Our story began in late 2015.
The Central Curry School District was in the process of developing its strategic plan. A list of needs that required funding emerged as part of that process. Unfortunately, these needs continued to grow while funding for schools in Oregon was declining. Needs identified at the time included repairs or replacing furniture and fixtures, requests for updated curriculum, and computers. There were also requests for additional funding for some of the District’s after-school programs. Simply put, our rural community was struggling, and insufficient funds were allocated to the Central Curry School District to do everything they wanted.
The Central Curry School District had a number of core values that added up to illustrate their care for every student and their hopes that each one will have unique opportunities to achieve success. While resources are not as great as they would like, statistics show that both Gold Beach High School and Riley Creek School – the two schools in the Curry County School District – have successfully developed the youth of Gold Beach.
In the 2015-2016 school year, 320 students attended Riley Creek which provided the local K-8 school. With 19 teachers onboard, Riley Creek achieved a “top-20%” designation from the state of Oregon for their low number of students to teacher ratio of 17 to 1. These teachers had challenges in front of them, as only 30-34% of the students were achieving math proficiency, and only 45-49% were proficient in language arts. This compared to Oregon’s overall K-12 levels of 43% proficiency in math and 57% in reading and language arts.
Gold Beach High School was in a similar situation, 172 students grades 9-12 were served by 9 teachers. This ratio of 19 students to 1 teacher was still below Oregon’s average of 20 to 1. Math was a challenge with proficiency only at 21 to 39%, but reading proficiency is one of the highest in the state at over 80%. Graduation rates of high school seniors mirror Oregon’s average at somewhere between 70 to 79%.
This information demonstrates how caring and dedicated the teachers and administrators of the Curry County School District have been with their efforts to educate our youth. They have done an extraordinary job managing a huge responsibility with few resources. The fact that they needed more help really spoke to a cause worthy of time and energy.
In the beginning, a group of community members got together and said, “You know what? To help out the schools and the kids in these schools, we’re going to do everything we can to raise money and help supplement–or even in some cases supplant–revenues that are needed in the school district.” We wanted every child in Gold Beach to have the same opportunity, both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities, as children in higher population areas of the State. And that’s how Gold Beach Youth Fund was born.
It didn’t take long to formalize efforts by creating a 501(c)3 structure for the Gold Beach Youth Fund. In those early days, there was a core group of less than 10 members working together to make things happen. Our purpose was simple: provide resources and enhance educational and extracurricular activities. We knew there were all kinds of needs: from replacing tables and chairs to providing computers or even supporting various clubs and sports programs.
Supporting extracurricular activities often doesn’t get the funding it deserves. We all know how important it is to have good classrooms, engaged teachers, and strong curriculum. But extracurricular items generally fall to the bottom of the list requiring funding from parents for their student’s participation; and in Gold Beach many parents don’t have money for extracurricular activities. In fact, in 2015, 64% of high schoolers were eligible to receive free or reduced price on lunch, so they didn’t have money for extra activities.
Studies have shown that participating in extracurricular activities helps our youth be successful in school and in life.
An article by Nicole Jackson for Educator.com makes it very clear: “Co-curricular activities are just as important as academics. They both complement each other to develop a well-rounded student with more social skills than one who only concentrates on their books. Education should go beyond the four classroom walls; it should be more than just books.” Nicole goes on to list many of the benefits of participating in extracurricular activities:
Improved academic performance. Students learn about things like time management and organizational skills in extracurricular activities that provided a marked improvement on their efforts in the classroom.
Better time management skills. They learn to be somewhere on time, and to get other schoolwork done efficiently so they have the time needed to participate in the activity.
Learning new and useful skills. This is a great way for our youth to learn about teamwork, critical thinking, and develop stronger social skills.
A sense of commitment. Extracurricular activities teach youth to be persistent and stick with something to achieve a goal.
Sense of responsibility. Kids take on leadership roles in these activities and learn how to follow through on their responsibilities to their teammates.
New friends. In extracurricular activities, children make friends with kids who might not be in their classrooms but share similar interests.
Introduction to new activities. What a great way to learn about interests they have that are not taught in the classroom like drama, music, or chess?
More opportunities. Because of everything they gain from extracurricular activities, students that participate in them are more likely to be accepted in colleges or other programs.
So that’s a long way of saying there were needs that extended past the classroom, and these needs were also critical to helping the youth of Gold Beach to be successful in academics and post-graduation. And while every student in Gold Beach might not make the choice to take part in these extracurricular activities for a variety of reasons, we wanted every single student to have the opportunity to make that choice.
GBYF began efforts to raise money in mid-2016. As luck would have it, one of our Fund members, Felicia Walker, was an alumnus of both Riley Creek and Gold Beach High School. After graduating, she went on to become an engineer and married Cody Walker. Cody happened to be the brother of Paul Walker, the actor known for his work in “The Fast and the Furious” and who passed away tragically in 2013. Paul Walker had started an organization called “Reach Out Worldwide” or ROW for short. ROW’s purpose was to help victims of catastrophes worldwide with cleanup and recovery efforts. ROW had received donations of clothing from manufacturers to distribute to victims including brand new clothes, shoes, backpacks and more. Unfortunately, after Paul’s death, the organization still had 17 pallets of clothing with no way to distribute them. Once ROW learned about the Gold Beach Youth Fund, they were happy to transfer those donated goods to us. This was exactly the catalyst we needed to get GBYF off the ground!
We transported those 17 pallets from California to Oregon and used the merchandise to set up a kind of retail store. Then we worked with Riley Creek and Gold Beach High School to identify families that were in need, and we invited them in to “shop”. All in all, we helped clothe about 100 students and their families for free. It was a big deal for these families. After they were served, we opened our little retail store to the community. For $5, shoppers could fill a backpack with whatever clothing they needed most. Many of the people who showed up were so impressed by our efforts that they just chose to make a monetary donation. In the end, our newly formed Gold Beach Youth Fund had $25,000 in our account that could be used to fund youth opportunities.
The first year was a tremendous success and with more than $200,000 put back into local youth it’s clear that GBYF has been filling a need in our community with the following opportunities that have been funded by GBYF since 2016:
2017 |
Installed bottle fill station GBHS GBHS Volleyball Scholarships GBHS Girls Basketball Scholarships South Coast Youth Football Equipment GBHS Activity Desks and Chairs Donation to Snack Pack Program |
2018 |
GBHS Wrestling Equipment & Apparel GBHS Wrestling Equipment, Digital Weigh-In Donation, RC Student Engineering Night GBHS Baseball Dug-Out Rebuild GBHS Girls Basketball Scholarships Gold Beach Youth Little League Equipment RC Playground Surface Sealcoat GBHS Weight Room Equipment RC Swing Set and Safety Surround Donation to GBHS Football GBHS Locker Refurbish and Paint GBHS Football Equipment CCSD1 Technology Consultant Match Grant |
2019 |
GBHS Knowledge Bowl Grant GBHS Football Equipment GBHS Wrestling Equipment & Travel GBHS Student Desks and Chairs |
2020 |
RC Battle of the Books, Book Purchase GBHS Hallway Student Display Cases RC Technology Education Grant Tablets |
2021 |
GBHS Volleyball Equipment GBHS Girls Basketball Scholarships GBHS Football Equipment Installed bottle fill station RC Gym GBHS Football Equipment |
2022 |
Scholarships Oregon Ambassadors of Music GBHS Hallway Student Display Cabinets GBHS Gym Padding, Wall GBHS Music Program Equipment GBHS Weight Room Equipment GBHS Weight Room Equipment GBHS Football Camp Trainer Babe Ruth Baseball Equipment & Uniforms GBHS Volleyball Apparel GBHS Boys Basketball Equipment GBHS Boys Basketball Uniforms GBHS Football Camp Equipment GBHS Weight Room Equipment GBHS Boys Basketball Uniforms GBHS Football Apparel |
2023 |
GBHS Soccer Awards Banquet GBHS Wrestling Travel Youth Fall Festival Grant GBHS Football Stadium Plaques GBHS Boys Basketball Apparel GBHS Soccer Equipment GBHS Golf Equipment GBHS Football Apparel GBHS Wrestling Travel & Camp Grant Gold Beach Little League Grant GBHS Event Padded Chairs GBHS Football Training Equipment GBHS Student Display Case, Glass Enclosure GBHS Project Graduation Grant |
Combined with fundraising efforts, grants from larger organizations like the Arthur Dubs and Bill Belichick Foundations have helped GBYF move towards providing more opportunities for Central Curry youth.
Here’s some of the feedback GBYF has received from local educators:
Katie Wright, with the After School Commitment to Education and Development program (ASCEND) said, “BYF has made it possible to create a fun, healthy, safe environment for the students of Gold Beach. Not only do they garner and complete general maintenance projects for both schools, they also assist in scholarships for high school seniors, assisting athletes with pay to play fees, and support our teachers who deserve the very best!”
Tim Wilson, Superintendent of Central Curry School District 1 told us, “There are no words to fully describe the significant impact that the Gold Beach Youth Foundation has on the children of our area. Their extensive giving to provide financial support to the district is second only to their continual efforts to provide greater opportunities for our students in and out of the classroom. Evidence of their contributions can be seen every day. I encourage others to consider joining this fine organization to continue its efforts to support the students and families of the Gold Beach area.”
Looking to the future, funding shortages for schools, both for educational and extracurricular resources, is unlikely to change. GBYF works closely with the School Board and at any given time there is a list of 15-20 short and long-term items identified by the school district that need funding. The GBYF Board has big dreams for how we can continue to help Central Curry youth for years and years.
Part of the GBYF long term plans is to create endowment funds to secure the ability to provide funding for Gold Beach’s educational and extracurricular needs. GBYF has set a first milestone goal of raising one million dollars to serve as the principal endowment investments, this will provide GBYF with the ability to have a measurable impact for Gold Beach’s youth long into the future.
In order to do this work and build upon past success, Gold Beach Youth Foundation really needs the involvement of our entire community.
We want every person to know who Gold Beach Youth Fund is and what we do. You can help with that right now by sharing the story with your friends and family in the community.
For those with the ability to give a donation of money, consider GBYF as the recipient of those funds. Every single dollar you give goes to enhance opportunities and help students have a better experience in school. If you are interested in establishing an endowment, please contact GBYF to explore possibilities.
If you’re unable to support GBYF financially, contributions of skills, labor, and in-kind service are always welcome. GBYF needs parents, neighbors, business owners, and community leaders to all come together and be a part of creating this future. In short, GBYF is all about building a community of passionate people who want to help, and we hope you will be part of it. Together we can build tomorrow.