Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Citing his long and deep involvement in the community as a leader in the logging industry and as a parent and public citizen, Milt Moran Jr. was named First Citizen at the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce’s 63rd Annual Awards Banquet Saturday night at Sweet Home High School.
He was one of 14 people and one business honored at the event, which drew some 356 to the activities gymnasium at Sweet Home High School.
Retired medical doctor Harold B. Dowling was honored with the Distinguished Service Award, Dustin and Heide Nichol were named Jr. First Citizens, and Joan Riemer was named Business and Professional Women’s Woman of the Year. The New Era was honored as Business of the Year.
VIP winners were Donna and Rob Poirier, Barbara Baumgartner, Elmer Riemer, Norma Reeser, Ival and Pat McCollum, Dick Hill, Joyce Geil and Gary Betts.
The guests at the event enjoyed a chicken cordon bleu dinner served up by Denim and Pearls, the school district’s catering service.
Sweet Home Boy Scout Troop 395 presented the colors as Sweet Home High School Student Body President Chris Schaefer led the flag salute and the high school choir sang the national anthem. Major Mark Gilderhus, a chaplain with the 1249th Engineer Battalion of the Oregon National Guard and pastor of Fir Lawn Lutheran Church, gave the invocation and benediction.
The grand prize trophy in the Best Decorated Table Contest given to the group or business whose table decoration is judged most spectacular and/or in keeping with the evening’s theme, which was “Way Out West,” Fir Lawn Lutheran Church.
Mayor Craig Fentiman, who served as master of ceremonies, and new chamber President Dave Furtwangler welcomed the crowd, Furtwangler joking that “I intend to set an example for short speeches tonight – Welcome!” Furtwangler thanked CenturyTel and Avamere Healthcare, who helped sponsor the event, along with chamber volunteers Pat Woods, Athena Noble and board member Billie Weber, who helped organize it as new chamber Director Carlene Erickson recovered from surgery.
Sweet Home Economic Development Group President Ron Moore announced that, as SHEDG has done each year since 2002, it is presenting the Sweet Home Community Foundation with 10 percent of the net profits from the Oregon Jamboree last summer, a check totaling to $32,000. Since 2002, SHEDG has given the foundation over $120,000 for local charities and other needs, Foundation President Bob Burford said. Burford said the money will be distributed to deserving causes in the community in start-up funds for “worthy projects to enhance liveability” as well as to create a long-term endowment to assist the community in the future. He said tens of thousands of dollars have been distributed to the community over the past several years and that this year’s grant winners will be announced at the SHEDG Breakfast Club in a couple of weeks. An additional $20,000 will be distributed this year, he said.
Members of the 2007 Sportsman’s Holiday Court, who were selected Feb. 13, along with Rodeo Queen Larissa Bjornsen and Princess Cera Kem, sold raffle tickets and helped out with the event.
One raffle winner was Margaret Champion, manager of Wiley Creek Community, who won an Elvis quilt, presented by John Erickson who dressed up as The King, announcing he’d “come out of hiding” for the event.
Milt Moran Jr., First Citizen
Moran, who was announced by last year’s winner, Debbie Cooley, grew up in Lebanon, has worked for Cascade Timber Consulting for 30 years, most recently as director of sales and logging operations. He’s been married to his wife Jane for 30 years as well and has four grown children and five grandchildren.
He was active in the Jaycees for many years, serves as a board member for the Oregon Logging Conference and as president of the Northwest Log Rules Advisory Group, and has worked with the River Log Scaling and Grading Bureau and the Linn Forest Protective Association. He is a board member at Lebanon Samaritan Community Hospital and served for eight years as a school board member in Sweet Home and on the High School Site Council.
Moran and his wife are chairs of the Working Loggers Relay competition during Sportsman’s Holiday, with which he’s been involved for 10 years. He also is active at St. Helen’s Catholic Church, serving on the Finance Committee and cooking monthly breakfasts there.
For years, while his children grew up, Moran coached youth sports and has helped put on “many” all-night graduation parties, Cooley said.
“What a great person to have as a coach and role model,” she said.
“My own experience with this very special man came in the form of the Oregon Jamboree when I worked as the Security Team leader. He was there wherever and whenever he was needed. When the public is at a concert, most people take on alter personalities and he was able to handle all that came his way and keep his sense of humor.”
Dustin and Heide Nichol,
Junior First Citizens
2005 winner Beth Shook said it would be “difficult to nominate one of tonight’s recipients for Jr. First Citizens without nominating the other. They are a husband and wife team who have made a tremendous contribution to Sweet Home.”
The Nichols both graduated from Sweet Home High School, where they were very involved with sports, a love they have since they began to participate, Shook said.
After a career that included being named an all-state lineman in football for Dustin and an all-state middle hitter in volleyball for Heide, both attended college, Heide at George Fox and Dustin at Oregon Institute of Technology and Oregon State University.
Dustin Nichol has taught shop classes at Sweet Home High School for nine years and was instrumental in “Turning the auto shop program around and making it a huge success at the high school,” Shook said.
“He was known for spending a lot of his free time, including nights and weekends, helping students and members of the community with their car problems and projects. He respects the students and they, in turn, respect him.”
Nichol coaches and referees youth sports, and was named 2002 Capital Conference Assistant Coach of the Year in football. He has served on the Advisory Committee for the Boys and Girls Club, for which he has spent “many hours” fund-raising and promoting programs. He also is involved at Community Chapel, where he assists with Sunday School, youth group and home groups. He also volunteers at Camp Attitude, the Oregon Jamboree and with the logging competition during Sportsman’s Holiday.
Heide Nichol taught at East Linn Christian Academy before she decided to stay home with their four children. She has coached Boys and Girls Club teams, the high school varsity volleyball squad, and puts on a sports camp each summer for local children. She also coordinates and coaches a club volleyball team each year and serves on the Boys and Girls Club advisory board.
She also is active at Community Chapel in Sunday School, home groups, and is one of the founders of MOPS.
“This young couple has really set an excellent example for the youth of our community,” Shook said. “They appreciate what the Sweet Home community has given to them and are making it a point to give back. They have given their time and energy unselfishly to the youth of our community, helping hundreds of young people learn self respect and life skills that will carry them forever.”
Dr. Harold B. Dowling, Distinguished Service Award
Dowling was introduced by last year’s recipients Lyn Gagner and Bob Waibel.
Gagner reviewed how, when Dowling and his young family moved from Seattle in 1956 to work in Sweet Home with Dr. Robert Langmack, it was a bit of culture shock for them.
“His wife remembers being the only person in church wearing a hat and gloves,” Gagner said. “She wondered, ‘How can I raise my family here, where the other kids say “goin’ and runnin’ and talkin,'” not “going, running and talking?”‘”
The Dowlings raised their six children, however, in Sweet Home “and came to love it,” Gagner said.
Harold Dowling treated many patients who didn’t have medical insurance – many in their own homes, and devoted himself to the sports program at Sweet Home High School, providing free sports physicals for athletes and serving as team physician for the football team.
Dowling, who played college basketball, “saw sports as a way to build self-esteem in many students who might not otherwise be successful,” Gagner said.
Dowling passed on a love of science and the outdoors to the children, taking them gold panning, fishing and camping. He also loves astronomy and has traveled to Hawaii and Texas for rare eclipse events and to hang out with other “astronomy geeks,” she said.
Joan Riemer,
BPW Woman of the Year
Riemer, who has lived in Sweet Home for more than 40 years, was introduced by 2005 winner Cynde Burford.
Burford cited Riemer’s volunteer activities at Oak Heights School, where her grandchildren attend, at East Linn Museum, where she serves on the Board of Directors and as treasurer, and at the Senior Center, where she is president of the Board of Directors.
A retired bank loan officer, Riemer also is active with the Evangelical Church women’s group and Church Council and teaches a women’s Bible study. She also helps keep track of finances for the Oregon Jamboree, which prompted a story from Burford about how Riemer spotted a trespasser coming over the fence while she was counting money during last year’s Jamboree. Burford recounted how Riemer chased the man down in her bare feet and held him until security officers arrived. Later, the trespasser tried to make a run for it, but was chased down again.
“This time he was glad it was the police,” Burford said.
The New Era,
Business of the Year
Tom Scrivner of White’s Electronics, last year’s business winner, presented the award to Scott and Miriam Swanson, who took over the newspaper two years ago.
“They can be seen everywhere – schools, churches, businesses and community activities,” he said. “Their expertise at their business and their enthusiasm for Sweet Home has benefited us all.”
VIP Honorees
Donna and Rob Poirier were honored for their participation in holiday activities, including the Singing Christmas Tree and Shop With A Cop, as Santa and Mrs. Claus, their work with the Special Olympics and the law enforcement Torch Run, and as volunteers with the Oregon Jamboree.
Barbara Baumgartner was honored for helping to organize the Boys and Girls Club Auction, her work with the Small Woodlands Association, as TAG coordinator for the school district, as a senior advocate, as an active PEO member and her participation at St. Helens Catholic Church.
Elmer Riemer was honored for his years of helping to found and put on the Oregon Jamboree, as a longtime board member of the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, as a volunteer at Oak Heights School and as a “workaholic” at the Evangelical Church.
Norma Reeser was honored for her work in making quilts or hospitalized and traumatized children. Reeser has made more than 400 in the last five years to be handed out by firefighters and hospital workers. She is a longtime member of the Mennonite Church.
Ival and Pat McCollum have “given to this community hundreds of times,” Mona Waibel said. The couple have donated time and equipment to the Boys and Girls Club, sponsored sports teams “from small fry to high school,” logged trees at Sweet Home Junior High, supported the Sweet Home Alumni Foundation, and supplied new spar trees for the Working Loggers Competition during the Sportsman’s Holiday.
Dick Hill, who recently stepped down after two terms on the Sweet Home City Council, has kept Sweet Home Emergency Ministries (SHEM) alive, Waibel said, and was instrumental in moving it to a new location. He has also been active in organizing the local World Day of Prayer activities and is pastor of Hillside Fellowship Church – “the only pastor I know who has his church named for him,.” Waibel joked.
Joyce Geil has long been active in the city Beautification Committee, works at the spring Birds and Bees and Flowers and Trees Celebration and “is good on ideas and long on hard work,” Waibel said.
Gary Betts helped plan the Sweet Home Community Center, contributes to high school athletics, supports the Boys and Girls Club Auction, is a “strong member” of St. Helens church, and last year was chosen Oregon Logger of the Year for the second time.