Updates from Looking Glass
Members of the Southtowne Rotary group assembled a new animal kennel and installed it at New Roads homeless youth drop-in center after New Roads staff requested help corralling the various pets that youth tend to bring in. Rotarians Lonny and Jantzen built the 5-unit kennel and installed it in the first week of January.
Vinnie Cowan, who has owned and operated Vinnie’s Smokin’ BBQ along with his wife Debbie since roughly 2015, has entered into an informal partnership with Looking Glass Riverfront School & Career Center in which the students will work in his food truck, parked at Riverfront every Thursday offering lunch from 11AM to 2PM, and receive paychecks from Looking Glass via a workforce readiness grant program.
“We always try and give back to our community and felt that this was a great way to offer the kids some work experience,” Vinnie explained. “And the youth workers have been great! I’m actually hoping to hire a couple of them this summer when they’re out of school.”
The 2022 Giving Tree program went extremely well for Looking Glass staff and clients. Each participating program was once again able to spoil youth and family clients who sought support to ensure holiday wishes (and basic needs) were granted. Looking Glass is extremely thankful to the community of amazing donors and the participating tree donation locations!
The 4th annual Socktoberfest sock donation drive resulted in thousands of pairs of donated socks for New Roads homeless youth program. The October-long donation drive included donation locations at all Lane County area Bi-Marts, local Windermere offices, Macy’s at Valley River Center, Heritage Bank NW, all PeaceHealth hospital locations locally and also a special drive done by the UO Softball team.
After two years of virtual breakfast events, the 10th annual Looking Glass Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures fundraiser was held in person and was a huge success. Roughly 90 people gathered for a lovely breakfast at Venue 252 in Eugene on Tuesday, November 15th in support of Looking Glass. SEE VIDEOS>>>
The 5th annual Looking Glass fundraiser, Hike for Hope, at Mt Pisgah was a big success this year - raking in just over $7,500 for Looking Glass programs from event sponsors and hiking supporters. This year’s event featured three Looking Glass staff members sharing their experiences with supporters just prior to the hike up the North Trailhead - Jane Green from Station 7, Jeremy Spafford from the Regional Crisis Center and Maiyra Espinoza from the Counseling program. Special thanks goes to event title sponsor Hearing Associates!
The 2022 Looking Glass Auction fundraiser, “Looking Forward, Giving Back,” was a mostly virtual affair this year, with a 4-day online auction and a small in-person gathering along with a Zoom audience hearing client success stories and raising crucial funds for at-risk youth. Looking Glass staff took this opportunity to publicly recognize and thank the Ranstads for their amazing contributions to supporting homeless and transitional housing youth with the Alder house. They were given the Looking Glass Community Leadership Award.
The 36th annual Freedom Fund Gala, sponsored by the Eugene and Springfield NAACP chapters, was held on Friday, February 25, 2022 and members of Looking Glass staff were happily in attendance. Looking Glass President and CEO Craig Opperman went and was extremely happy to join this important organization’s event in person again.
2021 was a difficult year for a lot of people, including our understaffed programs and the vulnerable youth they serve. But despite the many challenges community members faced this year, they gave generously to the Looking Glass Giving Tree program and allowed most of our programs to spoil the youth who so richly deserve the extra goodies this year. Looking Glass program staff is incredibly thankful to all this year’s Giving Tree supporting businesses, organizations and community members including Valley River Center and Active 20-30 Club, Oakway Center, patrons at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Coldwell Banker of Eugene, Umpqua Bank in Springfield and Eugene branches and the Eugene Director’s Mortgage staff members. More than 400 youth requested gifts through programs this year and all of them had their wishes fulfilled and basic needs met!
The 9th annual Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures breakfast fundraiser was held virtually via Zoom again this year and despite not being able to gather together in person it was a huge success. Liz Kelly and Mary Reilly provided upbeat conversation as our Emcees again and special guest Alicia Beymer, Chief Administrative Officer of PeaceHealth, shared why she supports Looking Glass and encouraged supporters to pull out their check books and do the same. The event coincided with the recent opening of the Alder House project, a new collaboration between Looking Glass and Hybrid Real Estate, which moved 10 youth into 8 apartments in a newly renovated and fully furnishes complex near the UO campus in the first week of November.
The annual Looking Glass board meeting was held Wednesday, November 3rd at the Graduate Hotel in Eugene with a small gathering of in-person guests and board members. The event included a keynote speech by Fariborz Pakseresht, the Director of the Oregon Department of Human Services, and also a presentation of the Community Leadership award from Looking Glass CEO Craig Opperman to longtime supporter Senator James Manning.
