By Steve Ritchie In 1996, the Silverton High School Alumni Association decided to award its first scholarship. Association founder and longtime secretary Mason Branstetter, SHS ‘63, recalled it was a quite humble beginning. “Given the fact that we only had $900, we thought that we could only give out $50,” Branstetter said. “We established a policy of putting our emphasis […]
By Steve Ritchie Post-election tension and conflicts have crept into schools in many places around the country, but school administrators and students in the Mount Angel School District say there have been no school-related issues to Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory Nov. 8. Students in Mount Angel’s three public schools are more than 50 percent Latino. Some children and families […]
By Steve Ritchie A common perception is that change gets harder as one grows older. Silverton artist Jane Castelan Buccola is a notable exception to that stereotype. Her growth as an artist has led to a major success in her painting career. Castelan Buccola’s painting, Letting Go, was accepted earlier this year by the Pastel Society of America for the […]
By Steve Ritchie Concern about lead in drinking water has spread from Flint, Mich. across the country over the past few months, and is now hitting closer to home with new revelations about high levels of lead in the water at several Portland schools. The question for local residents is obvious: What about the quality of water in Silverton? Steve […]
By Steve Ritchie How does a small school district retain students and teachers, meet students’ needs and provide a first-class education? With the help of a Department of Education School District Collaboration grant, the Mt. Angel School District is addressing these challenges. The district received $127,000 this year, and will get about $100,000 for 2016-17. Jasmine Winslow serves half-time as […]
By Steve Ritchie Jen Krug was closing in on her AA degree in computer science at Clark College when she decided to take an athletic training class. Though she had only one quarter of coursework left, Krug knew right away she wasn’t going into computer science after all. “I threw that all out the window and knew I was going […]
By Steve Ritchie Dr. John Strother is heading to Boston for the Boston Marathon on April 18. It will be his seventh time to run Boston and his “30th or 31st” marathon overall. A dedicated runner since he moved to Oregon for his residency in 2000, Strother, 42, says his distance running regimen enhances his life and work. “I have […]
By Steve Ritchie Driving to the remote Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica would not be easy, I suspected, but I tend to be an optimist when it comes to travel. My wife, Susan, and I had a 4-wheel drive vehicle – a Hyundai Tucson to be precise – and a road map. The map showed that Carate, a tiny […]
By Steve Ritchie The Fr. Bernard Youth Center in Mount Angel has reached two major milestones already in 2016: 10 years of hosting youth and young adult retreats and serving a total of 20,000 young people. FBYC Director Don Robison said the center’s decade-long journey to provide a place for retreats, prayer, and personal and spiritual growth has been, at […]
By Steve Ritchie Being self-employed has its advantages. For Mount Angel farmer Ray Eder, one of the most important things about being his own boss is that it allows him the freedom to lend a hand in his community whenever it needs to be done. Eder, who is being honored by the Mount Angel Chamber of Commerce with the 2015 […]
Oregon Garden’s Gift The Oregon Garden and Resort are celebrating the Business of the Year Award and thanking Silverton residents for their support by offering discounts during February. Silverton residents will receive 50 percent off admission to the Garden and 25 percent off food and beverages in the Fireside Lounge at the Oregon Garden Resort (excluding Feb. 12-14 in the […]
By Steve Ritchie Even as the number of visitors to Oregon state parks swells, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) is finding new ways to reach out to the public. The latest example of this outreach is a partnership between OPRD and KUNP, a Spanish language television channel affiliated with Univision which is carried on Portland, Vancouver, Salem and […]
By Steve Ritchie Sipping homemade chai tea and munching on a homegrown persimmon on a beautiful fall morning, Silverton doula, childbirth educator and author Judy Gabriel reflected on a question about her work of the past two decades. “Being a doula is hard,” Gabriel said. “I did 400-some births as a volunteer and there were days and even weeks of […]
By Steve Ritchie Michael Traeger didn’t hit bottom when he was expelled from Silverton High School. Or when his father, Mike, died in a tragic car accident just before Michael’s 18th birthday. Hitting bottom happened some years later, when Michael was 23. He was living out of his backpack in Salem, with no money and no place to sleep. He […]
By Steve Ritchie Only in cross country can a coach lose his team before the race even starts. For the last 15 years, my Kennedy High School team has joined 80 or 90 other teams at the Seaside Three Course Challenge. Held at sprawling Camp Rilea, each of the six races puts 300, 400 or even 500 runners on the […]
By Steve Ritchie When you walk into the Silver Falls Country Store, it feels like you are stepping back a few decades. If you linger, that feeling grows. The scuffed wood floors, rustic beer coolers, eclectic merchandise and friendly faces are like a living history roadside stop. First impression: this small store at 172 Silver Falls Drive – about five […]
By Steve Ritchie Beijing, China – It always shocks me how quickly you can jump in an automobile and leave a gigantic metropolis behind. Even sprawling Beijing with its 21 million people can be rather quickly exited. During the nine days of the World Track & Field Championships at the Birds Nest Stadium, I made it to all of the […]
By Steve Ritchie My trip to China to cover the Track & Field World Championships this summer started with another, shorter trip. After waiting for months to hear about my media credential for the biennial championships, I finally received an email from the Local Organizing Committee in Beijing. I needed to gather about 10 documents, and go in person to […]
Fun runs on the schedule: Register at racenorthwest.com unless otherwise noted. May 9: Silverton Health Fun Run May 30: Run for the Hills June 6: Silver Falls Challenge, June 27: Pajama Rama pajamarama5k.com Aug. 9: Homer’s Classic Sept. 19: Oktoberfest Road Race By Steve Ritchie As the days get longer, many of us feel a stronger urge to exercise outside. […]
By Steve Ritchie The Borland Gallery was packed with local art lovers on March 6 for the First Friday opening of an exhibition of representational paintings and drawings by local artists Ulan Moore, Helen Bouchard and Brian Sheridan. The walls of the small gallery space were covered “salon-style” – floor to ceiling – with dozens of drawings and paintings by […]
By Steve Ritchie Momentum is building for the citizen volunteer-driven effort to make Silverton a “Bicycle Friendly Community.” At its meeting on Jan. 5, the Silverton City Council voted to accept the “Silverton Bike Report” and approved beginning the application process to obtain “Bicycle Friendly Community” designation, which is awarded to qualifying cities and towns around the country by the […]
By Steve Ritchie Like millions of other avid American soccer fans, John and Hilary Cornwell watched the recent U.S. vs. Portugal World Cup match on the edge of their seats. Unlike most of the rest of us, though, the Cornwells were in the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil that day, watching in person with 40,121 other fans. “I’ve never […]
By Steve Ritchie Drop by the Kennedy High School track on a spring afternoon, and you’ll see a hub of activity with nearly 100 high school and middle school athletes sprinting, jogging, and practicing jumps and throws. It’s an idyllic, maybe even inspiring, scene for parents and community members who like to see young people being active. However, without the […]
By Steve Ritchie Silverton is well-known for a host of special attributes. The welcome sign announces “Gateway to Silver Falls” and “Oregon’s Garden City.” Silverton also can boast about being the Christmas tree capital on our civic resume, as well as about its First Fridays, thriving art community, unique set of festivals, and picturesque downtown. Silverton might be on the […]
By Steve Ritchie 2013 Mount Angel First Citizen Dick Hoffer’s philosophy of community service is characteristic of the man himself: succinct, full of common sense and straight to the point. When asked why he chose to run for the Mount Angel School Board in 1990, Hoffer said, “It was get involved or go to the back of the bus. You […]
