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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2025)
Applegater Winter 2025 21 A Greater Applegate wraps up the year BY MEGAN FEHRMAN A Greater Applegate (AGA) has a lot to report on the Holiday and Arts theme this month! The Applegate Artists Working Group displayed wares at wineries during the spring Uncorked event and at lavender farms for the Lavender Festival in June and July. They also worked with the Grants Pass Museum of Art for a west-side Applegate location for this year’s Art in the Garden and rounded out the Jacksaphine Count(r)y Fair with Art in the Vineyard at Wooldridge Creek Winery. Applegate Artists will be closing out the year at AGA’s Applegate Love: Online Holiday Auction, featuring handcrafted ornaments, goody baskets from local businesses, and uniquely Applegate experiences offered by local folks. Check out agreaterapplegate.org and other social media channels in early December to get in on the bidding! It is a great way to do some holiday shopping and support AGA’s end-of-year fundraising efforts. The auction will go live on Giving Tuesday (December 2) and end on December 14. If you are interested in participating with the Applegate Artists group, contact jb@agreaterapplegate.org. The group convenes on the second Monday of every month from noon-1:30 pm at the AGA Office in Ruch or via Zoom. T h e AV ( A p p l e g a t e Va l l e y ) Business Network will be hosting a Holiday Happy Hour on Thursday, December 11, from 5-7 pm at the Lindsay Lodge for guests to gather, celebrate, and network with other Applegate business owners, old friends, and people new to the valley. Light bites will be provided, and drinks will be available for purchase. Please join us at this most wonderful time of the year to reflect on 2025 and connect to events of 2026. You will also have a chance to network with our new Business Network Manager, Jeff Haas, and share your thoughts on doing business in the Applegate. Alison Sexauer, AGA’s Board President and the Executive Director of Rogue Valley Food System Network, distributing local produce from Blue Fox Farm at the Ruch Food Pantry. Photo by Megan Fehrman. As much as we have to celebrate, those of us working in the community also recognize that this year has been challenging for many. We are bracing for what happens when hundreds of our neighboring households have delayed or reduced SNAP benefits this winter. Since 2020, A Greater Applegate’s Farm to Food Pantry program has delivered over $50,000 worth of local produce and ground beef to our emergency food pantries in Ruch and Williams. Anticipating increased need and a heavier load at the pantries, we will continue this work for as long as we can. Despite the challenges facing rural communities and an ever-changing landscape for nonprofit work, AGA stands on a foundation of strong connections, community leadership, the “can-do” attitude of rural culture, and exciting programs and projects guided by the Applegate Valley Vision that so many of you helped create. If ever there was a time to jump in with your community, it’s now. Rural America makes up 97 percent of US land area and contributes $2 trillion to the US economy, yet it receives only 7 percent of philanthropic Jb Palasini, the Applegate Artists Working Group coordinator and an artist herself, shares a booth with metal dollars and is getting hit hard worker Kris Albro at Uncorked. Photo by Rachael Martin. by federal spending cuts. It’s time to rethink how we invest in rural communities. You have an opportunity here, in the Applegate Valley, to join the organizations that make up our social fabric and focus on strengthening connections and building all the kinds of capital available to us. Are you looking for a meaningful way to support the economic, social, and environmental vitality of our community? A Greater Applegate is looking for board members who bring fresh perspectives, lived experience, and strategic insight to help us sustain and evolve our impact. Please contact our office to learn more about this opportunity. We are also, as always, accepting donations to help support our work, like the Farm to Food Pantry program, the Applegate Evening Market, Resilience Hubs, WanderApplegate.com, and the new Applegate Listserv that is humbly trying to fill the void left by Jo’s List’s disappearance. If you miss Jo’s List and want to be part of Applegate Listserv, go to applegateconnect. org/listserv to sign up. You might be surprised how small an organization we really are: eight part- time staff and a budget of less than half a million dollars. We achieve far beyond our size because we believe in the power and promise of the rural community. That belief enables us to accomplish quite a lot for the Applegate Valley. And with your help, we can do even more. Megan Fehrman (and the rest of the AGA Team) 541-702-2108 info@agreaterapplegate.org ■ SISKIYOU FIELD INSTITUTE Continued from page 17. adjacent to Deer Creek. The timber placed in the tributary helps slow the flow of water and create habitat for spawning fish, including the coho and Chinook salmon that have been found in Deer Creek. The slowing of water through this tributary will also be a step toward restoring this area to its original state of marshland. The undercutting of the current will erode root balls of invasive surrounding blackberries, which will hopefully soon be replaced with native flora. We here at the Siskiyou Field Institute are very excited to observe this tributary as the winter rains come to the Illinois Valley and flood the meadow, helping restore the land to its natural marshland and, we hope, fill it with native wildlife! Aliyah Zweig Outreach/Marketing Coordinator & Education Assistant Siskiyou Field Institute outreach@thesfi.org OCA 0 A Serving the Valley I Love! Evelyn Winningham Licensed Principal Broker evelyn@ramsayrealty.com 541-951-7055 Lic#200805101 Ramsay :!tYb, ffl Jacksonville Experts www.ramsayrealty.com Outdoor school students exploring serpentine soil during a geobotany class at Siskiyou Field Institute. Photo by Hannah Borgerson.
