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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2014)
22 Spring 2014 Applegater NEXT GENERATION “Next Generation” features the talents of our local students and school news and updates. All schools in the Applegate Valley are encouraged to submit art, writing, photography and any other creative pieces to gater@applegater.org. RUCH SCHOOL Ruch School gives back to the community Ruch Community K-8 School is turning 100 years old! On May 16, 1914, Ruch School was dedicated to the children of the Applegate Valley. One hundred years would see our small, rural school, with the help of our community, thrive, struggle, celebrate success, emerge and sustain itself as an exemplary place of education. There exists in our small school a sense of pride and an attitude and sense of personal possession and involvement on the part of students, teachers, administrators and community residents. To a great degree, our school is the community center of our beautiful Applegate Valley. As a result of our volunteers and community members being an integral part to the success of our school, for our 100 th birthday we would like to give our community a present! Similar to the events that took place in 1914, we are planning a dedication of the original school building and renaming it as Ruch School Community Center to serve the greater Applegate area. Because of its location and size, meetings, conferences, celebrations etc., can be held in a location that is centrally located. However, there is work to be done! With the partnership of Batzer Crane and the Medford School District, renovations are planned to update and equip the space for its intended use. A new cupola will house the 100-year-old bell, conference tables and other furniture. We would like to present the building at our Community Celebration on May 17, with reflections of its esteemed 100 years of service. This will include a working kitchen to provide food services and a museum of past and present photographs and artifacts. If you have artifacts or photographs that you would like to share or donate to our museum, if you would like to make a monetary donation, if you want to help in the construction, be part of the process or just obtain more information, please call the school at 541-842-3850 or visit us at 156 Upper Applegate Road. More importantly, if you are a past educator, administrator or student of Ruch School, this party is for you! Please register for the birthday/reunion celebration by contacting the school directly or going to the Medford School District website and click on Ruch School. There you will find a page titled Ruch Centennial Reunion Celebration. A link is provided to take you through the registration process. Please join us in celebrating 100 years! Thank you for your support and Happy Birthday Ruch School! Julie Hill • 541-842-3850 Principal, Ruch School julie.hill@medford.k12.or.us Ruch School Reading Program wins award Oregon Reading Association (ORA) wishes to congratulate Ruch School, Community K-8 for participating and winning the Exemplary Reading Program Award! Visitors from ORA visited Ruch School along with other schools around the state of Oregon. The selection committee was impressed with the thoughtfulness of the program and recognized the literacy-centered approach with various components throughout the building: Books highlighted in the office, readers recognized in morning community time (Jump Start), books as rewards, SMART Program, principal’s book club, and the many ways the teachers were developing vocabulary, comprehension, and thoughtful responses to literature. Ruch School is very proud of its teachers, support staff, volunteers, parents and community members, and the Medford School District who have joined together to make education a priority for its students and provide the very best education. “We are Ruch Community School and we are enriching the lives of our students and our community members! Go Cougars!” —Julie Hill, Principal, Ruch School. APPLEGATE SCHOOL Applegate School art and nature program Art and Nature After School is a program at Applegate School open to fourth and fifth graders, homeschooled children and children of Applegate, Williams, and Ruch areas since 2008. We began as an art program and shifted a few years ago to a nature theme to include the outdoors. The outdoor education includes wildflower walks, care of butterfly habitats, greenhouse planting of milkweeds, and sometimes chasing butterflies. This year we began with insect drawings using watercolor and ink, which have been shown at two art shows recently. Other indoor nature projects were ornament-making with milkweed pods and making seed balls with a butterfly-hummingbird seed mix. Through this program we support monarch butterfly habitat by growing and selling two native milkweed species that will grow in any garden in this area. We also start and sell a non-native milkweed called swamp milkweed, which attracts many other pollinators and is also used by the monarch. Our current greenhouse project is the planting of two native milkweed species and the swamp milkweed that we hope will be ready for sale this spring. Although there is a third local native milkweed species, to my knowledge seeds and plants are not readily available at this time. We will grow Asclepias fascicularis (narrowleaf milkweed) and Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed). A non-native Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) will also be offered. And we will have a lesson on soil-mixing and more propagating of milkweed plants. Monarch butterfly populations have been on the decline and there is significant habitat loss throughout our urban, rural and agriculture areas. In the Midwest and other areas they are also threatened from the use of pesticides in agriculture and local use. Hopefully we are locally aware enough to use these sparingly and carefully, or find organic means for agricultural farming. Not much is known about the Pacific Applegate School students mixing an organic soil for milkweed planting. Carlen and Macy plant native milkweed seeds in the Applegate School greenhouse. Northwest migration of the monarch butterfly, but currently there are experts studying it with the help of monarch groups or citizen scientists. I have been welcomed to participate in providing information for a scientific study and tagging monarchs as they migrate. I plan to tag monarchs from our habitat in Applegate as well as in the field. If you would like to help monarchs as they migrate through our valleys and north to British Columbia, and also on their return to Northern California and possibly Mexico, please consider buying some milkweed from our Monarchs and Milkweed program to restore some of our local habitat losses. Try planting some in or near your flowers to attract the monarch to your home to help them on their journey and increase their populations naturally. Recommendation: Use locally grown and native seeds of Oregon rather than purchasing them from out of state. Non- local or out-of-state seeds or plants may have been treated. Applegate School also has seeds for sale. Linda Kappen • 541-846-6280 Schoolwide Education Assistant Applegate School Voices of the Applegate concerts Voices of the Applegate began their winter-spring rehearsals on January 16 at 7 pm in the Ruch Library. We are a community choir; no auditions are necessary. We love to sing four-part harmony in a variety of arrangements from classical to modern. All are invited to attend our rehearsals and become part of our energetic choir directed by Blake Weller. This session will consist of 13 rehearsals, and our concerts will be on Friday, April 11, at 7:30 pm at the Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, and on Sunday, April 13, at 3 pm at the Applegate River Lodge. We will meet each Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 pm in the meeting room of the Ruch Library. We have an exciting program to look forward to consisting of six Brahms folk songs, two songs from Africa and a medley of Beach Boy numbers. The concerts are free, but donations are welcome. Refreshments will be available for the Applegate concert. For more information call Joan Peterson at 541-846-6988.
