The Martin Luther King Education Center finished up another school year with a fantastic graduation celebrating  21 graduates!  These students worked hard to achieve this succes and have overcome many obstacles in completing their high school education.  This year's graduation was topped off with many contributions from our local community partners. A big thank you to Melissa Nolledo , who generously worked with us to ensure our students were able to receive professional photos of their success!  

 Again, we thank the Delta Rotary Foundation , Philippine American Association of Lane County, Lane Education Foundation , and Lane Community College Serbu Center Scholarship for working with our students and staff in celebrating their achievements through the distribution of scholarships! 

We look forward to another successful year, complete with laughs, learning, and adventure.

We recently completed another great Summer Program! The students involved in our Summer Program worked on different hands-on projects with teacher, Jesse Herren.  As part of the Summer Program, students and staff took a trip to the Eugene Public Library, where each student was able to look around and check out a book!  After choosing their book, every student spent time completing daily readings, and finished up with a written report of their book!  This was the first time many of these students had not only checked out a book, but had also been in our local library.

We spent some time studying musical history and the impact different music has had on our society and culture. We asked the students to identify their Top Five Song Choices of All Time...the students had some surprising song choices including;

Brown-Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) 

Time (Pink Floyd)

Hurricane (Bob Dylan)

These Arms of Mine (Otis Redding)

Last but not least, we wrapped up our program with some fun at VooDoo Doughnuts and bowling at Emerald Lanes !  The students had fun relaxing, goofing around, and laughing with each other! All in all, our Summer Program was another huge accomplishment, and we are excited for school to start up again in the fall!

MLK Horticulture Program has been very busy this summer working with the USFS and BLM! Our crews have been teamed up with the USFS, while working away in the high McKenzie country reopening the trails for bike traffic. Our crews have spent many hours on Castle Rock and Echo Trails, providing a great extension to the King Castle Trail and creating a critical connection to the Olallie/Oleary Trail complex! This trail work involves bucking (the cutting and removal of all downed timber and the widening of all previously cut trees to provide room for handlebars and pedals), power-brushing of all shrubs and small trees, and the leveling and widening of the trail surface. This is very laborious work and often occurs miles away from our vehicles! Kudos to the crew for their good work and fantastic partnership with the USFS, The Disciples of Dirt, The GOATS, Cog Wild, and The Back Country Horsemen! 

Wayne Morse Historical Park

Last, but certainly not least, our crews have been working at our local parks with the City of Eugene.  Some of the parks crews have spent some time on are Delta Ponds, Tugman, and Morse Ranch.  Our youth workers have been busy cutting grass and removing lots of blackberry from our city's open spaces.  Three Cheers to our Hort Crew working away out in this heat!