Debt Forgiveness and License Restoration

Good news!

The Governor issued an order in December 2022 to forgive all fines associated with minor traffic violations for about 7,000 Oregonians. The Governor’s order tells courts across the state to wipe the debts off the books and notify the Oregon DMV that any suspension related to the debt should be lifted. To learn more about the order and how to get your license back, check out this 5-minute video by the Oregon Law Center! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udWyVeH4A4A

If you lost your license in the fire, you could replace it by following the instructions here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udWyVeH4A4A

If you missed the previous webinar we posted and are interested in attending it, the Oregon Law Center will be hosting another webinar!

- Thursday, February 23, from 12-1 pm

- Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/899dbw6p

Our Team Celebration!

Our team was finally able to get together to celebrate 2022! Getting together in person was very important to our team, so we waited until most of us could get together to celebrate a year of hard work and great accomplishments.

We are excited about what 2023 is bringing!

Our team:

Doug Fairrington

Lacey Joy

Lucy Zammarelli

Mandy Jones 

Devin Thompson

Marilyn Cross

Randy Dersham

Mary Ellen Wheeler

Dale Turnley

Nancy Winniford Ashley

Lisa Moeller

Matt Penberthy

Nelda Engstrom

Shelly Pruitt

Carlyn Younglove

Lane Thompkins (not pictured)

Jared Pruch (not pictured) 

Help us thank every single one of these wonderful, hard-working people!

Check out the photo of the team on our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn!

Happy Holidays!

Read our latest newsletter here!

Resilience & Reconnection in Stressful Times

There will be a free workshop for those working or volunteering in the McKenzie Valley, to assist with all the stresses that arise as they serve those recovering from the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Thank you to generous funding from the United Way and MVLTRG, there is no charge. This will be an initial workshop to cover the basics of staying strong and resilient, and there will be follow-up opportunities in December. Sign up here!

A Workshop with Elaine Walters from the Trauma Healing Project

McKenzie Valley Workers and Volunteers Invited!

Wednesday November 30th at 3 - 6PM on Zoom

To register go to https://healingattention.org/registration_mvworkers

This interactive workshop is for essential workers, educators, front line staff,

volunteers, managers and others interested in ensuring healthy workplaces

and worker resiliency. Participants will gain concrete skills and strategies to

use personally and with others to help mitigate some of the stress from the

Holiday Farm Fire currently impacting so many of us in our organizations and

communities. Come learn about (and practice) healthy coping, stressreduction

and emotional regulation approaches and strategies.

Certificates of Completion provided. Please register to receive the zoom link.

This project is sponsored by United Way of Lane County and the

McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG)

For more information, contact:

Lucy Zammarelli at 541-520-4702 (text or call)

lucy.zammarelli@lanecountyor.gov

My Oregon News: “Rebuilding From Wildfire”

Read this whole article on My Oregon News here!

BY CHRISTINE DECKER ON OCTOBER 26, 2022

From the Holiday Farm Fire to the Cedar Creek Fire – it takes a community helping each other to survive, rebuild, and eventually reach well-being

Recently, the survivors of Oregon’s Holiday Farm fire recognized the two-year anniversary of that destructive force that ripped through their community destroying more than 600 homes and businesses. The Holiday Farm Fire was one of the largest fires in Oregon’s history burning more than 173,000 acres. It started Sept. 7 and raged on until Oct. 29, 2020. The communities of Blue River, Finn Rock, Nimrod, Vida and Leaburg along the McKenzie River Valley in Lane County suffered tremendous losses.   

Holiday Farm Fire. Photo courtesy of InciWeb – Incident Information System

People were traumatized, not knowing what to do or where to turn for help in either rebuilding, finding a place to live or in moving. At first there was help from organizations such as the American Red Cross, United Way, Lovefirst Disaster Relief, and the Multi-Agency Shelter Transition Team and Disaster Case Management, both Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) programs, as well as others. Then in 2021, at the request of Lane County, the McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group of Lane County (LTRG) was formed and brought additional and much needed assistance. The group is comprised of valley residents to help people rebuild and in general, to help the fire survivors with their unmet needs. And, two years later the McKenzie Valley LTRG is still working – with the help of many community groups to fill many unmet needs. Rebuilding is not done overnight.

“The McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group of Lane County took a lot of effort from many to form, but we are well recognized now thanks to a great Executive Director, Devin Thompson, and a very active Board of Directors. The LTRG is looking forward to adding staff members and expanding our role to be ready when the next disaster hits,” Nelda Engstrom, program director, said. And if there is a tiny sliver of a silver lining, it was because of the Holiday Farm Fire that this group formed and was adept at jumping in and helping in this year’s Cedar Creek Fire in Lane County.

Engstrom recently visited the Oakridge Fire Department. She was looking at all the maps of the Cedar Creek Fire. It’s estimated that this fire, which started Aug. 1, is burning on more than 122,00 acres as of Oct. 10.

Cedar Creek Fire

“An important relationship formed out of the Holiday Farm Fire. After a disaster there needs to be a long-term recovery group helping survivors.  The McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group has really become a community partner – they were immediately ready to help out with the Cedar Creek fire. Relationship building is essential for future disaster work,” Terra Ralph, Interim Regional Emergency Coordinator for the Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Resilience and Emergency Management (OREM) for Lane, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Josephine and Jackson counties.

Ralph’s Lane County team includes a ODHS Disaster Case Manager and a Shelter Liaison. There are also Disaster Case Managers on the team from Catholic Charities of Oregon and DevNW, a non-profit, which helps grow vibrant Northwest communities.  

There are still about 57 people, including children, in shelters from the Holiday Farm Fire. The team also assists survivors with accessing ODHS benefits such as food and health care coverage.

“Because of our relationship with the McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group it helped us establish trust with survivors. They’re local and they are trusted,” Ralph said.  

It takes everyone in a community to bring about well-being for individuals.  Engstrom’s group coordinates with partners in county and state governments, McKenzie schools, community-based and grassroots organizations, the businesses community and many others to rebuild a vibrant community.  

Recovery from the Holiday Farm Fire – and most likely true for all recent wildfires – is a slow process for many reasons.

Almost everybody is severely underinsured. There is a lack of builders. The cost of building materials has skyrocketed. Many people are retired and on fixed incomes and can’t afford the increased costs. The McKenzie Valley LTRG holds an ‘unmet needs roundtable’ with groups such as the Rotary District, United Way and the grassroots group Locals Helping Locals to learn what people need and to combine resources. These needs could be money, labor force or materials to help survivors rebuild their homes to be safe, sanitary and secure.

“Even if you get your house rebuilt there will be a few more things you need and you’re out of money. We help with last mile projects — gravel, electrical work, plumbing, wells, appliances, household goods and rental assistance before your house is finished. The list goes on and on,” Engstrom said.

Ralph said she finds this work at ODHS very rewarding.

“Obviously it’s hard work. But anything we can do to reduce retraumatizing people and make process easier for them. They’ve been through enough already. We just try to help people work through it,” she said.

And hopefully, little by little a community with the help of agencies, nonprofits, businesses and individuals pitching in – people, families, children, do recover and there is well-being recaptured.  

ABOUT AUTHOR

Christine Decker is a Public Affairs Specialist for the Oregon Department of Human Services. Before working in communications she was a working journalist.

No-Cost Group Counseling

The McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG) is committed to helping residents recover from the challenges presented by the 2020 wildfire. Costs are provided by grants and funding from the MVLTRG and other sources; there are no co-pays, no insurance information needed, and no reporting made—you can have confidence in your confidentiality and protected health information. Please be sure to attend any appointments you make to utilize these resources fully.

Amy is holding groups for residents on Wednesday mornings at 10AM at McKenzie Valley Presbyterian Church. (The groups are not religious, and the church is generously donating space.) The groups provide a safe space to share your story and receive support from others who have similar experiences.

Please let Amy know you are coming: Amy Hulan, LPC — call 541-740-1506 or email hulanamy7@gmail.com

In the News: Non-profit helps Holiday Farm Fire survivors return home

BLUE RIVER, Ore. -- There are all kinds of groups helping fire victims in the long road to recovery.

The McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group was established in 2021. They work with several other groups to help families with their unmet needs as they return to the community. The recently received $400,000 in American Rescue Plan funds. So far, they’ve helped 75 families, including one that had a new manufactured home, but didn’t have the money to hook up plumbing or electricity.

Devin Thompson, MLTRG’s executive director, says the first thing they do is get fire survivors in touch with a disaster case manager.

“We're helping individuals with electrical plumbing appliances, we see a really big need for appliances, even gravel,” Thompson said. “So, our mission is to try to help families become safe, secure and sanitary”

Thompson says other groups then try to fill in other gaps that insurance doesn’t cover. He also said that many supplies have increased in cost by as much as 40% since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The one thing we're finding is, there is a gap from what people received from insurance to now of approximately $140,000 just for rebuilding their homes... and up to $58,000 for household contents,” Thompson said.

Thompson says several local companies have worked with them by donating items or money to help, including Jerry’s, Kelly’s Appliances, and The Carpet Company.

By: Renee McCullough, KEZI News

Click here to see the story!

Past Disaster Victim Uses Her Experience to Help Others

Nelda Engstrom, our Program Director, knows a bit about coming back from disaster. She navigated a rebound from a natural disaster that damaged her home and business.

It is the week of the anniversary of Hurricane Ike. Ike washed ashore on her Island home of Galveston, TX, on September 13, 2008, a few days before the financial markets crashed.

While Ike didn’t have high wind speeds, it was a BIG storm that had two eyes and carried with it two large walls of water, or storm surge. The storm surge covered the island, made it into homes and businesses and rushed out again. Twice. According to Nelda, “It looked like our belongings went through a rough cycle of a washing machine, only with stinky seawater.” To make matters worse, it would be two weeks before being anyone was allowed back on the Island to see their properties. Mold and mildew set in. Everything inside was a complete loss. If something was salvageable, there was a good chance looters would get to it first. It would be months before there was water, sewer or electricity.

There were tens of thousands of homes and businesses damaged. It was questionable whether Galveston would survive. The county’s largest employer, the University of Texas Medical Branch, laid off thousands of people and had to close its hospital and most of its clinics. Many residents returned, though the island, which once boasted 75,000, would shrink to 35,000. It was hard to know whether there would be enough residents to sustain the businesses which were thriving before the storm. The schools were in peril, the infrastructure was broken, and no one outside of the Texas Coast seemed to be paying attention. They were absorbed in problems brought about by the building recession.

Little by little, Nelda said she put her head down and worked through all the barriers. There were insurance issues with the National Flood Insurance Program, The Texas Windstorm Catastrophe Pool, and her personal insurance. With three policies, there still wasn’t nearly enough money to recover what was lost.

Nevertheless, she says she “honestly feels like Ike taught her the hardest lessons.” Lessons that she benefits from today and hopes to point out to the wildfire survivors she works with. Among the lessons learned is that “stuff is just stuff,” “everything will be ok in the end, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end,” and suggests folks “just keep swimming.”

The process of disaster recovery is slow. Galveston is still repairing infrastructure fourteen years later. The population still hasn’t returned to its previous level. Despite this, Nelda’s flower shop she fought so hard to restore, was eventually sold to one of her employees and is thriving. The property she owns is standing and fully repaired. The economic engines which drive the city are back in force. The resiliency of the islanders inspires her. She says she sees that same spirit in the residents of the McKenzie Valley.

If you’d like to reach out to Nelda, you can email her at DCML@McKenzieValleyLTRG.org. She’d be glad to help you access some of the services the McKenzie Valley LTRG offers or just give you a little encouragement to keep on keeping on!

In the News: Residents gather to mark second anniversary of Holiday Farm Fire

Adam Duvernay

Register-Guard

Other wildfires have burned in Lane County since a Labor Day 2020 wind storm kicked up destructive blazes across the state, but none had the same lasting effects as the Holiday Farm.

Two years later, McKenzie Valley residents are rebuilding. But, for many of them, it's happening too slowly, or not at all.

"It's been hard. Every day just brings new challenges," said Jim Watts, who lives in a camper where his house used to be.

The Holiday Farm Fire drove thousands of people from the valley, many just a step ahead of the conflagration as they raced down Highway 126 toward temporary shelters. Hundreds of homes burned, especially in the town of Blue River that was largely reduced to ruin. The steep, wooded landscape willremain scarred and burnt for years.

Watts has lived in the McKenzie River Valley since 1974, and until two years ago, his three acres on Highway 126 had a big house, a shop and a parking structure. Now, it's just his camper there, at least for the present.

"I lost everything I ever had in my life," Watts said.

The property is still marred by ruts gouged into the ground when recovery crews dragged burned trees from a nearby forest. Those crews left behind piles of slash and wood chips he can't get rid of on his own.

No one seems ready to take responsibility for the mess, even two years later. And so much of it is still on his property, a problem Watts said he knows other landowners in the McKenzie River Valley are struggling to correct on their own.

Watts was underinsured, and the high cost of contractors and building supplies made reconstruction out of reach until Thursday, when he finally secured a contractor to rebuild his home. Now he just needs his insurance to come through.

"It's a good feeling. I'll have a home. Of course, it's going to be a few years in the making," Watts said.

Flight from fire

U.S. Forest Service investigators haven't yet said how the Holiday Farm Fire started. But like the other wildfires sparked that day that would burn altogether 1 million acres, the Holiday Farm Fire wa

It started in the evening somewhere along Highway 126 around the Holiday Farm RV Resort, from which the fire takes its name. The wildfire raced downriver, chasing residents from their homes with burning hillsides in their rearview mirrors.

"Fire was everywhere," Watts said. "There were big, big chunks of fire falling out of the sky. Fire was all over the road."

Causes of fires?:2 years later, investigations of 10 Labor Day wildfires remain unfinished

The Holiday Farm Fire grew from 37,000 acres on Sept. 8, 2020, to more than 100,000 acres 24 hours later, eventually reaching nearly 174,000 acres. It burned through the communities of Blue River, Finn Rock, Nimrod, Vida and Leaburg.

The Holiday Farm Fire killed one person, 59-year-old David Scott Perry, later found inside his burned home in Vida.

An Oregon Housing and Community Services report said 615 homes were either damaged or destroyed by the wildfire.

Most evacuees eventually landed in Eugene-Springfield, either with family and friends or sheltered in hotels. They came with little luggage, or none at all, forced to visit donation centers or spend money replacing essentials they left behind.

More than 1,400 wildfire survivors still were living in Lane County hotels and other accommodations by March 2020, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services. Even now, 59 survivors of the 2020 Labor Day Fires still are living in two Lane County hotels.

Many Holiday Farm Fire survivors eventually were able to return to homes untouched by flame, whether because they lived farther upriver or chance spared their properties. Others spent months living in trailers waiting to start rebuilding.

219 apply to rebuild homes, 77 are complete

Sharon Sheets and her husband, Curtis, finally returned to their reconstructed home on Christmas Eve last year.

The first few days of their exodus from their Vida area house had them bouncing from hotel room to hotel room before they were finally able to find some stability, more than a month later, in a hotel room reasonably close to the home they fled.

Their home burned down, but they never had any other plans than to return.

"We'd lost everything, and the only way to regain anything is to rebuild," Sheets said.

Sheets said her family was adequately insured and found copies of her home's original blueprints, which made getting a rebuild permit easier. Sheets said they also were able to quickly secure a contractor, so rebuilding progressed quickly.

She was one of the lucky ones.

"There are only a few I know that are trying to rebuild, and most of them are far behind us," Sheets said.

Lane County had received 219 applications to rebuild fire-destroyed homes in the McKenzie River Valley as of Aug. 30, according to county data. The county has issued 120 of those home permits and currently is reviewing 13 more permits.

Only 77 homes have been completed with finalized permits, according to the data. That's 20 more than in late June, but the number of newly sought permits since that time only increased by four — from 215 in late June to 219 by Aug. 30.

But many who lost homes in the Holiday Farm Fire haven't returned — or never will return — to the McKenzie River Valley.

"We lost a lot of people that decided not to rebuild, whether it was because they didn't have the proper insurance or because they thought they were too old or didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to rebuild," Sheets said.

Challenge after challenge

The McKenzie River Valley remains a patchwork recovery. There's little rental or temporary housing available. Too many people are forced commute to Eugene and Springfield. Childcare services are slim. Home builders are in short supply.

"It's crazy. You keep thinking it's going to slow down a little bit, and it just keeps getting busier," said Dale Turnley, a contractor from McKenzie Bridge and a board member of the nonprofit McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group. "Unfortunately, it's a lot of calls from people scrambling on insurance deadlines or dealing with shady contractors."

McKenzie River Valley residents who are rebuilding have had to overcome more than a few obstacles, from clearing the debris from their properties, to the ponderous, overburdened permitting process, to the ever-increasing cost of building supplies.

Turnley is an instrument of the recovery and is currently building two homes with many more on the list behind them. But he said, for contractors, there are too few builders available for hire, and for homeowners, there's still a lot of pain.

"It's finally picking up steam, but it's rather frustrating. It seems by the time we get things ironed out, there's another obstacle," Turnley said.

"There's a lot of people who are still hurting and who still have a lot of issues. It never fails, whoever you go to talk to about rebuilding a house, it's not only talking about the work, it's listening to their story."

Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch, who represents the McKenzie River Valley, said rebuilding after the fire has presented unique challenges, many of them land use issues that placed some significant barriers in front of survivors.

Though there's been success bringing people home, it's been much harder for the river valley's poorest residents. Buch said she wants to get back in front of state legislators to remind them many fire survivors still need their help.

"The one thing people fear most is that people will forget what happened up there," Buch said.

Mary Ellen Wheeler didn't lose her home, but as a founding member of the nonprofit McKenzie River Locals Helping Locals, she has been helping her neighbors and demanding government attention since before the fire was put out.

"We were the lucky ones," she said about her home. "We're two years in and still fighting for everything we can fight for to help them."

But the recovery, Wheeler said, is slow.

"We've gained some, but we have a long ways to go," Wheeler said. "We have just the slow process of getting things through the county and getting them approved. And then finding contractors, finding people who can come in and do the work, that's been really tough. We've had some people who were totally taken advantage of by the contractors."

More:Holiday Farm Fire survivors: 'Rejoicing every time a roof goes up,' but challenges persist after fire

Wheeler said McKenzie River Valley residents are resilient, and it helps they're in a place where neighbors know their neighbors.

"It's nice to see houses being put back up," Wheeler said. "But the biggest sign of hope is that we still all pull together as a community ... Everybody is still trying to work together. It's amazing what we can get done if everybody steps up."

Bearing the weight of recovery

Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District Chief Christiana Rainbow Plews was, for a time, something of a celebrity.

As the Holiday Farm Fire raged, Plews and her volunteers were fighting back. Plews own home burned while they did.

Chief Rainbow for weeks appeared in multiple articles and on cable news shows, putting a face to the fire and speaking for those pushing back against the blaze when they themselves lost everything. Two years later, she wishes she hadn't.

"Looking back on it, I wish I would have kind of just holed up with my family. That was very hard on me, to kind of bear that weight. But I was glad to be able to tell our story and focus some resources and help in our direction," Plews said.

She said, for the community, rebuilding has been arduous, confusing and long. For many, leaving was the easier choice.

Plews worries that if the McKenzie River Valley can't bring back more people, the community will suffer as young adults struggle to find places to live, school enrollments fall and the economic and social benefits of young families dry up.

"The demographics of the valley are going to be, I think, vastly different than they were," Plews said.

But Plews said she feels like she's back on her feet, and so is the Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Protection District.

"I feel like my fire department is whole again, with the exception of the station and the apparatus that are still waiting to be replaced. I feel like my volunteers are in good places. All but one or two have returned to the valley," Plews said.

It hasn't been easy, she said. Some of her volunteer firefighters were part of the initial attack when the Holiday Farm Fire broke out, some of them lost homes. Plews said her department now makes its volunteers' mental health a top priority.

"I think that has encouraged folks to work through some of the trauma and stay volunteers," Plews said. "I know I sought mental health support as a leader and a traumatized home loser ... I was really hurting and I was really broken."

More proactive work needed to prevent future blazes

Lane County Emergency Manager Patence Winningham said the Holiday Farm Fire offered key lessons for the county, many of which have been deployed during wildfires around Oakridge in 2021 and 2022. The county is working to set up evacuation plans with local fire districts, as well as improving cooperation for first responders on the initial attacks.

"Coordination and communication across the board also has come a long way across all stakeholders who have a need to know, from public information to the dispatch centers to emergency managers to the fire chiefs," Winningham said.

But there is still risk of wildfire in McKenzie Valley, and Winningham said the government can't be its sole protector.

Though fuel in the Holiday Farm Fire burn scar is largely spent, there still are pockets of living forest throughout it. And outside the burn scar, the hillsides are still densely forested and suffering extreme and protracted drought conditions.

Winningham said McKenzie Valley residents have work to do managing their properties to avoid another wildfire.

"I live three miles up from where the fire started. If you drive the corridor in McKenzie Bridge, it's what Blue River and everything down looked like two years ago," Winningham said. "Nobody has taken the action to reduce those ladder fuels ... If people had, you would see it. You would noticeably see people have reduced the fuels around their home."

Plews sees it, too. Making the river valley safe isn't easy work, but those conditions put her volunteers at risk.

"Very few people are being proactive in creating defensible space around their homes. Very few are actually doing the work to clear space around their homes in the woods to survive wildfires," Plews said. "There's a lot of fear and awareness of what the fire can do when it becomes catastrophic, but not a willingness or ability to actually do the work to prevent that."

Contact reporter Adam Duvernay at aduvernay@registerguard.com. Follow on Twitter @DuvernayOR.

In the News!

In the news! Take a listen to this great interview with Executive Director Devin Thompson.

"One recipient, McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group, will use a $400,000 grant to assist survivors of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. Executive Director Devin Thompson said the disaster, compounded by the pandemic and inflation, has made rebuilding a slow, expensive process."

Click here to listen now: https://www.klcc.org/.../lane-county-converts-3-million...

July 2022 Newsletter

Click the link below to see what we have been up to and what resources are available to our wildfire survivors!

READ NEWSLETTER HERE

Request a prayer!

Request a prayer!
Prayer boxes like this one are available for you to drop a slip of paper with your prayer request. The requests will be collected regularly, your request disseminated, and people will be praying for you!
Prayer boxes can be found on the porches of these locations:
Food pantry building behind McKenzie Bible Fellowship church, 45061 McKenzie Hwy, 1 mile west of Vida
Cascade Relief Team office in Blue River -- right across the street from where Meyer General Store used to be.
Living Water Fellowship Community Building, 52353 McKenzie Hwy, Blue River.
If you would like to put a prayer box on the porch of your organization, let us know -- we have a few more!
Hosted by the Spiritual and Emotional Care Committee of the
McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group.

Community needs assessment for wildfire survivors under way

The McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG) is launching a survey that will help service providers identify the obstacles to rebuilding and recovery faced by Holiday Farm Fire survivors.

“If we understand what people really need to help rebuild their homes and lives, we can advocate better for resources, materials and volunteers,” said the MVLTRG’s disaster case management liaison, Nelda Engstrom. “The community needs assessment is a very important step in the long-term recovery of our McKenzie Valley community.”

The survey is estimated to take most people about 20 minutes to complete. The information gathered in the survey includes where survivors were living before the fire, where they are living now, the progress they have made, and what they still need to recover.

The MVLTRG asks that survivors submit only one response per household. The first 500 households to submit a survey will receive a $10 Walmart gift card.

To participate in the survey, fire survivors can visit www.McKenzieValleyLTRG.org before January 31, 2022. In-person opportunities to take the survey will be announced after the first of the year.

Volunteers spread winter cheer in Blue River

Large wooden candy canes are freshly painted and waiting to be delivered to Blue River.

Fifty larger-than-life candy canes are being delivered to the Blue River community between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. today, Friday, December 17.

“Before the fire, the Blue River community would come together to decorate one of the large trees in town,” said McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group Board Member Sarah Koski. “This is our way of helping to bring some of the traditional cheer of the holiday season to the community while they are still working to rebuild and recover from the Holiday Farm Fire.”

The candy canes, which stand three feet tall, are the work of the McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group’s Spiritual Needs Committee, Love for Lane County, and generous community partners.

The wood was donated by Jimmy Swanson of Swanson Group Manufacturing and the candy canes were cut and painted by Camp Harlow volunteers.

“Christmas is such an important and special time for many families,” said Koski. “We are really excited to help bring some holiday cheer to Blue River.”

In addition to the candy canes, Willamette Christian Center donated Christmas lights for the community’s Phoenix sculpture and sign.

Grant funding received to support wildfire recovery

The McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG) is the recipient of two Community Rebuilding Fund grants totaling $256,850 via the Oregon Community Foundation.

The grants will help the MVLTRG to do multiple things:

• Build organizational capacity by hiring a limited number of staff, including the newly appointed executive director, who can lead recover efforts and increase the reach of the MVLTRG.

• Improve the resiliency of the materials residents can use in rebuilding by helping people to upgrade their building materials to those that are fire-resistant.

• Support enacting Firewise landscaping tactics to increase the resiliency of homes and properties, including the purchase of native, fire-resistant plants and landscaping tools and labor.

“With this grant funding, we estimate we can help up to 200 families upgrade to fire resistant building materials or put Firewise landscaping techniques into place,” said Executive Director Devin Thompson. “McKenzie Valley residents are in the unfortunate position of needing to prepare for the next fire while they rebuild from this one and every bit of support makes a difference.”

The Community Rebuilding Fund grants are a partnership between Oregon Community Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and The Ford Family Foundation. The fund was created in response to the 2020 Labor Day wildfires and will serve applicants in fire-affected communities across the state. 

Executive director hired

Devin Thompson has been selected as the executive director for the newly formed McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group. Thompson started his new position on September 1.

“We are so pleased to welcome Devin as the executive director,” said Long-Term Recovery Group Board Treasurer Marilyn Cross. “His commitment to helping the McKenzie community has been apparent since he began coordinating the Vida Relief Center for fire survivors last fall. Devin has the heart and the experience we need to help the McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group support wildfire survivors.”

The McKenzie Valley Long-Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG) is made up of representatives from faith-based, non-profit, government, business and other organizations working to assist people and families as they recover from the Holiday Farm Fire.

The executive director is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organization, including building the MVLTRG’s organizational structure, recruiting staff and volunteers, setting the priorities and creating a work plan to achieve the wildfire recovery support goals set by the governing board, representing the needs of McKenzie Valley residents to other agencies or service providers, and more.

Thompson brings extensive non-profit experience to the role. He has served as a board member for Northwest Youth Corps since 2016 and volunteered countless hours for McKenzie River Trust, Friends of Fish Lane, McKenzie Community Development Corporation and Friends of Awbrey Park. Professionally, Thompson served as a project manager and technical specialist in research and laboratory environments. He also served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1990 to 1994.

Thompson previously served as a board member on the MVLTRG; however, he stepped away from that role in order to apply for the executive director position.

Camp Noah offered healing and hope

With the generous support of donors and the hard work of the MVLTRG staff and volunteers, Camp Noah day camps were funded, organized and held free of charge at Blue River and Walterville within the McKenzie Valley for elementary aged children in August 2021. Camp Lutherwood also held a five-day, overnight Camp Noah for middle school kids. About 70 children attended these camps in total. Each was given a backpack courtesy of the Lutheran Church in Seaside which contained personal hygiene items, art supplies, craft projects and plush toys along with a note from a volunteer wishing them well. Noah and his family appeared every day at each camp with resiliency stories to tell, and a daily puppet theater show shared strategies and stress reduction tools that were easy to grasp by young minds. In Walterville, McKenzie Fire & Rescue brought in a fire truck and rescue boat for the kids to play on, with flashing lights and powerful water hoses to experience. The McKenzie River Trust offered classes on valley mammals, and the Davis Restaurant provided abundant breakfasts and lunches to everyone. Handmade blankets were also provided to all campers. Everybody had a lot of fun and loved being back in social community after a year of remote school—and while strict COVID protocols were maintained with masking and social distancing, children seemed to accept that as normal and were happy to be at camp.

Camp Noah Curriculum

Lane County and Camp Lutherwood staff and volunteers noted in their after-camp debriefing that the curriculum as adapted to the Oregon program was excellent. The camps were a lot of work to organize and had many challenges in building trust with parents and communities. Mental health professionals were present at each camp to help out when needed. Working with the school districts to build community support was a big key to success.

It is important to note that the children related to Noah when staff talked about Noah’s journey. Some campers talked about their own experiences during the past year. One commented about being “so sad for the trees that were burned”. There were conversations that “dove deep into the hearts of the children” as they told their own stories. This was especially true for children at the Blue River camp which was held in 100-degree heat and dense smoke from a nearby fire.

Camp staff commented on the importance of holding camps within the affected communities to demonstrate that others have compassion for them and their children. Yet hosting community camps took a great deal of work, and required many volunteers.  The children blossomed over the week, gaining confidence and expressing their strengths in the face of adversity.  Camp Lutherwood staff saw kids change over their five days at camp to become happy campers. They saw how much the kids loved being outdoors having fun and rebuilding their lives.

Conclusion

The Camp Noah journey, from its inception in February 2021 to the last camp held in mid-August 2021, has been an amazing story of financial and emotional outpouring of support from many people and organizations. These are folks that believed in the transformational power of outdoor camps, mental health professionals, many caring volunteers and the fantastic resources of the Camp Noah Program. Under the leadership of the MVLTRG Spirituality Committee, it is hoped that these camps are just the beginning of on-going work to help families and children affected by wildfires.

Lutheran Social Service’s Camp Noah was adapted for children who experienced loss during the Oregon wildfires of 2020. It was sponsored by the McKenzie Valley Long Term Recovery Group (MVLTRG) and collaborative partners included Lane County Health & Human Services, Camp Lutherwood of Oregon, LoveFirst Disaster Relief, and many others. Funding was provided by the Oregon Community Foundation, Oregon Synod ELCA, Eugene Rotary 5110, and United Way of Lane County. The McKenzie School District provided facilities in Blue River, and the Springfield Public Schools provided facilities in Walterville.