Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2014)
community This Place We Call Home By Scott Laird Over the years many people have tried to describe “home.” “Home is where the heart is.” “Home is whatever place you long to be.” Or, as the Talking Heads stated it in their lovely song, This Must Be the Place, “Home - is where I want to be, but I guess I’m already there.” What we consider our home has many definitions and descriptions. It can be the physical structure we reside in, the town where we live, the place we originally come from, where our family lives, or even the region of the country where we find ourselves. We often think of home as a place, designated by man-made bound- aries—a street address or a town, state or country on a map. Bio regionalists like to consider a place, not by those man-made divisions, but by the eco- logical borders that make a place unique -using rivers, mountains and basins to designate the confines of a place. In Vernonia, we find ourselves surrounded by those forests, rivers and streams, and hills and valleys—certainly a very beautiful place to call home. Home can also be an idea. One of my favorite definitions of home is, “a place where something flourishes.” Another way to think about home is to consider the people and com- munity that make up a place and make it special. As we celebrate the holiday season and the end of the year, let’s take a moment to look back at our community and the people that make this place our home: • This is place where people can put aside political and religious differences and find ways to work together. • This is a place where, when the com- munity was devastated by a flood in 2007 the people came together to focus on the recovery effort, which is just now reaching its final stages, seven years later. • This is a place that chose to tax them- selves in the middle of an economic downturn to raise $13 million to build a new school campus for the children of the community. •This is a place where those children often can’t wait to leave to go out and explore the rest of the world, (as they should) but often choose to come back when it’s time to raise their own fami- lies. • This is a place where the committee that plans an almost sixty-year tradi- tion, the annual Jamboree and Logging Show, experienced a resurgence and a new burst of energy and enthusiasm this past year from a somewhat unlikely source—a group of twenty-something young mothers, who are choosing to raise their families here. • This is a place where another of the main planners of several recent events, including Jamboree, doesn’t even live here, but still considers this her “home.” • This is a place where, when a local family, somewhat new to the communi- ty, lost everything to a fire, the commu- nity rallied to donate household items for them. The community then held a sale with the left over donated items the family couldn’t use, raising funds to help the family get back on their feet, even though they decided they needed to move away from Vernonia to restart their lives. • This is a place where workers at the electric cooperative work non-stop, though rain and flooding, through big winter snow storms, and, as we saw last week, through the windiest of weather, to restore power to all of us. • This is a place where community men- tors donate their time to help local high school seniors explore career options through their Senior Projects. • This is a place where a group, known for tooling around in beefed up four- wheel drive pick-up trucks and SUVs, are becoming even better known as a service organization with a generous community spirit and an extremely giv- ing nature. • This is a place where the local school district, battling a tight budget, depends on and receives hours of classroom and other help from community volunteers. • This is a place where local volunteers stage an old-fashioned, small town Christmas celebration, complete with storytelling, cookie baking, gingerbread house decorating, home and storefront decorating and chili cook-off december18 2014 competitions, and ends with a lighted parade—led by those community minded four-wheel enthusiasts. • This is a place where over 200 fami- lies will receive a Christmas meal from the local food bank, complete with tur- key and all the trimmings. Much of the funds and food for those meals are do- nated by local citizens, businesses and community groups. • This is a place where local firefighters will deliver donated toys for Christmas to over 200 local children. • This is a place where an elderly gentleman and his family choose to spend their Christmas day hosting an annual dinner on December 25 for anyone who needs a place to spend the holiday, and won’t accept any donations or gratuities for their effort. • This is a place where, when a local and much beloved man passes away too early, the funeral is held in the largest space available, the local school, and there still isn’t room for everyone. Our wish for you this holiday season is that you take a moment to slow down and truly appreciate this place we all call home. 3 Publisher and Managing Editor Scott Laird 503-367-0098 scott@vernoniasvoice.com Contributors Chip Bubl Tobie Finzel Karen Kain Dr. Carol McIntyre Aaron Miller Karen Miller Grant Williams Photography Karen Kain Scott Laird Want to advertise? Have an article? Contact: scott@vernoniasvoice.com One year subscriptions (24 issues) $35 Vernonia’s Voice is published on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. Vernonia’s Voice, LLC PO Box 55 Vernonia, OR 97064 503-367-0098 www.VernoniasVoice.com Season’s Greetings from your friends at Wauna Credit Union WOEC HOLIDAY HOURS Christmas Eve 8 am-Noon Christmas Day Closed New Year’s Eve 8-10 am New Year’s Day Closed Merry Christmas Barbara, Brian, Cassandra, Kinnell, Pam, & Sue 800-773-3236 waunafcu.org 1010 Bridge St. Vernonia Wishing you a Merry Christmas from All of Us at West Oregon Electric Co-op from the Vernonia Dental Team 622 Bridge Street
