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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 2017)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL APRIL 5, 2017 11A Vets Continued from A1 “That’s where we’ll put the pigs because they smell,” he says. It’s part of the vision—pigs, service dogs, beehives, gardens, yoga, counselors, fi shing trips and a place to call home. “Americans account for 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the incarceration rate,” he says. And of those currently in Oregon’s state detention centers and prisons, 24 percent served in the armed forces at one time or another. “I saw what it did for the low-risk inmates here. Having a sense of purpose and I used to tell them, if you want to get high, get high on life,” Buckwald said. Approximately 20 volunteers came out to the remote camp on Saturday, April 1 to get their hands dirty tackling cobwebs, plumb- ing issues, leftover inmate materials and other remnants of the fa- cility’s previous life. “This is what we call a second call to action,” said Buckwald. The group advertised the work day on social media and had responses from all over Lane County. Cottage Grove Mayor Jeff Gowing began work just before 10 a.m. hauling wheelbarrows full of debris and disposing of barrels full of forgotten fertilizer and rain water. “Veterans need a place to transition back to reality,” he said. Cottage Gove Planning Commissioner and current active duty member Alan Widener joined Gowing in the clean-up and noted that he had heard of the effort and wanted to lend a hand. “It’s important to pay it forward,” he said. NO INMATES SOUTH LANE COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE The Only Emergency Medical Transport Service in South Lane County Community Public Education: • CPR/AED • Heart Attack Recognition • Fall Prevention • Stroke Prevention • Fire Prevention • Fire Extinguishers • Fire-Med Membership Call 541-942-4493 for info. FOR EMERGENCY DIAL 911 Serving South Lane County. www.southlanefi re.org “If you do that, I can donate the batting.” “I gather them up and cut them up and get the quilters to turn them into blankets.” “I love that idea but absolute- ly, nothing that says inmate.” It’s a spontaneous conver- sation that erupts when Buck- wald fi nds Becky in the kitchen, scrubbing at the old stoves. He’s known her since his rookie days when she taught him everything he knows. But it’s when Molly Patterson interrupts the reunion that the impromptu organizing begins. She’s found a stockpile of old jeans and coats used for the facility’s prior tenants. She Volunteers spent their Saturday cleaning and organizing the remnants of the former inmate camp in says they’ve never been worn preparation of a new venture: housing veterans and helping them work through PTSD. and to throw them away would be a waste; thus the hurried con- versation of batting and quilters. “I just don’t want anything that says inmates. These aren’t inmates,” Buckwald says. The conversation illustrates the core of the Veteran Legacy’s efforts: still taking shape but with the intention to shepherd the camp from its past into the future. Under the county’s control, up to 120 inmates could be housed at the camp in bunkbeds and communal showers. “We don’t want to cram them in so the most we would do is probably 50,” Oberle says. The bunkbeds will be disposed of and custom beds with built in drawers will take their place. “The veterans will have their with calisthenics and then a group may cook, another may clean own space and we want space for a service animal as well because followed by time in the garden, refl ection, counseling or building it’s important,” Buckwald said. maintenance. The new bunks will also be getting more sunlight with correc- “Every moment will be for a purpose and sometimes that purpose tion-grade windows on the schedule to be replaced by bay windows will be recreation or rest or refl ection,” Oberle said. and lockers will fall aside for individual, personalized spaces divid- John LeBow is the president of the board of directors for Veterans ed by cubby walls. Legacy. When researching different organizations that the group “It’s important that they have their own space and this be differ- may be able to reach out to for help, he went to Veterans Affairs. ent from when the inmates were here,” Buckwald said. “When an “They basically told me, no one is doing this,” he said, noting inmate would be out in the yard at 2 a.m. someone would say, ‘Hey that there are residential programs and farming programs and coun- get back in bed.’ But here, sleeping is a problem for veterans with seling but to his knowledge, nothing that puts all of those aspects PTSD and if someone’s out at 2 a.m. there will be someone there to together. say, ‘Hey, let’s get some coffee, let’s sit and talk.’” “We would like for this to be the pride of Lane County,” he said. “And maybe even a prototype for the rest of the country.” Completion of the camp is funding dependent, according to Oberle. Work days, he says, can clean up and repair the majority of the camp but the group will still need to hire staff to get it up and running. Veterans Legacy was awarded a fi ve year lease with an option for “We’ve seen different numbers but there are anywhere from fi ve more and the hint of an op- 30,000 to 38,000 veterans in Lane County and most of those are portunity to purchase the prop- employed. If we could get just a percentage of those to become erty from the county outright: members, that’s our operating cost,” he said. Memberships in Vet- but not yet. erans Legacy cost $60 for an individual and $100 for a family per “None of us have ever done year with the money going directly to the camp. anything like this before,” Ober- “Grant funding comes and goes,” LeBow said. “But if we can get le said noting that the specifi cs this donation-based where it’s a yearly donation people make, we of the day-to-day routine are would be in a good place.” still being settled. Veterans may begin their day LEGACY Please join us for our annual EASTER SUNDAY CELEBRATION Quilters, volunteers, donations need for veteran project By Caitlyn May cmay@cgsentinel.com HUMANE SOCIETY OF COTTAGE GROVE Th anks our sponsors for sponsoring our successful Jamboree that was held in Creswell on March 25th. April 16, 2017 Delight Valley Church of Christ 33087 Saginaw Road East, Cottage Grove 541-942-7711 9:00 - 10:30am 9:00 - 10:30am & After Service 10:30 - Noon-ish 11:00 - Noonish Noonish KNND Radio PRT USA Growing Services Banner Bank of Cottage Grove Jonathan Backer, DDS Marvin Smith Automotive Free Breakfast Free Easter pictures Props available, pictures received on the s pot! Worship Service – in the Gym Kid’s Program – in the Chapel Easter Egg Hunt (after Worship Service lets out) Easter Egg Hunt (Doesn’t last long, come early) 10,000 Candy or Toy fi lled Eggs! Body Works Salon Dirt Cheap Copies Wall to Wall Carpet Cleaning Cottage Grove Sentinel Cascade Home Center Creswell Chronicle Tammy McClung, DDS Cottage Grove Lions Club Creswell Fastmart Humane Society of Cottage Grove Members Molly Patterson is asking resi- dents for help. After discovering several bags worth of old jeans and jackets that would otherwise be thrown away, she's found a new use for them. "We'll turn them into quilts or teddy bears and then sell them and the profi ts will go to the camp or store the blankets and they can be used by the people here," she said. The jackets were part of a clean-up that took place in Vene- ta to ready an old county inmate camp into a transitional housing project for veterans. However, the jackets were stamped with the word inmate and organizers want to rid any trace of correc- tions from the property. "We need someone to store the materials and to help break them down," Patterson said. The 'inmate' stamp will need to be removed from the jackets and both the jackets and jeans will need to be broken down to be used for quilting material. Batting may be donated as well. Anyone interested in joining Veteran's Legacy to donate to the camp's completion, or would be interested in storing materi- al, donating batting, quilting or transporting the material, con- tact Mark Oberle at moberle@ veteranslegacyoregon.com.