Michele Stroh and Maureen Palaoro were named as Oregon City Together’s Prevention Champions of the Year during the Oregon City School District Board meeting on March 13.
OC Together’s annual award recognizes outstanding leadership and commitment to preventing youth substance abuse in Oregon City.
Oregon City School Board member Michele Stroh is a strong advocate for raising awareness about the risks of drug use, focusing primarily on the deadly risks of fentanyl and fake pills.
“Michele’s work is well-known in our community, across Oregon and even nationally,” said OCT member Brian Shaw, one of last year’s award recipients. “Her son died from fentanyl poisoning, and she works tirelessly to make sure this tragedy does not happen to other families.”
Maureen Palaoro, a health teacher at Gardiner Middle School, has served as OCT’s chair since 2021.
“Maureen’s passion for prevention shines through in both these roles,” Shaw said. “Her commitment to the well-being of youth is essential to the coalition’s prevention efforts. As an example, Maureen was pivotal in bringing an exciting new program called BrainAbouts to Oregon City’s two middle schools last fall to increase awareness of the risks of early drug use and teach skills to support healthy choices.”
Oregon City Together is a community coalition of concerned parents, youth, community and school leaders, and representatives from law enforcement, faith-based groups, organizations serving youth, neighborhoods and government agencies. It is the only organization in Oregon City focusing solely on youth substance abuse prevention. Go to octogether.org for more information.
