A fitting accolade
Area resident Don Hatt honored as wonderland parade marshal

Thursday, December 4, 2008 10:43 AM PST

Don and Margaret Hatt stand in their front yard near samples of Don’s hobbies. Don Hatt builds bird houses and squirrel feeders and was named the grand marshal of this weekend’s Winter Wonderland Parade.

Larry Meyer
Argus Observer

ONTARIO — Don Hatt, Grand Marshal of the Ontario Winter Wonderland Parade slated Saturday, is a longtime community servant whether it be the many years he spent making sure Ontario’s rural students reached school safely or the many projects he has worked on around town as a member of the Ontario Lions Club.

A Malheur County native, Hatt was a born and raised in the Nyssa-Adrian area, where his family farmed and ranched. He also lived in Jordan Valley after graduating from Adrian High School in 1950. Many people will remember his mother, Mary Hatt, who taught at Adrian and then Nyssa for many years before retiring.

“Her first job was in Cow Valley,” he said.

Hatt joined the Ontario School District in 1966.

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“I had a friend working here, and he said there was a job opening, and I applied and got the job,” Hatt said.

For the first 13 years at Ontario, Hatt said he was a bus driver and worked in maintenance then he became buildings, grounds and transportation supervisor.

His first bus route was out to Star Island, and his last route was out on Morgan Avenue. His biggest headaches were weather and student discipline. During one winter in the early 1990s, Hatt said he and then-superintendent, David Cloud, went out to check the bus routes.

“I went north,” Hatt said.

Coming back to Ontario he was on East Stanton Boulevard, which boasted heavy drifts of snow and was frozen over. Suddenly, Hatt’s vehicle fell through the snow and he was stuck.

Unable to get immediate help, Hatt traveled back to town on foot. Meanwhile, the same thing had happened to the superintendent, who was checking Morgan Avenue.

Hatt said, with both he and Cloud out of the loop, the wives of the two men eventually made the call to close school for the day.

“We had to,” Margaret Hatt said. “We knew something was wrong.”

Don Hatt has been active in the Ontario Lions Club for about 40 years.

 “I have held most of the positions in the club,” he said. He has also been given the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, the highest honor given by the local club, he said.

“At one time or another I’ve participated in every Lions project,” Hatt said.

That includes the very popular Buck-a-roo Supper, which he has helped with ever since it started. He also helped install the electronic reader board at Lions Park. He has also been involved with the Santa float in the parade.

Aside from the club, Hatt keeps busy making bird houses and squirrel feeders, which he has given to different groups and organizations for fundraisers. He also does a lot of gardening.

The Hatts have four children, 11 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.

“That was the biggest shock of my life,” Hatt said.

He never considered he would be honored as grand marshal of the Winter Wonderland Parade, he said. “It is an honor and I appreciate it.”