The Mt. Hood Roasters truck is backing up with the front heaped with coffee
and the back end loaded with cash.

In three years Welches School students have sold more than 2,900 bags of
coffee that have percolated into $11,800 in profit. This is year four of the
partnership between the local coffee company and the Welches Parent
Teacher Community Organization, and the fundraiser will be plugged in Oct.
18.

“Rick (Applegate, proprietor of Mt. Hood Roasters) and I came up with the
idea together,” said Cheryl Gunderson, Vice President of WPTCO and,
according to Applegate, the “coffee fundraiser maestro” of the project. “I
helped run fundraisers (before) and felt bad that the products we were buying
were junk. So I went to Rick. He had a quality product. It was a local business
and we love to support our community.”

Applegate had been private labeling coffee for fundraisers for a long time.
Then along came Gunderson.

“Cheryl came to me and we started talking about raising money for the local
school,” Applegate said. “Of course, I committed to this project.”

They both point to the other as the top bean in the bag.

“Without Cheryl Gunderson’s commitment to the local school and advocacy we
would still be in the talking phase,” Applegate said. “This never would have
happened without her and she is a great program partner.”

“I love this fundraiser and as long as Rick is making Mt. Hood Roasters coffee,
I will be supporting Welches School by helping run the fundraiser,” Gunderson
said. “Rick is one of the strongest supporters of our community and maybe
the most generous person too.”

The students sell the coffee for $10 per 12-ounce bag. More than $4 of each
bag sold stays with the school.

For students in grades K-6, $3 of the profit stays with WPTCO to be used in
support of numerous school programs and initiatives. The remaining dollar
stays with the classroom that sold the bag.

For students in grades 7-8 the entire $4 is dedicated to helping pay for the
eighth grade graduation party, books and art supplies.

There are approximately 350 students in the two schools that will be
participating in the fundraiser, according to Applegate.

“The start of every year, friends, family and the community ask me ‘Are you
having that coffee fundraiser again this year? And when,’ as they don’t want
to miss it,” Gunderson said.

“There are even friends of mine that are ordering. Our local coffee with our
Welches logo is going as far away as Swansboro, North Carolina and Prudhoe
Bay, Alaska.”

Students will have sales sheets beginning Oct. 18 and will be selling the
Barlow Trail Blend which is a 2010 Oregon award-winning medium roast
coffee, as well as the Trillium Trail dark roast, and a medium dark roasted
decaffeinated coffee made with 100 percent Swiss Water Processed Decaf
beans, according to Applegate.

This year, Mt. Hood Roasters will provide a secure internet store for those
outside the Mountain community to order coffee and support local students
online.

A link will be provided to their online store at: mthoodroasters.com.
“We encourage everyone to email, call or Facebook friends and family that
reside out of the area and share with them a great way to support local
students,” Applegate said. “Mt. Hood Roasters is designing a system to leave
the site up throughout the year to help facilitate fundraising dollars for the
school. With the support of the community, we can reach across the entire
United States to help provide financial resources to our local students.”

The fundraiser runs through the school from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31. Students will
get the coffee in early November to deliver to the buyers.

Community members can purchase the coffee from local students, or by
calling the school at 503-622-3165 or Cheryl Gunderson at 503-622-4175.