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

Columbia Christian School students cheerfully pack boxes with personal care items, school supplies, toys, crafts and activities. These care packages will be donated to Samaritan’s Purse, a charity that will distribute the boxes to children ages 2 to 14 this holiday season. COURTESY CCS

Columbia Christian School students cheerfully pack boxes with personal care items, school supplies, toys, crafts and activities. These care packages will be donated to Samaritan’s Purse, a charity that will distribute the boxes to children ages 2 to 14 this holiday season.
COURTESY CCS

Elementary students send gifts to needy
Elementary students at Columbia Christian School gathered gift items and packed shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, a Samaritan’s Purse project. The students set a goal of 30 boxes but were able to gather enough gifts to provide boxes—and smiles—to 45 kids. The boxes were packed with personal care items, school supplies, toys, crafts and activities for kids from ages 2 to 14. 

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization that distributes these gift boxes to more than 100 countries worldwide. 

PCS senior Simone Gordon will attend Concordia University on scholarship. Among her 2018 volleyball honors are Oregon 2A player of the year and Northwest League player of the year. COURTESY BETH MUMFORD

PCS senior Simone Gordon will attend Concordia University on scholarship. Among her 2018 volleyball honors are Oregon 2A player of the year and Northwest League player of the year.
COURTESY BETH MUMFORD

Volleyball player receives scholarship
Portland Christian Schools (PCS) senior Simone Gordon signs to play Division II volleyball for Concordia University in Northeast Portland.

Gordon’s long-term commitment to the sport—she has played volleyball with PCS since the third grade—has certainly paid off. In her early years, she learned the fundamentals of the game: passing, setting and serving. By the time she reached the varsity level, she found that “knowing the fundamentals has been ingrained in my brain. It’s helped during the season when things have gotten challenging. I could recalibrate my mind with the fundamentals.” 

Gordon, who plays middle blocker, helped lead the Lady Royals to the state title this year, and she was named 2A Oregon player of the year. Additionally, she earned first team all-league and first team all-state at the OSAA tournament; Moda Health Award Recipient; and Northwest League player of the year. She was also listed as one of Oregon’s best middle blockers by the Oregonian and was named athlete of the week by the Portland Tribune in October.

Gordon lists her three passions as volleyball, theater and music, and the three interact. Music helps her on an off day, both on the court and on the stage. “I can put on my headphones and I’m set to go for the day,” she says. She also acknowledges the support her teachers have given her during the volleyball season. Gordon shares that during her junior and senior years, teachers would tell her it was important to do her homework and pay attention to her grades if she wanted to play volleyball in college. She followed their advice, focused on her homework, maintained her grades and found her teachers were right. Last month, thanks to a combination of athletic talent and academic success, she signed with Concordia University on a full volleyball scholarship.

PCS varsity volleyball coach Kristina Gore has coached Gordon. 

Flory Wold started Funky Flowers by Flory to sell handcrafted flower accessories from fabrics and buttons collected by her mother. STAFF/2018

Flory Wold started Funky Flowers by Flory to sell handcrafted flower accessories from fabrics and buttons collected by her mother.
STAFF/2018

Crafter honors mom with fabric flowers
When Florence (Flory) Wold’s mother died 10 years ago of Paget’s disease, a rare form of breast cancer, Flory chose to save a large trove of fabric scraps and buttons her mom had collected as a seamstress. Wold didn’t know then what she would do with the collection, but she knew she wanted to use them to honor her mom. 

A few years passed, and Flory found herself at an Asian culture week event at Gregory Heights Library on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. There she participated in a workshop that demonstrated the art of making eight-petal fabric flowers. That was her eureka moment: she knew what to do with her mom’s fabrics and buttons. Funky Flowers by Flory was born. 

Seven years ago she convinced a local women’s group to let her show and sell her fabric flowers at its annual flower and garden sale. She now makes pins, hair clips, chokers, bookmarks and other accessories that she sells at craft fairs, senior living residences and other community events. In 2018, she attended more than 90 fairs and events, including holiday bazaars at St. Rita Catholic Church and David Douglas High School. 

Wold donates proceeds of all pink flowers to the Susan G Komen For the Cure breast cancer foundation in honor of her mom. Proceeds have also gone to support victims of Hurricane Florence and victims of a 2013 typhoon in the Philippines. Each year she gives flowers to the Rose Festival princesses and to veterans. 

Wold lives in Northeast Portland near The Grotto and is a member of St. Rita Parish. Follow Funky Flowers by Flory on Facebook to see examples of her flowers. She also lists upcoming events on the page. 

Northwest Motorsports has donated more than $190,000 over the past two decades to scholarships at Mt. Hood Community College. COURTESY NICK GOSLING/MHCC

Northwest Motorsports has donated more than $190,000 over the past two decades to scholarships at Mt. Hood Community College.
COURTESY NICK GOSLING/MHCC

Northwest Motorsports makes record donation to MHCC Foundation
The Northwest Motorsports Association (NWMA) recently made its largest contribution yet of proceeds from the Rockin’ Round the Block Car Show to the Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) Foundation.

The $17,000 donation—the largest amount of proceeds earned in 20 years of Rockin’ Round the Block—will support scholarships for students in the college’s automotive technology program. Over the past two decades, NWMA has contributed more than $190,000 toward scholarships for MHCC students.

“We had the best turnout so far in the history of Rockin’ Round the Block,” said Jerry Lyons, MHCC automotive technology instructor and chair of the Rockin’ Round the Block planning committee. “These funds will in turn help the next generation of automotive technicians achieve their educational and career goals.”

The annual Rockin’ Round the Block car show draws thousands of spectators to downtown Gresham each year. The Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce has called it the most well-attended event held in downtown Gresham.

The NWMA donation supports both an endowed and an annual scholarship fund. Together, these funds award five scholarships per year. MHCC’s scholarship season opens Jan. 2, 2019, and closes March 29, 2019. Learn more at mhcc.edu/scholarships.