Document text
Making a difference Photo by Bob Pennell John and Gigi Michaels have jumped into community activism in west Medford since they arrived from Southern California four years ago. John and Gigi Michaels are helping their community BY JIM DAVIS Medford City Councilman John Michaels owns a Datsun pickup, which is good for his other job as a "volunteer by default." Sometimes, Michaels gets asked to clean a yard or help an elderly lady or haul old appliances, as he did last weekend at the Recycling Fair in west Medford. Always, Gigi Michaels, his wife and the program coordinator for the nonprofit West Medford Community Coalition, comes up with his chores. "I'm just the hard labor," John Michaels said. "I'm just the guy who lifts everything." Together, Gigi and John Michaels have immersed themselves in volunteer and civic activities in west Medford, becoming a sort of one-two punch for the community, whether by painting homes, organizing block parties, her job at the coalition or his seat on the council. And they are an asset to the community, said Sal Esquivel, a fellow city councilman and a coalition board member. "They're just nice people," he said. "And their hearts are in the right place." For their part, the Michaelses said this is the life they wanted when they moved to west Medford from Southern California four years ago. "It's just what we meant to do," John said. "It's just something we wanted to do when we came here." From cleaning trash out of a park as a girl to a raising money to paint the school name on her junior high school, Gigi said she has always tried to be active in the community. "I've always had a full-time job," Gigi said. "And I've always had time to volunteer." John Michaels, however, wasn't so civically minded. He said he probably would never have done any volunteer work without Gigi's urging. The couple met in the late 1980s at a Soviet art festival in San Diego. They both attended Southwestern College in the city and were introduced by a roommate and a friend. They married in 1991. At the time, Gigi worked for the YMCA in San Diego County, working as a program director for child care and summer camps. John Michaels ran a graphic business they co-owned. Because of her job, the Michaelses were active in the community, but they didn't feel they could do enough. "Living in San Diego, it's such a big city that no matter what you did it seemed like a futile attempt," John said. They started thinking about getting out of Southern California. Their vacations became opportunities to look for new places to live in New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona. The Michaels found Medford on a trip to Seattle when they stopped to eat at a restaurant here. "We liked it because the kids still looked like kids," Gigi said. "They didn't look like gangsters or drug addicts." John got a job in the composing room at the Ashland Daily Tidings. He has since become a graphic artist for Image Services Inc. in Medford. Gigi went through a couple of jobs, one at the YMCA and another at Minuteman Press. In 1996, Gigi was hired as the only full-time worker for the coalition, which was formed by several community groups to help revitalize one of the most economically distressed neighborhoods in the state. They spent their spare time doing volunteer work with the Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program, which represents children who become wards of the court. Last year, the couple became foster parents of two teenage daughters. They have no other children. Last year, John applied and was appointed to the city's Planning Commission out of concern for the area's growth. "I came from Southern California," Michaels said. "I don't want to see another one." In the fall, John ran unopposed for a two-year City Council seat in Ward 3, which he felt would allow him to set more policy than on the Planning Commission. Even so, John said, he gets more satisfaction from the volunteer work he does for Gigi. Gwendolyn Scott, a Medford Parks Department employee and a coalition board member, said she doesn't know where Gigi's work leaves off and her volunteerism takes up. She said that when the Parks Department was rebuilding Union Park in west Medford, Gigi organized volunteers to help out. "It let me spend more money on equipment and less money on the work force," Scott said. Maria Swann, a Medford police community service officer who met the Michaelses when she started working with the coalition a couple of years ago, said the couple are always doing volunteer work. "What impresses me the most about them is their ability to be great foster parents," Swann said. "It's difficult enough to raise your own teenagers, but when you're raising somebody else's teenagers -- I really believe that they do it so well." The Michaelses said they are seeing changes and differences in west Medford. They said they hope their efforts and others like them will improve west Medford. "We volunteer because we know being involved in your community makes things better for everyone," Gigi said. "You can't just sit back and watch TV and expect things to get done." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA