Donna Riddle

SoCal gal Donna Riddle spent childhood summers at Outpost Camp, on the trail to Mt Whitney. "My mom, my sister and I ran a trail camp for a pack station that hauled people to the summit," she says. "I have love-of-nature genes from that time." Riddle got married just out of Corona HS, had a couple kids, and did anti-war work in Orange County. "I went to a protest in Century City," she says. "People sat down, and police attacked with clubs." A year later, in 1968, she and the kids moved to Eugene. Her husband followed, and soon a third child. She got into raising kids, alternative education, the Children's Community School, and its fundraiser that became the Oregon Country Fair. After a divorce in 1977, she organized a summer food program for kids in Whiteaker that later became part of Food For Lane County. She got a UO degree in public affairs and spent two years in DC, helping write the Child Nutrition Act of 1980. Returning for her daughter's senior year, she found a new boy friend, who lasted 15 years, and had a son in 1985. She ran a family day shelter for St Vinnies and oversaw a clinic remodel for White Bird. An avid kayaker, she put volunteer hours into river clean-ups until the Occupy movement appeared in late 2011. "I got involved with the first-aid tent," she says. "I've done intake for Occupy Medical since they opened on the Park Blocks. I'm the queen of tent-drying." Occupy Medical offers free medical services every Sunday, noon til 4, at 8th and Oak in Eugene. Volunteers and donations are welcomed.