PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 9, 2018
Lawyer takes city motto to heart
By RANDOM
PENDRAGON
Keizertimes Intern
It is Saturday, January 20, the
night of the First Citizen and
Awards Banquet. Matt Lawyer
is in attendance, expecting only
to support fellow members of
the community and help set
it all up. He had no idea that
he himself would be honored
that night. Even as outgoing
Chamber president Nate Bauer
began describing the contri-
butions of the recipient of the
President’s award, Matt had his
mind on others.
“I was actually getting really
excited because they started to
tell the story about the person
who was doing these things,
and instantly I thought about
Mark Caillier, who’s been a
longtime man of Keizer,” Matt
said. “Then they started talking
about parks stuff, so I instantly
thought about Clint Holland
and Dylan Juran who were
both in the room.”
It wasn’t until the last sec-
ond, when they actually called
his name that he believed it.
“When Nate said my name,
I kind of thought at fi rst he
was picking on me and then
it clicked like, ‘Oh man, this is
real.’”
He found the experience
hard to describe.
“The only other time I felt
the way I’d felt was when I
found out my wife was preg-
nant with our fi rst kid ... If you
would have told me that morn-
ing that I was going to walk in
there and get anything other
than the opportunity to help
clean up I would have said you
were full of it.”
Pride
For Matt, it’s hard to pin-
point exactly where his dedi-
cation comes from, stating that
he’s “always just kind of liked
helping out.” But his fi rst taste
of real volunteerism came dur-
ing the Willamette Valley Flood
of 1996 when he was in high
school. “We helped a lot of
people evacuate,” Matt, who’s
now 35, explained. “Then, I
spent the entire evacuation
at Whiteaker Middle School,
helping people who were shel-
tered there.”
Matt helped distribute meals
and fresh blankets and light-
ened the mood for kids shel-
tered in the school.
“It was a lot of fun getting
to do that.”
After serving in the Navy
for just over nine years, Matt
returned to Keizer.
He began working with
the Claggett Creek Water-
shed Council where he forged
much of the philosophy that
would lead him through his
community work. He recounts
a story about doing an inver-
tebrates study of Labish Ditch
and the excitement of seeing
fi sh return to the lake, “When
I was in high school you didn’t
see as many… The health of
the creek was poor, but people
have started to take better no-
tice locally.”
To him, this was emblem-
atic of some of the values he
learned while in the Navy.
“Being part of the military
helped me understand just how
it important is to take care of
the people around you,” he
said. “They always taught us to
be aware of our footprint.”
His work with the Water-
shed Council highlights his
views on personal and com-
munity responsibility.
“I think if we begin to start
taking care of what’s in our
own backyard and start to share
the importance of understand-
ing the cumulative adverse ef-
fects that can happen just out
of your own home,” Matt ex-
plains. “If we can start to make
meaningful efforts locally, may-
be as it gets out to the wider
world they might look at Keiz-
er as the model city for what
cities could be.”
“Pride, spirit, and volun-
teerism is not an accident,” he
added. “We take a lot of pride
as being citizens of Keizer, it
takes a tremendous amount of
spirit to the kind of work no-
body wants to do.”
“It just makes sense to care
for where you live.”
Spirit
Matt then began to get in-
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Matt Lawyer assists with tree planting at the Keizer Rotary
Arboretum in Keizer Rapids Park.
volved with the Keizer Parks
Advisory Board where he
quickly got involved in discus-
sions about funding. To study
for his fi rst meeting, Matt went
back and watched the previ-
ous two years of meetings. He
says that the parks meetings had
become pretty routine. An idea
would be presented, but fund-
ing wasn’t there to back it and
solutions were few.
“We had a gentlemen [dur-
ing my fi rst meeting] stick his
fi nger in our chest and say, ‘this
is what’s broken in our parks,’”
Matt said. “What I drew out
of that was: Keizer has a lot of
parks, they’ve been maintained
by volunteers, but there’s never
been the infrastructure or the
dollars to support the need.”
Later, Mayor Cathy Clark
challenged the board to begin
tackling questions about fund-
ing. “Over the course of the
next couple weeks, I started
asking questions,” he said. “I
was driving the public works
staff crazy ‘cause I was trying to
really understand what’s going
on.”
The board came to a cross-
roads and was presented with
the choice of a few options.
The fi rst, create a separate tax-
able Parks District, which Matt
says “would cost a tremendous
amount of money.”
The second, bonds and lev-
ies could be issued, but that
Please see LAWYER, Page A6
WILL A METTE LUTHERAN
RETIREMENT COMMUNIT Y
Cordially invites you to join us in fellowship & celebration
Palm Sunday Brunch
March 25
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Cost:
$12.00 Ages 11 – Adult
$6.00 Ages 4 – 10
Free
Children 3 and under
All proceeds will be donated
to support local community
and worldwide projects.
Please RSVP by March 19, 2018
to the business offi ce. If your
group consists of 5 or more
persons, Reserve Early!
Your locally owned and family operated collision repair business since 1958
3353 Silverton Road NE in Salem ◆ 503-363-1990
7693 Wheatland Rd N
Keizer, OR 97303
503-393-1491
willamettelutheran.com
Willamette
Lutheran
Retirement
Community
“I was in a collision recently. It was a painful and
traumatic experience. Th e staff at Jackson’s were very
helpful! Th ey treated me with compassion and were
professional. I was thrilled with the appearance of my
car aft er they completed the repairs!” — Marlene B.
See BEFORE & AFTER photos at jacksonsautobody.com
Hand Us Your Keys, and You’ll be Pleased!