The Siuslaw news., December 12, 2018, Page 7A, Image 7

SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2018 | 7A
BOYS & GIRLS from page 1A
“I will be coaching a first-sec-
ond grade and third-fourth
grade team this season for BGC
basketball,” Perry said. “The
plan is to have our coaches put
a lot of time and effort into the
fundamentals of the game. It is
important to begin these skills
at an early age so that as we
progress through the program
and into the school teams, we
are properly prepared to com-
pete against the best teams and
schools the state has.”
Perry will also work to help
train coaches, who are generally
parents volunteering their time
as a way to spend more time
with their kids.
“We will be putting togeth-
er coaching clinics to teach the
fundamentals of the sports,” Per-
ry said. “I expect to find coach-
es who care about the kids and
who are eager to teach the fun-
damentals of the games they will
participating in through their
grade school years. I’m not sure
I would characterize my style
in training adults, I just expect
them to try and put themselves
in the child’s perspective and to
be patient with their coaching
duties.”
BGC also hopes that the in-
clusion of coordinated coaching
classes will help bring in more
adults to the program.
“I hope that we can continue
to get larger numbers of partic-
ipants for all the sports that we
offer through the club, and that
we can get more parents in-
volved to help coach our youth,”
Perry said.
As Perry works to strengthen
the sports programs, other BGC
staff will focus on academics.
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“It goes to healthy lifestyles,”
Trent said. “One of the things
that Dylan and I have talked
about is making sure that, be-
cause we have so many student
athletes, we continue to have
their academics go into the di-
rection they need to go to make
sure they graduate on time and
stay in the programs. This is a
really good partnership, in par-
ticular with athletics, homework
and mentoring.”
“I hope that there will be other
ways the district and BGC might
begin to work more together,”
Perry said. “I am quite new to
this relationship, but I plan to do
my best to bring our community
closer through all outlets.”
One of those possible outlets
is through the creation of a “Mi-
crod” club, which Trent hopes
could foster a stronger relation-
ship with the district’s STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineer-
ing and Mathematics) programs.
“Essentially, it’s miniature
hot rods,” Trent said. “They’re
souped-up go-karts powered by
lawn mower engines that have
roll cages, safety harnesses and
are low to the ground, so they’re
not going to tip over.”
Microd racing began New
York in the 1950s, with children
building and racing the minia-
ture race cars around dedicat-
ed tracks. The cars themselves,
made of wood frames, rarely go
above 20 miles per hour. While
there have been a number of
clubs that have popped up on the
east coast and Midwest through-
out the decades, the sport has
yet to take off in the west.
Terry Tomeny, who helped
build the successful Florence Air
Academy with the BGC, brought
the idea to Trent in hopes to
build up a robust and popular
program for the community.
“What I would like to see is by
June, we race these cars,” Trent
said. “We could start out with a
large parking lot, but the idea is
on Saturdays to have a commu-
nity event to watch the kids race.
… Eventually we’d like to find
someplace where we can actual-
ly build a track.”
The education portion of the
microd’s come with the students
building them.
“We find volunteers to help us
buy these microrods, so the kids
actually do the work,” Trent said.
“They have a mentor who helps
them use hand tools, how to do
the assembly, the maintenance.
Everything from tire pressure to
the lawnmower engines to the
brakes. It’s really mechanical in
nature.”
BGC would start by training
older kids in car creation, who
could then take their knowledge
to mentor younger kids.
“I’ve not talked to the school
district yet, but our approach
is building bridges,” Trent said.
“The school does robotics and
the automotive shop. What if we
partnered with the automotive
shop? We could have some of the
kids in the automotive shop help
our younger kids build these.
The overall idea is to be able to
help kids know how to use small
tools and basic maintenance.”
Trent said the club already
has some sponsors identified to
fund the cars — they cost $500
to build — and others who have
volunteered to help teach the de-
sign of the cars.
Other STEM projects include
teaching by local videographer
Gary Quinn of Okey Dokey
Video Productions, based in
Florence.
“He’s going to teach video pro-
duction,” Trent said. “We’ll actu-
ally have students produce our
videos that we want to put on
Facebook on our webpage. Then
computer repair as well, and
Gary owns a commercial drone
business that he can teach. We’re
going to have several electives
for our older kids, and exposure
to potential careers.”
In addition, Trent hopes that
a partnership can be made with
the school district to give BGC
members school credit for their
work.
“We’ve contacted (counselor)
Steve Moser to begin that dis-
cussion,” Trent said. “Anything
that we can do to help these kids
have exposure to potential as
they graduate from high school
is still a good thing. We’re still in
the early stages, but that’s the di-
rection we want to go.”
Aside from partnerships with
the school district, BGC is also
working to strengthen its own
programs, such as Smart Girls,
Passport to Manhood and Mon-
ey Matters. The club kids have
even started their own student
council, where the kids make
their own rules, such as cell
phone policies.
“Part of that is to teach the
kids how to have a voice in a
constructive way,” Trent said.
“It’s also helping them under-
stand the consequences of their
actions. That’s a really import-
ant part of their mentoring and
passport to manhood. As they
get older, the consequences of
their actions are greater when
they get older. What we want to
do is teach them problem solv-
ing skills and coping skills to
make informed decisions, and
to understand the pros, cons and
impacts of those decisions.”
To ensure that the programs at
BGC are properly administered,
the club is partnering with the
Oregon Community Founda-
tion, using the Youth Quality
Program Assessment. Through
a combination of self-assess-
ments and an outside observer,
club staff are scored on areas
such as emotional safety, skill
building, interaction and en-
gagement with the students.
“We’ll take our self-assess-
ments, combine them with an
external assessment that doesn’t
have any ties to our club, and
then we get scored on that,”
Trent said. “They’ll give us an
overall score, and we start build-
ing an action plan on areas that
will have a bigger impact and
meet the needs of our kids. This
is a very intensive, three-year
program to make sure our staff
and programs are outstanding.”
The club has also been work-
ing on enhancing their facilities
with the inclusion of the Nan
Osbon Teen Center, which had
its official groundbreaking ear-
lier this year and is now up and
running.
The center, which is designed
for teens in grades eight to 12,
includes two classrooms, a com-
puter lab, a kitchen and an en-
tertainment area that includes a
pool table, a big screen TV and
two vintage pinball machines.
While the center is fully
functional, there is still some
cosmetic work that needs to be
done.
“We’re having [the teens] help
us putting it all together to move
forward,” Trent said. “This is
their space. What would be real-
ly cool is working with some of
the local artists in the commu-
nity to do murals and different
things like that.”
Trent also emphasized that
the building is for all teens, no
matter if they are members or
not.
“Any of the high schoolers
who need access to a computer
to do their homework, they can
come in here,” Trent said. “They
don’t have to be a club member.
The most important thing is
that the kids have a safe posi-
tive place, be it here, the school
district, CROW. Wherever it
is, we just want to make sure,
working together, we’re doing
the right thing for the kids. We
want to build bridges with the
rest of the groups. It’s our com-
munities’ kids. It truly does take
a community to make our kids
successful.”
to participate in the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture (USDA)
walking in the forest with find- Christmas Tree Program, which
ing the perfect family Christmas entitles buyers to one permit to
tree for a very reasonable price. select and cut down the tree of
Surprisingly, it only costs $5 their choosing within nation-
al forests. The USDA lists the
most popular tree species used
for Christmas Trees are Douglas
fir, white fir, incense cedar and
lodgepole and ponderosa pines.
Not every kind of tree will be
available in every region.
The Siuslaw National Forest is
one of the nearby locations that
residents can search to select
their own Christmas tree.
Stephen Baker, who handles
media relations for the U.S. For-
est Service’s Pacific Northwest
Region, reported in an email
to the Siuslaw News that the
program, while inexpensive, is
quite popular.
“In 2017, the Forest Service
sold 41,618 Christmas tree
permits in Oregon, and 404 of
those were sold in the Siuslaw,”
he said, adding that $192,160
was generated by the permit
sales.
The Christmas Tree Program
was used by more than 40,000
Oregonians last year, but can be
challenging from a number of
perspectives, most notably due
to inclement weather and un-
familiarity with the forest area
selected.
Baker suggests that permit
holders take some basic precau-
tions before entering the forest.
“Check the weather fore-
cast and road conditions be-
fore traveling and dress for the
weather,” he advised. “Always
be prepared for the cold and the
snow and start hunting early in
the day in order to have plen-
ty of daylight hours. And bring
emergency supplies, including
water, food and a first aid kit, as
well as a map and a compass, as
your cell phone may not work
in many forests.”
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