Honest and kind
My daughter stopped at the Hood River McDonald’s on Tuesday 4-15-14. About three hours later, she discovered her ring was missing. (I had given the same ring to each of my three daughters a number of years ago for Christmas.)
My daughter said she had made two stops and I told her to call McDonald’s and the gas station she had been at — although I doubted it would prove successful in finding her sentimental ring.
To our great surprise, Christina, the manager of McDonald’s, said it was locked in their safe.
Thanks to the integrity of employee Jasmine O., my daughter’s tears turned to tears of happiness. Thank you, Jasmine! Your kindness and honesty are so appreciated!
Barbara Huffman
Baker City
The lost is found
I want to publically thank the people of Hood River, the Hood River Valley School District, particularly, Sandy Spellman, receptionist at the high school and in specific, Donnie Herneisen, teacher and head track coach at Hood River Valley High School.
I wrote a letter to the editor last Friday, (published April 12) describing the black camera bag that I had lost when I was in Hood River to tape the lacrosse games between Hood River and Canby high school boys. Mr. Herneisen told me that when he read the letter to the editor in the Hood River News, he realized that the “bag” in the press box at the stadium was the “lost item” that I described.
To me this shows the power of the written word. Being from outside the community, I reached out to the school and they were gracious, taking the information and figuratively putting an arm around my shoulder, empathizing with me. Then I talked to the people at the Hood River News, who encouraged me to put an ad in the Lost and Found column, and then I wrote the letter to the editor.
I received the phone call on Tuesday morning (April 15).
My husband and I started taping the “grands’” games when our oldest grandson, Konnen, was playing soccer in the second grade. We had no idea what it would develop into, but let’s just say that we have burned out two Sony camcorders, and are now using a Panasonic camera to supplement our Sonys.
We have eight grands and have taped football, basketball, soccer, wrestling, volleyball and lacrosse games. We thought the “grands” would enjoy watching themselves, so I would tape and my husband would then edit the games and make the DVDs.
Now with the help of our local access channel, CTV-5, we put the games on the channel for everyone to watch. Somewhere along the line we started also providing DVDs for the coaches of the various youth sports, which morphed into also taping games for the high school coaches.
Inside the bag is the DVDirect recorder that we use to make a DVD as we are taping the game. That way the coaches have quicker access to help the teams improve.
We often hear on the news all the negative things that happen in our communities, our country and the world. Thank you, Hood River, for helping tell a positive story of people helping people.
Jeanne Eyman, aka Grama
Canby
Red herring
An important clarification should be made regarding the recent article on the Lyle Cherry Orchard trail (“Security, tax base concerns lead Lyle school board to restrict Cherry Orchard access,” April 16).
The article focused on the fact that a trail expansion would somehow result in a decline of the tax rolls of the community. That argument has been promoted by one individual who has yet to draw a clear line to his conclusion. That’s because there isn’t one.
The decision to expand or not expand the trail will have no impact on the tax rolls issue.
For the past four years that Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust has owned this property adjacent to Lyle, we have chosen to pay property taxes even though the land would qualify for a tax exemption. We have done this as a way to support the community. Last year that bill was about $13,000.
There is a legitimate debate that needs to occur about Lyle trail expansion and the schools are right to consider issues like student safety. But the issue that somehow a trail expansion will lower the tax base of the community is a red herring so large it wouldn’t fit in our mighty Columbia.
Kevin Gorman
Executive director
Friends of the
Columbia Gorge
Kindness of a stranger
I just want to let people know that angels on earth are alive and well.
I have the pleasure of volunteering at the gift shop at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital. On Tuesday, April 8, a woman was selecting gifts. Two boys came in around the same time to buy a teddy bear and a balloon to cheer up their 10-year-old brother who had had surgery. The bear and the balloon was more money than they had, so they put the bear back and went around the shop looking for a smaller bear within their price range.
While they were looking, the woman made her purchases and left money, whispering to me it was for the boys to buy their first choice of teddy bear for their brother. I thought she was a relative or a close friend, but she left the shop as the boys came up to the register to make their purchases.
I asked if they knew who the lady was and they said no; they had no idea who she was. I explained that she left money for them to purchase the first teddy bear they had chosen for their brother and they were amazed at the generosity of a complete stranger!
The boys asked what they could do for the kind stranger who left the money. I told them it was a wonderful random act of kindness and they could thank her by passing it on.
The brothers wanted to know if that meant they had to give the same amount of money to strangers. I laughed and said no, it doesn’t have to be money; just pass on the kindness to another person by helping them in some way!
What a heartwarming day I enjoyed.
Judy Lacey
Hood River
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