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McBride Citizen of the Year
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902 Sf M ill - Portland, OR
Office: 5 0 3 -2 3 3 -9 2 2 6
L esb ian activist
b a ttle s sm oking
and cancer
b y Caitlin Sm ith
brief gig as an apprentice carpenter
selves how to use toys, not giving up until they
reach mastery. She even has watched kids with
_ disabilities benefit from the
\ items she makes.
5
“1 have seen an autistic child
| suddenly come out of his shell
a with a toy he can hold in his
hand,” she says. “It’s worth a
lot to see these things.”
The
recent spinal
surgery, which involved
the removal of bone spurs
and addition of a metal
plate, required McBride
to spend several weeks
out of commission, but
she is working toward
total recovery. And
what about her future
as a volunteer?
“I expect that I will continue with the
Christmas Market for some time,” she says.
The parade and her Portland Marathon aid
station on North Willamette Boulevard are
also in the plan.
Long-term, she would like to be able tp
write a grant “to start a youth organization to
teach kids how to do some of the old crafts.”
She has been recruiting wood carvers, quilters
and glass blowers and hopes “to be able to con
nect at-risk kids with something that they can
take with them into the future. ”jn
P atricia L. M ac A odha is a Portland free-lance
uniter. E-mail her at (Amacaodhal@hotnvul.com.
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“1 do want to give back a little,” Cushing says
Stop by on your
vay to thè
every sleeping beauty
needs beauty sleep
C a ll the Law Office
of James D. M cVittie
503-224-6611
athryn Cushing is a woman
obsessed. A leading advocate for
tobacco control and education,
she noticed no tobacco programs
target the sexual minorities com
munity. Yet smoking, the leading preventable
cause of death and disability in the United
States, is more prevalent among queers than in
the general population.
“As a lesbian, I have a particular interest in
LGBT1 issues,” she says. “I also discovered that
PHOTO BY
and teasing about it from the girls...from
about 14 until 1 was 17 and graduated from
school.”
She left Ohio in 1977, moving to California
with her husband and son. Nine years later she
and her son moved to Oregon. She soon settled
in St. Johns, purchasing her home there in 1991.
In 1989 she was in a car accident, which led
to the first surgery the following year. Wearing a
neck brace during the recovery period, she was
forced onto public transit.
“1 got on a very crowded bus one morning,”
she says, “and there were no empty seats. A
woman stixxl up and offered me her seat. We
talked during the bus ride, and every day after
that she saved me a seat on the bus.”
At a Christmas party in 1992, McBride final
ly told the woman, Kate, “that 1 was gay and
that I was attracted to her.” They began “seri
ously dating” in March 1993 and have been McBride got into the toy-making business after a
together ever since.
McBride claims 1993 as the year she “official called a "Jacob’s Ladder.” McBride made a dozen
ly” came out. She had been working as a human of the items, selling them out “within an hour at
resources administrator and was "immediately Portland Saturday Market. I was on my way.”
dismissed from my job. They said they didn’t like
McBride also has been involved in
leadership with children
my shoes.”
She drifted for a while and worked at var since her son became a
ious types of jobs: bank auditor, United Parcel Cub Scout at age 7. “I was
Service loader, apprentice carpenter. a Cubmaster for 4 1/2
Through the latter position she got into the years, long after he had
toy-making business.
moved into Boy Scouts.
“There was a lot of scrap lumber, new stuff [But] when the Boy Scouts
that was just being thrown in the trash,” she says. decided they didn’t want
“1 kept bringing it home until I had a garage full gays in their ranks, I quit.”
of the stuff.”
McBride has continued to
One Christmas McBrides son gave her a work with other children’s
scroll saw, “and 1 started cutting up shapes. I groups and has been asked by
was maki.,„ ornaments, desk accessories, schixd representatives to talk to
household gadgets.”
students about her toy-making
A customer asked her if she could make a toy business. She often donates
items for fund
raisers and to vari
ous organizations.
“I feel that children are our lega
to be feeling
By C linton '/mmo
right now."
cy,” she says, “and we need to be
O ne
of
With two nomination* and u majority of
very much involved in their
the vote* limn the St. Johns Parade Commit McBride's two
n
o
m
in
a
tio
n
s
education."
tee. Phyllis McBride was named St. Johns'
wr
cam e
from
( iti/cn of the Year.
She takes seriously what
McHnric coordinated the new Si. John* Laura W oo
Christmas Market for the last five years, druff.
children say and what they don’t
“ She
served as a scouts leader and a* a mentor for
say. “I watch them as they play,”
brought
hack
the Big Sister Program and builds wooden
the Christmas
toys lor lud*
she says, “and learn a great deal
“It's very rare to gel one person nomi Market that
about life. 1 have also learned a
sorely
nated lwice ... that was pretty special." said was
McBride
m issed for a
Parade Comnnitce Chair Barbara Legge.
valuable lesson about not giving
couple of years and this is just a small way to
McBride said the honor was unexpected
up when things look grim.”
don't know yet,” she said about how say thank you.” Woodruff said.
PiNO-KIiE-O’*. McBride's toy hti.sincss
the fell. “1 think I’m tall in shock I’m
McBride is impressed with
See McBmoe/ Pag* 7
pleased but I'm not sure how I'm supposed
the way children teach them
James D. McVittie
Attorney at Law
2310 N W Everett
Suite 200
Portland, Oregon
97210
503.224.6611
Beds Plus
525Ó7 Columbia
River Hwy
Scappoose, OR
503/543-306Ó
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