From May 2024
Born and raised Hood River, local Christie Bradley enjoys gray diggers, animal rescue, pickleball, hiking, biking, and engaging in community alliances through Master Gardeners. She lived several places in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon, but was able to move back to Hood River when her husband got a job at Google in The Dalles.
In 2008, Christie was looking for an organization to join. A notice that Master Gardener classes were opening up in 2009 caught her eye. She signed up for the next session and soon discovered she knew other Master Gardeners and found Master Gardeners interesting. At that time Anne Saxby was secretary, and she was looking to resign the position. Christie volunteered to take over for Anne and has been a member of the Central Gorge Master Gardener Board as secretary ever since.
Being part of the community comes easy for Christie. Her family owned and operated the now closed Radio Shack. Mom was employed at Hood River County District Court, while Grandpa was a farmer, millwright, and worked in logging camps. As a kid, Christie was around gardens that her Mom, Grandpa, and neighbors had in their yards. Not much for weeding, her biggest contribution was eating the fresh vegetables that were harvested and prepared by her mom, Frances. Still not excited about weeding, Christie does have a small raised bed garden in the shape of a “U” to facilitate her casual gardening style. As the years have taken their toll on the raised beds, a homeless gray digger family has taken up residence in her raised bed “condo.” The daily routine is to knock on the backdoor to warn the tenants at the “Gray Digger Condo” that the dog is coming out in the backyard. Chuckling, Christie tells how cute it is to watch little gray digger heads pop out in between the vegetables to see the source of the noise. Once the hunting dog, rushes the backyard, she circles the “condo” looking for a reaction from the gray diggers, who quietly ignore her or tease her by scurrying though the backyard. It is “funny to watch them” all do their own thing, even if it means more holes in the dirt and in the sides of the raised beds. One day Christie plans is to rebuild the raised beds, but since she and her dog enjoy the daily interaction and antics with the “tenants,” that plan has been put on hold and no legal action to evict the family is in the near future.
As a retired software engineer and Project Management Professional, Christie has a lot of experience working on projects at Intel. Her primary job before retirement was a team leader developing an internal ordering tool for pre-production hardware. Most of her focus was on “back end” (database development) and this is the technical area she enjoys most. Christie got her career inspiration from Gracie Hopper, an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. Gracie was celebrated as woman with a high-ranking position in a man’s field. Simplifying computer programming, Gracie invented the software term “bug”.
Volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in the awesome area of Moab, Utah, is a favorite activity of Christie’s. With a goal of NO KILL in 2025, low costs of spay and neuter clinics, offering a place for homeless and special needs animals, and adoption services with satellite sites in the other cities, Christie sees value in volunteering at this organization. “Gray Digger” dog, Etouffée, was adopted from Best Friends Sanctuary. Christie’s husband, Seth, is vice president of the board for the new incantation of Home at Last in The Dalles, Columbia Gorge Humane Society. They regularly foster dogs from there and from Hood River Adopt A Dog. They currently have 3 dogs, one foster dog, and two cats, all rescues, along with some fish and chickens.
Local volunteer time is also spent with Gorge Pickleball Association (GPA), FISH and the Rockford Grange. It is common to see Christie on the pickleball court 4-5 times a week. True to Christie’s skills and willingness to volunteer, she is on the GPA board and handles support and maintenance for the third-party software package GPA uses to host events, and she facilitates a weekly “skills and drills” class. Since Master Gardeners have a garden at FISH, that is a natural volunteer combination. She enjoys harvesting the produce and doing some packaging and distribution at the FISH. Christie is pleased to see the expanded community access at the garden. She believes it is important to have community projects that focus on assisting folks become more self-reliant and also being part of something bigger than herself. Christie prefers working behinds the scenes on Master Gardener projects.
She is a self-admitted introvert. (She does note she can get “mouthy” once she gets to know you). She likes tech focus projects and figuring out solutions. A few MG projects she has set up and refined are: Google Work Space, on-line Plant Clinic database, e-commerce for Plant Sale on Shopify, credit card access and Plant Sale label system. Each of these takes a time commitment and Christie enjoys the opportunity to streamline another community connection.
A special thanks to Christie for sharing her expertise and stepping up when needed. She has generously offered to train anyone interested in Shopify or printing Plant Sales labels. Feel free to reach out to her.
Asked to give words of advice to new Master Gardeners, she remembers her first year and the stress when she saw the 5/6 page exam. Of course, she spent hours researching answers and was relieved to find out it was a group exam and not graded. Also, the thought of plant clinic can seem scary. The reality is that Megan and other MG are there to walk you through the process with lots of documentation, encouragement and shortcuts. Bottom line, the CGMGA is there to help you succeed.
Also, she advises first year Master Gardeners to not become overwhelmed by the required hours of education and volunteer work. The secret is to find your passion and it is much easier to get your hours. Find where fit you fit in and get involved. Keep coming back and before you know it, the year is over.
Not surprisingly, Christie has received Master Gardener of the Year and a Behind the Scenes award in the past. In the next 5 years, she plans to keep doing what she is doing, adapting to changes as they arise and seeing more people get involved in Central Gorge Master Gardeners while enhancing community alliances.
Donna Des Rochers
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