EIZER times
$1.00/ ISSUE
Volume 42 • No. 38
JULY 9, 2021
A shot in the heart
By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes
C
ortney Clendening didn’t plan on delivering snacks
and water via wagon to homeless residents
in downtown Salem last December.
“ARCHES needed volunteers for the
day center and that’s why I went, but they
had three staff members in quarantine so
they sent me out with outreach workers,”
Clendening said. “I asked a zillion ques-
tions and had the opportunity to connect
with people. When you have the chance
to wrap a scarf around the neck of some-
one who is cold … it hit me right in the
heart.”
She went back the following week and
volunteered again, in Cascades Gateway
Park after the banks of the Willamette
River swelled and took with it the posses-
sions of some camped by the river.
Clendening returned to ARCHES
the following day and assisted in a hotel
where some of those who had been
fl ooded out were staying.
“By the end of the day, I had a list
of all these things that were needed:
shoes, socks, underwear, clothes. I put
out a call on Facebook and things just
started showing up at my door,” she said.
“There’s now whole spaces in my house
that are clothes and other items waiting
to be sorted.”
Volunteer
gig becomes
a calling
for Keizer
teacher
Cortney Clendening visited a day center for unsheltered residents expecting a one-day gig as a volunteer, it turned into a mission.
Photo by ERIC A. HOWALD of Keizertimes
NEWSTAND PRICE: $1.00/ ISSUE
SUBSCRIBER ADDRESS :
Unparalleled
By BROOKLYN FLINT
Of the Keizertimes
The 45th Parallel Playwrights
expected to work on their original plays
for a year. Two years later, their work
will fi nally debut at the Keizer Cultural
Center.
Lynn Millar moved to Salem from
California three years ago and started
looking for a playwright group to help
improve her writing.
“I went to the Saturday Market and
walked up to the Salem Theater Network
table and asked, do you have a playwrit-
ing group? He said, no. And I said, well,
let's start one,” Millar said.
The man working at the Salem
Theater Network table then gave Millar
emails of people that he knew were also
interested in joining the group. Soon
after, the Keizer Homegrown Theater
off ered a space for their meetings.
The 45th Parallel Playwrights will be
hosting free showcases of all the writers’
works on July 18 at 3 and 6:30 p.m. in the
Keizer Cultural Center. The production
See HEART, page A8
Playwrights debuting
work at cultural center
Members of the 45th Parallel playwrights mug for the camera at a recent meeting.
Photo by ERIC A. HOWALD of Keizertimes
is titled Eight Unparalleled Plays.
The group started meeting in person
once a month in 2019 but switched to
online meetings twice a month due to
COVID. In the future, Millar hopes to do
a meeting online and then one meeting
in person every month, although she is
unsure when that change will be made.
Each meeting, members will bring sev-
eral copies of their work depending on
how many roles are in their play, Millar
said. The other members will read out the
play so that the author can hear the words
of the characters and make adjustments if
needed.
See PLAYWRIGHTS, page A11