By Lydia Ivanovic, Rural Economic Resilience Analyst, Columbia-Pacific Economic Development District
Last year a friend and I drove 3,000 miles from New York to Oregon. It was my intention to return back to my home in Queens but, as you may have already guessed, I ditched my return flight when I accepted the opportunity to serve as a RARE member in the Klamath Basin.
I spent a year at Discover Klamath working as a Rural Tourism Coordinator, building agritourism activities in the area, designing cultural heritage programs, and exploring the future of sustainable outdoor recreation (yes, you can do your part while kayaking!). After my year was up, I traded the beloved dramatic high desert landscape of my Oregon-California border life to embrace the sweeping, stormy range of the North Coast and take on my second year of RARE as a Rural Economic Recovery Analyst. Now in Astoria, I can see Washington from my front porch.
When I tell people of my path of arrival to the North Coast (Queens to Klamath to Clatsop County), they are surprised to hear the amount of travel and change that it took for me to arrive here. But for me, that’s one of my favorite things about serving as a RARE member; the opportunity to explore not only yourself, as an organizer, advocate, adventurer, but also as a rural Oregonian, staying curious about all the different communities that define the state’s rural landscape. Now living in Astoria, everything seems different. Where the humble potato reigns supreme in the Klamath food scene, fish and chips are practically mandatory on every north coast menu. Instead of forests dense with wild sagebrush, I now wake up to an endless coastline. Despite the things that distinguished the North Coast fishing communities from the Southern Oregon ranching families, the resilient, close-knit core of rural living remains quite the same. This familiarity of small town collaboration, politics, and yes, gossip, made me feel ready to join my new North Coast home and tackle the projects at the Port of Astoria and jump into the region’s ever evolving regional food system initiatives with ease. It’s not uncommon that your welcome into your new rural community will include a feature on the local newspaper front page!
I started my new service year with Columbia-Pacific EDD at the height of the wild fire season which ultimately burned over 1 million acres. While visiting Portland, I soon found myself stranded (but supported) as the air quality ticked higher with every hour, unable to return to Klamath Falls as a wall of growing fires closed major highways. When conditions began to clear in northern Oregon, I headed over to my new home in Astoria with the small duffle bag of clothes I had on hand and the promise of a new experience. I still have yet to return to Klamath Falls and give those parting goodbyes I promised to friends and coworkers. But, isn’t that what serving rural is all about? Knowing how to put things in perspective, how to work with what you’ve got, and how to make those hard calls to pursue your next adventure or next dream. But more than anything serving rural means building relationships where “goodbye” sounds a lot like “see you later”.
About the author, Lydia Ivanovic: After graduating Smith College in 2019 with a bachelors degree in Economics and experience working on campus food network initiatives, Lydia moved out west via cross-country road trip to serve with RARE as a Rural Tourism Coordinator with Discover Klamath in Klamath Falls, Oregon. While working she tackled numerous regional tourism projects spanning the realms of outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, and agritourism. After exploring the southern Oregon high-desert wonders of the Klamath Basin, Lydia again sought an entirely new adventure: the most Northwest corner of Oregon. Swapping an average of 340 days of sunshine a year for dense temperate rainforests, Lydia is excited to bring her skills in regional coalition building, developing local food system education and programming, and strategic planning to her work as a Rural Economic Recovery Analyst in her new Clatsop and Tillamook Communities. When logged off, Lydia enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and playing the saxophone.
Interested in gaining community and economic development or food system experience of your own? Are you looking for a life changing experience in rural Oregon? Learn more about serving with the RARE AmeriCorps Program. Applications for Year 28 (2021-22) due April 23, 2021 by 5pm PDT.