Mike Byrne

The 19-year-old drummer from Beaverton band Moses, Smell the Roses has been plucked from obscurity to beat the skins for Smashing Pumpkins by the Great Pumpkin himself, bandleader Billy Corgan. Byrne’s status as a band member isn’t yet official—but he’s reported to have been practicing regularly with the group.

Miriam Sakewitz

Banned from going within 100 yards of a rabbit after police found her living with more than 200 of the fuzzy creatures in 2006, this Washington County woman couldn’t cage her bunny love. Sakewitz landed back in police custody in June after Tigard hotel workers found 14 bunnies hopping around her room.

Gabe Buckmaster

The Jesuit High School soon-to-be senior was one of only 268 students in America (and the only one in Oregon) to score a perfect 36 on the ACT. We call dibs on the kid for our post-dinner Trivial Pursuit match.

Don Elder

The Gresham fisherman, who works as the director of major gifts for the Portland-based nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy, delivered a present of his own this May when he plucked three people out of the snowmelt-swollen waters of the Sandy River using casts from his Spey rod. Now that’s a fish tale!

Gwen Trice

We’re handing the carving knife over to Trice tonight. The documentary filmmaker and great-granddaughter of an Oregon logger hopes to turn two old Forest Service buildings in Wallowa into an interpretive center that will recognize the plight and contributions of African American loggers in Oregon.

Chip Kelly

The University of Oregon‘s head football coach gets the last word on the team’s X’s and O’s and its uniform choice—no small task, considering the five new mix-and-match sets of jerseys and pants designed for the Ducks by Nike. (That’s 80 possible combinations.) Rest easy, Chip, we’ll take care of the evening’s seating chart.