St. Vincent de Paul is Lane County’s largest nonprofit human services organization. Terry McDonald has led St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County for over 35 years. Southtowne Rotary was fortunate to have him share his knowledge and insight that he has gained over the years with our group. Terry has spoken at Harvard, MIT, the University of Oregon, the U.S Chamber of Commerce, and more. Follow along to learn about some of the projects that Saint Vincent de Paul completed in 2020, and their future plans.
Big Accomplishments in 2020
While 2020 has been a difficult year for many, this has been a big year for Saint Vincent de Paul.
- Their mattress recycle program was able to process over 400,000 mattresses this year, providing comfortable places to sleep for those in need.
- The organization is currently building 53 new affordable housing units in the River Road area.
- One major accomplishment that they had in 2020 was the work done at the Cottage Grove mobile home. After a few years of cleaning up the park, removing crime, and fixing the environmental issues, they have finished this large project. The entire park is powered by solar power making it neutral on energy, and more affordable for the families that live there.
- Saint Vincent de Paul reached over 1.1 million contacts in 2020.
- The organization has been very successful in testing the homeless for COVID-19 once a week, which has worked to limit the spread of the virus.
- They have erected 20 new pallet shelters which has allowed for more Dust to Dawn program users and expand the housing program.
Looking forward to 2021
A new and important goal for the organization in the next year is working to get vaccinations for those that are unhoused. Also at the top of their list is building more modular units for those leaving Dust to Dawn as they move back into society.
Sock-it-to-me
Sock-It-To-Me has been a Southtowne Rotary project with Saint Vincent de Paul for the last 10 years. To date, we have collected more than 110,000 pairs of socks and underwear. Socks are the number one item requested by people in need. You can always help Southtowne continue to help those in need by making a donation to this great project.
After Terry’s talk, Rotarians asked various questions about current and future projects. You can watch the full video of our meeting here. For more updates about the happenings in our local and global community, check out our other blogs, or browse our YouTube channel.