June 2009
A Chef’s Gift to Transitional Youth
By Cornelia Seigneur
Mauro Cettina
It is a warm, blue sky, sunshiny Thursday about 1 PM. Mauro Cettina is driving back from the Grocery Outlet in King City with 10 dozen eggs, bunches of carrots and celery and other items for the potato salad he will be preparing for tonight’s Transitional Youth meal. He plans on cooking for about 100 youth, but the numbers vary each time.
“Tony Slyter, the Grocery Outlet owner, donated these items,” Mauro shares.
Mauro decided to make potato salad for dinner for the kids because he had an abundance of potatoes.
“I was walking around downstairs in the church and I saw the 100 pounds of potatoes that Tony had donated a while back,” Mauro explains. “I thought I’d make potato salad and serve it with hot dogs. It’s a nice summery day for a picnic.”
“I try to make homemade stuff. This isn’t Sysco potato salad. It has pickles, celery, eggs,” Mauro, the church’s facilities manager, a former professional chef, explains. “I am always getting the word out to every ministry in the church that I need food for Transitional Youth nights. If we have a ton of ham left over from an event, I will freeze it and use if for another event. You cannot keep ham that long, and I will ask the ministry if I can use it for Transitional Youth. It is a great way to not waste food. I can pretty much make something nice out of anything.”
Recently, after the high school ministry’s All-Church Old-Fashioned Spaghetti Feed, Mauro used the left over sauce that he had made for that event for a Transitional Youth meal night.
“Tony had donated stew meat and I braised it with onions, chicken broth, garlic and simmered it for a while, then added it to the spaghetti sauce and put it over pasta. The kids just loved it.”
Mauro has been using his culinary gift on Mondays and Thursdays for Transitional Youth for nearly six months. Sometimes he is just there while another group has prepared the meal.
He loves getting to know the youth. “You focus on the kids that you have a little bit of rapport with. The thing that I have to remember is it is not about me. Sometimes I don’t get any response, not even a thank you, but that’s okay. You’re not doing it for that. It is easy to compare with our kids, how we’ve taught them to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ for everything. But at Transitional Youth, sometimes it’s just, ‘Where’s the mayonnaise, where’s the mustard?’”
At 3:30 that Thursday, the potato salad is completed. Approximately 100 pounds of potato salad. “Linda Saxton and I cleaned them and peeled them yesterday, and today we sliced them and put together the salad. I have a lot of people helping me,” Mauro notes.
He has to be at the First Baptist Church in downtown Portland, where Transitional Youth now meets, by 4:30 to start the set up for the youth who will start arriving between 5:30 and 6 PM.
“It’s neat knowing that the kids get a home-cooked meal. And just seeing the volunteers who feel called to serve the kids. The humility behind that. No one says thank you. We don’t expect it. I love to see the community of servants gathered.”
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Visit Transitional Youth’s website at: http://www.transitionalyouth.org/
Visit Cornelia’s blog at www.corneliaseigneur.com
June 2009
Better Together
By Terri Conlin
Terri Lomax
All the signs of summer were out, a warm twilight, strollers in the neighborhood, that freshly-cut-grass smell and rollicking cheers from the ballpark to the crack of a bat. But school was still in session and the cafeteria was crowded with families eating pizza. So many families gathered for the first annual Family Night at Bridgeport Elementary that the pizza ran short. Job one next year, order more pizza. Problem solved! For the estimated 300 people in attendance, the focus this night was on the life skills of problem solving and perseverance wrapped in the strong arms of community. Presented in partnership between the public school and Rolling Hills Community Church, the event was the culmination of a dream. More than three years ago, Children’s Pastor Gary Strudler envisioned an interactive experience among parents, children, school, church and community.
Joyful Noise Brigade Puppeteers from Rolling Hills put on two puppet shows. The first starred the Court Jester of Ceremonies, a.k.a Terry Lomax, and the puppet Simon, a.k.a. Gary Strudler, chatting about playground bullies. Principal Jerry Nihill spoke up about being bullied as a child while Joyful Noise passed out Tootsie Pops for a game: persevere to see how long it takes to lick the lollipop to its chewy center without biting. After a few biters, a young girl won the game by licking only in one spot. Problem solved!
After a rousing chorus of “We Can Work it Out,” the room got quiet and cozy for a film clip from Toy Story. The kids saw forlorn toys gather as friends, make a plan and work as a team to escape the clutches of the bully Sid. Then the curtain opened to a drama about a queen, twin princesses and fighting gladiators who must work together to reach a glittering star piñata high above their heads. A second song, “Better Together,” rang in the family activity with verses in Spanish. Each family created a bright green paper wheel offering options for problem solving, then used the toy to spin for strategies. Halfway through the program, school families were so good about clean-up that the trash can stood full to overflowing. A quiet rustling revealed Principal Nihill emptying the trash and tying up a fresh liner. Hearts revealed, problem solved!
School Counselor Katie Pierce gave out 12 “Do the Right Thing” awards to two children in each grade who exemplified the life skills of problem solving and perseverance. Another sign of summer: the awards were brightly colored, ice cold popsicles. Then there was a black light puppet show set to music that had the crowd dancing in the aisles. The evening ended with an invitation to return next year. Terry Lomax already has an idea simmering like the approaching summer heat. Many families walked home fanning the warm air with bright green spinners like fireflies twinkling in the night sky.
Contact Terri at whitepitchers.com