Trip Report

Once again, Mother Nature smiled on the Obsidian Bus Riders as we headed out on a leisurely tour visiting local non-profit agencies. We began the day with our traditional "coffee break" in the comfort of Food For Lane County's lovely board room. There our tour guide joined us, sharing information about the acquisition, sorting, packaging, and distribution of food (and some non-food items) to low income persons. A particularly touching story was about the positive impact weekend snack packs have on the behavior of extremely low income children. We were impressed with the numbers of people volunteering with FFLC, the scope of the area they serve, the cleanliness and organization of the facility. Second stop was The Eugene Mission where our guide led us through all of the buildings, and we met the building managers. Once again, we were impressed with the cleanliness and the organization of the programs. The bright open sleeping areas in the mother and childrens building is enhanced by beautiful hand-made quilts on all the beds. Each child and mother is given their own sleepingwear to use and take with them when they leave. Mission staff has learned this is an extremely important issue, as most have left all belongings behind when they came to the Mission. We were served a lovely lunch and had an opportunity to visit with a staff member at each table.
After lunch,we visited St. Vincent dePaul's Aurora Glass Works. Their kiln was down for repairs, so we were not able to see the melted glass being shaped into finished products, and that was a bit disappointing. However, we were given an interesting talk about this process and the molds they use, as well as how they use old candles and mattress padding to make fire starters. Many lovely items are on display and for sale in the showroom. Last stop for the day was the Main LCC campus, and much to our surprise, the Native American Long House was open. We were able to see the beauty of the wood interior, exterior and grounds. The weather continued to be lovely all day, and we were ahead of schedule, so there was time for a stroll around the new LEED Health and Wellness Center as well. As usual, we had a great group of riders and a very pleasant day.