On behalf of the City of Forest Grove, our City Council and our employees, I wanted to take a moment to express our deep gratitude... more
City Hall
City Employees Celebrate Holiday with Charity Raffle
Employees of the City of Forest Grove celebrated the holidays by giving to our community. Each department provided a theme basket or item which was raffled at the City Holiday Buffet held on Thursday, December 8, at the Community Auditorium. The proceeds are given to a designated charity. The Severe Weather Shelter was selected as our annual charitable recipient with the funds for food, blankets, tarps, hygiene kits and socks for the SWS clients. This year’s raffle proceeds totaled $1,010.00 which was given to Jennifer Yocum, Pastor at Forest Grove United Church of Christ.
Forest Grove United Church of Christ hosts a community-based effort to provide safe space overnight for those without homes when outside temperatures drop below 32F for three nights in a row. The severe weather shelter operates from 7 pm to 7 am and provides dinner and breakfast. Since the shelter opened in 2007, they have provided protection from the elements for 91 nights with 507 bed stays. This is the only SWS in Western Washington County where the homeless can get out of the weather overnight. In addition to overnight shelter, the SWS also provides blankets, tarps, socks and hygiene items to provide comfort outside of the shelter hours.
In these economic times, there are a lot of under-funded organizations that provide such crucial services to our community, and this is a wonderful way to share the holiday cheer. Last year, the City raffle contributed $1,129 to the Family Resource Center for students experiencing homelessness and prior to that contributed $1,038 to Public Safety Chaplaincy and in previous years over $700 to the Toys n’ Joy Drive and over $800 to the Oregon Food Bank.
City employees enjoyed sharing the spirit of the season with food and conversation at the buffet and bringing a toy for the Fire Department’s Toy Drive, as well as cheerfully competing for the raffle prizes. In addition to each department’s basket donation, other prizes were donated by individual employees, City vendors and Mayor Peter Truax. For more information about the Severe Weather Shelter, go to http://www.fgucc.org/ or call 503.357.9121.