A Passenger van could make the difference

I joined the current Leadership Corvallis class more out of peer pressure than anything. Several good friends of mine were signed up, so I signed up. I'm not going to lie, it began as kind of a "me too" thing.

Leadership Corvallis has turned out to be one of the most enriching programs I've ever participated in. A great concept that has, and I think will continue to develop passionate leaders for Corvallis.

One key element of the class is the service project. At our first or second day-long class, we saw 5 or 6 project presentations from area non-profits. Then, we each picked our top 3 and later were grouped into teams for each project. My number one pick was Parent Enhancement Program. They wanted us to raise money to purchase them a passenger van. I figured this would be a good challenge. It definitely has proved to be. Thankfully, it was the only fundraising project for the 2009 class.

In our initial meeting that day, we learned more about what this van would mean to the community. Parent Enhancement Program overwhelmingly serves young, poverty level mothers and their young children. They provide nutrition and parenting classes, help these young women get their GED's and give them rides to critical destinations such as doctor's appointments, school functions, the library, and the grocery store. I'm of course abbreviating, but we got the gist of the organization and it's mission.

Our group has since connected with the project on a much deeper level. What we realized, is that this passenger van can mean some normalcy for the children in these mostly single-parent homes. Without a special mode of transportation, many of these kids would not go to their school events, get to doctors appointments, or visit the library to check out books. Most of us have never experienced a world where mom simply has no way of getting the kids to the library.

We started the project with a plan of pre-selling advertising on the van. Simply get 12 or 15 businesses to give us $1000 for us to put their logo on the van. Then get a graphics/vinyl company to donate a vehicle wrap. Pretty easy, right. Well, given the economy, we've shifted gears a bit and implemented more of a community plan. We figure, if we can get 300 people in Benton County to give $50 each, there's $15K for a van. Throw in some grant money, and we've got a van with a maintenance fund.

The response has been fantastic thus far. We've had several $100 donations, a $400 donation from New Business Generation in Albany, and dozens of $50 donors. We've got over $2500 raised so far. This project will happen. We just need some more people to partner on it.
Our "money in" date is May 1st. The van will be purchased during the week of May 18th.

Please consider how you can participate. All contributions are tax deductible. Please make checks out to Parent Enhancement Program. Checks can be dropped off at Chris Nordyke State Farm by Albertsons, or Downtown Citizen's Bank.