COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 | 3A
Community News
Dowell named to Cottage
Grove Carousel Board
The Board of Direc-
tors of CG Carousel has
announced that Carmen
Dowell has been selected
to be the recording secre-
tary. Dowell replaces Cin-
dy Weeldreyer, who has
left the board for other du-
ties but remains an advisor
and assists Nadine Kelley
with grant writing.
Dowell is currently the
graphic designer at Dirt
Cheap copies in Cottage
Grove and is associated
with Opal Theater.
She has a background in
marketing and advertising.
“Carmen will be a valu-
able member of the carou-
sel board in many different
ways,” said Board Presi-
dent Don Williams.
Dowell graduated from
Cottage
Grove
High
School in 1991. She has
worked for major airlines
and climbed her way to
baggage manager, work-
ing in both San Francisco
and Los Angeles airports
— providing an oppor-
tunity to learn teamwork
and strong organizational
skills. After starting a fam-
ily, Dowell went to work
for a successful financial
planning firm, starting as
the receptionist and even-
tually becoming the firm’s
marketing manager.
In 2002, Dowell moved
back to Cottage Grove
with her three children,
becoming active in parent
clubs, Cub Scouts and soc-
cer. She helped raise funds
to get the playground built
at Latham School. In 2008,
she graduated from Pi-
oneer Pacific College as
Valedictorian, receiving
her Associates of Applied
Science in the criminal
Mayor’s golf tourney donation
justice field.
Her passions have al-
ways included working
with people with special
needs and the arts. Three
years ago, Dowell start-
ed her own acting group
called “Creative Chaos.”
Everyone involved has a
Carmen Dowell
disability and they write
and preform shows at the
Opal Center. She has been
involved in theater for
more than 20 years, volun-
teering countless hours at
both Cottage Theatre and
The Opal Center. Along
the way, Dowell has won
grants due to her volun-
teering success for multi-
ple organizations.
In 2016, she received
the Les Schwab Pride and
Prestige Award for her
dedication to the Special
Olympics. She is currently
the Local Program Coor-
dinator and has been in-
volved for over 10 years.
“Carmen brings to the
Carousel Group her en-
ergetic spirit, positive
attitude and strong orga-
nizational and marketing
skills,” said Williams. “She
has a strong “thrive to suc-
ceed” attitude in any proj-
ect she takes on.”
COURTESY PHOTO
Cottage Grove City Councilor Mike Fleck (left) and Mayor Jeff Gowing hold up a check for $1,765.26
raised during the recent annual Mayor’s Golf Tournament. The check was donated to Community
Sharing’s H2O Program.
SELCO accepting applications for SPARK! grants
SELCO
Community
Credit Union began taking
applications Aug. 15 for its
annual SPARK! Creative
Learning Grants, and the
process will remain open
through Monday, Sept. 30.
The grants are a valuable
tool for educators, award-
ing as much as $1,000 each
to K–12 educators across
the 27 Oregon counties that
SELCO serves.
Now in its 26th year, the
SPARK! program was creat-
ed with the belief that fund-
ing should not be an obsta-
cle for educational projects
that excite curiosity, deepen
understanding and encour-
age new ways of learning.
Whether leading stu-
dents through a solar ro-
botics project in Burns or
teaching students how to
use fingerprint kits to solve
crimes as part of a forensic
science class in Culver, ed-
ucators have used SPARK!
grants in unique and excit-
ing ways.
In the 2018-19 school
year alone, SELCO award-
ed $45,587 to 54 teachers
across Oregon, a record for
the program.
“Creative classes or proj-
ects are often the ones that
spark a lifelong love of
learning,” said Laura Illig,
SELCO’s vice president of
marketing. “Funding these
learning experiences can
be difficult, which is why
SELCO continues to invest
in this program more than
a quarter century after we
awarded our first grant.
“Strengthening the ed-
ucational efforts of our
communities has been at
the heart of our mission
since our beginnings more
than 80 years ago, when the
credit union was founded
by a group of educators as
passionate as those we sup-
port today.”
SPARK!
grants
are
awarded to educators with
innovative classroom ideas
and a need for materials or
other resources to get those
ideas off the ground.
“Without the SPARK!
Grant, we wouldn’t have
had a forensics class. We
could have studied the ma-
terials and observed what
other people do, but we
didn’t have the means to
perform the experiments
and practice what we were
learning,” said Culver Mid-
dle School teacher Mark
Habliston. “This grant cre-
ated an elective where kids
were learning new skills
and having fun, which
would have never hap-
pened otherwise.”
For more information
about SELCO Communi-
ty Credit Union’s SPARK!
Creative Learning Grants
or to apply, visit www.selco.
org/spark, or call 541-686-
5382.
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