Rose Arbor residents score at fair

Published 3:02 pm Saturday, August 14, 2004

HERMISTON – The hours of gardening, knitting, crocheting and needlework paid off when Rose Arbor Assisted Living residents and staff brought home 18 ribbons from the Umatilla County Fair this week.

Annette Zedwick, 88, knitted a red dress in her spare time this past year. The dress not only won a blue ribbon, it was awarded Open Class Best of Show.

Zedwick has been knitting for about 55 years. She has only worn her dress once, to the Hermiston Senior Center to show it off.

“I heard they turned the dress inside out and looked all over and couldn’t find anything wrong at all,” said Peggy Hirte-Ulhorn, certified therapeutic recreation specialist and activities director at Rose Arbor Assisted Living.

Ulhorn put the word out to the staff and residents about entering items in the fair. Her own children, who spend a lot of time at Rose Arbor with the residents, also decided to enter things they have grown and built.

Abigail Ulhorn, 4, entered a sunflower, a baby pumpkin, sunflower seeds and yellow pear tomatoes. She won a ribbon for her tomatoes.

Alex Ulhorn, 8, entered some items he built. He won red ribbons for his wooden dinosaur and robotics scorpion and a blue for his “The Nile a River in Egypt.”

Louisa Simmonds entered her knitted dishcloths, doilies and a loomed hat and scarf and took blue ribbons on all. The 82-year-old doesn’t let the fact that she is legally blind slow her down.

She began knitting when she was about 13 years old. She taught knitting and crocheting for six years through Blue Mountain Community College night classes. She taught Pat Fines, overall non-livestock superintendent and grand marshal of the Umatilla County Fair, how to knit and crochet.

“I get blue ribbons on my crocheting thanks to Louisa,” Fines said.

Simmonds also took home a blue ribbon on a cactus she has been growing this past year.

Juanita Ralston, 84, entered a set of embroidered pillow cases. She has been embroidering for as long as she can remember – all her life, in fact.

“Not all the time, only when I had a little spare time,” Ralston said. “Since I retired I’ve done more than all the rest of my life together.”

Charlie Jersey is Rose Arbor’s resident gardener, growing tomatoes, peppers and zucchini in raised gardens in the back yard. He entered his produce and won a blue on his red peppers. He was eager and ready to enter his vegetables on Monday morning, and was disappointed when he learned he had to wait until Tuesday morning. He wasn’t taking any chances when it came time to deliver his produce. By the time Ulhorn got to Rose Arbor on Tuesday morning, he had been to the fair and back.

“He was ready at 7:15 (a.m.) and called a taxi, he wasn’t sure what time I’d be there,” Ulhorn said. “I would like to take credit for all this, but I can’t. They do all the hard work.”