Power of One moves many

On July 21, hundreds of residents — and friends of residents — spread out across Florence to clean, prune, dig and more to improve their community and build awareness of local non-profit agencies that also support the community. A local 12-year-old, Kaylee Graham, spearheaded the city-wide effort. More photos from the Power of FlOreNcE are on page A9.

There were some blisters and aching muscles the day after, but nothing could be finer than Saturday, July 21, when hundreds of Florence residents and visitors teamed up to work on service projects, raise money, and bring awareness to non-profit organizations during the second annual Power of FlOreNcE Event.

No one exemplifies the “Power of One” more than 12-year-old Kaylee Graham, who came up with the idea for the initial 2011 event, and continues to serve as its official organizer.

She held meetings, met with people in the community, and spoke to organizations for months leading up to the big day.

On Saturday, she and her family helped at the more than 34 citywide events, such as highway cleanups, numerous park beautifications (such as the Veterans Memorial Park), food drives (for both people and animals), community gardens, Siuslaw Elementary School grounds cleanup, and fundraisers (such as the tattoo and lemonade stand for Chris Bursaw, who was burned in a fireworks accident) and the Lions Club Garage Sale.

The famous Van Fans Ice Cream Social was also part of the day’s activities and benefited the Friends of Florence Vans, which transport cancer patients to and from treatments in Eugene.

“It was really awesome. So many people participated and there were so many projects,” said Graham during the after-party held at Miller Park.

The Florence Area Humane Society collected more than 1,058 pounds of pet food and netted $409 at the hamburger and hot dog sale at Grocery Outlet, where other groups were also fundraising or bringing awareness to their missions.

Florence Food Share’s Ducks and Beavers food drive collected 938 pounds of food from Beaver (Oregon State) fans and 787 pounds from Duck (University of Oregon) fans for a total of 1,725 pounds.

The day also saved the city of Florence a lot of time and money. The event coincided with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (LDS)

For the complete article see the 07-25-2012 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 07-25-2012 paper.

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