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FEATURE ARTICLES
IRCO: Doorway to assimilation
Bus restaurant riles Argay neighborhood
Paul Butterfield honored at Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes
Middle Eastern festival showcases cuisine and culture
Mid-county gets fenced off-leash dog park
122nd Avenue Project approved
Parkrose Colts: Transition from boys to little men

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Memo Pad

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.

Memo Pad submissions for the October issue are due by Friday, Sept. 15. 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.

Help make a senior smile
The Cherry Blossom Loaves & Fishes Center located in the East Portland Community Center at 740 SE 106th Ave. needs Meals-On-Wheels drivers to deliver hot meals to homebound seniors. Volunteer in your neighborhood any weekday between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Delivery typically takes about an hour and a half. Kitchen volunteers are needed as well to help pack meals in coolers for Meals-On-Wheels drivers and to serve seniors as they come into the meal center. Flexible schedules are available from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information please contact Tamara Bailey at 503-256-2381 or e-mail tbailey@lfcpdx.org.

Volunteer Coordinator joins Parkrose High School
Parkrose High School is partnering with the Oregon State Service Corps to create a volunteer program for students, parents and community members. The new effort, dubbed “Community Connections,” will utilize an AmeriCorps member to revitalize volunteering in the Parkrose community. “We want to do a better job of welcoming parents and other patrons back into our school,” said Roy D. Reynolds, principal. “Parents frequently volunteer at their child’s elementary school, but teenagers don’t encourage their parents to come to school. Ironically, this is a time when our youth truly need and benefit from caring adults in their lives.”

Joanne Oleksiak, the AmeriCorps member assigned to Parkrose High, will also develop volunteer opportunities for youth seeking community service activities. “We are lucky to have such an experienced community activist join our staff,” said Reynolds. “Joanne will show students how to find volunteer opportunities with nonprofit organizations in the neighborhood or help them start their own community service projects.”

An artist and past coordinator of Portland Mural Defense, Oleksiak is enthusiastic about her new role. She welcomes input and advice from Parkrose students and parents as she has the additional task of creating a Community Connections Advisory Board to develop the new volunteer program.

Coincidentally, Oleksiak’s first day at Parkrose High is Sept. 11, which is National Day of Voluntary Service, Charity and Good Deeds. Each September, MyGoodDeed.org, encourages community service and volunteering, to honor the victims, family members and survivors of the attacks on America, as well as the rescue and recovery workers and thousands of volunteers who gave so much on and following 9/11. Reynolds encourages Parkrose parents and neighbors to consider donating their skills, talents and time to the new volunteer program.

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national community service programs that connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to the country’s critical needs in education, public safety, health and the environment. The Oregon State Service Corps, one of the statewide AmeriCorps programs, works directly with local nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations and schools by offering them the opportunity to sponsor an AmeriCorps member. Parkrose High School became an AmeriCorps site through a competitive process based on its compelling proposal for a volunteer mobilization project.

For more information about Community Connections, contact Oleksiak at 503-408-2600 or joanne_oleksiak@parkrose.k12.or.us.

Neighborhood tree liaison program
Help care for trees in your neighborhood by becoming a neighborhood tree liaison. Neighborhood tree liaisons are local leaders who promote proper tree care and serve as resources on tree issues for their neighborhoods. To become a neighborhood tree liaison, you do not need to know a lot about trees. You do need to have a passion for trees, a desire to learn, and the commitment to help. Classes are taught by leading tree care professionals and cover general and advanced tree issues. After graduating from the class, neighborhood tree liaisons work on tree projects in their neighborhoods. The 2006 Neighborhood Tree Liaison class starts on Sept. 9 and costs $20. For a full schedule and to register, call Karl Dawson, urban forestry education and outreach specialist at 503-823-1650 or visit www.portlandparks.org.

Oregon girl resident of the month at OBRH
Winnie Dalbey, mother of five, grandmother of 11, great grandmother of 25 and great-great grandmother of nine, is September’s resident of the month at Oregon Baptist Retirement Homes.
Submitted Photo
Winnie Dalbey is this month’s resident of the month at Oregon Baptist Retirement Homes, 1825 N.E. 108th Ave. Born in Dufur, Ore., in 1916, Dalbey loves to bake and delights staff and residents with occasional fresh offerings.

Her parents, John and Jennie Obert raised their family of seven on a farm in Minnesota during the Great Depression. Because they were 20 miles from the nearest town, Dalbey and a number of her siblings did not get the opportunity to have 12 years of formal education. She was able to finish the eighth grade, but did not have the benefit of high school.

As a young woman, Dalbey often helped care for ailing neighbors and for new mothers and their babies.

By 1937 she married Glen Dalbey with whom she farmed for a decade in central Minnesota before moving to Oregon and settling in Salem. It wasn’t long before the couple had enticed the rest of the Obert clan to move west as well. The couple’s first child, a boy, was born in 1950 and was followed by four daughters.

Dalbey’s early interest in health care eventually led her to a career in the field. She worked as a nurse’s aid in Salem and then in Toledo, Ore. Trained nursing staff helped her learn, and eventually a local physician hired her to assist him in his office. She was an office nurse for 17 years, taking X-rays, performing lab duties, and assisting the doctors as needed. When her husband was diagnosed with cancer, Dalbey left her office job to care for him. Glen Dalbey died in 1976.

After the loss of her husband, Dalbey returned to work in a care center in Newport, Ore., for a couple of years, but the health of someone dear to her again caused her to devote her time to in-home care. Her sister-in-law, Helen Obert, had Huntington’s Disease. Dalbey helped care for her until her death in 1984.

From there, Dalbey moved to Salem to share an apartment with daughter Cheryl, her husband Bill and their infant son. Once again Dalbey was called on to care for a loved one as Cheryl contracted gastric cancer. She died in 1998.

Since 2002 Dalbey has lived at OBRH. There she enjoys art, music, singing and playing the piano. Other hobbies include reading, cooking, crochet and sports, including basketball, baseball and football. Her church has always been a focal point in her life. A large family including siblings, her children, eleven grand children, twenty-five great grandchildren and 9 great-great grandchildren are her support system. She loved raising her family and will share boxes of pictures and slides anytime.

Dalbey said her life has been full and busy. She feels blessed for having Christian parents, loving siblings, a devoted husband and a large dear family including all of the in-laws. She believes OBRH is a great place to live and added that it has a capable and loving staff, varied activities and wonderful residents.
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