Nevaeh Banton has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Sitting at a table outside her house on Broadway, she has sold cups of lemonade and blueberries from the family’s bushes, and, one time, she even raided the kitchen cupboards and sold the snacks she found within. So, it wasn’t much of a jump when she began to sell handcrafted bead bracelets.
Banton got started on this latest venture after having seen others making them and deciding to attempt to make some for her friends in what she calls her “group of three.” The Valentine’s gifts went over well and she decided it was time to try selling them out front for a price of $5 for those she makes by hand and $7 for those that she makes in a tumbler that threads the beads for her. During the two Saturdays she has hawked her wares, the Veneta Elementary School 5th grader says business has been good, the customers friendly. The money she earns, not surprisingly, is used to purchase more beads, string, and whatever decorations that catch her eye at places such as Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. Unprompted, she will happily show off the cases of beads and shapes, including fruits and smiley faces that await being strung into bracelets and sold. Themed bracelets also include flowers and Banton soon plans to make Veneta Spirit bracelets to sell as well. Banton says it generally takes her 7 minutes to construct a bracelet if it is what she terms a big pattern, but if she is working with just one color, it can take 10 minutes to build. She has set a goal for herself to build at least 4 bracelets a day, if not more, and she anticipates good sales as she sits outside her home during Spring Break. She also looks forward to the Veneta Harvest Festival in September, when business should also do very well. The community’s support is greatly appreciated, Banton says, and she admits to having been worried at first about potential rudeness. Rather, people of all ages stop to admire her work with one teenage boy even buying a bracelet for his grandmother. Once she gets established, Banton says she will likely begin taking custom orders and has been really excited about the response thus far. As one might expect, Banton likes art, and she also enjoys music. Currently, she is learning to play the piano, guitar, and violin. Skateboarding also commands some of her attention and she can be seen practicing tricks at the skate park under the watchful eye of her mother Kat Banton. Nevaeh Banton might be a kid, but she knows what she wants and how to go about it. She sets goals and works hard to achieve them. With her drive, her determination, life should take her far, and many adults could learn a lesson from her and her positive, can-do attitude.
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Call it providence. When Crystal Glenzer became friends with one of her patients at Veneta Family Dental where she is employed as a dental assistant, it was the beginning of something big. Both were cat lovers, and both wanted to make a difference. Glenzer was already in the habit of asking for donations to cat rescue in lieu of birthday gifts and was already involved in the Trap, Neuter, Release movement also known as TNR. But both wanted to do something more, something bigger. Thus, Fairy Godmother Cat Rescue came into being a year and a half ago and cats in need of a home have been all the better for it.
As with most ventures, there were steps Glenzer had to take after her friend donated their old home on Jeans Road to be used as the rescue. This included obtaining an ARE or Agricultural Rescue Entity permit and having the house turned rescue undergo mandatory inspections. Once Glenzer has gotten the necessary paperwork in order and paid whatever taxes she is assessed, she can then apply for non-profit status. Starting out, she also needed to find people willing to volunteer their time assisting with things such as cleaning out litter boxes in the various rooms where the cats reside and making sure they have plenty of fresh water and she currently has several individuals who do so, but she is always looking for more. The cats themselves, however, were easy to come by. Already Glenzer has taken several litters of kittens from a homeless camp near the Shell station on Greenhill Road. By her estimation, there were at least 60 feral cats in the camp when she began the rescue, but this number has since gone down and Glenzer hopes to see it go down even further by doing TNR on those cats that remain. Glenzer feeds these cats and one of the campers has been helping out by keeping an eye on things for her. Other times, people will clue Glenzer in to where there are strays in need of her help and there are also those cats that are relinquished to her by those who can no longer care for them for one reason or another. It is not unusual for Glenzer to receive upwards of 10 calls a day from people who know of strays as well as numerous emails. Other times she goes to places such as the Country Living Mobile home park where 24 cats were milling about in need of help, and she has also rescued from behind a business on Seneca Street in Eugene and from behind the Arby’s in Junction City where a mother cat was living with her two kittens. Because these felines tend to have been on their own for quite some time, they typically are not well when they come into rescue and Glenzer will have to treat them for upper respiratory ailments and eye issues. Sadly, some kittens are so ill that a heartbreaking choice has had to be made to euthanize them. Once a cat comes into rescue and is given a chance to get well again, they are spayed or neutered either at Veneta Veterinary or Willamette Animal Guild also known as WAG. One can, Glenzer says, obtain a voucher for the surgery at either locale by going to Veneta City Hall and speaking with Theresa Warrick, who is also active in local cat rescue. Vaccinations are also given, and the cats are treated for parasites and tested for feline leukemia. Though they are in good health by the time they go to a new home, Glenzer urges adopters to have their new family member checked by their personal vet in case something might have been missed. Currently, Glenzer is not taking in any more cats than what she already has so she can focus on revamping the house by taking up carpet in the rooms where they stay, leveling the cement beneath, steaming and sanitizing all the cat furniture and making the walls easier to keep clean. She also has plans to expand the current cattio and add a divider to keep adult cats and kittens separate. Once the two male cats that are FIV positive are finally adopted, she intends to turn their room into an isolation room that will boast not only an isolation cage but also a maternity cage where mothers and kittens can be undisturbed. Once this work is completed, she will then begin to take in more cats. Glenzer also assists with the Veneta Project along with Tammy Goss, and Warrick to address the local feral cat situation. In one such case, 60 cats were residing at a residence owned by an elderly man who was unable to care for them any longer. Greenhill Humane Society took between 30-40, Glenzer says, that they altered, kept 15 to rehome and took the remaining cats back to the residence. Glenzer, Goss, and Warrick have been doing what they can to aid those cats Greenhill was unable to. Though the cats are indoors, they will have to be trapped, and eventually they will need to be placed in barn homes due to their lack of socialization. For those who adopt these cats, a large kennel will be provided for the cat to live in as it gets used to its new home for 8 weeks to prevent it from running off. Food, litter, and bowls will also be given to these cats. Before an adoption can be given the green light, these cats will need to have a good outdoor shelter such as a barn or a shed. The fee to adopt from Fairy Godmother is $150 and Glenzer will ask an adopter if they would be willing to donate an additional $25-50 to help offset the $200, she spends per visit to WAG for Spaying/neutering. She prefers that cats be kept indoors but will agree to an indoor/outdoor situation at times. She will offer a discount for the adoption of two cats, and she wants adopters to show initiative and demonstrate that they are willing to give a cat proper care. If an adoption does not work for some reason, she is willing to take the cat back. Because 90% of adopters do not register their cat’s microchip, Glenzer will register them herself and has recently obtained a microchip scanner so if anyone finds a cat they can bring it in and see if it has been chipped. Rescue is more than a passion for Glenzer. It is a way of life. Lane County, she says, is “saturated” with cats and if there is something she can do to make life more tolerable for those cats out there that are in need of help, then she is more than willing to be on the front lines advocating and caring for those who have no voice and showing them for the first time, what love truly is. Find Fairy Godmother Cat Rescue on Facebook. Anyone who has a farm in the Fern Ridge area has no doubt wandered into the Farm Store in Veneta and is familiar with owner, Travis Soverns. Congenial, he knows his regular customers by name and greets them warmly. He and wife Stacy also are active at the Foursquare church on Broadway where Soverns is the assistant minister. It is this stalwart faith as well as their desire to provide wholesome opportunities for their three sons ages 7, 9, and 10, that has led them to start a Trail Life group for boys and an American Heritage scouting program for girls.
Trail Life USA is a Christ-centered, Church-Based outdoor program that is based on values obtained from the Bible and is aimed at boys from ages 5-17. Akin to Boy Scouts, Trail Life has uniforms and weekly meetings and boys work through a book while earning badges, meeting other clubs, and participating in such things as campouts. There are three levels in Trail life – Woodlands Trail for boys age 5-10, Navigators for boys ages 11-13, and Adventurers for boys ages 14-17. The boys are challenged by male mentors to develop character growth, perform community service, and hone leadership skills. American Heritage Girls, is also Christ-centered with a focus on leadership and character development aimed at girls 5-18. The group was founded in 1995 by parents who wanted a faith-based scout-type program that would be dedicated to fostering integrity in young women via service to God, family, and community. Like the Trail Life program, American Heritage Girls earn badges, participate in service projects and leadership opportunities and experience the outdoors while an emphasis is placed on Christian values. Stacy Soverns had heard about the merits of the programs and decided that it should come to Veneta. Not only will this be the first in the city, but it will also be the first in Lane County. She and Travis are working out the finer points, but a post on Veneta’s community Facebook page showed tremendous interest by parents in having their children participate. To do so, however, assistance is needed in the form of volunteer leaders who can come every week to teach the kids, as well as people who can aid with fundraising efforts and people who can accompany the youngsters while they go on campouts and hikes. It is the Soverns hope that parents will be willing to lend a hand as this program does stress parental involvement. Those who volunteer will have to undergo a criminal background check. The goal, Travis says, is for the programs to begin in the autumn when school resumes after summer vacation. There are still a few kinks to work out, but the Soverns are very excited to bring this opportunity to Veneta and can’t wait to get things underway. They sincerely hope that others will feel the same and reach out to lend a hand. For further details and to offer up time, one need only to go to the Trail Life or American Heritage Girls website. The signs seemed to appear overnight. Hanging on utility poles throughout the city, they featured an illustration of an elephant holding some sort of equipment. There were no words, no numbers, just the elephant. People were naturally curious. Who had put them there and why? What exactly was it the elephant was holding? Some people thought perhaps it was related to Oregon’s finally allowing self-service at gas stations and others thought it looked like a power washing wand. Speculation was rampant on social media as people debated what these signs could be about and who had hung them.
Several weeks later, more signs appeared, this time in color so that the elephant was blue against a yellow background and a business name and number was listed on the bottom. Jumbo Power Wash, so named for its mascot elephant, was in business, and seeking customers. It didn’t take long for customers to respond. Owner Michael Hubbard had planned this stealth operation to pique people’s interest. He had thought that it would take a while before there was any sort of reaction to the black and white signs he hung in the dark of night with help from his 16 year old daughter Kayla, but he says people began to post questions about this mysterious appearance the next day on Veneta’s community Facebook page. His marketing plan was a success. Hubbard, a veteran who served four years in the Army as a medic, including a tour in Iraq as a part of the Calvary, had wanted to stay in the service and eventually become a firefighter. As a teen living in Veneta with his aunt and uncle he volunteered at the fire station. However, a back injury not only ended his stint as a medic, but it also ended his dream of firefighting. Because Hubbard and his wife Shareah weren’t ready to settle in one place yet, they and their three children traveled extensively after his discharge, seeing places such as Germany, Croatia, Austria, Viet Nam, and Thailand. It was while in Thailand that the stage for Jumbo was set. While there, the family stayed at a hotel in the mountains where elephants roamed the grounds. These pachyderms were tame enough to be fed bananas, sugar cane, and watermelon, which they happily took from the hand of the individual offering the bit of food. Hubbard was impressed as was Shareah, whose favorite animal happens to be the elephant. Once the family returned stateside, they settled for a time in Hillsboro but opted to move to Veneta after finding the larger city not to their liking. Hubbard decided he wanted to start a business and began to think about what people needed, what services there was a market for, and recognized a need for power washing. With a business decided upon, Hubbard then underwent industry training to learn how to clean following the guidelines of manufactures and purchased the necessary equipment. It was also time to develop a mascot, one that would catch people’s eyes and spark conversation. Hubbard’s thoughts went back to the friendly elephants in Thailand and working with artificial intelligence on his computer, he began to bring Jumbo to life. He wanted something cute, something that would make people smile and be appealing to kids as well. When he was done with the initial concept of Jumbo, he had an artist add the finishing touches and his sign subterfuge was begun. Since beginning business Hubbard has worked with fellow business owners, along with commercial, rental, and private property owners. He specializes in moss removal but also does soft wash pressure washing on homes, cleans gutters, and even cleans sidewalks, all done so that care is taken not to cause any damage and lessen the lifespan of the roofs, etc. Hubbard attempts to perform all services at a high level so that customers will not only have him back, but also refer him to others. He works with a crew of two and takes pride in paying a living wage, something that he describes as a “big mission” of his. Soon, he will add a third part-time employee. Come this autumn, Jumbo will don a Santa suit as Hubbard and his crew hang commercial grade Christmas lights as part of his goal to become a home service that does many things and Jumbo is also set to become the star of his own 47-page children’s book. The tale has Jumbo living in “Venetia” and all townsfolk are animals. Characters also include the Emerald Isle Gnomes and Ernie the Honest Evergreen. The story itself sees two children embarking on a journey and being assisted by the gnomes who lead them to Ernie who in turn, sends them to Jumbo because “icky sticky goo” has been poured on the town. Hubbard would like to give the books away and has already spoken to people at Elmira Elementary School where his two youngest children attend. Rather than dreams of literary success and big money, Hubbard’s only objective is to spread happiness. What began as a simple illustration hung here and there in the Veneta area to grab people’s attention has morphed into a bit of celebrity for a blue elephant grasping a deliberately ambiguous nozzle. Now, he graces coloring pages, company tee-shirts, the side of the company truck and more. Come time for Jumbo to switch to his Santa suit, he may also grace tee-shirts and hoodies for purchase. A mystery that had flummoxed many and given rise to theories has been solved and there really was no mystery at all. Just a friendly blue elephant, a clever ruse to get people’s attention, and a business that strives to do well, leave customers satisfied and, if somebody can be made happy, then that’s all the better. When she sees a need, Theresa O’Donnell likes to fill it. When she saw a post on social media by a woman who was upset because community pantry was already empty a short while after she had filled it, O’Donnell knew it was time to act. She’d always wanted to bring the Burrito Brigade to Veneta, her home of the past six years, and she saw that there was a definite need. So, she got in touch with the Burrito Brigade in Eugene, and a plan was hatched.
The Weekend Burrito Brigade, for those who are not familiar, is now in its 10th year of providing vegan meals to the hungry across Eugene and Springfield and has not only expanded to include Waste-to-Taste, a food rescue program that provides food boxes free of charge, but also is now operating in Portland and another brigade is going to soon start in Chicago. Because the burritos are vegan, there is no meat in them nor cheese. Rather, they are filled with roasted vegetables, rice, beans, herbs, and spices. The brigades handing them out on the weekends act as an antidote for a food distribution system where those who are homeless, unemployed, and poor bear the brunt of the burden. “If you want a burrito, you probably need it,” O’Donnell points out. As she succinctly explains her reasons for doing this, O’Donnell states that rents today are high and after paying expenses, people often are left with not enough money to eat healthy but make too much money to qualify for SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So, they subsist on a diet that is not good for them and oftentimes miss meals altogether. O’Donnell has overseen three Sunday Burrito Brigades thus far, and she is always seeking out volunteers who will be willing to lend a hand. While a fair number of people want to cook, there is also a need to distribute the burritos. On a windy, chilly Sunday afternoon, O’Donnell stands sentry in front of the Service Center on Broadway after first making a trip into Eugene to pick up the Burritos from the Eugene Burrito Brigade who is more than willing to share, and hands out burritos to whomever would like one. She has also been known to visit the community park at the end of Broadway where, on a sunny day, children were thrilled to get a burrito, and the skate park, as well as the small market next to the feed store. During an earlier Burrito Brigade, O’Donnell saw an unhoused man slumped on the sidewalk near the smoke shop at the West Lane Center. When she asked if he would like a burrito, his face, she said, lit up and he told her that he had been without something to eat after someone stole his food card. “A drug addict is a human being, too,” O’Donnell states. “Somebody birthed them and loved them, too.” When she posts on social media about the Burrito Brigade, O’Donnell says the response she receives is 99% supportive. When she does encounter someone she considers an online bully, she will not hesitate to shut them down. People want to help, she says, but they don’t know how. She may eventually switch to doing the Burrito Brigade on Saturday, but not all volunteers are available then due to other commitments. It is O’Donnell’s hope to find a space in Veneta where the burritos can be cooked, but this will take a kitchen with an industrial sized stove as the brigade will need to prepare things in industrial sized pots. She has spoken with businesses about donating supplies and items such as burrito shells, but there is a lot of dynamic involved in finding a suitable kitchen and it would have to be certified by the health department. Once the brigade is firmly established and the necessary “baby steps” have been taken, O’Donnell may then join forces with friend Frances Mays, who runs the nonprofit, Health and Enrichment, for low-income pets. This service of hers assists with flea, tick, and mite treatment for the pets of those who are low or no income and distributes pet coats and blankets for those animals in need. It is the plan that Mays will take care of needy animals while O’Donnell hands out burritos to their hungry owners. It is O’Donnell’s firm belief that it takes a village to help a community and if everyone does a little bit, we can all help one another with our needs. We never know just who among is hungry and what their story is, but if we take time to talk to them, to validate their humanity, we will see that they aren’t much different than us and in fact, it could be us but for the grace of God. We could be wondering when we might have another good meal while trying to ignore the pangs of hunger that seem to want to gnaw at our insides relentlessly because the money no longer stretches the way it once did. We all are one catastrophic illness or injury away from becoming homeless. No child ever dreams of one day growing up to live on the streets, dirty, hungry, scorned, alone. If we can all do our part to make life a little easier for those who struggle, lighten the load even a little bit, it seems like the least we can do for those among us who need it most. VENETA COUPLE SOON TO OPEN PSILOCYBIN PRACTICE |
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