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SATURDAY EDITION | DECEMBER 1, 2018 | $1.00
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LCC Winter
Class Schedule
Hanukkah
begins Dec. 2
INSIDE
128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 96
FLORENCE, OREGON
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
23rd annual Empty Bowls
Local Nativity
collections on Community seeks to fill
display this Food Share’s Empty Bowls
weekend
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
O
ne of the Florence community’s most
successful fundraising events, Empty
Bowls, makes its annual appearance
this weekend at the Florence Events Center.
The popular fundraiser accepts hundreds
of bowls designed, created and donated by
community members and sells them to the
general public — with all proceeds going
to Florence Food Share. This year’s event is
the 23rd consecutive year Empty Bowls
has been held. Purchased bowls will be
accompanied by a coupon redeemable for
one cup of soup at a participating restau-
rant during the month of December. Empty
Bowls will be held on Saturday, Dec. 1,
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec.
2, from noon to 3 p.m.
See NATIVITY page 8A
Planting Roots of Empathy
W
INSIDE
ilson Hornung com-
mands the unbro-
ken attention of two
dozen students at Siuslaw El-
ementary School — no small
feat in a classroom full of
first-graders. When he speaks,
the children cheer. When he
sits upright, the children ooh
and aww. When he flops over
on his belly, the children clap.
He’s also just six months old.
Wilson is one of four infants
who, once a month, have a star
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Community. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B5
A3
A4
A2
role in Siuslaw Elementary
School classrooms under the
newly-instated Roots of Em-
pathy program, a series of
curricula aimed at enhanc-
ing children’s empathic and
social intelligence.
“Talking to my oth-
er teacher friends about
it, they’re intrigued,” said
teacher Heather Costa, who
hosts the Roots of Empathy
class for Wilson’s visits. “And
I’m excited for the kids to see
a positive parent-child rela-
Wilson Hornung (center) visits Siuslaw Elementary School
tionship.”
Roots of Empathy was classes in his role as “teacher” in the Roots of Empathy
born from the idea that em- Program.
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Monthly Calendar . . . . . . . . . A6
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Twin Lakes Store’s
annual gift distribution
seeks more participants
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
Holiday celebrations surrounding this time
of the year have begun, with a number of re-
ligious traditions centered around the cele-
brated birthday of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
on Dec. 25. For the Christian community of
Florence, one of the local seasonal highlights
is a collection of Nativity scenes that depict
different interpretations of the birth of Jesus.
There is a centuries-old tradition among
Christian denominations to include Nativity
scenes to symbolize the historical setting that
was present at the time of the birth of Jesus.
The Florence Nativity Festival at The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
is an extensive collection that includes in-
terpretations of the birth of Jesus created by
followers from many different cultures. This
year’s display will have hundreds of Nativity
sets comprised of numerous individual piec-
es and no two are alike. Many of the sets are
family heirlooms.
The church, located at the corner of North
Fork and Munsel Lake roads, began sharing
Nativity sets with the public more than a de-
cade ago. Carol Parrish has been involved
since the inception of the event.
“I was in the very first one 14 years ago,”
she said. “I got a lot of mine at yard sales,
Goodwill and estate sales. I pick them up
here and there and I just keep at it.”
In addition to what would be considered
“traditional” scenes, which are centered on
figurines in or around a barn or a manger,
there are other, more modern treatments of
the event that Christians look towards as the
beginning of their religion.
Story & Photo
By Damien Sherwood
Siuslaw News
Giving Tree brings
‘the magical part
of Christmas’ to
local teens
THIS WEEK ’ S
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
49 39
49 34
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50 35
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
The Christmas lists begin unexpectedly for
teenagers: Socks, underwear, deodorant.
“There are more comforters on that tree
than normal,” Vicki Ambrosio said. “They’re
asking for bedding. What teenager puts this
on their Christmas list? It’s all the time. For
the kids to put their toiletries and shampoo
and conditioner, it’s crazy. They’re asking for
things that should already be in their lives,
but maybe they can’t afford it.
“That’s why I do it.”
Ambrosio heads up the Twin Lakes Giving
Tree program, which for the past six years
has been giving gifts to teenagers, age 12 to
18, who live primarily in the rural area north
of Florence. She runs the program out of her
business, Twin Lakes Store, a convenience
store located on Highway 101 near Munsel
Lake.
For the program, teenagers fill out a list of
needs and wants on a paper ornament, which
Ambrosio then places on a small tree just
next to the main doors of Twin Lakes. Her
customers come in, take an ornament and
purchase the items for the kids, sometimes
all of them, sometimes just a few — whatever
they can afford.
“There’s a lot of teenagers that are on their
own in this town,” Ambrosio said. “There’s
homeless teenagers in this town, or teenagers
who are being raised by their grandparents.
Those are the people that we’re looking for.
We still have about 15 slots we’re making for
kids to come in and do their wish list.”
See GIVING TREE page 10A
School districts work with programs
to teach students emotional literacy
pathy and understanding
are curative ingredients for
a more compassionate soci-
ety and that delivering these
lessons early in life can have
profound individual and
community-wide effects.
Its founder, Mary Gordon,
first created the program in
Ontario in 1996 and the or-
ganization has since spread
worldwide and in multiple
languages.
The program relies on lo-
cal families to volunteer with
their two- to four-month-old
infants to play a teaching
role in classrooms. At their
core, these lessons revolve
around “emotional literacy”
and the skills associated with
seeing the world through oth-
ers’ perspectives.
The program came to the
Siuslaw region through the
90by30 child abuse prevention
project, a Eugene-based non-
profit dedicated to reducing
child abuse 90 percent in Lane
County by 2030. The nonprof-
it’s West Lane district co-chair,
Suzanne Mann-Heintz, is also
an instructor in the Roots of
Empathy program.
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS | 20 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2018
See ROOTS page 11A