Mike Mulligan

Today, United Way’s National Day of Action, found me standing on the corner of Main and Central from 4:15 to 5:15.  We stood there in silence, listening.  Last Tuesday, June 15, 2010, Kacy died.  She is our community’s latest victim of child abuse.  Today wasn’t about the person accused of killing her.  It was about her.  It was about how we, as a community, can do something different.  The idea came to me through a friend’s comment on United Way’s FaceBook page.  Cher wondered how no one could have heard something.  That spurred me to say let’s listen.  Today, people came and listened.  I wonder what they heard and noticed.  I noticed I don’t know as many cars as I knew when I was young.  I noticed I can’t name tunes in 3 notes as cars raced by.  I noticed how many distractions I must have to not notice all the skateboarders, the bicyclists, the walkers who crossed the street so as not to be with us.  Did they cross out of fear, out of confusion, out of lack of interest or out of what?  Sadly, I’ll never know.  I know only they crossed the street.  Would I in some other situation?  I don’t know.  If faced with it in the future, I’ll react differently.  I’ll think before I cross the street.

I thought about all the things I think about usually between 4 and 5:30, usually it’s work stuff, sometimes it’s family stuff.  Today I thought about a dear person in my life who lost her mom this weekend.  I thought about my younger sister’s father-in-law and his valiant fight against pancreatic cancer.  I thought about another sister and her potential need of a liver transplant.  I was moved about Kacy.  Right before going off to listen, a woman approached me.  She asked if I was responsible for this.  I thought of course not.  Sadly Kacy is why we’re here.  A little girl I’ll never know.  A little girl who’s voice and laughter her family will never hear again.  She then said she was Kacy’s grandma.  I couldn’t believe that in a community’s sorrow, there was a grieving grandmother in our midst.  I was honored, humbled and amazed she shared her grief with us.  To her, I am deeply grateful.  Sometimes we don’t want to be held up as the example.  Sometimes we don’t have a choice.  She didn’t.  My thoughts and prayers are with Kacy’s family and loved ones.

I heard the song, Teach Your Children.  I couldn’t remember the words, just the chorus.  I looked it up for those of you humming right now.  And to Graham Nash and to Kacy and to those who stood and listened on the corner of Main and Central and to those who joined in silence in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, California, Portland, British Columbia, and Japan, thank you.

Teach Your Children
by Graham Nash

You, who are on the road
Must have a code
That you can live by.
And so, become yourself
Because the past
Is just a goodbye.

Teach, your children well
Their father's hell
Did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would die
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you (Can you hear and)
Of tender years (Do you care and)
Can't know the fears (Can you see we)
That your elders grew by (Must be free to)
And so please help (Teach your children)
Them with your youth (You believe and)
They seek the truth (Make a world that)
Before they can die (We can live in)

Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick's
The one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

Today, members of CAN (Child Abuse Network) came together to listen.  There are so many ways to show up in the lives of children.  There are so many resources.  There are resources on the volunteer page on our website.  There are numerous child abuse prevention resources on www.mailtribune.com/dontturnaway.  Please don’t turn away.  We can’t anymore.  There don’t have to be more Kacys.  We can show in the lives of children, in the lives of our neighbors, in the lives of our community.  We don’t do this work because it’s important, because it’s right, because we must, we do it because we CAN.  Join us!

Today's guest blog is from Suzanne Zapf.  Suzanne came to our board, and quickly became chair of our Raising Awareness Council.  She helped to fundamentally put in place our strategy platform to launch Live United.  And she does and so does her daughter Zoe.  Suzanne exempifies the following Confucious quote:  "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."  Without sometimes knowing, Suzanne helps to put our hearts right.  Enjoy her blog...

What a great volunteer fair this past Wednesday, presented by United Way of Jackson County and other community partners!  We had over 50 agencies seeking volunteers as hundreds of potential volunteers streamed into our large KOBI studio space for the 2 hour event.  Some of the agencies represented at the fair included the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), the Family Nurturing Center, and the Ashland Film Festival.  The diverse set of agencies at the fair reflects the very diverse needs of our community!  United Way’s hope is that potential volunteers find positions and internships that fit their skills and interests.  Check out the the website for a full description of volunteer opportunities and contact information for all the agencies represented at the fair.

On a personal note, my 7-year-old daughter Zoe and I had a rockin’ time!  We partnered with Peggy Wisneski at the United Way table, and Zoe and Peggy became fast friends.  Peggy, in between deep discussions with Zoe about Cinderella, cultivated relationships with many new United Way and WiLL (Women Living Leadership) volunteers.  The afternoon culminated in Zoe winning a Goodwill matchbox truck in the drawing, which absolutely thrilled her!  Thank you to Rita Vance, WiLL and the United Way staff for organizing such a terrific event.  Sign us up to help with next year’s event, our 3^rd annual volunteer fair.  We’ll be there.

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.