Oregon

▶️ Crowd of 300 gathers for Central Oregon’s Walk to End Alzheimers

Published

2 years ago

October 16, 2022

Press Room

▶️ Crowd of 300 gathers for Central Oregon’s Walk to End Alzheimers

Alzheimers is relentless, however so are we.

That was the message on the Central Oregon Stroll to Finish Alzheimers on Sunday.

Greater than 300 folks gathered at Riverbend Park in Bend to assist the trigger, honor their family members and lift consciousness.

The Alzheimers Affiliation holds 600 walks nationally annually to boost cash for analysis and to attach households with native sources.

For some, the occasion was very private.

“My father Jim was identified with Alzheimers in 2013 on the age of 58, and my mother Audrey and my Uncle Scott acted as his caregivers the entire time,” mentioned Jennifer Probability, the chair of the stroll planning committee. “He grew to become free from his battle with Alzheimers final November of 2021.”

In Oregon alone, there are 69,000 folks dwelling with Alzheimers.

“These are simply the individuals who have acquired a analysis,” mentioned stroll supervisor Kaitlyn Bertholet. “We all know there are folks on the market who haven’t acquired a analysis but, and we simply need to ensure that folks have the assist and sources obtainable to them.”

Members carried orange flowers in the event that they have been advocates for a world with out Alzheimers, purple flowers if they’d misplaced a beloved one to the illness, and blue flowers in the event that they have been personally dwelling with Alzheimers.

Probability mentioned it’s essential for folks to know that Alzheimers will not be a traditional type of getting old.

“It’s very a lot a mind illness. When your mind doesn’t work, you don’t work,” she mentioned. “That might imply something from not with the ability to tie your sneakers, to within the later phases, not with the ability to swallow. It additionally means you watch your beloved slip away, their persona slowly goes, they’re not in a position to essentially all the time talk their must you, not to mention have a dialog with you and we seen that with my dad as nicely. I’m right here in the present day to honor my dad and his legacy, and the love that he left us with, the love that he constructed.”

She mentioned she additionally wished to honor the thousands and thousands of unpaid caregivers who assist their members of the family via the illness.

There are 130,000 of these caregivers in Oregon alone.

“We’re actually proud to be the biggest nonprofit funder of Alzheimers and dementia-related analysis,” Bertholet mentioned. “Someday we would like there to be therapy and prevention choices and a remedy, in the end.”

Central Oregon Day by day’s Emily Kirk acted as one of many emcees for the occasion.

By Sunday night, they’d almost reached their $90,000 fundraising purpose for the day.

The Alzheimers Affiliation provides a 24/7 assist line at 800-272-3900 the place folks can ask questions and obtain steering and assist. In addition they provide native training courses and assist teams. For extra info, go to alz.org.

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Oregon

Derrick Harmon, Detroit Loyola product, sees NFL Draft stock soar after season at Oregon

Published

1 hour ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Derrick Harmon, Detroit Loyola product, sees NFL Draft stock soar after season at Oregon

Derrick Harmon made a huge move when he transferred to Oregon from Michigan State heading into the 2024 college football season.

Not only did Harmon get the opportunity to help Oregon win the Big Ten championship and earn the No. 1 seed for the College Football Playoff, he set up his future for an NFL career.

Harmon, a former standout at Detroit Loyola, was an afterthought for the 2025 NFL Draft after his redshirt sophomore season at Michigan State in 2023 when he got in on 40 tackles from his defensive tackle position, 3½ for lost yardage.

Well, Harmon turned into a star at Oregon, a reason he has declared for the NFL Draft, in which his name is now mentioned in the first round of multiple NFL mock drafts, including No. 17 (Cincinnati Bengals) by Yahoo! Sports and No. 16 (Arizona Cardinals) by CBS Sports. The Pro Football Network projects the 49ers to pick Harmon at No. 11 and has Kentucky defensive tackle Deone Walker (Detroit Cass Tech) headed to the Lions at No. 32.

Walker was a second-team All-American in USA Today’s preseason rankings.

Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN has Harmon No. 14 on his board, the No. 4 defensive linemen, saying: “He combines quickness with power to cause chaos for opponents.”

Yes, Harmon’s thick build and long arms and athleticism give him the ability to line up anywhere from 3-technique to nose tackle, making him versatile and valuable for the next level.

Harmon made the most of his one year at Oregon, getting in on 41 tackles, 10½ TFL and five sacks while forcing two fumbles and recovering two fumbles.

“I’ve seen it, not putting too much attention to it because a lot can change,” Harmon said of the mock drafts. “I know I still have a lot of work to do.”

So, how impressive was Harmon?

Well, Harmon led the nation in total pressures from an interior defensive lineman with 55, 12 higher than the next-highest player.

One reason for Harmon’s breakout season was his ability to drop 30 pounds and play at 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds after playing his final season at Michigan State at 340.

“Going to Oregon was really good for me,” said Harmon, who said he was filing his papers to declare for the draft Monday and was set to travel to Dallas to prepare for the NFL Scouting Combine. “I had a good season, and we capitalized on a good season. I loved my team. I feel I improved by being more of a leader and I loved my pass-rushing ability too.

“I left (Michigan) State just because I wanted a better opportunity. I feel I’ve always had good technique in the run game just from the coaches I’ve had previously so for me, so it was more tuning up the pass rush. Coach T (defensive line coach Tony Tuioti) and Coach Tosh (defensive coordinator Lupoi) are good coaches, Coach Tuioti taught me a lot about the run game, played a lot of different positions on the line from the 0 all the way to the 5, so all those techniques he was able to teach me to take to the league.

“At State I played at 6-5 and 340 and this year I played at 6-5 at 315, 320. I could tell the difference, more agile and just as strong.”

Harmon said beating Ohio State 32-31 in Eugene during the regular season was his highlight. He had three tackles, and a forced fumble which he recovered at the Buckeyes’ 28 to set up a touchdown.

Harmon still thinks of his days at Loyola, saying “Coach Cal (John Callahan) is a great coach, still coaching to this day (at Hazel Park). He just told me a lot about ball, and he told me I had potential to play at the college level and at the NFL level just like he told me he did with Malik McDowell before me, so that was cool.”

McDowell started his high school career at Loyola before moving on to Southfield, then playing at Michigan State before being picked in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Seahawks.

High praise for Dante Moore

Former Detroit King standout quarterback Dante Moore started several games at UCLA as a true freshman in 2023 before transferring to Oregon.

Moore stood on the sidelines and watched Dillon Gabriel operate as the Ducks’ quarterback, becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist, completing 72.9% of his passes for 3,857 yards and 30 touchdowns (to just six interceptions). Oregon was 13-0 before a quarterfinal loss to Ohio State in the CFP.

When asked how Moore will perform next season with Gabriel using up his six years of eligibility, Harmon replied: “He’s going to be the truth. You can learn a lot sitting behind a Heisman finalist. Dante Moore is going to be a Heisman finalist next year. He’s that good.”

Moore was ranked No. 5 on CBS Sports listing of 16 players who will define the race for the 2025 national championship, saying Moore is “now the obvious choice to lead the explosive Will Stein’s offense,” and will be aided by receiver Evan Stewart, who announced Tuesday that he will return for ’25 season.

Former Belleville standout Bryce Underwood — the No. 1 recruit in the nation who signed with Michigan — was also among the 16 players listed by CBS Sports for those who will define the race for the national championship.

david.goricki@detroitnews.com

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Oregon

Oregon State lands $45 million federal grant for microfluidics research

Published

9 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Oregon State lands million federal grant for microfluidics research

The Biden administration awarded $45 million Tuesday to a research hub at Oregon State University that is working to develop applications for microfluidics, the science of manipulating fluids at miniature scales.

Tuesday’s grant follows a separate $53 million award to HP Inc. on Monday to back microfluidics research and manufacturing at the company’s campus in Corvallis. Both grants were authorized by the 2022 federal CHIPS Act but Tuesday’s money comes from a newly passed defense funding bill.

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Oregon

Oregon fire survivors share message of hope, resilience with Los Angeles community

Published

16 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Oregon fire survivors share message of hope, resilience with Los Angeles community

Oregon vet who lost clinic in 2020 fire shares lessons of loss and rebuilding, offering hope to L.A. fire victims as communities adapt to natural disasters.

PHOENIX, Ore. — The owner and employees of a southern Oregon veterinary clinic are sending warm thoughts to those who lost homes and businesses in the Los Angeles-area fires.

Glen Winters and his family lost their veterinary hospital in the Almeda Fire in 2020. Winters told KGW he can’t imagine what people in L.A. are experiencing after losing homes filled with sentimental items and photos.

“I can’t imagine losing a home with all those memories,” Winters said.

Winters and his staff evacuated all pets from the hospital during the fire. One veterinary technician loaded a 35-pound tortoise into his pickup truck and drove to Walmart to meet the owner.

“Truly terrifying,” said Dakota Titus, recalling the rush to evacuate. “They were scared but so relieved to get their tortoise.”

Winters said the last thing he saw was a wall of fire approaching. “When I looked down the street, there was a 30-foot wall of flames a block and a half away, with embers flying everywhere,” he said. “It was time to leave, so I got out.”

The next day, only his hospital sign and American flag remained standing. Winters said his daughter had nightmares after learning the building had burned. It took 18 months to get approval to rebuild, and they constructed a larger facility.

“It’s a different community,” Winters said about Phoenix nearly five years later. “It doesn’t make it better, not worse, just different now that people we all knew are gone.”

Daniel Aldrich, director of the Resilience Studies Program at Northeastern University in Boston, lost his family’s home during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said disaster survivors might expect government or insurance help, but most support comes from friends and community.

“Do we just go back to how things were?” he asked. “We have nostalgia for the past. Things were better in the past. Or do we start encouraging a different approach?”

Aldrich suggested building with more space between houses and clearing vegetation up to 100 yards from homes. “Ways to redesign the community with mobility in mind, access in mind,” he said. “Think through ways homes themselves can be livable even if there are fires in the future.”

The community supported the Winters family through their recovery. “I had people sending me checks saying, ‘You took care of our animals and now it’s time to take care of you,’” Winters said.

Aldrich emphasized adapting to a new normal. “We have to recognize resiliency does not mean we keep things as they were,” he said. “It means we’re building a new sense of normalcy, a new sense of daily life, where we’ll have those connections and work together.”

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