This hot summer was very busy for the Marion-Clackamas chapter. We overhauled our Oregon Trail Farms guide this year, which included building a reliable and modern website as well as starting a Facebook page to promote our participating farms. We had 13 farm stands in the greater Salem region in our guide this year. To learn more you can follow us on Facebook @OregonTrailFarms or visit www.oregontrailfarms.com.
We were also in charge of planning the OWA state fair booth. We had volunteers every day at the booth! The two main interactive activities we had were a photobooth prop with Oregon ag facts and a big jar full of hazelnuts that folks could try to guess the correct number to win a $50 amazon gift card. Our volunteers visited with a lot of people, talking about Oregon agriculture and giving away pencils, post it notes, envelope openers, bowl scrapers, chip clips and more.
We’ve awarded our annual $500 scholarship to Michaela Kay Chapin of Gervais who will be attending Oregon State University to study Animal Science/Veterinary Medicine. We have also sent our sponsorship checks to Oregon Ag in the Classroom and the Salem Chamber of Commerce Agri-Business Banquet.
We resumed our regularly scheduled meetings in September. We are beginning to move our meetings around our counties to various locations. Our next meeting is Monday, October 9th at 12 noon at Wilco Headquarters in Mt. Angel. Our November 13th meeting at 12 noon will be at Capital Press in Salem. We will have a chapter social in December.
We will be selling Willamette Valley Pie Company pie cards as a fundraiser this fall. These pie cards never expire and can be redeemed for any flavor they have in the freezer case at their flagship store in Salem. They take the ease out of holiday gatherings and make great stocking stuffers, too! Please contact Mallory at marionclackamas@owaonline.org to order.
Mallory Phelan, President