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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1992)
Page 4... I he Portland Observer...February 26, 1992 Employment in Oregon January 1992 OACWC Holds Annual Black History Celebration The Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon Expresses Sincere Thanks to State Employees For Their Participation in 1991 Combined Fund Drive The Children’s Trust Fund of Oregon would like to thank all state employees who generously partici pated in the 1991 Combined Fund Drive. Their support is truly com mendable. This year’s fund drive earned $150,996, an increase of $13,761 over last y ear’s S 137,235. This is an accomplishment that we can all be proud of. The Children’s Trust Fund was established in 1985 by the Oregon Legislature to support local programs throughout Oregon which show the most promise for preventing child abuse, using available revenue to award grants to those programs. The Trust Fund currently funds twenty- two programs who share the goal of lowering the incidence of child abuse. Gratefully, the state employ ees heave helped make this goal a reality. Pauline Bradford, Coordinator Dr. Dolores Harris, President, Mrs. Carrie L Holliday, State President The Oregon Association of Col ored Women’s Clubs held their Annual Salad Luncheon, Black History Pro gram and Exhibit, Saturday, February 22,1992 at the Bethel A.M.E. Church. “Viewing Our Past As a Guide to the Future” was the program theme. Mrs. Carrie Cannon was Program Chairman; Mrs. Pauline Bradford, Pro gram Co-Chair was Mistress of Cer emony. Mrs. Carrie L. Holliday, State President, welcomed the 200 guests. President Holliday presented corsages to the National visitors. Devotions were led by Mrs. Natalie Carter, Champlain. The Negro National An them was led by Mrs. Mattye lies. A special Gospel Song Medley was pre sented by Mrs. Gladys Young, soloist. The special youth program, presented by the Soldiers of Light Girls Club and guest youth, was outstanding. The va riety progiam featured poetry readings, rap, group singing and presentations on Black Inventors. Youth participants were Kimberly Barney, Cassandra C alvin, T iffan y G oundy, R icky Harrison, Shelton Harrison, Chaunte’ Johnson, Natasha Love, Marqui Jack- son, Christopher McCoy and Wendy Murray. Mrs. Queen Ann Deloney was presented at State Supervisor of Youth, together with assisting Club Supervi sors, Ms. Sally Hurst, Mrs. Lillian Bell and Mrs. Harriet Boyd. Miss Kimberly Barney, N. W. Region Penny Queen, who will compete for the National Title at the Youth Convention in Portland, was introduced. Special guests in at tendance were Dr. Dolores M. Harris, President, National Association of Col ored Women’s Clubs, Mrs. Margaret Cooper, National Third Vice President and Mrs. Carole A. Early, National Executive Secretary and President of the Washington and Vicinity Federated Clubs. Dr. Harris, selected by Ebony Magazine as one of the “ 100 Most Betty Thompson, Co-Loordmator Influential Black Americans,” made a brief presentation. Response to her address was given by Mrs. Harrie Belle Paris, Executive Board Chairman. The Rev. Dorsey McCollugh, host church pastor, welcomed the group. Mrs. Lillian Whitlow, Music Chairman, closed the program with a circle forma tion and singing of “We Shall Over come” led by Rev. and Mrs. Mary Harrison, Ways and Means Chair for the event, extended special thanks to all Committee and club women working towards the annual benefits success. Portland Observer encourages our readers to write letterato the editor in response to any articles we publish. • rid — . b Dennis Cole Elected as President of U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Employment and Training Council. Dennis Cole, president of The Pri vate Industry Council in Portland, Or egon, has been elected as the president of the Board of Trustees for the Em ployment and Training Council of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The group serves as an advocacy group for em ployment and training issues within the U.S. Council of Mayors, as well as with congress and the administration. Cole has participated on the Em- ploymentandTrainingCouncilforfour years. During the last two years, he has served as second vice president and first vice president of this organization. All Employment and Training Council positions are voluntary. “The need for investing in our workforce is greater than ever, espe cially in those traditionally outside of the mainstream in schools and those lacking the skills required in the work place of the 1990s. The U.S. Confer- ence of Mayors is a strong voice for such an investment,” stated Cole. Cole also serves as the president of the Oregon Private Industry Council Association (OPICA). OPICA brings together representatives from all six of Oregon’s private industry councils, who work together to advocate for employ ment and training issues at the state legislative level. This is also a volun teer position. The Private Industry Council is a private, nonprofit organization that pro vides a wide variety of job training and stay-in-school services for low-income youth and adult residentsof Multnomah and Washington counties, as well as those out of work due to plant closures and layoffs. Cole has been the president of The Private Industry Council since 1987. Previous to that, he was the presi dent of the Portland Private Industry Council for three years. Warning: Children Are Breakable So Handle With Care Millions of fragile items are care fully packaged and transported across the country everyday. If the item is damaged in any way when it arrives, the recipients get upset because it was not shipped carefully. These may be the same people who transport chil dren in a car without proper use of restraints. A child is breakable, like a fragile package, and must be handled with extra care when in an automobile. Children may hold up to rough housing in everyday play, but in a car crash, they don’t do so well. “In an accident, a 10-pound infant riding in a car traveling 30 mph is thrown forward with a force of 300 pounds. This is equivalent to dropping a child from a third story window,” says Jim Wil liams, a safety expert for the Country Companies insurance group. Car accidents are the number one cause of death of young children, espe cially those under age five. The most common causes of death and injury in a car crash are: being thrown into the windshieldor dashboard, being crushed by adults who are not wearing safety belts, and being thrown from the car. In 1990, 670 children under the age of five died in car accidents. These deaths could be prevented with the proper use of child safety scats and scat belts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that, when correctly used, restraints cut the i W: '.‘ it’ <• » « - vv.‘ ^’1 ’f .. » ‘5 ♦• (S$ ¡re ?. * “• i ” risk of a child’s death by 71 percent and from being seriously injured by 67 percent. While some parents don’t know the importance of car restraints and choose not to use them, others are improperly using the device they al ready own. “The impact of misused restraints is enormous. If all cars had restraints and they were used correctly, the lives of more than 300 children would be saved every year,” said Williams. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring infants and children to be restrained while traveling in vehicles. Now, in all but six states,a person can be charged with neglect due to child restraint laws even if they arc not the child’s parent. Ideally, these laws should save the lives of hundreds of children who arc placed in the care of those other than their parents. Police across the country arc be coming strict in the area of child re straint. In Gulfport, Miss., citations went up 2(X) percent when officers were placed outside of schools and day-care centers looking for violators. Williams feels that even with all the laws and increased enforcement, young lives will still be needlessly taken if adults don’t bother placing children in restraints. Williams says, “Fragile, handle with care applies to children too.” . . J- ’ ' « < * Your ad could be here! Call for rates and information: u 288-0033 -J The two major surveys of employ ment activity in Oregon gave different signals today, according to the Oregon Employment Division. The state’s sea sonally adjusted unemployment rate, based in part on data from the federal Current Population Survey, rose sharply from 6.6% in December to 7.2% in January. Early analysis of these unem - ployment data indicates that the rise was largely due to a substantial in crease in the number of Oregonians claiming regular unemployment ben efits. On the other hand, data from the Employment Division’s monthly sur vey of Oregon employers suggested that most industries performed well, for this time of year. While layoffs were widespread, most industries lost fewer workers than would be typical for January. “Normally, data from the two sur veys give a similar picture of Oregon’s employment outlook,” said Pamela A. Mattson, Employment Division Ad ministrator. “However, we do occa sionally see the two surveys going in different directions. Our analysts will be looking closely at the January data to determine where the differences occurred.” Turning again to the monthly em ployer survey, more than half of last month’s layoffs came in the retail trade sector. Despite early fears that the holi day season would prove to be extremely weak, employment levels were actu ally higher in December 1991 (244,500) than the year before (241,400). Even with the loss of 11,000 jobs in January, the 233,500 retail workers last month represent the highest January level ever. Oregon’sconstruction industry con tinues to provide surprising strength to the state’seconomy. Mild winter weather has certainly helped this industry to maintain employment levels during the past few months, but cooperative weather would be worthless without a substan tial amount of work for the industry. Job losses continued in the lumber industry, particularly in veneer and ply wood. Several mills recorded major lay offs, bringing veneer and plywood em ployment down to 11,000-the lowest January employment level since 1953. However, overall industry employment was somewhat helped by the same mild weather which has been so beneficial to construction-log supplies m ight be tight, but at last loggers have decent access to the worksite. Elsewhere in manufacturing, Janu ary appeared to be a very stable month. A seasonal decline (down 800) in food processing and a 300 increase in ma chinery were theonly significant changes in employment. The machinery increase was of particular interest because, while most manufacturing industries have re mained very stable in spite of the na tional recession, machinery is one o f a handful, which have lost fairly substan tial numbers of workers in the past year. Given that widespread job gains in the lumber industry appear unlikely at this time, it will be up to other manufactur ing industries to lead Oregon out of recession. TU Portland Saturday Market Opens 19th Season ^ 3 ^ <T r a ■r“ i 8 B (or Iho Nissan Donates Cab* Over Truck to Benson High Auto Program Nissan Diesel American donated a cabover truck to Benson High School automotive training program Thursday Feb. 27 at the Benson Diesel Technol ogy shops (between Irving and Glisan streets on Northeast 15 th St.) Thursday morning’s ceremonial delivery of a 1989 UD Nissan Diesel American truck transfered the truck’s title to Benson High School from Larry Shultz, regional service manager for Nissan Diesel American of Irving, Texas; John Cravens, district service manager UD trucks of Fontana, CA; and Rudy Busch, service manager for DSU (diesel service unit) Pctcrbilt/GMC of Portland. “For the first time at Benson, stu dents will be able to learn the differ ences in how engine and other compo nents are arranged in a cabovcr truck versus those in a traditional car or pickup,” said Bruce Higbee, Benson High School auto instructor. Agency Sets Sights On Volunteer Recruitment The Boys and Girls Aid Society of Oregon is continuing 1992’s major re cruiting drive for volunteers. Orienta tion sessions are held the first Monday of every month from 6 to 9 p.m. at 18 S.W. Boundary Court in Portland. Up coming sessions are March 3rd and April 6. Information and registration are available by calling Ralph Coulson at 222-9661. The 106-year-old Oregon child welfare agency seeks people to work with pregnant and parenting teens, abused and neglected children, and other youth and families facing crises. Last year, Boys and Girls Aid Society as sisted nearly 15,000 Oregonians deal ing with these issues. The orientations arc part of B reak ing The Cycle, Boys and Girls Aid’s innovative volunteer training program which provides a solid foundation for volunteers. The trainings include ori entation to the agency’s mission, meth ods and clients as well as lively and practical instruction in basic tools that help heal young lives. Following the Breaking The Cycle training, placement options arc dis cussed with staff. Additional program- specific training is available. There is no charge for attending the sessions, and no obligation to volunteer after wards. Call Boys and Girls Aid Society of Oregon at 222-9661 and challenge yourself to make a difference in someone’s life! i t <—----------------------------------- \ Oregon unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) 7.2% up 0.6 from December National unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) 7.1% unchanged from December. B Lee Owen Stone C ooperative Preschool Saturday March 7 7:00 p.m. k nr r Northwest Service Center downstairs ? 1819 N.W. Everett F admission: $3.00 for luilhcr information, call 282-6574 y The grand opening of Portland Saturday Market’s 19th season is Satur day and Sunday, February 29 and March 1,1992. The Market, in historic Down town Portland, offers a festive family outing filled with food, fun and fantas tic finds. And throughout the month of March, customers will be given a ticket for a free ride on Portland’s Vintage Trolley System with any purchase. Craftspeople from all over Oregon and Washington will greet those who stroll down the aisles of the Market’s 308 booths between S.W. First and Front, from under the shelter of the Burnside Bridge over to Ankeny Park. There is a myriad of original arts, crafts and foods on display every Saturday and Sunday, making Portland Saturday Market the largest open-air crafts mar ket in continuous operation in the United • States. Portland Saturday Market is open every Saturday and Sunday, March through Christmas. Admission is free. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Ride MAX free from Downtown’s Fareless Square to the Skidmore Fountain Sta tion. Parking validation in theOldTown Garage (S.W. Front and Davis) with minimum $15 purchase. My Conscience And The Haitians BY MIGNON PIKE My Conscience has been giving me a bad time about the Haitians. I don’t know whether consciences in general are male or female, but I am positive that mine is a lady, an outsized creature with a strong voice who won’t take “No” for an answer. But then she is no real lady because she is not above giving me some pretty painful punches and kicks at times. For instance, take that letter form Haiti which she held before inc menac ingly. It recently came from Pastor Emmanuel Eugene, a young Haitian pastor we know in Cap Haitien, north ern Haiti. He wrote that he is letting some of the orphan children from the streets sleep at night on the cement floor of his little church. They have nowhere else to go since they have been turned loose to forage for themselves. My Conscience pointed an accus ing finger at the letter’s punch line: “I would like to feed them but I don’t have the money to buy the beans and rice. It might cost $350 a month.” After that my conscience woke me up in the night with a painful prod where it hurts the most: in the heart region. “Can’t you just see those little kids with pipestem arms and legs curl ing up on that hard cement llixir trying to sleep? Dotheycry in thenight? Then they wake up in the morning with that aching hurt in their empty stomachs and go out in the streets again w ithout any breakfast!’ “Now stir your stum ps!” she barked. “You know how plump and well fed your own grandchildren are. Quite a contrast, wouldn’t you say? They know where their three square meals a day arc coming from!” I replied feebly, “You know I have to have dental work done and how much it costs. Besides, the pastor said it would cost $350 a month because over 100 hungry children would come to eat. That’s a lot of money!” She didn’t even hear me. As usual, after these sharp ex changes I submitted to her bullying. When she rode me hard after World War II about the starving Greek chil dren, our efforts sent a shipload of food andclothingovcr. She still harps at me on what one person can do if they care enough. My conscience has had a lot of practice since bustling around our Big Sky Youth Ranch for twelve years as we brought out inner-city kids to the country. She bossed the kitchen with a high hand, making great platters of hot biscuits and huge kettles of chili, beam ing happliy on the hungry kids as they dove in. So she rudely pushed me down to the post office where I started to write out a $1(X) check to send to Pastor Eugene for beans. But she grabbed my hand and wrote out $200 instead. She can be a very forceful lady at times. She snatched the check. “ N ow , q u ic k ,” she ra sp ed . “There’s no time to lose. Make it out to Pastor Eugene, in care of Portland City Temple, Inc., P.O. Box 203, Or egon City, OR 97045. That will get you tax exemption. Pastor Eugene will get the money in a week and start feeding those kids.” She added,“You’rcmighty lucky to have such an honest person to do your duty for you over there.” She loves that square word “duty” and hits me with it often. So 1 dropped the check in the mail and breathed a sigh of relief. This was fun. But then I heard her grating voice over my shoulder. “Those kids should have some bread to go with the beans, don’t you think? The pastor’s cousin has a bakery in Cap Haitien. Flour is only $40 for a 50 lb. sack. You’re not off the hook yet.” I sighed, clasping my thin purse, “Here we go again.” Pastor Eugene has now written. His feeding program is off the ground, starting with 38 children. My Con science whooped with glee: “W e’re feeding 38 hungry Haitian kids! How about that!” Then she added “Of course it is only a drop in the bucket. Think of all those other starving kids who’ll want to come.” Like I said, she’s a natural bully.
