2025 Annual Heroes of Curry County Awards Banquet
Our second annual Heroes of Curry County’s Children will continue honoring the outstanding regional leaders with the Jeri Honeycutt-Tuttle Legacy and Leadership Award and the Barbara Eells Advocacy Award. The event will be held at Docia Sweet Hall at Curry County Fairgrounds on November 8th, 2025. More information is coming soon.
Jeri Honeycutt-Tuttle was a wife, mother, grandmother, educator, and administrator who dedicated much of her life to nurturing young minds across California and Southwest Oregon. Her passion to help others, along with being an avid lifelong learner, encouraged her to continue her philanthropic leadership after retirement from K-12 education. She and her husband, Joe Allemand, had raised a large family together and then moved to Gold Beach. She became well-known to many in the Gold Beach Community and flourished. At the age of 51, she became a widow after 29 years of marriage.
As she served the Curry County community, sparks flew between Wally Honeycutt and Jeri. This began what her children call her “Honeycutt era”. She served in leadership roles with Curry County Emergency Management, Soroptimists International, Curry Health Foundation, and, of course, Wally’s House – Curry’s Child Abuse Intervention Center, which she was instrumental in creating in 2016. This active and accomplished era allowed Jeri to embrace her philanthropic efforts. After 17 years of marriage with Wally and just turning 72, Jeri was once again a widow.
In 2019, Jeri found love again with Tim Tuttle, which was a once-in-a-lifetime blessing. Together, they had a robust bucket list and attacked it with enthusiasm, which included creating the Southwest Oregon Children’s Foundation. Jeri passed away in February 2024, leaving all of us entirely too soon! Their devoted partnership has resulted in an incredible legacy that will last many lifetimes.
The story of Jeri’s influence on the creation and building of Wally’s House starts with her meeting & mentoring Jackie Antunes in the Soroptimist International of Gold Beach organization. Jeri took an interest in the work Jackie was doing as a director and forensic interviewer for Curry County’s child advocacy program. All of the program services were spread around the county, and the child forensic interviews were being conducted in the basement of the courthouse. Jeri’s statement to Jackie was, “I have seen child advocacy centers in other places, and that is not a child advocacy center.”
This statement was prompted by Jeri’s knowledge that a child advocacy center needs to be child-friendly, non-intimidating and trauma-informed. Nothing about services in the courthouse basement were any of those things.
When Jeri lost Wally in August of 2014, she set out to do something for the community to honor him. She considered purchasing a property and doing a couple of different things. One of which was creating a child advocacy center for Curry County. When Jeri discussed her thoughts with Jackie about what she might do, they happened upon the name: Wally’s House for Curry County’s Child Advocacy Center. This sparked Jeri’s initiative and she began her mission of seeing to the creation of Wally’s House! Jeri purchased the building in December 2014, began renovations March 2015, and by October of 2015, the building was ready for occupancy.
The one caveat to the whole thing: Jeri was insistent that Jackie create a nonprofit that the property could eventually be donated to, telling Jackie, “You need to create a nonprofit, and once it shows it is sustainable, I will donate the building to the non-profit.”
Jeri kept her word! In a board meeting in July 2020, Jeri announced that she had Quitclaim deeded the title of the property to the non-profit Curry Child Abuse Intervention Center DBA Wally’s House. When she presented the title of the building to Jackie in early August, she said, “If you ever need anything, let me know.” Always caring, always nurturing.
Over the years, Wally’s House has needed to refer children who have experienced trauma and have been clients at the center for specialized mental health assessments and specialized therapy. In a small, rural county that is difficult to make happen (in cities as well).
Wally’s House needed a mental health provider to address those needs, and we needed them to be in-house or close by. The current center did not have the room to add therapy in the existing space, so it called for the expansion to another building. Thus, starting what Wally’s House deemed their “Capital Campaign” and efforts to raise the funds for expansion.
Barbara Eells began her career working with children in 1986 through the State of Oregon with Child Protective Services and served in Curry County. She understood the importance of working with a team and that without a team, a mission could not be accomplished. In the mid-1990s, Barbara Eells along with other community partners pushed for Curry County to form a Multidisciplinary Team together to serve Curry’s child cases where child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment had been suspected. She also assisted in co-founding the Oasis Shelter Home, and led adolescence groups for sexually abused children. Through her own interest in continuing her education and understanding of advocacy, Barbara had come across the terminology of a “child advocacy center”. Intrigued by the concept and hopeful that she could provide a much needed service for the county, Barbara left her job with the State and founded Curry’s Child Advocacy Center in 2001.
At that time, the center was located in a single room in the basement of the Curry County Courthouse. During this time, Forensic Interviews and other pieces of advocacy were services available in this singular space for several years before expanding into two more rooms. Medical Exams during this early advocacy era were conducted in a space at Curry General Hospital’s old location.
During this time, Barbara Eells was the one and only qualified Forensic Interviewer serving Curry County for a prolonged period of time before other professionals began seeking the qualifications. Barbara also continued her learning through visits and training at other advocacy centers across the country, and was also invited to be a keynote speaker at several events during her career.
While Barbara understood that the basement of the courthouse was neither the most child-friendly place nor the ideal location for an advocacy center, she firmly believed that a team-effort would one day expand the services beyond the doors of the Courthouse.
After retirement, Barbara continued dedicating her life to service and volunteerism through assisting with county cases. She also provided testimony for laws and regulations within the State of Oregon to protect Child Advocacy Center workers so that they may carry out their important work.
Barbara states that “the team approach is the only way to get things done” and highlights that without her community partners and teammates throughout the years, many of her accomplishments would not have been possible. She also emphasizes that the best way to honor her and the legacy she is leaving for the next generation is to continue on with “advocacy and make it happen”.
2024 Inaugural Heroes of Curry County Awards Banquet
A Note From The Executive Director
A heartfelt thank you to those who attend the annual Heroes of Curry County’s Children Banquet. Your attendance warms my heart!
It is my desire to show recognition & appreciation for two very important women. Jeri Honeycutt-Tuttle and Barbara Eells. Both have been mothers, grandmothers, wives, friends, and professionals. Both women have lived lives of service and advocacy. And both have blazed paths that will carry forward in the work of intervening in the lives of children, women, and families to ensure healing and lives of joy going forward.
Long after those of us in the room move out of the workforce or onto other roles in the work world, it is my hope that the impact each of these women have made will continue to ripple on through our community and the world.
I thank you for your contribution to the field of child abuse intervention, prevention, and advocacy, and look forward to seeing who we honor each year with our Jeri Honeycutt-Tuttle Leadership Legacy Award and the Barbara Eells Advocacy Award.
Cheers,
Jackie Antunes