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C. Bailey Saleumvong, recognized as teenager of the year
Each month the Gateway Elks Lodge selects a deserving student as its teenager of the month. From the winners announced throughout the year, Gateway Elks has selected C. Bailey Saleumvong, a graduating senior at David Douglas High School for recognition as teenager of the year. Bailey was the teenager for the month of December.
The Youth Activities Committee chose Bailey for this honor because of his versatility, fortitude, and scholarship.
Bailey has undertaken a challenging action plan for his career and has begun work on that career in high school.
He has now been accepted at the University of Portland, or U of P, and has received a scholarship from that school and continues to be involved in challenging academics.
This student maintains his work in the school and is now one of the school’s representatives in the Portland Rose Festival serving as a captain. He will also serve as a head student counselor at Outdoor School during the summer.
Bailey took part in a Saturday Academic Program for advanced and talented students. This assignment, called “Men in Scrubs,” consisted of a job shadow of medical personnel at the Oregon Health and Sciences University, or OHSU. He feels this program was instrumental in helping him choose a course of study.
After graduation from the U of P, Bailey plans to attend OHSU to continue his medical education.
Bailey lives with his parents, Thongphour and Scourangthong and brother Kevin.
Volunteers needed for Letter Carriers Food Drive
Be part of a great tradition. Volunteer at the largest one-day food drive in Oregon, the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive.
Letter Carriers throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash., will collect donated food with the mail the Saturday before Mother’s Day, May 8. Volunteers are a vital part of the success of the food drive, which brought in more than 1.4 million pounds of food last year for the Oregon Food Bank, or OFB, network.
Here’s how you can help:
Volunteer to sort and box food. Greet letter carriers as they return to the post office with trucks filled with food they collected from postal customers. This is a fun and active opportunity for groups or individuals ages 14 and above. You will be lifting, bending, packing food in boxes, and loading boxes on pallets. Shifts run from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Be a team captain. Team captains coordinate logistics with post office staff and lead and support volunteers. The shift runs from 1 to 6:30 p.m. at a post office.
Help move the food as a member of the fire squad. Fire squad volunteers must bring a vehicle to transport food. OFB staff will assign locations and duties for fire squad volunteers based on need. Shifts are 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Be a part of the warehouse team and keep things running smoothly as trucks arrive at the OFB warehouse, 7900 N.E. 33rd Drive in Portland, filled with food. You will sort and unload food from trucks, so be prepared to lift and bend. This opportunity is limited to those 18 years-of-age and above. The shift runs from 5 to 10 p.m.
To register to volunteer for the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive, contact 503-282-0555, Ext. 272, or volunteer@oregonfoodbank.org. Or register to volunteer online at www.oregonfoodbank.org. Specify that you would like to help with the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive.
Oregon Food Bank is the hub of a statewide network of 832 hunger-relief agencies serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash. OFB recovers food from farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources. It then distributes that food to 20 regional food banks across Oregon. Eighteen are independent charitable organizations. OFB directly operates the two regional food banks that serve the Portland metro area. OFB also works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy and public education.
Urban Studies class seeks good 122nd Avenue design
A class from the Portland State University graduate School of Urban Studies has selected Southeast 122nd Avenue, and the people who live on and near it, as a class project.
Students have been interviewing residents on the avenue between Southeast Division and Harold Streets about what they like and dislike about the design of new multi-family development. They also arranged an evening workshop at the Pizza Baron, 2604 S.E. 122nd Avenue, with the promise of free pizza as a lure.
The class will eventually put together a “best practices” handbook to guide future development. “We’ll point out the issues that are most important to the neighborhood, and how developers can address them and still achieve their goals,” student Kristine Dos-Remedios told the MEMO.
The class hopes to show their notebook at a public meeting in East Portland, although one had not been scheduled at press time.
Mid-County housing project earns national honor
Douglas Meadows, an eight-unit townhome development in outer Southeast Portland, has earned a prestigious award from the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB. The project features many durable and sustainable materials in its construction and is the NAHB’s 2004 Green Project of the Year in the Multifamily Category.
Douglas Meadows won acclaim for its myriad earth-friendly features, inside and out. The Craftsman-style project’s six three-bedroom and two four-bedroom units have certified strawboard cabinets, Energy Star appliances that meet federally established energy-efficiency guidelines, non-toxic paint and finishes, water-conserving showers, carpet made from recycled pop bottles, and gas water heaters that also provide space heat, reducing residents’ utility costs. The units are designed to capture passive solar heat and daylight. They also incorporate shade trellises, overhangs and raised beds for a community garden.
The project, which opened in April 2003, is located on a 1/3-acre lot along Southeast 127th Avenue, one block south of Division Street in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood. Mature trees provide ample shade in the summer. Landscaped bioswales capture rainwater before it goes into a storm drain and the development’s garbage and recycling enclosure was built with straw bales as part of a weekend workshop presented by Portland Community College.
Douglas Meadows is an affordable housing project that accommodates families earning at or below 30 to 50 percent of the area’s median family income (as set by the federal government). The housing was developed by Portland non-profit organization, Human Solutions, Inc. Dorene Warner, housing development director for Human Solutions, said the project presented an attractive opportunity to meet a tremendous need for housing that not only is affordable, but is also good for the environment. “We’ve got a very high level of demand for housing for large families - particularly out in east Portland and through Gresham,” Warner said. “We are dealing with what was at one time a suburban area that quickly is becoming urbanized, but there are lots of people in need.”
Human Solutions, which provides affordable housing, skill development and family support services to more than 40,000 people in East Portland and east Multnomah County annually, partnered with Sustainable Communities Northwest of Portland to develop Douglas Meadows.
“We decided to work together on a green project for very low-income, large families that would have all the sustainability bells and whistles we could put in it,” Warner said.
The Portland Development Commission, or PDC, provided a loan of $918,000 to the project. The balance of the funding was provided by Clackamas County Bank and the project qualified for state tax credits through the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit Program. Additional tax credits were received through the Oregon Office of Energy because the project met their “green” criteria. “PDC has adopted sustainable development as an agency priority,” said PDC Housing Director Andy Wilch. “In 2000 we formed a Green Affordable Housing Work Group to both educate ourselves and encourage our housing partners to incorporate green practices into their projects. Douglas Meadows is an example of all this coming together in a great way,” Wilch added.
Sculptures donated
An anonymous donor from Canada has donated two bronze castings of original sculptures by the world-renowned Christian artist Timothy P. Schmalz to The Grotto. While the plan is to eventually place them outdoors on the beautiful grounds, currently they are on display in the Visitor Complex, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.
“Saint Juan Diego” is a statue of one of the most well known Saints from Mexico. The depiction also features Our Lady of Guadalupe, who according to tradition, appeared to Juan Diego over 450 years ago on a hillside near Mexico City. This piece is an exact cast of the original, which was created for the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
The second piece entitled “A Quiet Moment,” is an intimate depiction of the Holy Family that was originally created in monumental scale and accepted by the Holy Land council of Franciscan’s to be placed at the Shrine of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The monument was cast with over 3000 pounds of bronze and is currently held at the Franciscan run Shrine in Tel Aviv. The sculpture at The Grotto is a life size scale version of the piece.
According to Schmalz, “Sculpture, to me, is the highest form of communication, and an instrument for one’s spirituality. The purpose of my sculpture is to make people more aware of God around them.”
The Grotto is located at Northeast 85th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard. For information call 503-254-7371.
East Columbia-Lombard connector advances
A proposed new link from Northeast Columbia Boulevard to Lombard Street and the I-205 Freeway is moving closer to construction.
The Portland Office of Transportation proposes to replace the current twisting, difficult road link from Columbia with a pair of access ramps. Traffic from Columbia would hit Lombard just east of Northeast 87th Avenue, while eastbound traffic to Columbia would turn onto an access ramp at Northeast 89th Avenue. Both ramps would have signals at Lombard. Northeast 89th Avenue would become the principal access road to industrial properties to the south of Lombard, while Northeast 87th Avenue would be closed to traffic between Lombard and Emerson.
City officials hope the new road will be safer, and have less congestion, than the existing situation.
A citizen advisory committee that has been working on the project will hold its next meeting at 6 p.m. May 4 at Helensview High School, 8678 N.E. Sumner St. A public open house will be scheduled soon. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2005. For more information call Rob Bernard at 823-7071.
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