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Coach
continued from page 1
teach them the value of true sportsman-
ship.”
The award honors Kirk Wellnitz, the son
of a Tualatin Valley coach, who lost his life
while training with the Air National Guard.
The Wellnitz recognizes coaches whose
teams display the highest standards of con-
duct.
Yarbrough’s teams show that superb
sportsmanship, as well as playing like
champs. His 2008 3rd and 4th Grade team
won eight games to zero giving up just one
touchdown all season.
Yarbrough got into coaching almost by
might be terrible, but when you go out there
on the football field, you can control who
you are,” he says.
“You teach them about responsibility,
teamwork, and all those aspects of life. You
teach them through sports.”
Yarbrough helps transport players and he
welcomes them into his home. Some keep
coming even when they move into high
school.
“They just want to hang out,” he says.
“They want to be in a situation where they
can feel confident and safe and not have the
stress of everyday life.”
As one of the first students
to be mentored through the
Self Enhancement Inc. pro-
gram, Yarbrough remembers
selling bricks to raise money
for the building. And he cred-
its his SEI mentor for helping
him find a productive path in
life. He got his first job
immediately after high school
and currently works as a
billing specialist for Oregon Sleep Associ-
ates. He became a father early, at age 20,
and now has two children: Naaman Jr, 12,
and Caalyn, 10. He wants a better life for
them, he says, and for every student he
works with. So far he has coached every kid
on the SEI football roster except the fifth
graders.
His students are a mixed bag. Some play-
ers have turned out to be star athletes. And
this year he had several players who were
very easy to coach.
Naaman Yarbrough wins
prestigious 2012 Wellnitz award
for Sportsmanship placing his
players and Self
Enhancement Inc. in spotlight
accident. His son was a keen football play-
er on a third grade team when one of the
coaches had to leave midseason. Yarbrough
stepped up, and has never looked back. It
means a lot to him, he says, partly because
he was forced to drop out of football in his
sophomore year of high school because he
didn’t have a stable home life.
Today, working with some students who
face similar challenges, Yarbrough can be
the stable force in their lives.
“Your circumstances when you go home
SEI Coaches: from Left: Anthony Deloney, Alex Robinson, Naaman yarbrough
and tony Melson
“I never had to call them in. I never had to
tell them more than once –and they did it
with a smile.”
Of course, not all players are little angels,
especially when they lack stability at home.
“Some kids are full of energy and you
have to harness that,” he says. “You get
some aggressive kids out there. And I was
an aggressive kid too. So you teach them
about responsibility, teamwork and all those
aspects of life. You teach them through
sports. It’s a real joy to work with those
kids.”
Yarbrough sees football as an ideal arena
for character development because the
game demands so much from everyone
involved.
“When these kids get on the field they’re
fighting for each other and risking their
health for one another. When they are out on
that field they are all they’ve got. So the
level of respect they have for one another is
different.”
That camaraderie continues even when
athletes choose other sports in high school,
he says.
“They’ll wrestle and pick at each other,
but they have each other’s backs.”
in all hospitals, they questioned how 12
housekeeping positions will be covered.
Online responses to the Lund
Report article, some from
posters who identified them-
selves as hospital staff, asked
why housekeepers are being cut
instead of administration costs.
O’Brien said she understood the
decision was not personal, but
business. Still, she felt the deci-
sion could have been delivered
personally.
“It just makes me sad that after 13 years it
means nothing,” she said.
At 3 p.m. Jan. 20, O’Brien’s supervisor
told her the cuts were on the table, but no
decision had been made.”
At 5 p.m., she says, a union representative
handed her a list with the names of 51 peo-
ple who were being laid-off. Her
name was on the list, along with
her staff number, hire date and
benefits information. That stung.
“I got told at the nurses station
in front of all my co-workers,” she
said. “I felt extremely stupid.”
O’Brien says she understands
the layoffs are not personal, but an
official announcement would have
been kinder.
financial aid process.
“It’s important not just for the youth to get
in but to also finish,” says Ladd. “As high as
the dropout rate is for high school, it’s even
higher for college.”
Ladd says the success of youth in second-
land-Vancouver-Beaverton area. The study
says these students would collectively earn
$40 million more a year if they had earned
their diplomas. It also says their increased
earnings would allow them to spend an
additional $29 million and invest an addi-
tional $10 million a year. Lastly,
the study says the spending and
investments would be enough to
support 350 new jobs and
increase gross regional product
(GRP) by $55 million.
Upcoming events for Future
Connect utilize everything from
hands-on demonstrations to
social media to give students
college and career insight.
The first of these events is the “Path to
Scholarships Workshop,” which will be
held at Mt. Hood Community College on
Jan. 28. It goes from 10 am to 4 pm and
includes lunch.
The workshop is designed to help students
learn where to find scholarships and fine
tune their college application essays.
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Layoffs
continued from page 1
staff cuts because he had not yet been
briefed on the result of the negotiations. But
he said the cuts were necessary because of a
$30 million cut in Medicaid reimburse-
ments from the state of Oregon.
“This will impact nursing,” said one
nurse, who asked to remain anonymous.
“because they’ll be doing the jobs the secre-
taries used to do. They’ll be answering the
phones, organizing transportation and
directing people.
“There will be nobody there to do that.
The nurses will have to do that.”
Three other Legacy staff spoke to the
Skanner news, but asked not to be identi-
fied. With strict hygiene standards required
With strict hygiene standards
required in all hospitals, they
questioned how 12 housekeeping
positions will be covered
Gossip, however was flying around the
hospital, she says. Other staff were asking
her if the rumor was true: all the unit secre-
taries were to be laid off.
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Future
continued from page 1
one counseling and skill training for stu-
dents.
Future Connect utilizes a partnership
between businesses, colleges and communi-
ties.
“We certainly don’t have the resources to
do it on our own,” says Ladd. “This
helps get the word out.”
Future Connect is funded by a
grant the Mayor’s Office secured
from Volunteers in Service to Amer-
ica (VISTA). Currently, VISTA
members work as community strate-
gy coordinators at Matt Dishman,
East Portland and Mt. Scott Commu-
nity Centers.
The City of Portland has invested half a
million dollars into scholarships for stu-
dents to attend local colleges and trade
schools.
According to Ladd, the investment will
provide scholarships for 200 students.
Part of the program allots college coaches
to students. These coaches help the students
with emergency funds and navigating the
The City of Portland has invested
half a million dollars into
scholarships for students to attend
local colleges and trade schools
ary education helps the community’s over-
all livability. According to the state report,
she says that increasing the number of youth
who complete post secondary education by
one percent would produce a $1.6 billion
increase in revenue for the region.
According to a study by the Alliance for
Excellent Education, there were 6,900
dropouts in the Class of 2010 in the Port-
Ladd says that college counselors in high
schools can’t be expected to handle the
needs of all their students when they are
tasked with serving hundreds of students by
themselves.
The second Future Connect event is “I
‘Like’ Financial Aid.” It will be held from 4
to 8 pm on Feb. 9.
In order for students to participate they
need to go to the Future Connect Facebook
page, where they can get real-time answers
from experts.
Teen F/X will be hosting “Tech Night” at
Mt. Scott Community Center on Feb. 17.
The event will go from 7 to 9 pm.
According to Portland Parks and Recre-
ation, it’s an opportunity for students to
explore technology careers and participate
in hands-on activities.
“The youth don’t know what’s out there,”
she says. “These are growing fields where
you can make good money.”
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January 25, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 3