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Here at GoodNewsPDX, we occasionally open our pages and include wisdom from local experts on various topics. This week, we invite Sinatra O. Prime to share his views on the presidential race.
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About the author: Sinatra O. Prime is a ten-week-old cockapoo who enjoys crawling across laptop keyboards and staring blankly at CNN Headline News coverage.
Apparently, studying the color bands on the stomachs of caterpillars can determine whether the weather will be mild or harsh come January and February. At least, that’s according to decades of study by Pat Timm.
This year’s research says we are in for an average winter. Not a ton of snow but not particularly warm either.
The GoodNewsPDX meteorology department, having avidly watched the weather report on local TV news for 25 years, predicts two snowfalls of about 4 inches apiece. Both times, we anticipate drivers will sink into panic and refuse to go outside.
This is an incredible story of dedication out of The Statesman Journal. Tony and Consuelo Carrasquillo are foster parents at one of four Forever Homes in Marion County. The facilities, the first of their kind in the nation, offer foster kids a permanent home.
The couple in their 30’s are raising five teens (something Tony is used to, his mother raised foster kids for 18 years). Marion and Polk counties saw a jump in foster care needs after the No Meth Not In My neighborhood Program went into effect. In response, local church groups sprang into action, recruiting 50 new members who opened their homes and their hearts to kids in need.
The Beavs were off this weekend but the Ducks trounced ASU which means, with the season more than half over, both Oregon State and the University of Oregon are still in the hunt for a share of the PAC-10 Conference title in football (UO, Cal, OSU, USC all have one conference loss). This is good news both for die-hard fans and those who have never so much as watched a single offensive series.
This study produced at the University of Kentucky demonstrates that success on the field can improve a school’s academic profile. Simply put, when a school wins a lot of football games, they get more TV exposure; more eyeballs around the nation turned to the campus means a higher application rate. Anecdotally, both campuses saw this type of surge in the 1999-2002 time frame when both the Ducks and the Beavers were in the BCS picture.
Watch for potential fireworks at the end of November when the two teams face off in The Civil War.
While trophies and certificates are nice, sometimes the ability to torment an authority figure can be the greatest motivator when working with children. Click here for photos of a recent fundraiser at Clear Lake Elementary School where two faculty members put up their own egos in a challenge to the students.
A fourth grade teacher took the Nickelodeon approach, voluntarily taking a massive bucket of slime by the student who raised the most in the school’s jog-a-thon. Then, the school’s music specialist had his shoulder-length hair shaved clean off, taking him from rocker to cueball in a matter of moments (the hair was donated to Locks of Love).
There’s the Rose City, Track Town and now Tree Campus USA. Oregon State University has been named one of nine Tree Campus USA sites by the Arbor Day Foundation. This is the inaugural year for the award that is bestowed based on each school meeting several, tree-related requirements, but Corvallis itself has been designated a Tree City USA site since the turn of the millennium.
Every year, OSU plants about 50 new trees, tacking on to the 5,000 already on campus. The title of Tree Campus USA also comes with 100 new trees to plant. The timing couldn’t be better as staff point out that funding for new foliage on the campus has been declining. There are already plans to go for a repeat; OSU will reapply for the honor in 2009.
The honor comes with a bit of irony, however, as the Oregon State mascot is the beaver . . . sworn mortal enemy of the tree. GoodNewsPDX has been told by one completely ignorant source that one condition of receiving the honor be that the school facilitate a peaceful negotiation between a family of beavers and a grove of mighty oaks.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: average citizens, floating around a lake strapped to massive pumpkins. It’s happening in Tualatin (and not for the first time we’re told).
The Fourth Annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta kicks off Saturday at 10 AM. Contestants will pilot themselves around the Lake at Tualatin Commons in massive pumpkins (600-1,000 pounds). All the gourd captains will be in costume and there will be plenty of entertainment on land for those not wishing to float along the waves inside a Jack O Lantern.
At this point, there is no word on plans for the vessels after they have sailed, but we are told by one culinary expert that all those pumpkins could make one hell of a pie.
If your car comes with a three-prong plug, you won’t need to scour Oregon City for an outlet anymore. Oregon’s own “OC” is unveiling a new plug-in station on Main Street between 12th and 13th for electric cars.
The free station opens to the public on Tuesday the 28th. Oregon City resident Mark Mongillo gets the first honors. He rides around in a 1959 converted Fiat, comically called the “Fiamp.”
Portland is now home to the BEST nursing school for men in the nation. The American Assembly for Men in Nursing recognized the University of Portland with the honor thanks to enrollment growth and for ongoing support of teaching guys in a field that is typically dominated by women.
In five years, enrollment of guys has jumped by 75% and graduation rates have jumped 88%. That’s compared to a generally flat rate of male enrollment and graduation in baccalaureate programs nationwide.
Credit for much of the growth goes to the late Terry Misener. He passed away last year, just shy of a decade serving as the dean of the University’s nursing program. The school will begin awarding grants in his honor this year.
More than a dozen religious groups (all faiths) have answered the rallying cry of Samira Godil. Godil, the executive director of the Southwest Community Health Center in Multnomah Village, has seen the resource of free and low-cost health care grow in use from 1,100 patients visiting to over 1,600 with clinic hours nearly doubling in the process. While need exploded, donations dried up. In fact, while clinic visitors grew by nearly fifty percent, donations dropped by the same amount.
So she reached out to various faith groups and they have responded remarkably, kicking in tens of thousands of dollars and dozens of volunteers to keep the clinic doors open. Plus, a one-hundred thousand-dollar grant from Providence will lead to a new location, doubling capacity.
You can read the full story from the Portland Tribune here:
http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=122471305762326800
