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Minority Youth Initiative
Washington Park
Zoo Schedules
Music Series
Mel T orm e co m es to P o rt­
land as part o f the M etro W ash ­
ington Park Z o o ’s sum m er c o n ­
cert series. T orm e w ill perform
Friday, July 12 in a b en efit for
the z o o ’s c e n te r for S p e c ie s
Survival
Fam ily co n certs — Y our Z oo
and All That Jazz, W ed n esd ay s
and Rhythm and Z oo, T h u rs­
days — are sch ed u led from June
12 to A ugust 15 and will fe a ­
tu re 2 0 e v e n in g c o n c e r ts .
Z ooTunes returns with five c o n ­
certs for kids on June I 8 and 25
and July 2, 16 and 30
The June sch ed u le in clu d es,
K eb ’ M o’ and K elly Joe Phelps,
acou stic blues; Steve Riley and
the M am ou P layboys, zydeco;
Ronnie Earl and the B ro ad cast­
ers, b lu es, John M ayall and the
B lu esb reak ers, E nglish blues,
W ild M ango, w o m en ’s w orld
beat, and Tabu Ley R ochereau,
A frican soucous.
A sum m er festival focusing
on how YOU can help save
w ild an im als and th e ir habitat
is slated for S aturday, July 13
from 10 a m. to 4 p m.
It w ill begin at 8 a.m . with
“ A W alk On The W ild S id e ,” a
fiv e m ile w alk th ro u g h the
w ilds o f W ashington Park and
the W est H ills en ding with a
safari b reak fast and e n te rta in ­
m ent at the zoo.
Minority Contractors recruit
at risk youth for careers in
industry
”We are well positioned to pro­
vide opportunities for the next gener­
ation of minority contractors because
we have access to current contractors
who can provide jobs, on-the-job
training and mentoring assistance,”
states Samuel Carradine, Executive
Director o f the National Association
o f Minority Contractors about the
o rg a n iz a tio n ’s 'R eclaim ing our
Sports Memorabilia Auction
The Lents Boy’s & Girls Club
invites the public to attend a Sports
Memorabilia Auction and Dinner
on Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m. at
the Portland Airport Shilo Inn Suites
located on Airport Way o ff 1-205.
The Auction is sponsored by the
Vintage Baseball Magazine and
Television Station WB32. Jack
C a lin , ow n er o f th e P o rtlan d
Rockies, will deliver the keynote
address for this Friday night func­
tion.
This event kicks o ff the largest
sports card show ever held in Oregon
on June 1st and 2nd at the Oregon
Convention Center in Portland, lo­
cated o ff 1-5 on MLK Blvd. This
auction is expected to raise over
S 10,000 to directly benefit the Lents
Boys & Girls Club located in South­
east Portland.
“Auction goers will truly appre­
ciate the variety and quality of the
items to be auctioned off. The real
winners are the kids at the Club.”
Says auction Chairman, Ken Turner.
“The money raised at this auction
directly supports the youth devel­
opment programs at the LentsClub.”
A Chris Mi Iler autographed foot-
ball, a Leon Day signed Bob-N-
Head, Ken Griffey Jr. autographed
bat, a 1974 H ank A aron
autographed jersey, an Orlando
Magic team autographed ball and a
Reggie Jackson autographed jersey
are just a sample o f some o f the
items that will be available for bid
at this auction.
Tickets can be purchased in ad­
vance by calling (503) 232-0077.
Youth: Building Tomorrow’s Mi­
nority Contractors. . .Today”jobs and
fund campaign.
The initiative is a step towards
preparing the country's most at-risk
youth for careers in the construction
industry. NAMC plans to focus its
attention not only towards young
people seeking skilled laborer jobs,
but col lege-bound students who want
(27/c coz/z
to major in construction manage­
ment, building sciences, architecture
and engineering.
The association has some 5.000
members and over 30 chapters and
afTiIiate organizations(includingstu­
dent chapters) throughout the United
States, South Africa, Great Britain
and the Caribbean. These members
employ 50 to 60% o f all minority
^Anniversary
and
Reaffirmation o f rows
of
Bill tS Lois McDonald
Saturday, May 25, 1996
Bill and Lois McDonald will reaffirm their vows o f fifty years o f
marriage on Saturday, May 25, 1996 at 2:00 pm. Their Fiftieth Wedding
Anniversary will be held at the Lutheran Inner-City Ministries on N.E.
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon.
The Portland Observer sends congratulations to Bill and Lois McDonald.
workers in an industry that is the
second largest employer in the coun­
try'.
O.B Hill, Chairman o f the Board
o f NAMC Oregon Chapter ays, “ It is
imperative that a major effort be made
nationally to get minority youth in­
volved in all aspects o f the construc­
tion industry. We are especially in­
terested in training and educational
programs emphasizing the economic
benefits o f minority representation
in both the professional and labor
categories."
The three components ofN A M C’s
youth outreach and training efforts
are career awareness, skills training
and scholarships.
Discussions are underway for I ink-
ages with several federal, state and
local government agencies. Commit­
ments have already been made from
a number o f private corporations
within the construction industry, as
well as the minority contractor com­
munity.
Nigel Parkinson, NAMC Presi­
dent, stresses the importance o f pre­
paring minority youth now to enter
the industry: “According to demo­
graphic trends, the available pool of
labor in the United States will be
increasingly minority. Access to a
trained and reliable construction
workforce is an industry wide prob­
lem, not a minority problem.”
A d v e rtis e In
^ L ln rth u tb
O D bscvucr
Call 503-288-0033
Teens Teach Disaster Training
“Disaster” is an adult kind o f word.
But in the Red Cross “ Be-Ready I -2-
3” program, high school volunteers
gently and effectively prepare kin­
dergarten and first-grade students for
earthquakes and teach them about
fire safety using the puppets. Cool
Cat and Disaster Dog.
This program, which was devel­
oped by the Red Cross Oregon Trail
Chapter in Portland and is now used
around the country, is a great exam­
ple o f both disaster preparedness and
o f high school students
(fro m Je ffe rso n , G rant, and
Roosevelt) making a positive contri­
bution to the community. The Peer
Emergency Trainers ( PETs) buck the
sad news trend o f budget cuts and
violence in the schools through their
performances in elementary schools.
I ,ast year, more than 1200 k indergar-
ten and first-grade students enthusi­
astically listened to Disaster Dog,
Cool Cat, and Ready Rabbit and their
teenaged puppeteers.
On May 17, the PETs and Cool
Cat performed in classrooms at Mar­
tin Luther King, Jr. Elementary
School. They will repeat their per­
formances with Disaster Dog on Fri­
day, May 24, again at King Elemen­
tary from 9 to 10 a.m.
“ L a st W e e k , I
W a l k e d I n t o U.S. B a n k
A n d D r o v e O ff W it h
A ’92 A c c o r d .”
Family-Oriented Wedding Ceremony
When LarryCasserlytoldhisnine-
year-old son, Ryan, that he was going
to marry Patrice O ’Connell, the
youngster didn’t say much. But al­
most overnight Ryan began to re­
gress, resorting to baby talk and in­
sisting he needed help with simple
tasks, such as cutting food.
Patrice was moved by her future
stepson’s predicament. She knew
Ryan was overwhelmed with anxi­
ety, wondering what his father’s up­
coming marriage meant for him. “The
more I watched his silent pain, the
more I wanted todosom ethingtangi-
ble during our wedding to show Ryan
that I really cared about him and
wanted him and wanted him to be
part o f our family,” she said
Patrice and her fiance were con­
fronted with a problem that will be
experienced by most o f the nearly
one million single parents who will
remarry in the U S. this year: What
can be done to ease the fears ofyoung
children who feel, on a conscious or
unconscious level, that their secure
place in the family is threatened by
the pending marriage o f a parent?
i he ban Jose, California, couple
found a simple and emotionally sat­
isfying solution in the form o f a fam­
ily-oriented wedding service that
gives children a meaningful role in
the w edding nuptials. This five-
minute ceremony -- known as the
Family Medallion service — can eas­
ily be integrated into any religious
or civil wedding ceremony. It dif­
fers from the traditional wedding in
only one respect: after the newly­
weds exchange rings, their children
join them on the altar for a special
service focusing on the family nature
o f remarriage. Each child is given a
gold or silver medal with three raised
interlocking circles, a symbol that
represents family love in much the
same way the wedding ring signifies
conjugal love.
“Ryan was so excited when we
told him about the family wedding
ceremony,” Patrice explained “He
was literally glowing when Larry and
I put the medallion around his neck
and pledged to love and care for him.
The family ceremony was a very
spiritual moment for all o f us; it was
an outward manifestation o f our com­
mitment to come together as a fami­
ly."
Young Ryan was powerfully af­
fected by the ceremony and the sym­
bol of love that his lather and step­
mother had given him. “ I will never
take off this medallion,” he later con­
fided to his father “ When I die, I
want to be buried with it.”
With approximately one in four
U.S. marriages involving divorced
or widowed parents with young chil­
dren, the family wedding concept is
an idea whose time has come. It was
developed by the Reverend Roger
Coleman, Chaplain o f Urban Minis­
try for the Community Christian
Church in Kansas City, Missouri.
Coleman, who was marrying more
and more people who had children
from previous marriages, was frus­
trated that virtually every traditional
wedding ceremony focused entirely
on the bride and groom.
Although Reverend Coleman de­
signed the Family Medallion service
exclusively for use in the weddings
he performed, he was soon inundat­
ed with requests for information from
all over the world. Today, more than
5,000 couples annually use the Fam­
ily Medallion service in their wed­
dings.
I .arry be I ieves that the fam i ly ser­
vice was a catalyst that helped Ryan
accept his new wife. “By being sen­
sitive to his feelings and giving him
a special moment in the wedding,
Patrice earned Ryan’s respect and
trust," he said. “ If we hadn’t used the
family service, I think it would have
taken much longer for my son to
bond with Patrice.”
^ A p p ly i n g f o r l o a n s h o u ld n 't by in tim id a tin g . A n d at U.S. B ank,
it isn’t. Y ou d o n ’t have to be a m illio n a ire , live in a fa n cy house,
o r have m o re c re d it than D o n a ld T ru m p . Y ou see, w e lo o k at y o u r
a p p lic a tio n in ilii’iih iiilly. Because, a fte r all, y o u ’re an in d iv id u a l.
So it yo u re in the m a rke t to r s o m e th in g to d riv e , sit o n , live in ,
o r a n y th in g else, tu rn to U.S. B ank fo r a loan today. T o apply, ju s t call
1 - 8 0 0 - U S L O A N S O r stop by y o u r n e ig h b o rh o o d branch. You ju s t
m ig h t d riv e o f f w ith a '92 A c c o rd (o r w h a te ve r to o ts y o u r h o rn ).
Young Parents Program Needs Volunteers
The Oregon Human Development
Corporation is actively recruiting for
volunteers to help with it’s Young
parents Program. T he program’s goal
is to help young parents and pregnant
adolescents in the Hillsboro area en-
hance their parenting skills and pro-
mote the healthy development of their
children Volunteers, twelve years old
and older, are needed for help with
child care in a nursery setting during
the weekly support meetings, Wednes-
days 4:00-6:15 pm. Volunteers are
also needed for an ongoing mentoring
program as well as special projects,
Interested people please call Alison
Peck, Coordinator o f Volunteer; Ser-
vices at OHDC, 640-6349
I
L o a n s F r o m
U.S. B a n k
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<1996 U.S bank.
( 'o m -E -5 96
Without you, there'!: no us."1