by Augusta Stockman, Destination Development Coordinator, Willamette Valley Visitors Association

“Not a bad view, huh?”

All I could do was nod because of the piercing cold and hypnotic view. Stretching out in front of me were dense forests, some smoke from a couple late-season controlled burns, and the faint, but unmistakable, snow-capped peaks in the distance that never fail to stir my East Coast heart. It was legitimately a breathtaking panorama. I looked down at the steep terrain falling away from our lookout point, grateful for my two feet planted squarely on the ground and marveling at the fact that it was slated for mountain bike trail development.

I was there with another RARE member and their supervisor to get a tour of the proposed recreation site. What most delighted us was that we were getting the inside scoop from an avid mountain biker and community leader himself— who had been, not thirty minutes earlier, in a meeting with us to discuss the project. We passed him as he pedaled like a perpetual motion machine. He joked that he would see us at the top, despite our obvious transportation advantage in our rugged, all-wheel-drive vehicle, but we soon realized he was not actually joking. He looked more robot than human at that point.

I was equally star struck because several months earlier, I had been forwarded a news article to help understand the context and history around recreational developments in this part of the Willamette Valley. The article included in-depth interviews with this same community leader during his time as a county commissioner, highlighting his commitment to outdoor recreation in the face of political and often personal backlash. And now here he was, huffing and puffing like a bellows, dismounting his bike to geek out with us about what this site will mean for the community and the future of local cycling. Holding all of that together was a moment of clarity and affirmation for me.

I serve as Destination Development Coordinator with the Willamette Valley Visitor Association (WVVA), getting to tackle various projects focusing on outdoor recreation throughout the region. I have struggled at times to understand and define not only my role but that of the organization, where we fall in Oregon’s complex tourism landscape. Over and over I have been told that we CONVENE. As the regional tourism entity, we convene our local partners, letting them be the boots on the ground but filling in gaps where needed and doing strategic planning behind the scenes.

On a day-to-day basis, that looks like a lot of emails, agendas, and follow up. Sometimes I look around and worry I am not doing enough; wonder what I am adding. I don’t have daily, personal engagement with community members, I do not attend many events, and I often identify tasks just to pass them off to partners. It can feel detached, distant, and intangible. The flurry of in-person orientations and familiarization tours (“fams”) that characterized my first few months of service have trickled to a stop, and the less glamorous work is in full session. As a fresh college graduate, too, I have no basis for comparison.

What was falling into place for me that day on the mountain was a more concrete sense of what this work can actually look and feel like: what all that email correspondence can translate to on the ground. From my stellar vantage point, trying not to shiver uncontrollably, I reflected on the day. That morning I had been in a meeting room in downtown McMinnville with about a dozen community member we had identified for a different, potential new project. The meeting was the culmination of months of internal discussion, planning, and grant writing. The idea itself started long before my RARE term of service. Seeing everyone actually gathered in the room together was incredibly satisfying—so this was convening! We had successfully convened. We would convene again.

It is still one of my favorite days of service so far. I felt plugged in, engaged, gratified. I come back to it when I need a reminder that those feelings are always there, even on the days when I am just behind a desk, working through the to-do list. The pace of this work is not fast. It moves in stops and starts, and I think often of the phrase “hurry up and wait”. There are rhythms of planning, organizing, convening, and reassessing. It is not predictable, and it demands flexibility and patience. In the end it is worth it for those moments of connection, those glimpses of impact, the cold mountain air and the thrill of a project being realized.

About the author, Augusta Stockman: Augusta grew up in Mid-Coast Maine before attending Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She graduated in 2023 with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Hispanic Studies. Having lived in a small, rural, tourism-dependent town and seen firsthand the complex dynamics between visitors and locals, Augusta is driven to understand how the trends she has seen at home are playing out elsewhere. An avid runner and outdoor frolicker, Augusta is excited to experience all Oregon has to offer. She feels lucky that her RARE position allows her to get to know and learn from a wide array of communities in the state.

Interested in gaining community and economic development 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 31 (2024-25) due April 28, 2024 by 11:59pm PDT.

by Eli Heindricks, Regional Main Street Coordinator, Northeast Oregon Economic Development District

It’s amazing how different two RARE placements can be. Last year, I served my first year in the RARE program with Marion County’s Economic Development program. I was based in Salem (one of the three most populated cities in the State), working on rural broadband for agricultural communities and wildfire-impacted regions of the North Santiam Canyon. Though I lived and worked in the city’s center, the focus of my work was on the communities just beyond the reach of I-5. It’s amazing how small and remote a community can feel that’s just over 10 minutes from Oregon’s capital city.

At least, that’s what my archetype for rural was last year. Flashforward to my second year in the RARE program and I’ve discovered an entirely new (though not necessarily different) meaning of “rural.” Drive five hours East of Portland along the Oregon Trail to find a place that feels distinct from the population centers West of the Cascades. When I first took that drive through Sage-brushed desert, a stretch of the Blue Mountains cheerfully referred to as Deadman Pass, and rolling fields of grain interspersed with the occasional herd of cattle to arrive in my new placement community, I knew I was in for a drastically different experience than my first year. For starters, the welcoming committee in Salem didn’t include a black bear, munching on juniper berries alongside a winding canyon road.

During my second year, I’ve been working with the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, or NEOEDD (an acronym I still struggle to say successfully), on developing a regional Main Street program in Wallowa County. I live and work in Enterprise, OR, a small city that sits near the base of the Wallowa Mountains and at the end of that meandering drive I described. Though Enterprise is roughly the same size as my hometown in Indiana and larger than many of the communities I worked with in Marion County, it feels more remote here. Maybe it’s the fact that Wallowa County is technically “Frontier” country, meaning there are 6 or fewer people per square mile. Maybe it’s the fact that cows outnumber people 6:1. Maybe it’s the fact that the nearest Starbucks is over an hour away. In any case, I have never had the opportunity to live and work in a community as rural as Wallowa County. There’s a strong sense of community here, whether you’re meetings folks at a community cider pressing or swinging by Terminal Gravity Brewing Company for a pint. Everyone here is friendly and seemingly excited about their community. This is exactly the reason why I wanted to come here.

Wallowa County is exactly the sort of place to pilot a new approach to rural development. Regional Main Street is a new approach being developed by Oregon Main Street that seeks to help small communities that otherwise wouldn’t have the capacity to continuously operate their own traditional Main Street organization. The amount of work and funding required to run a Main Street program can be a difficult lift for rural communities. Oftentimes, rural Main Street organizations are volunteer led, at least until those volunteers experience burnout. Unfortunately, many of those organizations subsequently fall to the wayside until another Main Street champion in the community emerges sometime later, potentially years later.

A regional approach to Main Street seeks to help fix these sorts of issues. By having communities band together under the umbrella of a regional organization, rural communities have access to the resources and support provided by Oregon Main Street without needing to bare the weight of the organization entirely on their shoulders. When meeting with community members, I tend to explain it as having the regional organization deal with the nuts and bolts, or “administrative headache”, of Main Street work while leaving the placemaking and project work to the communities themselves. In the structure we’ve created here in Wallowa County, that would mean enabling a city to develop and manage a grant-funded project while leaving the grant’s reporting and invoicing to the regional program’s staff (NEOEDD and myself).

Wallowa County is the perfect place to pilot this sort of program. With one well maintained road that leads into the County, the small communities here feel separate from the rest of Oregon based on its geography. Rural here feels different than I’ve experienced before. There’s a rugged individualism here that feels earned and should be respected, whether you’re talking with a 4th generation rancher or one of the many resident writers or artists. At the same time there’s a strong sense of community that binds people together. A regional Main Street program can help these communities showcase their unique character and history. At the same time, this program can simultaneously increase the livability and economic vitality of a region many call home.

I came to Wallowa County because I wanted to experience what its like to live and work in a uniquely remote part of Oregon. As I’ve gotten situated in my new placement, there have definitely been challenging moments. However, the communities and people I have gotten to work with and the awe-inspiring beauty of this seemingly hidden region make every day worth it. It’s a small thing, but it’s been a long time since I’ve lived in a place where I can see stars within city-limits. Here in Wallowa County, the view is spectacular.

About the author, Eli Heindricks: Originally from a small town in central Indiana, Eli Heindricks is a graduate of Purdue University with degrees in Economics and Political Science. During Eli’s first year in the RARE program, he served as a Rural Broadband Specialist with Marion County Economic Development. While working on broadband, Eli’s project focused on bringing high speed, reliable internet to agricultural communities and wildfire-impacted communities in the North Santiam Canyon. When not working, you can often find Eli camping, cooking, or reading at coffee shops.

Interested in gaining community and economic development 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 30 (2023-24) due April 30, 2023 by 11:59pm PDT.