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| Friends of Harrah meet every morning for breakfast. There are usually 20-30 members. |
By Ted Escobar
HARRAH — Junior and Sally Ford invited me to the Harrah Cafe several times, and I kept wondering why that was important to them. I finally committed to going last Friday, but I had to be there no later than 7 a.m.
Junior wanted me to meet some of the breakfast regulars, all connected to agriculture in some way. It was the third morning in a row that Junior and Sally were cooking.
I walked in, and there were about 24 guys at a long table made up of shorter tables end-to-end. They were busy rolling dice to see who would pay for coffee.
I walked over to the kitchen counter. Junior and Sally said “hi,” then Junior introduced me to the Friends of Harrah. They were an extremely friendly bunch
“How do you join?” I asked, walking right into the trap.
A couple of the fellows told me to pull up a chair and toss my five dollars into the game. “And you’re in,” one of them said.
I knew this game. The new man always loses. Sure enough, I was next to roll the dice. I needed to get 6-5-4, in order, with three throws of the dice. I didn’t. I bought $5 worth of coffee.
“You just participated in the redistribution of wealth in Harrah,” diner Lon Inaba said with a grin. But those five bucks opened the door to a great hour of learning.
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| Junior Ford |
The fellows opened up a more central chair for me so that I could be better heard and so I could hear better. First, I had a breakfast that included Junior’s country hashbrowns, which I’d never seen or tasted before.
“I boil the potatoes about 15 minutes at night,” Junior said. “Then I cool them overnight in the refrigerator. When I start in the morning, the peels come right off, and then I start shredding.”
Breakfast and culinary lesson commpleted, I went to work. I’d heard of the Friends of Harrah, but I hadn’t paid much attention. When they started to tell me their story, I did. They stopped Harrah from slipping toward extinction.
“For now anyway,” said Inaba, president of the group. “Who knows what the future will bring.”
All of the members there insisted it was Inaba who put this group together and keeps it going.
“He is the cruise director,” Ford said.
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| Paul St. Hilaire |
The story started with the heavy snowfall of 1996. When it started to melt in 1997, it revealed that the town’s cafe, across the street from where Harrah Cafe now stands, was damaged to the point it could no longer be used.
“We had to do something,” said Inaba, who was used to sharing early mornings with like-minded people at that cafe.
Inaba, a 1974 Wapato High graduate, called Gary Morford and Dick Gasseling. They came on board, and the three of them launched a wave of enthusiasm that swept the community and touched people hundreds, even thousands miles away. Pledges came from as far away as California and New Jersey.
“In four hours of phone calls, we had $10,000 in cash and in-kind pledges,” Inaba said.
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| Lon Inaba |
No one in the group knows how large Friends of Harrah is. You’re in if you say you are.
“We have a whole bunch of people,” Inaba said.
Ken Harper, a Yakima attorney organized the Friends of Harrah as a 501(c)3 non-profit. Mike Frasu of Yakima, with vast restaurant experience, advised the group on a voluntary basis. Morford’s Green Acres farming operation, donates the group’s paper work.
Inaba said the group looked into buying and saving the old restaurant. That would have been too costly.
So long-time Mayor Barbara Harrer suggested the group turn their attention to the empty old drug store building, adjacent to and owned by city hall.
The city agreed to allow operation of the cafe under the watch of the Friends. But the Friends would not necessarily operate it.
“We’re here to support the operator,” Inaba said. “That’s why we have breakfast here every morning.”
The current operator is Judy Clayton. She was laid up in the hospital late last week and may be down for another month. That was why the Fords were cooking breakfast on Friday.
“If Junior’s not here making breakfast, we’re in trouble,” Inaba said. “That’s how Friends of Harrah works.”
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| Pastor Gerald Camfield |
Pastor Gerald Camfield is another example of the spirit of Friends. He worked in Harrrah for a while and left. When he heard his former church was about to shut down, he returned.
Pastor Camfield, a 1955 White Swan High School graduate, now has a congregation of about 50, with a Sunday School of more than that. A positive thinker, he said Harrah’s business district will grow again. He noted the community’s population has grown from 300 to 600 in recent years.
“We have a great town and great people,” he said.
Different members of the Friends contributed as they could toward Harrah Cafe. Lyle Taylor built a long hardwood table. Ike Simonian built the remaining tables. Others did sidewalk work, and on and on.
And this was not a one-time effort. The Friends of Harrah continues to show up when there is a community need.
“We don’t want to see the town go away,” Paul St. Hilaire said.
When the commuity goes after government or private grants, it does so under the Friends of Harrah’s 501 (c) 3, Inaba said.
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