Jessica Lewis
For The New Era
Retired high school teacher Chuck Thompson was named Sweet Home’s First Citizen Saturday night for his dedication to the high school, the church and the community.
Thompson was one of 12 people and one business honored at the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce’s 64th Annual Awards Banquet, which chamber President Dave Furtwangler said was the best-attended awards ceremony in Linn County, with over 370 people seated in the Sweet Home High School Activity Gym.
“We’re here to honor volunteers,” said Carlene Erickson, executive director of the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce. “I realize how much people put into Sweet Home just because they love it…and that’s what tonight is about.”
Steve Thorpe was named Junior First Citizen, Billie Weber was honored with the Distinguished Service Award, Leita Seiber-Barr was named BPW Woman of the Year, and Steelhead Strength and Fitness was named Business of the Year.
VIP award winners were Sydney Marks, Jan Barthel, Bud Baumgartner, Laurie Carlson, Bob Hartsock, Alice Burnett, and Randy and Carla Claasen.
“These are our people,” said Mona Waibel of the VIP award winners. “This is where we come from.”
Members of the 2008 Sportsman’s Holiday Court and Rodeo Princess Jenna Jessen Compton sold raffle tickets and poured punch for guests during the event’s social hour while the Oregon Trail Banjo Camp band played music. The group includes Curtis Williams, Helen Martin, her husband Dick, and his father Ralph, who was entered into the National Banjo Hall of Fame in 2003.
Sweet Home Boy Scout Troop 395 presented the colors and Herb Gustafson, choir director at the Fir Lawn Lutheran Church, sang the National Anthem in a powerful bass without a microphone. Chaplain Major Mark Gilderhus of the 1249th Engineer Battalion of the Oregon National Guard and pastor of the Fir Lawn Lutheran Church, gave the invocation and benediction.
Attendees enjoyed a ham dinner with scalloped potatoes, steamed vegetables and fresh salad, provided by Denim and Pearls, the school district’s catering service.
After dinner, Ron Moore, President of the Sweet Home Economic Development Group, presented the Sweet Home Community Foundation with 10 percent of the net profits from the Oregon Jamboree. SHEDG has donated money to the community every year since 2002. This year, the check totaled $35,000.
Little Promises won the Best Decorated Table Contest, which is given to the group or business whose table is judged most spectacular and/or in keeping with the evening’s theme. This year’s theme was “Green and Growing,” and Little Promises’ table was decorated with lilies, daffodils and conifer seedlings.
Chuck Thompson, First Citizen
Presenter Milt Moran listed Thompson’s accomplishments, which include serving as president of the Sweet Home Education Association, working on the Singing Christmas Tree, volunteering at a soup kitchen, and serving as a volunteer coach for a spring sport. He volunteers at a local church and “has been called an advocate for people having trouble advocating for themselves,” said Milt Moran, the 2006 winner who presented the award.
Thompson is involved at St. Helens Catholic Church as a member of the Finance/Administrative Council, the Parish Council, and the Building Committee. He taught religious education, has been a Confirmation Instructor, and he helped organize a Cow Pasture Golf Tournament for the church’s building fund.
Thompson has been on the Sunshine Industries Board of Directors since 2001. He is also involved with the Linn County Business Development Committee and the Linn-Co Federal Credit Union Supervisory Committee. In addition, he has dressed up to appear as Santa Claus at the Singing Christmas Tree, the nursing home and at St. Helens Church.
Thompson taught business at Sweet Home High School for 30 years until 2001. In 2003, he returned to the school as the Career Center Director, where he worked for three years counseling students, helping them find jobs, and following up with employers to check on the status of his students. He founded Monkey Business, a business class at the high school that uses a simulation of a real business to teach students. It has been used as a model for curriculum at other high schools, and Thompson published a book based on the course.
Thompson has been married to Susan for 40 years. They have three children and four grandchildren.
“This is unbelievable,” he said upon accepting the award. “It’s really an honor to be recognized with all the other people who have had the award in the past. My wife and I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the Sweet Home community.”
Steve Thorpe, Jr. First Citizen
Dustin and Heidi Nichol presented the award to Thorpe.
In their presentation speech they noted that he graduated from Sweet Home High School, where he was the student body president, a four-year letter winner and four-time district champion in wrestling, in which he also placed three times at state for the Huskies. He also played baseball, and received the Greg Hagle Memorial scholarship. He attended Pacific University for one year before transferring to Oregon State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in education. He wrestled during all four years of college.
Thorpe teaches math and physical education at Sweet Home High School and was the 2007 Fall Student Activities Director. He has been the wrestling head coach for 11 years.
“This man’s wrestling coaching awards read like a book,” said 2006 winner Dustin Heidi, who presented the award with his wife Heidi.
He is five-time Capitol Conference Coach of the Year, two-time Val-co Coach of the year, and the 2007 Oregon Wrestling Coach of the year.
“By his actions and attitudes people in the wrestling world think of our town as a place committed to excellence and caring of other people; a place where friendship is freely given and the close-knit feeling of family membership is not out of reach,” Dustin said.
Thorpe is an active member of the Community Chapel and has been involved in Children’s Youth Ministries. He is a 4A Wrestling representative, the Director of Santiam Wrestling Camp and the President and Coach for the Sweet Home Mat Club, and he works with the OSAA on wrestling issues. He coaches his daughters’ softball teams through the Boys and Girls Club and his son’s age group in the Mat Club.
“He is an incredible motivator, encourager and mentor to his wrestlers and students,” Heidi said. “It is not only that he is a great wrestling coach or that he contributes positively to his community. Steve Thorpe sees the champion in everyone.”
Billie Weber,
Distinguished Service
Dr. Harold Dowling presented the award to Weber, who he said married into a local pioneer family and has lived in Sweet Home for many years.
Weber is a successful real estate agent, and has served on the board of the East Linn museum for more than 20 years. She works on the Christmas bazaar at Sweet Home High School and helps raise college scholarship money for high school seniors. She serves on the church council and organized the memorial board in the rear of the church. For approximately 40 years, she served on the Fir Lawn Lutheran Church council, “doing every job,” said Dr. Harold Dowling, the 2006 winner who presented the award.
Weber assists Sportsman’s Holiday events and other parades during the year, and she has organized the Chamber banquet for the past two years.
Dowling called the award “an overdue honor to a worker with experience, organizational skills, energy and involvement.”
“This is a wonderful town, I love everybody here,” Weber said upon accepting the award. “The people do so many great things. Thank you so very much.”
Leita Seiber-Barr,
BPW Woman of the Year
2006 honoree Joan Riemer joked that anything she could say about Barr, who has an aversion to public recognition, would “immediately perk up her ears, so this generic description will work to ward off her confirmation that ‘Oh no, that is me.”
She said Barr goes “above and beyond the description of a good volunteer,” serving with the Oregon Jamboree, Eastern Star, Evangelical Church, Senior Center and Samaritan Grief Share, and as a full-time volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce.
“She has an up-beat attitude with lots of energy in the service areas in which she volunteers,” Riemer said. “When she hears that you are ill or have a need, she could show up at your home for a visit, bring a yummy meal, or ask if she can run an errand for you. She is just that kind of person.”
Riemer said Seiber-Barr, who raised two children during her many years in Sweet Home and worked for the school district for some 30 years, is especially known for her “mastery in the kitchen” as a baker and fudge-maker, who was known as the “Fudge Lady” to her son’s football team.
Steelhead Strength and Fitness, Business of the Year
Steelhead Strength and Fitness has helped boost the local economy by giving people a reason to come to the downtown area. They have contributed to chamber functions and given back to the community. Last fall, they offered a special “10 for 10” deal, where new members could visit the gym 10 times for $10, and they donated the proceeds to the Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, the Sweet Home Pregnancy Care Center, and the HOPE Center.
“The owners of this business have taken an old, vacant building in the downtown area and turned it into a quality enterprise – the kind of place you’re proud to show off to your friends and visiting relatives,” said Scott Swanson of last year’s winner The New Era, who presented the award. “These people put their money where their mouth was and have turned a failing enterprise into a business that turns heads.”
Dave and Vicki Bauer accepted the award on behalf of themselves, Dave and Desi Barringer, and Ivan Vandehei.
VIP Honorees
Sydney Marks was honored for her work with Operation Santa, where she provided Christmas gifts for almost 80 men and women in the military who are serving in the Far East. Bob Waibel, who presented the award with his wife Mona, called Marks “a patriotic woman who gets things done.”
Jan Barthel volunteered with the singing Christmas tree for 25 years and has helped with Oak Heights operetta performances. She taught music in the school district and is now retired, or, as Mona Waibel said, “should we say she no longer draws a salary for all the hard work she does.”
Bud Baumgartner chairs the Calapooia Watershed Council, which, Bob Waibel said, is “not always a popular thing to do.” He noted that, because of Baumgartner’s position, people sometimes “get mad at him, but our hero doesn’t back down when he knows it is the right direction.” Baumgartner also works as a master woodland manager with the OSU extension and helps the boys and girls club auction.
Laurie Carlson helps with funding for PEO and serves on the board for the Sweet Home Alumni Foundation. She is a teacher, and each year she takes a group of students to the NASA Space Center in Florida. She is in charge of decorations and displaying prizes for the silent auction, and “She has a knack for making things look snazzy,” Mona Waibel said.
Bob Hartsock volunteered at MANNA and wrote a grant for a new kitchen range. He volunteered at Sweet Home Emergency Ministry and was soon promoted to director. “In the move to the new quarters, he located the building, did some electrical wiring, and moved the whole operation in,” Bob Waibel said.
Alice Burnett answers phones for the Oregon Jamboree during the peak months of ticket sales. She serves on the Sweet Home alumni board and has been co-chair of the annual tree auction. She has helped with boy and girl scouts, chaired the annual Senior Alcohol Free Entertainment twice, and she ran the snack shack during track meets for two years. “This hard-worker helps with everything her three children are in,” Mona Waibel said.
Randy and Carla Claasen have both helped with chamber activities, and they worked on the Crawfordsville Bridge Celebration. Randy has volunteered at the Elks Lodge, working on the annual hoop shoot and soccer shoot, heading the Elks drug awareness program, and cooking pancakes twice a month on Sunday mornings. In addition, he was a baseball coach for the Boys and Girls Club. Carla worked as chamber manager, sometimes without pay, during the times that the organization ran out of funding.
“This classy couple are hard-workers who work well together,” Bob Waibel said, calling them “our dynamic duo.”