COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JUNE 14, 2017
3A
ART STUDENTS COMPLETE CAROUSEL HORSES
The students in Erin
Royce’s
advanced art
cmay@cgsentinel.com
class at Cottage Grove
High School have been
working on restoring animals for the antique car-
ousel planned for Main St. since the fi rst trimester
of the school year. Now, as many in the class pre-
pare to move on from their high school careers,
the animals are days away from completion as
well and have earned another notch of commu-
nity support.
“It’s been a great experience for the kids,”
Royce said, noting that the process to restoring
the carousel animals was a professional one. Stu-
dents had to submit proposals to the Friends of
the Cottage Grove Carousel before they were ap-
proved for work and have been held to deadlines.
There are six animals all together, fi ve horses
and a gazelle, each with names ranging from Har-
old to Sunny to Percy.
The Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel
have been behind the effort to bring the antique
carousel to Main St. periodically for the last 20
years in one form of the group or another. The
latest reincarnation is headed by Don Williams,
Russ McGuire and carousel owner Judy Cash.
Cash purchased the carousel after inheriting
funds from a family friend and traveling across
the country after deciding Cottage Grove was the
perfect location for such a tourist attraction. After
years of being stored in a barn and in need of res-
toration, the animals of the carousel were distrib-
uted throughout town at local shops and six found
a temporary home in Royce’s art class.
By Caitlyn May
The process to making the animals presentable
again has been a long one. Students fi rst had to
sand the animals down, apply fi ller to the dam-
aged portions and then paint the animals in accor-
dance to their proposed designs.
“It takes a long time,” Royce said. “It’s oil paint
and it dries slow so you can’t put a coat on one
day and come back the next day for another coat.”
Each animal requires three coats of primer and
three coats of paint.
“They’re coming to the end,” McGuire said. “A
lot of those students won’t be there next year.”
According to Royce, McGuire is right. The
students who did not fi nish their horses before
graduation will leave the animals to next year’s
students. Some of the horses may also fi nd them-
selves being worked on throughout the summer as
Royce says the unfi nished animals will be stored
at the school for students to continue with over the
school break.
“The great thing about my classes is they’re
like a family,” Royce said, “and so some of the
students who didn’t fi nish, sophomores and ju-
niors will pick up right where they left off.”
Efforts to bring the carousel to Main St. are
still underway with the board for Friends of the
Cottage Grove Carousel working on adding local
historical photos to the attractions sideboards and
general fundraising ideas. The group is in need
of funds to complete professional architectural
drawings for the project, as well as a space to
house the carousel on Main St. to provide an easy
to access location for future tourists.
Students at Cottage Grove High School work to complete their restorations of animals that are part of an antique
carousel headed to Main St. as a tourist attraction.
South Lane Mental Health reports to SLSD
South Lane Mental
Health may be in the
middle of a leadership
change but it's busi-
ness as usual for the staff which includes having a
presence in South Lane schools.
South Lane Mental Health’s Valeria Clarke
presented to the South Lane School Board on
Monday, June 5 to detail the organization’s vast
involvement in all but one school in the district.
“We’re not in Child’s Way but we have one or
more counselors in every other school,” Clarke
said.
South Lane Mental Health was started in 1988
by a local group of concerned citizens hoping
to respond to the community’s growing mental
health issues. It currently serves approximately
1,500 people per year offering counseling for a
host of mental health related circumstances.
“We are putting in 99 hours per week in the
school’s,” Clarke told the board. “I was surprised
too when I did the math but we are there 99 hours
By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
a week on average.”
Counselors staff the high school, middle school
and elementary schools throughout South Lane
School District and have seen the fruits of their
labor.
“I’m going to tell a story,” Clarke said. “We
got a call from the principal at the high school.”
Through staff and students, the high school ad-
ministration had become aware of a student’s plan
to harm themselves. Through counseling from
South Lane Mental Health staff on the premises
and follow-up aid, they were able to fi nd a solu-
tion. “He’s changed his plan,” Clarke said. “Hav-
ing the resource on campus really is making a
difference.”
According to the American Psychological As-
sociation, one-third of college students in the U.S.
have had trouble focusing over the last 12 months
due to depression and anxiety. Of those who seek
mental health help, 30 percent have seriously con-
sidered suicide. South Lane Mental Health reach-
es these students before they get to college but
youth.gov--a cohort of more than 20 federal agen-
cies-notes children ages 6 through 17 also have
staggering percentages of mental health needs.
According to the data, 21 percent of low-income
students between 6 and 17 years of age may be
dealing with a mental health issue. Seventeen
percent have experienced a mental, emotional or
behavioral disorder that requires outside help and
counseling. Children in the foster care system and
juvenile justice system were more likely to ex-
perience a mental health episode and require the
help of a mental health professional.
South Lane has also formed a partnership with
the school district to offer parenting programs
through Peggy’s Primary Connection. Parents
are brought through a 10-week course that aims
to help couples better connect with their young
children to form a bond that will last through the
sometimes turbulent teenage years.
“You can see parents come in, you’ll have a fa-
ther come in and you can tell he’s there because
his wife is making him,” Clarke said. “But you’ll
see as he takes what he’s learned home and prac-
tices it, he can see it’s working and he now has a
different relationship with his child. It gives me
the chills.”
Currently, South Lane Mental Health serves
135 children throughout the district with counsel-
ors and skills trainers who are called on to help
children who would otherwise struggle with in-
tegration.
“Some kids that are high needs also get some-
one assigned to them to help them learn how to
be in the community and give them the tools they
need to be out in the community,” Clarke said.
Services offered by South Lane Mental Health
come free of charge to the school district. Current-
ly, the organization is transitioning its leadership
position after executive director Tom Wheeler an-
nounced his retirement that will become effective
next year.
“We’re hoping to increase services,” Clarke
said. “But this all started with one counselor in
one school.”
•CLARIFICATION•
In the June 7 edition of The Sentinel, "We are a Village" identifi ed Don
Williams as a key contributor to the efforts of Karen Munsell in lobbying for
reform concerning whip-its. The story also identifi ed Commissioner Gary
Williams in one instance. The story noted that Williams and Munsell still eat
breakfast together nearly every morning. This reference was, in accordance to
AP style, identifying Don Williams, not Commissioner Gary Williams.
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