Pearl Buck Center’s 2020-2021 Highlights.
You can make a gift before the New Year!
Our Supported Living program worked with 44 clients in 2020-2021.
Pearl Buck Center’s 2020-2021 Highlights.
Pearl Buck Center’s 2020-2021 Highlights.
You can make a gift before the New Year!
In 2020-2021, Pearl Buck Center served 95 clients in our Community Employment program.
Special thanks to members of Eugene’s 20-30 Club, and District Commissioner and District Executive, Cascade District, Boy Scouts of America for dropping by for a holiday visit today to deliver Christmas trees for our families. Kiddos also had a blast doing holiday crafts with members of the 20-30 Club.
Gifts were also delivered by International Paper employees’ Giving Tree they set up at their site. We are grateful to all those who support Pearl Buck Center over the holidays and throughout the year. Happy holidays!
Much gratitude to United Way for their generous donation of gift cards!
Pearl Buck Center has launched a new “Giving Circle”. This giving circle will celebrate the spirit of philanthropy and #GivingTuesday year-round!By joining Pearl Buck Center’s Giving Circle you will join others in establishing a legacy to sustain our mission to positively impact the lives of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
In addition to the impact and wonderful feeling you’ll receive through your gift, joining the Giving Circle provides benefits to enjoy PBC events in the future like our popular Benefit Breakfast* and planned 2022 Summer Garden event!
Learn more: GIVING CIRCLE BENEFITS
Please join our GIVING CIRCLE TODAY!
Our goal is $15,000 before December 31 with at least 10 founding members. If participating in our Giving Circle isn’t for you at this time, please still consider a donation as ALL gifts make a difference to the lives of those we support!
Check back frequently on our website pearlbuckcenter.com and follow us on Facebook in the coming weeks for updates on events, Giving Circle benefits, and our progress.
*Benefit Breakfast may still be virtual in 2022
Today we celebrate #GivingTuesday. This Giving Tuesday is a special one for Pearl Buck Center (PBC). This week we will launch a brand new Giving Circle to celebrate the spirit of giving year-round!
By joining Pearl Buck Center’s Giving Circle you will help establish a legacy that will sustain our
mission to support and positively impact the lives of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Our Giving Circle goal is $15,000 before December 31 with at least 10 founding members. All gifts are welcome! Follow us on Facebook this week to learn more about how to join PBC’s Giving Circle and enjoy complimentary benefits like future events and donate!
In the spirit of the holiday season, read Sammy’s Story about how your participation in our Giving Circle will change lives today and in the future. Her story paints a picture all too common in the IDD community.
Sammy’s Story
Sammy is a bright three year-old who attended the Pearl Buck Preschool (PBC) and is benefiting from our Outreach services. Until PBC intervened, Sammy lived in a 20’ by 20’ hotel room with her mother Kathy who lives with Cerebral Palsy and her father Matt. Prior to her enrollment in the preschool, Sammy spent her days playing on a blanket on the floor of the hotel room. While Matt went to work in the community. Kathy focused on piecing together the daily basic needs, healthcare and financial resources.
With space a high commodity and finances stretched, Kathy reported that the added pressure of parenting a spirited toddler sometimes verged on too much. While the family waited on community housing lists, our Family Support Coordinators spent many hours with Kathy and Sammy. Kathy learned to develop behavioral visuals and routines in their living space, and seek out community support and counseling referrals to strengthen the family relationship.
When the family received notice that an apartment was available to them, Pearl Buck Preschool staff stood right alongside them every step of the way to help them move, for the first time, to a home of their own. While Kathy says the best part of her new space is her kitchen, Sammy is most proud of her bookshelf, her rug, and her very own bed, in her very own room, in her very own house.
With the season of Thanks and Giving upon us, we wish to express our deep gratitude for the continued generosity that you have wrapped up with a bow toward the individuals, children, and families we support. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Pearl Buck Center!
The Eugene Police Department delivered 60 Thanksgiving dinners to Pearl Buck Center today. An anonymous local business donated the dinners to help those in our community who need a little extra help to enjoy a happy Thanksgiving this year.
This donation means a great deal to our staff who are eager to ensure our clients and families have a traditionally-prepared meal for the holiday. Special thanks to EPD for this generous gift that is not just a meal to those we support but also provides a sense of belonging and gratitude.
On November 23, 2021, flights of angels guided Virginia Williams, the Mother of Ruth Harris to her eternal rest. Ruth is an Emeritus Board Member of Pearl Buck Center and has requested in lieu of flowers, donations be made to PBC. Ruth’s family has many connections to Pearl Buck Center as her sister Reva went to school here and Virginia was the personal secretary to our Founder Lisl Waechter from 1960-66.
When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,rocks on distant hills shudder,lions hunker down in tall grasses,and even elephants lumber after safety
When great trees fall in forests,small things recoil into silence,their senses eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.We breathe, briefly.Our eyes, briefly,see with a hurtful clarity.Our memory, suddenly sharpened,examines,gnaws on kind words unsaid,promised walks never taken.
Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us.Our souls,dependent upon their nurture,now shrink, wizened.Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away.We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves.
And when great souls die,after a period peace blooms,slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us.They existed. They existed.We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
We are pleased to share with you highlights from Pearl Buck Center’s FY21 virtual annual meeting. Many individuals were presented with distinguished awards for long-term service at Pearl Buck as well as for unique service and community support.
Kayla Running, Employment Path Manager – 10 Years
Mary Alsop, Job Coach & Supported Living Provider – 10 Years
Lise Schellman, Preschool & Family Supports Director – 5 Years
Bryan Hess, Janitorial Staff – 5 Years
Michael Sturgis, Facilities Coordinator – 5 Years
Robin Simmons, Infrastructure Manager – Safety Award
Vicki Chambers, Job Coach – 20 Years
Selene Jaramillo, Board President – Lisl Waechter Award
[Photo by Carl Davaz]
From Margaret Theisen, Executive Director:
“Few people in our 68-year tradition have impacted Pearl Buck Center’s Mission like Marie and Ted Baker. Their legacy in our history is unparalleled, having led us through two capital campaigns. The ownership of our current Center without a mortgage is largely due to their passion and commitment, not just to Pearl Buck Center, but our community at large. As first Board and then Emeritus Board Members, they stayed connected as friends and supporters of our organization through decades. The grief of losing them is only bested by the deep love and respect we have for them. Our current Board of Directors speaks to their impact:
“Very sad to lose both Marie and Ted this year. They were great PBC supporters, but so, so much more. They were just great people. And, a great team.”
“Community supporters without peer. Genuinely decent and nice people—unassuming in the extreme.”
” We need many, many more like them! The community is a poorer place for their passing’s.”
To the extended Baker Family, our prayers and appreciation are with you. May your hearts heal quickly and your family relish the profound difference they have made in our community.”
Link to Marie Baker’s Obit
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/registerguard/name/marie-baker-obituary?pid=198818102
Link to Ted Baker’s obit in the Register Guard: