Linn Benton chapter has its April meeting a Willamette Community Bank in Albany, hosted by Sue Kalina. Welcome to Debbie Burns, a new member who attended.
We donated a classroom set of Get Oregonized history books to Mt. View Elementary from Points for Profit money. The class was very excited and sent us a handmade book with each student drawing a picture and a short report from something they had learned about Oregon and natural resources. They had prepared questions for us to answer about the book when we made the delivery. Very nice! Sigma Alpha reported they would be helping at auction, they were hosting a spaghetti feed to benefit AITC.
In May the chapter gathered at Betty Jo Smith’s home in Albany and put together 27 plates of cookies to deliver to the crew that grills oysters at the OWA Auction. A sweet way to let them know they are appreciated! FFA Chapters in our counties were contacted with the offer of $250 for their activities if they would send a letter stating how the funds would be used. A member attended the individual FFA Chapter Award Programs and presented the checks. Katie Glaser gave a presentation for ‘thirty-one’, her home based business that is a new part of Points for Profit. This was an additional fundraiser for the chapter. We voted to support a request from Clover Ridge Elementary to provide funding toward purchasing tomato plants for their Ag Days Festival.
June’s meeting was held at Chris McDowell’s home in Shedd. The Clover Ridge event went well and, using the AITC 2017 literacy book, Kristi Miller read to six classrooms on the first day and Dona Coon read to six additional classrooms the second day, 340 students total. There were 12 stations for the students to participate in and they completed six per day. This is the third year LB has helped.
Quilt blocks were gathered and it was voted to investigate the cost of putting it together as a donation to next year’s auction. Two scholarship winners attended the meeting and received their checks. Stephanie Wallace received the scholarship as a grandchild of LB member, MaryLou Nehr. She is working to be an elementary school teacher and is determined to use agriculture to educate her students. Brittany Mills is an Agriculture, Natural Resources major at OSU. The third scholarship goes to Conner Corrado, who is attending Eastern Oregon University in La Grande as an ag major.
Linn Benton lost a long time member, Juanita Davis on June 23rd. Juanita was 98 years old and was a key part in the formation of the LB Scholarship. She was married to Leighton, her husband for 75 years and worked beside him in the family dairy. Her dedication to her family and agriculture and education were awesome. We remember her and feel blessed to have had her as a member.
Not in our district, but still dear to those of us that have been in OWA for many years, is the passing of Phyllis Pilcher and her husband Tom. These ladies were special and will be missed.
There will be no meeting in July. August meeting will be held at Margaret Henderson’s – Peoria Road Farm Market on Tuesday, August 8th at 6 pm.
Dona Coon, President