Ducks Help Spread Cheer With Portland's Macdonald Center
12/24/15 | O Heroes, @GoDucksMoseley
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
PORTLAND — One day after returning stateside from an O Heroes service trip to Panama, John Nizich would have been forgiven for wanting to spend Monday recharging his batteries.
Instead, Nizich joined several other UO student-athletes from the greater Portland area visiting with vulnerable members of the community.
“'Tis the season,” Nizich said. “It's Christmas time; that's what you do. It's about family, and service to others who don't have that family. It's pretty special to light up their day around the holidays.”
Seven student-athletes spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon visiting and dropping off gifts to impoverished adults who receive support through the Macdonald Center. The center is named for Maybelle Clark Macdonald, who before her passing in 2009 established a foundation that also generously supports scholarships at the university.
The Macdonald Center "believes that no one deserves to live in isolation," said Dawn Wensel, its director of development, and builds "relationships with individuals who are often 'forgotten' by society, helping them stay housed, healthy and socially engaged." In the spirit of the Good Samaritan, their aim is compassion without judgment, for adults dealing with poverty, mental illness and/or addiction — and in some cases, all three.
“We're all about accepting these folks as human beings, for who they are,” Macdonald Center executive director Jon Ulsh said. “We approach our work by building unconditional relationships with those we help, and we place those relationships at the center of everything we do.
"We help our members achieve their goals, not ours, while also offering them opportunities to nurture their body, mind and spirit.”
The seven student-athletes who participated Monday, representing track and field, acrobatics and tumbling, lacrosse, men's golf and cheer, broke into groups led by Macdonald Center staff. They visited men and women living in single-room occupany hotels and low-income housing apartments, in Old Town and downtown Portland.
The seven "Santa Ducks" carried bags filled with T-shirts donated by The Duck Store, knit caps from Nike and bundles of toiletries.
The gifts were delivered over a period of a couple of hours. Sometimes, the exchange was quick. Sometimes, it turned into a 15-minute visit.
“A lot of these folks are very, very isolated,” Ulsh said. “To have people come spend time with them, with no agenda but to be with them, it affirms their humanity.”
Cody Danielson of track and field and Annie Longtain of lacrosse experienced that first-hand while making one delivery. They were ascending to the top floor of an apartment building when the Macdonald Center staff member accompanying them, Samantha Tracy, recognized another man in the elevator as the recipient.
Leaning on a cane, his hat pulled low, John Herrera brightened immediately. Herrera deals with depression, and said weekly visits from Macdonald Center staff help him through dark spells.
Danielson and Longtain spent a few moments with Herrera admiring the view from this top-story apartment floor.
“Merry Christmas to you,” Herrera told them. “You made my day.”
It turned out that Herrera, in turn, made theirs.
“Everybody was appreciative, but he was just so vocal about it,” Danielson said later. “I could really see it affected him. That warmed my heart.”
Before the student-athletes made their rounds, Ulsh told them of the “wonderful people” they'd encounter. Nizich was struck by that throughout the afternoon, but also by the spirit of staff members like Ulsh and Tracy.
Nizich attended Central Catholic High School, and said he participated in service projects in downtown Portland while growing up. He said he enjoyed being able to come back and serve his hometown community again, and to get an appreciation for the work done by the Macdonald Center.
“It's a really tight-knit community the Macdonald Center has created, for so many less-fortunate people,” Nizich said. “That was pretty special for me.”
Players Mentioned
