Amy Red Feather

The daughter of a military man, Amy Red Feather was born in California and "moved all over" prior to her high school years in Slidell, Louisiana. "I got interested in permaculture and gardening," says Red Feather, who completed a degree in animal science and conservation at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, then worked in ecotourism with conservation groups on Maui. "We showed them hidden waterfalls and talked environmental education." On Maui, she met people from Eugene. "It's like our sister city," they told her. After a visit in 2004, she moved to Eugene in 2005, and found work teaching science to home-schoolers. "I fell in love with the community," she says. "So many people taking action." Twice married and divorced, Red Feather is the single mom of two sons, Jonah and Gabriel, ages 11 and six. When she began having seizures in 2011, she gave up teaching and became a home-based glass artist, working with local glassblowers. "Ninety percent of my stuff sells on Facebook," she says. An ardent home gardener, she enlisted the help of her sons, neighborhood children, and the Eugene Avant-Gardeners group to transform the yard of an abandoned house next door, at 1350 Acorn Park Street, into a small community garden. "We had 20 people at the last work party," she says. "We'll put the vegetables on a table for the neighborhood."