Yamhill County Women for Ag put together our annual gift boxes again this year – we’ve done this more than 40 years! We sell them to raise money to support our scholarships and grants.
Our gift boxes are made up of product mostly donated by local farmers such as Kauer Farms – hazelnuts; Scenery Farms – prunes; McKee Farms – walnuts; Meduri Farms – dried apples; and Oregon Cherry Growers – maraschino cherries. With the help of our local Wilco Stores (Thanks Wilco) in McMinnville and Newberg we sold out all of our gift boxes this year.
The FFA in our area are encouraged to apply for a $200 grant (we have seven local chapters) for projects that benefit the entire chapter. Our county 4-H can apply for a grant for $500 for projects that benefit the entire county.
We also have two scholarships: one for $1,000 for an OSU student in agriculture; and one for $750 for any community college student earning a degree toward a career in agriculture. We also donate towards AITC and SAI. We have those that receive the scholarships report back to us at a local meeting. The MITCH Charter School in Tualatin bought a large quantity this year. The school curriculum is based on agriculture.
At our January meeting we will be hearing from Karla Erovick, Director of Marketing & Events with the Chehalem Valley Chamber of Commerce. She wants to talk about how we can support ag tourism. We also will be working towards starting our scholarship applications and discussing how we can best support AITC and SAI.
Coming up in April, we are looking forward to AgFest! Always looking for volunteers to help out.
Our meetings are usually held the third or fourth Tuesday each month. We will be meeting January 17th at 7 pm at Citizens Bank in McMinnville. If anyone would like to attend or needs further information or directions, please email me.
Susie Kreder, Yamhill Chapter President