Early Childhood Education

One of the problems with early childhood education in Oregon is that the state expects practitioners to have credentials, but those credentials cost money and the payoff in salaries is poor. The late John Gray was the developer who launched Salishan and Sunriver, among other projects. The John and Betty Gray Foundation has made a commitment that will continue for several more years, through which students taking early childhood education courses at Oregon community colleges can have their entire tuition paid for. At present, there is enough money to handle all applicants.

This still leave some costs to bear, including tuition for the general education courses that are required for most community college programs. This is an opportunity for Kiwanis to step forward and leverage the Gray money to provide full tuition coverage for these students. If it is true that one of the keys to success in early childhood education is the level of training of the providers, then nothing could be more cost-effective than this.

Another great thing for Division 76 is that Southwestern Oregon Community College (known generally as SWOCC although they are trying to change that to SOCC) has put its entire list of ECE classes online. To my knowledge, it's the only cc in Oregon to have done this. SWOCC's district almost exactly coincides with Division 76, except that Lane Community College covers Florence. The clubs in Division 76 could unite in supporting the SWOCC ECE program, which students in their communities could take classes either at SWOCC's Coos Bay campus or online, and could take the general ed classes the same way or through any of the satellite campuses which serve several other communities.

Kiwanis Club of Florence Oregon

The Kiwanis Club of Florence Oregon is a little more than a quarter century old. It meets every Wednesday at noon at the Elks Club. Club President is Rob Spooner. The real president-elect is Wendy Farley, who was planning to be president during the current year but got called to active military duty in late spring. Rob Spooner was moved ahead one year in the planned succession and Wendy will now follow him for the 2008-2009 year if all goes according to plan. Kathleen Margerum is now vice-president and will be president in 2009-2010.

The Florence club has a 501(c)(3)foundation which has accumulated a large amount of money by Kiwanis club standards. As a comparison, the Pacific NW district has a foundation with assets of about $50 per active member in the district. Florence has about $3000 for each active member in the club. One of the challenges facing the club is how best to use this money for the greatest good in the community.

Kiwanis Division 76 of the Pacific Northwest District

Kiwanis International is organized into districts. One of them is the Pacific Northwest, which includes Washington, Oregon, Alaska, British Columbia, and some bits and pieces. Division 76 consists of clubs on the Oregon Coast from Florence on the north to Gold Beach on the south. It would also include Brookings at the California border if there were a club there.

At the present time, the active clubs in Florence, North Bend, Coos Bay, Coquille, Bandon, and Gold Beach. The division lieutenant governor is Ken Hooton of the Coquille club.