Blog

Winning and Gratitude

Dee Anne Everson — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:18:49 -0500

As Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything." This past week, Sanne Specht and I engaged in a contest of wills to raise money for HOPE (Helping Out People Every Day) Chest. HOPE Chest is United Way of Jackson County's emergency response fund. The contest rocked! HOPE Chest has money and we began writing checks from proceeds of the contest on Tuesday. Pledges and donations poured in and together we raised almost $7,000! We're not done even though our contest was a week. People who didn't make it in or remember to pledge, you still can. And those of you who stepped up, thank you! For each of you who gave, inspired others, got excited and had fun and especially for Sanne, here's a closing quote. "Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." Gladys Brown Stern. Scream from the rooftops, we all won!

HOPE Chest ...social media vs. newspaper

Dee Anne Everson — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:11:07 -0500

Wait till you read this! Sanne Specht, Mail Tribune reporter and columnist, and I are in competition this week. Sanne isn’t sure about social media and its benefits. She has written a column that appears in today’s Mail Tribune to kick off our contest. So here’s the deal…Sanne has asked for donations to HOPE Chest in her name and I’m asking them in whoever’s name you want them to be in…your grandmother, your mom or dad, your brother or sister, your best friend, your true love and oh yeah, ME, so I can WIN! The reality is HOPE Chest and people in need really win. But this week, and this week only, we’re challenging each other. I get to tweet once, do one email, one FaceBook posting and one blog. Sanne, she gets one column. Then at the end of the week, we’ll tally the donations and figure out who wins. As Bob Hunter says, there will be some public humiliation price to be paid to one who doesn’t win. Me, I’m all about winning. So come on. Take a moment this week to give a gift to HOPE Chest. There are so many ways. You can go online to UnitedWayofJacksonCounty.org. You can call us at 541.773.5339. You can send your pledge via email and we’ll be in touch about you’ll fulfill it. So join me in this competition and let’s show that social media rocks! Please forward this to everyone you can think of and encourage them to participate. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Long time, no blog and what better reason to come back and get back to it. Expect more to come. HOPE Chest has interesting mojo if you ask me. There was its humble beginnings in memory of Hank Collins and then its name change to HOPE Chest. In our first year, we helped more than 270 families with an average gift of $261. We helped folks with rent, utilities, car-related expense (repair, insurance, registration), and coming in a surprising and necessary fourth place, were funds for therapy. Partnering with local therapists and having it announced and shared by Stacey Guss, The Sharing Place, has built a solid and important partnership. So much so that on a desperate day after I received a call about a family in dire need, Stacey got the whole family into therapy, with the help of other therapists, to deal with the suicide of their teenage daughter. The last few weeks have been dramatic for HOPE Chest. A few weeks ago, we got a call from a partner needing only $70 for a drug and alcohol assessment. Without the assessment, the client would have lost her job and her home. Her children would have potentially been placed in foster care. Instead, she got her assessment, is in outpatient treatment, has her children and her job and her house. An amazing victory for $70. The next HOPE Chest call that week was a for a woman who needed a bus ticket to a safe location. After a little bit of hoop jumping, the Greyhound ticket was purchased and she was off on a trip to a safe place to live, protecting her from her former batterer. That happened for a small amount of money as well. Finally, there's the story of baby Hope. She needed an option for transportation to medical appointments. She got the option and while no investment was made and fog didn't permit the donated flight, baby Hope will know forever how much a community cared for her at 8 months old.

This contest is important not because it proves I can beat a reporter at her game but because it helps people who need a small amount to create a gigantic change in their lives. Join us, not just today, but always in this opportunity to connect people who need help with people who can help. Thank you.

WiLL Luncheon 10/21/09

Dee Anne Everson — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:32:20 -0400

If you have come to help me you are wasting your time, but if you say your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together.

Aboriginal Woman

This quote has always moved me. And it inspires even my own commitment to our Women Living Leadership initiative. I remember Sue Slack calling me when she was leaving Jackson County. She shared she really wanted to focus her volunteer work on women and making a difference for the rest of her life. I laughed. I'm sure she thought I had lost it. But what she didn't know was we were just launching WiLL and it was perfect for us and perfect for her! Sue has chaired WiLL mightily these past two years. Her commitment, energy and enthusiasm are unwaivering. She is a joy to be around. The deserves great credit for the magic that is WiLL. Here's her guest blog. Enjoy!

Thank you for taking a look at my blog about WiLL. WiLL (Women Living Leadership) is one of the newer, and in my view one of the most, exciting programs United Way has undertaken. We are a group of women whose single mission is to improve the lives of other women and children in transition.

I got involved with WiLL because it was a chance to be connected to women with creative ideas, a giving spirit and women who are just simply a lot of fun. Every month our WiLL Council meets to plan our fundraising luncheon, hear about programs we fund, and have a good time. I have a long history with meetings and none leave me smiling and inspired like WiLL.

I also volunteer as a mentor with the Bridges program offered by OnTrack. Bridges is just one of the original and new ideas women developed to help out with transitions. As a mentor I enjoy about an hour a week with one of the most courageous young women I’ve ever met. She is working very hard to recover from addiction and she’s doing a great job. I admit I was a little scared to become a mentor. After all, I have no counseling skills or background that I thought was necessary to become a good mentor. I was also a little frightened of the women in recovery as I didn’t know any of them and I wondered how difficult it would be to become comfortable with them.

Well, I was in for a big surprise. The women in the program just need a friend, someone who will listen to them, someone to take them seriously, and someone to offer an “atta girl” once in awhile. I feel completely relaxed with my mentee and I hope she feels the same way. Anyone has the capacity to be a terrific mentor.

Enough of the fun I’m having with WiLL and my volunteer efforts. Wouldn’t you like to become part of WiLL? Please join us for our annual fundraising luncheon on October 21, 2009. It’s free; it’s at the Red Lion at noon and ends at 1:00. You’ll hear from one of the women in a program we fund, you’ll learn more about the women of WiLL, you’ll be inspired by Kitty Calhoun a world class, record-breaking mountain climber and you’ll meet lots of great women. If you would like to stay a little longer and visit with us, we’ll be around for awhile afterwards. To join us, on October 21, simply call United Way at 773-5339 and reserve your seat. I guarantee you’ll leave smiling and inspired.

Day of Caring Guest Blog Lisa Lewis

Dee Anne Everson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:23:29 -0400

Welcome back! There's so much on my mind and yet instead we'll post our next guest blog! Why? Because Lisa Lewis, District 8 DHS Self Sufficiency head and star United Way board member, supervised her first Day of Caring site and was moved immediately to guest blog that night. Lisa stepped up at the last minute to help out and brought her wit, wisdom and wealth to our 14th annual Day of Caring. She writes...

Saturday morning, September 26, dawned bright and clear. I heard the birds chirping outside of my window as I awoke with a happy heart knowing today were the 14^th annual United Way of Jackson County’s Day of Caring. I sprang from bed; so very anxious to let my day begin. I might even have been whistling a happy tune, but I’m not sure about that part.

Okay – so it didn’t happen quite that way. It was more like the alarm blared at 5:30. I threw my shoe at it. It must have accidentally hit the snooze button because somehow I drifted away again. The second time it went off, the thought of throwing another shoe didn’t seem appropriate somehow; after all this was the Day of Caring. It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to the day, but no one who knows me even slightly would say that I ever awaken with a smile on my face and true-to-form; this day was no different.

Sparing you the details between the shoe incident and actually arriving at my day of caring site, although suffice it to say I had my coffee, took a walk and began to return to some semblance of my normally cheery self. As I became fully conscious I began to have little worries about the day ahead. Would we have enough volunteers? Would we have too many? Would there be enough work for people? Would there be too much work? Exactly who was it that entrusted this duty to me?????

When I arrived at the prearranged meeting site for volunteers, people were already beginning to meet and greet one another. Apparently they don’t have the same aversion to mornings that I do? It was quickly apparent that these volunteers were happy to be there and it was also apparent from the conversations I heard that this wasn’t their first day of caring. I introduced myself to the Harry and David site coordinator and we began taking people to the site as they arrived.

Several of my worries were quickly put to rest. There was plenty of work to do and there were plenty of volunteers to do it. Before I had even rounded up all of the volunteers people had begun their own personal day of caring, these kind people were there to get a job done.

I noticed that there were several young people in our group of volunteers. I met 4 young women ranging from the age of 15 to 19. As I spoke to these women and their mothers, I learned that giving back to the community is a way of life for them. One young woman told me she did her first volunteer experience at the age of 5. She answered phones at the MDA telethon and then handed the phone to her mother since she herself couldn’t write yet. She named off several organizations that she volunteers for, I should have written them down so that I could fully recognize her giving. The 19 year old told me that she and her sisters had been volunteering since they were very young and one of her favorites is volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.

The Day of Caring was definitely a family day for the employees of Harry and David. They brought their spouses and they brought their children and every one of them worked hard to beautify our site. It was humbling to see young people who gladly gave their time on a sunny Saturday when undoubtedly they had other offers from friends. It was incredible to see the amount of work that can be done when more than a dozen people but their hearts and their labor to the job. It was gratifying to be a part of the United Way Day of Caring and to work side by side with people who really do Live United.

Campaign Kick Off

Dee Anne Everson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:28:59 -0400

Deelia Warner, US Bank and campaign chair, writes this week's blog as we kick off our campaign today. She rocks!

Well, okay, here goes my very first blog. Yes, that’s right, you’ve got a virgin blogger here, so be kind while reading, please.

I first heard of United Way when I was working in the Portland area and someone from US Bank (oddly enough, not the bank I was working for at the time) came to a staff meeting and explained she was a Loaned Executive, talked about agencies that United Way helped support, yada yada. Let me tell you, I was not so much impressed with what she was saying, but how she appeared to me. Now, at that time, I had recently moved to the Portland area from Josephine County, and I was already dealing with significant culture shock, but there stood a very attractive, professional, articulate woman who was sharing her story about why she was going from bank to bank to share the story of United Way. I figured if someone as impressive as her thought highly of this United Way thing, maybe I should look into it myself. After all, she appeared to be exactly the kind of professional woman I wanted so much to be.

That’s when I became a United Way giver, but it was many years later that I actually became involved. One year I helped one of my coworkers with her responsibilities as an LE, this time back in Josephine County, but still I was just looking in from the outside. And then Stan Penn, my boss at the time, asked me if I would help him with the United Way campaign that year. Now, to be honest, there’s not much I wouldn’t do for Stan Penn. So of course, I said yes. Talk about a pivotal decision. It’s like when Jason was speaking during one of the campaign luncheons last year. He was talking about his many volunteer, activist and leadership roles at RCC and then SOU, and how all he really wanted to do, in the beginning, was to open a lemonade stand to raise a few dollars. All I really wanted to do was help Stan.

Now look at me. Campaign Chairperson. How did I get here, I wonder? Along the way I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that agencies are really just people that want to make our little spot in the world a little better, and sometimes it takes quite a spell for that to happen. I’ve watched a wonderful woman create an incredible opportunity for people with cars they no longer want, to give them to people who really, really need them. I heard an amazing young leader ask for a little help feeding her clients Thanksgiving dinner, and watched volunteers racing each other (literally!) to be the first in line to help. There’s so much more, I could go on and on.

If you’re wondering what my point is, here goes. Even though I have volunteered in many other ways, it’s because of United Way that I’ve been able to witness and/or be part of those things I just described. It’s because of United Way that I can happily recruit new volunteers and know that their lives will be touched in some way. It’s because of United Way that I know a small group of committed people can, and will, change the community we live in for the better.

There’s a song I hear on the radio, goes like this “...What about now? What about today? What if you’re making me, all that I was meant to be?”. Well, that’s how I feel about United Way. No one’s really making me get out there and share the United Way story, or share my very personal Live United story, but I’ve become much closer to the person I always wanted to be by doing just that.

Remember our blog takes comments, chime in!

Guest Blog

Dee Anne Everson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:23:22 -0400

Hi there! Now that summer's ending and fall is approaching, I've completed my vacations until the holiday season. That means I'm back here. And this time with friends, volunteers, great people doing great work!

This week's guest blogger is our board member, raising awareness council member and the Dean of Students at Southern Oregon University, Jonathan Eldridge. He's also the guy I saw walking with his two beautiful children last weekend. Jon and his kids had walked to get donuts. Yep, I just gave him up! And now for Jon's thoughts and the big news is this time you can add feedback!

Jonathan Eldridge...The United Way of Jackson County’s annual campaign kicks off soon. The campaign allows United Way to support dozens of community agencies and organizations that promote education (helping children achieve their potential), income (helping families become financial stable and independent), and health (promoting healthy lifestyles).

In these times of local, national, and global financial instability, there are those who think a campaign like this won’t be able to reach as high or raise as much as it needs to. People are spending less. People are focusing on their own (often precarious) needs.

I think we will meet our goal. I think we will exceed our targets. And I think this because of Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel. You may recall this children’s story by Virginia Lee Burton. It was one of my favorite books when I was a child. The story goes like this….

Mike Mulligan had a steam shovel named Mary Anne. Mary Anne did great work—but over time Mike and Mary Anne hit upon hard times. In order to survive they needed to dig a cellar for Popperville’s new Town Hall—in just one day. Could it be done? With the encouragement of more and more townspeople, Mike and Mary Anne found a way to work a little faster and a little better and finished that cellar just as the sun was setting.

This is where you shout, “Hooray!” But Mike and Mary Anne dug so fast that they were down in the new cellar with no way out….until they came to understand that if they reframed their thinking, they didn’t need to get out. Their future was secure if they could go about things differently. Mary Anne became the new furnace of that new Town Hall. And so Mary Anne and Mike lived on in their newly configured, different-yet-still-critical role in the community.

The United Way of Jackson County is known for supporting reframed thinking and innovative approaches to local issues. The approach to this year’s campaign might be informed by this creativity. I believe that this year’s campaign will resonate in new and powerful ways with people across Jackson County.

We all see neighbors who have hit upon hard times. We all see services we have come to count on being threatened or eroding. We all see people not unlike ourselves—who seemed immune to an economic downturn—now unemployed or out of their homes.

Despite this, we know that our communities are only as strong and stable as we are willing to make them. We know that giving what we can in the form of time, compassion, and, yes, money will make the whole of our communities greater than the sum of their parts. And somewhere inside we also know that we could be the one in need, perhaps much more easily than we ever thought possible before. That alone creates a new level of understanding and appreciation for the importance of education, income, and health.

So even in tough times, by working a little faster and a little better, the United Way will continue to expand its reach, to touch lives, to exemplify the best in our communities….and help all of us reframe what it means to Live United.

Guest Blogging

Dee Anne Everson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:52:12 -0400

Hi there! I'm back. Well, actually our first guest blogger is here. We're going to rotate and invite people close to our organization to share their thoughts with you every other week. Our first entry is a person deeply and dearly close to United Way of Jackson County. He's not a guest. He's been around longer than I have. He's Brad Earl and here are his thoughts...

There is simply no way for me to convince my friends that it’s a good idea to bicycle for two or three hours in 100 degree heat. (It’s as crazy as wearing all black on a 115 degree day in Phoenix, Arizona, right?) I’ll admit it requires some forethought – such as hydrating well before the ride, figuring out where to get water during the ride and keeping my exertion at a reasonable level. It beats the alternative. There is simply no way I’m going to go without riding. I cannot imagine it.

Look at the guys in the Tour de France. Heck, they ride on hot days… NO… they RACE on hot days. That’s even crazier because they’re not in complete control of their exertion. Some other crazy biker is driving the pace. To the pro’s, it’s about training, acclamation and expectation. (I expect to hurt myself AND I expect to hurt the other guy more.) I’ll bet they find it worse to find 40 degree temperatures and rain at this time of year because their bodies are prepared for the alternative. I understand this. I’ve been known to complain about feeling cold when it’s in the 60s.

I was out on a group training ride with a bunch of other competitive cyclists a couple of Saturdays ago. Sometime between dropping my companions on a short climb and ending the ride, I had a revelation about Living United. (By the way, “dropping” someone on a bike means you accelerate and they aren’t capable of matching your pace. I got schooled a bunch of times during the ride too, but why would I brag about that? It’s my blog.)

Here’s the revelation. In the same way I cannot imagine a day without cycling, I cannot imagine our community without the tireless non-profits working in the margins to keep our community whole. In these hard times, the margins are getting wider and the resources getting narrower. Riding on hot days requires forethought. We need similar advance-thinking to manage through economic crisis in our community too. I learned early in my career (not the biking one, but the real one) that nearly anyone can manage a business in a booming economy. It’s when times get tough that we find the real leaders.

I believe silos, territorialism, and tired old processes are still prevalent in our community. (Note: this is a blog, so I can make wild assertions like this without backing them up by facts. That’s cool.) This just won’t do today. It has to be about collaboration and innovation. We must acclimate to the times. Resources weren’t great to begin with and now they are even more scarce. It means being humble. The good ideas might actually come from someone else or some other organization.

To wrap all this up, I’ve come up with a really bad example in to tie the whole story together. After patching a bike tube a few times, it ends up in the garbage. I was planting a whole bunch of trees in my landscape and running to the hardware store to BUY rubber tree tie thingies. Ah ha! Right? I now reuse old tubes to tie young trees to tree stakes. How many years did it take me to figure that out? Brilliant! (Note: one local tire dealer is now helping cyclists recycle their old tires and tubes.)

My Live United challenge to you is to take a fresh look. Are there some bike-tube-tree-ties in your organization? Okay, enough blogging…it’s over 100 degrees out… time to ride...

Brad Earl, secretary Board of Directors, United Way of Jackson county was born and raised in southern Oregon. Brad lives in Medford with his wife (Cher), daughter (Aubree), dog (Nala), two cats (Rogue and Mystique), and gecko (Lizzy). He is passionate about volunteering, Starbucks coffee, baseball and competitive cycling. In his spare time, he makes a living as the Chief Operating Officer at Met One Instruments, Inc. in Grants Pass.

Brad has been Living United since becoming a loaned executive for United Way of Jackson County in 1987.

If you're interested in guest blogging, call, email, FaceBook, tweet me. Let me know and we'll get you in the line up. Thanks and onward.

Closing In....

Dee Anne Everson — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:37:15 -0500

Geoff will be home tomorrow! Here's his next to last installment. Go Geoff!

Hey! Today we rode from Juniper Resort, 10 miles west of Lakeview to Olene, 9 miles east of Kfalls. It was a total of about 80 miles today with some summits along the way. We are now driving to our campsite somewhere along Green Springs Highway 66. Tomorrow we will ride back home.

Geoff's weekend updates

Dee Anne Everson — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:36:06 -0500

Geoff has provided two more updates. The weather's better. His legs are better. And he's closing in on his wild ride. What an achievement. Personally for Geoff and for knowing his strength and doing it all for good! Geoff's ride benefits HOPE Chest. Here are his late Friday night and Saturday updates.

Friday’s update:

Hey! So we just rode from John Day to Burns today. It was about 70 miles total. I started off with some sore legs from the hill climbs yesterday. We had a 14 mile hill right off the start and it was gradual for awhile and them just really steep. It climbs about 2000 ft. I will include a picture from the top of one small part. Then it was really level for a long way and one more climb that was not too bad led us into Burns. There is quite a bit of wind here in Burns. We are probably gonna drive about 20 miles west to our campground near riley. The other picture is of me just when we were 9 miles out of Burns.

Saturday’s update:

Hey! Just updating you on how things are looking out here. So today we rode from Riley to Valley Falls. It was about 90 miles of rolling hills with just one smaller summit. We lucked out by avoiding any serious wind and the temperature was about 85. It was a pretty relaxed day but tiring near the end when we hit the terrible smells of Abert Lake that went on for over 20 miles. I got a picture of me out in the sands of the desert somewhere before Alkali Lake. We had to drive down to Lakeview and west 10 miles to find the nearest campground. It was a nice surprise with hot showers, free firewood, and a computer with internet. It is by far the best campground so far. We lucked out.

Burns Baby Burns

Dee Anne Everson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:31:16 -0500

I think a bonus blog today from Geoff says it all. Onward to Burns!

Hey! So day 3 went pretty well. It was probably the most difficult yet but I am starting to get in better shape so it wasn't as bad as expected. I rode all the way to Clyde Holiday State Park. It's the same place we stayed on the way out and it is 6 miles out of the way. But it will help make up for the few lost miles yesterday. There were 3 major summits today, all over 5000 ft. Once again we had about 20 miles left we hit some headwinds. But we made it the whole way today. The things I thought of most were food and finally taking a shower since I hadn't the whole trip so far. Tomorrow will start out tough with a 2000 ft. climb almost right away. I will try and keep you updated but service might be sketchy till Burns.

Go Geoff Go!

Headwind

Dee Anne Everson — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:15:17 -0500

Did you know headwind literally means wind blowing in a direction opposite to a course. Geoff does. It's what he hit yesterday. Headwinds happen to lots of people everyday in this community and that's why HOPE Chest is important. Here's Geoff...

Hey, it's Geoff. So day 2 was quite a bit tougher than day 1. We started the day off with a hill that climbed about 1000 ft. in about 6 miles. Then we had a long progressive hill for about 13 miles. Once we got into the Baker Valley it was pretty nice and flat but we were hammered by a 10-15 mph headwind, not to mention the fact that we could have been in Baker City in about 6 miles but we took the most out of the way route and made it 15 by accident. Plus those ride roads were cracked every 5 feet from the heat and that was pretty uncomfortable on my already sore butt. We made it about 5 miles outside Baker before we called it a day because the headwind had increased to at least 20 mph. Then my dad drove us about 13 miles to Union Creek campground at Phillips Reservoir. I am sending you a picture of the reservoir and of our journey so far today. Today we have made it to Austin Junction so far. We have climbed two summits that got above 5000 feet. We stopped and visited the ghost town of Whitney and that is the other picture I am sending you. I will keep you updated when I have better service.

Until Geoff's next text, hold the HOPE!

Geoff Jensen's Words

Dee Anne Everson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:29:58 -0500

I'll be posting Geoff Jensen's text messages on my blog this week as he rides across Oregon for HOPE (Helping Out People Everyday) Chest. But before his first message, here's a little meandering.

According to Webster's, hope means to cherish a desire accompanied by expectation of fulfillment. When we named HOPE Chest, I spent time figuring out the acronym HOPE would mean. And, of course, no surprise here, hope means HOPE Chest. We offer hope, share hope, expect hope and hold hope for those who are helped. And this week, we hope Geoff's ride is safe. We want you to hope that too. Here's Geoff's first text....

Hey, it’s Geoff. Sorry I haven't been able to update you because there is no service at a lot of the campgrounds. The first day of riding was pretty tough. We changed our route before we left and decided to turn on Alice Street and head toward the town of Union rather than La Grande. However once getting about 5 miles down Alice Street the road turned to dirt. So we turned around and headed back to the highway where we met my dad and then just drove to our campsite at Catherine Creek State Park. The distance we rode was equivalent to what we had originally planned. So we are right on track right now but taking a little different course to Baker City. We were the only people at the campsite that night and a big cottonwood tree fell across the rode. We called 911 and cleared one lane for traffic to get through. Overall it was a pretty eventful day and pretty tiring.

I am mostly thinking about getting done for the day and getting some food. I just took a picture of myself outside baker city somewhere. Here it is.

Dee Anne off to a meeting and Geoff off on lots more miles.

child abuse

Dee Anne Everson — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:58:56 -0500

Well another week has come and gone. At home we have these four vases on the fireplace. Two are mine and of these two, one is almost full to the top of beautiful Italian marbles and the other is quite empty. For my birthday, a good and dear friend gave me these two vases. The theory goes that on some day of the week, one removes a marble from the full vase and places it into the emptier one, well at this time in my life. The full vase represents how many weeks I have until I am 85 and the empty one includes the marbles I have moved each Sunday night since my birthday. Each Sunday night, we review our weeks and share what we're grateful for and what worked and what could be better. Well, except for last Sunday. We forgot. And now that week, two weeks ago seems a little lost. Tonight, we'll do two marbles. It brings me to intention.

I used to believe intention was soft. I found it overused in conversation. It didn't feel strong; it felt squishy. I was on vacation at Canyon Ranch and they have a spirit walk there with stops on the walk being serenity and peace and other joyful things in life. One stop on the walk is intention. I rounded the corner and intention was a wild, racuous, loud, out of control fountain! For the first time, for me I realized intention could be loud, outrageous, hard. It was a huge awakening for me.

Now for my quote for this entry...

"I shall not pass this way again; then let me now relieve some pain, remove some barrier from the road, or brigthen someone's heavy load." -- Eva Rose Park

It has become my intention, since Grand Jury duty, to change the level of understanding in our community about child abuse. In the past, I've read the statistics. I've seen the stories. I've heard them secondhand. And yet in Grand Jury, hearing from the children fundamentally changed my life and approach to this issue. I don't think I ever did the math. Two children a day were reported abused in Jackson County last year. I have spent a great deal of time learning these past few months about child abuse in our community and around our country. I am struggling deeply with the secrecy that surrounds the issue. The children can and MUST be protected from any future traumatization and abuse. I'm talking about secrecy about the issue and the perpetrator. I don't undestand it. All of the cases heard before the Grand Jury in January and February were not on the news or in the paper. I couldn't understand. I realize if the perpetrator hasn't been arrested, it's an all together different thing. If they have, it's public information. I want us to know, to talk about it, to not accept it as the course of living in our community.

There's a systems issue too. There's the opportunity for greater, different and more collaboration. Not unlike the meth problem in our community in 2004, we had great providers, strong programs and enforcement and yet coming together and forming the Jackson County Meth Task Force raised the understanding, awareness and commitment of community to erradicate the epidemic of meth in our community.

I believe we can apply the best of what we learned with the Meth Task Force and apply it to child abuse. I believe we can raise awareness, help children and families heal. I believe we can change the face of child abuse in our community by seeing it, reading it and understanding it. That's why I'm moving ahead with our remarkable community partners to form Jackson County CAN (Child Abuse Network). Our first event is this coming Thursday, April 30, 2009 at noon, at Vogel Plaza in downtown Medford. Join us, learn more, learn what you can do.

We shall not pass this way again! Until next time...

Opening Day -- April 7, 2009

Dee Anne Everson — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:48:37 -0500

Well, here we are at long last. Our website has been up for some time and now I'll begin to blog. The blog will take on what's on my mind at the time. So we begin...

"I am grateful for whatever helps my spirit grow." Florida Calloway

My spirit has grown significantly since grand jury time and many of you have seen my remarks before the Jackson County Board of Commissioners about Child Abuse Prevention Month. This month, we are planning an event to raise awareness about the scourge that is child abuse in our county. Last year, there were 760 cases reported. More than 400 cases were children under 6 and more than 100 were babies! This is deplorable. One person asked me yesterday, why should we care? This is a person who has devoted their life's work to the topic. And we'd all love an answer. Why should we care? How is it we get to this place and no one is pushing the mark? So I'm ready. Tell me why should we care? Why do you care? On April 30, our community will hold an event to raise awareness. Stay tuned for details.

Other things on my mind are our new Facebook group. Join United Way of Jackson County. You'll get details and messages first about opportunities to be engaged. It's allocation time. This means we have volunteers read applications, make site visits, and come together to make funding recommendations to our board. If you're interested, call, email or Facebook me. The more the merrier! This is important work and begins soon and ends by the third week of May.

Also please click on the link on our website to participate in the latest needs assessment. Your input matters. Thanks!

Welcome to the blog. Welcome to the mind dump. Engage with me. I look foward to your thoughts.

Dee Anne