Welches students in the giving mood
Welches students demonstrated selfless behavior by spearheading a project
named “The Big Give” to help those in need. Many generous tasks were

undertaken during the month long event, including collecting socks for Japan
following a devastating earthquake and tsunami, and collecting pennies to
donate to a children's hospital.

As part of the sock collecting project, the students reached out to local
businesses to offer raffle incentives and found many willing partners. Then
Welches Principal Alex Leaver commended all the students for their work,
noting that the socks and pennies projects were initiated by the students.
"It's them responding in a compassionate and empathetic way, which is one of
the things we want from our students," Leaver said. "It's part of being in a
healthy community." Way to go, Welches students.

In other news at Welches Schools Denise Emmerling-Baker won an Excellence
in Education Award. Emmerling-Baker started teaching at a private school in
1998 and shortly after joined the Oregon Trail School District, going on to
teach Welches Elementary and Middle School students in the English
Language Department.

Online tool to combat invasive species
The war against invasive species was ramped up a notch when The Oregon
Invasive Species Council launched iMapInvasives, an online GIS-based
reporting and querying tool which accurately records and tracks the
whereabouts of invasive plants, animals, fish and diseases. IMap was

developed through a partnership between the Nature Conservancy, Nature-
Serve, The NY Natural Heritage Program, Florida National Areas Inventory and

Oregon Biodiversity Information Center.
More than 85,000 observations of invasive species were included at the start
and the list continues to grow. Invasive species cause problems in the forests,
meadows, streams and rivers to native plants and animals.

To learn more about invasive species, visit the Oregon Invasive Species
website at www.oregoninvasivespeciescouncil.org, or call 1-866-INVADER if
you spot a pesky invader. To access iMapInvasives, visit
www.imapinvasives.org, click on OR.

In Other News...
The search for a new superintendent for the Oregon Trails School District
moved along after receiving 26 applications,
The Villages at Mt Hood held a Community Survey, Mike Aldridge and
Alexandra Loren won the first ever King-Queen competition at Mt. Hood
Skibowl, Rhododendron resident Leslie Stockdale introduced her new book,
"Clover, the Plover, and Muffin, the Puffin, and the Oil Spill.”

Several Sandy High School students won awards at the Oregon Thespians
State Acting Competition: Garrett Larreau and Joshua Grozav won two awards
in solo acting, Larreau and Bryn McLaughlin earned a Showcase Award in duo
dramatic acting, Chris Shiprack a finalist award for Solo Acting, and Jesta
Knoles and Danny Wesselink a finalist award in Duo Comic Acting. Bravo!