​Established in 2018 by a group of six experienced realtors in Union County, Blue Summit Realty Group serves Union, Baker, Wallowa, and Umatilla counties.  These realtors are all well connected and established in the community and they are a team of the highest producers in the region with decades of proven experience.
 
Blue Summit Realty Group’s stated mission is to provide their clients with the best and most comprehensive real estate services available in Eastern Oregon.  They are full-time realtors who are energized and determined to help their clients achieve their dreams of home ownership.  They are competent, organized, and confidential in their dealings with each client.
 
On offer at Blue Summit is a wide range of services from comprehensive market analysis and listing and buying agencies for all types of real property to staging assistance, and much more.  The Blue Summit team is expert in all areas of real estate, including homes, land, commercial, farms, and ranches.
 
Ever innovative and creative, Blue Summit’s goal is to help each and every client achieve their dream of home ownership.  Toward that end, they are completely networked in the community with relationships that assist their clients.  They are on top of the latest technology in order to facilitate seamless and professional transactions.  Most importantly, the realtors at Blue Summit Realty Group are honest and confidential and will handle their clients’ real estate business with care and consideration.
 
Given Blue Summit Realty Group’s motivation, connectedness, professionalism, and ethics, they will continue to deliver the ultimate in real estate sales and service in Eastern Oregon for years to come.

​“It’s not about the loans we do; it is about the hearts we change and the people we help.”
 
            Steve Jacobson, Founder and CEO,
                        Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
 
Teri Champlin, a lifelong resident of Union County and Branch Manager of the Fairway Mortgage office for our community, exemplifies this credo.  Whether one is looking to buy, build, or refinance a home, she is there to help.  She has been in the mortgage industry for more than 20 years and has the depth of experience to explore all loan options.  She can thus help her clients achieve home ownership with the speed and service they desire, finding the right loan with great rates, terms, and costs to meet each client’s specific needs.
 
Teri is an active and involved member of the La Grande community.  She has served as the chair of the Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics Board of Trustees.  She joined the Board in 2014 and had served as vice-chair and secretary prior to becoming the chair.  During her tenure on the Board, she also served on numerous hospital committees.  Teri is also an alumnus of Eastern Oregon University.
 
Since financing a home is one of the biggest commitments one can make, Fairway Independent Mortgage’s mission is customer service.  They are dedicated to finding the best rates and loan options with some of the fastest turn-around times in the industry, especially in this ever-changing and volatile market.
 
Teri’s goal is to be a trusted advisor who provides highly personalized service to help each client through every step of the loan process, from application to closing and beyond.  She strives to exceed expectations, provide satisfaction, and earn trust.
 
With her deep roots in our community, vast experience in her profession, and dedication to service, Teri and Fairway Independent Mortgage Company are valued assets to the greater La Grande community.

​“If it fits, we deliver.”
 
When Robert Dooley started in the delivery trade back in 1994, little would he have known that in 2023, he would be the president and founder of a business that provides business-to-business deliveries in Eastern Oregon and all along the 1-84 corridor from Portland, Oregon to Boise, Idaho, I-82 to Yakima, Washington, and I-90 to Spokane.  A graduate of La Grande High School and holder of a BA and MA in Business Administration from Eastern Oregon University, Rob attributes his success to the great crew working with him.
 
From its humble origins delivering food to local customers, Rob’s Speedy Delivery has grown since its inception in 2012 from one Toyota Prius to having 20 vehicles ranging from a small Ford Focus to a 24’ box truck with a lift gate. In 2017, Rob was joined by Carolyn Thompson as co-owner and chief operations officer.  Initially based in Pendleton, Rob’s Speedy Delivery acquired a second warehouse in La Grande on Monroe Avenue at the beginning of February 2023.
 
Rob’s Speedy Delivery works with all industries and transports a wide range of items, including everything from legal documents, interoffice mail and payroll checks to LTL (less than truckload) freight and auto parts, as well as pharmaceuticals, medical and environmental testing and supplies, and raw materials.  They also offer concierge pickup for short-order items in the construction industry as well.
 
Both Rob and Carolyn are passionate about providing local jobs and great service.  They are also firmly dedicated to volunteering their services to enhance their communities.  Carolyn provided all of the transportation for the cast and crew of “Breakup Season,” an independent production filming in La Grande this February.
 
With their belief in hometown values, a drive for excellence, and working with the credo that each package is personal, Rob’s Speedy Delivery is building relationships throughout the region that will shape their success for years to come. 

​Founded by Scott Fletcher in 1993, Scott’s Heating & Air Conditioning has been the gold standard for HVAC services in Eastern Oregon for almost 30 years.  Their mission is to provide reliable and quality comfort for residents and businesses of Eastern Oregon.  Their company ethos is constructed around the values of honesty, professionalism, and dependability.
 
Though their business philosophy is rooted in these traditional values, their knowledge and products are based in the future.  They employ the latest technology and the most up-to-date and innovative solutions and equipment for every job they do, from working on a residential system to a large commercial project.  Scott’s Heating and Air has gained many certifications and ratings, showcasing their proficiency due to their commitment to their craft.
 
Scott’s goal is to offer the ideal product for each customer that fits their needs and space.  From building from the ground up to remodeling, they will provide an estimate based on room-to-room calculations to come up with the best plan for each customer’s particular needs.  With their vast arsenal of experience, skill, and knowledge of HVAC, they can handle any existing system—natural gas, propane, or electric—and come up with the optimum plan for each customer’s unique situation.
 
The folks at Scott’s Heating & Air Conditioning look forward to keeping the citizens of La Grande and the surrounding communities cozy and comfortable by continuing to carry out their mission of providing reliable and quality HVAC services for the residents and businesses of Eastern Oregon.
 

In 1995, Papa Aldo’s and Murphy’s pizza merged to form Papa Murphy’s and a pizza icon was born.  The take-and-bake concept took off, because customers understood that this provided a tastier, healthier alternative than frozen store-bought pizza and was hot out of the oven instead gambling on hit-or-miss delivery options.  There are now more than 1200 locations across the United States, Canada, and the UAE.  Because everything is made to order with made-from- scratch ingredients, the customer knows what they are getting.
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Although Papa Murphy’s takes pride in serving high-quality food, they know that everything they serve tastes better when shared with the people you love most.  That is the mission behind Papa Murphy’s.  Their pizza has earned a loyal following of millions of fans, consistently rating them #1 in customer surveys.  By allowing customers to enjoy a healthy, made-to-order, home-baked pizza and the time spent together at home with family and friends, they give their guests an experience to be savored and remembered.

Not only does Papa Murphy’s offer pizza in its many iterations, from thin crust to pan, and in sizes tailored to your group, there are many sauces and toppings to chose from, along with the inventive pizzas on offer—and the delightful heart-shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day.  However, it is not all about pizza.  Also on offer are their many add-on items, including cookie dough, cheese bread, and salad, along with sodas and bottled teas. 

La Grande’s Papa Murphy’s is locally owned by Bob and Ann Hulden and is family managed.  According to Bob, all of the money stays here locally.  They are both avid advocates for their community and strive to make La Grande a vibrant and stable community through support of local organizations and causes.
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Their goals revolve around providing Papa Murphy’s quality products and a warm customer experience, along with service to their community. With their community-centered vision and devotion to product excellence, the Huldens exemplify business at its best.

Brent Clapp seemed destined to helm EO.Alive.TV.  Raised in Wyoming, he started his media career in collage and taught media classes for four years.  Then, after working with an in-house production company and receiving an international award for production and photography, Brent then moved to a professional ministry.  Combining all of these elements of his life path, Brent formed Brent Clapp Media Services in 2010 which involved production services, video production, commercial photography, marketing services, and slide shows, along with an embryonic television company, La GrandeAlive.TV.

In 2014, Brent began streaming live events and EOAlive.TV was born.  EOAlive.TV carries a mixture of live and offline events, including local football and other sports, interviews with local influencers and officials, and weather reports, with approximately eight to ten hours of content. EOAlive.TV is not subscriber based but instead is paid for by sponsors.
The mission of EOAlive.TV is set out in a set of core values.  At its heart, the essence of EOAlive.TV is to tell positive stories of and about Eastern Oregon, letting the storyteller communicate in their own words, with no negativity or drama.

Brent Clapp Productions, the current iteration of Brent’s multimedia enterprise, has clients from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.  Thus, his ultimate goal for EOAlive.TV is to take it to a more regional level, involving people and events from around Eastern Oregon while maintaining the set of core values centering around positivity and service.
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Because of Brent’s mission emphasizing core values and positivity in a media landscape often emphasizing negativity and click bait, EOAlive.TV is a breath of fresh air and his goal of advancing to a regional audience is sure to be realized.

Click here to see their website: eoa.tv/

​Founded in 1907, Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics (GRH) is a state and nationally recognized, award-winning, privately held, not-for-profit health system that includes a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital and 13 outpatient clinics.  They employ over 700 people and offer a broad range of diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic outpatient services, a Level IV Trauma Emergency Services Department, a Family Birthing Center, Physical, Occupational and Speech Rehabilitation Therapy Services, and Home Care Services providing both home health and hospice care needs. They also operate 13 primary and specialty care clinics: the Behavioral Health Clinic, the Cardiology Clinic, the Dermatology Clinic, the Elgin Clinic, the Hematology & Oncology Clinic, the Neurology Clinic, the Regional Medical Clinic, the Sleep Clinic, the Specialty Clinic (General Surgery, Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Otolaryngology (ENT), Podiatry, Rheumatology, and Urology), the Union Clinic, Urgent Care, the Women’s & Children’s Clinic (Gynecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics), and the Wound Care Clinic.

​In January of 2022, the Board of Trustees of Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics approved a plan to move forward with a substantial expansion of the hospital building.  With their success in recruiting primary care providers and physicians with surgical privileges, surgical volumes continued to grow and GRH outgrew the space occupied by operating rooms and procedure rooms. 
 
For several years, GRH worked with national health care consultants and architects, as well as asking surgical services staff for input and feedback, in addition to visits to other regional hospitals to gain an understanding of their experiences.  The goal of this process was to design and build a facility that the community can be proud of going forward in the future, while also solving the problems of space constraints and limitations in patient and process flow, as well as providing additional space for future options.  Work began in the summer of 2022 with an anticipated completion date in 2024.

​Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics’ stated mission is quality health care along with ensuring access to this high-quality, cost-effective health care in a safe and customer-friendly environment for everyone in need of their services.  The current expansion project ensures that GRH will be true to their mission for years to come.  This is in line with their goal of continuing to elevate the level of care and services to the larger regional area.
 
The people of La Grande and the surrounding region can be justifiably proud of our hospital and its clinics, which continue to receive accolades for the services and care that they provide.  With the completion of the expansion plans, Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics’ reputation of high-quality, cost effective health care will only be burnished in the future.
 

John J. Howard began thinking about founding a Real Estate Company in 2005 after being a Realtor since 1991, as well as being a county commissioner.  In 2007, despite the county being on the brink of the Great Recession and the market on a downward trend, John decided it was time to act.  At that time, downtown was not in the best condition for a start-up company, but John carried on, converting the old beauty college space into a top-drawer Real Estate office.
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The mission from the inception of John J. Howard and Associates Real Estate has been to provide the best professional Real Estate services possible.  Real Estate done right requires a large amount of one-to-one communications between buyers and sellers, and this is the lodestar guiding their mission.  This involves coordinating the transaction management from acceptance of the buyer’s offer until closing and even beyond if there are problems afterwards.
 
John J. Howard and Associates Real Estate provides comprehensive professional Real Estate services for all of Eastern Oregon.  They also offer residential and commercial rental services.  They pride themselves on staying in contact with their clients and providing them with quality services throughout the entire buying, selling, or renting process.
 
Looking into the future, John J. Howard and Associates’ goals are to continue to provide the best and most comprehensive customer services that they can, along with being a strong community partner.  John and his Realtors and staff pride themselves on working to make La Grande a place that people can be proud of being a part of while also encouraging people to be involved in their communities.  Toward that end, as well as being a Partner of LGMSD, they have sponsored the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop and the placement of holiday wreaths down Adams Avenue.
 
With their dedication to professionalism and community involvement, John J. Howard and Associates Real Estate will continue to make Downtown La Grande and the surrounding region a vibrant, stable, and beautiful place.  They are committed to this for the long term, stating “The community is what you put into it and we aim to stay engaged in our community for the benefit of all….if you build it, they will come.”
 

Eastern Oregon University, designated as Oregon’s Rural University in 2018, serves a vital role as an educational, cultural, and economic nexus for Eastern Oregon and other rural areas throughout Oregon. 
 
Founded in 1929 as Eastern Oregon Normal School, EON had over 200 men and women enrolled in the two-year certificate program in teacher education.  In 1932, EON was fully accredited as a teacher training program. The Oregon Legislature changed the name to Eastern Oregon College of Education in 1939.  In 1956, the words “of Education” were dropped and in 1973, the Oregon Legislature changed EOC’s name to Eastern Oregon State College.  Finally, in 1997, EOSC became Eastern Oregon University.
 
Throughout this time, Eastern Oregon University has evolved into a well-rounded institution offering the opportunity to learn in a small classroom setting.  With four colleges, students can choose from more than 30 academic programs, including sciences, humanities, teaching and business with undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded.
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​Eastern Oregon University’s stated values revolve around altruism, civility, discovery, integrity, interdependence, and quality.  These values enhance their mission of guiding student inquiry through integrated, high-quality liberal arts and professional programs that lead to responsible and reflective action in a diverse and interconnected world.  In addition, Eastern Oregon University, as an educational, cultural, and scholarly center, connects the rural regions of Oregon to the wider world through partnerships with colleges, universities, agencies, and communities.
 
The goals of Eastern Oregon University are put forth in the “Strategic Framework:  The Ascent 2029.”  This includes six goals with two or three objectives for each, which are pathways toward achieving those goals.  EOU’s goals are:  (1) Student Success, (2) Transformational Education, (3) Grow the Number of Lives Impacted, (4) A Thriving University Community, (5) Relevance and Interconnection, and (6) Financial Sustainability.  For a more in-depth discussion of Eastern Oregon’s goals and the individual objectives, please check out:  https://www.eou.edu/about/mission.  You will also find EOU’s “Statement on Freedom of Expression,” which was developed through collaboration with the University Faculty Senate, the University Council, and the Associated Students of Eastern Oregon University (ASEOU).
 
As Oregon’s Rural University, Eastern Oregon University combines a beautiful setting and a small size with far-reaching academic and professional connections for a truly well-rounded and inclusive educational experience, as well as serving as an educational, economic, and cultural touchstone for La Grande and Northeast Oregon.