A Message from SSMO Ministries President, Sr. Adele Marie Altenhofen, SSMO

What a joy it is for me to be able to announce that we have added three new members to the SSMO Foundation Staff! And, a fourth person will come on board in October! We are grateful to have them on board to help raise support and awareness for the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon, Valley Catholic School and Maryville Nursing Home.

Sharlayne Buuck and Helen Connor have been hired as Directors of Development and Sharla Tinsen is on deck as Development Associate, Auction and Events. See pictures and brief bios below. Grace LeChevallier will join us soon as Development Assistant, Alumni and Donor Relations. A brief bio for Grace will be shared after she starts her employment in October. Currently, in an effort to provide continuity, assistance and guidance, I am serving as Interim Executive Director of the SSMO Foundation. Rest assured that the Search Committee is continuing in its efforts to fill the Executive Director position.

Sharlayne Buuck, Director of Development

Sharlayne brings eight years of development experience at Forest Hills Lutheran School with her to the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Foundation. At Forest Hills, she established the development position, created a donor base, facilitated fundraisers, and marketed the school. She is looking forward to building relationships, and partnering with our community to impact the ministry. She attended Davenport College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her son Taylor is a graduate of Valley Catholic High School, while son Carter is currently a sophomore. She and her family live in Hillsboro.

Helen Connor, Director of Development

Helen works in fund raising to help people achieve their own charitable goals. She does this by tailoring gift opportunities to match the interests of the donor. She graduated from University of Portland with a degree in journalism. Prior work experience has included corporate and agency public relations, graphic design and several start-up businesses of her own. Working for the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Foundation gives Helen the opportunity to finally blend spiritual purpose with her work life.

Sharla Tinsen, Development Associate, Auction and Events

Sharla was a system software engineer for 15 years before she became president of the Lucent Bay Area Club Pioneers, a nonprofit in San Francisco. There, she guided nearly 800 volunteers who tackled community service events. She also raised money for the nonprofit. Sharla went on to streamline a second nonprofit’s auction, and spent the 12 years increasing the revenue from that event. In 2009, she and her family moved to Oregon, and last year, Sharla volunteered as the Outside Procurement chair for the Valley Catholic School auction. Sharla’s son Jacob started kindergarten at VCS this fall.

Look for something new by the United We Thrive Readerboard next week! There will be two thermometers installed to share progress for the parent portion of the Capital Campaign. As the end of the school year approaches, it is extremely important to wrap up the parent portion for the Capital Campaign for the new K–8 Education Center. We need everyone’s help!

Speaking of looking for things, go here for a live feed from webcams capturing the ongoing construction on Valley Catholic’s campus. A new feature for these feeds is the inside view of what is happening, so if you haven’t already peeked in at the progress being made, be sure to take a look soon—the construction will be complete before you know it!

Many thanks to everyone who has made generous gifts and pledges! We are closing in on the dollar goal thanks to your generosity! Here are the two key goals we have for now:

1. Watch the thermometer explode as we surpass our $2M target for the parent portion of the campaign. (We only have a little more than $570K to raise!)
2. Achieve as close to 100 percent parent participation as possible—participation is hovering around 23 percent, and it will take help from everyone to achieve this goal!

The new building will offer many exciting features for your children and for generations of children to come. We are hoping you will carefully consider an amount that is comfortable for you and earmark it for your children’s favorite charity! Remember, you can stretch payments out for five years!

Pledge forms may be found here. Contact John Lauerman (503.906.1141; jlauerman@ssmoministries.org) or Diane Woodruff (503.906.1140; dwoodruff@ssmoministries.org) with any questions.

The Catholic Sentinel recently published a story about the construction at Valley Catholic that highlights the sustainability efforts of the project. Go here to read the article.

As the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon begin their year-long 125th Jubilee celebration, the Catholic Sentinel honors the SSMOs with 10 pages of news coverage, photos and sidebars in their Feb. 17 issue. Be sure to share these stories with your friends. Spread them far and wide!

Here’s a sampling of what’s inside:

• New building at Valley Catholic a gem of sustainability
• Many places, many years
• SSMO ministry goes here and beyond
• Two Sisters seven decades apart reflect on their shared community experience
• An extraordinary instructor of the faith: Sister Mary Imelda Vandehey
• Sisters, restaurants and city of Beaverton team up to fight hunger
• Timeline: 125 years for the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon
• These Valiant Women Abide

Alumna Caitlin Krutsinger ’04 has been volunteering with the Peace Corps in Mozambique, Africa. To learn more about her work on a small poultry project benefitting orphans and HIV+ community members, watch this short video.

The 59th Annual Oregon Sports Awards took place Sunday, January 30, 2011 at the Tiger Woods Center at the Nike World Headquarters. Two-time Olympic gold medal saber fencer Mariel Zagunis ’03 earned the Harry Glickman Professional Female Athlete of the Year award. In 2009 Mariel won the same honor, and in 2004 and 2008 she was recognized at the event with the Bill Hayward Amateur Athletes Award.

The Oregon Sports Awards honor the state’s top athletes, coaches, teams and more for their performances in 2010.

Read more HERE.

Click here to read the announcement from Sr. Adele Marie Altenhofen, President of SSMO Ministries, and Michelle Garcia, SSMO Foundation Board Director.
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Please take our auction raffle survey. We promise it will be the quickest and easiest thing you’ll do all day. Thank you for your participation!

The auction committee will be kicking off the auction at a special event Friday, January 14 at 8:00 a.m. in Conference Room AB in the convent (it’s easy to find, enter right under the dome). We’ll serve coffee and treats, introduce our committee chairs, and tell you all about the auction. We’ll be giving away two tickets to the auction, too! Please join us–the auction is a full community effort!