Applegaters flash donor
and volunteer spirit
BY LYN HENNION
“ We g e t g r e a t
satisfaction out of making
this a vibrant, healthy
environment,” say my
Applegate friends and
neighbors connected to
The Oregon Community
Foundation (OCF). Here
are a few of their stories.
Former resident
Priscilla Bixler wanted
her charitable giving to
be anonymous during her
lifetime; it remained so well after her
death in 2010. Now the donor behind
the original Applegate Library Fund of
OCF has been revealed.
The Bixlers had a ranch near the
Applegate Library, which Priscilla visited
regularly. She was cheerfully hooked on
books, and because of that the library
gets a significant financial boost. Her
permanently endowed fund, established
when Priscilla was in her mid-90s, has
granted $10,000 to $12,000 annually
since 2006—a total of $104,070.
Community 101 gives students an
opportunity for real-life learning through
philanthropy and volunteering. A class
gets $5,000 (from eight
quiet Applegate donors)
to award to nonprofit
groups of its choice. Kids
do research to determine
community needs and
then present the grants.
Led by teacher Jason
Straube, Ruch School has
one of the most successful
of OCF’s 50 Community
Priscilla Bixler 101 projects in the state.
2015’s Diaper Dash fun
run raised $900 in diaper donations and
$550 cash.
This year’s team includes 12 students
in grades five through eight who will
visit the Family Nurturing Center in
Medford. The $750 donated by last
year’s group upgraded the run-down
“wobblers” area with rubberized floors
and specialized toys.
Pat Gordon’s involvement as
an OCF donor is part of her “personal
affairs in order” project. Gordon learned
that a charitable gift at her death could
help causes she’s passionate about, so
she established the Pat Gordon Fund for
Public Libraries and Small Woodlands.
“Stewardship is a basic principle for
me,” says Pat. “Through education and
modeling, we can honor the earth and
the human community.”
In the 1980s Pat was an original
organizer of the effort to start a public
library and became the first librarian
at Ruch Library. She was also deeply
involved in woodlands planning efforts
during the 44 years she stewarded 80
acres in the Middle Applegate.
Priscilla Weaver has been a
volunteer grant reviewer for the Reed
and Carolee Walker Fund of OCF for
eight years. The fund supports many
organizations serving people in poverty
throughout Jackson County, including
the Applegate Food Pantry, which
distributes food boxes weekly in Ruch.
“Serving as a reviewer is one of the
most satisfying volunteer efforts I’ve ever
made,” says Priscilla. “We’re able to dig
into grant applications and provide OCF
staff with detailed analysis of nonprofits
and their projects.”
Matt and Donna Epstein have
been involved in giving and volunteering
for two decades. Matt served on the
Walker Fund Advisory Committee
and as a grant evaluator. The Epsteins
founded and managed the Applegate
Food Pantry for 14 years. Now Matt
works with Ruch School on special
projects, volunteers as a SMART reader,
and serves on the Applegate Fire District
Budget Committee.
“We want to help rural students
get expanded learning opportunities and
assist people who have trouble meeting
their basic needs,” Matt says.
Attorney Alissa Weaver lives
Photo, top left: Priscilla
Weaver and Matt Epstein.
Photo: Marilyn Hawkins.
Photo, bottom, from left to
right: Tom Carstens, OCF
donor relations officer
Heidi Binder, and
Kathy Carstens. Photo:
Cristina Sanz, OCF.
Ruch School students at the
Community 101 2015 Diaper Dash.
Photo: Dawn Roelke.
Community education
at White Oak Farm
BY TAYLOR STARR
Nestled in a quiet corner of the
Williams valley, White Oak Farm &
Education Center is a working organic
farm and sustainable-living education
center. The farm was established as a
nonprofit organization in 2002 with
the help of the Equity Trust, a national
land trust. For the past 13 years, staff
and volunteers have spent their time
managing the gardens, fields, and
forests, hosting local school groups,
holding preschool and summer camps for
children, and teaching adult workshops
on subjects ranging from natural building
to ecological forestry. We are blessed with
a great teaching farm with three acres of
organic gardens, pastures, an orchard
of over 40 fruit-tree varieties, diverse
perennial plantings, extensive woods
for hiking, and a straw-bale farmhouse.
The farm is also home to flocks of
chickens and turkeys, a small herd of
goats and sheep, and many thousands
of honeybees.
This season, in addition to
our many children’s events, we are also
developing an expanded adult education
program. Our goal is to offer a diverse
Applegater Spring 2016
set of community education classes that
help Applegate residents both new and
old develop and care for homesteads
large and small. One of the great things
about life in the Applegate is how folks
from different backgrounds can connect
around our mutual desire to be self-
reliant and take care of many of our most
basic needs locally. Many of us strive to
grow our own food, raise our own meat,
and build our own homes, to name just
a few. Our class series aims to support
folks with knowledge, techniques, and
tricks to make our homesteads more
sustainable, productive, and beautiful.
Classes will range from half-day forays
into herbal medicine-making (March
5), perennial plant care (April 16),
and fermentation (May 7), to a two-
week Permaculture Design Course
(PDC) from March 18 through April
1. This course will offer participants
the opportunity to dive deeply into the
theories and practices of permaculture,
a comprehensive system of agricultural
and social design principles centered
around simulating or directly utilizing
the patterns and features observed in
23
near Logtown Cemetery and chairs the
Walker Fund Advisory Committee.
Much of Alissa’s legal work involves
juvenile dependency cases, and clients
receive services from the organizations
the fund supports, such as St. Vincent
de Paul, the Family Nurturing Center,
and Goodwill.
With specialized skills and her
observations of social service agencies
from her clients’ perspectives, Alissa got
involved with OCF because she wanted
to know how nonprofits work best.
“There’s a unique Applegate vibe,
and people are good at taking care of their
own,” says Alissa. “We’re here because of
conscious decisions, and I believe that
makes our community involvement
efforts more intentional, too.”
Tom and Kathy Carstens have
been involved with charitable giving
since they moved to the Applegate in
2004. Recently, they established a new
Donor Advised Fund.
“Donors can give advice on where to
direct their resources,” Kathy emphasizes.
“We work through OCF to avoid
reinventing the wheel.”
Tom has been a volunteer with The
Nature Conservancy, Applegate Fire
District, Britt Festivals, Applegate Trails
Association, the Applegater, the Greater
Applegate Community Development
Corporation, Cantrall Buckley Park
Committee, and Northwest Rafting
Association. Kathy supports Britt
Festivals, CATS, Sanctuary One, and
Art in the Garden in Grants Pass.
“We give because we love it here,”
Tom says. “I’ve moved around a lot,
and this is the first real taste I’ve had of
community.”
Lyn Hennion
The Oregon Community Foundation
baroness@buncom.org
Lyn Hennion lives at Buncom. She serves
on OCF’s Southern Oregon Leadership
Council and is a past member of the
statewide board of directors. Visit www.
oregoncf.org for more information on OCF.
natural ecosystems. With
joining us from all over
permaculture, challenges
the country to see what is
such as drought, pests,
happening right here in
and labor shortages
the Applegate!
can often be addressed
Our broad vision
through thoughtfully
for our community
designed systems.
education program
Our PDC is titled
is to help further the
“ Pe r m a c u l t u r e i n
growing movement
Action!” Lectures, slide
in southern Oregon
shows, discussions, hands-
toward self-sufficiency
on projects, tours, and
and sustainability. Our
student design projects
Participants in a fermentation region is famous for many
workshop at White Oak Farm. things. Working together,
will seek to highlight
ways to incorporate
let’s make learning how to
permaculture principles into practical live well on the land one of them.
sustainable living. Our teaching
For the many new residents of our
philosophy focuses on providing students beautiful valley (as well as long-time
with the principles, techniques, and skills Applegaters), we invite you to come
needed to actually create homesteads, out to the farm this spring. Join us for
farms, businesses, and lifestyles that are a class, sign up your child for preschool
functional, profitable, and sustainable. or summer farm camp, or just stop in
In addition to the White Oak site, and say “hi” at the Williams Farmers’
we will also tour an organic herbal Market on Mondays at the Williams
medicine farm, an organic bakery and Grange from 4 to 6:30 pm starting
permaculture community, and a working in May. You can also check out our
permaculture seed farm. Southern website at www.whiteoakfarmcsa.org
Oregon is a hub of the permaculture, for more information on the farm and
natural building, herbal medicine, and all our programs, or email us at info@
organic seed movements, and as such whiteoakfarmcsa.org.
is an incredible place to see functional
Taylor Starr, Director
established examples of “permaculture White Oak Farm & Education Center
in action.” Just think, people will be
info@whiteoakfarmcsa.org
