'Tis The Season For Community
By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
published in the Central Oregonian, December 2004
http://www.centraloregonian.com
The Christmas season, in all its glory, has settled upon our city and county.
The first signs came the Friday after Thanksgiving, when the ladies of the Garden Club showed up, right on schedule, to “green” our magnificent courthouse with garlands and wreaths. I don’t know when the tradition started but it’s a wonderful gesture, and I can’t thank the ladies (and the gentlemen they draft to help ) for their gift.
About the same time, the hard working Parks and Recreation crew and city workers joined forces with PPL to mount lighted Christmas decorations on along Third and Main Streets—a task which is accomplished between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. This early hour was selected because there is a minimal amount of traffic on the street, so the crews, who don’t normally work the graveyard shift, won’t disrupt your day-time travel plans.
The arrival of the Parks and Rec sponsored Santa’s Workshop is another time-honored tradition in Crook County. Nearly 250 boys and girls are joined by a parent and supervised by community volunteers who help them handcraft Christmas gifts for Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. The workshop itself is amazing, watching all those busy hands at work, but even more amazing is the warehouse where Parks and Rec busily gather scraps of carpet, tongue depressors, yarn, foam cups and anything else that might make a craft item. By Christmas each year, the closets are overflowing and the creativity exercised by our dedicated parks staff in figuring out how to incorporate this diverse material is nothing short of amazing.
No holiday season would be complete, of course, without the lighted plastic nativity scene in front of city hall. I once asked a city official how it was that the City of Prineville gets away with such a display when no less an authority than the U.S. Supreme Court has forced other communities to take theirs down. He smiled, and assured me that he would happily hand over the display to the first Supreme Court justice who journeyed to Prineville to pick it up. I guess no one’s been here yet.
The last notable activity of the season is the dozen or so efforts underway to collect food and gifts for the needy. This year, I’ve given grocery bags of canned goods to the Boy Scouts, the NJROTC and the volunteer Fire Dept., all of whom came knocking at my door in search of food to replenish empty food pantry shelves. I’ve written checks to St. Vincent DePaul and to Rotary for the same purpose. The County’s Commission on Children and Families has collected nearly 1,200 names of families and individuals looking for a little assistance this season, and the community has responded, as it always does.
There must have been a start date for all of these traditions. I doubt Barney Prine founded the first Santa’s workshop, and I know that Mrs. George Crook didn’t drag the General down to green the original courthouse, but it seems like this events have been around forever. They are, an essential part of what makes us—Prineville and Crook County—a community.
Anthropologists will tell you that communities are defined by five things:
They have defined boundaries and members; You’re in or you’re out.
They have reason for existing;
They have their own rules; and
The community members are committed to each other’s welfare.
They are self-determining, having the freedom to decide for themselves how they’ll operate.
There’s no better season than Christmas to observe that all the elements of a community are alive and well where we live.
Unlike Bend, where the parking lots are crowded and the lines are full of people desperately scanning the unmanned registers, hoping a new checker will open up, you can usually find a parking space in Prineville, the wait’s short and you’ll almost certainly get a chance to visit with someone you haven’t seen for a while. You’ll recognize, in other words, another friend or family member who, along with you, makes up our community, and you’ll go home feeling a little better because you did.
Certainly, we have our own reasons for existing. It isn’t the amenities which bring people to Prineville. Rather, there’s something special about this town which brought each of us here, knowing full well we could choose to live anywhere else we wanted.
Do we have our own rules? I would say so. Although our locals complain that congested Third Street traffic impedes pedestrian crossing, out of town visitors invariably express amazement at the number of people who actually stop at the crosswalk. In addition, all of us know certain vehicles that are likely to make a left or right hand turn at a certain street without signaling because “everybody knows” the driver goes home that way.
Time after time, this community has proven its commitment to the welfare of others. How many times have you tossed change into a plastic jug on a grocery store counter to help somebody’s mother/father/sister/brother get an expensive experimental operation? And if you haven’t been out shopping for warm clothes and a particular toy for some little girl or boy you don’t even know yet, chances are you will before the holiday season is over.
Finally, there’s no doubt we’re a self-determining bunch (did I mention that nativity scene at city hall yet?).
Despite explosive growth and change which is going on around us everyday, despite a steady influx of newcomers, I think we’ve done a great job of holding on to that which has traditionally been the best about ourselves. Prineville and Crook County continue to be, in every sense of the word, a community.
And that’s just how we want it ought to be.
published in the Central Oregonian, December 2004
http://www.centraloregonian.com
Holiday Traditions Part Of Crook County's Charm
The Christmas season, in all its glory, has settled upon our city and county.
The first signs came the Friday after Thanksgiving, when the ladies of the Garden Club showed up, right on schedule, to “green” our magnificent courthouse with garlands and wreaths. I don’t know when the tradition started but it’s a wonderful gesture, and I can’t thank the ladies (and the gentlemen they draft to help ) for their gift.
About the same time, the hard working Parks and Recreation crew and city workers joined forces with PPL to mount lighted Christmas decorations on along Third and Main Streets—a task which is accomplished between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. This early hour was selected because there is a minimal amount of traffic on the street, so the crews, who don’t normally work the graveyard shift, won’t disrupt your day-time travel plans.
The arrival of the Parks and Rec sponsored Santa’s Workshop is another time-honored tradition in Crook County. Nearly 250 boys and girls are joined by a parent and supervised by community volunteers who help them handcraft Christmas gifts for Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa. The workshop itself is amazing, watching all those busy hands at work, but even more amazing is the warehouse where Parks and Rec busily gather scraps of carpet, tongue depressors, yarn, foam cups and anything else that might make a craft item. By Christmas each year, the closets are overflowing and the creativity exercised by our dedicated parks staff in figuring out how to incorporate this diverse material is nothing short of amazing.
No holiday season would be complete, of course, without the lighted plastic nativity scene in front of city hall. I once asked a city official how it was that the City of Prineville gets away with such a display when no less an authority than the U.S. Supreme Court has forced other communities to take theirs down. He smiled, and assured me that he would happily hand over the display to the first Supreme Court justice who journeyed to Prineville to pick it up. I guess no one’s been here yet.
The last notable activity of the season is the dozen or so efforts underway to collect food and gifts for the needy. This year, I’ve given grocery bags of canned goods to the Boy Scouts, the NJROTC and the volunteer Fire Dept., all of whom came knocking at my door in search of food to replenish empty food pantry shelves. I’ve written checks to St. Vincent DePaul and to Rotary for the same purpose. The County’s Commission on Children and Families has collected nearly 1,200 names of families and individuals looking for a little assistance this season, and the community has responded, as it always does.
There must have been a start date for all of these traditions. I doubt Barney Prine founded the first Santa’s workshop, and I know that Mrs. George Crook didn’t drag the General down to green the original courthouse, but it seems like this events have been around forever. They are, an essential part of what makes us—Prineville and Crook County—a community.
Anthropologists will tell you that communities are defined by five things:
They have defined boundaries and members; You’re in or you’re out.
They have reason for existing;
They have their own rules; and
The community members are committed to each other’s welfare.
They are self-determining, having the freedom to decide for themselves how they’ll operate.
There’s no better season than Christmas to observe that all the elements of a community are alive and well where we live.
Unlike Bend, where the parking lots are crowded and the lines are full of people desperately scanning the unmanned registers, hoping a new checker will open up, you can usually find a parking space in Prineville, the wait’s short and you’ll almost certainly get a chance to visit with someone you haven’t seen for a while. You’ll recognize, in other words, another friend or family member who, along with you, makes up our community, and you’ll go home feeling a little better because you did.
Certainly, we have our own reasons for existing. It isn’t the amenities which bring people to Prineville. Rather, there’s something special about this town which brought each of us here, knowing full well we could choose to live anywhere else we wanted.
Do we have our own rules? I would say so. Although our locals complain that congested Third Street traffic impedes pedestrian crossing, out of town visitors invariably express amazement at the number of people who actually stop at the crosswalk. In addition, all of us know certain vehicles that are likely to make a left or right hand turn at a certain street without signaling because “everybody knows” the driver goes home that way.
Time after time, this community has proven its commitment to the welfare of others. How many times have you tossed change into a plastic jug on a grocery store counter to help somebody’s mother/father/sister/brother get an expensive experimental operation? And if you haven’t been out shopping for warm clothes and a particular toy for some little girl or boy you don’t even know yet, chances are you will before the holiday season is over.
Finally, there’s no doubt we’re a self-determining bunch (did I mention that nativity scene at city hall yet?).
Despite explosive growth and change which is going on around us everyday, despite a steady influx of newcomers, I think we’ve done a great job of holding on to that which has traditionally been the best about ourselves. Prineville and Crook County continue to be, in every sense of the word, a community.
And that’s just how we want it ought to be.
posted by Scott Cooper | 2:32 PM
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