Volunteer In Your Community

National Volunteer Week has grown exponentially in scope each year since 1974. It draws the support and endorsement of all subsequent U.S. presidents, governors, mayors, and respected elected officials.

National Volunteer Week is all about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities.

Below are a number of ways to volunteers in your community

CORVALLIS:
Volunteer at the Linn Benton Food Share Warehouse on the last Thursday of each month (except Holidays) from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. All are welcome. Bring the whole family. It's a wonderful chance to teach your children how to contribute to the community. The next opportunity to volunteer will be May 27th, 2010. For more information, call Susan James at (541) 758-2645.

NEWPORT:
SOLV Cleanups
YAQUINA RIVER SPRING CLEANUP, Yaquina River – Mouth to Idaho Point, Newport, May 16th, 9 AM – NOON: Thompson's Sanitary in Newport and Georgia Pacific in Toledo are coordinating a clean up of the river bank and roadway along Yaquina Bay Road followed by a barbeque (location of BBQ to be determined). Activities include: Cleanup and lunch. Great prizes will be handed out after the event – there will be a $500 prize for the largest group, a $100 pizza feed for second largest group and many draw prizes for everyone to get a shot at. Info & Registration: Oregon Adopt-A-River or contact Lisa Kellenberger, Lisa@thompsonsanitary.com, 541-265-7249 x1.


BENTON AND LINN COUNTIES:
Visit LBVision See our one-time opportunities page for volunteer opportunities at upcoming community events.

Youth attend 'boot camp'

By Alex Paul, Albany Democrat-Herald Posted: Thursday, April 15, 2010 3:00 pm

Amber Rodriguez, 23, of Lebanon, left, is instructed by volunteer Nathan Allen of Lebanon during an electrical training boot camp Wednesday at the Central Electrical Training Center in Tangent. (David Patton/Democrat-Herald)

One minute Amber Rodriguez was standing on a ladder working on a recessed ceiling light box and the next she was on her knees, stripping electrical wires protruding from a switch box. The 23-year-old high school dropout is one of seven CSC Youth Build Americorps students spending four days at an electrical boot camp held at the Central Electrical Training Center in Tangent. Another class of seven students completed training last week.

“I wasn’t doing anything and at 23 decided I needed to get going,” Rodriguez said of her decision to sign up for Youth Build. “I’m enjoying learning about construction and this boot camp is fun.” Rodriguez said she is considering looking for work in the construction field after completing the nine-month Youth Build program, but is also interested in corrections jobs.

“The boot camp is fun, but it has also been frustrating at times,” Rodriguez said. “I’m starting to get the hang of it.”

Dan Blondell is a veteran electrician who is helping guide the students as they wire a scaled-down version of a home within the training center. He said he is impressed with the students. Youth Build workers put the walls up a couple weeks ago and rooms bear labels such as “bathroom” or “kitchen.”

“They are learning to work on everything from switches to receptacles to lights,” said Blondell, who has been an electrician for more than 32 years. “We hope this gives them some orientation to the electrical trades and perhaps introduce them to what the electrical trades are all about.”

Tony Frazier is a construction trainer and Lasette Doherty is the program coordinator for Youth Build. They were on site Wednesday. Shortly after lunch, students worked hurriedly to complete wiring projects because a Linn County inspector was scheduled to visit at 3 p.m. to look over their work, just like on a real job site.

CSC Youth Build Americorps is based in Lebanon and works with 28 low-income students ages 16 to 24 who have dropped out of high school or are struggling to stay in school, Frazier said. There are about seven students in each class, Frazier said, and they combine classroom work with hands-on activities such as helping with Habitat for Humanity houses in both Lebanon and Sweet Home. In addition to classes and construction training, the students receive a stipend of about $550 per month for their efforts.

John Roosa, 20, dropped out of Lebanon High School as a junior and has been doing odd jobs ever since. He was busy Wednesday setting up an electrical breaker box.
“I want to do something with my hands,” Roosa said. “I’m going to learn to be a wildland firefighter this summer. I think I would like to be an electrician.”

In addition to Rodriguez and Roosa, this week’s class included Mike Martin, Steve Lytle, Brian Christie, Khristian Magelssen and John Pembleton.

Celebrating Allan Z’s 26+ years at CSC

In February, 1983, Allan Zuschlag began his long and illustrious career with CSC, working for the Weatherization Program out of the Newport office. Then, in 1993, he accepted the position of Rehab Construction Inspector for the Housing Rehabilitation Program based in Corvallis.

For the next 16 years, Allan helped many homeowners in Linn, Benton and Lincoln Counties improve their homes and their quality of life. With his unique blend of construction expertise, communication skills, organizational skills, humor and compassion, he shepherded each client through the process of determining the scope of their project, soliciting bids, and successfully navigating the challenges inherent in home renovation projects.

Now, it is time for Allan to retire and kick back at the Lazy Z, as he calls his lovely oasis nestled in the Coast Range near Eddyville. We hate to see him go; and, we want to celebrate him and his service to CSC and the communities of Linn, Benton and Lincoln Counties.

To that end, on Thursday, May 13, 2010, a casual gathering will take place at the Downward Dog Pub & Grub from 4 to 6 p.m. An array of appetizers will be provided, with a no-host bar. We’ll roast him and toast him and wish him well. For more information you may contact Jeni Wells-Whitney at 541-758-2636 or jwwhitney@communityservices.us.

“Scrappers Collective Response to Alleviate Poverty”

When? Saturday April 17th, 2010 — 9:00am to 10:00pm

Where? Linn County Fairgrounds Expo Center in Albany

Why? Scrapping out homelessness! All proceeds will be used to provide permanent, supportive, affordable housing and services to “at-risk” families in the Albany area.

Albany Partnership for Housing’s 1st Annual Fundraising Event with Exhibitors! Prize Drawings! Silent Auction! Wi-Fi!

Lunch & Light Refreshments Provided

$40 entrance fee; space is limited so get your ticket!

For More Questions Call Megan @ 541-926-5451

Curtain Up!

Songs of Inspiration in Hard Times by Corvallis Repertory Singers.

Two performances Friday & Saturday, April 23 & April 24. Both at 7:30 pm at First Congregational UCC at 4515 SW West Hills Road in Corvallis.

Music Director Steven M. Zielke and Associate Director Emily Thielen

Ticket $15, Students FREE with ID if seating available.

Tickets in Corvallis are available at Grass Roots Books & Gracewinds Music and in Timberhill Mall at Beard Framing.

Tickets in Albany at Sid Stevens.

Tickets at the door if seats are available.

A percentage of the proceeds goes to CSC's Linn Benton Food Share.

Linn Benton Food Share Annual Spring Food Drive

This is the week of CSC's Linn Benton Food Share Annual Spring Food Drive in Corvallis. Girl Scouts and other youth groups will distribute bags the week of April 12 – 17th, and collect filled bags on Saturday morning, April 17th.

Monetary donations are also greatly appreciated. Food Share can distribute up to 15 pounds of food for every tax-deductible dollar donated. If your bag was overlooked, please drop off your bag at Keller Williams Realty, 815 NW 9th Street, Suite L, Corvallis.

A CSC AmeriCorps*VISTA Member Assists in Salem Homeless Connect

Sandra and Amy (they were laughing together over what was the Spanish word for newspaper [She didn’t speak English, and Amy was translating for the news photographer]).

Tuesday's Salem Homeless Connect was a great success! This was the 2nd Annual with over 80 Service providers, ranging from information from non-profit agencies throughout the city, to services like haircuts, dental and vision checks, bike repairs, vet checks. There were in-kind donations of clothing, and a full-service café for breakfast and lunch.

As a part of her AmeriCorps service (for National Service Day) CSC's own Amy Crevola spent a very meaningful day giving hand massages.

She set up a station (2 towel-covered chairs) and a basket of lotions (choices: lavender, milk & honey, or unscented for ultra-dry skin) and gave hand massages to over 30 wonderful people who are low-income/experiencing homelessness (she is a Licensed Massage Therapist).

Full coverage of the Connect event is located in the Salem Statesman Journal newspaper.

Way to go Amy!

Success in Summer Youth Programs!

The Department of Labor has released a report that found that the 2009 Recovery Act Summer Youth Employment Initiative was largely successful in connecting young workers with employment experiences. Overall, 317,000 young people took part in the initiative.

"Reinvesting in America's Youth: Lessons from the 2009 Recovery Act Summer Youth Employment Initiative" was developed by Mathematica Policy Research and funded by the Department of Labor. It analyzes monthly performance data submitted to ETA by states and looks closely at the experiences of 20 select local areas. Among the report's findings:

• Youths were placed in summer jobs, with almost 13 percent of enrollees placed in work experiences outside summer months. Sixty-three percent of participants were in school, largely ages 18 or younger.
• Nationwide, local areas reported that nearly 75 percent of youths achieved a measurable increase in their work readiness skills while participating.
• Available data show a completion rate for summer work of greater than 82 percent.
• Employers interviewed for this study were overwhelmingly positive about the initiative. They reported that the experience of mentoring a new employee was worth the effort and almost unanimously agreed that they would participate again if given the opportunity.

Many youths were enthusiastic about being able to help their families in tough economic times. They also reported that, in the absence of their summer jobs, they would be competing with more experienced adult workers for jobs or doing nothing productive over their summer breaks.

Training and Employment Notice 33-09 provides additional information on the release and contents of the report.

For information on CSC's Summer Youth programs, please check the blog archives and our website.

Socks Collected for the Homeless

When the young men and women at CSC YouthBuild AmeriCorps asked the homeless in Lebanon what they needed, the reply was socks.

“We thought they would need a lot of food or something to help take care of their dogs,” Kristin Duncan said. However the young adults found that homeless individuals near Gill’s Landing had plenty of donated clothing and food. When people donate clothing to the less fortunate, socks are often overlooked.

“They said the feeling they get from putting on a new pair of socks is like the feeling you get at Christmas, like the new car smell,” Jon Roosa said. “It makes you feel warm and comfortable.” The homeless go through a lot of socks because they walk a lot, Roosa said. “And they have no place to wash their socks,” Duncan added.

The YouthBuild sock drive started on Feb. 12 and will continue through March 11. So far it hasn’t been going very well, Brian Christie said. But the group is not discouraged as it tries to get the word out and more drop boxes set up. The sock drive is a service learning project with a focus on homelessness, AmeriCorps member Katie Stubblefield said.

The group did its research, interviewing homeless under the Grant Street Bridge in Lebanon and the director of ChristWalk transitional homes. The group also read several articles.

Some socks will go to ChristWalk to be distributed through their homes. Other socks will go straight to the homeless who live under the Bridge. Christie said the group is taking any kind of new socks in adult sizes. However, he said all donations are welcome. Any children’s sized socks will be donated to the River Center.

Other students taking part in the project are Amber Rodriguez, Colton Ringheimer and Steven Lytle. YouthBuild is for youth ages 16 to 24.

This story was written by Lebanon-Express reporter Emily Mentzer and appeared in the March 3, 2010, edition.

Youth House Garden Grows Life Skills

Thomas Eveler, 20, opens a cold frame at the Corvallis Service Consortium Youth House Gardens where onions have started, while Brian Smith collects materials to work on the drip irrigation system.. (Scobel Wiggins/ Gazette-Times)

Last year, a garden took shape at the corner of Southwest Western Boulevard and Second Street, thanks to the work of young volunteers.

This spring, as tulips and daffodils brought the first color to the garden, more volunteers worked to improve the site with two major projects: the installation of a drip irrigation system and a “living wall” or vertical garden.

For the past couple of weeks, six members of the Community Services Consortium’s youth crew have been working on the two projects for the garden at the organization’s Youth House, a licensed alternative school.

One project, the vertical garden, is a chunk of garden soil over a rebar frame, covered with landscaping fabric and chicken wire. It doesn’t look like much now, but once it’s planted with tomatoes, peppers, peas and other vegetables, it will.

“By mid-summer, this thing will just be a massive plant,” said crew leader Brian Smith. The goal is to show what a little square footage, well-prepared soil and a simple support system can do. “That thing’s pretty cool,” said crew member Thomas Eveler, 20. “You can put a lot of plants in a small space.”

The drip-irrigation system will substantially cut down on water use for the raised beds and small green houses on the site, which are tended by youth garden volunteers. The goal of the youth crew is to build skills and give youth workforce development. Crew members said that goal already has been accomplished. They learned that a project like this requires a lot of planning and attention to detail — and that unanticipated challenges will crop up anyway.

“We had to run to Home Depot every day because there was a piece missing,” said Justin Schamp, 21, with a smile. Paul Christensen, 22, said he now feels he could install a similar system on his own. “Our crew leader taught us well,” he said. Karenna Rodriguez, 18, said learning skills was one of her favorite parts of being on the crew.

“Just a lot of new experiences,” she said. “I’ve never done piping before.”
Miranda Hedlund, 18, is planning to work on an organic farm in Texas this summer, where she will be installing a drip irrigation system. “So I’m definitely excited that we got to do this,” she said.

Miranda Headland and Karenna Rodriguez, both 18, glue pipe that will bring water to the raised bed. Behind them is the structure for a vertical garden waiting to be planted. (Scobel Wiggins/ Gazette-Times)

Produce and flowers grown in the garden were sold at the Corvallis Farmers Market last summer. Food from the gardens also is used for cooking and nutritional classes at the Youth House or donated to Gleaners.

“The project is really interesting because it comes from a lot of different funding sources,” said Rachel Karasick, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer who works as the youth garden program developer.

Dave Eckert, team coordinator for the Water Action Team of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition, said the group was deciding what projects to work on last year, and the Youth House Garden was one of the finalists. The group ended up not choosing the garden, but felt they wanted to do something for the site. The only “issue” to be addressed was irrigation, Eckert said. Team members helped raise funds for the irrigation project, and also connected the Youth House with Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, which ended up funding a large part.

Next up for the garden is a volunteer day in April to build more raised beds and the addition of an 8 by 15 foot greenhouse. “Things are always happening,” Karasick said.

This story was written by Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter Rachel Beck and was posted in the Monday, March 29th edition.

Bounty of Beans

Wehrli adds green beans to the mix of pork, green pepper, onion and carrots.

An abundance of the long, green vegetables has prompted the Linn Benton Food Share to compile volunteers’ favorite recipes.
The Linn Benton Food Share knows vegetables, but right now they know green beans especially well. The food share gets tons of frozen vegetables from Norpac, a packing facility in Salem. Lately, it has been receiving a lot of green beans.
The frozen beans come in boxes of about 1,000 pounds. Then volunteers repackage them into bags that are family size.

“We have no choice over what gets donated,” said Mike Gibson, director of Linn Benton Food Share. “Often we got a lot of green beans.”
According to Gibson, the food share gave out 42,188 boxes of food to roughly 50,000 people last year. That is not including the homeless shelters and soup kitchens at which they provided 261,847 meals. All together, the food share gave out roughly 5 million pounds of food.
“Our numbers are at record highs,” Gibson said. “It has been a tough couple of years.”

Currently, the food share has 4,800 volunteers that are members of 14 gleaning groups. It also has five full-time employees and three part-time employees.
Because of the high numbers of green beans, Susan James, the gleaning and volunteer program coordinator, thought it would be a good idea to put together a pamphlet of recipes from the volunteers at the Linn Benton Food Share.

Two of those volunteers are Jeff Wehrli and Carol Cannell.
Wehrli is at the food share almost every Tuesday and every other Wednesday. Along with helping package what comes in, he helps direct parking.
He said that he and his wife, Lisa, have to cook around their 16-year-old daughter Kayla’s tastes.

“She is kind of a picky eater,” Wehrli said. “But she loves green beans.”
He makes a sweet and sour dish, and “I just add in what I have,” he said.
In the recipe he shared for sweet and sour pork, he cooked the pork in chicken broth and then added green bell peppers, carrots, onions and green beans.
“The kid doesn’t like pineapple,” he said. “So we add green beans.”
Cannell has been volunteering at the food share for two months. During the summer she also gleans in the fields.

For her, green beans were something she always had in the house.
“I used to grind up green beans in a food processor and add them to meat,” she said. She would then make hamburgers out of the mixture so her children and grandchildren would eat vegetables.
“It was sneaky, but they got the nutrition they needed,” she said.
Now she gets most of her green bean recipe ideas from vegetarian cookbooks.
“I probably eat green beans four or five times a week,” she said.

Sweet and Sour Pork
Ingredients:
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 pound pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 red or green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into thin wedges
2 or 3 carrots, sliced on the diagonal into 1/4-inch slices
A handful of frozen green beans
Sweet and sour sauce, add to taste
Directions:
Heat the chicken broth over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook thoroughly.
Drop in chopped bell pepper, onion and carrots. Cook until vegetables start to soften.
Add in frozen green beans and cook until green beans are warm all the way through.
Add sweet and sour sauce (Wehrli suggests that if you don’t have any sweet and sour sauce, you can use soy sauce).
Place over rice, noodles or rice noodles.
Recipe by Jeff Werli

Recipe pamphlet
To get a copy of “Green Bean Recipes” by the Linn Benton Food Share gleaning program, go to www.communityservices.us/foodshare.htm

Prom Dresses

Prom dresses and shoes and accessories are available at no cost to students living in Benton County.

On Saturday, April 10 starting at 9:00 a.m., the Vina Moses Center will be open for girls to try on and select dresses, shoes and accessories.

Contact the Vina Moses Center (phone 541-753-1420) to reserve a time for your visit. Bring your student body card.

Vina Moses Center is located at 968 NW Garfield, Corvallis.