Laurie remains the career goal scoring leader for the Barons.  She is the Director, Real Estate & Marketing, for Hot Dog on a Stick in San Diego.    Husband, Ed, is half way through his masters and teaching credential, focusing on a career in Special Education.  They are pictured above with their three children.

Mark and Tiffany Bulgin held a meeting at downtown Salem's IKE Box to raise awareness of the growing need for more foster parents in Marion County.

See the Oregon Department of Human Service's Web site http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/children/fostercare/, or contact Anita Gonzales at (503) 373-1200.

Contact Sarah Spinks at (503) 584-4865 or see the project's Web site http://cfc.co.marion.or.us/jem.htm

Salem couple focus on recruiting foster parents

'It's worth burden,' they say, as meth creates rising need

BY TIMOTHY ALEX AKIMOFF ... Statesman Journal ... November 26, 2006

Mark and Tiffany Bulgin lost their son Isaac to a heart defect when he was 2 months old.

As they recovered from the experience, the Bulgins reflected on Isaac's room, a space that not only represented their memories of a cherished son, but a physical space that eventually would house about 100 foster children during the past 12 years.

"It's a metaphorical question we ask ourselves," Mark Bulgin said. "What if (that foster child) was Isaac? It serves as an ideal and an ethic we hold ourselves to as an organization."

The Bulgins have been taking in foster children, raising them in their home, and perhaps, more importantly, using their experiences to encourage other people to become foster parents.

This week, the Bulgins held a meeting at downtown Salem's IKE Box, a coffee house run by the couple's nonprofit Isaac's Room. The venue bears their son's nickname.

Their goal was to raise awareness of the growing need for more foster parents in Marion County, a need that is fueled by methamphetamine.

Anita Gonzales, a foster parent recruiter and certifier for the Oregon Department of Human Services, said that the number of foster children in Marion County fluctuates, but is always around 1,100 young people.

The rampant use of the illegal drug has broken up myriad families, causing a surge in younger children in need of foster care.

"It seems like every family we get involved with has a meth problem," Gonzales said.

The Bulgins invited members of the faith and education communities to come and find out why being a foster parent is important.

With a strong emotional appeal, the Bulgins explained their experiences candidly, refusing to shy away from the tough issues such as getting enough time for themselves as a couple, the costs associated with foster care and its mark on their biological children.

"It's so worth all of the risks and burdens," Mark Bulgin said.

The Bulgins have been dealing with teenage boys most of the time they have taken in foster children. But the overwhelming need for foster parents stemming from younger children being removed from families where meth is an issue drove them to share their story with others in the hope of encouraging others to share their burden.

"Tif and I just want to share our story and the reasons we've become involved, make a case for greater involvement across the community," Bulgin said.

To help support overburdened foster parents, the Bulgins plan to make the IKE Box available as an activity center for foster children. While the kids are entertained under supervision, their foster parents can get some time to themselves.

Rich and Cori Clausen of Keizer attended the meeting to get more information about fostering and mentoring opportunities.

The young couple said they don't feel ready to adopt, but supporting children by being foster parents could be a good first step that will help them make bigger decisions later on.

"This is something that is temporary but that in a few years could become permanent," Rich Clausen said.

The Clausens said they are like others who feel helpless in the fight against meth, but they are encouraged by recruiting efforts like what the Bulgins are doing because they say foster parenting offers a solution that may affect meth's impact in the future.

"We didn't feel there is a lot we can do with people using meth," Cori Clausen said. "But this is something we can do to affect the next generation."

takimoff@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) x399-6750

Defendant Andree Calac answers questions posed Wednesday at the Vista Courthouse by Deputy District Attorney Tracy Prior as she holds a replica of a shotgun used in connection with the death of 22-year-old Marlene Magee on Feb. 15, 2004. Calac, 27, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of killing Magee and their unborn daughter in his trailer on the Rincon reservation.      

BILL WECHTER Staff Photographer

                                                            Rincon man testifies fatal shooting was accidental

                                                                   By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- A Rincon man facing life in prison for shooting his pregnant girlfriend in the face at close range with a shotgun said Wednesday that the fatal blast was unintentional, and he didn't realize at first that the woman was hit. Testifying in his own defense, Andree Calac said his girlfriend, 22-year-old Marlene Magee, was lying on his couch, that the gun was wedged between cushions, and that it "went off" when he moved it out of the way.

But on cross-examination, Calac had no answer when Deputy District Attorney Tracy Prior asked him to explain why his story contradicted the opinion of a blood spatter expert who had testified earlier in the week-old trial that Calac's version of events wasn't possible, given the physical evidence.

Calac, 27, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of killing Magee and their unborn daughter in his trailer on the Rincon reservation in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2004.

Prosecutor Prior contends that Calac had a history of threatening Magee, and that he pushed her down onto the couch and shot her during an argument. Magee's left hand was covered with shotgun soot, and part of her hand had also been blown off in the blast, according to testimony. Prior maintained that the physical evidence shows Magee had put her hand up and turned her head away to defend against the shot.

Most of one of Calac's thumbs was also blown off in the blast. His thumbnail was found in Magee's head wound during her autopsy. Calac said he had not noticed that the gun was sitting on the couch when he and Magee first entered the trailer. He had picked up the pajama-clad woman from her mother's house, about a two-minute drive away.

Calac testified that he was in an intense, intimate conversation about Magee's parenting and lifestyle ---- she had four children already, and two of them had been taken by the county ---- when he leaned over to hug and kiss Magee and rub her swollen belly, then reached back to move the gun wedged near her ankle. That, he said, is when "the gun went off."
Calac said he jumped up and yelled out that he'd been hit, then looked down and saw that Magee had been struck in the side of the face. He ran around his trailer like "a chicken with its head cut off" and even forgot about the mortally wounded Magee for a moment, he said. Calac said on cross-examination that he hid the shotgun outside of his Rincon trailer, under his truck parked about 50 feet away, before tending to her. Calac drove the mortally wounded woman to a nearby fire station on the Rincon reservation, and broke inside to find help for her. Calac testified he did not recall telling the firefighters or sheriff's detectives "the Mexicans did it," referring to who fired the shot that killed Magee.

Calac, a three-time convict who was on parole for a three-year prison sentence, said that he had spent Valentine's Day 2004 drinking, smoking marijuana and visiting casinos, finally smoking methamphetamine with a friend before heading home.
Calac described himself as "compassionate" and "romantic" with "his ladies," and said that he was trying to coach Magee to be more "mature." "I was there to give her confidence," Calac said on the stand. "I was there to make her life brighter than it really was." Prior asked him if he blamed the gun. "It's not the gun's fault," Calac said. He later added, "I don't know who to blame." "How did the trigger get pulled?" Prior soon asked. "I don't know that answer," Calac responded.

Calac said he was unable to recall much of what happened after the shotgun blast. Two of Magee's children suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and a third had a serious condition affecting her heart and lungs. The woman had methamphetamine in her system when she died, according to testimony. Closing arguments in Calac's murder trial will likely begin today.

City News Service contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

Denise French (2002) was voted MVP at California Lutheran Universtiy. She was also Third Team All Far West. All this is remarkable considering Denise is only a Frosh. Erica Rodriguez (2002) played well at Cal Poly Pomona, and is currently on the Mexican National Team. She joined the Mexicans in Australia while they completed a series of "friendlies".  Current Barons' assistant Linnea Quinnones is still recovering from a broken leg and will train again soon with the Mexicans. Linnea remains the #1 goalkeeper for Mexico.  That makes four former Barons who have played International matches with the Mexican National Team. Along with Rodriquez and Quinnones, Lina Valderrama (also current) and Cristina Romero have also served Mexico.