T he C olumbia P ress
November 24, 2017
Youths help with food baskets and toy drive
Warrenton-Hammond
Healthy Kids has partnered
with
Warrenton
Grade
School for the annual holiday
toy drive.
Last year, Healthy Kids pro-
vided gifts to 265 children.
There are several ways for
the community to get in-
volved. Bring a cash donation
or unwrapped toy to the grade
school, 820 S.W. Cedar Ave.,
or stop by the school to pick
up an “adopt-a-family” form.
Warrenton Fire Depart-
ment is the place to go if you
want to donate nonperishable
food for holiday baskets. The
fire department has forms to
Photo by Debbie Morrow
fill out for those who’d like to
Fifth-grade members of Warrenton Youth Basketball gave up a day
receive baskets.
W a r r e n t o n - H a m m o n d off Tuesday to help put together Thanksgiving meal boxes.
Healthy Kids and Warrenton
the boxes together Tuesday
Grade School joined forc- to 97 families of students.
The Warrenton Youth Boys morning and families picked
es with Walmart to supply a
complete Thanksgiving meal Basketball Team helped put them up later in the day.
We’re losing war on preserving vets’ stories
The United States is losing
an estimated 362 World War
II veterans every day, accord-
ing to a recent estimate by
the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
The few remaining -- about
558,000 WWII veterans
-- will soon be gone, tak-
ing with them their sto-
ries of life during the war.
Veterans’ Legacies, a non-
profit group based in Oregon,
wants to capture personal ac-
counts of WWII veterans and
preserve and share them in a
free online database available
to the public.
Gary Mortensen, co-found-
er of Veterans’ Legacies, and
Mark Browning, executive
director, recently expanded
their efforts to collect the sto-
ries of Oregon’s WWII veter-
ans.
a growing urgency
In response to the grow-
ing urgency of the situation,
Mortensen and Browning
h ow To geT invoLveD
If your school or organi-
zation is interested, con-
tact the executive director
at info@veteranslegacies.
com.
looked for ways to increase
the ability to research and
interview surviving veterans
and their families.
In September, the orga-
nization launched Mighty
Endeavor, an initiative that
leverages educators, stu-
dents, volunteers and ser-
vice organizations across the
state.
“The goal of the Mighty
Endeavor is to have Oregon
successfully collect history
about every WWII veteran
who enlisted from the state,”
Mortensen said.
w orking wiTh sTuDenTs
The men formed a part-
nership with OregonASK, a
group whose expertise in-
cludes curriculum develop-
ment, educational training
and enrichment opportuni-
ties for students.
Together they created a cur-
riculum to guide efforts in the
classroom, in an after-school
program or by a family mem-
ber of a veteran.
Mark McKinney, a Social
Studies teacher at Yamhill
Carlton High School, was one
of the first to adopt the pro-
gram.
“The students are learn-
ing history in a unique way,”
McKinney said. “They are en-
gaged on a level that develops
a wide variety of skills, from
interpersonal communica-
tions to research to technol-
ogy.”
McKinney has gotten calls
from parents wanting to
know more about the proj-
ect because their children are
genuinely excited about the
history they’re learning.
3
Foundation begins
‘sponsor-a-locker’ drive
Warrenton High School
has begun a “Sponsor a
Locker” fund-raiser that
will honor favorite coach-
es, graduates, teams or
classmates.
It will cost $31,000 to
replace the lockers in
the boys and girls locker
rooms, according to a flier
from Warrenton Schools
Foundation, a nonprofit
group that raises money
to support athletic and
educational programs at
the high school.
“Currently, our lockers
are not functional for our
PE and student athletes,”
according to the flier.
“Our goal is to raise the
money to purchase the
lockers by winter break. It
is a great way to support
our Warriors.”
To sponsor a locker,
send a $100 donation and
the desired marker plate
inscription to Warrenton
Schools Foundation, P.O
Box 663, Warrenton OR
97146.
For more information,
contact Warrenton High
School Principal Rod Hey-
en at 503-861-3317.