Shining moments: Touching lives

Shining moments: Touching lives

The first wagons of pioneer settlers arrived in Oregon's Willamette Valley in 1846. Just a few years later, in 1859, a Catholic convent was opened in downtown Portland and began accepting orphans to meet the needs of children who had lost parents to the hardships of the day.

That orphanage, now an independent, non-profit organization called ChristieCare and located on the banks of the Willamette River in Lake Oswego, Ore., is dedicated to providing treatment for emotionally disturbed children. It focuses on teaching independent living skills, social skills development and education or vocational training.

The Lake Oswego Oregon Stake public affairs council was looking in June 2008 for a service project for members of the stake and discussed several options. The desire was to do something that could touch the lives of individuals in the community. One of the ideas was to help the Christie School.

When Lynne Saxton, director of the school, was asked if stake members could help in the way of a service project, she was excited.

Jim Zupancic of the stake high council reported: "Lynne said that my call was an answer to their prayers. Their funding from the state had just been cut again and they were in the middle of budget review, not knowing how they would do some of the needed projects."

The Christie School staff created and prioritized a list of projects that needed to be done and met with leaders from the stake. Arthella Starke was called to lead the project and quickly organized several teams to complete the targeted projects.

There were about 350 workers on Saturday, Oct. 18, and a total of about 400 volunteers including the seamstresses who made curtains for the school the previous Wednesday.

The projects included clearing blackberry bushes, pruning shrubs, raking leaves, spreading bark dust, trimming trees, washing windows, detailing vans, hauling furniture and painting approximately 60 dorm rooms.

Christie School representatives said they had never seen that level of support for the organization and were extremely thankful and felt blessed by being able to spend the morning and afternoon with the members of the Church.

The stake is now planning for its next annual service project to help another group or organization. — John Cheney, Lake Oswego Oregon Stake public affairs director