A Pickup and a Trailer

Today I went with my daughter, Lesley to her horse trainer's place in Dallas. We hauled her new horse, Cash, and dropped him off for a few weeks of schooling. There's nothing I love more than to travel with Lesley and her horses. It's our time to talk and catch up. Lesley is 22 now, which is unbelievable because I swear I only blinked once and she was grown up. I had hoped to get my son, Chris, to go with us, but it was last minute and he had plans.

Simple things are my style. I love to spend time with those I love. Don't have to do anything exciting, just traveling down the road towing the horse trailer will do.

It's a good day.

Proud to be a Cheesemaker!

It's been an entire month since I have written. I have a good reason; last month was the annual Tillamook High School Charity Drive. It's ten crazy days of raising money for local charities and Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Each class competes with one another to raise the most money. In order to receive donations, a service has to be provided, such as dinners, silent auctions, concessions at ball games, art camp for kids, car washes, donkey basketball, boxing events, you name it...it's done. At the end of the 10 days, the princess and prince from each class makes a grand entrance into the gym at a basketball game and the royalty of the class raising the most money is crowned Queen and King. It's a community-wide event and it's a big deal. This year the four classes raised over $172,000.00! This is from a community that is NOT wealthy. It's from a community that has a high unemployment rate and struggles financially.

I am a co-advisor for the class of 2013, the Sophomore Class. As an advisor, I began with this class last year when they were freshman and will "travel" with them until they graduate as seniors. Kara, my co-advisor and I work very hard to instill good values in our class. Last year the school raised over $136,000.00 and the freshman won, earning over $40,000.00 of that total. It is unheard of for the freshman to win, in fact I think the last time a freshman class won was in the 1980's. But this class did it and we are very proud of them.

Then came this year. How would they top last year? Was it possible? Kara and I were a bit worried about the possibility of meeting last years total, considering the harsh economic climate. But our student leadership was positive that they were going to raise at least the total of last year. We commenced to work our behinds off and when all was said and done, this remarkable class with wonderful parents, raised over $51,000.00 of the $172,000.00! Amazing it was! Unbelievable. The junior class was right behind us with over $50,000.00, the seniors with over $41,000.00 and the freshman with over $29,000.00! Over $80,000.00 was donated to Doernbecher Hospital and the rest will remain in Tillamook, awarded to local charities and college scholarships for Tillamook High School seniors. This was the 58th year for the charity drive and our grand total is now at over $1.9 million dollars! All from a little town on the northern Oregon Coast, Tillamook, OR.

Unfortunately, the charity drive doesn't receive much publicity in the metropolitan areas of Portland and Salem, Oregon. We have requested that news crews come and report on the giving, but alas, they seem to be too busy covering bad news to cover good news. Ironically, the news crews of Portland are "Johnny on the spot" when it floods or storms at the coast. Go figure...doesn't make sense to me.

One bright spot came this week from radio station KUIK in Hillsboro, Oregon. They called and interviewed the sophomore class charity drive student chairs about the charity drive. It was neat to know that people do care and notice the good that is being done in areas of our state.

They say, "It takes a village..." but in Tillamook, I believe it "Takes a High School." A school of dedicated, hard-working teenagers that have huge hearts and willing hands that make magic happen every year during the Charity Drive. The community of Tillamook High School is special. It is dedicated to serving and helping others.

I was born and raised in Tillamook. I graduated from this school and now work at this school. Before me, my mother graduated from this school and years after me, my two children became THS graduates. The hallways are full of memories and tradition for me and I get a sense of pride when I watch the students of today continue the activities that were started 58 years ago.

I love Tillamook High School...