COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2019 | 7A
Camp from A1
Live Music Every Friday
6 to 9 pm || No Cover Charge
June 21 • Ben Johnson and Company
blues, rock, soul, country
June 28 • Calvary Creek
pop, folk, rock
July 5 • The Mike Davis Band
60s thru 80s hits
July 12 • The Huckleberrys
sour mash country
Open Daily 11am for
Complimentary Tasting
942-1364 X www.saginawvineyard.com
EVENTS!
Wednesday July 3 – Chess Club, 6:00-8:30 p.m., all levels of players are
welcome
Thursday July 4 – Open for business
Friday July 5 – The Blue Mountaineers, Bluegrass, 7:30-10:30 p.m.
Saturday July 6 – Nostalgia Night featuring music from the 60’s – Fun
prizes best costume, 5:00 -10:00 p.m.
For more information call 541-942-8770.
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LANDSCAPE AND
BUILDING MATERIALS
Open 7 days a week!
79149 N. River Road
541-942-4664
develop their own growth
with assistance,” said Buck-
wald.
Though plenty of work
will remain to be done
when Camp Alma opens
its doors, Buckwald esti-
mates they are set to have
core facilities up and run-
ning in about two months’
time for the initial entry of
five veterans.
“We’re really close,”
Buckwald said. “We need
a dormitory, we need a
kitchen and we need a
laundry room. And we’re
pretty close to each one of
those.”
The first five residents of
the camp will be carefully
picked.
“We want to be able to
build the community off
them,” said Buckwald.
The nonprofit is looking
particularly for homeless
veterans in Lane County
who will commit to a tiny
housing program which
will see the construction
10 tiny homes over 12
months.
As the operation ma-
tures, plans are to increase
the resident occupancy to
50. The 105-acre plot of
land features a complex
consisting of dormitories,
a kitchen and dining area, a
lounge, a library and laun-
dry facilities amid a serene,
pastoral setting.
The camp will offer
skills in gardening, food
preparation, food pres-
ervation,
construction,
maintenance, basic finan-
cial management and job
interviewing.
In setting veterans up for
post-camp reintegration,
Veterans Legacy plans to
help with preparation for
employment, job training,
forming business plans and
planning higher education.
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
A chicken coop constructed from an old flatbed houses 14 chickens at Camp
Alma, providing a degree of self-sufficiency the nonprofit is aiming to make
thematic to the therapeutic camp.
began operating in 1990 them, Buckwald found that
“This place gives you
under the auspices of the they would often put in 10 time to think. And even
Lane County Sheriff ’s Of- or 12 hours a day.
when we had 100 inmates
fice and, besides a two-
“Not because I made out here … we didn’t have
year shutdown from 1995 them, but because they a lot of graffiti or vandal-
to 1997, the camp provid- took that ownership,” he ism because these guys
ed a rural work setting for said.
built everything out here,”
county inmates until 2008.
At its peak occupancy, he said. “They painted the
Buckwald,
originally the Forest Work Camp was buildings. They poured the
from Mapleton, returned to a 100-inmate operation concrete. They grew the
Lane County in 1988 from filled with inmates whose flowers and the vegetables.
a stint with the Air Force crimes were relatively mi- So there’s a lot of owner-
and was hard-pressed to nor.
ship.”
find a meaningful direc-
“It was a lot of the small-
That ownership extend-
tion in his life. After work- er stuff,” said Buckwald. ed to individuals’ lives as
ing his way through some “It was driving without a well.
basic labor jobs, Buckwald license, DUIIs, probation
“It was an unbelievable
found employment with violations, thefts, forgeries opportunity because guys
the sheriff ’s office, working — that type of stuff.”
were coming out here
in corrections.
Conceptually, in ap- and they were learning
In 1991, Buckwald came proaching the issues of life skills,” said Buckwald.
to Camp Alma, which was the men remanded at the “They were learning work
known as the Sheriff ’s Of- camp, Buckwald believed ethics.”
fice Forest Work Camp at strongly in giving second
A downturn in the econ-
the time. He soon learned chances and providing omy changed all that. The
that
inmates
coming pathways to error-correct, recession of 2008 caused
through the camp had tal- positioning people so that deep cuts in the budget for
ents and skills.
they might right them- the sheriff ’s office. While
“Going through the files selves.
parts of the main jail were
out here, I found out all my
“I truly believe that some being closed and deputies
guys had been convicted of people don’t get arrested, were laid off, the camp
growing marijuana,” Buck- they get rescued,” he said. simply couldn’t justify op-
wald said. “So I made them “But not everybody who erations and closed that
my gardeners.”
comes to jail needs to stay same year.
From work camp to
In assigning inmates to in jail, either.”
Shortly after, it was given
veteran housing
work he thought would fit
The camp was known to back to the county.
The work camp first
provide community bene-
It would be nine years
fits as well. For the White- before the camp saw care,
aker Free Community maintenance or interest in
Thanksgiving Day Dinner, bringing it back to life.
an annual neighborhood
Enter Veterans Legacy.
feed in Eugene for those
“We had a vision of what
Accounting • Payroll
in need, inmates provided this place could be,” Buck-
desserts.
wald said. “If we did so
Personal & Business Income Tax
“These guys probably many positive things with
1623 S. 6th Street, Cottage Grove
made about 3,000 cook- the inmate population, I
ies and they loved doing really think it’ll be tenfold
Lic# B15742
it because they loved giv- with a veteran population.”
ing back,” Buckwald said.
In spring of 2017, the
“There was nothing else nonprofit made a rental
like it. Nothing.”
agreement with the county
Buckwald feels the camp for $100 a year, securing
provided an opportunity the deal in light of the cost
for many to turn their lives
See ALMA 8A
around.
4U Simple Bookkeeping
541-206-4703
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118 Gateway Blvd., Cottage Grove (Next to Bi-Mart) • 541-942-7377