COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 2, 2015
Fundraiser helps online group 'Pay it Forward'
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
hey’ve been at it for almost two years, and
organizers of an event held Saturday in Bo-
hemia Park got a bit of the community’s help “pay-
ing it forward” to those in need.
This December marks the two-year anniversary
of the founding of the “Pay it Forward Cottage
Grove” group on Facebook, a group that uses the
online platform to gather and transfer items from
those in the area who can spare them to those that
need them. On Saturday, a fundraiser to help cover
the group’s cost drew a large crowd.
“We were very busy, though a little under-
staffed,” said Jennifer Neil, who started the group
with her mother, Mindy Beer, and continues to run
it from Beer’s Cottage Grove home.
Neil said funds raised from the event will help
cover the costs of warehouse space to store items
before weekly pick-up days, in addition to purchas-
ing supplies to fi ll boxes for the homeless, baby
formula and other community needs. Saturday’s
fundraiser included a “huge free sale,” that Neil
said went very well, doling out over 3000 pieces of
clothing. A successful silent auction, free games,
a bounce house, snow cones and a dunk tank also
helped round out the day’s events.
The Pay it Forward group recently gained its sta-
tus as a non-profi t organization, Neil said, a process
that was more diffi cult than one might imagine.
“We got it two weeks ago, and it was a big
thing,” she said. “They didn’t know quite how to
categorize us because we don’t pay anybody — a
lot of times a non-profi t will have a paid executive
director or administrator.”
The Pay it Forward group, in contrast, operates
due to the efforts of Neil, Beer and a handful of
volunteer administrators including Monique Cris-
tine, Amanda Wilson, Emily Robinson and Bob
Ehler. The group hopes that its new non-profi t sta-
tus can lead to sponsorships to further its work in
the community.
3A
Reduced-cost
lunches eliminated
throughout School
District
Students who previously
qualifi ed will now get them free
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
R
courtesy photo
educed-cost lunches have been eliminated
at schools in South Lane School District,
and Food Service Supervisor Monica Yoss said
it’s a great thing for area youth.
About 65 percent of students at South Lane
qualify for free or reduced lunches, Yoss said,
though students at all schools who would previ-
ously have qualifi ed for reduced lunches will now
get them for free.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown recently signed
into law House Bill 5017, which will offer free
lunches to about 30,000 of the state’s students
who previously qualify for a reduced cost. The
bill appropriated $2.4 million toward the mandate
for more free lunches.
Last year, 217 of the nearly 2600 South Lane
students qualifi ed for reduced lunches. With the
exception of students at Dorena School and Al
Kennedy Alternative High School, these families
will still be required to fi ll out an application, but
they can now keep the $.40 per meal they previ-
ously paid as the reduced rate.
“The same amount of people will qualify for
free and reduced lunches, but now they will all be
free,” Yoss said. The qualifi cations are based on
the number of individuals in a household. A two-
A fundraiser for the 'Pay it Forward Cottage Grove' group on Facebook drew a
large crowd, where a free sale included the donation of over 3000 items of cloth-
ing to community members. The group recently gained non-profi t status.
Please see LUNCH, Page 11A
Sheriff's Offi ce chase yields a different wanted subject
Search for James
Vaughn leads to
Sebastian Bivens,
wanted on a long list
of charges
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he pursuit of a wanted
subject by Lane County
Sheriff’s Deputies on Thursday
led to the apprehension of a man
long familiar to local, state and
county law
enforce-
ment
—
though it
was not the
subject po-
lice origi-
nally hoped
to capture.
Lt. Chris
Sebastian
Doyle of
Bivens
the Sher-
iff’s Offi ce said that the pursuit
of James Allen Vaughn, 45, who
is reportedly wanted in regard
to traffi c violations, began in
the Row River area near Sharps
Creek Thursday afternoon af-
ter a failed traffi c stop. Police
were unable to locate Vaughn,
Doyle said, though they did fi nd
his blue Chevrolet pickup truck
abandoned on the Row River
Trail near Harms Park.
The added Sheriff’s Offi ce
staff in the area in response to
the pursuit included a deputy
that recognized 25-year old Se-
bastian Bivens of Cottage Grove
as a passenger in a vehicle dur-
ing an unrelated traffi c stop,
Doyle said. Bivens was subse-
quently arrested and was lodged
at the Lane County Jail on Mon-
day afternoon.
Bivens has a long history of
contact with Cottage Grove Po-
lice, and he managed to elude
local, state and county police for
much of the month of July. He
was captured with considerable
effort last January; he then elud-
ed local police in the process
of another arrest on June 28.
On the weekend of July 30-31,
Bivens was able to ditch a car
he had been driving on London
Road and again elude Oregon
State Police and other agencies
on foot — twice. He was again
arrested — this time without
incident — by Lane County
Sheriff’s Deputies on Aug. 14
while walking near Baker Bay
County Park after again evading
police throughout the previous
evening.
On Monday, staff at the Lane
County Jail said that Bivens was
being held on a host of charges
including attempted assault II,
possession of a stolen vehicle,
eluding police, escape III, reck-
less driving, attempted animal
abuse and criminal mischief
I. The jail representative did
not have information on Biv-
ens’ previous arrest this month,
though personnel with the Cot-
tage Grove Police Department
said they had been informed that
he had previously been released
after just a matter of hours be-
hind bars.
Doyle said the Sheriff's Offi ce
would still very much like to
speak with Vaughn, who is de-
scribed as a white male weigh-
ing about 200 pounds and stand-
ing fi ve feet, eight inches tall.
Those with information on his
whereabouts are encouraged to
call the Sheriff's Offi ce at 541-
682-4150.
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