4 JUNE 1, 2003
Smoke Signals
Spirit Mountain Community Fund Reaches The $20 Million Mark
Community Fund contin
ued from front page
Fund successful.
"It's been wonderful," said
Monica Ileeran, Director of the
Volunteers Medical Clinic in Eu
gene. 'The grant money we re
ceived was used for the diabe
tes program and there are over
one hundred patients enrolled
in the program. The fund helps
us to provide services to people
who would otherwise not be able
to afford it."
The fund has given away more
than any other Tribal grant pro
gram in the state and more
than all the others combined.
The event emphasized diver
sity, a guiding principle of the
Community Fund from the
start, and guests saw that diver
sity in the entertainment that
included Japanese Taiko Drums
and the Hispanic Milagro The
ater. Checks for $5,000 each were
presented to a broad spectrum
of community outreach pro
grams. The recipients included
Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in
Eugene, the Community Action
Agency of Yamhill County and
the Sable House, a domestic vio
lence shelter and hotline in Dal
las. These awards brought the
fund to the $20 million mark.
"The fund is mostly education-related,"
said Adam
Henny, Director of Marketing
for the Spirit Mountain Casino.
The fund has supported edu
cational, family, and commu
nity organizations since its in
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Performance Art The Oregon
Coast Children's Theatre, above, was
just one of the hundreds of Spirit Moun
tain Community Fund grant recipients at
the Portland Art Museum to help celebrate
the fund reaching the $20 million mark in
charitable donations. Since it's inception
in 1997, the fund has helped over 250
different organizations with grants and
donations. Community Fund board
member Adam Henny (left) was there to
welcome everyone, as well as Oregon
State Senate Democratic leader Kate
Brown (right).
-A I
Farmworker Education Center Getting Finishing Touches
Community Fund's grant encouraged others to give.
By Ron Karten
The Cipriano Ferrel Education
Center is not scheduled to open un
til July, but when completed, it will
be a much needed multi-purpose fa
cility, said Roberto Franco, Execu
tive Director of the Farmworker
Housing Development Corporation
(FHDC) in Woodburn. "The core or
heart of the program will be an early
childhood development program."
This education center is the third
phase of a 105-unit housing devel
opment for farmworkers, but even
more than the first two phases, "The
Education Center has been a mag
net that created other collaboration
between our organization and the
community," said Franco.
"We have a computer lab for com
puter literacy and for providing
technical support for students, for
those interested in the internet and
email, and to help students with
their homework." It also will be
used to take advantage of "a lot of
programs that are internet-based."
Among on-going programs that
will soon have a home because of
the Education Center are English
classes for adults, a home-buyer
program, an after school program,
a 4-H youth club, and "since 1997,
we've been working with a group
of 20 women to be day care provid
ers." Last year, as part of a financial
literacy program, the FHDC made
a commitment to match savings on
a 4-1 basis for any of 20
farmworkers in the program who
save a minimum of $20 monthly.
The Community Fund contributed
$100,000 to the $1.5 million facil
ity, but it was a particularly impor
tant $100,000, according to Larry
Kleinman, Secretary-Treasurer of
PCUN, because it was the first ma
jor contribution the facility received,
and it opened the doors to other
funders, including Paul Allen, the
Meyer Memorial and the Ford Fam
ily foundations.
PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos
Unidos del NoroesteNorthwest
Treeplanters and Farmworkers
United), the state's farmworker
union, has championed Oregon
farmworkers since 1985, and is a
founding member of the non-profit
FHDC. B
u -I u
1 "P-l
A Place To Learn The
Cipriano Ferrel Education
Center is being constructed
with help from organizations
like the Tribe's Spirit Mountain
Community Fund. The edu
cation center is the third phase
of a 105-unit housing devel
opment for Woodburn farm
workers.
Oregon's Hungry Benefit From
Tribe's Community Fund
By Ron Karten
The Oregon Food Bank is the number one against hunger in Or
egon. With Oregon surfacing in recent years as one of the hungriest
if not the hungriest state in the union, the Food Bank's mission - "to
eliminate hunger and its root causes" is that much more vital.
The food bank works through 18 regional food banks, with one in
Grand Ronde, to serve more than half a million hungry Oregonians
each year. Forty-one percent are children.
For every dollar contributed, the Oregon Food Bank moves six pounds
of food to hunger-relief agencies. But the food bank has other needs
as well. In 2000, the Spirit Mountain Community Fund provided
$250,000 to the group for a new $9.75 million facility, fl