Girl power X 10

Love yourself as you love others

Get in touch with your guardian angel

Don’t be afraid to live

Don’t worry so much about what other people think

And …

Remember to breathe. It will all be OK

Those are just some of the answers, printed on 3-by-5-inch index cards, found on a wall at Ophelia’s Place, beneath the question: “Looking back, what advice would you give your 13-year-old self?”

Written by prominent women in the community, they are messages to the some 250 or so girls, ages 10 to 18, who every month walk through the doors of the prevention-focused nonprofit at East 16th Avenue and Pearl Street in Eugene.

“We talk about empowering girls, but we actually do it,” says Executive Director Verna Wise, and she leads you through a tour of Ophelia’s Place, which works with at-risk and preteen girls and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week with an open house on Thursday, during the annual Pearl Street Block Party.

The goal is to “bring people into the building,” Wise says. “Because it’s special here. I’m just sappy enough to say that the world’s a better place because of us.”

Take it from one of the girls.

“I feel like it’s a safe place, and it’s nice to meet new people here,” said Sterling Sirois, 14, an eighth-grader at Spencer Butte Middle School. During an afternoon drop-in session, she played games, sang a few songs in the basement studio — Ophelia’s place is affiliated with Grrrlz Rock, the Eugene organization that supports the growth of women in music and the arts — and bonded with other girls close to her age. “You can just come and explain who you are, and everyone accepts you for who you are and what you are.”

Eugene biosciences entrepreneur Rosaria Haugland’s vision when she started Ophelia’s Place “was to provide services that intervene at an early point in a girl’s life, giving her an opportunity to develop supportive relationships and strengths that will lead to her long-term well-being,” according to its website.

Haugland is the former owner, along with her husband, Richard, of Molecular Probes, a former Eugene biotechnology company. They sold the business in 2003 for $325 million and later bought the former Willis/Tromp & McKinley Building at 1577 Pearl St. for $2.7 million, according to an earlier Register-Guard story.

Now known as the Haugland Building, it houses Ophelia’s Place and Womenspace, the nonprofit dedicated to countering domestic violence.

Ophelia’s Place initially occupied a 1,600-square-foot space in the building but moved to a 5,800-square-foot space in 2013, Wise says.

When she became executive director eight years ago, the organization had an annual budget of $200,000 and two employees. Now it has a $622,000 budget — funded mostly by grants and donations — and 10 employees, seven of them full-time.

“Going through adolescence is tough, and knowing that resources exist that help either you or your kid through that is critical,” Wise says.

At Ophelia’s Place, girls from all sorts of backgrounds, whether their family is homeless or wealthy, whether they are the most popular in school or, like Reanna Hensley, a 15-year-old North Eugene High School sophomore with cerebral palsy who often has to use a wheelchair to get around, find solace.

“I really like it here,” says Hensley, who just moved back to Oregon from Milwaukee in June. “You don’t feel judged here, you’re never on edge here. Everybody’s very welcoming.”

Ophelia’s Place is a colorful place with purple and bright green walls and images of successful, powerful women on the walls.

Besides images of Haugland, who last year moved to Palo Alto, Calif., to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren, there are photographs and biographies of local women such as Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Nancy Golden, the former Springfield schools superintendent who until recently served as the state’s chief education officer.

And there are images and biographies of world-famous women such as Oprah Winfrey, Erin Brockovich and Mother Teresa and others.

“It’s a really nice environment here, and I feel I can express myself, and I can make all these friends here that I wouldn’t meet otherwise,” says Ronan Martin, 13, who starts the eighth grade at Spencer Butte Middle School this week.

The services at Ophelia’s Place — which also holds classroom presentations at area schools on topics like bullying and harassment, media and body image and conflict resolution — are free.