Kickoff fundraiser: Sat., Jun. 7, 11am-6pm, Madison Meadow, W. 22nd and Madison; featuring Walker T. Ryan, SugarBeets, other local musicians & talented students.
Funds raised will support NHS and will provide amenities like port-a-potties for current homeless camps. NHS will provide safe community for un-housed people with disabilities living alongside individuals who can provide support.
Eugene is the 1st US city to pass a resolution to ban bee-killing pesticides & make pesticide-free parks a priority!
Live music, yo-yo demo, bubble art, face painting, field games, kid’s book give-away & poetry workshop, prizes, beekeepers, coloring books, open mic poetry reading.
Sponsor: Smith Family Bookstore. Coconut Bliss provides “SCOOPS FOR A CAUSE.”
On Saturday, October 12, Lane County residents will participate in the worldwide “March Against Monsanto” for World Food Day. Over 275 cities around the world are scheduled for events on the same day. In Eugene, we will hold a joyful celebration of sustainable agriculture dressed in Franken, mad scientist and veggie themes. This time we march toward solutions! We will march a short route downtown Eugene starting at the Wayne Morse Free Speech plaza (8th and Oak St.) at 11am, where Samba Ja and Jasun Plaedo Wellman will lead us off in great spirit, marching toward the event “Tools and Tactics for Sustainable Food Systems,” an informational panel moderated by Camilla Mortensen, investigative reporter at Eugene Weekly, followed by a short work party/informational meeting with leaders in area of your choice at The First Christian Church, 1166 Oak Street, where speakers from Center for Sustainability Law, Support Local Food Rights, Kid Food Matters, Healthy Bees Healthy Gardens, and GMO Free Oregon will talk about what’s being done locally and in- state toward sustainable food systems. They will address community rights, sustainable farming, and the dangers that GMOs present to our environment, health, and local economy, the laws and current campaigns afoot, as well as what you can do to help directly. Please join us for fun and community education and activation.
Contact: Gwendolyn Iris
Photo credit: Gregory Walker
On Saturday, November 17, Occupy Eugene activist Gwendolyn Iris climbed a $70,000 chain link fence that bars access to Eugene’s old City Hall near 8th and High and chained herself to it in protest of the City’s lack of action for the unhoused.
“This is a symbolic action on my part,” Iris said. “I want to call attention to the fact that there’s been little to no progress made on the agreements that the city made with members of Occupy Eugene last year around the closing of the site [Washington-Jefferson Park]. There was supposed to be $100,000 allocated towards a new wet bed facility.” A wet bed facility is a shelter that provides a place for chronically alcoholic homeless men and women to sleep.
Iris also said a women’s and children’s shelter had been discussed at the time the City closed the Occupy Eugene site at Washington-Jefferson Park.
The breaching of the old City Hall’s new fence came after a day of activism, called Act Against Apathy, spearheaded by Iris and others in Occupy Eugene. The day’s events included a rally during which homeless people and their advocates spoke, recited poetry, marched, and held a memorial at the steps of the old City Hall for the homeless people who have died on the streets of Eugene in the last two years. Activists also served hot meals at a kitchen set up in the Park Blocks to anyone who needed one.
Iris plans to stay until Monday when she has to return to her job. She encourages people to come see her and talk about the problems of homelessness and possible solutions. “While we’re angry,” she says, “at the same time we are also solution-based. We want to help make things right. We are not expecting it all from the city.”
This press release is from the Communications Committee of Occupy Eugene that has been empowered to speak on behalf of the larger Occupy Eugene body.
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Contact: Lee Deveau deveaulee[at]yahoo[dot]com, 541-343-1575; occupyeugenemedia.org, @OccupyEugene
Occupy Eugene activists to paint fence at Outpost A, 1191 Lawrence Street
On Labor Day, Monday, September 3, volunteers from Occupy Eugene will paint a picket fence in the front yard of Outpost A at 1191 Lawrence Street. Since late July, activists have occupied the yard with the owner’s permission. The house has been empty for two years and is in foreclosure.
The purpose of the event, Paint a Picket, is to educate the public about bank foreclosures—many of which are fraudulent—and their devastating impact on neighborhoods. Just over the last four years, 2008 through 2011, 7,437 foreclosures were filed in Lane County Courthouse.
Activists also hope to show area residents that Occupy Eugene is working for the benefit of Eugene’s neighborhoods. OE invites our neighbors to visit us at 1191 Lawrence, to talk with activists and volunteers and to see and hear about the work we are doing. Spokespersons for Occupy Eugene will be available for interviews with the press at 12:30 p.m. on Labor Day.
This press release is from the Communications Committee of Occupy Eugene that has been empowered to speak on behalf of the larger Occupy Eugene body.
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Silent meditation/prayer circle open to everyone to bring their practice to share. We will gather and set-up 15 minutes before the start time. A bell will be rung at 15 minute intervals to signify an opportunity to enter or exit the space without disturbing others. Please bring your chair/cushion/floor mat and warm clothing and join us as we cultivate the loving kindness we all so desperately need. Please invite all whom you feel would both benefit and contribute to this event.
August 5, 2012 @ 2:25 pm – 3:35 pm
Old Federal Building Courtyard
E 7th Ave & Pearl St
Eugene,OR 97401
A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE! JOIN US!
Haven’t you always wanted to be in a parade? Want to be an evil bankster? A police officer? A tent monster?
This year’s parade theme is “Raise the Roof’.” Occupy’s spin is a “A Roof For All,” in support of housing as a human right. Super special skit. Details at PARADE PREP PARTY, Thursday at 4:30 at OE V, at 7th and Polk. Or come the morning of the parade and we’ll catch you up. This will be fun and G rated. Come have fun with friends, even those friends you have not met yet.
STILL NEEDED ITEMS: We still need tents, broken ones preferred, as once a tent monster always a tent monster, rendering it useless as a tent.
We are also looking for as many Occupy bandannas as possible. There are hundreds out there. Bring them with you!
PARADE DETAILS: Saturday morning, August 25, 2012. ENTRY 33.
STAGING AREA: Amazon Parkway, near 24th. Area will be closed to cars at 8:30 a.m. If you need to park close by, arrive early.
TIME: Gather between 8:30 and 9:30. Parade starts at 10:00. It will give us a chance to practice our skit and bring any newcomers up to speed. Let’s make a party of it with potluck food, coffee, and laughter.
To our allies and friends: Please email this message to friends and put it your Facebook page!
ACTIVISTS URGENTLY NEEDED!!
On July 18, the City Council, at their noon Work Session, will be considering the approval of the Mayor’s Opportunity Eugene Task Force recommendations.
They will also receive a packet from Opportunity Village Eugene that requests that the City direct staff to begin clearing the way legally for OVE to occupy the land which was the former site of the Navy Center near Chambers on 13th, or a site that equally meets our site criteria.
If you can write or call the Council or Mayor asking them to do this so that when they return in September it will be a quick step to approve land, we should be able to begin in time to have our first neighborhood filled before winter.
WRITE TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW…It goes to the mayor, council, and staff
CALL YOUR COUNCILOR, if you have a personal relationship. They respond to their constituents.
CALL YOUR MAYOR…she represents everyone in the city
1. Tell them you want people who are homeless to have a legal, safe place to sleep.
2. Tell them that on July 18 that you want them to instruct city staff to do whatever is necessary to clear the way for Opportunity village to be built at Chambers and 13th OR to find another suitable site.
3. Tell them you want the land to be turned over to Opportunity Village Eugene by August 1 so that the village can be opened by October 1.
4. Tell them over 100 people die and thousands suffer in our community each year because Eugene is not providing for our most vulnerable citizens and that you oppose this.
5. Tell them you are tired of tax payer dollars being wasted on police, courts, jails, ER, hospital and psychiatric beds because Eugene does not have a cost effective policy or plan for homelessness.
Dozens of volunteers from the faith community, the social service community, the Interfaith Alliance, Interfaith Occupy , Occupy, CALC and the unions are incorporating and have been working since April to create this village. Many community leaders have joined the effort and plans will be ready to open the Village by October 1 if the City provides the land and appropriate waivers which State Law authorizes them to do.
Write the mayor, councilors and city staff all at once and be a matter of public record:
mayorcouncilandcitymanager@ci.eugene.or.us or fax: 541-682-5414
Contact your councilor directly by phone if you have a personal relationship
Phone numbers:
MAYOR, Kitty Piercy: 541-682-5010
WARD 1, George Brown: 541-682-8341
WARD 2, Betty Taylor: 541-338-9947
WARD 3, Alan Zelenka: 541 682-8343
WARD 4, George Polling 541-517-3110
WARD 5, Mike Clark: 541-682-8345
WARD 6, Pat Farr: 541-682-8346
WARD 7, Andrea Ortiz: 541 688-5588
WARD 8, Chris Pryor: 541-682-8348
MANAGER, Jon Ruiz: 541-682-5010
Join us on Saturday, June 16, at the Old Federal Building at 7th and Pearl, from 11am until 10pm. We’ll have music, poetry, 1pm & 6pm potlucks, committee meetings, and presentations for activists. Everybody welcome!