Alluvium will distribute food and supplies for the unhoused and housing insecure 1 pm to 4 pm Christmas Day, Sunday, Dec. 25. “After the unhoused are served, Alluvium is inviting neighbors, friends and community members to partake in a potluck meal,” a press release from the spiritual center says. The distribution is funded by the community and other supporters and includes warm food, cookies, snacks and groceries, as well as sleeping bags, tents and tarps. There will be arts and crafts materials to entertain children and adults who want to create personally crafted holiday gifts. The potluck welcomes folks who would like to bring food, clothing or other resources, and the events will wrap up with the regular 7 pm Alluvium Sunday Open Mic. For more on Alluvium and the Christmas event, go to AlluviumEugene.com.

• Thank you to all of our readers who have stopped by with contributions for White Bird Clinic’s Drive to Stay Warm. Eugene Weekly’s lobby at 1251 Lincoln Street has been filled with blankets, hand-knit scarves and hats and more.  Keep them coming — the cold weather is just beginning. 

• Still Christmas shopping? Some of us here at Eugene Weekly are slackers, too. Take a look at last week’s reader-generated Give Guide (EugeneWeekly.com/2022/12/15/give-guide-10) for ideas on where to donate your time and money. And as we ready for another year of printing 30,000 copies a week, don’t forget to include EW on your list. Despite our tendency to be both naughty and nice, we do supply you with news and entertainment! You can contribute funds to EW directly, do a tax-deductible donation through our nonprofit TRIPS or buy yourself or a loved one a subscription. And you can specify what you’d like to support: Obituaries for the unhoused? News coverage? Spoiler alert: Someone has offered to sponsor a hiking column by William Sullivan — stay tuned! Got an idea? Give us a call at 541-484-0519.

• Argentina, deep in the Southern Hemisphere of the New World, versus France, the cradle of everything old Europe hegemony: That was the final pairing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, unfolding in Doha, Qatar, an unlikely and controversial Middle Eastern desert host for the culmination of four years of tense regional buildup. But with soccer, or more globally, football, nothing is quite as it seems. Argentina’s squad featured players reflecting its 20th century open door to European immigrants; the French squad reflected a colonial past, with more players of African descent than Gallic. And in the end, the players passionately illustrated why soccer is the universal sporting touchstone. Wrap a wad of rags into a rough sphere and chase it through the alleys, velds, savannas or barrios and you are playing soccer. Here in Eugene, we have a rich nascent soccer culture fermenting — from top drawer high school teams to collegiate and semi-pro women, and even the chance for a professional club right here in River City. It is time we lace up our soccer boots, roll the ball out onto the pitch and embrace the world’s beautiful game.

• The family of Travis Allen Sanders, who died after being attacked on a LTD bus, is holding a ceremony of life 2 pm Wednesday, Dec. 28, at the Springfield 7th-day Adventist Church, 1630 N. 12th Street. We mistakenly reported in our story about workers at Lane Transit District (“Exhausted, Disrespected,” 12/15) that Sanders was an off-duty bus operator. He was actually a truck driver who did not work for LTD. We regret the error. 

• We just heard about a dog named Messi. What greater tribute?!

 

 

 

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