The oncoming train that is the new Community Center had its engine stoked with fuel provided by Timberline Lodge.

At the Hoodland Women’s Club Third Annual Crab Feed – a crustacean
celebration attended by hundreds Jan. 28 at the RV Village – Jon Tullis,
Timberline’s director of public affairs, presented a check for $7,500 as a
pledge toward the fundraising effort for the new Community Center.

“We (Timberline) are celebrating our 75th anniversary this year and we were
looking for a cause to help out in the Hoodland area,” Tullis told the overflow
– and overstuffed – audience. “We read the cover story in The Mountain
Times about the Community Center and found our cause.”

Holding tight to her end of the large check, Marilan Anderson of the women’s
club said proudly: “I’ve always wanted to receive one of these.”

Tullis encouraged other local businesses and individuals to throw their
financial support behind the project.

“Timberline is proud to be a part of the Hoodland community,” he said.

“Hoodland and Timberline have been inseparable for the past 75 years and we
are really pleased to mark our anniversary with this special gift ... Timberline
applauds the vision and leadership that the Hoodland Women’s Club is
providing in this effort.”

The Community Center project director, Diane Lokting – the engine that
drives the locomotive – stood proudly in the crowd.

“Isn’t this amazing,” Lokting said. “What a wonderful gift.”

Lokting has been busy – as a glance at the progress for the Community
Center indicates:
A conditional use permit has been issued by Clackamas County and ODOT has
approved the project that will be located on land owned by the county’s Parks
Department on Salmon Creek Road near the Dorman Center. The Hoodland
Women’s Club will own the building.

Presentations have been made to the Villages at Mt. Hood board of directors
and a Villages Town Hall meeting, the county’s board of commissioners and
the county’s Parks Department.

More than $650,000 has been raised for the project estimated to cost
$2,384,000.

The Women’s Club has applied to private foundations for funding, including:
The Ford Family Foundation ($250,000) and the application has passed two
rounds of review and an extensive site study has been conducted. The
application will be reviewed May 2012;

The Meyer Memorial Trust ($350,000) and the application has passed two
rounds of review and an extensive site study, and interviews with major
partners including the Sandy Library, The Hoodland Senior Center and
Clackamas County Parks; MMT granted the club $20,000 to hire a project
management construction firm to facilitate contracts between the county and
club, and to partially fund the project manager’s position. Shiels Obletz
Johnson of Portland has been hired and documents regarding contractual
responsibilities are being drawn up;

The Collins Foundation application ($100,000) has passed preliminary hurdles
and will be reviewed in May;

And the grant ($7,500) from RLK Company, Timberline Lodge.

Preliminary commitments from Clackamas County Women’s Services for a
Domestic Violence Outreach Program and from the Red Cross to designate the
Community Center an emergency shelter have been made.

Pledge cards are being circulated around the Mountain (and in The Mountain
Times, Page 15), and a fundraiser at a local restaurant is in the planning
stage. Community based fundraisers will be launched upon completion of the
county’s feasibility study.

To date, 105 pledges have been received.

That’s all in a day’s work for Lokting and the Hoodland Women’s Club.

And they still found time to pull off a crab feed just to prove they’re “not a
bunch of women sitting around knitting.”