This content was published: November 30, 2009. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Holiday giving drives can help
Kelli Fritsche, Meryl Lipman, Abraham Proctor, James Hill and Kate Chester.
Once Thanksgiving comes around, PCC staff, faculty and students start getting into a very giving mood. And this year is no exception. From the college’s big Charitable Giving Campaign to organizing canned food drives and food baskets for people in need, the college is giving back in a big way.
Rock Creek staff collect cans for the Rock Creek Campus Winterfest in 2008.
At the Cascade Campus, two-year honors society Phi Theta Kappa is hosting an Oregon Food Bank drive, collecting nonperishable food items in the Cascade Learning Center. Meanwhile, student government is organizing the Sally McCracken Holiday Meal Drive where representatives will prepare a New Year’s Eve dinner for the Sally McCracken Alcohol and Drug Free Community in Old Town.
For Christmas, student government will take wish lists from needy families so that Cascade faculty, staff and students can purchase gifts from the list to give the families. In addition, the Cascade branch of the Associated Students of PCC will collect everyday supplies to ship to American troops overseas and collect funds to provide 50 families with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in November.
“The current economy has created a drastic increase in the need for all kinds of aid,” said Nancy Cloud, administrative assistant for Human Resources, who oversees the PCC Charitable Giving Campaign. “Your donation matters now more than ever. It will really make a difference.”
Southeast Center and Extended Learning Campus
The center is sponsoring two holiday donation drives this year. Its branch of student government will host a holiday food drive through the Oregon Food Bank through mid-December. Staff at the Portland Metro Workforce Training Center are running a winter food drive in conjunction with the Oregon Food Bank through December as well.
Jeff Triplett, dean of instruction at Sylvania, is in the festive mood during Winterfest at the CC cafeteria.
The Extended Learning Campus president’s office has once again teamed up with Coffee Creek’s corrections education program to organize a sock drive for homeless families. This drive ends Dec. 18. A box for donations is in Tabor Hall 14 and another at the Portland Metro Workforce Training Center’s front desk.
Of course, December wouldn’t be December without the Extended Learning Campus’s Winter Town Hall from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Portland Metro’s auditorium. Tickets are $3 for staff and faculty and donations of new socks and canned food are encouraged. After a holiday buffet, ELC President Nan Poppe will talk about the bond projects and staff from the PCC Foundation will discuss how staff and faculty can help with charitable donations for student scholarships.
Rock Creek Campus
The Teaching Learning Center has planned the Rock Creek Winterfest on Monday, Dec. 7, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Event Center (Room 122, Building 9). During lunch, Campus President Dave Rule will update the campus community on the current and upcoming events affecting Rock Creek Campus and the district. As always, staff will conduct a canned food for the Oregon Food Bank and host a raffle.
Sylvania Campus
Sylvania’s Winterfest is slated to take place on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the campus cafeteria. It will benefit Neighborhood House, a locally based nonprofit agency dedicated to feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and educating the young and old. Each year, Sylvania departments participate by creating festive-themed baskets to be raffled off. Last year, the campus collected more than 25 baskets filled to the brim with a variety of treats.
“It’s a wonderful time to share back with the PCC community and to provide for people in need,” said Dave Happ, Computer Resource Center coordinator and the chair of this year’s Winter Fest committee.
A Sylvania staffer has plenty of food to donate.
Tickets for the Winter Fest lunch cost $4 per person. In addition, attendees to the celebration are encouraged to bring at least one item of canned food for Neighborhood House’s food pantry, for which they are given a complimentary raffle ticket upon entry. In the spirit of sustainability, attendees who bring their own mug or cup will receive an extra raffle ticket for free; additional raffle tickets can be purchased on-site for $1 per ticket.
Last year’s event generated nearly $1,500 and approximately 550 pounds of food – Sylvania’s biggest haul ever – for Neighborhood House, which collaborates with the Oregon Food Bank to provide emergency food boxes for individuals and families in need who reside in southwest Portland.
Sylvania students also are seeking grocery gift certificates for Thanksgiving dinners to give to PCC students in need and organizing the Adopt a Family initiative where faculty and staff donate toys, clothes and needed items for selected students in need. For more information on these initiatives, call (503) 977-4361.
The Sylvania Women’s Resource Center is sponsoring the Laundry Basket Project, which solicits donations of nontoxic and environmentally safe household cleaning and personal hygiene products to create laundry baskets for women who have escaped domestic violence.