A five-year anniversary for a group called WIM that is changing lives in Independence and Monmouth
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
From a handful of women only a few years ago to a group that now numbers over 2,000, the Women of Independence and Monmouth is proving a village of friends can be formed by building a single bridge. In this case, a Facebook group with no entry requirements other than the desire to meet new people and make new friends.
Just ask Trisha Buck, the Facebook group’s administrator. She’s surprised how much and how quickly WIM grew -- by the hundreds from a single posting when a woman who confessed, only a few years ago, to wanting to make some friends.
The “WIMMERs” as they call themselves, recently celebrated a five-year anniversary at Valkyrie Wine Tavern in downtown Independence. Asked about the happy, noisy crowd that showed up for the celebration, Buck searched for the underlying reason that so many have flocked to the group. For one, there is really no barrier at all for joining; for another, the goal is to meet people and have fun, with no strings attached, according to some of those who attended.
Shirley Hutchison citied her reason: “WIM is the only FB group I’m in where you can have friends and activities in person, not just the internet. I know too many women who live alone and need to get out of the house. WIM lets them do that in a friendly, safe, supportive environment.” Norma Soffa said she joined after seeing a group of women at a local establishment “having a great time.” After striking up a conversation with the group, Soffa decided it was a place for her, too. Kat Garcia agrees. “The women I’ve met through WIM have become such good and true friends,” Garcia added.
The Facebook group functions without many rules, but there has been no trolling, no hate speech and no extremism, which seem to be otherwise common online, Buck said. “Maybe it works because we are literally IRL -- in real life –neighbors,” Buck suggested. Actually, “I don’t know why it works,” Buck said.
Some members offered their own explanations. Tina Thompson, an Independence resident who formed a successful walking group for WIMMERS, noted that she found herself without many friends after a year of living in Independence.
Once she began participating in “WIM Trivia Night,” at Parallel 45, that changed. “I decided to start the ‘WIM Weekly Walking Group’ as a way to meet other women in the area and make new friends while enjoying the outdoors and getting to know the neighborhoods of Indy and Monmouth,” Thompson recalled. “Without WIM, I would have never met so many amazing women and helped to bring so many of them together with my walking group,” she said.
Thompson is now planning to move to the Oregon coast, but she expects the walking group to keep going after her departure, thanks to its popularity – and widespread appreciation. As WIMMER Lacey Harris observed, “I started walking and have met some amazing ladies since. Thank you, WIM!!"
Reflecting back on when she was asked to take over the group -- after the woman who first posted the notice and got WIM going relocated to another town -- Buck said her reaction was “Oh, there are so many people that would be better at this than me.” Now that the group is more than 2,000 members strong, Buck still credits others for its success. However, she confesses that it answers the lifelong need she’s had to consider herself a “helper” of others. (Disclosure Trammart News’ owner. Anne Scheck, is a supporter of all things WIM.) ▪
Central School District to take new approaches for low student attendance with “Walking buses”
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
Absentee rates in Central School District schools that are below the state average and represent over 40% of students are prompting district administrators to look for new approaches to the problem, CSD Superintendent Jennifer Kubista said during a recent visit to Ash Creek Elementary School.
“It’s better than it was,” Kubista said, noting that the figures were even worse last year. However, with “regular attenders” for CSD at only 58%, compared with the state average of 62%, the challenge of school absences continues to be a looming problem, she said.
Different strategies are being explored, from a “walking bus” in which children who don’t qualify for transportation by school bus are picked up at their doorstep by an adult or group of adults. The challenge is waiting for the state to finalize an okay on this plan.
“As for the walking school buses, we do not know if it can be volunteer driven yet because we don't have the rules yet. We are hoping for the state to release the rules and guidelines by January,” said Emily Mentzer, communications coordinator for the district.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School, an advocacy group for safe travel to and from educational facilities, endorses walking school buses for the reasons that CSD officials have described. However, the center recommends them for other reasons, too. Studies show that fewer children are walking and biking to school, and more children are at risk of becoming overweight.
The walking school bus is defined by the “Safe Routes Center,” as the center is sometimes called, as “a group of children who walk to school with one or more adults and it can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school or as structured as a route with meeting points, a timetable and a regularly rotated schedule of trained volunteers.” The center also supports a variation on the “walking school bus,” such as a “bicycle train,” in which adults supervise children riding their bikes to school.
However, the “walking school bus” is only one of the strategies the district plans to undertake, Kubista said. Another is an emphasis on family engagement, which is proposed as a means to strengthen the connection between home and school. Providing what parents, guardians and caregivers may need to get kids on a regular schedule – same bed time, same morning routine – can be helpful. Information and outreach of ways to do this hopefully will prove beneficial, Kubista said.
She emphasized that about 60% of the students are at the poverty line or below, so making contact any way possible may help boost attendance.
However, national studies on the drop in attendance – a cross-country trend that shows no signs of significantly abating – also pin part of the blame on declines in student mental health. The National Center for Health Statistics has reported that a most public schools are seeing an increase in mental health issues, and a majority of them have tracked an increase in the percentage of students seeking help in mental-health services. An even higher number of teachers and staff members have expressed concern about the issue, which also interferes with school participation – and attendance.
When the numbers of regular school attenders plummet, district finances take a hit because schools are reimbursed for the days that students are present. However, the cuts go deeper than dollars to some in the school system: it means extra work and disruption for teachers, who are then tasked with helping non-attenders catch up or maintain meeting assignments.
Some teachers-in-training at Western Oregon University, who say they have seen this attendance shift since the days of off-site learning in covid, are concerned. Maddie Lehrer, who got her undergraduate in social studies from WOU, called low attendance in schools “pretty worrisome.” As she works toward completion of her master’s degree in education, she wants to impart that knowledge of subject matter through high school teaching.
Having to deal with matters that take away from actual instruction would be a challenge, she said. “I hope by the time I get there, things will be getting back in the right groove,” Lehrer said. ▪
A cat cafe for Indy: A feline rescue operation is underway on Main Street inside a new store
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
Emily Samuelian, a fairly recent graduate of Western Oregon University, wanted to stay in the area and has a penchant for two things: cats and kittens, along with selling unusual gift products. So she combined her passion for both, and opened “The Little Pumpkin Cat Café” at 226 Main Street, Suite G, in downtown Independence.
The store, which features special tea and coffee, is open from 11 am to 6 pm Wednesday through Saturday, and on Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm, in the back corner of the Little Mall on Main. From specialty teas to hand-made jewelry, the eclectic store is a cozy addition to the cluster of shops in this downtown arcade. Samuelian began her business at the Independence Farmers’ Market in the Umpqua Bank Parking lot, then moved to her new location several weeks ago. Her goal is to get cats in need of a home placed in one; currently she has a gray tabby kitten and a young Siamese romping and sleeping in the adjoining cat room.
A big gray male who is old and blind has become a permanent resident, Samuelian said.
The idea of a cat café isn’t new. Entrepreneurs in several towns, including Eugene and Portland, have attempted them. However, the challenge of finding and maintaining a location for a food-related business that is subject to added regulations for animal care appears to make these unique coffee-and-tea spots hard to sustain. Samuelian offers craft classes by sign-up, and her door is open for anyone who wants to “hang out with cats,” as she puts it. ▪
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
From a handful of women only a few years ago to a group that now numbers over 2,000, the Women of Independence and Monmouth is proving a village of friends can be formed by building a single bridge. In this case, a Facebook group with no entry requirements other than the desire to meet new people and make new friends.
Just ask Trisha Buck, the Facebook group’s administrator. She’s surprised how much and how quickly WIM grew -- by the hundreds from a single posting when a woman who confessed, only a few years ago, to wanting to make some friends.
The “WIMMERs” as they call themselves, recently celebrated a five-year anniversary at Valkyrie Wine Tavern in downtown Independence. Asked about the happy, noisy crowd that showed up for the celebration, Buck searched for the underlying reason that so many have flocked to the group. For one, there is really no barrier at all for joining; for another, the goal is to meet people and have fun, with no strings attached, according to some of those who attended.
Shirley Hutchison citied her reason: “WIM is the only FB group I’m in where you can have friends and activities in person, not just the internet. I know too many women who live alone and need to get out of the house. WIM lets them do that in a friendly, safe, supportive environment.” Norma Soffa said she joined after seeing a group of women at a local establishment “having a great time.” After striking up a conversation with the group, Soffa decided it was a place for her, too. Kat Garcia agrees. “The women I’ve met through WIM have become such good and true friends,” Garcia added.
The Facebook group functions without many rules, but there has been no trolling, no hate speech and no extremism, which seem to be otherwise common online, Buck said. “Maybe it works because we are literally IRL -- in real life –neighbors,” Buck suggested. Actually, “I don’t know why it works,” Buck said.
Some members offered their own explanations. Tina Thompson, an Independence resident who formed a successful walking group for WIMMERS, noted that she found herself without many friends after a year of living in Independence.
Once she began participating in “WIM Trivia Night,” at Parallel 45, that changed. “I decided to start the ‘WIM Weekly Walking Group’ as a way to meet other women in the area and make new friends while enjoying the outdoors and getting to know the neighborhoods of Indy and Monmouth,” Thompson recalled. “Without WIM, I would have never met so many amazing women and helped to bring so many of them together with my walking group,” she said.
Thompson is now planning to move to the Oregon coast, but she expects the walking group to keep going after her departure, thanks to its popularity – and widespread appreciation. As WIMMER Lacey Harris observed, “I started walking and have met some amazing ladies since. Thank you, WIM!!"
Reflecting back on when she was asked to take over the group -- after the woman who first posted the notice and got WIM going relocated to another town -- Buck said her reaction was “Oh, there are so many people that would be better at this than me.” Now that the group is more than 2,000 members strong, Buck still credits others for its success. However, she confesses that it answers the lifelong need she’s had to consider herself a “helper” of others. (Disclosure Trammart News’ owner. Anne Scheck, is a supporter of all things WIM.) ▪
Central School District to take new approaches for low student attendance with “Walking buses”
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
Absentee rates in Central School District schools that are below the state average and represent over 40% of students are prompting district administrators to look for new approaches to the problem, CSD Superintendent Jennifer Kubista said during a recent visit to Ash Creek Elementary School.
“It’s better than it was,” Kubista said, noting that the figures were even worse last year. However, with “regular attenders” for CSD at only 58%, compared with the state average of 62%, the challenge of school absences continues to be a looming problem, she said.
Different strategies are being explored, from a “walking bus” in which children who don’t qualify for transportation by school bus are picked up at their doorstep by an adult or group of adults. The challenge is waiting for the state to finalize an okay on this plan.
“As for the walking school buses, we do not know if it can be volunteer driven yet because we don't have the rules yet. We are hoping for the state to release the rules and guidelines by January,” said Emily Mentzer, communications coordinator for the district.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School, an advocacy group for safe travel to and from educational facilities, endorses walking school buses for the reasons that CSD officials have described. However, the center recommends them for other reasons, too. Studies show that fewer children are walking and biking to school, and more children are at risk of becoming overweight.
The walking school bus is defined by the “Safe Routes Center,” as the center is sometimes called, as “a group of children who walk to school with one or more adults and it can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school or as structured as a route with meeting points, a timetable and a regularly rotated schedule of trained volunteers.” The center also supports a variation on the “walking school bus,” such as a “bicycle train,” in which adults supervise children riding their bikes to school.
However, the “walking school bus” is only one of the strategies the district plans to undertake, Kubista said. Another is an emphasis on family engagement, which is proposed as a means to strengthen the connection between home and school. Providing what parents, guardians and caregivers may need to get kids on a regular schedule – same bed time, same morning routine – can be helpful. Information and outreach of ways to do this hopefully will prove beneficial, Kubista said.
She emphasized that about 60% of the students are at the poverty line or below, so making contact any way possible may help boost attendance.
However, national studies on the drop in attendance – a cross-country trend that shows no signs of significantly abating – also pin part of the blame on declines in student mental health. The National Center for Health Statistics has reported that a most public schools are seeing an increase in mental health issues, and a majority of them have tracked an increase in the percentage of students seeking help in mental-health services. An even higher number of teachers and staff members have expressed concern about the issue, which also interferes with school participation – and attendance.
When the numbers of regular school attenders plummet, district finances take a hit because schools are reimbursed for the days that students are present. However, the cuts go deeper than dollars to some in the school system: it means extra work and disruption for teachers, who are then tasked with helping non-attenders catch up or maintain meeting assignments.
Some teachers-in-training at Western Oregon University, who say they have seen this attendance shift since the days of off-site learning in covid, are concerned. Maddie Lehrer, who got her undergraduate in social studies from WOU, called low attendance in schools “pretty worrisome.” As she works toward completion of her master’s degree in education, she wants to impart that knowledge of subject matter through high school teaching.
Having to deal with matters that take away from actual instruction would be a challenge, she said. “I hope by the time I get there, things will be getting back in the right groove,” Lehrer said. ▪
A cat cafe for Indy: A feline rescue operation is underway on Main Street inside a new store
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, Nov. 10, 2023
Emily Samuelian, a fairly recent graduate of Western Oregon University, wanted to stay in the area and has a penchant for two things: cats and kittens, along with selling unusual gift products. So she combined her passion for both, and opened “The Little Pumpkin Cat Café” at 226 Main Street, Suite G, in downtown Independence.
The store, which features special tea and coffee, is open from 11 am to 6 pm Wednesday through Saturday, and on Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm, in the back corner of the Little Mall on Main. From specialty teas to hand-made jewelry, the eclectic store is a cozy addition to the cluster of shops in this downtown arcade. Samuelian began her business at the Independence Farmers’ Market in the Umpqua Bank Parking lot, then moved to her new location several weeks ago. Her goal is to get cats in need of a home placed in one; currently she has a gray tabby kitten and a young Siamese romping and sleeping in the adjoining cat room.
A big gray male who is old and blind has become a permanent resident, Samuelian said.
The idea of a cat café isn’t new. Entrepreneurs in several towns, including Eugene and Portland, have attempted them. However, the challenge of finding and maintaining a location for a food-related business that is subject to added regulations for animal care appears to make these unique coffee-and-tea spots hard to sustain. Samuelian offers craft classes by sign-up, and her door is open for anyone who wants to “hang out with cats,” as she puts it. ▪
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