By Brenna Wiegand Every Wednesday a small group of women at Silverton United Methodist Church meet to provide extra goodies for the kids of families served by Silverton Area Community Aid. The church’s Friends Helping Friends, also known as the Snack Sack People, have decorated, filled and delivered some 35,000 bags to SACA since its inception in 2011. “A group […]
By Brenna Wiegand As he considered retirement, Bill Schiedler, founder of Gardenripe Produce in Silverton, hated the thought of closing the business he’d nurtured for 23 years. The answer came unexpectedly in the form of Melissa Pylipow, one of many WWOOFers in the program known as Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. In it, farmers open their land to people who […]
By Brenna Wiegand When the seniors at Silverton High School in Silverton, presented their post-graduation plans to underclassmen, it was obvious that career paths are all over the map. Some students will go from high school to work while others pursue a trade. In many cases, students decide that their goals will require attending a two- or four-year college. “There […]
By Brenna Wiegand When Legacy Health affiliated with Silverton Hospital seven years ago, the health care company committed to making significant improvements toward optimizing the medical center’s ability to provide top-notch health care for Silverton and the surrounding area, including a $58 million investment into the medical center over the next several years. Until now those dollars have been spent […]
By Brenna Wiegand Meg Feicht – better known as Teacher Meg to generations of kids and their families – was bestowed the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Service Award for 2022 at its First Citizens Awards Gala on Feb. 25. Feicht began leading classes focusing on kids and families nearly 25 years ago as a volunteer for the YMCA. […]
By Brenna Wiegand Legacy Health Auxiliary was named Service Group of the Year by Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce at its First Citizen Award Gala Feb. 25. The hospital auxiliary has been dedicated to raising funds for the Silverton Health Foundation and to serving the hospital, Legacy Silverton Medical Center, for 65 years and is still going strong. “The auxiliary […]
By Brenna Wiegand Silverton Poetry Festival is back in person for the first time in three years. Founder Steve Slemenda was all for calling its 20-year run good when the pandemic hit, but Kelley Morehouse, his longtime colleague in the undertaking, just couldn’t let poetry slip away that easily. She kept momentum going through the pandemic through regular open mic […]
By Brenna Wiegand A string of past Our Town stories reflect the flurry of activity encircling the old wading pool in Silverton’s Coolidge McClaine Park. It all started in 2014 when Silverton participants in that year’s Ford Family Foundation Leadership program chose to beautify the wading pool/fountain in Coolidge McClaine as its public service project. Ford Family Foundation offered $5,000 […]
By Brenna Wiegand Sequestered on the outskirts of a town known for its murals is a hidden gem of magnificent proportion. Prior to moving to Silverton in 2013, Elizabeth Schellberg and husband Gary Watkins lived in Portland, she a CPA and he an Intel engineer. “I had an artist come and paint a mural on the back of our single […]
By Brenna Wiegand Kimberly Shaw began painting individual greeting cards for friends as a labor of love and a satisfying counterpart to her work as an architectural draftswoman in Southern California. She’d been with the firm for 17 years when she quit her job and grew her card business into a national concern that supported her family for the next […]
By Brenna Wiegand Area Director Jenifer Ridgeway is happy to report that the Silver Falls Young Life program is still going strong after 25 years and has continued to grow despite the setbacks of COVID. Silver Falls Young Life is open to all middle school and high school students in Silverton and the surrounding area. Its overarching goal is to […]
By Brenna Wiegand In some ways more telling than tracked test results, the prevalence of COVID-19 in a community may be seen in its wastewater. Though Silverton has been taking samples and sending them to Oregon State University’s School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering twice a week for about a year, only lately have the ongoing results been made […]
By Brenna Wiegand When Silverton Hospital affiliated with Legacy Health six years ago, the health care company committed to making significant improvements toward optimizing the medical center’s ability to provide top-notch health care for Silverton and surrounds. “Part of that commitment was a pledge on the part of Legacy to invest $58 million into Silverton Medical Center over the next […]
By Brenna Wiegand Paul’la Allen used to accompany her husband Jack to the cemeteries where he conducted graveside services. Jack Allen, a mortician and owner of Pearson-Allen-Caldwell Funeral Home in Portland, traveled around to small community cemeteries where headstones go back hundreds of years. Paul’la and young daughter Julie were never bored on these trips. “While Jack was doing the […]
By Brenna Wiegand Silverton Mural Society is getting a big shot in the arm through efforts led by local businessman Lance Kamstra. He would be quick to tell you it wasn’t him but God who orchestrated it all; he’s just remaining faithful. Every year the mural society has struggled for the funds needed to maintain the town’s 29 murals, let […]
By Brenna Wiegand Christopher Thoming, MD, MBA, has been selected to serve as the vice president and chief medical officer for Legacy Silverton Medical Center. Dr. Thoming will work closely with Legacy Silverton Medical Center President Jonathan Avery and Chief Nursing Officer Karen Brady to promote safe, high-quality care and clinical operations and contribute to the medical center and service […]
By Brenna Wiegand Jon Deshler, jazz trumpet player, globally published photographer and inspiring teacher, feels he has a lot to give. The purchase of Mt. Angel Theater & Studio gives him a place to do so. Built in 1912 as a silent movie theater, the 2,900-square-foot space at 220 E. Charles St., has been owned by Stu Rasmussen since 1982. […]
By Brenna Wiegand Otto Stadeli said you could have “knocked him over with a feather” when the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce crashed his pinochle game to name him recipient of this year’s Judy Schmidt Lifetime Achievement Award. Stadeli, 93, says doing good business and volunteering are just part of being in a community. Born and raised in Silverton, Stadeli […]
By Brenna Wiegand Being a good neighbor excludes backyard burn piles that pollute the air and/or threaten to burn down the house next door. “We’ve had to shut doors and windows because of the smell and smoke from a neighbor’s burn pile,” a rural Silverton resident said. “We’ve seen burn piles that included plastic bins, a plastic table and rugs. […]
By Brenna Wiegand Like health systems across the country, Legacy Health, which includes Silverton Legacy Medical Center, is seeing a significant increase in visits and hospitalizations due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant. As of Jan. 24, Legacy Health was caring for three times as many COVID-19 positive patients than just a month before. “The recent wave of COVID-19 cases and […]
By Brenna Wiegand Legacy Health recently launched a new surgical robotics program at Legacy Silverton Medical Center with the installation of an Intuitive da Vinci Xi Surgical System robot, a versatile robotic system used by surgeons around the world. This advanced instrumentation allows surgeons to perform delicate and complex operations through a few tiny incisions with increased vision, precision, dexterity […]
By Brenna Wiegand Recent approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children was welcome news to many families and communities across Oregon, especially those who have been hit hard by COVID-19. It also gave Legacy Health staff in the Silverton region the green light to create ways of getting them out to kids from five to 11 years old quickly and efficiently. […]
By Brenna Wiegand Turns out Dr. Davies never had to set a retirement date, something he was not looking forward to. When Our Town sat down with Dr. Olwyn K. Davies in July, the 92-year-old physician was still seeing patients at his office in Silverton, where he was surrounded by massive stacks of files, each belonging to a beloved patient […]
By Brenna Wiegand Last month the Oregon Cultural Trust awarded the Gordon House Conservancy a grant of $13,325 toward ongoing preservation of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. The money goes a long way toward funding the stabilization of a sagging 20-foot beam spanning its living room, thereby preserving the home’s structural integrity and protecting the Conservancy’s mission of educating […]
By Brenna Wiegand Only two weeks of school had elapsed when Our Town touched base with Silverton High School Principal Sione Thompson, in his first year with the Silver Falls School District. “It’s been quite a trial by fire but what makes it all worthwhile is that these are just terrific people,” he said. “They are kind and compassionate with […]
