February 7,2001
Page A5
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Collins Center Reunion To Remember Founder Study Finds More Kids
P y § ta . n P eterson
ocal leaders want to
sustain the vision of a
woman who d e d i­
cated her life to helping chil­
dren by helping keep the com­
m unity center she helped
found viable for many years
to come.
All past and present partici­
pants in the Grace and Evelyn
Collins Community Center,
formerly the Christian Com­
munity Center, at 128 N.E.
Russell St., are being urged to Evelyn Collins was a role model
who challenged kids to be their
help in this vision.
best.
Evelyn C ollins or M iss
Collins, as those who fre­
quented the center fondly
member her contributions, a
knew her, was a special gift “Collins Kids and Friends
of love who devoted decades Alumni Reunion” will be held
of her life to the community
in August to coincide with her
center. She died in March birthday.
1999.
If you are a “Collins Kid”
Now to celebrate and re- reading this article, the fol­
L
Visiting guests from the Rolling Hills Church enjoy the festivities at a
recent gathering in northeast Portland’s Grace and Evelyn Collins
Memorial Community Center.
lowing song may bring a big
smile to your face as you re­
member some special times:
“ We
are
the
c e n te r
c h ild re n ...ch ild re n ... c h il­
dren ... we are the center chil­
dren and we love Jesus, too!
O ur teach er is M iss
Collins... Miss Collins... she
is more than two. Our teacher
is Miss Collins and she loves
Jesus too.”
In his famous “I Have a
Dream” speech, the late Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke
of a “world” where his chil­
dren would be judged by the
“content of their character, not
the color of their skin.”
Miss Collins lived by those
words.
She was a role model who
challenged us to be our best,
not limit ourselves based on
circumstances such as color
or the way we dressed or the
way we talked. She saw deep
into our potential, as children
of God.
Miss Collins was an amaz­
ing storyteller. In rapt atten­
tion from the children, she told
Bible stories each day. She
helped us to learn, recite and
understand scripture, and how
those stories and verses ap­
plied to our lives.
It is time for us to return
home to the center where we
shared a special experience
and bond, to make certain that
the dream which was Miss
Collins, that of a special place
were anyone could come and
Grace Collins Memorial
Community Center
We invite you to become involved or more
involved- in this precious community vision.
Please call us to find out about
the center’s programs.
Learn how you can support or become involved
in presentations (in-person) to your group or
organization.
128 NE Russell Street
Portland Oregon 97212
Ph. 503.281.6930 7"
PO Box OR 97211
feel welcomed, safe, and ac­
cepted, continue for genera­
tions to come.
Perhaps more than ever,
our community needs that kind
of place now.
We need to prepare for our
own children and to leave them
a legacy o f love to pass on to
their children. Such a place
requires commitment, time,
and resources.
Can you assist in helping to
create an endowment that
would generate a $500,000
annually for programs at the
center? Or perhaps your spe­
cial gift and passion for chil­
dren could come in the form
of donated skills to help us
work on the center’s struc­
tural remodeling and mainte­
nance?
We estimate that “Collins’
Kids” number in the several
thousands.
The first step is for the
Collins Board o f Directors to
know who you are and how
we can contact you.
Please call the center at
503-281-6930. You are also
welcome to write or visit the
center and let us know who
you are, your connection with
Miss Collins, and how you
would like to celebrate her life
with your own gift in memory
of the center she so selflessly
devoted her life to.
Whatever you give, time,
talent, or treasure will live and
provide others a little of what
you had in Miss Collins.
with Alcohol and Guns
1999 of more than 18,400
n increasing num
sixth- and eighth-graders’
ber of Oregon
children mark
behavior and safety.
Smoking among eighth-
their middle school years
graders dropped to 13 per­
by drinking alcohol and car­
rying weapons, according
cent, the lowest since 1990.
Drug use dropped as well,
to a new study.
The study, released by
with marijuana use return­
ing to 1994 levels of about 9
Children First for Oregon,
percent.
also found that nearly 900
But alcohol abuse among
seventh- and eighth-grad­
middle schoolers remained
ers dropped out of school in
unchanged since 1992,
1999. One in four eighth-
something that some youth
graders drink alcohol on a
advocates blame on parents’
monthly basis and 15 per­
attitudes about drinking.
cent of Oregon’s pre-teens
“I don’t think we have to
carry weapons, the study
accept this as a rite of pas­
shows.
sage,” said Tonia Hunt, a
“A lot of kids tend to lose
researcher and policy ana­
their way between 8 and
lyst forChildren First. “Kids
13,” said Marie Hoeven,
today have a lot less sup­
executive director of the
port than 20 years ago, and
advocacy and research
there is a lot of difference
group.
between going to a drinking
Children First publishes
party as a junior in high
an annual report on
school and as a seventh-
Oregon’s children as part
grader and the place that
of the national Kids Count
leads to over time.”
survey. Reports of soaring
lso among the
drop-outs among Oregon’s
findings: At least
high school students made
879 students —
researchers focus on the
or about 1 percent o f the
“ fo rg o tten kids in the
90,000 seventh- and eighth-
middle” in a search for an­
graders statewide — drop
swers.
out before high school and
The group analyzed data
about 3,400 middle school
on juvenile arrests, child
students were known vic­
abuse and neglect and Or­
tims
of abuse and neglect,
egon Health Division sur­
up from 2,800 in 1997.
veys across the state in
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