PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 16, 2021
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LIVE MUSIC
THIS WEEKEND!
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Debra Flowers had custom T-shirts made announcing her proud stance on COVID-19
vaccination and is hoping to get more supporters on board. " The shirt gets a lot of positive
response," she said.
Photo by ERIC A. HOWALD of Keizertimes
BEER, WINE & SPIRITS BY
GATES OPEN 5:00 pm
SHOWS START 6:30 pm
Spreading the word
- via T-shirt
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Debra Flowers just wants to help the
world smile again. She hopes a cheery,
tie-dye T-shirt announcing her vacci-
nated status moves the needle.
“I mean, it’s tie-dye. How can you not
smile at a shirt that has everyone’s favor-
ite color on it,” Flowers said.
Flowers’ father was a lifer in the U.S.
Navy and vaccinations were a required
part of growing up in a military fam-
ily. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit,
Flowers did her best to shelter herself
against infection and never had any
doubt she would be vaccinated when the
time came.
“The shirt gets a lot of positive
response, especially from some of the
younger people who live in my apart-
ment complex,” she said. Flowers gifted
one of the shirts to a student as a way to
reward a decision she sees as a positive.
Some others turn their nose up when
they spot her shirt, but Flowers remains
undeterred.
When inspiration struck, Flowers was
thinking not only of her father’s military
career, but also her grandmothers.
“One of them was a quilter and
the other was a nurse. The tie-dye felt
inspired by the colors one grandmother
worked with and being vaccinated felt
like I was pulling from the other,” she
said.
Flowers had hoped to get local fi rst
responders – fi refi ghters especially – to
take part in her campaign, but even that
turned out to be too political. She even
reached out to the Oregon National
Guard given their signifi cant role in dis-
tributing the vaccine, but the answer was
still no.
“It’s disappointing, but I’m still hope-
ful about fi nding someplace else to help
me spread the message,” she said.
At the end of that day, she’s proud
of her decision to be vaccinated and
mainly wants to help move the commu-
nity as a whole onto a less divisive space
and time.
“I try to have a sense of humor about
the whole thing, but I don’t know how
something medical became political,”
Flowers said.
Please no outside food or beverages. NO PETS allowed inside the amphitheater.
SPONSORS
Willamette Valley Bank • Keizertimes • R Bauer Insurance
Rasmussen Spray Service • City of Keizer • UPS Store
Rich Duncan Construction • Salem Electric
Highway Fuel • Walsh & Associates • Santiam Brewing
Focus Consulting • KSLM 104.3 FM • Keizer Vision Source
JC’s Pizzaria • Brown Insurance • Columbia Bank
Dana Schell Principal Broker @ HomeSmart Realty Group in Keizer
FOR MORE INFO • 503- 910 -3232 • KRAORG.COM •
Curtains fall on KHT's
Shakespeare Abridged
It's the fi nal weekend to catch Keizer
Homegrown Theatre's production of The
Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare
(Abridged).
The fi nal shows are Friday, July 16,
and Saturday, July 17, at 7 p.m. each night.
Tickets are $15 but admission is free
with a presented Oregon Trail Card.
Season tickets purchased in 2020 will be
honored for this show.
Seating is limited for the show. Visit
keizerhomegrowntheatre.org to pur-
chase tickets.
Three actors run through parodies
of all 37 Shakespeare plays at a blister-
ing rate. Titus Andronicus is presented
as a cooking show. Other shows that get
skewered include Othello, Romeo and
Juliet and Julius Caesar.