January 13, 2011-Sutherlin FFA Alumni Receives CCUIF’s Buss Rondeau Award

Canyonville, Oregon....Buss Rondeau,who passed away in 2000, was a founding member of the Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation (CCUIF) as well as a member of the Cow Creek Tribal Board. Since his death, the CCUIF Board of Directors has presented the Buss Rondeau Award to a non-profit organization whose goals, "…most closely adhere to the spirit of Buster Rondeau." The Award is not presented at every CCUIF round of giving.

At the CCUIF Grant Awards Presentations on Thursday, January 13, 2011, at 10 a.m. at the Seven Feathers Convention Center, the Buss Rondeau Award will be presented to the Sutherlin FFA Alumni who will use the $10,000 grant to construct a greenhouse at Sutherlin High School. The existent twenty-year-old greenhouse was designed to last ten years. Replacement is important so the only student-run business at Sutherlin High School may continue. Plants that are raised and nurtured in the greenhouse are sold at the spring plant sale and all components of the Agricultural Science and Technology (AST) horticulture courses (soil, fertilizer, containers, tools) are funded by the plant sale's proceeds. Each year over 120 students are enrolled in AST courses and almost are FFA members. Additionally, projects based in the greenhouse facility benefit over 800 additional K-8 students in the Sutherlin School District.

According to Carma Mornarich, Executive Director for the CCUIF, "Buss Rondeau's love of youth and the part this greenhouse plays in contributing to the success and hands-on learning of so many youth makes this project a terrific choice for the Buss Rondeau Award."

Past recipients of the Buss Rondeau Award include the Sutherlin-Oakland Food Pantry in Douglas County, the Grants Pass High School Foundation in Josephine County, the City of Sutherlin in Douglas County, the Sutherlin Booster Club in Douglas County, the Sugarloaf Community Association in Josephine County, the Oregon Children's Foundation SMART program, and the Winston Area Community Partnership in Douglas County.

Buster Rondeau, a lifetime resident of Douglas County, worked and lived in Sutherlin in his adult life.