6 JANUARY 1,2011
Smoke Signals
Lewis expands gift giving to Tribal foster children
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signal ttaff writer
Last year, Tribal member Ann
Lewis and her husband nixed
gifts for each other and instead
bought gifts for the Tribe's foster
children.
This year, she said, she secretly
got her husband a Christmas pres
ent, but expanded the largesse to
Tribal children by asking all the
folks attending her Dec. 8 birthday
party to bring gifts.
This year, the gifts all went to
"prevention families," said Tribal
member Carmen Mercier, Preven
tion caseworker for the Tribe. She
referred to families that are still
together, but at risk of needing
foster parent intervention for the
children.
"We work with Prevention to keep
the kids in their homes," Mercier
said.
Mercier has 12 families on her
caseload and those families have
20 children, she added.
"A big special thank you to the
Lewis family," said Mercier as
Lewis and volunteers unloaded
five big bags from the back of her
SUV. There's a gift here for every
child."
Strictly speaking, the number of
gifts given and children served did
not grow this year, but the idea of
opening up the birthday party to
a larger public means that in the
future the number of givers and
the number of gifts have a chance
to grow.
"Whatever we can do to get more
people involved," said Lewis. "When
I started the program last year, the
Tribe had 70 kids in foster care.
There are 120 in the program this
year."
Lewis's birthday party was held
at a winery in downtown McMin
nville, and attendees included Trib
al Council Secretary Kathleen Tom
and Tribal Council member Wink
Soderberg, Public Affairs Director
Sibbhan Taylor, Member Services
Specialist Reina Nelson, Rebecca
Crocker, Jan Reibach Sr. and Jan
Michael Looking Wolf Reibach.
Crocker and Reibach Sr. are
Tribal Elders; Nelson is a member
of the Tribe, as is Looking Wolf,
who also manages the Tribe's real
estate portfolio. Looking Wolf also
is an award-winning musician, who
played at the party.
Catering and interior design spe
cialist Kathy Sohler, Lewis' friend,
3PCS iff ..
V;, Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Ann Lewis, Tribal mimbtr and the Tribe's realty specialist, drops off
Christmas presents to the Tribe's Social Services Department at the Tribal
Community Center on Thursday, Dec. 1 6. The presents went to "prevention
families," families that are still together but at risk of needing foster parent
intervention for the children, within the Tribe.
contributed food and decorations
for the party.
In addition to partygoers, other
contributors included Portland-
area Tribal Elder Joyce Ham, as
well as Tribal Elder Leroy Good
and his wife, Mary Ellen, from
Michigan. D
New Year offers chance to
passionately follow our bliss
In an effort to inform and assist the community at large, Smoke Signals
has agreed to publish an occasional article addressing various mental
health issues written by a member of the Behavioral Health Department at
Health & Wellness. We welcome letters, e-mails and questions from people
with mental health-related questions at tom.bendergrandronde.org.
By Tom Bender
Tribal Menial Health counselor
What do you have in your life that you feel passionate about?
Many parents will say their children, so let's rule them out. Ditto for
your current relationship.
Now what are you passionate about? How do you feed your spirit?
If we are dependent on others for the state of our happiness, what hap
pens ifwhen the other person leaves or displeases us somehow? Have we
given up the power to make ourselves happy?
The New Age credo says, "I create my own reality." The words may sound
a little cheesy, but they're true. Taking full responsibility for composing
the song that is our lives is a radical step. We are 100 percent responsible
for creating our reality positive, negative and neutral.
Granted, few of us wish to take ownership for the more challenging mo
ments in our lives and would rather chalk those up to fate, luck or someone
else's fault. However, if we take the time to reflect on how we created our
reality, we discover that many of the decisions we made in the past led us
exactly to the circumstances in which we find ourselves today.
The good news is, there is an antidote to help us ward off habitual nega
tive patterns and cycling in and out of unfulfilling relationships; an antidote
to counteract the tendency we may have in settling for "good enough" in
our lives; an antidote to feeling bored, depressed and unchallenged.
Joseph Campbell incited us to "Follow Our Bliss." Instead of waiting for
good fortune to strike, what if good fortune is a choice, an energy we can
invite into our lives like a welcomed houseguest.
I see finding our passion as a two-step process. The first is to commit
ourselves to taking responsibility for our lives, no matter how tempting it
is to divert the blame to an external source. The choice is always there to
blame others for our lot in life. (Much of the world already does this.) But
as long as we try to make our struggles someone else's responsibility, we
are living in a state of disempowerment. If we are willing to shift the focus
back to ourselves, we can then become the masters of our own lives.
The second step toward renewing our passion is to discover (or uncover)
that which you feel passionate about. What gives you pleasure? What child
hood dreams did you put down because they weren't "realistic"? What goals
haven't you pursued because it required too much effort or discipline?
To be human means we are here to experience life and to love. Herrick
wrote, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."
When I reflect back on the past decade, it seems like an eye blink ago
that the wheels of the calendar spun to 2-0-0-0. Life is fleeting and fragile,
and a New Year is upon us. Let us resolve today to choose one thing just
one and follow our bliss. Life is so much more fun that way. B
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Spirit Mountain Casino Chief Operating Officer Randy Dugger, left,
and Chief Executive Officer Rodney Ferguson look through toys that
were part of the more than 1 2,000 toys delivered to Doernbecher
Children's Hospital in Portland on Monday, Dec. 20. The toys were
collected during the casino's annual toy drive, which encouraged
casino guests to bring In new, unwrapped toys in exchange for free
slot play over a three-week period. This is the third year of the toy
drive and the biggest collection yet.
People, including Spirit Mountain Casino Chief Executive Officer
Rodney Ferguson, second from left, and Marketing Manager Greg
Fritz, third from left, watch as boxes of toys are unloaded from a semi
truck at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland on Monday, Dec.
20. Two trucks were needed to deliver 254 boxes of toys.