The Applegater

Applegater Fall 2018 3 F o r t y - f i v e t h o u s a n d . Remember that number; we'll come back to it. H a v e y o u e v e r h e l p e d a neighbor fix a flat tire or jump a dead car battery? Have you spent time trimming brush or mowing grass along a shared road or shored up a leaning bank of mailboxes? Have you looked after your neighbors' animals while they were away or driven a neighbor to town for an appointment or to the airport? If you have done anything like this, you're among the nearly 70 percent of Oregonians who report engaging in "informal" volunteering every year. We do this without expectation of reciprocity, though most neighbors return the favor by helping us when we need it. No one keeps an accounting—it's an informal arrangement. Neighbors helping each other holds neighborhoods together, offering a sense of greater security and belonging. It connects us to the place we live. ere's another kind of volunteering, which the Corporation for National and Community Service (CFNCS) calls "formal": unpaid work done through an organization. Think churches and civic groups. According to CFNCS, an organization that tracks and studies volunteers and their activities, volunteerism remains important to Americans. Twenty-five percent of American adults volunteered in 2015, the most recent year of analyzed data. Oregon has a higher rate of volunteerism. e 31.4 percent of adults who volunteered through an organization ranks us thirteenth among all the states. is equates to 1,018,101 volunteers, 36.1 volunteer hours per capita, 128.37 million hours of service, and an estimated value of $2.7 billion of service contributed to our state. (To learn more about this survey, visit nationalservice.gov/vcla/rankings.) Why do people volunteer? Lots of reasons. Teenagers may vo l u n t e e r b e c a u s e t h e i r p a re n t s introduced them to volunteer activities when they were children—it's ingrained in them. Community service hours may be a high school graduation requirement. A few years later, many find that they can benefit from increased connections and job or career-related skills, knowledge, and experience. People in the middle of careers and raising families often see volunteering as a valuable life lesson to teach their children and a way to spend time together or to build personal networks for work or pleasure. Newly arrived residents find that it's a great way to meet people with shared interests. Retirees may be motivated by a desire Maslow Project's fifth annual Southern Oregon Smoked Salmon and Music Festival is scheduled for Saturday, September 22, from 3 - 8 pm at Pear Blossom Park in Medford, Oregon. e event will feature local f o o d c a r t s , w i n e a n d beer provided b y U r b a n Cork and Growler King, and music performances by e Ben Rice Band and Karen Lovely. e centerpiece of the event will be the smoked salmon competition, where competitors provide samples of their salmon to be evaluated by a panel of judges. The winner of the competition will take home the $1,000 first-place prize and the honor of "Best Smoked Salmon in Southern Oregon." Following the official judging, the public will be able to sample contestants' salmon and vote for their favorite, crowning one competitor "People's Choice." Over the past three years, three Applegate residents have taken the honors at the event for their fabulous smoked salmon. By the time you read this, it will be too late to enter the contest, but you can still come out to enjoy a wide variety of takes on how e Cantrall Buckley Park Golden Jubilee, held on July 14, was a huge success thanks in large part to the 76 community volunteers who made this event possible. D e s p i t e 1 0 0 - p l u s d e g r e e temperatures, around 1,000 people from the Applegate Valley and beyond beat the heat by relaxing in the shade of old-growth oak trees and dipping into the sparkling Applegate River. Attendees enjoyed nonstop music throughout the day from local groups Antonucci Collective, e Family Carr, Rogue Trio, Romancing the West, Sequoia, and headliners e Brothers Reed. They also enjoyed delicious local food served by the Applegate Lions Club and Las Palmas and wine and beer from Applegate vintners and Connor Fields Brewing, and browsed the wares of over 50 local vendors and exhibitors from Pacifica to the Oregon Department of Forestry. "It was a wonderful way to celebrate the Applegate Valley's community and history," said Steering Committee member Brooke Nuckles Gentekos, who is also project coordinator of A Greater Applegate, the local nonprofit that organized the Golden Jubilee. Event sponsors included e Ford Family Foundation, True South Solar, Pioneer Village, and many others who helped celebrate the 50th birthday of Cantrall Buckley Park. anks also go to Steering Committee members Tom Carstens and Michele Brown-Riding for their endless efforts in organizing this major event. For more photos of the Golden Jubilee, please visit A Greater Applegate's Facebook page at facebook.com/ agreaterapplegate. 2018 Smoked Salmon and Music Festival benefit BY PAUL TIPTON to smoke salmon and chat with the competitors. Good luck, Applegaters! All proceeds from the event will benefit Maslow Project, a local nonprofit organization that provides advocacy and support s e r v i c e s t o h o m e l e s s y o u t h a n d f a m i l i e s t h r o u g h o u t Jackson and Josephine counties. "We're thrilled to be the beneficiaries of the Smoked Salmon Fest!" says Maslow Project Development Director, Karen Phillips. "Last year, Maslow Project worked with over 2,500 homeless kids and families, bringing some stability and support into their lives so they could focus on staying in school and completing their educations. Events like this help to raise awareness about youth homelessness in southern Oregon and bring in donations to support our work." General admission tickets are $30 (kids under 12 get in free when accompanied by an adult). To purchase tickets or learn more about the event, visit facebook.com/smokedsalmonfest. To learn more about Maslow Project, visit maslowproject.com. Paul Tipton ptipton@frontier.com Mem able day at e Cantrall Buckley Park Golden Jubilee to give back by nurturing the places, people, and institutions they love. Some volunteers learn new skills or dust off skills they'd like to use again. Almost everyone volunteers for personal gratification, to make a difference, and to have fun. Most people I know rank their volunteer experiences among the most enriching of their lives. And like the informal volunteering of neighbors helping each other, formal volunteering strengthens the community and our connections to it. I contacted 20 Applegate Valley organizations that rely on volunteers and asked how many volunteer hours they contribute each year to the Applegate Valley. e total came to 45,000 hours! That's the equivalent of 22 people working full-time. If all these volunteers had been paid Oregon's minimum wage of $10.25/hour, the economic value to the community would be $461,250. And this contribution is from just a fraction of the Applegate Valley groups that rely on volunteers to carry out missions that make our valley a better place. e actual hours volunteered— and value to our community—are much higher. What do Applegate Valley volunteers do? Fight fires and save lives. Maintain parks and trails for hiking, bicycle riding, and horseback riding on our public lands. Raise funds to support our libraries, fire department, and schools. Serve on the boards and committees of nonprofit organizations doing administrative work, public outreach, and fundraising. Preserve historic sites and restore damaged ecosystems around the valley. And much more! Some help produce the Applegater that you're reading. Imagine what life here would be like if no one volunteered, if no one did this work. e two most prominent reasons some people don't volunteer are that they don't know about opportunities and nobody asks them. New volunteer service If you're willing and able to volunteer but haven't because you don't know where to go and haven't been invited, that's about to change. is fall the Applegate Valley Connect website will launch a matchmaking service of sorts—organizations seeking volunteers and volunteers seeking organizations. Look for it at applegateconnect.org. e many Applegate Valley organizations that rely on volunteers could definitely use your help! Jim Reiland jim@manyhandsbuilders.com Volunteering in the Applegate BY JIM REILAND A recent networking event was organized by A Greater Applegate for Applegate Valley nonprofit organizations, which rely on volunteers. Young boy knew how to beat the heat at the Golden Jubilee! Photo: Kirk McKenzie.

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