Remembrances

Ryan L. Mayhan was 25 when he died December 21st 2006. His neighbors and friends and family in Hawthorne, California, remember him as fun to be around, quiet and respectful, never hanging out with the wrong people.

Gloria D. Davis was 47 years old when she died December 12th 2006. She was remembered as a hero in the small town of Portageville Missouri. Just before she died she made a dvd or herself reading Sesame Street stories for her 6 year old granddaughter. She always wanted to help. When she was home in Northern Virginia she volunteered in homeless shelters and worked with ROTC to encouraged African American youth to get an education. She had earned her masters degree and her daughter is in dental school at Howard University. Gloria was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Love

Robert L Love died December 1st 2006. He was 28 years old and from Livingston AL, just over the boarder from Meridian Mississippi. He joined the military straight out of high school. While stationed in Germany he met his wife, also a soldier in the Army. One of 5 children he is also missed by his 2 daughters.

Jeannette T. Dunn, was 44 years old when she died. From the Bronx, NY she had been stationed in Fort Hood Texas. She was a mechanic and will be missed many.

Nicholas Rapavi was 22 years old when he died November 22nd 2006. He wanted to be a Marine since before he was in high school and was proud to have fulfilled his dream. Remembered for being the most unselfish person you could know, he is missed by all his grandparents, parents and brothers, as well as friends and his Marine brothers.

Start Making A Reader Today

I have been working hard, these last few months, as a volunteer coordinator for the SMART reading and book program. SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) is a non-profit reading program. SMART pairs adult volunteers with children in the schools to share a love of books. 

Volunteers read with children one on one for an hour a week. If you volunteered you would read with the same 2 children every week, building a relationship and watching them develop a love of books and reading. It is not a teaching or tutoring program, the schools do plenty of that, it is a program that creates motivated life long readers. It is also a book giveaway program. Many children do not have books at home. A child in the SMART program will receive up to 14 books a year.

If you live in the state of Oregon there is a SMART program near you. I work with the program at Scott Elementary school. We would love to have you come and volunteer with us. You can fill out a volunteer application here. Tell them Dan sent you.

Nancy does some great chalk drawings for our SMART space at Scott School. The drawing above is inspired by the book The Napping House. Below is a detail from the drawing.

Edward M. Garvin

 The Boston Globe reports that; before he went to Iraq, Edward M. Garvin told his family that if he did not return, they should laugh, not cry, in his memory. He died in Iraq on October 4th 2006.

One of Eddy’s friends emailed Nancy back in September to thank her. Matt also asked Nancy to let him know when she started drawing October 2006. He wanted to come out and see his friend Eddy’s name.

Matt and Edward were both from Malden Massachusetts. They met as councilors at Boy Scout Camp back east. Their friendship extended beyond camp and they kept in touch as Matt went off to University in the Mid-West and Edward joined the Marines.

Matt joined Nancy on October 13th to help chalk in Names.

The following weekend Nancy drew Eddy’s name. Matt came out to see and pay respect to his lost friend.