The Common Good Moves

By Evan Kramer

The Common Good has moved to the Zion Lutheran Church effective Wednesday, October 1. They were located at 1405 “B” Idaho Street. The Common Good is Port Orford’s food bank. The hours for food distribution are 10:00am-noon and 1:00-3:00pm each Wednesday except on the fifth Wednesday of any month. The Zion Lutheran Church is located at 2015 Washington Street off of 20^th Street in back of the Laundromat and car wash on Highway 101. The Common Good will also continue to distribute clothing each Wednesday.

The move to the Zion Lutheran Church was accomplished with the blessing and support of Pastor Ronn Kerr and the church members plus a grant for $900. The Port Orford Rotary Club supported the move financially with two grants totaling $4,000. They also took on the job of remodeling the former Sunday school space at the church into a usable 2,000 square foot area for the Common Good. Several Rotarians took part in this process including Bob Wirsing who headed up the project with the help of Dave Bassett, Mike Hewitt, Jeff Smith, Steve Hanrahan, Larry Skeels, Scott McKenzie, John Johnston and Dick Wold. All in all, Rotary Club members put in 197 hours on the project. Common Good Board member Steve Lindsay did the heavy lifting for the Common Good and put in many hours laying out the plans for what needed to be done and where, plus adding plenty of physical labor.

On Saturday, September 27, it was moving day for the Common Good and a crew consisting of Bob Wirsing, Jeff Smith, Steve Hanrahan, Mike Hewitt and Steve Lindsay moved the big items like freezers, refrigerators, shelving, etc. over to the church getting ready for the first food distribution day at the church on Wednesday. Common Good board member and chairman of the CG Shoes for Kids programs, Amy Wilhite, spent the morning at the church stocking shelves and getting things organized. Common Good volunteer Billy Smegeda helped on Sunday to clean out the old location.

The Common Good was founded in 1980 by Ray and Charlotte Johnson, Charlie and Flo Quillen and Elenor Plamaden. The Good House has had several locations in Port Orford. On Wednesday afternoon as the Common Good was serving its last clients on Idaho Street former president and founder Ray Johnson stopped by to turn his key in and look around. He has been active with the group the entire time it has existed. He celebrated his 90^th birthday last week and is very important to the story of why the Common Good exists today.

The Common Good’s landlord at the Idaho Street location Guy Lawrence has worked with the group over the years and been very generous in keeping the rent down which was much appreciated. This left more money for food to feed people.

The Common Good is open for business at the church this Wednesday.