you suggest a kindergartner you feel is likely to remain in the community for the next 12 years?” We asked principals to be soothsayers and gatekeepers, one might say, on a semi-crazy experiment. And it worked out: all six stayed involved, enthusiastically so. Every year, for 12 years. That Sofia evoked the term “metamorphosis” in grade one — her vocabulary word that week she spelled for me as “metemorfess” — served as both catalyst and throughline for “Tracks”: it was always about the changes.

As a paper, and community of readers, we saw these six young people through both difficulties and normal childhood challenges and “ups and downs,” some significant life changes, and even a couple of tragedies. And there was never a time that any of the six hesitated to describe their lives. Even the tough parts: deaths of parents and close friends, health challenges or injuries, school difficulties, and gender transition.

Were one or two quiet and less than voluble at times, and unsure of what to say? Perhaps brief or minimal in response to one or two of the questions? Certainly — degrees of reticence or unease are part of this capturing of moments of unfolding maturity. It would be easy to talk most of the time, not so much at other times. At any age, it is a lot to expect a youth to answer the question “What do you think about the future?” While it had to be asked, it came with the understanding that often the answer was a simple “I don’t know.”

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Columbia Gorge News will present all six with copies of the pages from the years of interviews. The graduation night meet-up was admittedly hurried and not as finely tuned as I might have hoped. But last week I was able to do the thing I most wanted: to thank the students for their openness, their complete willingness to talk about their lives and what was going on with them, from spring 2014 as kindergartners through their senior year.

“You committed to something unique, and yours was a chronicle of your community,” I told them.

I also told all of them that I appreciated their friendship and hoped we would talk again. Someday. That remains to be seen but in the very least I am grateful to have been a part of their childhood. It truly was my privilege that came to know and love all these “kids,” who are now adults and, as I told them, will do well in life. Their intelligence, compassion and humor can only mean good things for whatever they do and whoever they meet. These six are a cross-section of the Hood River County community and people who should make the community proud.

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Former Columbia Gorge News co-editor Kirby Neumann-Rea retired in April 2025 and continues to write, for the News-Register in McMinnville, where he worked from 2021-2025, and occasionally for this newspaper. He also writes a www.Substack.com post, Burn the Ax Handle.