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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2005)
C e le b ra tin g Committed to Cultural Diversity B la c k H is to r y M o n th February 23. 2005 Bejing Modern Dance M etro Upcoming performance rooted in Chinese culture and thirst for freedom See story, page B3 ®*!' ^ o rtla n b (Obserucr SECTION C o u i m li n i t y a 1 e n d a r Career Fair Mt. Hood Community College hill host a career fair on Thurs day, Feb. 24, offering students and community members the chance to receive advice, re sources and networking oppor tunities with local businesses. The fair is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the MHCC College Center, 26000 S.E. Stark St. For more information, call 503-491 -7432. S tudent s Look Through the Eyes of MLK, Jr. w ith Essays Ockley Green Middle School Librarian Jane Morgan meets with the four students who won the Martin Luther King, Jr. essay contest. Eating Disorder Awareness “A Decade of Awareness, Pre vention and Treatm ent,” the ninth annual professional con ference on eating disorders, will be held on Friday, Feb. 25 at Washington State University in Vancouver. For more informa tion, call 503-295-7890. photos by N eil H eii . pern / F or T he P ortland O bserver Boy Scout Collection Local Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts will be participating in a door-to-door donation drive on Saturday, March 5. More than 90 cents of every dol lar recei ved from the sale of these items will go toward training and employ ment of people with disabilities and special needs. For more in formation, call 503-225-5767. Ockley Green Middle School 7th grade student Diego V. Diestra reads his essay on Martin Luther King, Jr., which won first place in the school's annual essay contest. Preschool Open House T illam ook C ooperative Pre schools holds its open house on Saturday, March 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 935 N.E. 33 Ave. Financial aid is available. For more information, call 503-234- 1691. Used Bookstore Sale T he M u ltn o m a h C o u n ty Library ’ s Title Wave Used Book- store at 216 N.E. Knott St. will hold its 17th anniversary sale during the month of March. Sales will change daily. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more infor mation, call 503-988-5021. Get Fit, Stay Healthy! Sankofaa Health Institute offers a free diabetes support group from 6 to 7:30 p.m. every third Thursday at Alberta Simmons Plaza, 6707 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more informa tion, call 503-285-2484. B by N eii . H eilpern F or T he P ortland O bserver “We have many races in our school and we get along well,” said Ockley Green Middle School student Diego V. Diestra. “This is what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted.” Diestra was the first place winner in his school’s essay Black History Month con Ockley Green Winning Essays test honoring the slain civil rights leader. He depicted a visit to his school by Dr. King and the image he would leave with students of different races studying and playing to gether. Second place winner Philip Melson imag ined Dr. King visiting the school, seeing “a rainbow of races” and thinking that “race Ockley Green Middle School students wrote from one of the following two topics for Black History Month: “If Martin Luther King Jr. were to visit your school today and look around, what would he say about race relations?” and “Is African American His tory month and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday only important to African Ameri cans, why or why not?” ‘Dr. King, Jr. would be proud o f how our school is, and even though we have a few race problems we 're trying to make it better. We have many races in our school and we get along well. This is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted. He wanted relations are way better than they were in the past.” He also noted that King would prob ably teach the students to be aware of racist language that may slip out of their mouths in everyday conversation. Damien Johnson-Moore, whose essay won third place, noted that King “dreamed we could share things and not have to hate us all to be good friends. ’ — Diego V. Diestra - 7th Grade 1st Place Winner ‘Martin Luther King Jr. would smile if he saw the diversity o f races at Ockley Green. We have black, white, Asian, European and Mexican-Americans here; it’s a rainbow o f races. But Dr. King would be very disap pointed if he heard the words we use here. Blacks are still called niggers, whites are still called crackers and new racist words come daily. It is sad that words like that at still used. ’ — Philip Melson - 7th Grade 2nd Place Winner each other.” He said King “helped bring the entire world together in friendship." “T his school is w o n d erfu l!” fourth place w inner Pam D eClue quoted King in an im aginary new spaper-style interview . “T here is hardly any racism and people continued on page B6 ‘Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that black and white people could get along with each other. He also wanted us to be friends. He dreamed we could share things and not have to hate each other. ’ — Damien Johnson-Moore - 7th Grade 3rd Place Winner ' When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited our school, Ockley Green, he said it was a great school. So what do you think about everyone’s behavior? ” / asked happily. "It’s between good and had, some people are fine, but others need to calm down. — Pam DeClue - 7th Grade 4th Place Winner Love the Pooch Problem pooch classes are a must take for anyone who may be ne w to the world of pet parenthood or is interested in considering adopting a new friend. Come to the Oregon Humane Society to find out why your dog does those silly little things. Meetings are every first and third Saturday of the month at 11 a.m. For more information, call 503-285-7722. Women In NAACP Women in NAACP meets from 10:30a.m. to 1 p.m. the first Sat urday of each m onth at the American Red Cross Building, 3131 N. Vancouver. For ques tions, call 503-249-6263. AIDS Awareness A lbina M inisterial A lliance sponsors a bi-monthly support and education group for African Americans living with HIV/ AIDS at Maranatha Church at 4222 NE 12th St. The group will meet every second and fourth Thursday of the month. For more in fo rm a tio n , call E ln ath an Hudson at503-285-0493ext. 217. Aquatic Fitness Providence has a full schedule of fitness classes including wa ter exercising at the Providence Aquatic Center, 4805 N.E. Glisan. Fora schedule, call 503-215-6301. Birth Ready W hether you need childbirth preparation classes, or just a refresher. Providence Health Systems has a workshop for you. V isit w w w .p ro v id e n c e .o rg / classes or call 503-574-6595. ! Kaiser Permanente Giving Kids a Healthy Chance Virtually free health care offered by K atherine K ovacich T he P ortland O bserver When your child comes to you crying with the flu, the chicken pox or a broken arm, will you be able to take them to the doctor without worrying about how much it’s going to cost because the rent is due, the bills need to be paid and the food needs to be in their bellies? Every day, children grow up without proper medical attention simply because their family doesn’t have health insurance. This is why Kaiser Permanente is offering 2(XX) children, grades K-6, the chance at a zero-premium health plan to make sure Portland’s kids are in tip-top shape. This can ensure a child is developing with the positive attention their bodies and minds need. “I’ve been a school nurse for 16 years and I have seen a lot of kids without insurance,” said Bill Tomlinson, of the Multnomah Education Service District. “To me, one of the biggest issues is the attitude and ability o f family to be able to readily access health care for their kids. It’s kind of an attitude that if there's something wrong with your kid. and you have the insur ance, you don't really hesitate to take care of your kid. If you don’t have the insurance and it's going to cost you 30 bucks minimum to get in the door, you hesitate. The longer you put it off, the more problems that occur." Making sure everything is functioning cor rectly with a young one is vital in their learning process. Just as a person with a cold is dis tracted from work, so is a child if the focus is on M ARK S k OI.NH K Enrique Azcorra, 41, is the father o f 9-year-old Jaime Azcorra Aragon. Aragon needed an eye exam and was able to get assistance through Kaiser s new PHOTO PROVIDED BY program. the pain in their body and not the lessons taught at school. “If a child is not going to be as attentive in class, they're going to be absent more. It they're worried about not getting into see the doctor or worried about the family in general, they’re not going to be attentive in school because they’re not feeling well or worrying about siblings. Kids who are healthy are ready to learn,” Tomlinson said. An alarming amount of students without insurance rely solely on a school nurse for care. “A lot of ones we do see, the kids get injured over the weekend and they wait until Monday when the nurse is there," Tomlinson said. Beyond stress, physical ailments can actu ally prohibit a child from hearing, seeing or concentrating if not dealt with. “I can remember one example of a kid who had hearing concerns and I w asn't really sure what was going on, but the kid was having a lot of learning problems at school," Tomlinson said. “As it turns out, this kid had had hearing prob lems for a really long time and they were not being dealt with at all by the parents because they didn't have access to and didn’t know how to access health insurance. We got the ball rolling and got some care for the child." Realizing that being healthy and being able to take care of yourself is a learned habit. “There's learning about w hat's important as a child, what’re their priorities. Health is a num ber one priority. If you learn that you can go right in and take care of any problem right away, there's an attitude you take in house and in school. Those attitudes are shaped by the abil ity of the family to access health care. They may learn that you worry about those kinds o f things continued on page B6
