About Woody's Stars

After losing her son Woody, Charity Woodrum dreamed of honoring him by offering financial support and mentorship to students in his name. That dream has come true.

The Woody’s Stars Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation supports college students as they follow their own dreams of succeeding in STEM. Students will receive financial support and mentorship for all four years of their undergraduate degree.

This fund would not be possible without the support of Sandy Cummings (director of Space, Hope and Charity), Kathy Deggendorfer (founder of the Roundhouse Foundation), Dr. Scott Fisher, and Gina Vivona. Dr. Fisher played a vital role in Charity's life as a mentor and this legacy will continue through the Woody's Stars Fund.

If you prefer to mail a check, please specify the "Woody's Stars Fund" and mail to:

Oregon Community Foundation

1221 SW Yamhill St.

Suite 100

Portland, OR 97205

To donate online, click the link below: 

About Woody's Mom

Dr. Charity Woodrum is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team. She earned her PhD as a Doctoral Candidate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, working under the supervision of Professor Marcia Rieke. She is also a member of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Near-IR Camera (NIRCam) science team and the JADES collaboration. She earned a B.S. in Physics at the University of Oregon, where she conducted research with Dr. Scott Fisher and Dr. Inger Jørgensen. She is still most proud of being Woody's Mom.

About the Film

Space, Hope and Charity is an award-winning independent documentary film about Charity's life as a young woman from rural Oregon whose dream of becoming an astrophysicist is nearly derailed when she suffers a devastating tragedy.

​Charity was a nontraditional university student, raised in poverty, the first in her family to graduate from high school. In her mid-20s, she was married and nine months pregnant when she decided to return to school to study physics. Life felt perfect. Then, what she calls "The Worst Day." She lost her husband and 3-year-old son unexpectedly.

With help from friends old and new, Charity finds her way back to the distant galaxies where she feels most at peace.