‘Tis the Season

The holiday season is always a time for reflection, of celebrating those you hold dear, and looking to help those in the community who are in need, and area residents are embodying the giving spirit this season.

The Unti Family at Tygh Creek Farm & Forage helped provide 67 Thanksgiving meals to folks in the community. Donations helped to round out homegrown vegetables and meats, and days of preparation led to a busy day on Thanksgiving - putting together plates of food, making deliveries, and repeating, until late into the evening when everything had been distributed to those who needed a warm meal.

Cindy Chastain is organizing her third Secret Santa for area kids and their families. While it started small, the effort has grown so large she is using space in the Tygh School Community Center to stage and wrap gifts. This year, over twenty families are participating, and 55 kids will receive gifts anonymously, purchased by folks in the community who either donate money or buy gifts directly. The participating families will also receive a holiday gift basket. If you would like to participate, or if you are in a position to purchase gifts or donate money, please reach out to Cindy on Facebook, or at this address.

Sheri Olsen helped to coordinate the donation of roughly 70 coats and other winter items from Rockwood Community Development Corporation to area kids in need of warm winter coats. Rockwood is one of Oregon’s largest, most under-resourced communities, and Rockwood CDC aims to help provide pathways for Rockwood residents to move from poverty to prosperity through work expanding the supply of affordable housing, stimulating and supporting economic development, increasing access to healthcare and encouraging healthy behavior, creating and sustaining public-private partnerships, and aligning the strategies and resources of other organizations working across a variety of sectors in the area.