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FEATURE ARTICLES | |
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To fully serve the community, the Mid-county MEMO offers this section to showcase upcoming special events, celebrations of milestones in our readers’ lives, those seemingly small accomplishments that often do not receive the recognition they deserve, and everyday events that should be shared with friends and neighbors.
To ensure publication in the MEMO Pad, please send submissions for each month by the 15th of the previous month. MEMO Pad submissions for the September issue are due by Friday, Aug. 13. For best results, e-mail Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Or mail editorial submissions to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave, Portland, OR 97230. To leave a phone message, call 503-287-8904. The fax number is 503-249-7672.
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| Congressman Earl Blumenauer (right) presents David Douglas High School junior, Ron Linn, with the Annual Congressional Art Competition award. Linn’s work, “The Green Bowl,” will be on display in the U.S. Capitol for a year. |
| SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Congressman Earl Blumenauer announced that Ron Linn, a junior at David Douglas High School, is the winner of the Annual Congressional Art Competition for the Third Congressional District of Oregon. Linn’s artwork will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol along with work from other winners from around the country.
Blumenauer selected Linn’s artwork from a collection of art submitted by students from all over his Congressional District. Linn’s piece, titled, “The Green Bowl,” is a luminescent pastel still life of a bowl of pears.
Linn, the son of Ron and Dawnelle Linn, is a student of Deena Boehme, an art teacher who has taught two other past Congressional Art Competition winners. He plays clarinet in the David Douglas High School band and runs for the cross country and track teams.
“The competition is a unique and exciting opportunity for young artists to gain experience showing their work,” Blumenauer said. “I’m proud to have Ron’s artwork representing the talents of Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. Capitol.”
The Congressional Art Competition was first launched in 1982. Since then, about 5,000 contests have been conducted around the country, involving more than 650,000 high school students. Each member of Congress sponsors a local art competition in his or her Congressional District and selects one winning entry. The winning piece of art from each district is displayed in the Cannon Tunnel for one year as part of a national exhibition; the Cannon Tunnel is a pedestrian walkway leading to the U.S. Capitol.
Resident wins bingo game
Marietta J, a resident at Cherry Blossom Cottage, learned recently that she had won $500 playing a local promotional bingo game. Marietta was surprised to win over 5,000 other participants. “I can’t believe it,” she said, “I’ve never won anything before in my life.”
Residents at Cherry Blossom Cottage enjoy a variety of games and other activities, which include musical programs, group exercises, day trips and religious services.
Sylvia Griffin founded Cherry Blossom Cottage, located at 11177 S.E. Cherry Blossom Dr., in 1989 on the principle of providing a high level of genuine caring personal service to each of the residents. It is the family’s goal to maintain the beauty and comfort of all residents in a place they are happy to call home. For more information please call 503-256-9777.
Latina camp a success
Eighteen Latina teens recently spent two weeks together at Parkrose High School at a camp funded by a $2,300 Portland Parks Foundation grant. At the beginning of the two weeks they weren’t sure what they had in common; by the end of the camp, all eighteen girls knew they had made friends for life. The teens come from low-income families and many immigrated from Mexico, Peru and Cuba. Campers gathered each morning for group activities, field trips and guest speakers who cover everything from job skills to dating violence and sexual assault. The girls taught each other to dance to Spanish pop music, gave each other makeovers and engaged in plenty of girl talk. The girls say that camp gives them a comfortable space to be themselves and to make meaningful friendships. Camp teaches them things they may learn from a book at school, they say, but learning at camp is more fun. The girls also wrote a bilingual play about the discrimination immigrants face in the United States. They hiked in the woods, a first for most of them, and ate blackberries and huckleberries along the way.
Dunetchka Otero-Serrano, Portland Parks and Recreation’s Latino Outreach Coordinator and Trevor Todd, Portland Parks’ Parkrose Sun/Community School Coordinator organized the Latina Camp. Both were thrilled with the positive outcome and plan to hold a similar camp for boys that will focus on mural painting. Everyone involved with organizing the camp agreed it was a huge success and depending on funding, the hope is to continue the Latina dialogue in the future.
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| Wade Danielson, 13, son of Jeff and Debbie Tompkins of Parkrose, spent part of his summer in Washington, D.C. immersed in American history. |
| SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Wade Danielson, 13-year-old son of Jeff and Debbie Tompkins of Parkrose, participated in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference, or JrNYLC, in June in Washington, D.C. The conference is a leadership development program for middle school students.
Danielson just completed the seventh grade at the Madeleine School in Northeast Portland with a GPA of 3.88. Based on academics and his leadership potential, his mathematics and science teacher Merrit Holub nominated this avid soccer player for the conference.
The theme of JrNYLC is “The Legacy of American Leadership,” and its curriculum leads students through the evolution of the United States, from the days of the original 13 colonies through the signing of the Declaration of Independence, from the Civil War through the civil rights movement, and from the Boston Tea Party through the present.
“One of the key elements of the Junior National Young Leaders Conference is to allow students like Danielson the opportunity to place their feet in the same footsteps of our country’s forefathers,” said Mike Lasday, executive director of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, the organization that sponsors the conference. “By actually walking the Halls of Congress, this program provides faces and places to historic events, thereby eliminating much of the abstract nature of studying history solely through books.”
Danielson participated in a reception on Capitol Hill, where students met with a variety of representatives from congressional offices. In addition to engagements on Capitol Hill, Danielson visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, the Smithsonian Institution’s American History Museum and participated in a sleep over at the Maryland Science Center.
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