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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW State launches Medford campaign to deter pot use among youth ... Small fire fills second-floor Ramada Inn guest rooms with smoke ... Abdill fined, put on probation for state violations ... State launches Medford campaign to deter pot use among youth ... Small fire fills second-floor Ramada Inn guest rooms with smoke ... Abdill fined, put on probation for state violations ... Family donates arena By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ MailTribune.com By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ Posted Jul. 9, 1998 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 7:35 AM By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ Posted Jul. 9, 1998 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 7:35 AM » Social News Toni Isola-Bayer sits atop a fence around the outdoor horse arena at the Jackson County Expo Park. The arena will be surrounded by a 37,000-square-foot building by early next year. Isola-Bayer's family foundation -- The Red and Eleanor Isola Memorial Fund -- is donating $700,000 to build the new arena. Expo's new equestrian facility will be 2nd-largest in the West CENTRAL POINT -- The story of how a $700,000 world-class arena will come to the Jackson County Expo next year begins with a pioneering man and a lowly pair of nags pulling a garbage truck down the streets of Oakland, Calif., some 70 years ago. But when time came to share a little of her family history Wednesday, John Red Isola's granddaughter found that words don't always come easy. On behalf of our family, we're very proud to give something back to the community that has given us so much happiness, Toni Isola-Bayer said, her voice breaking as she recalled the grandparents who laid the foundations for the $700,000 gift. It's kind of a sad moment. ... I know they would be so proud right now. Jackson County Fair Board president Leigh Johnson said the unprecedented gift announced Wednesday would be an economic boon to the community -- by bringing premier horse events to the Expo Park -- and a great relief to the long-suffering 4-H and FFA kids who have shown their horses under the hot sun at the county fair. Relief is on the way. Footings will be laid in August or September. Construction will begin in January and by March a 37,000 square-foot clear-span metal arena will be completed. It will seat 1,500. The National Reined Cowhorse Association will schedule a new NRCA derby at the arena next year with a purse in excess of $200,000. It will bring more than $2 million into this community in one week, said spokesman Scott Clay. Though the completed arena will be owned by Jackson County, the Isola Foundation's contract with the county assures it the use of the facility for one week each year for just this event. Once completed, the Red and Eleanor Isola Memorial Arena will eclipse the nearest such arena in Fresno, Calif., near the NRCA's headquarters in Corcoran, Clay said. Indeed, it will be the second-biggest in the West, behind Reno's horse arena. The arena is a coup for the new Friends of the Fair Foundation. You never know what's out there in the community until you go out and ask, said Johnson of the Fair Board, broadly hinting that more announcements are coming. We had no idea when we started the Fair Foundation a year ago that it would turn into a million-dollar deal. In the case of the Isolas, the Fair Foundation found a Las Vegas family with a lifelong love of the Rogue Valley. My grandfather, Red Isola, pioneered this valley for our family, Toni Isola said. He had a vision. He knew what was good. Earlier in life that vision had led him to a nothing town now known as Las Vegas. The garbageman from Oakland wound up sitting on the only solid waste disposal business in southern Nevada when the boom times came. Then, like so many other successful people, he retired to the Rogue Valley. He said, `We have a farm. We need a horse,' Isola recalled. We had horses because he had horses in Oakland. Eight-year-old Toni fell deeply in love with horses. Within four years, she was a national champion showing Arabian horses. Four years later, international champion. Last summer, the Isola family sold the solid waste disposal business, creating the Isola Foundation with part of the proceeds. The Isola Memorial Arena will honor the grandparents, Red and Eleanor, who died 12 years ago, but left many happy memories of summers and holidays together in the Rogue Valley. The family still has a summer home in Eagle Point. Gazing out over the Expo's stone-hot outdoor arena where her grandparents often watched her, Toni Isola, now 35 and a mother of two, pondered her return to a cooler, covered arena astride a quarter horse in next year's NRCA derby. You're flying -- and it's like riding a roller coaster -- because the horse will react when the cow turns and a split second is the difference between biting earth or staying in the saddle, she said. Once you have a premier arena, it will spread like wildfire because the horse people will all come. By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ MailTribune.com By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ Posted Jul. 9, 1998 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 7:35 AM » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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