Each day members of our community quietly celebrate milestones, achievements and accomplishments—big and small. This department highlights these triumphs for the community.

If you’re sending a submission, include all details that apply: individuals’ names, details of the milestone and a contact name and phone number. If you have photos, send them. The submission deadline for December is Sunday, Nov. 15. For best results, email editor@midcountymemo.com or mail submissions to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230. Call 503-287-8904.

 

German sausage dinner marks 70 years

The homemade desserts are always a crowd pleaser at Rivercrest Community Church’s annual Authentic German Sausage Dinner. STAFF/2015

The homemade desserts are always a crowd pleaser at Rivercrest Community Church’s annual Authentic German Sausage Dinner.
STAFF/2015

This year, the annual Authentic German Sausage Dinner attracted neighbors Candy Russell and Sandi Zeller, left, and Cathi and Dennis Walcott. STAFF/2015

This year, the annual Authentic German Sausage Dinner attracted neighbors Candy Russell and Sandi Zeller, left, and Cathi and Dennis Walcott.
STAFF/2015

Last month, Rivercrest Community Church held its Authentic German Sausage Dinner, serving about 200 people at the 70th annual event, according to church Office Manager and Bookkeeper Shari Austero.

Started in 1945 by members of Zion Congregational Church—renamed Rivercrest Community Church when the congregation relocated to its Northeast 148th Avenue location in the early 1960s—the traditional dinner attracted not only churchgoers and neighbors but also people of German ancestry from other neighborhoods in and around Portland. At the height of the dinner’s popularity in the ’60s, other venues around Portland were used to accommodate and serve more than 1,200 people.

Traditionally held in late September or early October, the dinner is the church’s largest annual fundraiser. The dinner’s goal has remained the same for 70 years, and so has the menu: German sausage, fried potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, and homemade bread. Congregation members prepare the desserts.

Rivercrest Community Church, 3201 N.E. 148th Ave. in the Argay Terrace neighborhood, is a nondenominational Christian church. For more information about the church and its ministries, visit rivercrestcc.org.

 

PEF grants funds to Outdoor School

Parkrose Middle School Principal Annette Sweeney, left, and sixth grade students Jacob Dyer, Chad Saechao and Jada Terry accept a $5,000 check from Londa Sundin, Parkrose Educational foundation chair, and Vern Sundin, PEF treasurer, to help send PMS students to Outdoor School. COURTESY PARKROSE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION

Parkrose Middle School Principal Annette Sweeney, left, and sixth grade students Jacob Dyer, Chad Saechao and Jada Terry accept a $5,000 check from Londa Sundin, Parkrose Educational foundation chair, and Vern Sundin, PEF treasurer, to help send PMS students to Outdoor School.
COURTESY PARKROSE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION

The Parkrose Educational Foundation is proud of its ongoing support of Parkose Outdoor School. Annual support from the foundation is instrumental is sending Parkrose Middle School sixth graders to this unique outdoor program that provides hands on instruction in the natural sciences. A $5,000 grant was awarded to Parkrose Outdoor School last month.

Each spring the foundation holds a fundraising dinner and auction to continue its mission to enhance the educational experiences of all students enrolled in Parkrose School District school with grants like this one. This much-anticipated event is slated for Satruday, April 16, 2016. Mark your calendar now and plan to buy your tickets when they go on sale next spring.

 

Meal brings grievieng families together

Sunday, Oct. 17, Parents of Murdered Children, family members and friends came together at a Chinese dinner buffet organized by group members Robert Pfeifer and Kent Hong, chef for the event.

Brought together by unthinkable circumstances, Robert Pfeifer (left), Mary Elledge and Kent Hong organized a Chinese dinner buffet fundraiser last month to help erect an addition to the memorial wall that honors their children lost to homicidal violence. STAFF/2015

Brought together by unthinkable circumstances, Robert Pfeifer (left), Mary Elledge and Kent Hong organized a Chinese dinner buffet fundraiser last month to help erect an addition to the memorial wall that honors their children lost to homicidal violence.
STAFF/2015

Pfeifer (Parkrose High-1968)  lost his son, Robert (Robby) Carl Pfeifer (PHS-1996), to homicidal violence in 2006. Robby Pfeifer’s name appears on a memorial wall at Mountain View Cemetery in Oregon City, along with the names of 500 other murder victims.

The dinner, silent auction and raffle event was a fundraiser to help the group add to the memorial wall at Mountain View Cemetery. There is no more space on the original wall, and sadly, there is a new list of lost loved ones that will be engraved on the wall extension when it is installed.

Mary Elledge, POMC Portland chapter leader, said that losing a loved one through violence is not the same as losing someone to natural death. The scene plays over and over again in the minds of survivors, and many suffer from PTSD. Elledge’s son Rob was killed in 1986 by someone thought to be a family friend.

To learn more about this support group for anyone impacted by homicidal violence, visit www.pomc.com/portland/index.htm. If you need to talk to someone, Mary Elledge is available at 503-656-8039.

POMC is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Your tax-deductible donations to help build an addition to the memorial wall should be mailed to POMC, 14427 S. Forsythe Rd., Oregon City, OR 97045. They will be gratefully accepted.

 

STEM programs coming to H. B. Lee

The PGE Foundation—Portland General Electric’s corporate foundation—awarded Reynolds Education Foundation $25,000 for Project Lead the Way, which provides professional development for teachers and brings engaging STEM programs to middle school students in the Reynolds School District.

“H.B. Lee Middle School is excited to bring Project Lead the Way learning experiences to our students. This project will build pathways toward highly skilled, high-wage jobs for non-traditional STEM students,” said Chris Greenhalgh, director of secondary education at Reynolds School District. “We are grateful to the PGE Foundation for helping bring this opportunity to the students at H.B. Lee.”

 

Fischer Gray tapped by governor

Last summer Oregon House Bill 2016, which directs the Department of Education to develop and implement a statewide education plan for early childhood through post-secondary education students who are black, African American or not covered by existing statewide education plan and have experienced disproportionate educational results, became law.

In September, Governor Kate Brown appointed Parkrose School District Superintendent Karen Fischer Gray to serve on the African American/Black Student Success Plan Advisory Group. The advisory group will provide the Oregon Department of Education and other education partners with specific strategies for developing and implementing the work of HB 2016. The advisory group is tasked with examining academic and culturally appropriate best practices in this state and across the nation.

The plan will provide strategies to support academic success for African American and black students by addressing the disproportionate rate of disciplinary incidents, increasing parental engagement, and increasing the engagement of students in educational activities before and after regular school hours. In addition, strategies for increasing early childhood and kindergarten readiness, improving reading and math levels between kindergarten and grade three and supporting student transitions to middle school and through the middle and high school to maintain and improve academic performance.

The plan will also support the development of culturally responsive curricula from early childhood through post-secondary education, increase attendance of plan students in community colleges and professional certification programs and increase attendance of plan students in four-year post-secondary institutions of education.