50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

On Oregon

Making Angels and the Oswald West Foundation

by Matt Love, July 7, 2010 12:18 PM
In mid-May, yellow buses from distant lands began appearing in Newport. I saw one from Idaho, another from Montana, and several hailing from the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon. All the buses had one destination and one sacred mission in mind: South Beach State Park, to let children play on the beach.

Have you ever witnessed a child visit the ocean and walk on the beach for the first time? I have, years ago, in my capacity as caretaker of Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I will never forget that moment. I access it every now and then as one of my most powerfully motivating editorial and pedagogical images.

After planting trees with several sixth grade classes from Hillsboro, I accompanied the students to Neskowin. On the way there, with the rain pelting the bus as only Oregon coastal rain can, a teacher told me that one of the boys had never seen the ocean even though he lived most of his life an hour away. I'm not sure how or why this tragedy came to be, but I know it amounts to a crime against a child.

The boy walked the path from the wayside, hit the beach, and started running madly to the water. He then stopped, flung himself to the sand, rolled on his back, writhed, and started making angels. He looked like a complete idiot, and it was one the most beautiful and hardcore Oregon things I've ever seen in my life.

In my 10 years on the refuge, I led close to 50 groups in tree-planting and blackberry-hacking activities. Most of the children came from Willamette Valley public schools and crossed all demographic lines. Before we went to work, I always arranged the kids in a circle and asked for a show of hands from those who had never visited an Oregon beach. Invariably, multiple hands went up. The numbers shocked me every time.

More recently, as I led my Newport High School seniors on our annual history walk around town, I spotted a bus from Oakridge parked on the Bayfront. I bet my students that at least one of the children on the bus had never seen the ocean. A few minutes later, I asked an Oakridge chaperone the question.

Make it two kids.

If I had the money, I would launch the Oswald West Foundation and call our only program Operation Great Birthright. No curriculum. No tests! Transport every kid in Oregon to the ocean at least once and let them play on the beach for one afternoon. Okay, maybe I'd force them to recite West's famous quote about Oregon's ocean beaches — "No local selfish interest should be permitted, through politics or otherwise, to destroy or even impair this great birthright of our people" — before feeding them lunch, but that's the extent of the teaching.

What kind of money would it take to establish such a foundation? We're talking funds for buses and lunches, a couple of staffers paid bohemian (surfer) wages to coordinate logistics with the schools, some beach toys, and some shelter dogs to run with the kids. Really, not that much at all. Probably the cost of one artillery shell.

The beach, of course, doesn't cost a cent.

Somehow, I need a quick way to rake in the cash to fund the Oswald West Foundation. I really don't have many scruples where the money comes from, and I'll gladly sell out my literary soul to give every Oregon kid a chance to see the ocean.

I know what needs doing — write the big vampire-on-the-Oregon-Trail novel. Make my lead bloodsucker sexy, smart, brooding, celibate, and possessed with a weird passion for building sand castles that recall the grand citadels from Transylvania. It would sell millions!




Books mentioned in this post

Super Sunday In Newport

Matt Love

Gimme Refuge The Education of a Caretaker

Matt Love
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Fiction of 2020 by Powell's Books
  2. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  3. Midyear Roundup 2021: The Best Books of the Year (So Far) by Powell's Staff
  4. The 11 Best Places to Read by Will Schwalbe
  5. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: Pacific Northwest Edition by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

2 Responses to "Making Angels and the Oswald West Foundation"

Sharon LeMaster October 29, 2010 at 02:12 AM
I don't have any extra monies you know the drill I''ve got needy family due to all that is going on...but I just read (a few minutes ago)"Oregon Arts Comminsion Org". the article tells how to get grants for projects that BETTER serve Oregon! maybe after a day at the beach you could have the children make a drawing with subtitles expressing how they felt...please try to find the site as I can't, I've tried to re-google it to no avail...good luck and while you look for it think about your proposal... as you will be judged by how you delievery will mean every thing to the comminsion board members... please e-mail me next may and let me know thank you wishing you the very best....how you caught my attention was your story of the boy so playing on his first visit...I took my grandson when he was 8 years old for his first visit so I know that feeling and so does he....Oregon is as our earth should be.... [email protected]

monkeywomantoo July 7, 2010 at 12:32 PM
how about it? are there any experienced fund raisers out there who could advise on building a foundation and collecting resourses to get the kids to the beach? speak up!

Result(s) 2

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2022 POWELLS.COM Terms