{"id":6086,"date":"2021-09-14T11:04:29","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T18:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bienestar-or.org\/?p=6086"},"modified":"2021-09-14T11:04:29","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T18:04:29","slug":"heroes-e-historias-kaylen-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/heroes-e-historias-kaylen-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"H\u00e9roes e Historias: Kaylen Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eleven years ago, Kaylen\u00a0Miller\u00a0was\u00a0searching\u00a0for volunteer opportunities in the\u00a0greater\u00a0Portland area and\u00a0came across\u00a0Bienestar. \u201cTheir mission really resonated with\u00a0me,\u00a0and I\u00a0reached out to Gracie,\u00a0the Community Services Director,\u201d\u00a0Kaylen stated.\u00a0After\u00a0speaking\u00a0with both Gracie and Karen\u00a0Shawcross,\u00a0former Executive Director, Kaylen felt welcomed and encouraged to create a project\u00a0at the organization\u00a0and was given the freedom to manage it.\u00a0In that moment, she\u00a0knew it was the\u00a0perfect fit\u00a0and was eager to start making an impact\u00a0at\u00a0Bienestar.\u00a0Since Kaylen had several connections and resources\u00a0in her network,\u00a0she\u00a0seized\u00a0the opportunity\u00a0to\u00a0ask\u00a0what\u00a0critical needs\u00a0Bienestar\u2019s\u00a0residents\u00a0would benefit from.\u00a0Both Gracie and Karen\u00a0addressed\u00a0that several kids living in\u00a0the\u00a0properties went\u00a0to school with no backpacks or school supplies\u00a0\u2013 sparking an idea, which\u00a0led to\u00a0the creation of the\u00a0annual\u00a0Back-to-School Fair. Since\u00a0its inception, Kaylen has\u00a0taken the lead\u00a0in\u00a0all fundraising efforts to gather\u00a0school\u00a0supplies and backpacks for\u00a0hundreds\u00a0of kids\u00a0every year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of her most memorable moments as a volunteer at Bienestar was at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event. There were several stations set up within a community room and Kaylen set up a How-to-Crochet station to teach residents. There was an enthusiastic mother that sat down, eager to join the workshop. Kaylen provided instruction in Spanish, but due to her limited fluency, the enthusiastic mom graciously offered to translate. During an opportunity, the mom rushed to her apartment and brought back items she crocheted to show her. She displayed her table runners and baby dresses she created for her family in Mexico. \u201cIt was a sweet connection that we made,\u201d Kaylen stated.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second noteworthy memory of hers was during one of the Back-to-School Fairs. A boy participating in the fair was the Big Prize Winner and won a 3-foot-tall bulky teddy bear. As you can imagine, the bear was taller than him, but that didn\u2019t stop the child from gripping on to it as he joyfully walked away with a bright smile.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Kaylen\u2019s working on now<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaylen is involved in Adopt-a-Family for the holiday season through Workday, her employer. This collaboration enables Kaylen and her coworkers to provide gifts, clothes, or any items a family needs during Christmas. Through her connection with Bienestar, she was able to determine two local families in need for this year.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, she is gathering all donations made for the upcoming Back-to-School Drive and is preparing to deliver backpacks filled with school supplies to over 100 kids living in Bienestar properties.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaylen\u2019s biggest hope<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kaylen reflects, her biggest hope for the future of farmworkers and immigrants is for society to recognize them as highly valuable and crucial citizens. \u201cFarmworkers engage in hard physical labor, and we should celebrate them, not condemn them for willing to do backbreaking work. There is a misconception that immigrants are taking our jobs, but that is simply not true.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eleven years ago, Kaylen\u00a0Miller\u00a0was\u00a0searching\u00a0for volunteer opportunities in the\u00a0greater\u00a0Portland area and\u00a0came across\u00a0Bienestar. \u201cTheir mission really resonated with\u00a0me,\u00a0and I\u00a0reached out to Gracie,\u00a0the Community Services Director,\u201d\u00a0Kaylen stated.\u00a0After\u00a0speaking\u00a0with both Gracie and Karen\u00a0Shawcross,\u00a0former Executive Director, Kaylen felt welcomed and encouraged to create a project\u00a0at the organization\u00a0and was given the freedom…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camino-al-bienestar","category-news-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bienestar-or.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}