Our Valley 2015 - Live & Unscripted

Our Valley April 19, 2015

LIVE & Our take on what reality shows would look like if they were filmed in the Rogue Valley

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Our Valley

Live

&

8 Inside Our Valley Ladies and gentleman, the stories we are about to tell you are real ...

Unscripted

April 19, 2015

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12 Top Chefs Neil Clooney of Smithfields and Franco Console of Larks

14 Storage Wars Bidding for treasure

16 Water Rescue On the Rogue with the Jackson County Sheriff's Marine Patrol

22 Medford Ink

Ancient art in the modern day

26 Unsolved Cases Searching for answers in Ashland, Medford, Jackson County

Biggest Loser Home contestant Michele Galas of Rogue River

OUR VALLEY 2015: Live & Unscripted Section Editor David Smigelski Copy Editor Cathy Noah Photo Editor Bob Pennell Photographers Bob Pennell, Jamie Lusch, Larry Stauth Jr. Contributing Writers Vickie Aldous, Tony Boom, John Darling, Mark Freeman, Dan Jones, Sarah Lemon, Damian Mann, Nick Morgan, Thomas Moriarty, Ryan Pfeil, Buffy Pollock, Greg Stiles, Teresa Thomas, Bill Varble

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Real People Five unsuspecting people are asked three thought-provoking questions on the fly

42 Real Housewives of the Rogue Valley

Hillcrest Committee and Rogue Valley Soroptimists

46 Rods 'N Wheels Hot-rodders put on the shine in Medford

50 First Responders Today's firefighters face a different hazard — images of death and violence

54 Wildlife Rescue Heartwarming Images at Wildlife Images

56 Last Set Bluesman David Pinsky

58 Green Acres Southern Oregon provides escape from the maddening crowd

62 So You Think You Can Dance Isabeau Kennedy and Ashton Roxander

64 Digging for the Truth

Local archaeologists reveal secrets of people who lived thousands of years ago

68 Antiques Roadshow Rare Finds: Southern Oregon Antiques & Collectibles Club

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98 House Hunters Transplants and locals search for the perfect house

100 Wilderness Survivors

Injured in the Cascades; Lost in the Red Buttes

102 Rescue 911 Help is on the way

104 Hot Shots Wildland firefighters cast wary eye to 2015

80 72 Ultimate Women

Fighters

78 Taxicab Confessions What happens in Medford ...

The women of Rogue Combat Academy

74 Ghost Hunters Most "hauntings" can be explained, but not all

76 Wildlife Trackers Southern Oregon biologists go in search of elusive animals

80 Bridezillas 'Zillas' aren't always the bride

82 Project Runway The 'reality' of modeling

84 Critter Catchers Dan Meyer hunts urban wildlife

86 Nailed It!

106 Rollergirls Southern Oregon roller derby skaters unleash their aggression, all in good fun

108 Animal Rescue Saviors of local 4-leggeds

110 American Muscle Local woman eager to make splash in physique competition

112 Rogue Reality Local Reality TV stars talk about their experiences

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Fingernail works of art

88 Heroes Lifesavers are all around us

90 Cake Wars Icons of Icing: Sugar Rush and Sweet Stuff bakeries

93 Pawn Stars Southern Oregon Pawn and Allstar Pawn

96 Cops On the road with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department

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INTRODUCTION: TAKE ONE

Live and Unscripted: Setting the Scene

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LaDieS anD gentLemen, the StorieS we are aBout to teLL you are reaL ...

By David Smigelski Mail Tribune

I

t's 4:30 a.m. and Holly Henry is already sweating. The 43-yearold mother of three is halfway through her early-morning cardio regimen, which includes 50 minutes of high-intensity work at Aspire Fitness Club in Medford. Henry is grunting in the pre-dawn darkness because she has a dream, and to reach it she has to stay focused.

Every part of her day — the nutritionally balanced meals she must prepare in order to eat every three hours, her jobs at a dentist's office and a gym, her 5:30 p.m. weight workout at International Fitness — are choreographed for maximum efficiency.

Henry is training for a May bodybuilding competition in Bend, where she'll get on a very public stage and allow strangers to judge her body in the harsh light of reality.

Reality. That's a powerful word.

It's something that happens right now, in this moment. Henry is motivated by an event in the future, but the future is fiction. It doesn't exist except in Henry's mind. So in order to build the future she sees, Henry is laying bricks now, in this moment, stride by stride, crunch by crunch, repetition by repetition.

As Henry heads home to see the kids off to school, Rogue River resident Michele Galas is working toward a different reality. In Galas' future, she will see her grandchildren graduate from high school.

A year and a half ago, that didn't seem like a realistic goal. Galas, 65, weighed 375 pounds and was taking 17 medications to address a range of health problems, including diabetes. On Feb. 27 of this year, when we went to photograph her for this publication, Galas had cracked the 200-pound barrier for the first time in years. At 199 pounds, she had lost 176 pounds.

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She was near tears. She celebrated and pumped her fists in the air, crowing about how proud her three daughters would be. A powerful reality.

And we were there to capture it for this issue of the Mail Tribune's annual Our Valley publication.

The title of this year's issue is "Our Valley: Live and Unscripted," a takeoff on reality shows and what they might look like if they were filmed in the Rogue Valley, featuring real people doing real things.

In many ways, reality TV shows have besmirched the reputation of television. Once a novelty, the shows have become so common that in order to rise above the rest they seem to sink lower and lower into the grotesque and the lurid.

But at their best, reality shows are about people. Forget about the shows designed to make people do stupid and degrading things like eat bugs or swap wives with their trailer-dwelling neighbor. Shows such as "Biggest Loser," "American Idol" and "America's Got Talent" suck viewers in because we get to know the contestants — real people — and we want to know how it all turns out for them.

Name any reality TV show — "Top Chefs," "Cops," "Cold Case," "Genealogy Roadshow," "Storage Wars," "LA Ink," "Taxicab Confessions," "Bridezillas," "Real Housewives" — and you could film it here in Southern Oregon.

"So You Think You Can Dance" has nothing on us, as we learned when we interviewed local ballet dancer Ashton Roxander and aerial dancer Isabeau Kennedy. These youngsters have earned the accolades of seasoned professionals with jaw-dropping talent honed by iron-willed determination.

The TV chefs of the world may be ruder, but they certainly don't have any more talent than our featured chefs, Franco Console of Larks and Neil Clooney of Smithfields, who have faced off in real-life cooking competitions here in Oregon.

Dance shows and cooking wars help viewers escape from the concerns of their day, but others capture our hearts and emotions. The shows about first responders and police, in particular, can plunge us into turmoil or spur us to action with stories of missing people, criminals on the loose, murderers who have escaped justice.

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Some of the real people featured in this issue are true heroes, such as Medford police patrolman Arturo Vega, who has saved two people's lives with his CPR skills.

"It’s amazing when someone tells you that you are why she still has a husband and he’s living his life,” Arturo says. But he didn't do it for praise.

And he didn't receive any rewards or medals. “It’s just part of my job. I was determined they would end up surviving."

We learned something when we were researching our piece on local firefighters, patterned after a reality show about the most dangerous professions.

Talking to the first responders at Medford Fire-Rescue's Fire Station No. 3, we discovered that firefighting isn't the most dangerous job in America anymore, and it hasn't been for years.

Fighting fires is no picnic, but training, equipment and skill have lessened the danger from fire.

At the same time, firefighting has undergone an evolution. Firefighters now spend a large part of their time responding to all manner of mayhem, from car crashes and industrial accidents to medical emergencies and criminal violence. As a result, the psychological toll of seeing so much pain and death can be more dangerous than the physical risk posed by fire.

It must be the same kind of stress felt by the cops we interviewed for our piece on local cold cases. Rehashing the details of David Grubb's brutal murder and the unsolved shooting of cab driver William "Huey" Huson was not pleasant, but the hope is that the story, like the TV shows sometimes do, will lead a witness to come forward and bring justice to the families and our community.

That's what happens when reality shows are at their best. We get inspired. We make things happen.

Maybe the real people who opened their lives to us for your reading pleasure will spur an equal measure of inspiration and respect for their efforts.

That would be real.

Reach Mail Tribune features and Our Valley editor David Smigelski at 541-776-8784 or dsmigelski@mailtribune.com.

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Chef Franco Console, now chef de cuisine of Larks in Ashland.

‘People get super frazzled up there’ THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: NEIL CLOONEy OF SmITHFIELDS AND FrANCO CONSOLE OF LArKS

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

B

efore reality-television drama flavored culinary feats, a chef ’s life, says Neil Clooney, wasn’t “really that cool.”

Cooking contests resembled standardized tests, he says, rather than improvisational theater, as depicted on such series as Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Food Network’s “Chopped” and Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen.” The shows’ contestants vie for originality, tempered with precision, as they navigate numerous made-for-TV obstacles.

The genre, says Clooney, has freed chefs from confinement to their dark kitchens and propelled them into the limelight.

“My wife just wants me to compete on ‘Chopped,’ ” says the 40-year-old Ashland restaurateur and executive chef of Smithfields.

Numerous culinary competitions have furnished Clooney’s stage since he came to the United States in 2002 from his native England. Landing in Ashland in 2004, Clooney triumphed at the town’s first Food and Wine Classic, since 12

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recast as the Ashland Culinary Festival.

“The Ashland (event) just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” says Clooney, who bowed out of Culinary Festival competition following two consecutive wins.

Consecutive appearances at The Bite of Oregon in Portland earned Clooney the title of Oregon Iron Chef in 2008 and 2009.

He narrowly beat out fellow Ashland chef Franco Console in the 2009 finals, a duel that cemented both competitors’ reputations locally as top chefs. Porters chef Dustin Farley placed third at last year’s Bite.

A reality-television cook cast the tie-breaking vote in 2009 between Clooney and Console. Rahman “Rock” Harper, who won season three of “Hell’s Kitchen,” favored Clooney’s duo of blue marlin — poached and pan-seared — over Console’s, served with mushroom polenta.

“When you’re in a competition, there’s nowhere to hide,” says Clooney.

Errors can be corrected when working in one’s own kitchen, an edge lacking in cooking competitions, says Clooney. Spilling a Bearnaise sauce into his soup during one Bite

Top Chef

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of Oregon effort, he had to start from scratch and make both all over again, he says.

Slapstick-comedy clumsiness that spectators relish often can arise in the unfamiliar setting of competition.

When Clooney knocked over a spice rack, dozens of canisters and their contents littered The Bite of Oregon stage.

“We were just kicking them out of the way,” he says.

“People get super frazzled up there,” says Console. “I know it’s happened to me a few times.”

His sous chef succumbed to nerves, breaking a bacon-fat aioli several times during Console’s second attempt at The Bite of Oregon, when he was eliminated in the first round. Yet classic sauces, done correctly, almost always give contestants an advantage, says the 31-year-old chef de cuisine of Larks in Ashland.

“It made me think about food at a whole different kind of level,” says Console of entering his first competition, when the Ashland Culinary Festival made its 2007 debut.

Stuffing leeks with polenta, slicing them to look like scallops and stacking them into columns tested both Console’s imagination and timemanagement skills during a 30-minute

Chef Neil Clooney adds a finishing flourish to a dish at Smithfields restaurant.

round at The Bite of Oregon. He and Clooney agree that the clock is a key player in professional cooking, whether it’s a prize on the line, or customers’ satisfaction.

“A cook’s life is governed by time, constantly … and a competition is no different,” says Clooney.

Console says chefs’ 90-minute deadline at the Ashland Culinary Festival engenders more sophisticated dishes than 30 minutes of showboating at The Bite of Oregon. Deriving two different preparations from a whole chicken challenged recent Culinary Festival contestants, says Console, adding that he was astonished by the variety of fresh, local produce at chefs’ disposal.

“You can really go kind of nuts with it,” he says.

Although a dish prepared for competition has yet to be replicated on one of Console’s menus, customers can get a taste in restaurants’ daily specials of how chefs devise dishes on the fly.

Combining creativity with the freshest ingredients available is a drill executed night after night in kitchens around the world, just usually without an audience.

“It’s just a lot more work, I think, than they portray on TV,” says Console of spending hours at the stove. “They glam it up and make it look almost easy.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@gmail.com.

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Bidding for treasure THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: MINI STORAGE WAREHOUSE IN MEDFORD

Storage Wars

By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune

T

he top bidder for a storage unit’s contents auctioned recently at Mini Storage Warehouse in Medford figures he’ll easily double his outlay.

“I did this for a living in Las Vegas for six years,” says Marcus Carter, who now runs A to Z Appliance for his son. Carter says he made as much as $120,000 a year in sin city, where there’s at least five auctions seven days a week.

Tenants who fall behind on their rent will have the contents of their storage unit auctioned off to pay the bill. The warehouse on Bullock Road has auctions 11 months of the year.

Other local outfits hold them less frequently, while some have gone to Brandon Blaylock checks one of his new knickknacks after a storage auction.

PhoTo

by Larry STauTh Jr

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Wes Brown, an employee of Mini Storage Warehouse, conducts an auction for a group of local treasure hunters. PhoTo by Larry STauTh Jr

online auctions.

When the units are opened for inspection, potential bidders get to view the contents from outside but they can’t enter the units. They then submit sealed bids.

Employee Wes Brown sounds the last call for bids 15 minutes after the inspection ends. Five bids are submitted for one unit and four for the other unit being auctioned this day. After the bids are opened and the winners declared, most of the 30 people present head for their cars.

Winners have to pay in cash by 4 p.m. on auction day and put their own lock on the unit. They have 48 hours to remove the contents or rent the space, and they cannot use the company Dumpster.

“We’re looking at $750 to $850 here, not counting the jewelry,” Carter says after he and his wife, Lisa, go through the 10-by-15-foot unit. His winning bid was $350.

Carter had spotted a washer and dryer that would bring $450. Kid and baby items, an Xbox, four old tube

“We’re still looking for that diamond in the rough.”

— Dennis Nichols of Medford

televisions, a pine cradle, a child’s rocking chair and lots of boxes were visible in the reveal.

Wolf, a man from California who says that’s the only name he uses, didn’t bid but estimates the washer and dryer would bring $250. He says he bids regularly there.

Lisa had spotted a small jewelry box during the inspection.

“There’s some pretty stuff here. I didn’t see it,” says Carter, as he goes through the jewelry. Two sterling necklaces, one with amethyst and the other with topaz, feature white gold and diamonds.

Slowly unwrapping newspapercovered items, Carter finds a

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salt-and-pepper shaker collection in two boxes. The sets can be worth up to $35 each, he says.

“We’ll refinish the rocking chair for our granddaughter,” says Carter.

A lot of the items will be donated to charities for resale, Lisa says.

All the controls for the Xbox are found in a bottom drawer. There are also dozens of video games and DVD movies.

Jennifer Gaytan successfully bid $70 to retain the property in her unit after being unable to pay the $190 due. A bike, boxes and home furnishings were in the small unit. Four bids were received, and Gaytan heard one

Brandon Blaylock looks over the items he bought with his winning bid at Mini Storage Warehouse in February. Photo by Larry Stauth Jr.

person say he planned to bid $40.

“You don’t know how happy I am to get my stuff back,” says Gaytan, who wanted photos and papers. Her roommate, Anita Cooper, is glad to retain her wedding photos and her late father’s bike.

Two auction regulars who didn’t bid on this day talk about what they usually uncover.

“I find some collectibles and different things,” says Helen Wenbourne, who has an antique store in The Shoppes at Exit 24. She estimates that on average, about half of a storage locker’s contents are headed to the landfill.

“We’re still looking for that diamond in the rough,” says Dennis Nichols of Medford, who goes to most valley auctions. He’s ahead on his income versus outlay, he says.

Tony Boom is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Reach him at tboomwriter@gmail.com.

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Sheriff’s marine Deputy Jason Denton navigates the Rogue River near the old Gold Ray Dam site.

water

Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

Guardians of the

Swift Water

Rescue

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: On THE ROGuE WITH THE JacKSOn cOunTy SHERIff’S maRInE PaTROl

By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune

J

ackson County sheriff ’s marine Deputy Jason Denton has two simple rules he hopes boaters keep in mind before they hit Southern Oregon’s pristine waterways: Respect the water. Be prepared.

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Denton isn’t terribly worried about river and lake enthusiasts who abide by those rules. Being a confident swimmer and packing your boat with a whistle, fire extinguisher, life jacket and other necessities lessen the chance Denton or anyone else in the department will have to come to your rescue.

“Those guys are pretty self-reliant. They understand how powerful the river is,” Denton says.

The county's Marine Patrol deputies cover 54 miles of the Rogue River and seven area lakes, and

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Jason Denton has been a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department Marine Patrol for eight years.

Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

“every year for the last three years, we’ve had a drift boat go upside down in here somewhere.”

— Jackson County sheriff ’s marine Deputy Jason Denton, on a stretch of river near the Bear Creek mouth

Denton knows from experience that disaster can strike on any of them at any time.

Deputies such as Denton are there to prevent worstcase scenarios. He's been with the unit for eight years, a cop for 21. Of all the divisions of which he's been a part, Marine Patrol is his favorite, and he has some pretty spectacular rescue

stories to tell, moments that could make for some intense reality TV. On a brisk February day, Denton starts his patrol at TouVelle State Park. His 23-foot aluminum powerboat boasts a 6-liter V8 engine that can hit a top speed of 45 mph.

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As he starts out, the sun is warming the air, but the frigid water can be felt as the boat moves downstream. The Table Rocks loom in the distance and boat traffic is scarce. It's the off-season, with only the occasional boat or bank fisherman seen along the way.

About 90 percent of Denton's interactions, even on days when the river is crowded, are quick: Say hi, check registration and equipment cache, ask whether the fish are biting, move on.

The remaining 10 percent of his contacts, ones where he's more needed than greeted, are much more memorable.

Denton slows the boat about a quarter-mile up from where Bear Creek splashes into the river, and pulls to a stop at a gravel bar. You wouldn't know it on a day like today, but a good number of crashes happen here.

“Guys fishing in drift boats will do one of two things: either come down this rapid ... or they'll stay way tight to the bank, and cut down, and if they're not paying attention and they get into these, something will reach out and grab the side of the boat ... floop,” Denton says, making a motion that illustrates a capsizing vessel. “Every year for the last three years, we've had a drift boat go upside down in here somewhere.”

One sticks out. While at the TouVelle ramp two years ago, he received a call from near the Bear Creek mouth. A fisherman reported debris, including a cooler, had been washing past, items he thought belonged to a group of three men he'd been talking with earlier.

Denton responded. Indeed, the three men had wrecked. One had climbed onto a rock. Another had scrambled into a fallen oak tree.

Number three was MIA. Denton searched for an hour, assisted by a citizen volunteer flying a helicopter, and eventually found the man. He'd also made it to shore, tromped through some thick blackberry bushes and had been following a deer trail.

“He was tired, soaking wet,” Denton says.

But everyone made it out OK.

From The Ponds To mugger's Alley

A nearby stretch called The Ponds has its share of stories, too. Plenty

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of people get hung up on dikes or embankments in this area, though most of the incidents aren't serious.

Boaters can easily run aground, and many end up in the water, but they're usually OK. “Yes, there's current. Yes, it's fast.

Yes, it's deep. But when you get over here, stand up,” Denton says. “It's shin-deep water.”

Denton continues his journey downstream and stops just short of where the Gold Ray Dam once stood.

Downstream of here are a series of whitewater features, including Nugget Falls and Powerhouse Rapids, also known as Ti’lomikh Falls.

“All the airlift stories that we have come from Powerhouse Rapids,” Denton says. “That's a big drop, a couple of not necessarily blind turns,

“All the airlift stories that we have come from Powerhouse Rapids. That’s a big drop, a couple of not necessarily blind turns, but turns that are hard to see around, and then the river drops about 8 feet straight down.

People will hear that, then they’ll see it, and they’ll panic.”

— Marine Deputy Jason Denton

but turns that are hard to see around, and then the river drops about 8 feet straight down. People will hear that, then they'll see it, and they'll panic.”

Firefighter swiftwater rescue specialists train there, meaning there are plenty of anchor points where rafts can be lowered to stranded boaters who have crashed. Rescuers can also lower someone attached by harness to rescue them.

“We've done that several different times,” he says.

Denton recalls a day when he and his former boss went to recover a

vacant boat in the Powerhouse stretch.

While there, they caught sight of a raft with a large family on it, who traveled down a violent slice of the rapids called Mugger's Alley, where a large, pointed rock guards the entrance.

“You have to pick left or you have to pick right, and if you pick wrong, sometimes your raft won't fit,” Denton says.

The boat struck the rock, and the raft folded around it. All but one, a 12-year-old boy, were ejected into the water. He scrambled up over the raft and stood on the pointed rock, waiting and afraid. His other family members scrambled to the shore.

“We could get 10 feet from him, we could get this close and talk to him, but we couldn't get him,” Denton says.

A swiftwater rescue firefighter was on standby, tied into a harness and ready to go. At one point, the boy fell, prompting the firefighter to jump.

He caught the 12-year-old as both plunged into the water. Other firefighters pulled them to safety.

“That was pretty crazy,” Denton says.

TAles From The lAkes

Local lakes have their own share of rescue stories, Denton says.

Denton recounts an incident at Lost Creek Lake where a boat propeller struck a woman and put a sizable gash in her leg. Even though she was hurt, she managed to guide Denton to her location over the phone.

At Howard Prairie, Denton watched through a pair of night-vision goggles as a party of drunken boaters hit the water in the dark and raced across the lake, only to smash into some rocks near shore. There were some bumps and bruises, but no serious injuries.

“That was a disaster,” Denton says.

On the way back to TouVelle this day, Denton glides through a section that's more jungle than Southern Oregon, moss-frosted limbs reaching down to the water. Denton refers to the area as Jurassic Park. He steers his boat through the narrow stretch in a bump-free glide before coming back out onto the wider, main stretch.

No rescues so far today, but he's ready.

“I think I've probably got the coolest job there is.”

Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541776-4468 or rpfeil@mailtribune. com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ ryanpfeil.

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Ancient art in the

modern day

Sir James Carpenter, owner of A Body Mod in Medford, shows off his tattoos.

Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: A BODY MOD TATTOO & PIERCING

Medford

Ink

By Bill Varble for the Mail Tribune

A

Body Mod isn’t your father’s tattoo parlor. The Medford shop, unassuming on the outside, could almost be a temple inside, with its paintings and statues of Buddha, a wall-spanning Indian tapestry and lots of earth tones — greens and browns, sea grass and bamboo.

A sign on the wall says, “No Drunks.”

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shop’s owner, 47-year-old Sir James Carpenter.

A Body Mod is the kind of shop that’s emblematic of the changes that have come to the ancient art of tattooing in recent years.

In a front booth, Ryan Brousseau, of Medford, lies on his belly as tattoo artist Grego Peyton works on his back to the nattering drone of the needle that’s punching through Brousseau’s epidermis, the outer layer of skin, and delivering ink into the dermis, the

deeper layer with its nerves and blood vessels.

Emerging along the 24-year-old man’s spine is the outline of a large dragonfly with wings stretching across his back, and chakras — energy points or wheels in the “subtle body” in yogic and tantric traditions — tracing his spine.

Brousseau says the daylong process hurts, especially along the spine.

“But it’s good pain,” he says. “It’s amazing.”

Some say the pain of being tattooed can help mark important transformations. Brousseau is having the tat done before flying to Arkansas to say goodbye to his dying grandfather, who also sports a dragonfly tattoo.

“It’s his spirit animal,” Brousseau says.

In 1960 there were about 500 tattoo shops in the country. By 1995 there were around 10,000. Now, an estimated 20 percent of Americans have tattoos, and 40 percent of them are Millennials. Television shows such as A&E’s “Inked” and TLC’s “Miami Ink” and “LA Ink” reflect the trend.

“It exploded in 2005,” says Carpenter, who made the “Sir” legally part of his name years ago when he was a touring drummer. “We have doctors, lawyers, nurses ... detectives.”

He says many clients who work in the corporate world opt for “professionally hidden” tats on the back, shoulders or upper thighs, where the body art will be concealed from the workaday world but give the person the option of showing it off at home or at the beach.

Hallmarks in the mainstreaming of the art range from singer Janis Joplin having a small heart tattooed on her left breast in the late 1960s to toymaker Mattel releasing a tattooed Barbie in 2011.

Carpenter got his first tattoo 40 years ago, his first professional one 30 years ago.

“All these here I got way back then,” he says, pulling up his sleeves to reveal a tribal band, the Zig Zag man, a

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pentacle, an Eye of Ra from Egyptian mythology.

Carpenter, who sports multiple piercings on his face, got into the business in 1993 when he acquired the tattoo machine of a friend who had died. He got into body piercing soon after. He had a shop in Brookings in the late 1990s (a photo on the wall shows actor Woody Harrelson hanging out at the shop) before coming back to Medford a dozen years ago. He’s been at his present location, 617 N. Holly St., the last two-and-a-half years, and was just across the street for six years before that.

He says A Body Mod — it’s short for modification — is different by design. A nonsmoking, nondrinking vegan and the single parent of a 14-year-old daughter and a 15-yearold son, he says he’s “into all kinds of Eastern philosophy.”

That explains the many statues of Buddha, and maybe the fierce Tibetan mask on the south wall, as well as a Devi, or female aspect of the divine in Hinduism, that seems to stand guard at the end of a counter.

Soft music plays — earthy, progressive, jazz-oriented tunes, nothing harsh or pounding. Rosemary and thyme grow here and there. A waterfall gurgles.

Carpenter says he may have as many as 50 or 60 tattoo and/or piercing customers in a given day, many of them from Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, Lakeview, Mount Shasta. It wasn’t like that in the old days, when the typical tattoo aficionado was working class, local and almost always male.

Tattooing goes back to caveman days. Otzi, the famed “iceman” whose body was found preserved in the Alps after thousands of years, had 57 tattoos on his body. Some Egyptian mummies are tattooed. Germans, Celts and Picts were famously tattooed in the days of ancient Rome.

Tattoos have been common in India, the Philippines, Japan, Europe, Indonesia and Samoa, whose word “tatau” is believed to be the origin of the tattoo.

Carpenter says he’d like to expand the shop, put in a line of clothing and maybe a hair salon. A small CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

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HISTORY n Tattooing goes back to caveman days. Otzi, the famed "iceman" whose body was found preserved in the Alps after thousands of years, had 57 tattoos on his body. Some Egyptian mummies are tattooed.

Germans, Celts and Picts were famously tattooed in the days of ancient Rome.

Tattoos have been common in India, the Philippines, Japan, Europe, Indonesia and Samoa, whose word "tatau" is believed to be the origin of the tattoo. n Some say the pain of being tattooed can help mark important transformations. Brousseau is having the tat done before flying to Arkansas to say goodbye to his dying grandfather, who also sports a dragonfly tattoo. "It's his spirit animal," Brousseau says.

Artwork and tapestries adorn the space at A Body Mod Tattoo & Piercing in Medford.

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COnTInuED FROM PAGE 23

Grego Peyton draws a tattoo on the back of Ryan Brousseau, of Medford, at A Body Mod Tattoo & Piercing.

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recording studio. Maybe an art gallery.

He says about half his customers are women.

One is Sierra Symmonds, 18, of Medford. Tattoo artist Jen McLellan, 48, has just finished Symmonds’ first tattoo, an elegant line of ornate Elvish script inspired by “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

“I fell in love with the way it looks,” Symmonds says.

Most of her friends don’t have tattoos, she says, but her mother does.

“This was her 18th birthday present,” McLellan says.

Tattoos typically take anywhere from less than an hour to most of a day and can cost from $30 to $500, with most in the $100 range.

McLellan says the biggest changes in recent years have been the movement to more massive designs and a change in motivation.

“First-timers get half-sleeves now,” she says, referring to a tattoo from the elbow to the shoulders. “And they used to do it to commemorate an event. Now they just like the looks.”

Reach freelance writer Bill Varble at varble. bill@gmail.com.

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Divers from Klamath and Siskiyou counties search a pond off Rapp Lane near its intersection with Rapp Road in November 2012 looking for evidence related to the David Grubbs murder case. Authorities said they were acting on a tip but would not say what they were looking for. MAIL TRIBUNE FILE PHOTOS

Searching for answers

Unsolved

Cases

ThIS weeK’S epISODe: MuRDeR AND MISSING peRSONS IN AShLAND, MeDfORD AND JAcKSON cOuNTy cONTINue TO vex AuThORITIeS

By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune

I

f you believe TV, the first 48 hours are the most critical time in a homicide investigation. If the suspect isn’t identified in those first two days, the adage says, chances of solving the case drop dramatically.

On Sept. 4, 2008, the body of 46-year-old David Lewis was found inside his charred cabin on Dead Indian Memorial Road. No one has been brought to justice for his killing.

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While that might be true in larger cities with high murder rates, it’s not quite so true in the Rogue Valley, says Medford police Lt. Mike Budreau, who commands the department’s Criminal Investigations Division. Most homicides are committed by someone who has a vendetta against the victim, he says, which limits the pool of potential suspects.

Still, there are some cases whose senselessness leaves investigators grasping for answers.

“When it’s a random case, whether it’s a serial killer or an

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Stephanie Warner, a 43-yearold Ruch resident, was last seen July 4, 2013, at an Independence Day parade in Ashland.

“We have two people working part-time on cold cases, and we just don’t have any other resources at the time to put on it.”

— Jackson County Sheriff ’s Detective Sgt. Nathan Sickler

Since Nov. 19, 2011, investigators have spent thousands of hours trying to figure out who killed Ashland resident David Michael Grubbs, a 24-year-old grocery store clerk who was found nearly decapitated just after 5 p.m. on the Central Ashland Bike Path.

armed robbery gone bad, it makes it that much more difficult,” he says.

Right now, Medford has just one unsolved murder — the October 2012 shooting and apparent robbery of cab driver William “Huey” Huson. When Huson failed to check in with dispatchers Oct. 20 at Valley Cab after picking up a fare at Howiee’s late that night, the company reported him missing. Huson’s cab was found abandoned just after 5 a.m. the next morning near the intersection of Ninth and Almond streets.

“It’s got a ton of blood in it, and he’s missing,” Budreau recalls.

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later, dumped in a field off Helo Drive in north Medford. He had been killed by a single gunshot to the head.

Budreau says Medford police don’t believe Huson was singled out for the attack.

“Our cab drivers around here are typically not targeted for robbery,” he says. “It appears to be more random.”

In the weeks following Huson’s killing, the department was flooded with tips.

“It was like drinking out of a firehose for a while there,” he says. Many of them didn’t pan out, although one witness did give police a description of who they believe may be the suspect — a white man between 25 and 35 years old, 6-foot-1 or 6-foot-2 and between 170 and 190 pounds. Budreau says the man was said to have a pockmarked or

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Susan Huson, second from left, wife of slain cab driver William “Huey” Huson, and family members receive images of potential witnesses from Medford police Detective Tony Young in the days after the murder on Oct. 20, 2012.

Huson remains Medford police’s only unsolved homicide.

MAIl TRIbUNE FIlE PhOTO

acne-scarred face and was reportedly wearing a black baseball cap and a black Carhartt coat.

“We’re not sure how much we should box ourselves into that particular description,” he says, pointing out that at the time the

witness reportedly saw him, that man was just another person in the back of a cab rather than a possible suspect in a murder case. But Budreau says it’s unlikely for someone to have killed Huson that Saturday night without

somebody else having suspicions or direct knowledge of the crime.

Several miles down Highway 62, the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Department has its collective hands full with open homicide and missing-persons investigations.

“We have two people working part-time on cold cases, and we just don’t have any other resources at the time to put on it,” says Detective Sgt. Nathan Sickler.

Near the top of their workload pile are the cases of Stephanie Warner and Chris Evans, two Jackson County residents who have been missing since July 2013. Warner, a 43-yearold Ruch resident, was last seen July 4 of that year at an Independence Day parade in Ashland. Evans, 25, was reported missing from White City around his July 29 birthday. He had a warrant for his arrest at the time of his disappearance.

Investigators later

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A candlelight memorial on Helo Drive in Medford was held in November 2013 for slain cab driver William “Huey” Huson, marking the anniversary of his 2012 murder.

identified Warner’s boyfriend, 60-yearold Lennie Laverne Ames, as a person of interest in her disappearance. No person of interest has been publicly identified in connection with Evans’ case. Sickler did say cryptically that while the two cases are unsolved in the sense that no suspects have been arrested and charged, sometimes all it takes to close a case are a few tips that firm up existing leads.

“In the Stephanie Warner case and the Chris Evans case, no new technology has come about that would change what we’ve already done investigatively,” he says.

On the same day in fall 2008, the sheriff ’s department found itself handling two different homicide cases that have yet to be closed. In the early morning hours of Sept. 4, suspicious fires engulfed two houses on Dead Indian Memorial Road. The body of 46-year-old David Lewis was found inside his charred cabin. “There’s generally not a lot of good evidence after a

fire,” Sickler says. Sheriff ’s investigators had to send Lewis’ remains to Texas for DNA identification and still haven’t publicly identified his cause of death, although an autopsy determined he was killed before the fire started.

Later that day, the body of Troy Dean Carney, 44, was discovered in a sleeping bag hidden in brush between the Central Point freeway interchange and Table Rock Road. Carney, a transient who had been camping near the Pilot truck stop in Central Point, had spent the past 10 years traveling around the country loading and unloading commercial trucks. He was last seen on the truck stop’s surveillance cameras the evening of Sept. 1, wearing the same clothing he was found dead in three days later. A week after his body was found, a suspicious fire was started in the middle of the nearby transient camp. Investigators told the Mail Tribune at the time they believed the fire may have been started to cover up evidence.

While Medford and the unincorporated areas of Jackson County have seen the bulk of violent crime in recent years, even the area’s most idyllic corners aren’t immune. Since Nov. 19, 2011, investigators have spent thousands of hours trying to figure out who killed Ashland resident David Michael Grubbs, a 24-year-old grocery store clerk who was found nearly decapitated just after 5 p.m. on the Central Ashland Bike Path between Hunter Park and the Clay Street overpass.

Grubbs was last seen walking home from his job at Shop’n Kart. Ashland police, acting on tips, have since served numerous search warrants and examined more than 80 blades turned into them by the public in their search for the murder weapon.

Police Chief Terry Holderness told the Mail Tribune this winter that investigators had looked at a number of convicted criminals with ties to Southern Oregon as persons of interest, including former Ashland resident Christian Delaurentiis, who admitted to killing and dismembering his Aloha roommate in May 2012, but few rose to the level of “suspect.” The department presented the case to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, known for its criminal profiling expertise, in summer 2012, and the city of Ashland is still offering a $22,200 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest and conviction.

Medford police Lt. Budreau says that in many of these cases, the breakthrough could come from a family member or friend of the suspect who has information but is either afraid for his or her own life or that of the killer.

“We’re always trying to reach out to that person,” he says.

Reach reporter Thomas Moriarty at 541-776-4471, or by email at tmoriarty@mailtribune.com. Follow him at @ThomasDMoriarty.

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Warrior for change

Biggest Loser

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: Home contestant micHele galas of rogue river

michele galas lifts weights four times a week as part of her fitness regimen.

By John Darling for the Mail Tribune

F

or Michele Galas, the moment of truth came in September 2013 when, at 375 pounds, she had to climb one flight of stairs. It was all she could do. She plopped on the floor, exhausted, and said to herself, “OK, that’s it. I’m done with overweight.”

In the year-and-a-half since that day, Galas has been a warrior, sculpting herself with lots of protein, lots of green veggies, lots of water, relentless workouts — both cardio and resistance/weights — and tons of attitude.

On Feb. 27, there came a moment at Aspire Fitness Club in Medford when Galas, 65, while being photographed for this story, stepped on the scale and found she had broken the 200-pound barrier. She was 199, on her way to her ideal weight of 160 or so, which she plans to reach by August. She was near tears. She couldn’t stop celebrating and pumping her hands in the air, crowing about how proud her three daughters would be.

How do you do this near-superhuman feat, so elusive to so many?

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“It’s all about consistency and follow-through.

You suit up and show up. no exceptions. You have a great support system.

I went as far as I could alone, but you need a personal trainer. You totally have to change your mind-set and willpower.

It’s nutrition, exercise and the sheer will to live.”

— Michele Galas of Rogue River, on dropping more than 175 pounds so far

michele galas churns out some cardio at aspire fitness in medford. galas has lost 176 pounds since september 2013.

MaIl TrIbunE / JaMIE luScH

n On Feb. 27 this year, there came a moment at aspire Fitness club in Medford — while getting photographed for this story — when Galas, 65, stepped on the scale and found she had broken the 200-pound barrier.

follow-through,” she says. “You suit up and show up. No exceptions. You have a great support system. I went as far as I could alone, but you need a personal trainer. You totally have to change your mind-set and willpower.

It’s nutrition, exercise and the sheer will to live.”

At the start, Galas got herself down cOnTInuED On PaGE 32

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Pick up your free copy of ashland Hersey Health Care 400 W Hersey St Bear Creek Medical Plaza 1801 Hwy 99 N Blue Giraffe Day Spa Salon 51 Water St, # 111 Hidden Springs Wellness Center 1651 Siskiyou Blvd Ashland Family Practice 935 Siskiyou Blvd Ashland Family Health Care 420 Williamson Way Jackson Physical Therapy 370 E Hersey St Southern Oregon Family Practice 595 N Main ST Ashland Orthopedic Assoc LLP 251 Maple Grizzly Winery 1600 E Nevada St APP Family Medicine 628 N Main St Ashland Surgery Center 658 N Main St Kalb Chiropractic 450 Siskiyou Blvd Anytime Fitness 1505 Siskiyou Blvd Waterstone Spa 236 E Main St Baxter Fitness Solutions 330 Oak St Shop N Kart 2268 Ashland St Albertson’s 2301 Ashland St Ashland Springs Hotel 212 E Main St Mountain Meadows Community 855 Mountain Meadows YMCA 540 YMCA Way Market of Choice 1475 Siskiyou Blvd Ashland Community Hospital 280 Maple St Ashland Food Co-op 237 N 1st St central point OSU Research & Extension Center 560 Hanley Rd Eugene F Bowlin Jr., DDS 24 N 4th St Kathy A Sprick, DDS 21 S Front St Pacific Healthcare Training 512 Manzanita

Therarapeutic Associates 1217 Plaza Blvd # E Southern Oregon Dental 1710 E Pine St Providence Medical Center 870 S Front St eagle point Complete Care Chiropractic 158 W Main St Jackson County Physical Therapy 1296 S Shasta Ray’s Food Place 11100 Highway 62 Butte Creek Mill 402 N Royal Ave gold hill Del Rio Vineyards 52 N River Rd Ray’s Food Place 868 2nd Ave grants pass Red Hills Salon 221 D Street Women’s Health Center 1075 Grandview Valley Immediate Care 103 NE Beacon DR Spin Cycles 122 NE F St Planned Parenthood 160 NW Franklin St Foothill Retirement Center 2031 NE D St Three Rivers Women’s Imaging 1075 Grandview Physicians’ Medical Group 1619 NW Hawthorne Ave, # 201 Grants Pass Surgical Association 1600 NW 6th St Wellness Ware 1539 NE F Street RSVP 133 NW D st Oregon Health Services 128 SW I St Regeneration Exercise Center 1607 Williams Hwy Suite #5 Dollar Tree 1204 NW 6th St Ray’s Food Place 1427 NE 7th St Club Northwest 2160 Vine St Healthy Inspirations 2160 Vine St

at the following locations: Health Haven 849 NE 7th Southern Oregon Cardiology 520 SW Ramsey Ave Ste 204 YMCA 1000 Redwood Ave Ray’s Food Place 1557 Williams Hwy jacksonville Jacksonville Denture Clinic 725 N 5th Suite 101 Quady North 130 N 5th St Country House Inn 830 N 5th St Pony Espresso 545 N 5th St Jacksonville Inn 173 E California St Ray’s Food Place 401 N 5th St medford Chamber of Commerce 101 E 8th ST Southern Oregon Physical Therapy 924 S Riverside Ave La Clinica Del Valle 3503 S Pacific Hwy Medford Food Co-op 945 S Riverside Ave YMCA 522 W 6th St La Clinica Del Valle 1307 W Main St Larson Creek Dental 980 N Phoenix Rd, # 101 Laser and Surgical Eye Center 1333 E Barnett Rd Retina Care Center 748 State St Holton Dentistry 737 Golf View Ste A Jensen Center for Cosmetics 1353 E McAndrews Rd Cataract and Laser Institute 1408 E Barnett Rd Medford Foot & Ankle 713 Golf View Ted Bennion, DDS 725 Golf View Dr, Ste Roxyann Winery 3285 Hillcrest Rd Wellness Compounding Pharmacy 1150 Crater Lake Ave, # M Pacific Wine Club 3588 Heathrow Way

McAndrews Dental 1601 E McAndrews Rd, # A Oregon Retina Specialists 2859 State St, # 103 Rogue Valley Pediatrics 2825 E Barnett Rd Vantana Wellness 3156 State St Association for Women’s Health 3190 State St, # 102 Wellness 2000 1175 E Main St, Ste 2F Wise Women Care 400 Crater Lake Ave Interim Healthcare 2368 Crater Lake Ave, # 102 Southern Oregon Cardiology 520 Medical Center Dr, Ste 200 Cardiovascular and Thoracic Clinic 520 Medical Center Dr, Ste 201 Southern Oregon Pediatrics 750 Murphy Rd Gastroenterology Consultants 2860 Creekside Dr Rogue Endocrinology 3144 State St Medford Women’s Clinic 3170 State St Southern Oregon Denture 41 Hawthorne St Jackson Co Physical Therapy 36 Hawthorne St West Orthodontics 1322 E McAndrews Rd, # 102 PMG Family Clinic 1698 E McAndrews Rd, # 300 Rheumatology Clinic 1365 Poplar Dr Thai Bistro 535 Stevens Medical Arts Building 691 Murphy Rd Surgery Center of Southern Oregon 2798 E Barnett Rd Great Harvest Bakery 203 Genessee Buttercloud Bakery 310 Genessee Asante Marketing Department 2596 E Barnett Rd Ste A Pulmonary Consultants 555 Black Oak Dr, # 300 Black Oak Pharmacy 2924 Siskiyou Blvd Southern Oregon Orthopedic Clinic 2780 E Barnett Rd, # 200 Rogue Valley Urology 1698 E McAndrews Rd, # 280

Medical Eye Center 1333 E Barnett Rd Baxter Fitness Solutions 2951 Doctors Park Dr Rogue Valley Country Club 2660 Hillcrest Rd Providence Breast Center 1698 E McAndrews Rd, #180 Providence Outpatient 1698 E McAndrews Rd, # 250 Providence Infusion & Home Med 840 Royal Ave, # 120 Medford Medical Clinic 555 Black Oak Dr, # 100 PMG Ob/Gyn Health Center 840 Royal Ave, # 110 Avamere Health and Fitness 760 Spring St Rogue Valley Women’s Imaging 692 Murphy Rd Women’s Fitness Company 539 Stevens St Food 4 Less 2230 Biddle Rd phoenix PMG Phoenix Family Practice 205 Fern Valley Rd, # A Jackson County Physical Therapy 242 Fern Valley Rd Phoenix Pharmacy 404 N Main St Farmers’ Market 4880 S Pacific Hwy rogue river Ray’s Food Place 506 E Main St talent Medicap Pharmacy 205 N Pacific Hwy Ray’s Food Place 101 E Wagner Ave white city Lenz Chiropractic 3030 Avenue H

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to Max Muscle Sports Nutrition in Medford for some in-depth counseling on supplements, fish oils and protein powders for her twice-daily shakes.

“I’m a self-motivator. I wanted to live. I wanted to see my grandchildren grow up. My daughters said this is the best Christmas present they could ever get,” she says. “I burn 500 to 700 calories each time I work out. I’ve lost 176 pounds now!”

“How she did it was she did everything I told her to do,” says her personal trainer, Andy Howell of Aspire. “She had plateaued. We looked at her diet and workout and picked apart what she did.

“We increased her metabolism by increasing her muscle mass with resistance exercises. We did consistent cardio, treadmill 25 minutes, five times a week. Resistance four times a week, 15 reps each. We did more frequent eating, smaller meals but six times a day. Lots of tuna, higher protein, 1.7 grams of it per pound of her target weight, 120 ounces of water a day to increase liver and kidney function and clean out toxins.”

What this stern regimen does is give hope to people, says Howell, who had never coached a loss of more than 120 pounds.

“She’s been such an inspiration to everyone here,” he says. “It shows how, if you really want to do something, you can. Nothing can stop you. We would stay in touch by texting if she got frustrated. I will work as hard for someone as they do — and she did.”

How did Galas gain so much weight?

“I fell in love with food,” she says.

“I became a foodaholic. I was raised in that clean-your-plate generation.

When I first got pregnant, in 1978, it was that eat-for-two thing. I was obese from childhood and became an extremely morbidly obese adult. I was at the ER on a regular basis.”

As Galas knew, morbid obesity is a life-threatening condition, one that opens the door to a host of diseases, starting with diabetes, which she still fights. She got clean and sober 19 years ago and quit smoking 12 years ago.

“Unfortunately, after getting clean and sober, I turned to food and packed 32

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Michele Galas before she decided to get serious about losing weight. COURTEsy PhOTO

Andy Howell, a personal trainer at Aspire Fitness in Medford, works with Michele Galas at the club.

MAIl TRIbUNE / JAMIE lUsCh

on the pounds. I didn’t care.”

However, she notes, she’s gotten so healthy, she’s dropped 11 of her former 17 medications.

“It feels awesome. I love my life, and I’m on top of the world!” she says.

Now she’s training for a walking marathon.

“I did all this myself, and I did it on a tight budget, me and lots of workouts, lots of chicken, whole grains, brown rice, green veggies, quinoa, oatmeal and anything high in protein.

A little red meat, now and then, avoid the breads. Lots of green salads and healthy fats.

“I lie in bed saying lots of prayers. I talk to God three or four times a day.

This, what I’ve done, it absolutely has a spiritual basis. God helps you when you help yourself and do the work.”

Reach freelance writer John Darling at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

“We increased her metabolism by increasing her muscle mass with resistance exercises. We did consistent cardio, treadmill 25 minutes, five times a week.

Resistance four times a week, 15 reps each. We did more frequent eating, smaller meals but six times a day. lots of tuna, higher protein, 1.7 grams of it per pound of her target weight, 120 ounces of water a day to increase liver and kidney function and clean out toxins.”

— Personal trainer Andy Howell of Aspire

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Going deep on the street Real

People

tHiS WeeK’S ePiSoDe: 5 unSuSpecTing people Are ASKeD THree THougHT-provoKing queSTionS on THe fly

By John Darling for the Mail tribune

J

ournalism is a strange animal that asks us to bring out what is “news,” that is, what is new, the council decisions, accidents, fires, crimes, the new policies of the legislature and the up-anddown economy. But, really, to the individual, what’s important happens inside us and in our love relationships, families and our own hopes and dreams, right?

So, instead of asking people how they feel about what’s happening “out there,” we approached strangers on the street, popping them the big questions that shape a life and an outlook on what it all means to us. How we handle it. What has value.

Annie Hoy

The questions we asked were: 1) What is the most amazing thing that ever happened in your life, that you are the most grateful for?

2) How have you learned to handle the bad times?

3) If you could go back, with your hard-won wisdom, and give some advice to yourself at age 18, what would you say?

Annie Hoy

KAtHy Scott

1) The most amazing things in my life were getting to meet and interview Jesse Jackson, and hosting Dennis Kucinich when he came through town and talked to the masses in front of the Co-op.

2) Even the bad times are good times because everything changes every moment. We have a choice to look at how you look at something.

Are you going to look at it in a negative light or are you going to connect?

It’s all transitory. We only have right now, so enjoy it every time, moment by moment.

3) Wow. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Go forth and jump in. Make it up and make it happen. That’s how I lived my life. You just take a swan dive into the unknown. Something’s going to happen.

1) My family, my daughter, giving birth. That’s pretty much it. My family.

And my work with children. I work at elementary schools.

2) Children and nature, being outside. That’s it. If I have one or the other of that, that’s my therapy.

3) Oh, boy. That’s the hardest one.

I’m very fortunate in my life, finding love and family. I guess I would say pay attention, be a better listener.

Kathy Scott

tinA DAley 1) I’m grateful for having my daughter. That’s the most amazing thing. I have never experienced that depth of love. I didn’t even know that was possible and it keeps growing. It takes me to new places.

2) Hope, of course. I just know that change is a constant thing. Faith. It’s

Tina Daley

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2015

Niche Publication Schedule Southern Oregon Media Group presents its 2015 Niche Product line.

With a focus on reaching the diverse community of the Rogue Valley, Southern Oregon Media Group has a comprehensive group of publications to reach the ever-growing population of Southern Oregon.

From Wedding Guides to Medical Directories we use themes that are attractive, fun and informative to Rogue Valley residents. Helping our local businesses thrive is a continuing mission for us here at Southern Oregon Media Group. Our publications are strategically designed to draw readers and increase revenue for you, the advertiser.

Monthly Increase brand awareness with Oregon Healthy Living Living. Publishes the beginning of every month with information on physical, emotional, mental and financial well being. 15k copies distributed in Jackson and Josephine counties.

Monthly Put your properties front and center! HomeFinder is a full color, tab sized section completely devoted to real estate and distributed through The Mail Tribune, Ashland Daily Tidings, Savvy Living & Ashland Savor for a total of 40,000 copies!

Quarterly Moving Ahead is a publication of Oregon Department of Transportation containing information on driver safety and regional improvement projects.

39,800 copies are inserted in the three largest daily newspapers in Southern Oregon and available free in racks throughout Jackson and Josephine counties.

Talk to your local Southern Oregon Media Group Marketing Consultant today to find out what is the best fit for you and your business. We also offer great discounts for purchasing space in multiple niche publications.

Call your Southern Oregon Media Group Marketing Consultant or dial 541.776.4422

June

Shakespeare Festival Reach over 50k locals and visitors to your business.

Published in the Mail Tribune, Ashland Daily Tidings and on sale for $3 in the Mail Tribune Lobby.

Pub. Date: Sunday, June 6 Deadline:: Thursday, May 7

SepteMber

High School Football Root for your favorite school! Reach over 50k readers. Published in the Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings.

Pub. Date: Friday, September 4 Deadline: Friday, August 21

OctOber

Paint it all Pink

Readers’ Choice

Our Breast Cancer Awareness section with readership of over 50k.

Published in the Mail Tribune and Ashland Daily Tidings.

Don’t miss your chance to thank customers. Over 60k Jackson County readers! Published in the Mail Tribune & Savvy Living.

Pub. Date: Wed., Oct. 7 Deadline: Fri., Sept. 25

Pub. Date: Sun., Oct. 25 Deadline: Fri., Oct. 9

nOveMber

DeceMber

Holidays in the Rogue Valley

Holiday Gift Guide

Your message front and center! Reach over 50k local consumers. Published in the Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings.

Showcase your holiday shopping specials! Reach over 70k consumers!

Published in the Mail Tribune and Savvy Living.

Pub. Date: Friday, November 20 Deadline: Friday, November 6

Pub. Date: Sunday, December 6 Deadline: Friday, November 20

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Wine industry pays off for Oregon Oregon’s boutique-scale wine industry contributes $3.35 billion to the state’s economy, according to a study released by the Oregon Wine Board.

Oregon’s wine industry includes more than 600 wineries, 950 wine-grape growers and nearly 24,000 vineyard acres and is the third-largest producer of vinifera wine in the country.

According to the new study, conducted by Full Glass Research, the industry contributed 17,099 wine-related jobs to Oregon, paying $527 million in wages and brought $207.5 million to the state in wine-related tourism revenues.

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(1) Crow & Bear Winery 5719 Jerome Prairie Road, Grants Pass, OR 541.479.0163 Thurs.-Sun., 11-5:30 and by appointment crowandbear.com

(8) Daisy Creek Vineyards 675 Shafer Lane Jacksonville, OR 541.899.8329 May-Oct., Thurs.-Mon., Noon-5 daisycreekwine.com

(2) Schmidt Family Vineyards 330 Kubli Rd Grants Pass, OR 541.846.9985 Daily Noon–5 Fridays Noon-8 sfvineyards.com

(9) Le Petit Tasting Room Ledger David Cellars 245 N Front Street Central Point, OR 541.664.2218 Apr.-Aug., Daily Noon-5 Sept.-Mar., Thu.-Mon., Noon-5 ledgerdavid.com

(3) Serra Vineyards 222 Missouri Flat Road Grants Pass, OR 541.846.9223 Daily 11-5 serravineyards.com

(10) Aurora Vines 2275 Pioneer Rd. Talent, OR 541.535.5287 Jun.-Sep., Sat.-Sun., Noon-5 or by appt.

(4) Troon Vineyard 1475 Kubli Road Grants Pass, OR 541.846.9900 Daily 11–5 troonvineyard.com

(11) Agate Ridge Vineyards 1098 Nick Young Rd Eagle Point, OR 541.830-3050 Apr.-Oct., Daily Noon-6 Nov.-Mar., Fri.-Sun. Noon-5 agateridgevineyard.com

(5) Del Rio Vineyards 52 N River Rd Gold Hill, OR 541.855-2062 Open Daily 11-5 delriovineyards.com

(6) Devitt Winery 11412 Highway 238, Jacksonville, OR 541.899.7511 Noon-5 devittwinery.com (7) DANCIN Vineyards 4477 S. Stage Rd Medford, OR 541.245.1133 May-Sept: Thu-Sun, Noon-8 Oct-Apr., Thu.-Sun., Noon-7 Closed Jan & Feb dancinvineyards.com

(12) Pebblestone Cellars 1642 Camp Baker Rd. Medford, OR 541.512.1655 Dec.-Mar., Sat.-Sun., 12-5 Apr.-Nov., Wed.-Mon., 12-5 pebblestonecellars.com (13) StoneRiver Vineyards 2178 Pioneer Rd. Talent, OR 541.864.9234 Nov.-Apr., Sat.-Sun., 12-5 May-Oct., Wed.-Mon., 12-6 stonerivervineyard.com (14) RoxyAnn Winery 3285 Hillcrest Rd. Medford, OR 541.776.2315 Mon.-Thu., 12-7 Fri., 11-9, Sat.-Sun., 11-7 roxyann.com

(15) Trium Wines 7112 Rapp Ln. Talent, OR 541.535.4015 Apr. & Oct., Thurs.-Mon., 11-5:30, May-Sept. Daily 11-5:30 triumwines.com (16) 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery 2335 N. Phoenix Rd. Medford, OR 541.779.9463 Wed., Thu., Sun., 2-8, Fri.-Sat., 2-10 Closed Mon.-Tues.

2hawkwinery.com (17) Paschal Winery 1122 Suncrest Road Talent, OR 541.535.7957 Summer: Wed.-Fri., Noon-8, Other Days Noon-6 Winter: Wed.-Mon., 12-6 paschalwinery.com (18) Grizzly Peak Winery 1600 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 541.482.5700 Apr.-Oct., Thu.-Sun., 12-4 Nov.-Mar., Sat.-Sun., 12-4 grizzlypeakwinery.com (19) Dana Campbell Vineyards 1320 N. Mountain Ave. Ashland, OR 541.482.3798 Thu.-Sun., 12-5 danacampbellvineyards.com

(20) La Brasseur Vineyard 2444 Cobleigh Rd., Eagle Point, OR 541.865.3648 Mar.-Dec., Fri.-Sun., 11-5 labrasseurvineyard.com (21) Eliana Wines 158 Gaerky Creek Rd., Ashland, OR 541.690.4350 541.6904344 Thurs. - Sat., Noon-5 elianawines.com

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mostly that. I want to say friends, too. It’s mostly faith and my connection with the divine.

3) Just keep moving. Keep trusting. You’re not alone.

You’ll find out it’s not as bad as you think. Life is full of surprises.

Ken Loftus 1) We had a daughter. The birth of my daughter was the most amazing thing.

It changes everything. It changes all our priorities and what’s important to us, more about the future and preserving the planet. Watching somebody develop and trying to be a positive influence. It’s fantastic.

2) I actually narrow my focus, so instead of going through the forest, I get one tree at a time. I try to deal with each issue as it happens.

I try to appreciate the small things, the crocus blooming, the birds singing.

3) I’m not so good at giving advice. I don’t have that one.

Krysta Baugh 1) I’m grateful for everything. I was sitting on the porch watching a tiny spider carrying an ant twice its size.

I knew it was going to sustain that spider. The person next to me scared the spider and it dropped the ant. I picked it up and gave it to the spider and he took it. I was understanding the consciousness in the world from all things big and small.

2) Learning how to manage my thoughts. Understanding that repetitive thoughts create ideas and belief patterns, with the understanding we’re all just doing our best at any given time, and to have compassion for people and loving the one who is scared or angry.

3) I don’t want to change anything at all because that implies regret, and I don’t feel regret for anything. For every question I have in the world, there seems to be only one answer, to love more.

Krysta Baugh

Ken Loftus

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REAL

Pa

real Housewives of the rogue Valley, aka the Hillcrest committee. MAIL TRIbUnE / bOb PEnnELL

Party girls Real

Housewives

tHis WeeK’s episode: Hillcrest committee and rogue Valley soroptimists

By Buffy pollock for the Mail Tribune

T

hey’re a far cry from the socialite housewives depicted on cable television reality shows, hosting elaborate parties in exclusive gated communities and flaunting their eccentricities for all to see.

But that doesn’t mean the Real Housewives of the Rogue Valley featured here — members of fundraising dynamos known as the Hillcrest Committee and Rogue Valley Soroptimists — don’t know how to party.

On the contrary, they’ve raised the concept to a new level, hosting parties COnTInUED On PAGE 44

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Ashland...

Ashland...

The ThePlace Place ToTobe be

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 42

to raise tens of thousands for charity — often while working full time and raising families.

“Most people probably haven’t even heard of us, and we funded two doctors’ cancer research projects (tallying $141,500) last year,” says Janice Cox, current president of the long-running Hillcrest Committee.

Decades before festivals for Christmas trees, gingerbread or pear blossoms, the Hillcrest Committee organized just after World War II to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The group’s name came from the Hillcrest House, located at 3285 Hillcrest Road near RoxyAnn Winery, where many of their events were hosted.

Nowadays, the 40-member group hosts a winter Holiday Ball where it auctions off a calendar year’s worth of parties.

People wealthy enough to afford themed soirees attend the ball and bid on bashes such as a Malibu beach party, a salmon dinner along the Rogue River, a costumed Halloween affair, a pool party or crafting party.

The women are so adept at throwing parties they can pull them off with little expense. From years of throwing parties, they already own most of the decorations and accoutrements. The food and spirits are donated from local merchants wanting to support a good cause. Many of the parties are held at members’ homes, but some are held at local vineyards or other sites that are donated for the event.

“We pull them off on 100-percent donated time and supplies,” Cox says.

“When you buy a party, it’s pure profit for us. We’re doing all the work. We do all the cooking and food and we literally create things from nothing.

“This year we raised almost $100,000 doing our little parties,” she says.

Other groups quietly raising large amounts of money for community projects are the local Soroptimist clubs, whose members are usually too busy pulling off projects and fundraisers to sit around talking about their achievements.

Melanie Madden says her club, Soroptimist International of Medford, is like a well-oiled machine.

“We’ve done so many events that the process is dialed in pretty well. We have events that we put on at a smaller level.

Of course, we consider a smaller level like the Pear Blossom Baby Contest, which has 250 participants,” she says with a laugh. “We start working toward that in November.”

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The Hillcrest Committee raised $141,500 last year for two cancer research projects.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

Throughout the year, the group hosts a wine event for women, a holiday tour of homes, a community baby shower and a handful of other events.

For its annual Saturday of Service, the community baby shower provides baby supplies to area shelters and charities.

The group’s holiday tour of homes raises well over $13,000 annually for just Madden’s club. In 2006, the handful of clubs in the region raised over $180,000.

The all-woman group, Madden says, offers a social outlet, but it’s much more than that.

“We still do some of the kind of things women have always enjoyed doing, and are important for us in getting to know each other,” Madden says. “There’s just usually a lot more work involved and not as much social. I think these groups have always focused on being there for each

other and on making their community better.

“As a woman, you have the family and work, and you have everything you need, but there’s something missing unless you’re giving back.”

Cox says she couldn’t agree more.

“I’m not sure we’re what most people would consider real ‘housewife’ material. We have members who work outside the home and some who don’t. Our group is a very large and in-charge kind of group, and what we accomplish is phenomenal,” Cox says.

“But unlike the groups on TV, we don’t have drama. We don’t pull each others’ hair or throw drinks at each other.

We do like to party, but we work together for a good cause and for our community.”

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at buffyp76@yahoo.com.

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THIS WEEK'S EPISODE: Hot-rodders put on the shine in M

‘All about the

cars’ Rods n’ Wheels

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: HOT-RODDERS PUT ON THE SHINE IN MEDFORD

By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune

b

Les Robertson, shown in his 1940 Ford, found a new circle of friends and activities when he joined Rogue Valley Street Rods.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

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ehind the garage door of Les Robertson’s Medford home is something special, if a few nits to pick short of perfect.

As a detailer dabs candy-apple red touchup paint on his 1940 Ford coupe on a February morning to prepare it for the Rogue Valley Street Rods 2015 Rod & Custom Show at The Expo, Robertson admits he broke his own rule when he bought the car on the spot.

He was on the lot at Heritage Motors in Medford two years ago, seeking a Chevy El Camino like he had in his 20s, when he spotted the Ford.

“We just started talking, and I broke all my rules and did an impulse buy,” Robertson says. “This car is a really nice cruising car.”

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e shine in Medford

He joined Rogue Valley Street Rods, and soon found himself in a world of barbecues and camaraderie as he made the rounds at car shows, cruises and other get-togethers. Retired and

“it’s all about the cars and enjoying each other. We get together and have barbecues and gatherings.”

— Les Robertson, Medford

overcoming the loss of his wife, he found the car unexpectedly gave him a way to meet people and provided a calendar full of activities for the spring and summer.

“It’s all about the cars and enjoying each other,” Robertson says. “We get together and have barbecues and gatherings.”

Sam Cooper of Ashland showed off his 1937 Ford Woodie at the 2013 Southern Oregon Rod & Custom Show. Mail Tribune / file phoTo

For Robertson, who’s spent his life maintaining his own cars, life on the street-rod circuit is comfortable.

“These old cars are very simple,” he says. “This car has no computer on it, no airbags.”

While Robertson made

modifications and adjustments to the 1940 coupe to make it his own, the hard

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work had been done before he bought it.

His second rod, a 1929 Ford Roadster, is being tailored to his whims, and he expects it to be complete next year. Fenders and side skirts are being fabricated through Ron Smith Fabrication, but it’s the details he seems to treasure most, such as the rare MotoMeter temperature-gauge hood ornament that a parts reseller gave him.

“He just wanted to see someone use it,” Robertson says. “The more people I meet — there are a whole bunch of nice guys who do this stuff.”

Larry FuLLer’s Mustang

At the 2015 Rod and Custom Show, an entire wing of The Expo is devoted to sparkling examples of the famous Ford Mustang. But even among all those hardtop, convertible and Shelby models, Larry Fuller’s 1966 fastback stands out, with its lifted hood and aerodynamic aluminum Moon hubcaps.

“Sixty-six Mustangs are not meant to go 155 miles per hour,” Fuller says. But then he calls attention to three Bonneville participant stickers from 1971, 1987 and 2001. A sign next to the Mustang shows it reached 177 mph in 1970 and 193 mph in 2002.

The car and its

Les robertson broke his own rule when he picked up this 1940 Ford coupe on a whim.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

performance are a result of Fuller’s continuous innovation, tinkering and exploring of automotive limits. Ample access to car parts certainly helped, too.

Fuller’s path and passion for cars began in high school auto shop, and with his mother’s 1938 Pontiac. After high school, he developed the knowledge and wherewithal to build his own 1932 Ford.

His vehicular tinkering was an anomaly among fellow engineering students at Santa Clara University.

His fellow students were more apt to treat cars like

functional appliances, but his passion drew him to work his way through school at a California wrecking yard, where he handled receipts and other office matters that were outside the comfort zone of rough-and-tumble dismantlers.

He graduated in 1963 and found an engineering job at FMC Corporation, but his heart was at the wrecking yard, where he still worked weekends.

After two years of working at FMC, Fuller borrowed $9,000 from his grandfather to buy the wrecking yard.

“Then I was 24 years old, owned a business and owed my grandfather,” Fuller says.

His business gave him materials to turn a 1957 Ford into a salt flat racer at Bonneville.

“It was just my wife and I. No pit crew, no nothing,” he says.

One day in 1969, a totaled Mustang came into his yard. Thieves had stolen

it and stripped its parts — even the engine — which made it the ideal canvas for his next racing car.

He bought all the parts and pieces over the counter at Ford dealerships, including the car’s uncommon Ford 427, a single-overhead cam, short-block V8 engine that was designed in the 1960s for NASCAR and cranked out 600 horsepower in Fuller’s racer.

Fuller sold his business in 1988, and he and his wife relocated to Sams Valley. In retirement he could move on to other project cars, including a 1932 Ford that’s still in progress even though he’s owned it since 1979.

Also currently in his workshop is a Model A, a 1936 Ford and five Mustangs in various stages.

“I do it because I like to do it,” Fuller says. “You can’t build any of these cars and make money.”

Reach Mail Tribune news aide Nick Morgan at 541776-4477 or nmorgan@ mailtribune.com.

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‘Locked in your brain’ THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: MEDFORD FIRE-REScuE

Erin Sawall, battalion chief at Medford Fire-Rescue, moves a fire hose away from the flames as fire destroys a house in Ashland in February 2013.

By John Darling for the Mail Tribune

First

Responders

But today’s firefighters face different dangers than their historical counterparts. In Medford, no firefighters have died while fighting fires since the days of horse-drawn wagons. No one in a gathering at Medford Fire-Rescue’s Fire Station No. 3 could even recall legends of firefighting fatals. And firefighting, says 30-year veteran Dave Heaton, is not even placed in the top 10 hazardous jobs. Most of the 125 50

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hen people think of firefighters, they picture brave men carrying people down ladders, rescuing pets and running into burning homes to knock down flames and save our dearest possessions. And for good reason, because we’ve all seen footage of firefighters risking their lives by doing those very things.

annual deaths of firefighters, he adds, come from heart attacks and vehicle accidents, not fire.

However, since the expansion of firefighters’ duties to emergency medical services, they find themselves going out on an average of 25 alarms in a 24-hour shift, compared to three in the old fire-only days.

With this has come a new kind of hazard, one called a “brain tattoo.”

It’s the stress or trauma of seeing too much as you work to resuscitate and save lives of people in accidents, drug overdoses, drownings, violent crimes.

Fire-rescue workers say they execute the skills as a team, but the pictures stick in their minds — and keep coming back, even years later.

“In the Criado case (Jordan Criado murdered his wife and four small children in 2011 and set the house on fire),

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“It’s stressful enough with the average house fire, but then to find the victims — and not only victims but children and to find out it had been done on purpose — I don’t know if you can really describe that stress.

It was overwhelming.”

— Battalion Chief Ken Goodson, Medford Fire-Rescue

you’re confronted with something you just can’t prepare yourself for,” says Battalion Chief Ken Goodson, a veteran of 31 years.

“It’s stressful enough with the average house fire, but then to find the victims — and not only victims but children and to find out it had been done on purpose — I don’t know if you can really describe that stress. It was overwhelming.”

Firefighters carried out the children and tried to resuscitate them on the front lawn, to no avail, Heaton says.

“We deal with the emergency right then, in a professional manner, and the stress is locked in your brain. It’s after the fact. It’s not stress when you’re dealing with the emergency.”

Firefighter Curtis Wilcox reflects, “You separate yourself from the reality of it, to get it done. You want to avoid the brain tattoo, the images sticking in your brain. You’re not going to get rid of them. It’ll always be a memory, and not a good one.”

Firefighters develop a coating of

cynicism, says Heaton, which he demonstrates by tossing out the line, “I’m over it all now, though.” The other half-dozen firefighters laugh heartily, saying, “Sure you are,” and “Me, too, all over it!”

They call it what it is: posttraumatic stress disorder, and note they attend Critical Incident Stress Debriefing with trained teams of their peers.

“They coach you through dealing with the incident. And informally, we debrief on our own, when we get back to the station. We talk it out peer to peer. We have two behavioral wellness coaches on call and a chaplain. We hash it out,” says Heaton, and the firefighters at Station No. 3 agree.

“We have a support system,” says Brian Hammer.

“We process it,” says Manny Shark.

“They listen more than anything,” says Eli Champagne, of the debriefers.

“So you’re not holding anything in,” adds Hammer.

“We did lots of CPR, resuscitation, breathing tubes, body fluids, meds.

We fill in the blanks for each other, the missing pieces,” notes Heaton. “It took me a long time to piece together the Criado day. We’d ask each other, ‘What did you do?’ and ‘What did you do?’ Tons of police and fire and others came together just hours after it happened. It took a while for me with the ConTInueD on PaGe 52

Jackson County Fire District 3 firefighters empty a fire-gutted trailer in Central Point that seriously injured the resident in February. MaIl TrIbune / bob Pennell

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A three-alarm fire burned a historic warehouse at 220 N. Fir St., Medford, in 2014.

Applegate Fire District 9 firefighter Bill Dunlap assists one of the passengers involved in a car crash that killed two people and injured eight on Upper Applegate Road in 2010. Jamie

cOnTinueD FrOm PaGe 51

“We deal with the emergency right then, in a professional manner, and the stress is locked in your brain. it’s after the fact. it’s not stress when you’re dealing with the emergency.”

— 30-year veteran firefighter Dave Heaton

Lusch / maiL Tribune

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PTSD, doing light duty and counseling, which I get to this day. Mine was cumulative, but that day was the final straw. It was really tough for a while. I’m doing well now. I learned how to process it and am going forward.”

Goodson says he still has uneasy memories from 15 years ago, dealing with two children who died in fires, while Heaton went out on the drowning of a 3-year-old blond boy — the same age and with the same hair color as his own son at the time.

“I could only see my son’s face there,” he recalls. “We didn’t deal with it as well back then. You were expected to suck it up and move on. That’s all changed now.

Georgina Grove, 90, takes the hand of Medford firefighter John Murphy for helping to pull her chihuahua mix Mickey from her smoky condominium in 2013.

Medford firefighter Jim Turcke found the dog hiding under the bed.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

“it took me a long time to piece together the Criado day. We’d ask each other, ‘What did you do?’ and ‘What did you do?’ Tons of police and fire and others came together just hours after it happened. it took a while for me with the PTSD, doing light duty and counseling, which i get to this day. Mine was cumulative, but that day was the final straw.”

— Dave Heaton

Emergency services personel rushed Tabasha Paige-Criado and her four children to ambulances from their home where they were attacked and later died of stab wounds and smoke inhalation. It’s scenes like this one that make firefighting a dangerous job. bob Pennell / Mail Tribune PhoTo

As human beings, we’re affected by extraordinarily bad things.

You never forget anything, and years later something can trigger it to reappear.”

Goodson shakes his head.

“You learn not to look at that stuff unless you have to. I don’t put that in my brain anymore. I learned that years ago.”

Reach Ashland freelance writer John Darling at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

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Heartwarming images

Wildlife

Rescue

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: WIlDlIfE IMagES

By Damian Mann Mail Tribune

A

650-pound grizzly bear munches on its supper of chicken and other goodies when along comes an orange tabby uncomfortably close.

Wildlife Images Director Dave Siddon prepares to release Beamer, a golden eagle, on Woodrat Mountain in 2013. n At present, two grizzly bears and four black bears live at the facility. Another 100 animals are permanent residents because they’ve become too accustomed to humans or have disabilities that prevent them from going back into the wild. These animals are referred to as “educational ambassadors” who help educate the public about these creatures from the wild.

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n Wild creatures are generally good parents, and Wildlife Images cautions the people not to jump to conclusions if they find a young animal wandering about. Often the animal is not an orphan but is just momentarily separated from its parent. If a human hangs around waiting near the young animal, it may discourage the parents from returning.

As we cringe, expecting the bear to gulp down the kitten, the beast with menacing paws and the power to turn a tire inside out does something unexpected.

The bear suddenly flips a piece of chicken toward the cat, which begins purring and then starts picking at the meat.

These heartwarming images are the stuff of reality shows and online videos but are one of the reasons for the popularity of Wildlife Images near Grants Pass.

“We have stories like that that play out every day,” says Dave Siddon, executive director of Wildlife Images, who is continuing the work started by his father, J. David Siddon, when he founded the nonprofit in 1981.

Wildlife Images offers educational programs on wildlife, conservation and the environment at its 24-acre compound at 11845 Lower River Road, Grants Pass.

To keep up with its community outreach and animal rehabilitation program, Wildlife Images has

a clinic, animal sanctuary and education center. Like Noah’s Ark, the sanctuary takes care of all creatures great and small, from baby squirrels and badgers to an American bald eagle.

Siddon says that last summer, a baby bald eagle was knocked out of its nest in Seattle. When it was brought to Wildlife Images, it was put in a home with two grown bald eagles.

“They did a great job of foster parenting this little guy,” he says.

As with other wild creatures, the eagle rarely came into close contact with humans. Siddon says his staff and volunteers wear camouflage when handling wild animals so they don’t get accustomed to humans, and they also try not to talk around the animals.

Several birds, including a barn owl, have served as foster parents over the years. Wildlife Images raises and releases about 1,000 animals each year.

When an animal is released into the wild, a number of state and federal regulations must be followed. Wildlife Images

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doesn’t install tracking devices on the animals.

At present, two grizzly bears and four black bears live at the facility. Another 100 animals are permanent residents because they’ve become too accustomed to humans or have disabilities that prevent them from going back into the wild.

These animals are referred to as “educational ambassadors” who help educate the public about these creatures from the wild.

Siddon says Wildlife Images operates under an $800,000 annual budget.

“We have to squeeze a nickel pretty tight to do the things we do,” he says.

Wild creatures are generally good parents, and Wildlife Images cautions people not to jump to conclusions if they find a young animal wandering about. Often the animal is not an orphan but is just momentarily separated from its parent. If a human

hangs around waiting near the young animal, it may discourage the parents from returning.

Wildlife Images encourages humans to be extremely cautious when approaching any wild animal, which can be scared and unpredictable.

Watch the animal from a distance to see whether the parents return. Deer and other creatures will often leave their young as they go off foraging.

If an animal is really an orphan, you can always call Wildlife Images for advice.

As to that grizzly bear and the cat that became fast friends, the grizzly eventually died and the cat wandered off, Siddon says.

Wildlife Images can be reached at 541-476-0222.

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune. com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ reporterdm.

Yak, a grizzly bear at Wildlife Images, rests inside his enclosure. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

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thIs WEEK’s EPIsoDE: BluEsmaN DaVID PINKsy

EASy To STArT,

harD to

stoP

David Pinsky, right, and Phil Newton. MAiL TribunE / bob PEnnELL

Last Set

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t’s not that David Pinsky is a blueblood. It’s just that the blues are in his blood. Pinsky, of near Jacksonville, has been playing the blues in Southern Oregon since 1971.

“I have so much fun,” the 64-year-old singer and guitarist says. “Playing the blues keeps me young. If I didn’t do this, I don’t know what I’d do.”

The Rhythm Kings, the blues band Pinsky founded in 1988, play locally a couple times a month. Pinsky and musical pal Phil Newton, of Broadway Phil and the Shouters, host a blues jam

the second Tuesday of each month at Howiee’s in downtown Medford. In January, Pinksy and Newton, performing as a duo, represented the Cascade Blues Association in Memphis, Tenn., at the International Blues Challenge.

And they’re already booked solid for weekends all spring and summer and into October.

“It’s like best friends having a lot of fun,” he says of performing with Newton.

It’s no secret that the West Coast is something of a blues hotbed. The

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Cascade Blues Association is one of the largest such groups in the nation, and Portland has long been a blues hot spot. But as much as Pinksy loves the scene — and this is a man who placed a copy of a CD he made on Robert Johnson’s grave — it took him a while to find it after starting out as a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn.

He went to Midwood High School in the Flatbush section of the city, the same school Woody Allen attended. After seeing brass bands playing Sousa marches in Central Park, he played baritone horn in the school band and entered the Juilliard School’s youth program, where he played trumpet.

He listened to doo-wop (The Drifters, The Robins, The Cadillacs) and rhythm and blues (Big Joe Turner, Bobby “Blue” Bland) and early rock ‘n’ roll. His first three 45s were Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” Buddy Knox’s “Party Doll” and Harry Belefonte’s “The Banana Boat Song.” The British Invasion led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones hit the nation about the time Pinksy hit adolescence.

“New York City’s a big market,” he says. “You’d hear a lot of stuff. I liked the Stones especially, they were so hooked into that old R&B sound.”

In the early ‘60s the folk scene in New York’s Greenwich Village was in full bloom, and Pinsky used to

catch Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, Art and Happy Traum. By the mid ‘60s he switched from horns (although he’ll still blow one occasionally) to guitar and harmonica, buying a Gibson J-45, the iconic “workhorse” he still has.

In college at State University of New York at Buffalo, he ran a basement coffeehouse in the student union and listened to young bands such as The Yardbirds and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He and his buddies would go from Buffalo to the Riverboat, a club in Toronto, to hear Dave Van Ronk and a young Joni Mitchell. A guy named Gordon Lightfoot used to clean up.

After graduation from college, Pinsky packed up an old Toyota and headed West.

“Being a New Yorker I had a certain disdain for California,” he says. “I thought of Oregon and wound up in Ashland.”

It was 1971, and he split his time between playing music and working toward a master’s degree at what was then Southern Oregon State College. His band, Bodhisattva, played original jazz/blues/fusion at SOSC and clubs such as The Boar’s Head, The Log Cabin and the Cinema Inn. He started a bagel business in 1975 that lasted into the new millennium (“I’d sometimes go from a gig straight to the bakery”) and opened the nightclub Brooklyn in 1980 in Ashland.

Situated on the Interstate 5 corridor between San Francisco and the Portland and Seattle markets, Brooklyn, along with another popular club, Jazmin’s, drew such musicians as Albert Collins, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Taj Mahal, Clifton Chenier, John Hammond, Robert Cray. Los Lobos played one of its first gigs outside of East Los Angeles.

“Their car broke down, and I had to fix it,” Pinsky recalls.

The club closed in ‘85, and The Rhythm Kings started in ‘88. The Kings developed a big local following over the years and shared the stage with the likes of B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Elvin Bishop, Junior Walker, Otis Clay, Leon Russell, Tower of Power and other headliners, mixing mostly original tunes with that roots sound that came up Highway 61 from the Mississippi Delta to Memphis and Chicago.

He can recall some tough scenes. There was the time he had to get persuasive with a club owner in Winnemucca, Nev., to get paid. And he’s seen a million bar fights, especially back in the ‘80s.

“It was a regular thing.

People would drink too much, and somebody would look at some guy’s girlfriend wrong.”

One joint, which shall remain nameless (“Please,” he says. “It’s still in business.”), smelled so bad, he swears the very wood of the

tables reeked.

“After playing from 9 to 2:30, you’d have to leave your clothes outside the door when you went home.”

That’s all in the past.

Pinsky says one of the sweetest developments over the years in Southern Oregon has been the proliferation of independent wineries that feature live music. He and Newton frequently play at a half-dozen or so. The surroundings tend to be lovely, the pay is not bad and the crowds are nice. The smoke, the fistfights and the brutal hours are long gone. Then there’s his musical partnership.

“One of the great gifts of my life is to play with Phil,” he says. “He writes great songs. He likes my songs. I like his. I’m not a cover guy.

Never was. Tried it in the mid-’70s, the Doobie Brothers or whoever. I hated it. It was terrible.”

He’s written more than 1,000 songs, recorded more than 50 originals. So he and Newton play about 80 percent originals these days.

Sometimes the whole crowd will be on its feet, dancing, to music played by just two guys having the time of their lives.

“People like it,” he says.

“And I’m having so much fun, it’s easy for us to start and hard to stop. It picks us up.”

Reach freelance writer Bill Varble at varble.bill@gmail. com.

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Lola Ulrich takes her dog out for a walk from the riverfront home she and her husband bought along the Rogue River near Shady Cove. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

Green Acres

Escape from the

maddening crowd THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: ROGUE RIVER RENDEZVOUS AND FAMILY TIME

By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune

W

hen Jim Ulrich told his wife he was interested in waterfront property along the Rogue River, her response was underwhelming.

After all, they had a nice place in sunny Southern California and a mountain getaway at Bear Lake.

Still, he knew if she could just get a glimpse of the sparkling rapids coursing through stands of evergreens on nearby hills, Lola would be sold.

He was right.

“She fell in love with the area and led the charge getting here,” the retired police officer says.

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Trading an existence with 7 million souls elbowing for space on the beaches, shopping malls and roadways for whimsical town hall debates and extended conversations at the local market suits Ulrich just fine.

The difference between packed streets in Southern California and driving to Shady Cove, Ulrich says, is summed up in the farmland just outside town and the alpine feel in town.

“When you come from a huge metropolitan area, you don’t know your neighbor,” he says. “Even when we moved to Palos Verdes, you knew maybe one or two of your neighbors.”

After purchasing 1.47 acres on the south end of town, the Ulrichs built a 3,716-square-foot house. Not prone to cloistering themselves in their little corner of paradise, however, cOnTinueD On PaGe 60

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they dove into volunteer work and meeting the townsfolk.

“Coming to a community like this, I wanted to sink down roots and be involved in helping out,” he says. “When you get involved with the fire department and City Hall — then I got asked to run for City Council (a position he won and still holds) — you can get overwhelmed, you can overextend yourself. All of those things are just very time-consuming, because you want to do a good job. I had to back off.”

Even when Jim makes a quick trip to the store, Lola knows better than to expect him back soon. “ ‘You’ll be there two hours,’ she tells me, knowing that I’m going to see people and start talking,” he says.

Ulrich discovered Southern

“When you come from a huge metropolitan area, you don’t know your neighbor. ...

Coming to a community like this, I wanted to sink down roots and be involved in helping out.”

— Jim Ulrich, on moving with his family to Shady Cove from Southern California

Oregon just out of high school in the early 1970s. He hoped to go overseas, but settled for something else on the edge of his known universe — Oregon Caves National Monument, where he landed a summer tour-guide job.

“I did a lot of hitchhiking and touring to Jacksonville and other places that summer,” he says. “I knew it was a place I could enjoy living.”

Jackson County long has been a destination for those entering their golden years, but it’s also a great place to raise a family.

Erik and Erin Luckau had an overarching desire to raise their four sons in an environment where success isn’t measured by hours worked, ascending the corporate ladder or an entry in the social registry.

Erik Luckau was a vice president for a Fortune 200 global energy firm in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac

Jim and Lola Ulrich traded the traffic jams of Southern California for the slow pace of Shady Cove.

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River from Washington, D.C. Last October, the Luckaus left their home in Alexandria, Va., for a pastoral life in the Applegate Valley, where they purchased 24 acres along North Applegate Road next to Troon Vineyard.

“We wanted to find a larger piece of land where I could spend the day with our four boys (age 2 to 7),” he says. “We wanted a place to homeschool our kids, where they could learn to work and play and worship together. This wasn’t about a vacation home or second home. It’s where we live and be part of what’s here.”

The thought of raising rabbits came and went quickly, but the existing vineyard has great appeal and provides the opportunity for a family business.

“We wanted to help our kids learn to work with their hands,” he says. “You can do everything in the country that you can do in the city, but the opposite is not true; you can’t have a horse in the city. You can learn to manage animals here, and if you want to read about Columbus or how atoms react, you can do that just as well in the country.”

Erik Luckau was raised in Hawaii; his wife grew up in St. Louis. After several years of considering relocating to the Olympic Peninsula, their attention was redirected to a day’s drive south of that by a Sunset Magazine article.

“We started looking at the scary Hansel and Gretel forests of Oregon,” he says.

The first clue that things here really are different was when he would place a call Friday afternoons — about the only time he had available.

“They’d inevitably be out of the office,” Luckau says. “When they’d get back to me, they said they had been fishing on the coast, hunting, hiking or doing real things with their lives.

On the East Coast when you talk to someone, they’ll tell you how late they were at the office, or how terrible their trips were and spending 17 hours at the airport.”

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2013, the family flew to Medford and stayed at Bybee’s Historic Inn in Jacksonville. The Luckaus toured local vineyards and became enamored.

Jim and Lola Ulrich enjoy reading in the backyard of their new home along the upper Rogue River. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

“Seeing winemakers growing, crushing and taking real pride in their craftsmanship gave us a sense of community,” he says.

As an admitted disciple of organic farming guru Joel Salatin, Luckau wanted to grow his own food and raise his own animals. From his reading of the Bible, Luckau felt shipping his kids off to school every morning and maybe seeing them for an hour or two at night wasn’t the way to go.

“Dad is gone at 6 or 7 in the morning, the kids fly in for a meal, and then it’s off to the next activity,” he says. “Weekends are spent going to games, home is just a refueling station. We wanted something more real and tangible. People here have a different attitude. They don’t live to work, they work to live.”

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-7764463 or gstiles@mailtribune.com.

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So you think

you can

dance?

e u g Roeens t y e l l a V D

n A ST OuT

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: ISABEAU KENNEDY AND ASHTON ROXANDER

By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune

V

ersatility runs in Isabeau Kennedy’s favor

No sooner does Isabeau Kennedy master a new style of dance and she’s ready to learn another.

In the last decade, she’s studied tap, jazz, ballroom, contemporary and aerial dancing.

“I’d see someone doing it or hear about it and be curious and have to try it,” says the 17-year-old senior.

When her older sister started taking tap classes at Willow Wind Community Learning Center, Isabeau, who was 7 years old at the time, signed up, too. And when the school needed someone to fill in for a jazz dancer as a cheetah in its all-dance production of “The Lion King,” Isabeau enrolled in 62

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her first jazz dance class.

Two years later, Isabeau began studying ballroom dancing with instructors Cori Grimm and, later, June Kranenburg and met her longtime ballroom dancing partner, Bronson Fitzgerald Samel-Garloff.

The pair first danced together in 2008 at the Viennese Waltz Ball at the Historic Ashland Armory and won first place at the 2010 and 2011 Pear Blossom Ballroom competitions and the 2012 Rogue Valley Youth Ballroom Competition.

“We are both super clean when it comes to dance, and we were around the same height, which was good because I was shorter,” says Isabeau.

In 2012, the Ashland Curtain Climbers performed at an Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show, where Isabeau was volunteering, and the show inspired her to sign up for a

trapeze class at Dancing People Company. Two months later, she started taking classes at Le Cirque Center in Ashland and, within four weeks, was asked to join the center’s Elite, now Empyrean Aerialist, troupe.

Although she’s a natural, Isabeau says contemporary, which she pursues independently, has been the hardest to master because of how it varies from flowing to choppy and fast to slow.

Nonetheless, she considers contemporary, ballroom — particularly West Coast swing — and aerial dancing her favorite styles.

“I just love to dance,” she says.

Isabeau takes classes at Ashland High School and is home-schooled, allowing her time to dance, work on school plays, perform with Le Cirque Centre, attend open ballroom sessions at the Evergreen Ballroom, and choreograph contemporary routines

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s

D T u

with Ashland High School senior Tristan Gianinni for fun and school events.

She has applied to several European aerial dance companies and will visit them later this year before choosing one.

Ashton Roxander excels under pressure

In January, Ashton Roxander performed in his first major dance competition, the Youth America Grand Prix in Seattle, where he won first place in the senior division, was offered a $6,000 scholarship to Houston Ballet’s summer intensive program and will advance to the finals, held in April in New York City.

“That was my first shot out of the barrel, and I was surprised,” says Ashton, 17, a senior at Logos Public Charter School. “It was super nerve-racking.”

In Seattle, Ashton competed against more than 100 classical and contemporary ballet dancers ages 15 to 19 from Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Canada. He performed a variation of the classical ballet “Corsaire,” which he had rehearsed every day in the months leading up to the competition.

And although he will compete in the New York City finals, Ashton turned down the Houston Ballet scholarship after he was offered a full-ride scholarship to Boston Ballet’s five-week summer program,

which he’d participated in the year before.

Ashton says he chose Boston over Houston because it’s a place where he would like to live and dance professionally someday.

Ashton comes from a long line of professional dancers. His grandmothers on both sides were dancers.

His father, David Roxander, danced with the National Ballet of Canada for many years and later opened Dance Theatre Seven in Fairfax, Calif., and, in 2009, Studio Roxander Academy for Ballet in Medford. His mom, Elyse Roxander, studied dance under Grace Doty of Berkeley Conservatory of Ballet and performed principal roles in ballets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ashton says he didn’t always share his parents’ passion for dance and, between the ages of 3 and 12, was “lazy” and “unmotivated” when it came to dance.

“But when I hit 12, I started to see the value in being good at something … and it became a career interest for me,” he says.

Now Ashton dances, does his homework and eats at Studio Roxander. On average, he practices about six hours a day. His father is his primary coach, but he’s also started studying contemporary dance with instructor Kristen DeBellis at the studio.

Ashton says he is

Ballet dancer Ashton Roxander rehearses at Studio Roxander. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

constantly bombarded by the stereotype that ballet is a girl’s dance and that male dancers must observe its feminine qualities.

“That’s not me,” he says, adding that he loves the artistic and athletic qualities of ballet, as well as the “never-ending pursuit of perfection.”

One day, Ashton would like to dance professionally for a major ballet company but, in the meantime, finds satisfaction in his achievements, however big.

“Sometimes, you have days where you are on fire,” he says. “You’re jumping high. You’re turning a lot.

It’s the same thing with shows. You go out there and kill it … and when you’re finished, the audience goes wild while you’re standing there on stage.

That’s the best feeling.”

Reach reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-7764497 or tthomas@ mailtribune.com. Follow her at www.twitter.com/ teresathomas_mt.

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Archaeologist Jeff LaLande holds fragments of artifacts found during a 2013 dig at Calle Guanajuato in Ashland.

Archaeologist Greg Applen sifts through soil excavated off Jacksonville’s Main Street for Chinese artifacts in 2013. Mail Tribune / file phoToS

Digging for the

Truth

With their bare hands

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: ArCHAEOLOGISTS JEff LALAnDE AnD GrEG APPLEn

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By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune

E

ven four decades later, Ashland archaeologist Jeff LaLande can vividly recall the emotions he felt as he painstakingly worked to excavate Native American remains from grave sites revealed when the Columbia River’s water level was lowered.

“It was a powerful experience to excavate the remains of another human being.

You are gently revealing this person,” says LaLande. “It was for me a personally profound experience.”

Initial digging was done carefully with shovels. Once a dark stain in the earth was uncovered, indicating the presence of remains, tools shifted to trowels and whisk brooms. The work was conducted one 4-inch level at a time, and soil was screened through eighth-inch mesh to ensure no bone fragments were lost.

LaLande had been hired to work near Kettle Falls, Wash., when the river behind Grand Coulee Dam was drained to allow installation of a power unit. The drawdown exposed many ancient sites, including Native American graves near the falls, which had been a major fishing location.

Bones were documented and photographed as they were uncovered, then put in containers and sent to the University of Arizona for research. All remains were then returned to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

“It was a powerful experience to excavate the remains of another human being. You are gently revealing this person. It was for me a personally profound experience.”

— Ashland archaeologist Jeff LaLande

Many burials at one site may have followed a malaria epidemic that swept the area in the 1830s. Artifacts found with the bones included glass trading beads, arrow points and tools.

Both LaLande and Medford archaeologist Greg Applen say the work of uncovering history with your bare hands is tedious and done with great care.

Applen once uncovered an arrow point in Douglas

University of Oregon archaeologists Chris Ruiz, left, and Julia Knowles sift through soil between California and Main streets in Jacksonville during a 2007 dig looking for artifacts from the city’s Chinese residents during the 1860s.

Jewelry was among hundreds of artifacts found during an archeological dig in 2013 at Jacksonville’s 19th-century Chinese quarter.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 66

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Archaeologist Jeff LaLande, left, and Trevor Coster of Ashland Parks and Recreation sift through dirt that was excavated from under the Calle Guanajuato pedestrian walkway behind the Ashland Plaza in 2013.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65

County that was at least 8,000 years old. The point was buried beneath the Mazama Layer, debris deposited when what is now Crater Lake blew apart around 5,677 B.C. “It was a lot of hard work. You are sweating a lot,” Applen says of the point discovery. “It was rewarding to find it, because people worked this location in the past.”

Uncovering artifacts like these puts the archaeologists in touch with the

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lives of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.

LaLande was the archaeologist when Ashland reworked its downtown Plaza in 2013. Brief historic accounts say a Shasta Indian village was there when pioneers first arrived, but little evidence had been uncovered.

“It was rewarding and exciting to come down and find evidence of that Shasta village where the first white men ... spoke with the head of the village,” says LaLande. The dig found old trading beads, small animal bones and scraps from tool making.

Chinese coins emerged from a 2013 dig site at a 19th-century Chinese district in Jacksonville.

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“After living in Ashland for 45 years, and hearing there was a village, to actually find it there was a real thrill,” LaLande says.

Applen wrote his master’s thesis on an excavation he supervised on the Rogue River near Agness at an 1856 battle site in the Rogue River Indian Wars. Percussion caps, devices that send a small flame into the black powder in loaded muskets, revealed battle locations. The devices are blown aside during firing.

“You know where a soldier fired a weapon from the percussion caps,” Applen says.

“We found quite a few stacked rock features. They probably were part of the vision quest that young men of a tribe undertook as a rite of passage. Many of the half- to one-meter-tall objects pointed either to Mount Shasta or Mount McLoughlin.”

— Medford archaeologist Greg Applen

Applen surveyed 34,000 acres around Gerber Reservoir before the Bureau of Land Management launched a thinning project in eastern Klamath County.

“We found quite a few stacked rock features,” says Applen. "They probably were part of the vision quest that young men of a tribe undertook as a rite of passage. Many of the halfto one-meter-tall objects pointed either to Mount Shasta or Mount McLoughlin."

Finding artifacts often allows archaeologists to come up with plausible reasons for human activity at a location.

“All people work in their own selfinterest,” says Applen. “They just weren’t expending energy willy-nilly.”

Tony Boom is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Reach him at tboomwriter@gmail.com.

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Rare finds THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SOuTHErn OrEgOn anTIquES & cOllEcTIblES club

by Sarah lemon for the Mail Tribune

A

ntiques assembled at the Medford Armory each spring and fall evoke the set of a beloved public-television series for thousands of visitors.

The popularity of “Antiques Roadshow” has produced larger crowds at the Southern Oregon Antiques & Collectibles Club semiannual shows, say club memRoadshow bers. Browsing wares from more than 40 antiques dealers — or offering up their own heirlooms for appraisal — simulates the reality-television experience for many who attend.

“You never know what someone’s gonna bring in next,” says George Schroeder, club member and appraiser who owns Schroeder’s Quality Furniture & Collectibles, an antiques store in downtown Medford.

Antiques

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Schroeder does know, however, that the vast majority of appraisals in Medford will never approach dollar values seen on the 19-year-old “Antiques Roadshow,” PBS’ version of an original British program that premiered in 1979. Three dollars per item is the fee for appraisals at Antiques & Collectibles Club shows. Proceeds are donated to several local nonprofit organizations and youth programs.

“You got to think in commonsense

terms,” says Schroeder of the appraisal business.

Appraisers for the PBS series, he says, base their estimates on big-city auctions, frequented by millionaires sipping martinis. Although Schroeder has referred some clients with exceptional artifacts to high-end auction houses, most of his assessments are regionally relevant. Appraisal clients, ConTinueD on PaGe 70

Victorian solid walnut chest and mirror from about 1860.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

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— George Schroeder, Southern Oregon Antiques & Collectibles Club member

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 69

he acknowledges, frequently want to sell him their items.

“I can tell you exactly what your stuff is worth right here on Main Street in downtown Medford.”

Original-condition preservation is another practice touted on “Antiques Roadshow” that doesn’t exactly ensure an item’s value or appeal, says Schroeder.

Dirty and disheveled antiques belong in a museum, not a store, he says.

“People think that anything they hear on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ is the absolute gospel,” he says. “It really gave people an easy out.”

Hand-carved solid wood ornaments from about 1900. MAIl TRIbUNE / bOb PENNEll

“The price on antiques fluctuates. You can get an idea from the books. That’s a rare thing to find something really valuable that you didn’t know about.”

— Gloria Hinderer, Southern Oregon Antiques & Collectibles Club, president

As the program and other reality-television series, such as “American Pickers,” raised the profile of antiques, says Schroeder, eBay emerged over the past two decades as “the great equalizer.” Collectors with purportedly rare possessions, prior to the advent of Internet sales, suddenly realized that theirs was a global marketplace, he explains.

“It’s changed big-time,” says Schroeder of the antiques business. “There’s a lot of old stuff French table and chairs from about 1920. MAIl TRIbUNE / bOb PENNEll 70

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that’s not worth anything.”

The Internet has been a significant research tool for 78-year-old Gloria Hinderer for about eight years. Previously, hundreds of books in her personal library were Hinderer’s primary resource.

Identification, rather than calculating worth, is her main goal, says the Antiques & Collectibles Club president.

“The price on antiques fluctuates,” she says. “You can get an idea from the books. That’s a rare thing to find something really valuable that you didn’t know about.”

Yet rare collections have been unearthed in the Rogue Valley, says Schroeder. Approximately 150 candlestick holders — sticking Tommies — used in mining operations of centuries past were in the possession of one local family, who contacted Schroeder several years ago. Quite possibly the world’s largest assortment, the steel implements are worth about $35,000, says Schroeder.

He recalls that one local,

1960s ranch-style home, complete with purple shag carpeting and avocadogreen appliances, also housed wall-to-wall Heywood-Wakefield furniture.

The Mid-century Modern pieces were in such pristine condition, along with an Arts and Crafts lamp, that Schroeder put the former owner’s family in touch with antiques dealers on the East Coast. The lamp alone sold for several thousand dollars, he says.

That bill of sale underscored the importance of obtaining appraisals for inherited antiques of unknown value, says Schroeder. Otherwise, one runs the risk of dealers making off with them for a song, he adds.

Citing Ginger Rogers as his most renowned client, Schroeder eschews certification as an appraiser, relying instead on nearly three decades of on-thejob experience. He charges $45 per hour for appraisals, a service that costs as much as $150 per hour locally, he says.

A reliable appraisal should be delivered in writing, says Hinderer.

The same goes for purchasing antiques, which should be accompanied with a written testament to their authenticity, she says.

Antiques enthusiasts can look forward to a threeday show Sept. 25-27 at the Medford Armory, instead of the usual two days, says Antiques & Collectibles Club member Terri Schroeder. If the club’s 33rd annual fall show is a hit, she says, the three-day schedule may become a new tradition.

Admission costs $5. For more information, see www.soacc.com.

Reach freelance writer This Elvis bust with sunSarah Lemon at thewholeglasses has a $495 price tag. dish@gmail.com.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

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fitness First

Ultimate Women Fighters

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: THE WOmEn Of ROguE COmBaT aCaDEmy

By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune

Y

mma student Leah arce, top, demonstrates an arm bar submission hold while training at Rogue Combat academy with instructor Kalyn Schwartz.

Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

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ou’ve seen them on TV, fighters using mixed-martial arts to pummel opponents with kung fu punches, karate kicks, judo sweeps, wrestling holds and boxing combinations.

MMA practitioners — or ultimate fighters — go through workouts that work every part of the body, which is part of the allure of the sport, say local women who have taken up the pastime.

Kalyn Schwartz, 25, who teaches women’s classes at Rogue Combat Academy in Central Point, is one of the few women who get in the cage with the intention of subduing someone. She is the Northwest Full Contact Fighting Federation bantamweight champ.

Many of the women who come to her for lessons want to learn selfdefense; others do it mainly for fitness, says Schwartz. Some nights the women punch bags and practice kicks, but they don’t beat on each other.

“Concern for safety is one of the main reasons,” says student Melisa Bond, 35, of Medford. She says proper form for punches and kicks is needed to be effective in a threatening situation.

“It’s one of the best workouts I’ve ever had,” says Bond, who has done a number of other exercise regimens.

Denise Daniels, 50, began training with Schwartz nearly a year ago before the academy opened. Daniels, who had a hip transplant 10 years ago, says she’s lost 100 pounds since taking up the sport.

Wednesday evening workouts at the gym start with gloved-students punching and kicking heavy bags.

Schwartz alternates periods of attack with jumping jacks, running in place and other exercises.

Students then move into a cage where they exchange light punches,

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“a lot of girls haven’t done anything like this. ... People come in and train to lose weight. Then people get concerned about what kind of stuff they want to build in their core.”

— MMA teacher Kalyn Schwartz, Rogue Combat Academy

Rogue Combat Academy instructor Kalyn Schwartz, front, demonstrates fighting techniques with student Leah Arce. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

swapping offensive and defensive roles. Shin guards are donned next and kicks are exchanged. Students later strap Thai pads to their forearms and partners kick vigorously. In a follow-up, students attack the Thai pads with a knee, followed by a kick.

“Right now I just stick with the fundamentals,” says Schwartz. “A lot of girls haven’t done anything like this.

Then I start to stack more and more fundamentals. People come in and train to lose weight. Then people get concerned about what kind of stuff they want to build in their core.”

One student plans to move on to full contact, and a couple of others are intrigued by the possibility, Schwartz says. A minimum of six months of training is required by the academy before full contact.

“I’m thinking I’ll probably train for a year,” says Leah Arce, 20, who is looking forward to combat. “I want to be ready for it.”

Arce began training in December when her friend, Aryel Arritola, 19, got her to come along to the workouts.

“I love punching the bag and just learning self-defense and having a great coach that pushes you,” says Arritola, whose dad and brother both train in mixed martial arts in California.

Arritola says she may consider full contact eventually, but she wants to work up to it.

“Once I’m trained, maybe just doing one (fight) to see if I can do it at my age, maybe just for fun,” Bond says.

Schwartz would welcome some

women with whom she could train.

“Since I only train with guys, it’s a lot easier to handle girls,” says Schwartz. “It would be really nice to train with a community. Having contact would be awesome.”

A former Marine Corps aircraft firefighter, Schwartz and fiancé Chris Holliday opened the academy in October. They moved to Southern Oregon from Southern California to try to establish a community, she says.

“I want to have women build each other up,” says the fighter.

Rogue Combat Academy is located at 6090 Crater Lake Ave., Suites E and F. Information can be found at www.roguecombatacademy.com.

Tony Boom is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Reach him at tboomwriter@gmail.com.

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Bumps in the

Night

Ghost Hunters THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: MEDfOrD ParanOrMaL InvESTIgaTIOnS

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

P

lush toys move on their own, doors lock without warning and money goes missing in John and Stefani Fletcher’s home. Such mischievous pranks follow a grandfather clock that has moved four times with the couple in six years.

“The clock will never go anywhere without us,” says John Fletcher, 45.

Not even a burning sensation that raised welts on Fletcher’s back during a paranormal investigation severed the couple’s attachment to the antique that has been in Fletcher’s family for at least three generations.

“There is something definitely attached to that clock,” says Stefani Fletcher, 42. “I used to be very skeptical.”

But after Fletcher contacted Medford Paranormal Investigations, the Rogue Valley’s own “Ghost Hunters” validated suspicions her husband had about the clock since he was a child.

Investigators’ meters, cameras, audio recorders and other tools of the trade detected electromagnetic activity and electronic voice phenomena in the vicinity, when the devices’ batteries weren’t inexplicably drained within a few minutes.

“It’s not uncommon,” says investigator Jesse Rogers of losing power in the presence of purported paranormal activity.

The group’s February foray into the Fletchers’ east Medford home is one of a handful each year that Medford Paranormal Investigations conducts free of charge. Sleuths found some sort of evidence to support a haunting in all but one case locally since the group formed in 2011, says member Brad 74

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“The clock will never go anywhere without us,” says John fletcher, 45. PHOTOS BY JAMIE LUSCH

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“There is something definitely attached to that clock,” says Stefani Fletcher.

Smith. Keeping in touch with their clients, the group seeks to “resolve” cases and educate the public about brushes with the paranormal, says Smith.

“Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, it’s benign,” says Smith. “If there’s something going on, it’s not going to hurt you.”

Indeed, portraying hauntings as “harmful or negative” is one of Smith’s “beefs” with various television shows that shadow real-life ghost busters.

Syfy Channel’s “Ghost Hunters” is perhaps the only program in the genre that aims to “debunk” hauntings, says Smith, rather than exploit humans’ fascination with forces from beyond the grave.

“These were regular people who needed help understanding what was going on,” says Smith of cases depicted on “Ghost Hunters,” particularly during its first few seasons.

“They weren’t crazy.”

Hoaxes and publicity stunts had disillusioned Smith, 50, in his pursuit of paranormal activity until the 2004 debut of “Ghost Hunters.” He joined a Sacramento, Calif., group affiliated with the Atlantic Paranormal Society,

founded by the plumbers who moonlight as ghost busters on the Syfy series. Participating in 80 to 90 investigations over about three years, Smith says he and his colleagues exposed hauntings in and around Sacramento as “normal things that people misinterpreted as paranormal” about 90 to 95 percent of the time.

“People hear sounds at night,” says Smith.

Such noises, he says, most often are the usual suspects: foundations settling, water pipes gurgling and floorboards creaking. Smith says his work as a paranormal investigator results in not a few recommendations for home repairs.

Sensitivity to the waves emitted by home electronics are another common problem, he says. It’s compounded by clustering multiple devices, particularly on a nightstand, which gives some people the sense of being watched. Entering a room where numerous electromagnetic fields collide can elicit nausea or the feeling of being touched, he adds.

Couching an otherworldly encounter as real-world occurrence doesn’t please everyone, says Smith, explaining that he’s surprised by the number of clients “who actually want to be haunted.” Preliminary interviews and site surveys help paranormal groups, including Medford Paranormal Investigations, to weed out cases before launching a full-blown probe.

Smith, Rogers and fellow investigator Wendy Stuck found enough unexplained phenomena at the Fletchers’ home to warrant not one, but two, inquiries. A third was planned once the couple’s clock had been relocated to their new residence in Central Point.

“They’ve had a history of activity in any home that they’ve lived in,” says Smith.

Hauntings can be traced about 15 to 20 percent of the time to tangible objects, rather than physical locations or specific people, the group estimates.

And the Fletchers’ was an “intelligent” haunt, one that interacts with witnesses, as opposed to a “residual” haunt, which is merely an imprint of something or someone from the past, says Smith.

Still, says Smith, human causes could be at the root of several incidents around the clock: a stuffed animal launched into midair and a spittoon rocking on its base before tipping over. After the Fletchers captured those mishaps on video, investigators were able to reenact them, says Smith.

Stuck’s research also explained in

Hauntings can be traced about 15 to 20 percent of the time to tangible objects, rather than physical locations or specific people.

— Medford Paranormal Investigations

mechanical terms how antique clocks can start running and chiming when they haven’t been wound, he adds.

The logical and inexplicable only deepen the mystery and heighten the Fletchers’ amusement over the clock’s antics.

“He’s more determined to keep that clock now, I think, than ever,” says Stefani Fletcher. “I’m definitely intrigued.”

Find Medford Paranormal Investigations on Facebook.

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@gmail.com.

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In search of elusive critters THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SlOggIng THrOugH crEEKS anD FlyIng THE SKIES

Wildlife Trackers

By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune

P

ete Samarin stands on a rustic wooden bridge and stares down into the cool, clean waters of the North Fork of Trail Creek.

A wading staff and a notepad are Samarin’s tools for the day as he steps into the creek in search of wild summer steelhead and, more important, the egg nests called redds that he’s counting as part of an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife survey.

“Oh, there should be fish today,” says Samarin, a fish biologist. “Let’s give it a try.”

Backwoods biology is the order of the day for a varying group of professionals whose jobs are to keep tabs on the iconic wildlife in Southern Oregon.

They ply the untrodden paths to chart, count and categorize the various large and small creatures so others can have the right kind of data to make management decisions about the fish and wildlife they are charged with maintaining and protecting.

As Samarin wades in the water, ODFW wildlife biologist Steve Niemela takes to the air in a chartered

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Pete Samarin hikes up the north Fork of Trail creek while performing a summer steelhead spawning survey. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

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helicopter, counting Roosevelt elk so future hunting seasons are managed without overstressing the southern Cascades’ population of Western Oregon’s largest mammal.

“Roosevelt elk are hard to find and hard to count, mainly because of the cover,” says Niemela, a 10-year veteran of aerial counting. “The best way for us to do it is by helicopter.”

And the best place for Samarin is in the water. He’s surveying Rogue River spawning tributaries such as Trail Creek that are vital places for wild steelhead to dart up and lay their eggs in the clear gravels each winter.

The adults spend little time in these spawning tributaries, running up during high water and using their tails to carve niches for their eggs, which are laid and then fertilized by males.

“For steelhead surveys, the metrics are redds,” Samarin says. “The fish observation is great, but you can’t do anything with that. It’s not uncommon to see 10 redds but no fish.”

Samarin plies the same streams yearly, and the redd counts are compared to determine upward or downward trends that could impact sport-fishing seasons on the Rogue should wild steelhead numbers increase or decrease dramatically.

Samarin slithers over a log spanning the creek. It was cabled into place several years ago by forest crews trying to improve the creek’s habitat, helping gravels fill in behind it for spawners and as a hiding place for young juveniles that hatch.

“Hey, we got a redd down there,” he says.

Samarin spies a raised spot in the gravel, with a dug-out section just above it. The raised gravel contains the redd, something only the trained

“Roosevelt elk are hard to find and hard to count, mainly because of the cover. The best way for us to do it is by helicopter.”

— Wildlife biologist Steve Niemela, a 10-year veteran of aerial elk counting

eye can see.

“That one’s actually pretty obvious,” Samarin says. “She dug a hole right here, put the eggs in, then came up and dug all this out. There’s probably 1,500 eggs in there.”

Steelhead will lay about 3,000 eggs because their survival rates are so low.

That’s not quite the picture Niemela sees from the sky. Roosevelt elk females, called cows, will have one or two calves annually, and their survival rates are what drive herd sizes and, in turn, the popular sport-hunting seasons for them.

As the helicopter bounces over the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the pilot finds a herd of bulls, cows and calves and maneuvers the ship to keep the herd from scattering.

Niemela counts the bulls and calves on one pass, then takes an overall count of the herd. By subtracting the bulls and calves from the total count, he gets the number of the far more numerous cows.

He’s after two ratios. First, the number of bulls per 100 cows tells the story on herd composition that may impact hunting seasons. Statewide, wildlife management units are managed to maintain at least 10 bulls per 100 cows, and Niemela’s Rogue Unit is well above that.

Next are calf-cow ratios. “We really want more than 23 cows per 100 calves,” Niemela says. “Then we’re

doing pretty good.

“We don’t put a lot of stock in the actual numbers, because it’s so variable,” Niemela says. “We don’t actually give a population estimate from helicopter flights.”

All that concentrating on the ground from the air can exact a price.

Air sickness comes as a cost of doing business.

“Sometimes people get a little green, myself included,” Niemela says. “I’ve never been sick, but I’ve come close before.”

Back in West Fork of Trail Creek, Samarin slogs upstream when he suddenly stops at the base of a small pool.

“There’s a shadow up there,” he says.

“That could be a steelhead.”

He cranes his neck and channels all the power of his polarized sunglasses in hopes of seeing a wild summer steelhead adult.

“Oh, it’s a rock,” he says. “Too bad.

That’s a good place for a steelhead to hang out.”

This part of the survey ends with one bonafide wild steelhead redd, but no sightings of the wary steelhead.

“Chasing these steelhead is a crapshoot, man,” Samarin says. “They’re like vampires. They hate the light of day.”

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541776-4470 or mfreeman@mailtribune. com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ MTwriterFreeman.

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Tales from the taxi THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: ‘YOu naME IT, WE’vE SEEn IT’

Penny nelson is the owner of Southern Oregon Town Car and Limousine.

Mail Tribune / Julia Moore

Taxi Cab Confessions

By Damian Mann Mail Tribune

W

hat is it about riding in a taxi that brings out the crazy in people?

“You name it, we’ve seen it,” says Jimmy, who has driven a taxi for three years for a Medford company. “You see everything, even people naked in the back of their car taking care of business.”

Jimmy, who asked that his last name

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be withheld, says he picked up two women for Halloween two years ago dressed only in shorts and covered head to toe with red and green glitter.

When he picked them up again later that night, most of the glitter was gone, and so were the women.

“They were inebriated, and they were pretty much naked, but they didn’t care,” Jimmy says.

The tales told to taxi drivers are sometimes lurid and have even inspired a TV show, “Taxicab Confessions,” which features explicit conversations about sex and other private matters.

“We’re kind of like bartenders or hairdressers,” says Penny Nelson, owner of Southern Oregon Town Car and Limousine. “Most of the time people just tell us stories about their families.”

Nelson has seen a lot in her years behind the wheel.

“We had a bunch of girls who wanted a wild, wild, wild limousine ride,” she

says.

It was a bachelorette party last summer, and the blushing bride wanted to kick up her heels one last time.

“They got in the limo and began hitting the booze hard,” Nelson says.

“They indulged way too much in the back. A half-hour later, they were all sitting on the curb in downtown Medford throwing up.”

That was the end of that party.

Nelson says most of her fares are people who just want to have a casual conversation.

“My people are very, very normal, for the most part,” Nelson says. “They’re just wanting to go to the airport or wanting to go to the wineries.”

Sometimes, she will get a call from someone who missed a connecting flight at the Medford airport and needs to be transported to San Francisco or some other big city.

Once, a country-western band’s bus broke down in Medford, so she had to

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“We’re kind of like bartenders or hairdressers.

Most of the time people just tell us stories about their families.”

— Penny Nelson, owner of Southern Oregon Town Car and Limousine

drive the members to Monterey, Calif.

Taxi drivers sometimes pick up people who readily admit they’re wanted by the police. Sometimes the rider confesses he’s just done drugs or asks the driver to take him to a house so he can buy drugs.

Every fare that climbs into a taxi can bring a new and surprising glimpse into humanity.

Not too long ago, an engineer wanted to rent a limo to impress a new girlfriend, and so he called Nelson’s company.

“Right away, he was making ‘googly’ eyes at me,” Nelson says. “He was complimenting me on how pretty I was.”

Six months later, the same guy came back to town for a local project and told Nelson he wanted to have a big birthday bash. He asked her if she could rally some friends, and he would foot the bill.

After she drove them to the first nightclub, Nelson says the guy told her he didn’t want her to drive but preferred she get in the back and join the party.

Nelson said she would have to get another driver, and he agreed.

After hitting all the watering holes in Medford, the guy proposed she return with him to his hotel room.

Nelson declined, asking for the $350 owed for the limo, which he refused to pay.

“I was pretty upset,” Nelson says.

In late February, she got a call from a man in Jacksonville. When she pulled up to the curb, two naked girls were dripping wet on the front lawn.

“They were trying to put coats on, but they were just barely able to wrap them around all their parts,” Nelson says.

On New Year’s Eve two years ago, a guy hired a limo and he and his date went to the Ashland Armory. Later, they circled back to Medford and hit a couple of nightclubs.

“He really wanted to impress her,” Nelson recalls. Sometime later, the guy came out and told Nelson that he couldn’t find his date.

“We circled the block,” she says. “He was a little devastated at getting jilted.”

The evening cost the man $600.

“I felt very sorry for him,” Nelson says.

Craig Moore, owner of Care More Cab, says, “I’ve heard stories of guns pulled on some of the drivers, and we get the occasional episode where somebody refuses to pay.”

In early March, a Medford man was driven to Portland, where the driver was supposed to be reimbursed the $800 fare. “When they got there, the (fare) called the guy (who was supposed to pay), who never answered his phone,” Moore says.

The driver, a rather large man, stood in front of the door and prevented the rider from getting out. The police arrested the man, who was also wanted for another crime, Moore says.

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune. com. Follow him on Twitter at www. twitter.com/reporterdm.

Taxis and shuttle vans line up in front of the Medford airport waiting for the arrival of afternoon flights. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell Our Valley

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‘Zillas’ aren’t always the bride THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SErEnITy EvEnTS, An InSPIrED AffAIr, AllurE WITH DEcOr

Bridezillas

By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune

W

ith a ton of money and gigantic expectations invested in many weddings, it’s not uncommon to see people crack under the pressure, say local wedding planners.

Because of reality TV, “bridezilla” is almost a household word, used to depict brides who turn into monsters over the tiniest wedding details.

But bridezillas aren’t always the bride, says Central Point wedding planner Jennifer Hedgepeth, who has shortened the moniker to “zillas.”

They can just as easily be the mother of the bride, a bridesmaid or even a well-intentioned grandmother.

Typically, though, they are female, Hedgepeth admits.

“Ninety percent of the time, the zilla is someone other than the bride. Nine times out of 10, it’s the mother of the bride, and didn’t you know this is her special day and not her daughter’s? It can also be the best friend, who is the maid of honor and she’s flying in from out of town and immediately insists that everything needs to be different because that’s what the bride wants,” says Hedgepeth, of Serenity Events.

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Wedding planner Jennifer Hedgepeth looks through the selections at the central Point bridal shop Pearl and Penna Bridal Boutique. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

“Unfortunately, when you put ‘wedding’ in front of any type of service, it’s automatically going to bump the stress level up because of the number of personalities involved.”

Meltdowns occur over issues as seemingly innocuous as ribbon colors, tulle length and the size of butter pats provided by the caterer.

“Fifty Shades” be darned, says Hedgepeth, hell hath no fury like a bride struggling with finding the right shade of blush — or planning a Cadillac-style wedding on a Pinto-sized budget.

“Reality is out the window for most brides trying to manage the stress of planning a wedding. The key to sanity for everyone is just really being calm and straightforward with all of my clients,” Hedgepeth says.

“I have had brides who will come to

me and say, ‘I want 150 people, and my budget is $5,000. I want the princess treatment and the carriage.’ So I calmly tell them, ‘OK, after all that, you can invite 10 people.’”

Wedding planner Heather Goodwin says a slew of tiny details can push brides over the edge.

Goodwin has triumphed over everything from inebriated brides and music playlist disasters to rainy days when brides — or their mothers — insist on not renting a tent.

“Before I was a wedding planner, I had 14 years in personnel management, so dealing with different personalities is fine with me. My main goal is just to get them down the aisle by dealing with whatever I have to deal with,” says Goodwin, of An Inspired Affair in Talent.

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“That said, try convincing clients who envision a beautiful spring event, when the weather is mostly sunny beforehand, that you’ll probably want to tent the wedding. The weather is, at best, iffy in October and May, so if we don’t plan for rain, then it’s going to rain,” she says.

“One wedding, I suggested a tent.

They said no way. And the morning of the wedding it is pouring down rain. So we get the tent up and it literally stops raining the second the ceremony starts — and then they want me to take the tent down.”

Wedding planners expect a certain level of stress, says Terrie Day, owner of Allure with Decor.

“The thing to remember is that it’s their big day and, if something goes wrong, it is the end of the world for them. They put trust into us, and if we’re doing our job, they should be calm — OK, mostly calm — and relaxed,” says Day. “The worries are on the wedding planner and not the bride. I try to avoid unnecessary drama, but I think some of what people see on TV has made it worse, for sure. I used to love some of the shows, but even the shows have created over-the-top drama for ratings. I find, around here, the brides are sweet and the mothers of the brides are sweet. It’s my job to let them just close their eyes and dream, and when they open their eyes again it’s beautiful and perfect.

“I’m not saying there aren’t bridezillas,” she adds. “But if I’m doing my job, they’re few and far between.”

“I don’t know that many clients reach the point of being a full-on bridezilla,” Hedgepeth agrees. “Honestly, every single bride has that moment. It’s inevitable — and sometimes it happens in the very beginning of the process and sometimes on the

"I have had brides who will come to me and say, 'I want 150 people, and my budget is $5,000. I want the princess treatment and the carriage.' So I calmly tell them, 'OK, after all that, you can invite 10 people.' " — Jennifer Hedgepeth, of Serenity Events

Wedding planner Jennifer Hedgepeth talks about some of her wedding experiences. MaIl TrIbune / bOb Pennell

wedding day.

“It will literally be like a Jekyll and Hyde. You’ve got this amazing person who you have gotten to know like family. And they look at you with a look in their eyes — almost like a twitch. And your hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you have no idea what is going to come out of their mouths.”

In spite of those scary moments, Hedgepeth says she loves her work.

“I tell my clients, you are hiring me

to be your sanity. You’re hiring me so that I can make sure that you get your dream and get what you want.

“I think when people see these reality shows, they think, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s perfection.’ And they think they have to reach this level of perfection or they’re going to be horribly judged. It’s my job to help them achieve their wedding and their own perfection.”

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at buffyp76@yahoo.com.

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The ‘reality’ of modeling

Project

Runway

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: MarIaH STrOngIn, 22, anD Dylan Hall, 12

By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune

T

elevision shows abound regarding models, actors and even designers hoping to get their big break in the fashion and showbiz industry.

Though people often picture models enjoying lavish parties and high-stakes assignments after being “discovered,” their pathway to success is more often a slow, tedious climb to a carefully planned goal, say local models and agents.

Tales of actors and models pursuing careers in entertainment or fashion with seemingly limitless travel budgets, traipsing across the country to compete against hundreds of other hopefuls for a single spot, are far from reality, local talents say.

“It’s a job. And it’s hard work. It definitely isn’t something that just happens for someone,” says Teresa Pollman, president of IMD Modeling in Medford.

Actors represented by Pollman’s downtown Medford-based agency often have jobs, activities and school to juggle while promoting themselves as talent.

“Everyone’s expectations of being a model is kind of more of a fairy tale that it’s this beautiful, glamorous industry.

That’s not reality,” Pollman says.

“Being a model is a job and it’s hard work and, like any sport, it’s extremely competitive. There’s a lot of rejection and, even like in the regular job force, just because you apply for it doesn’t mean you’ll get it,” she says.

“We want to keep our clients, especially the kids who are still in school, as normal in their everyday life as possible. If they’re an actor, we sign them with an agency in Los Angeles. Whenever a new pilot is being shot, an agency will say, ‘Hey, will you put this kid on tape for this pilot and email it to us?’ “ With an agency representing them, 82

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Mariah Strongin

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actors and models skip some of the early parts of an interview or screening process.

“They may only have to come in once a week or so to be put on tape for something coming up,” she adds.

“As far as the models, we get them signed with a large agency — New York, L.A. or Miami. ... Someone will call and say they’re interested in a booking for so and so on certain dates.

We have people booked around the world in Thailand, Tokyo, Istanbul, London.”

Pollman says her talents are busy enough. “I don’t have any models complaining about down time,” she says.

Mariah Strongin, a 22-year-old from the Rogue Valley, is currently based in New York and working for agencies there as well as in L.A., Milan, Germany and Istanbul. Strongin has been to London and Milan in the past year and is considering Bangkok and Tokyo for summer gigs.

While she enjoys traveling for work, Strongin says it’s far from a vacation.

Strongin, who was 16 when she began traveling for work, says she tries to maintain as normal a routine as she can while on a job.

“One of the most difficult things about traveling is friends and family urging me to consider the realities on the ground at the destinations, (meaning) all the ‘stuff ’ going on. Trust is a huge thing in the modeling industry, and it’s not easy,” she says.

“When (Pollman) sends me somewhere, I know I will be taken care of. You have to trust the people who represent you to market you and take care of your well-being. That said, a lot of it is on us as models, and we have to trust ourselves by knowing inherently that we can be alone, that this is right for our careers, and that we can fit in and get around the cities to do our job.”

While in Istanbul, a typical day for Strongin consists of being ready on one of two vans — one leaving for an assignment by 7:30 a.m. or another headed for casting calls around 9 a.m.

Strongin spends her time outside work researching modeling trends and brands for various areas of the world, working out and staying in close contact with her agent and family and friends.

Back “home” in New York, casting begins as early as 8 a.m., and she can do from zero to 20 per day, depending on the season.

Dylan Hall

Twelve-year-old Dylan Hall of Medford recently left for L.A. for his second year in a row. Acting and modeling since he was 6, Dylan sends audition tapes out regularly and works full days when on assignment. When he works, it’s not fun and games, he says.

“It’s something you can’t do unless you actually try and are willing to work really hard and find people to help you get where you want to go,” says Dylan, who has appeared twice on

the show “Grimm.” “You have to practice and actually do it over and over and tape it, and there are times where it doesn’t happen for a little while but you have to just keep going.

“After pilot season it kind of quiets down and I focus on school and other things. Even when it’s busy, school and grades are more important than acting.”

Despite the unflattering image sometimes depicted of models on reality shows, Pollman says her charges are a hard-working bunch. Is the job fun? Sometimes, yes. Anything like they portray on TV? Not so much.

“Reality TV is not reality. Reality TV is scripted to make it look like that just happened, but it was set up. I’m not going to lie. I like reality TV, but it’s just not how it happens in real life,” Pollman says.

“This industry is like pursuing any other career. Models are not born.

They’re made. They get to see different parts of the world, which is great, and they stay in nice places, but they work very hard to get where they are and they take what they do very, very seriously.”

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at buffyp76@yahoo.com.

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Hunting urban wildlife

Critter

Catchers

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: Dan MEyEr, all WIlDlIFE SOluTIOnS

By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune

D

an Meyer gently picks up a metal cage wrapped in a brown tarp. He knows he’s got another skunk, so he’s being careful not to get, well, skunked.

It’s an adult stinker that’s been squatting under the front porch of an Ashland house for a few weeks, having sneaked into the crawl space through an uncovered vent. The critter has to go, but the homeowner has no interest in tussling with it or the other animals that have come and stayed like unwanted in-laws.

That makes the 58-yearold Meyer invaluable. As he carries the cage down the walkway, the animal starts pawing on the base of the metal live trap.

“That’s how he lets you know he’s fixin’ to spray,” Meyer says.

So the 58-year-old Meyer moves his gloved hand slightly, and the frisky animal settles down enough to keep Meyer’s stink-free streak alive — he’s been trapping skunks his whole life without getting sprayed.

So far so good.

Meyer owns All Wildlife Solutions, working under a state wildlife control operator’s license that

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Dan Meyer, owner of all Wildlife Solutions, traps a skunk at a home in ashland. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

has allowed him to evict offending visitors from under houses, garages and woodpiles for a decade in this whacky realm of critter control.

No one wants to see Meyer, but they’re happy to see him leave with the villainous rodents in the back of his pickup after he’s

outfoxed them with sharp wits honed by a lifetime of trapping.

It’s a cat-and-mouse game the white-bearded, camouflage-clad Meyer plays with skunks, raccoons, opossums, snakes and other unwanted critters nearly on a daily basis.

“It’s always a challenge,”

he says. “It’s always a puzzle. There are no two times alike, except the people.”

The job brings all sorts of interactions with urban wildlife that most city residents would prefer to see from afar.

It usually starts when a homeowner accidentally attracts raccoons or skunks by leaving out food or birdseed. While late winter brings calls to flush adult raccoons and skunks from under houses, mid-spring brings calls to remove their babies. The babies taper off in May. June starts the rattlesnake-removal season.

His rates are pretty simple. It’s $70 to come out and set a trap, then $60 for every captured skunk and $40 for each raccoon.

Where he finds one, he often finds two. His record is 14 skunks from beneath a Jacksonville manufactured home.

The traps are nonbaited and are simply placed over the vent the animals use as their basement door. When they come out, it trips the trap.

“That way, we’re only catching the culprits and not every skunk in Jackson County,” Meyer says.

Sometimes it takes several days to coax out the critter. Occasionally, he has to go in after them. The animals range from docile to devilish.

Once, in a cramped crawl space under a Jacksonville house, a 4-foot-long

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A skunk hunkers down after being trapped by Meyer in Ashland. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

raccoon walked right past him “like it didn’t have a care in the world,” he says.

Today’s skunk is No. 4 from under this particular house, to go along with one raccoon. Meyer places the trap gingerly in the back of his pickup, first rolling up the truck windows so his Lab Sonny doesn’t go bonkers and trigger a spray.

Then he reveals a little secret on how to keep from getting skunked.

He covers the traps with a tarp before placing them. If the skunk doesn’t see him, it won’t spray him.

“Some guys will tell you that you can throw a tarp over the trap after you catch him,” Meyer says. “You don’t ever throw nothing at a skunk. That’s disaster waiting to happen.”

The trapped animals are euthanized with veterinarian-approved methods as supplied and encouraged by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which oversees and regulates Meyer and the state’s other 89 licensed wildlife regulators.

Usually, that means a .22-caliber rifle shot to the head. The carcasses are buried at friends’ rural lands or on public land, he says.

Meyer also does a fair amount of work that amounts to cleaning up after homeowners’ rodent errors.

“Put your hand behind the insulation until you touch something cold and slimy,” Meyer says. “I charge quite a lot for that. $250.”

There also are the occasional yellowjacket or wasp nests in need of removal. Those are done after dark when the offending insects are all in

the hive. It’s usually Meyer on the ladder removing the nest and his adult son Sam on the flashlight, “‘cuz when those mad yellowjackets come out, they go straight to the light,” he says with a laugh.

In his decade on the job, Meyer figures he’s trapped and removed at least 200 skunks.

“But it hasn’t put a dent in the population here,” he says.

Meyer places another fresh tarp over the trap that covers the Ashland house’s open vent. He and his son drive away, not knowing whether skunk No. 4 in the pickup bed will end their work here. Meyer never wants to leave until the job truly is done.

Several years ago, Meyer would get a dozen or more calls a week, but the action has dropped off in part because people are getting wise to critter-proofing their homes.

“These days, I’m lucky to get four or five calls a week, and they don’t all pan out,” he says. “I’ve been chasing critters my whole life, and there’s nothing I’d rather do.”

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541776-4470 or mfreeman@mailtribune. com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ MTwriterFreeman.

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Jessica Gold of the nest Salon and Day Spa created finger nail depictions of the region’s products and attractions.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

Nailed It!

fingernail works of art THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: MEDfOrD naIL TEcHnIcIan JESSIca GOLD

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

G

ame for the latest trend in nail care, Ashli Wheaton sported Ducks and Beavers on her fingers for Oregon’s annual Civil War. Candy canes and Christmas lights twined up from Wheaton’s cuticles a month later. Although hearts are obvious in February, Wheaton decided that three weeks until her next manicure was a long time to celebrate Valentine’s Day. “Most of the time, I just go, Hey, do whatever,” says the 27-year-old Medford resident of maintaining her acrylic nails.

Rendering “whatever” in polish and polymer is the specialty of Medford

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nail technician Jessica Gold. Using nails as her canvas for masterpieces measured in millimeters, Gold sees “endless opportunities” to express her own and her clients’ creativity.

“It just is a different outlet for art,” says Gold, 25. “Most of the time, I come up with it on the spot.”

Painting a blue base layer that suggests the ocean, Gold gets the green light from Wheaton to replicate characters from the Disney animated film “Finding Nemo” on her nails. Besides the title character clownfish and tang fish, Dory, sea anemones, jellyfish and starfish emerge in mere minutes.

“I’m pretty sure a sea slug wouldn’t look cool,” says Wheaton.

“Let’s do pretty,” says Gold, applying iridescent, plastic discs to mimic

bubbles.

Suspending some of the sea creatures in translucent acrylic, Gold plans a 3-D effect for at least two digits per hand, usually the thumb and ring finger. When Wheaton’s smartphone pulls up a photo of a blowfish, Gold’s self-assurance wavers.

“I don’t know if I’m that talented,” she says.

Talented manicurists are joining hairdressers, tattoo artists and fashion designers as reality-television stars.

Oxygen Network unveiled the new show “Nail’d It” last fall, inspiring Gold to hone her own skills in hopes of entering some product-sponsored contests this year.

“It’s not realistic for everyday wear,” she says of competition-worthy acrylic

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sculptures that can protrude several inches from the actual nail.

“Nail’d It” dangles a $100,000 prize in front of cast members who claw their way through a series of challenges, including painting nails without using brushes, fabricating biker-babe nails with only metal embellishments and even electrifying sets of nails with LED lights. Other “Nail’d It” themes ranged from candy and stilettos to astrological signs and nightmares.

“The Great Gatsby” inspired Gold’s most ambitious design: a martini glass festooned with pearls and an actual feather atop an Art Deco motif in maroon and gold. Confining a 3-D piece to just one thumbnail for her literary theme, Gold says the new frontier of extreme nail design still benefits from the old adage that less is more.

“Sometimes if you add too much, it can just look a little bit too busy and overdone.”

Flowers furnished Gold’s first forays into 3-D nail design about three years ago. Her repertoire expanded to bows, trees, seashells, butterfly wings, cartoon characters, animal print and seasonal symbolism: wreaths, holly sprigs and snowmen.

“It’s definitely more popular with the younger gals … as a fashion statement,” says Gold.

“It’s amazing how many people are like, ‘Wow, those are really cool,’ ” says Wheaton, adding that she doesn’t run across similar designs on anyone else’s nails.

Crafted by hand without molds or any method of casting the acrylic medium, each of Gold’s 3-D pieces is an original. Although clients often bring in photos of nail art that piques their interest, Gold says she doesn’t like to copy other manicurists’ work.

Based at the Nest Salon and Day

Jessica Gold of Nest Salon and Day Spa shows off some of her fingernail sculptures.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

Spa in Medford, Gold charges $5 per 3-D design per nail in addition to her basic price of $55 for a set of acrylics.

Outfitting one to two nails with 3-D adornments requires 10 to 15 minutes in excess of the typical 90-minute appointment. Designs usually last until a client’s next appointment, although the acrylic must be drilled off, says Gold.

“They’re still shiny when they come back.”

The 3-D treatment is appropriate for nails of any length, whether short and natural or 1-inch-long and filed into points, says Gold.

“It’s not for everyone, but it is a fun addition.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@gmail.com.

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Lifesavers are all around us THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: POlICEMEn, fIREfIgHTERS, RAfTIng guIDES Medford police patrolman Arturo Vega saved two people’s lives using his CPR training. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

By John Darling for the Mail Tribune

T

here’s nothing quite like someone telling you she still has her husband because of you. Medford police patrolman Arturo Vega knows the feeling. It happened at the airport, a cardiac arrest — and Vega sprang into action, doing the CPR he was trained to do.

The man’s heart started beating again and he lived long enough to get a triple bypass. He’s walking around Medford now.

Arturo used his CPR skills to save a second life. He “happened to be in the area,” he says, when a woman overdosed on heroin and the people she was

Heroes

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with could not revive her. When Arturo arrived, the woman had no pulse. After a few minutes of CPR, she was breathing again, and Arturo has since seen her walking around town.

Arturo didn’t get a medal or parade, and he doesn’t want one.

“It’s just part of my job,” he says, adding that he’s wanted to be a cop since he was 7 years old.

“I was determined they would end up surviving,” he says. “If it’s because of me they’re still alive, well, that’s very rewarding. It makes it all worthwhile. And it’s amazing when someone tells you that you are why she still has a husband and he’s living his life.”

Medford police Sgt. Josh Reimer says his most dangerous work came in the

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1990s, when he was in the Coast Guard stationed at Monterey, Calif.

One time, a plane crashed into the water and two men were in the ocean. He jumped in and rescued them, he says. Another time, two people were swept off a rock and faced certain death. One panicked and drowned, but Reimer saved the other in a surf boat.

Guides of rafting boats on the Rogue and Klamath face plenty of hazards and often pick up people who are not connected with their group — perhaps stranded on a cliff or rock in the middle of the river, says Bart Baldwin, owner of Noah’s River Adventures in Ashland.

“We’ve been on rafting trips, and here’s a family stuck on the rocks, so we rescue them,” says Baldwin.

“Another time, at lunch, a lady inhaled a cracker and we saved her with CPR and a Heimlich. Or it’s a bee sting and they’re allergic. Once you’re on the water, if you see someone needs help, you always pull over.

We do a lot of rescues. We train for it. If they paid us to take them down the river, they totally trust in us to get them down the river.

“Rescuing someone is always

“I was determined they would end up surviving. If it’s because of me they’re still alive, well, that’s very rewarding. It makes it all worthwhile. And it’s amazing when someone tells you that you are why she still has a husband and he’s living his life.”

— Medford policeman Arturo Vega

a unique reward. People are so grateful. It’s pretty cool. One guy I rescued on the Klamath, he sends me a Christmas card every year and gives me a big hug whenever he sees me.”

Saving a life is a rare event for the average person, but for crews in Medford Fire-Rescue, it’s a common occurrence. They’ve saved victims of heart attacks, drug overdoses, accidents of all sorts.

As Battalion Chief Ken Goodson says, everyone has saved a life, multiple times.

It’s not something they think of as heroic or want to talk about. It’s

their job and they know how to pull people back from the brink in a wide variety of life-threatening situations.

“We help people every day, in little ways,” Goodson notes. “Very few of them are on fire calls. Our EMS and paramedics have expanded their mission a lot since (that role started) in the 1980s. A week may go by, then we maybe go out twice in a day on such calls. You never know.”

What does it feel like to save not just one life but many?

“It’s rewarding, having a job that matters,” Goodson says.

Reach Ashland freelance writer John Darling at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

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Icons of

icing Cake Wars

Sugar Rush birthday cake. PhoTo courTesy of lahna Marie PhoTograPhy

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SugaR RuSH anD SWEET STuff baKERIES

by Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

F

rom a buttercream butterfly baked for her daughter’s 2nd birthday, Tracy Mancuso’s custom-cake company took flight.

“I’d been watching a lot of ‘Cake Boss,’ and I decided I could do that,” says the Central Point resident. “I don’t think I’d ever baked a cake that wasn’t from a box before.”

The reality-television series convinced Mancuso, and corps of other home cooks, that they could do better than Betty Crocker. Mancuso spent months testing recipes for chocolate and white cakes but haplessly chose the “yucky” fondant found at craft stores.

Cinnamon rolls wait for the oven at Sweet Stuff.

Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

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Although the cake was a hit, Mancuso longed to perfect her methods. She spent more time researching techniques and swapped ideas with her customer-service coworker Melissa De La Mora, who also had gleaned plenty of inspiration from reality TV’s cake celebrities.

“I’m totally in love with Duff Goldman. I have a huge crush on him,” says De La Mora, of the Baltimore baker whose series, “Ace of Cakes,” premiered in 2006 on Food Network.

“He’s booked out years in advance.”

Booking more and more

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custom cakes through their separate, home-based businesses, Mancuso, 38, and De La Mora, 32, of Medford, merged into Sugar Rush bakery two years ago. Almost a decade since viewers started gobbling up “Cake Boss,” “Ace of Cakes” and various made-forTV baking challenges, local clients clamor to get a real-life taste, say Mancuso and De La Mora.

“They’re expecting cakes to be more extravagant now,” says Mancuso.

“They see that they can get whatever they want.”

“They want something that looks realistic,” says De La Mora.

Photos often provide a blueprint for Sugar Rush cakes, including a 3-footlong rendition of a customer’s acoustic Gibson guitar, down to each string, fret and tuning machine. Another client wanted a miniature replica of her husband’s semitruck, with oversized exhaust stacks and red and black pinstripes.

Red and black fondant also festooned a “Moulin Rouge” wedding cake that evoked a cabaret dancer’s costume. Mancuso and De La Mora crisscrossed the corset-like center column with black laces and

Sugar Rush cake pops. Photo courtesy of Lahna Marie PhotograPhy

“i’ve done grave Digger i don’t know how many times.”

— Rebecca Hill of Sweet Stuff, talking about the distinctive monster truck

crowned the creation with black feathers.

“It was huge,” recalls Mancuso. “It was probably about 4 or 5 feet tall.”

One of Mancuso’s and De La Mora’s first combined efforts, the “Moulin Rouge” cake was at the forefront of a trend toward textured wedding cakes, particularly ones that mimic fabric ruffles, swags and even upholstery. Frosting in a single hue that fades from dark to light — known as ombre — also has a strong following, say the duo.

The most cutting-edge wedding cakes, says Medford baker Rebecca Hill, are literally over the top. Chains or cords suspend “chandelier” cakes from a venue’s ceiling or a special stand. Placing the largest tier up high, the smallest down low completes the illusion of dessert as decor.

“Before, it was just like a buttercream cake with some plastic toys on top of it,” says Hill, who has been baking professionally for three decades.

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Rebecca Hill works on a Batman symbol for a cake. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

Sweet Stuff Batman cake.

Rebecca Hill, owner of Sweet Stuff, works on a Batman Cake at her home bakery in Medford. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch cOnTinueD FrOM PaGe 91

of the custom-cake craze, was just becoming popular when baking two wedding cakes each weekend for about six years constituted her business, says Hill, 45. Now bakers use the gelatin-enhanced, sugary dough to sculpt flowers, figurines and almost any other flourish a client desires, but not without adding time and expense.

A basic, two-tier cake that feeds 25 costs $115 from Sugar Rush, which has a $50 minimum order. Cakes from Hill’s Sweet Stuff start at $2 per serving for buttercream, $3.50 for fondant. But the sky’s the limit for each bakery’s clients, who can expect to spend hundreds on a standard wedding cake, potentially reaching the $1,000 range for a decadent design.

While weddings are the bread and butter of custom-cake bakers, birthdays tend to offer the most opportunities for creativity. Toys, games, books, movies, music, sports, animals, vehicles and fashion icons are all commonly conjured in cake.

“I’ve done Grave Digger I don’t know how many times,” says Hill of the distinctive monster truck.

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Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch

Tyrannosaurus Rex clawing out of a cake to zombies mired in icing and slathered in sugary gore. Hill keeps raising the latter’s shock value for a client who requests a zombie cake each year on her birthday and most recently wanted it “really gross.”

“It had like brains and guts and blood everywhere,” says Hill.

Stranger still are some images that even pop culture couldn’t conceive. Hill has combined Curious George and Spiderman in a single cake. Another comic-book hero, Batman, was requested with a panda’s face. Elephants in tutus at a tea party adorned a Sweet Stuff cake painted like fine china.

“And I had a pirate-princess-pony cake,” says Hill.

As clients’ imaginations, bolstered by reality TV, have fostered some frustrating moments for custom bakers, the fascination also has been good for business, says Hill. And she’d rather produce something new for each occasion, rather than redundantly piping out “happy birthday.”

“Now I can get really creative with the cake itself,” says Hill. “Every cake is different.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@ gmail.com.

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another kind of

bank

A leather flight suit with helmet is one of Southern Oregon Pawn owner Peter Schulzke’s rare finds. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SOuTHErn OrEgOn PAWn AnD AllSTAr PAWn

By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune

H

istorical oddities such as an early paintball gun used to splatter 1950s movie actors with fake blood are all in a day’s work for Peter Schulzke, owner of Southern Oregon Pawn in Medford.

“This may be one of the very first paintball guns. It was made

in Hollywood for Western movies,” says Schulzke, as he lifts a makeshift welded gun from its wooden case.

“They would shoot them with gel capsules with dyes. It’s very crudely made out of an English revolver.”

The owner of the pawn shop, at 400 N. Riverside Ave., has become an expert on everything from Rolex watches to antique weapons to diamonds during his almost 30 years in

Pawn Stars the pawn industry. Both his son and daughter work in the family-owned business.

Schulzke says reality hits like the History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” have helped demystify pawn shops for the average person. Like the Las Vegas shop featured in the show, Southern Oregon Pawn is neat and tidy — and stocked with unusual and high-end items to bring in discerning customers.

“More and more people have come in. They’re not scared anymore,” he says.

Schulzke has a soft spot for unusual weapons and war memorabilia. A cabinet in his office showcases parlor guns dating from 1860 through 1920 that fire tiny bullets.

“People would shoot them inside in bars and parlors. They would put targets on the walls and shoot while drinking cognac. The well-to-do would do that,” he says. “They could put a little hole in you — like a pellet gun.”

The shop also has an Israeli antitank weapon hanging above Japanese, U.S. Cavalry and ceremonial Navy swords. The 1955 weapon, painted military green, is disabled so it can’t take out vehicles or houses.

A Korean War-era leather flight suit comes complete with an electric cord.

The pilot could plug in and stay warm in his unheated plane. A custommade knife features a handle made of mastodon tusk.

With World War II veterans dying, Schulzke says the antique guns and war memorabilia trade is changing.

Lately, people want Vietnam-era weapons, and more buyers eventually will be searching for memorabilia from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Schulzke predicts.

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empty before hunting season, he says.

Schulzke has other antiques to appeal to those who don’t collect guns, including a tall set of boxes that fit together to hold Chinese wedding goods or picnic items, as well as a 1967 Fender electric guitar.

A major misconception the public has is that pawn shops are mainly used to fence stolen goods. Schulzke estimates less than 1 percent of his merchandise is stolen. If pawn shop workers accidentally buy stolen merchandise, it can be taken away by law enforcement, with little chance for restitution.

At Allstar Pawn, Todd Morono — “The Gun Guy” — and Manager Keanon Ferguson say they have tricks for telling who is trying to unload stolen goods in their shop at 4041 Crater Lake Ave., in Medford. People are knowledgeable about their own possessions, they point out.

“A guy came in with an AK-47. He didn’t know what kind of gun he had or what bullets it fired,” Ferguson says.

Unlike convenience stores, Schulzke says, Southern Oregon Pawn rarely has to deal with robbers. But one enterprising criminal crawled from the roof through a one-foot-wide vent into the shop — navigating a 45-degree angle in the vent along the way.

“He grabbed six guns and jewelry, and how he escaped I don’t know. The doors were locked. He came with carabiners and rope used in rock climbing.

He was prepared for that one. The items were worth about $10,000. He knew what he was looking for. It set off the alarm, but he still got out,” Schulzke says.

Police found the jewelry and one gun after the man robbed a Purple Parrot, but the other weapons — mostly Glock handguns prized for their reliability — spread down to the black market in California before being recovered, he says.

Like most pawn shops, Allstar Pawn and Southern Oregon Pawn deal mainly with pawned goods, providing loans to people who bring in their personal possessions and pick them up later after paying back the loan with interest. In contrast, the “Pawn Stars” owners are usually shown buying items.

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A rare Beatles album cover is listed at $795. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

brokers, Ferguson says, “It’s so much easier to sell someone back their own stuff than to find a new person to buy it.”

If a person is late paying back a loan, Allstar Pawn tries to be understanding.

Workers phone people and urge them to pay back the money, rather than selling off their property right away.

“People don’t get paid according to their pawn due dates,” Morono says.

Still, those efforts can go unappreciated when Allstar Pawn finally has

to sell people’s possessions. One man became enraged when he failed to pay back a pawn loan and the shop sold his video game system.

“He said he rigged my car to explode,” Morono recalls. “He was prepared to kill me over a PlayStation 3.”

Schulzke says many people are desperate by the time they start pawning items. Some are problem gamblers, some are addicts. Others have fallen behind on their bills, or face unexpected expenses such as car repairs.

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“We do this because this community is hurting right now. People need the help more than anything in the world.”

— Todd Morono, Allstar Pawn

“A pawn shop is like a bank. It’s one of the oldest kinds of banks around.

People have maxed out their credit cards. A bank won’t loan them $100.

A lot of people are on Social Security or disability payments and they can’t make it,” Schulzke says, adding his job is not to judge why people need money.

On a spring day at Allstar Pawn, a college baseball player with his arm in a sling following shoulder surgery came in to pawn his baseball glove and Oakley sunglasses. He needed money to make a truck payment. Morono, who nicknamed the pitcher “Speedy,” sent him on his way with $100.

Morono, who previously worked as an infectious disease expert for a hospital and a health department in Colorado, says he didn’t see the people he was helping face-to-face in that profession. At the pawn shop, he sees people he helps every day.

“We do this because this community is hurting right now,” Morono says.

“People need the help more than anything in the world.”

Staff reporter Vickie Aldous can be reached at 541-776-4486 or valdous@ mailtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VickieAldous.

Southern Oregon Pawn owner Peter Schulzke has a suit of armor complete with shield for $2,495. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

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THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: JacKSOn cOunTy SHErIff’S DEPuTy DOn aDaMS

on the job adams makes a traffic stop during his shift. Mail Tribune / ThoMas MoriarTy

Cops

By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune

I

t’s still dark as the Tuesday day shift gears up for patrol at the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Department. Housed in a fortress-like structure just off Highway 62, the sheriff ’s office is responsible for covering unincorporated parts of a county of more than 2,800 square miles.

Trading jokes in a morning briefing, coffee cups in hand, deputies go quiet as one reads nationwide statistics of law enforcement officers recently killed or injured in the line of duty.

Compared to the other major law

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enforcement agency in the county, the Medford Police Department, the sheriff ’s department runs a much leaner operation, says Deputy Don Adams.

Unlike MPD, which staffs overlapping day, swing and graveyard shifts, the sheriff ’s patrol teams are split into two day and night shifts, working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. without any official overlap.

Often, Adams says, there’s no more than four patrol deputies on duty for countywide calls.

Adams, 48, who refers to himself as one of the more junior deputies on his patrol team, has spent more than 21 years in law enforcement. Before joining the sheriff ’s department, he worked as a police officer for both Eagle Point and the now-defunct Shady Cove Police Department, whose duties the sheriff ’s department assumed under contract in 2010.

Adams recently rejoined the patrol division after several years as a narcotics detective.

Climbing into his green-and-white Ford Explorer, coffee cup in hand, Adams says deputies are issued takehome vehicles but that he chooses to

leave his own at the office, explaining that he doesn’t want the feeling of taking work home with him. The department slowly has upgraded its fleet of patrol vehicles, gradually replacing its Chevy pickups, Ford Crown Victorias and Dodge Chargers with newer Ford police sedans and SUVs. As he turns off Highway 62 onto Antelope Road, the deputy spots a younger man in a dinged-up 1990s sedan idling in the driveway of a nearby business. Adams sees the driver notice his patrol vehicle, wait until the deputy’s SUV has passed and pull out onto the roadway to make an illegal U-turn and drive in the opposite direction. After watching the violation in his rearview mirror, Adams pulls into a parking lot, turns around and follows the car down an alleyway between two industrial properties.

Adams says the reduced manpower makes deputies more judicious about what kind of calls they self-initiate, considering they could be called on to back up another deputy on the other side of the county.

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“You’re a lot more conscious of where you’re at,” he says. “Is it going to be a traffic stop for cellphone use or being able to take calls (for service)?”

The driver stops suddenly in the middle of the gravel alleyway when Adams turns on his flashing lights. He tells Adams he’s looking for a tire shop that the deputy knows is in the other direction. But after questioning the driver and his female passenger for a few minutes, he isn’t able to identify any real crime in progress and lets them go.

“White City gets a bad rap,” Adams says. While the unincorporated community is home to a number of gang members, he says, they tend to stay on their better behavior on their home turf, especially under the eye of the two resident deputies assigned to the area. As with Shady Cove, the sheriff ’s department serves as the unincorporated community’s de facto police force.

Once the car drives off, Adams heads toward Interstate 5 en route to his assigned beat, which covers Wimer and the unincorporated areas around Rogue River. After checking on a false burglar alarm activation, Adams gets a call over the radio of a mentally ill woman in Wimer who has trapped her mother in a bedroom. The dispatcher sends the case information to Adams’ in-car laptop computer. He immediately recognizes the suspect’s

name. After being let into the house by the woman’s family, Adams and another deputy manage to coax her outside to their vehicles. She doesn’t resist as they cuff her hands behind her back.

Jackson County sheriff ’s deputies and their in-town counterparts are finding themselves increasingly strained by a seemingly endless number of mental health calls, Adams says. When officers encounter somebody with severe psychiatric issues, their options are fairly limited. If officers decide the person poses a threat to himself or others, they can take him into custody on a “police officer hold.”

The problem then is where to take him.

“There isn’t just one reason i like the job. i think i just like working with people.”

— Don Adams, Jackson County sheriff ’s deputy

Unless he’s committed a crime, officers can’t take him to the jail, and Adams says the Behavioral Health Unit at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, commonly referred to as “2 North,” has only 18 beds available, meaning hospital staff often can do only an initial evaluation before releasing a mental health patient back into police custody. In this case, the woman tests positive for drugs, and because 2 North won’t admit anybody who’s under the influence of intoxicants, Adams has to take her to a detox facility in Medford.

“Am I helping her?” Adams muses aloud as he drives. “I don’t know I can say that I am.”

He isn’t back on the road for long before he takes another call, this time of an assault in Gold Hill.

Adams is surprised when he sees the name of the complainant, recognizing him as a “regular” with a serious drug addiction and a long history of felony arrests. The man’s house, its paint faded and windows drawn, isn’t exactly welcoming. Adams and another deputy cautiously approach the door to make contact with the complainant, who tells them another man had forced his way into the house and poured gasoline all over the place.

Upon further investigation, the deputies are surprised to find the resident is telling the truth.

Unfortunately for the complainant, he has an outstanding warrant for a parole violation on a drug charge. As he’s handcuffed and led to the back of a patrol vehicle, the man tells deputies he doesn’t want them to pursue the apparent home invasion further, but asks them to “tell Pappe to stay away from his place.” Shawn Pappe was arrested three weeks later for allegedly setting a fire.

Adams says that while he’ll be eligible for retirement soon, he’s not certain when his last shift will be.

Despite the stresses of the job, he still enjoys coming to work after all these years, even if he can’t put his finger on why. “There isn’t just one reason I like the job,” Adams says. “I think I just like working with people.”

Reach reporter Thomas Moriarty at 541-776-4471 or tmoriarty@ mailtribune.com. Follow him at @ ThomasDMoriarty.

Jackson County sheriff’s Deputy Don Adams, 48, has spent more than 21 years in law enforcement. Mail Tribune / ThoMas MoriarTy

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Transplants and locals

House Hunters

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: 4-bEDrOOm On HIllcrEST anD 2-bEDrOOm On mOUnT PITT

Greg Stiles Mail Tribune

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he first thing Laurie Dahl discovered when she moved from Minnesota to the Rogue Valley was that things here aren’t so flat.

The nurse practitioner found houses built on steep hillsides — with prices to match the terrain.

“We started looking way before we moved out here,” Dahl says. “The experience

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of buying a house and the cost of living here is really different.”

Back in Minnesota, she lived in an 1,800-squarefoot house with a double-lot backyard. She walked two blocks to work along a country road.

That option is a rarity in Southern Oregon.

“We’ve been all over the place, but couldn’t decide what we wanted,” Dahl says after viewing 30 houses.

Dahl arrived from the

Midwest in October, living in a rental above the fog line off Hillcrest Road. As much as anything, Dahl and her fiance, Chris Plate, desired a house with a view, but with a June wedding date approaching, there was added urgency to find a long-term residence. They were even ready to negotiate the purchase of the rental.

The first house they checked out was four blocks away from their

residence. The two-story house had a steep driveway and steep stairs. The living space was spacious, but there were lots of questions.

“We liked the features, but I didn’t like the steps — and there was uncertainty about the foundation,” Dahl says. “Some neighbors came up and said the house had been on the market for a while and suspected the foundation was the reason.”

They explored foreclosures and auctions, but didn’t think cash up front was their best option. Open houses proved equally disappointing.

“A lot of pictures don’t match the house,” Dahl says. “There are apparently a lot of great photographers. The pictures looked wonderful, but you would go to the house and decks were falling off.”

They reminded themselves to keep on an open mind.

“The last couple of months we have focused on square footage and more the price range we wanted,” she says. “We’ve done a lot of drive-bys.”

“We saw a lot of the houses in the same area and price range that we were living in weren’t moving very fast,” she says. “Then at the end of February, the things we were looking at started moving; we knew we had to get a move on.”

The matter of building or buying an existing home was essentially resolved by lot prices.

“We looked at property in Ashland up in the hills behind the park. It had a view,” she says. “But it was $189,000, just for the lot.”

They checked out property on Barbara Jean Street, not far from the convergence of Hillcrest and East McAndrews roads.

“The size and the view were right, and it was newer,” she says. “But it

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was horrible to get into the garage. Even though it’s a two-car garage, if I was driving, no one else would be able to park in it.”

After combing online listings and culling curbside fliers without results, Dahl and Plate resorted to Craigslist and hit paydirt, close by.

No sooner had the owners of a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,500-square-foot house on Hillcrest Drive hung out the digital “For Sale By Owner” shingle, Dahl and Plate noticed.

“We made the first and only offer,” Dahl says. “The location and price were right.”

Even better, she says, “It had a yard that was flat. It’s a yard where my kids can play, and they aren’t going to fall off the cliff.”

House hunting can be a challenging ordeal even for longtime Rogue Valley residents.

“We started looking way before we moved out here. The experience of buying a house and the cost of living here is really different.”

— Minnesota transplant Laurie Dahl

Colleen Landis learned a near miss is as good as a mile when she launched her search last September.

Just as soon as Landis had financing lined up, the Personnel Source staffing consultant found a threebedroom, two-bath place with everything she wanted just off Corona Street in north Medford to her liking.

“It was just right, but when we made a bid on the house, it was already in process of being sold,” Landis says. “It was a little bit of a bummer, but decided it was just the first one, so it wasn’t the end of the world.”

From there, the search

primarily centered on Medford’s west side.

“I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I wanted a garage and a laundry room, and I wanted the biggest bang for my buck,” Landis says.

Her trepidations centered around a house that would cost $200 a month to heat during the winter or require an extreme makeover.

As a result, she took a pass on a place with air-conditioning units in the windows and baseboard heating.

“If a house looked like there were too many things to be done, there was no sense in dumping a bunch of money into it,” Landis says.

“If you have to dig a trench because the sewer line is shot, it’s unappealing no matter how cute the place is.”

As she scouted the community, the mother of two looked for well-kept properties and children.

“If I saw lots of kids outside playing, that was great.”

She put a bid in for a house near Central Medford High School, but the place attracted six other bids.

“I didn’t want to go above a certain price,” she says.

In December she found a two-bedroom, one-bath 1,100-square foot house on Mount Pitt Avenue, built in 1952.

“It didn’t need a lot of repairs,” Landis says. “There were only some cosmetic things. The neighbors keep their properties up and are friendly.”

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or business@ mailtribune.com.

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Saving yourself

Wilderness

Survivors

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: InjurED In THE CaSCaDES; LOST In THE rED BuTTES

Searchers on horseback look for a missing person near Old Military road. PhoTo by JAckson counTy sheriff’s sgT.

small campfire, apparently confident that his hunting partner, who had gone his own way from their vehicle, would summon aid.

“He knew when he got to the road somebody was going to be able to get to him,” says Richards.

Twelve hours after search teams initiated their mission and scoured about 100 acres to locate Perkins, a rescue vehicle arrived within 100 feet of his location, says Richards. Searchers followed the sound of shots that the hunter fired from his rifle in

response to their vehicles’ flashing lights and sirens, he says.

“We literally had to cut our way into the road with chainsaws,” says Richards.

Searchers accomplished the Oct. 21, 2014, operation quickly, compared with many of the 100 or so rescues the county performs annually, says Richards.

Some 120 search-and-rescue volunteers throughout Jackson County are ready to respond, aided by canine and equine teams, specialists in deep-water diving and high-angle rope work,

shAwn richArds.

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

A

broken leg couldn’t keep elk hunter Wally Perkins from crawling a half-mile through the wilderness to await help.

“He played a part in his own rescue,” says Jackson County Sheriff ’s Sgt. Shawn Richards.

“This was somebody who did everything right,” says Graham Wilson, volunteer search manager for the sheriff ’s department’s search and rescue division.

Richards and Wilson cite the practicality of Perkins’ gear and his level-headed reaction to an emergency, both elements of wilderness-survival television series, including Discovery Channel’s “Survivorman” and “Man vs. Wild.” While each show depicts worstcase scenarios in exotic locales, viewers could apply lessons in building both fires and shelters to any

outdoor pursuit, says Richards.

“What they take with them is the important part,” says Richards, explaining that a tarp and waterproof fire-making kit are lightweight additions to a day pack.

Fire helped to sustain Perkins, who also carried food and water to last for about 24 hours, says Richards. More importantly, the 58-year-old Lane County resident had donned clothing appropriate for the late-October weather east of Highway 62 near the Crater Lake turn-off, adds the sergeant.

“He didn’t take the wilderness for granted,” says Richards. “He was prepared.”

When Perkins fell and broke his leg, he splinted it with branches and a scarf, says Richards, before crawling out of a canyon to an abandoned forest road. There, Perkins built a

a search-and-rescue chopper flies a mission over Emigrant Lake. PhoTo by JAckson counTy sheriff’s dePuTy JAson denTon.

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Searchers work their way along a cliff face at Emigrant Lake. Photo by Jackson county sheriff’s sgt. shawn richards.

not to mention helicopter spotters.

Helicopters circling the Red Buttes Wilderness last August couldn’t locate Keith Hoover until hunger, dehydration, fatigue and vomiting felled him on the trail. Hoover and a 23-yearold Alaska woman had overstayed their four-day camping trip by two days after losing their way and a

backpack with much of their supplies.

“We tried to find water, and we tried to find our way home,” says Hoover, 60, of Central Point. “We really thought we were on trail.”

But the trail had been rerouted to bypass fallen trees, says Hoover. As hiking turned into breaking trail through dense vegetation, Hoover and Julia Swisher

passed their backpacks between obstacles. Hoover’s slid down a ravine, taking his phone, identification and considerable food rations with it.

“The old-fashioned compass would have been nice,” says Hoover, explaining that GPS doesn’t always work in the backcountry. “You can’t trust technology.”

Cellphones do pinpoint locations for searchers quite often, says Wilson. If the signal can’t be triangulated to within several yards of a person’s geographic position, the nearest cell tower gives searchers a more general range, he says. But all too often, emergency dispatchers hear that callers are in real trouble, and their phones almost out of battery, says Wilson.

“One of the things that works wonders for us,” says Wilson, “is if you tell someone where you’re going to go, and if you actually go there.”

Hoover and Swisher

had set a rendezvous with friends, who alerted authorities when the duo failed to show up. The sheriff ’s department immediately orchestrated a search. But Hoover and Swisher represented moving targets, as they attempted to hike out, averaging about 10 miles per day for three more days, says Hoover.

“We kept moving.”

When Hoover could go no farther on the final day, Swisher continued solo, eventually encountering a couple on horseback who later ran across searchers and sent them in her direction. Hoover had stayed behind near an old horse paddock but, reflecting on the experience, wishes the duo had stayed put the instant they knew they were lost.

“Sit on your butt and wait for them to come get you.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@ gmail.com.

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S of SoutHErn orEgon

H HElP on the way

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

Rescue 911

tHiS WEEK’S EPiSoDE: EmErgEncy communicationS of SoutHErn orEgon

things had been quiet for emergency dispatchers aug. 24, 2010, until calls started streaming in for the oak Knoll fire in ashland, which destroyed 11 homes and caused more than $3.2 million in damage.

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er eyes flit between eight computer monitors and smaller screens within the screens. Her hands hardly pause between keyboard, mouse and the switch for answering a 911 call, as she cues the microphone with a pedal at her feet.

“I start typing as soon as they talk,” says dispatcher Crystal Lewis. “The goal is to get the information and get off the phone.”

Pausing in the process of verifying an arrest warrant, Lewis takes a 911 call reporting a fight near Eagle Point High School. A split second after hanging up, Lewis switches to dispatching Medford Fire-Rescue to a cardiac arrest. A local television reporter rings in as Lewis advises a Rogue River resident to contact Josephine County authorities about a crime just over the border.

Handling a half-dozen calls since she set the warrant aside a few minutes ago, Lewis thinks the day’s shift at Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon is still too slow.

“It’s usually the precursor to the calm before the storm,” she says.

Several sedate minutes pass before Lewis’ prediction, based on 21 years as a dispatcher, proves true. As Lewis struggles to comprehend a caller’s accent describing a man’s illness, from sinus pressure to chest pains, fire breaks out across town.

“In the middle of that, I get a structure fire, and I can’t just get her to answer my questions so I can get off the phone,” says Lewis.

She directs several Medford engines to Joy Circle, where a home’s dishwasher is pouring smoke, and another crew to the sick man on the city’s west side. The calls quickly empty Medford’s fire stations when reports of a seizure compel Lewis to request aid from another jurisdiction.

“I have five calls going at one time,” she says. “Now I’m sending District 5 to Barnett and Riverside because I’m out of engines.”

The pace soon slackens, and the cases are quickly cleared. But the brief barrage amid an all-quiet afternoon reminds Lewis of a historic shift at ECSO. Lewis was dispatching fire agencies on Aug. 24, 2010, when Ashland suffered its largest loss of residential property — more than $3.2 million — in at least a century.

“One day when the Oak Knoll fire hit,

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Medford police Sgt. Curtis Whipple struggles to revive a child found in a burning house Monday, July 18, 2011, in Medford. Emergency dispatchers still recall the murder of Tabasha Paige-Criado and her four children as one of the most emotionally taxing days for local emergency responders.

“oh, my God. There’s a woman and babies in there. and we didn’t know that.”

— Dispatcher Crystal Lewis, who was on duty during the 2011 Criado murders

it was pretty quiet in here,” says Lewis of the wildfire that burned 11 homes in a subdivision between Highways 99 and 66.

While 90-degree heat and moderate winds challenged firefighters, dispatchers had a few challenges of their own. Jackson County’s two, separate dispatch centers recently had merged into ECSO, fielding a new team for the summer wildfire season. And a new protocol for managing local fire resources had just

landed on the desks of Lewis and other dispatchers.

“I pull it out, and I go, ‘Whatever …’ ” says Lewis, gesturing to the gold-colored sheet of paper. “And literally 10 minutes later, Oak Knoll breaks out.

“It’s trying to juggle resources.”

Despite navigating some differences, newly consolidated dispatchers had one fewer ball to keep in the air: the transfer of calls to appropriate agencies, says ECSO Director Margie Moulin. The

significance of Oak Knoll and several other incidents in the same approximate time frame showed that consolidation was a sound strategy, she says.

ECSO has contracts with the county’s 10 lawenforcement agencies, 14 fire departments and districts and six other entities from Oregon Department of Forestry to Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Last year, the center received 316,056 calls, just over 124,000 of them 911 calls, says Moulin. Seventy-five percent of emergency and nonemergency calls, says Moulin, come from cellphones, making dispatchers’ initial query — “What’s the address of your emergency” — their most important.

“People assume that we know,” says Moulin, referring to the automatic relay of addresses from land-line phones dialing 911.

Moulin and Lewis also say the public assumes, correctly, that manning 911 is a stressful job, one brought to light

by CBS’ reality-television series “Rescue 911.” From 1989 to 1996, the show’s run roughly coincided with nationwide adoption of the 911 system, replacing emergency numbers specific to jurisdiction.

“That’s what we’re here for: to help someone on their worst day,” says Moulin.

Although communicating

by phone hides the face of tragedy, anguish is palpable from tone of voice. Lewis recalls the July 18, 2011, murder of Tabasha PaigeCriado and her four children in their Medford home as one of the most emotionally taxing days for local emergency responders. Dispatching for Medford Police Department, Lewis says she could hardly comprehend how fire at the Criado family’s 10th street residence culminated in the largest homicide case in the county’s history.

“Oh, my God,” she says.

“There’s a woman and babies in there. And we didn’t know that.”

“We thought we lived in an area where that kind of stuff was only on the news somewhere else,” says Moulin.

“Our whole community really grieved over that.”

Debriefings after particularly difficult days in public safety are more prevalent than they were decades ago, says Moulin.

Lewis admits to sometimes driving “the long way home just to decompress.” The next day, they say, will bring hundreds more emergencies that won’t hold for dispatchers to catch their breath.

“It’s never mundane,” says Lewis. “It drops on a dime.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@ gmail.com.

A text-to-speech alert program at Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon is sending out automated radio broadcasts to crews while dispatchers are still on the phone with callers. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell Our Valley

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Off to the

Races

the lines.

“It’ll be off to the races,” says ODF forest officer Herb Johnson.

Some 130,000 lightning strikes ignited 280 fires that burned 9,559 acres on local ODF-protected forestlands in 2014. The statistics — both of lightning-caused fires and total acreage burned — were nearly twice the annual averages over the region’s previous 10 fire seasons.

Another 132 fires torched more than 7,300 acres of Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest last year. A record low snowpack poises Southern Oregon for a repeat

that simply come with the territory.

“People who are comfortable in the woods are going to do much better,” says Johnson, 36. “You do a lot of hiking, a lot of digging.

“After long enough of doing it, your body will allow you to keep going.”

The demands of wildland firefighting are fodder for not a few television news clips, documentaries and episodes from such reality series as “The Battalion.” Thirty-minute segments can capture the rush of evading fast-moving flames, but firefighting’s most compelling drama unfolds

“We could really be in for it. When you have every little twig snapping under your foot, you know stuff’s dry.”

— Derick Price, forest officer for Oregon Department of Forestry

Firefighters battled blazes off Lone Pine Road as the Deer Ridge fire on Roxy Ann Peak burned about 600 acres in east Medford in September 2009. JaMie Lusch / MaiL Tribune

THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: WILDLAnD FIREFIGHTERS CAST WARy EyE TO 2015

Hot Shots

By Sarah Lemon for the Mail Tribune

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hen weighing risk factors for wildfire, Derick Price knows the numbers: accumulated snowpack, projected rainfall and other climate data.

But there’s no substitute,

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says Price, for a firefighter’s own feeling for danger.

Simply stepping outside on some summer mornings puts Price’s hair up on end.

“We could really be in for it,” says the forest officer for Oregon Department of Forestry.

Taking the day’s first, deep breath of outdoor air, Price gauges humidity and temperature. He hears ordinary sounds with ears attuned for extreme fire conditions.

“When you have every little twig snapping under your foot, you know stuff ’s dry,” says Price.

The sight of storm clouds massing on the horizon often confirms firefighters’ gut instincts honed over years on

severe fire season, if not an unprecedented one in 2015.

“It’s just a matter of if we get the starts,” says Johnson.

As Southern Oregon residents brace themselves for the worst, seasoned firefighters like Price and Johnson anticipate more of the same: three weeks on the job without a day off, workdays that bleed into the next 24-hour period, grueling hikes in searing heat and myriad discomforts and inconveniences

over hours, days and weeks, as exhaustion mounts and endurance is tested.

“It’ll make you or break you,” says Johnson, who is gearing up for his 20th season of fighting fire.

“There’s no time to stop.”

A routine workday that started for Johnson at about 6 a.m. July 28 turned into an all-nighter as ODF staff found themselves stretched too thin. Crews quickly corralled a two-acre blaze

Greensprings Fire Chief Gene Davies walks through a stand of burned trees near the origin of the 2014 Oregon Gulch fire. MaiL Tribune / JaMie Lusch

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Wildland firefighters mop up hot spots on Blackwell Hill in rural Central Point in 2010. Mail Tribune PhoTo / JaMie lusch

near Gold Hill’s Kane Creek by late afternoon. But any hope of respite disappeared with acres of forestland 45 miles away near Selma, where a fire on Reeves Creek had doubled in size.

“They couldn’t find anyone, so they sent me out there,” says Johnson. “I’m pretty sure I got the strongest coffee that Dutch Bros. could legally sell me on the drive out there.”

With flames advancing through the night, burning over hose lines and threatening homes, Johnson mustered enough strength to keep hiking over steep terrain. He tried not to count the hours — 18 — that he’d already logged at work before joining the ranks in Selma. By the time relief staff arrived, Johnson had been awake long enough to see two sunrises.

“I wasn’t sure I was gonna make it.”

Sometimes, the desire to make it falters in the face of adversity. Usually

assigned an ODF engine to patrol the Greensprings area, Price was out of position to tackle the region’s most significant fire, Oregon Gulch, when it broke out July 31.

“I was in the middle of about a sevenhour hike,” says Price, 35. “It wasn’t in the cards for me to make it to that fire.”

After several days of getting their “butts kicked” by lightning, says Price, he and fellow ODF firefighters considered the region’s fires under control.

Price set out for Section Line Gap west of Ashland to extinguish a low-priority blaze. As he hiked farther and farther into the wilderness, Price began vomiting and suffering severe muscle cramps.

Price aborted his march, summoning help and following GPS coordinates toward the nearest road to meet an ODF evacuation vehicle. As he waited, Price watched Oregon Gulch, due east, emit a massive column of smoke. His radio

reverberated with rapid response to the inferno, which ultimately devoured 35,000 acres in Jackson and Klamath counties, as well as Northern California, along with several homes.

While air tankers and helicopters attacked Oregon Gulch from above and crews converged on the ground, Price went to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford for treatment of severe dehydration. Given some intravenous fluids and a few days of rest, Price resumed work, but not on Oregon Gulch, which smoldered until mid-October.

Only a couple of firefighters are hospitalized locally in a typical fire season, says Price. Last summer, five local firefighters within a two-day period had to leave their posts for medical treatment, he adds. It was a first for Price in his 16-year career.

“That was just kind of a taxing week for all of us,” he says.

Training for the season’s toll starts each spring for local firefighters.

Reporting for duty in March, 22 Rogue River Hot Shots often travel in April to large-scale operations in California and the Southwest, says Hot Shot Superintendent Aaron Schuh. It may be midsummer before they return to home base on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Despite discourse and data suggesting historic fire activity in 2015, wildland firefighters gear up the same way they always have, says Schuh. Conditions could align in any year to ignite the big one.

“We take it as it comes,” says Schuh.

“We always prepare for it either way.

“It can be 100 degrees for 15 days in a row,” he says. “But if there’s no lightning, and people are being responsible, we’re not gainfully employed.”

Reach freelance writer Sarah Lemon at thewholedish@gmail.com.

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Paulie Ziemann, “Paulie Wanna smack-her,” left, sarah Beauvais, “Boom Chicka rock Ya”, Tiffany Maude, “naughty Maudie,” and Kristina severns, “Carmen unglued,” represent southern oregon’s two women’s roller derby leagues, the sis-Q rollerz and southern oregon roller girls. MaIL TRIbunE / JaMIE LuScH

Roller derby hits keep coming This WeeK’s ePisode: MeMBers unleash Their aggression, all in good fun

Rollergirls

By Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune

I

t’s all fun and games until Kristina Severns, Paulie Ziemann, Tiffany Maude and Sarah Beauvais hit the flat track.

That’s where their underlying aggression surfaces, their brute strength is tested and their alter egos — Carmen Unglued, Paulie Wanna Smack-HER, Naughty Maudie and

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Boom Chicka Rock Ya, respectively — become apparent.

Scrapes, bumps, bruises and, occasionally, concussions happen in roller derby. But these women have learned how to fall as well as how to leverage their weight and strength against their opponents. After all, it is a contact sport. “(Roller derby) is a legal and safe way to be violent and aggressive,” says Severns. “It’s like playing football.”

“I think I really needed this catharsis for the aggression and rebellion I never got to express when I was younger,” she says, only semi-seriously.

Southern Oregon is represented by two women’s roller derby teams,

the Sis-Q Rollerz and the Southern Oregon Roller Girls, as well as a juniors team, the Southern Oregon Junior Roller Girls, for skaters ages 7 to 17.

There’s no maximum age limit in women’s roller derby so long as you can skate, hold your own on the track and recover from a spill. Severns and Ziemann — both of the Sis-Q Rollerz — are in their 40s and have no plans to retire anytime soon.

The oldest member of Southern Oregon Roller Girls is 58 years old and currently “in training,” says Maude, 46, president of the Roller Girls.

“Roller derby is such a welcoming community,” she adds. “You can be any

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age, size, skill level, and you will be welcomed.”

A volleyball and basketball player, Ziemann joined the By day, Severns, Ziemann and Beauvais are elementary Sis-Q Rollerz five years ago after seeing a sign at Roller school teachers, and Maude is the concessions manager for Odyssey that she recalled said something like, “Women’s the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Roller Derby. Join Now. Are you tough enough?”

There are also bartenders, morticians, mechanics, care“I love the fitness part of it,” Ziemann says. takers and stay-at-home moms on the Roller Girls, while The Sis-Q Rollerz practice three days a week at The Meat parole officers, gas attendants, social workers, writers and Locker in west Medford. The Southern Oregon Roller Girls engineers skate for the Sis-Q Rollerz. practice two to three days a week at the Medford Armory Despite the diverse membership of both teams, roller and train at CrossFit Ashland together on Saturdays. derby fosters a strong sense of camaraderie and, according Before joining the Roller Girls last fall, Beauvais, 37, was to Severns, “bad-assery” among the women. part of a roller derby league in Coos Bay. She says she was “We have a great coach, and a great bunch of women who recruited during a Coos County Roller Girls’ pub crawl. love and respect each other, and I have more friends than “It couldn’t have come at a more perfect time in my life,” I’ve ever had in my life,” says Severns. “These are strong, Beauvais says. “I didn’t know it then, but I needed it.” independent women from all The sport, she says, is the walks of life.”

Severns says she watched the 2009 movie “Whip It” “(roller derby) is several times and loved it so a legal and safe much that, “I was like, Oh, my way to be violent gosh, I’ve got to do that!”

She’s been skating with the and aggressive.

Sis-Q Rollerz more than four it’s like playing years and hasn’t suffered any serious injuries (knock on football. i think i wood). really needed this At first, she says, she was scared to death. Beginners, catharsis for the called “fresh meat” by the aggression and reveterans, are taught how to skate, hit and fall and must bellion i never got be able to perform the minito express when i mum skills required by the Women’s Flat Track Derby was younger.”

Association before becoming — Kristina Severns, aka “roster eligible.” One of those Carmen Unglued skills is being able to make 27 laps around the track in five minutes.

“It’ll give you a butt like you’ve never had,” Severns most mentally and physisays. cally challenging one she’s In roller derby, a jammer ever played. It’s also very from each team tries to break empowering and a huge through the pack of blockers commitment.

Kristina Severns, “Carmen Unglued,” shows off her and score points for their team In addition to practices and custom mouthpiece. Mail Tribune / JaMie lusch by passing members of the other bouts, the skaters from both team. Meanwhile, blockers, like teams spend a lot of time doing Severns, try to shield their jammer and stop the opposing community service for local organizations and projects such team’s jammer. as the Maslow Project, Hearts with a Mission, Relay For Competitions, called bouts, are 60 minutes long and are Life and Special Olympics, to name a few. made up of jams lasting up to two minutes each.

Mothers and daughters are on the teams together. And Skaters can’t head butt, punch, elbow, trip, closeline or the families of the skaters come out to set up for bouts, keep kick. Instead, they use their shoulders, hips, backs, chests score and cheer on their moms, wives and daughters. and even butts to frustrate the other team.

“It’s super-bonding for a bunch of females to be part of “I’m kind of a big girl,” says Severns. “I’m 5-3 and 1-this aggressive sport together ... and do things in the compounds — don’t print that — but I can send people flying.” munity together,” Maude says.

Skaters are required to wear helmets, mouth guards, “And it’s fun to hit people and have them be OK with it,” elbow and knee pads and wrist guards, says Ziemann. she adds.

While some women on the track may opt to wear fishReach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or net stockings, sparkly booty shorts and even fearsome red tthomas@mailtribune.com. Follow her at www.twitter.com/ contact lenses, Ziemann keeps it sporty with her jersey and teresathomas_mt. black spandex capris.

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Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty center veterinarian Diana Schropp, left, and technician Katie Mourand give autumn a check-up. Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

Vets to the rescue THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: SOuTHERn OREgOn VETERInaRy SPEcIalTy cEnTER

Pet Savers

By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune

A

dog being rushed to Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center two years ago had reportedly fallen on a stick.

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That was the word used: “Stick.”

When the animal showed up, veterinarians at the 24-hour emergency and specialty clinic in Medford saw the pooch’s ailment was much more severe. The “stick” was actually a thick branch that acted like a sword, and the pooch impaled itself while chasing another critter in the woods.

About three feet long and two inches in diameter, the branch stuck out of the pet’s chest like a spear.

“He probably tried to jump over something and landed on this piece of a tree,” says Dr. Diana Schropp, a veterinarian of 25 years.

Amazingly, the dog lived. Veterinarians performed emergency surgery, removed the branch and

sent the dog home a day or two later.

Just another day at SOVSC, a veterinary urgent care facility that handles more complex cases of pet disease and injury for shelters and other veterinary clinics across the region — as far south as Redding, north to Roseburg, east to about Lakeview and west to the Oregon Coast.

They see and treat emergency cases — pets struck by cars, bitten by rattlesnakes, assaulted by porcupine quills and a host of others — at all hours. Veterinarians see about 80 animals with serious diseases or injuries a week.

It’s a volatile job, with animals suffering from life-threatening injuries and diseases constantly coming

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through the doors, emotionally exhausted owners often in tow.

“Those pets and families build a real special bond,” Schropp says.

“When we’re not successful, it’s sad for everybody.”

Sometimes the prognosis looks grim yet doctors still prevail. One canine patient, for instance, recently came in with anemia and several other symptoms consistent with cancer or another severe immune disease. But after a few tests, veterinarians discovered the animal had Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a tick-borne infection that affects the immune system. Doctors treated it, and the dog got well.

With many pet-related afflictions, a diagnosis can be difficult to come by, because the animal can’t communicate pain beyond whimpers or anger. Sometimes, doctors don’t even get that.

“We as humans have to make these decisions for the animals,” says Kenn Altine, executive director for the Southern Oregon Humane Society.

“Animals suffer through a lot really sort of quietly.”

One danger, which pet doctors expect will increase later this year,

is marijuana toxicity. Symptoms include tremors, inability to stand and nausea. Cases have increased gradually over the past 10 years, and Schropp anticipates it will worsen with Oregon pot legalization mere months away.

“We see it fairly commonly. It’s not pretty,” Schropp says.

When professionals can’t help the dog, cat or other beloved pet, it’s a difficult pill to swallow. Workers at the facility, from receptionists and veterinarians to those who clean the cages, get attached to animals they’re put in positions to help, Schropp says. When they are unable to bring about a happy result, it affects everybody. It takes a lasting toll, too.

Schropp says there is a high incidence of people leaving the veterinary field, and many suffer from depression.

“Professional burnout in the veterinary field is a very big problem right now,” she says. “That’s not part of what we learn traditionally in veterinary school.

“When you lose and (the animals) don’t do well, it’s a bigger loss in a lot of ways.”

Veterinarians can sometimes get

“We as humans have to make these decisions for the animals. Animals suffer through a lot really sort of quietly.”

— Kenn Altine, executive director, Southern Oregon Humane Society

lucky, however. A rabbit being held at an area shelter was brought in with a rattlesnake bite. Lacking anti-venom at that time, facility officials put it on pain medication and IV fluids, and the rabbit survived. Successful cases like that keep Schropp around, everready to try and give quality of life back to pets on the brink.

“For me, this is all the fun things of the profession in one place,” Schropp says. “It’s very satisfying when it goes well.”

Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541776-4468 or rpfeil@mailtribune. com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ ryanpfeil.

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Superwoman

emerges THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: HOlly HEnry EagEr TO maKE SPlaSH In PHySIquE cOmPETITIOn

American

Muscle

By Dan Jones Mail Tribune

T

ry walking a day in Holly Henry’s shoes and you might end up stressed, stuffed and short-winded.

The life of a figure competitor is far from easy, the Medford resident admits, but she absolutely loves it.

Henry is a 43-year-old mom and wife who works at a dental office and at a gym. She’s also a bikini and figure competitor — sculpting her body through diet and exercise to be judged on stage — who is training for The Cascadian Classic, set for May 23 in Bend.

After being officially baptized into the sport with her first show last year, Henry is determined to make an even bigger splash this time around.

“It was a bucket-list item that turned into a passion,” she says. “I’m going for it this time around and putting in my all.”

Juggling all of her responsibilities requires a superwoman and a super

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Holly Henry is training for The cascadian classic figure competiton set for may 23 in Bend.

Mail Tribune / bob Pennell

support group.

It also takes a lot of gym time, posing practice, money, travel and, last but not least, chicken … 40 pounds from Cherry Street Meats every two to three weeks, to be more precise.

The alarm sounds as early as 4 a.m. at the Henry household. She rises on an empty stomach and immediately drives to Aspire Fitness Club in Medford, where she logs 50 minutes of cardiovascular

exercise. Henry became such an early-bird figure that the owner, Steve Thomas, asked if she’d just open the place.

After the workout, Henry’s day of eating begins. It’s a long one that requires many hours of preparation in the kitchen, zip-close bags and evening runs to Trader Joe’s.

She eats every 2½ to 3 hours, beginning with a bowl of cream of rice topped with fruit and almond butter and 45 grams of whey protein.

Next up is five ounces of ground turkey, sweet potato and vegetables, then chicken breast, brown rice and vegetables, then back to ground turkey, rice and vegetables.

She’s prepared most of this in advance and stored it away in plastic bags and storage containers.

It’s 5:30 p.m. when Henry serves herself up more chicken and veggies and then hits the gym again, this time to International Fitness

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to pump iron.

A couple scoops of whey protein follow the intense session, and later she’ll have a cup of egg whites and another scoop of whey.

Whew. It’s 8:30 p.m., and she’s exhausted.

Mind you, all this could change next week, depending on what her advisers tell her.

Henry has valued the help of veteran coaches Jack and Kay Friend, with whom she meets every Sunday for physique checkups and posing. The couple also have given her diet plans.

Henry also works with Portland-based trainer Bleu Taylor.

The Friends founded the Northwest Muscle team, to which Henry belongs.

“She’s very disciplined and she will do whatever the trainer asks her to do,” Kay Friend says. “She’s just a loving person, very soft-spoken but hard-working.”

Oh, and while she’s doing all that pumping and all that running and all that eating, she’s got to make sure her kids get off to school.

Making all this exponentially easier is the help of her husband, Kris, sports reporter for the Mail Tribune, and the cooperation of their children Nick, 18, Grace, 14, and Ty, 10½.

“I couldn’t do it without them,” she says. “The amount of time I feel like I’m away from them is huge, which is hard, but they get it. They see I’m passionate about it.”

Henry became interested in working out around 2009.

She took on a program designed by Thomas that she’d do at home and then check back in every month or so. She later participated in some challenging boot camps and, in late 2013, grew even more interested in bodybuilding and did a weight-loss challenge.

“I had always wanted to do a competition, but honestly never thought it would be something I could do,” she says.

But she did, signing up for the NPC Oregon Ironman in Lincoln City in the novice bikini and masters bikini divisions.

“I did OK, but I wasn’t in the top 5,” she recalls. “It’s one of those things, being in my first show and not knowing what to expect, I have a better appreciation of what all you need to do and practice.”

And now here she stands, weeks before the big show in Bend. She’ll also do a contest in Hillsboro in June.

Henry is considering participating in both bikini and figure divisions. In general, figure features more muscular bodies than bikini. But sometimes the look of the field alters how judging goes, Kay Friend and Henry say.

When the moment arrives, Henry will step on stage and pose for judges and in front of an audience, hopeful all the work she’s invested will be acknowledged among a field of other regional contestants.

With bright lights shining down and eyes locked in on your body, being self-conscious has to go right out the window.

That can be difficult.

“Everybody has body issues,” Henry says. “To go and get in a bikini and be in front of a lot of people, it’s a little bit of a mind game.”

Henry learned a lot from last year. Now she has more muscle and more knowledge, and she’s eager to prove it.

“I am really giving 100 percent to diet (this time),” Henry says. “Doing exactly what my coaches tell me to do. I leave it all at the gym, which I’m sure my competitors do, too. And

really I’m posing a lot more.”

Competing is expensive. Signing up, traveling and buying an outfit and makeup will quickly set you back four figures.

Add the cost of food and supplements, and you’ve got one costly hobby.

But Henry is all in now, without an end to competition in sight. She hasn’t had a burger and fries in weeks, and it’ll likely be a while before she can enjoy her favorite cheat meal. And that’s OK with her.

Whatever happens on the day of judgment, Henry will be satisfied.

She knows how she’s spent her days.

“I want to be fit, I want to be strong, and for me, I enjoy it,” she says. “Working out twice a day is hard, but at the end of the day, I feel accomplished.”

Reach reporter Dan Jones at 541-776-4499, or email djones@mailtribune.com. Find him online at twitter.com/ danjonesmt

Medford body builder Holly Henry shows off her competitive form.

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THIS WEEK’S EPISODE: JErEMy VANSCHOONHOVEN AND GrANDMA BOOM

Moments in the sun Hometown

Stars

Jenai Lowenstein appeared on several episodes of the recently completed Bravo reality TV series “Friends to Lovers,” a show starring her son Darion and his partner Charley. She is known for wearing outlandish costumes, particularly in the Ashland Fourth of July parade among other events.

Mail Tribune/ bob Pennell

By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune

W

hen you’re sitting at home with the satellite remote in hand, Reality TV makes it look easy to live a charmed life. But Jenai Lowenstein of Ashland, aka “Grandma Boom,” knows better.

Lowenstein’s son, Darion, a video-game producer in Los Angeles, was handpicked for the Bravo series “Friends to Lovers,” which completed its season in February. The show attempted to pair Darion with his longtime friend, public relations executive Charley Walters, through misadventures devised by the show’s producers.

“Looking to find someone who loves him for who he is, Darion realizes his best friend Charley Walters

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Jeremy VanSchoonhoven

may have been the guy for him all along and is ready to bring their friendship to the next level,” according to the show’s website. The series also followed four other couples as they risked friendships for something more.

During the program, the show’s producers got an eyeful of Jenai and decided to pencil her into the script.

Lowenstein has what might be termed a colorful personality, which is enhanced by the bright colors, sparkles and outrageous hats that make up a big part of her wardrobe. A book she wrote, “Grandma Boom Chronicles — Feeling Alive at 65,” shows Lowenstein on the cover wearing a pirate’s hat and Mardi Gras mask while blowing bubbles.

Although she has an outlook best described as “sunny,” she still had concerns before she appeared

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on the show. “I didn’t know what was going to come out of me,” she says.

“Think about it. There’s no script to memorize.”

Her part in the show began as a surprise visit to Darion in Los Angeles on her birthday, with her jumping out of a birthday cake to mortify her easily-embarrassed son. Producers liked what they saw in Jenai, and the planned single-day shoot turned

“There’s been such an overwhelming response that it’s brought joy to me.”

— Jenai Lowenstein, aka Grandma Boom

into several days of footage, including her crashing a date with Darion and Charley. One problem she faced: What to wear when you brought only one change of clothes?

“I hadn’t planned on being on TV in that outfit,” she recalls.

Jenai is the type of person who finds it grating to hear her own voice on recordings, so it was revealing to see herself on television, she says.

“It’s a mirror for me, right here,” she says, holding her hand in front of her face. “You don’t realize that you tilt your head this way.”

She’d previously been interviewed on camera for her work in child development, but being filmed just being herself was something new.

“Here’s the beauty — we were in a scene that we were creating,” she says.

Her appearance landed her in Us Weekly, Jenai says.

“There’s been such an overwhelming response that it’s brought joy to me,” she says.

Jeremy VanSchoonhoven of Selma knows about that kind of joy, but his moment in the Reality TV spotlight also came with a heaping dose of competitive pressure.

“Even if you’re just playing a card game for a million dollars, it’s stressful,” says VanSchoonhoven, who competed in 2010 on the NBC series “America’s Got Talent.”

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“One mistake and you’re done,” says VanSchoonhoven, who dazzled audiences with his daring BMX bicycle stunts.

He made it all the way to the finals of the show’s fifth season, and the experience opened up new opportunities for VanSchoonhoven. Because he was a finalist, he got to tour with other finalists from the show the next year. Since then, he’s attended BMX trade shows, been in television commercials and has appeared on TV sports programs.

As a professional BMX rider since 1999, VanSchoonhoven has had a lot of practice keeping calm while people are watching, but he recalls unique challenges performing on a TV show. At his televised audition in Portland, it wasn’t until the middle of his performance in front of a panel of judges that he discovered the raised posts from which he jumped hadn’t been secured, causing him to stumble. Piers Morgan promptly sounded his buzzer, and he carried on without making excuses.

The lesson taught him to better communicate with backstage personnel, but it still required him to place a certain degree of control in the hands of others.

“This isn’t like a guitar put in the wrong place,” he explained to stagehands.

Timing and communication with producers were critical to be certain the right camera was capturing the stunt’s moments for TV audiences. He used the 3-D modeling software program SketchUp to outline his stage setup, and his routine required him to be at specific places on the stage during certain parts of his accompanying music.

In the semifinal round, he fell during rehearsal, breaking his elbow and injuring his hip.

“I could hardly walk,” he says. “It was a pretty tough routine, and I had to do the show the next day.”

The show’s producers had a contingency plan in case he couldn’t perform, but he somehow made his jump

Jeremy VanSchoonhoven of Selma made it to the finals of “America’s Got Talent” in 2010.

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and advanced to the final round.

He says his appearance on the show impacted the entire sport of BMX bicycling.

“It changed the sport a lot,” he says.

VanSchoonhoven, who was 27 when he appeared on the show, still tours, but doing it full-time is a hardship because it forces him to put the rest of his life on pause.

“At this point in my life, I don’t want to just do that,” he says. “I have other goals.”

Reach newsroom assistant Nick Morgan at nmorgan@mailtribune.com.

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