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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 2014)
PAYING IT FORWARD IN COTTAGE GROVE HELPS THOSE IN NEED “We’ve been pretty busy these last couple days,” says Mindy Beer, who created Pay It Forward Cottage Grove a year ago with her daughter, Jennifer Neil. As Christmas approaches and the weather has turned colder, people have turned to Pay It Forward to give and receive everything from baby formula to refur- bished bicycles. Over the past year the all-volunteer group has net- worked through Facebook and by word of mouth to accom- plish its very simple and much needed goal: to get the usable items people don’t need to the people who need them, for free. The concept of paying it forward — passing generosity on to someone else af- ter someone was generous to you — has been around for years, but the 2000 film Pay It Forward kickstarted the kindness movement more recently. Neil and Beer created the site almost as an inside joke, Beer tells EW. Her daughter saw some local Pay It For- ward pages and told Beer, “Mom, I know we could do bet- ter than that!” Within a year the Facebook page has grown to more than 2,000 members, and the group has given and received thousands of items. Beer says they’ve had moth- ers come with newborn children and no money and leave with everything they need, from formula to clothing. A quick glance at the Facebook page shows post after post from people giving and needing clothing, breast pumps, furniture, Christmas ornaments, toys and more. Beer says she and Neil started off housing items in their garages, but soon both the needs and the generos- ity of the community outgrew those spaces. Now Pay It Forward Cottage Grove operates out of a carport on Beer’s property, one that Beer is hoping to enclose with some do- nated garage doors and lumber. Beer says they hope to become a nonprofit someday and pay some of the 15 or so volunteers who spend hours sorting through items. For now, Beer pays the $100 electricity bill to keep the open carport lit and warm, and she also pay the fees for hauling broken or unusable items to the dump each month. “This is never-ending, but I love it,” Beer says. “It’s al- most an obsession with us because the need is so great right now.” She says, “You need a coffee pot and can’t get one on a fixed income; I’ve been there.” Volunteer Bob Ehler has refurbished and given away more than 170 bikes, and a prom dress drive pulled in 150 dresses, which were given away through Pay It Forward as well as to local alternative schools. Anything that Pay It Forward has in excess gets do- nated to Cottage Grove Com- munity Sharing, most recently — MINDY BEER five boxes of shoes and 30 or 40 coats, Beer says. The group has twice-monthly drop-off and pick-up days on the first and third Sundays of each month from 1 to 5 pm at Beer’s home. “Everyone in town knows where I live,” she laughs. Dec. 21 was one of the last big exchange days until the end of January because Neil is having brain surgery to have a tumor removed. Beer says that there is only a 3 percent chance her daughter has cancer, but the surgery itself is “very invasive” and Neil will need time to heal, and Beer, who also works for a private dog rescue, will care for Neil’s two young children, ages 1 and 2. One of the most memorable donations, she says, was to a homeless man who came in an RV to get a coat. “A lot of homeless come for the coats,” she says. They found his RV was just an empty shell with nothing in it. The group “totally equipped his motorhome,” Beer says, with towels, dishware, blankets and more. They even found him a digital camera to take photos of the jewelry he makes to help him promote and sell his wares. Beer says the Facebook page will stay up and running while her daughter recovers, and Pay It Forward plans to open an auction page after the holidays to do some fundrais- ing for its work. To participate in Pay It Forward Cottage Grove, go to the Facebook page at wkly.ws/1v9, call 946-3901 or email PayIt- ForwardCottageGrove@gmail.com. — Camilla Mortensen ‘It’s almost an obsession with us because the need is so great right now.’ OUTDATED 4J SCIENCE BOOKS TO BE REPLACED, BUT NEW CURRICULUM YEARS AWAY The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) may sound like a sci-fi TV show, but they’re actually the name of Oregon’s new science standards for public schools, passed earlier this year. Is Eugene School District 4J ready for them? Well, not yet. Not even close. In fact, some schools still have 20-year-old science cur- riculum, like Kelly Middle School, where science teacher Dustin Dawson wrote his own curriculum to compensate for the district’s outmoded materials. The outd books were written before the first human genome was sequenced and before the Large Hadron Collider was built. 4J is in the middle of revamping its curriculum adop- tion process after the tumultuous “grassroots” introduction of College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) curriculum that took place over the past few years, in which the district spent nearly $470,000 in bond and general funds without officially adopting the curriculum, despite criticism from parents and teachers. Science is next on the list of new curriculum adoptions, which are supposed to occur every seven years, but as 4J PHOTO CREDIT: BOB EHLER A FREE BIKE FROM PAY IT FORWARD, ONE OF 170 BIKES REFURBISHED BY VOLUNTEER BOB EHLER reworks its process of adoption and the NGSS loom ahead, Dawson tells EW that he’s excited about the new stan- some teachers worry that time is running out. dards and thinks their process-driven approach is an im- “I thought we were much further ahead than we are,” provement on simply memorizing facts — students are says Dawson, who spoke at a Dec. 17 board meeting to ex- now encouraged to think analytically and solve problems, press his concern about the outdated science curriculum, much like a real scientist would. He’s eager to start pilot- which might take years to replace after piloting with teach- ing science lessons, but he says he’s not sure the district ers and negotiating with publishers. can accomplish a full science curriculum adoption before At the Dec. 17 board meeting, the students are tested on the 4J school board officially approved new standards. the process to move forward with the “If the new test comes science curriculum adoption while in the next two to three continuing to restructure the overall years and we don’t have curriculum adoption procedure in curriculum that is geared — D U S T I N D AW S O N , S C I E N C E T E A C H E R what 4J Superintendent Sheldon Ber- toward NGSS, that will man calls a “parallel process.” hurt [students] because 4J’s STEM education administra- they won’t be familiar tor Kim Finch said she plans to assemble a 35- to 40-person with any of that material. It’s just not to the same depth.” task force to help provide guidance in crafting a vision for Dawson says he’d like to see 4J using new curriculum 4J’s K-12 science curriculum. She added that it will take by the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, but he also another year until elementary schools are ready to pilot. thinks that assembling 35 to 40 people to develop a 4J Dawson says the district told him at the beginning of science vision might slow things down if teachers have this school year that he would receive two pilot units to test to wait for 4J to develop that vision before they can start in his classroom, but he only received his first unit a few piloting. weeks ago. “I thought I was middle of the pack, but at the “It’s possible,” he says, “but it will take a lot of effort meeting I realized they haven’t even lined up all the teach- and energy.” ers who are going to pilot yet.” — Amy Schneider ‘I thought we were much further ahead than we are.’ eugeneweekly.com • December 24, 2014 9
