Welcome to Monmouth monthly a peek into the heart of the Willamette Valley. Each month we will bring you updates of the things happening in and around town brought to you by the people who helped make it happen. I am your host Sabra Jewell
welcome back to another episode of Monmouth monthly and this month we are excited to have two guests to talk about two events that are happening in the city in the month of May. And I am so excited to welcome back. Amy Lemco and Logan doerfler. Amy Lemco was here before to talk about history and mystery and Monmouth. She's part of our Historical Commission and she is back today to discuss an event called listen to a legacy and she's going to tell us more about that. Logan is and talk about veterans services over Western Oregon University and more specifically about the Memorial Day banquet that's happening on Westerns campus at the end of the month. So welcome both of you to Monmouth monthly. Well Amy, we're gonna start with you, the veteran Monmouth monthly speaker just to talk to us a little bit about your contest. We do know a little bit about you. We know that you're a published author, we know that you've been living in town for just a little while now, we know that you have been quite essential as you're a member of the Historical Commission putting on history and mystery. And we know that you're raising two young children in town. So welcome back. Amy, can you tell us a little bit about what's been going on in the historic commission since we last spoke to you? What are some of the projects you're working on?
Yeah, so this summer, we are funding a historic survey of the cherry lien part of the community looking for homes that might qualify for historic status and hoping to identify maybe some Waterhouse cherries. There was a gentleman here, Dr. Waterhouse, who had his own cherry in the 1970s. It was part of the World Fair in 19 or 1893. And then was actually a part of the works project administration. It was captured in a book for the USDA. You can see that online. So we're hoping to identify if there still are some Waterhouse cherries here in town. So tell us about this legacy essay contest that's coming up, tell us the details, maybe what inspired that contest them and how do people participate. So we were in part inspired by the fact that history is notoriously classist. We have recorded a few very select people. And to be fair, that's because the recording material was so limited, but now we have great recording material at our hands. So we want to get people who have made up the majority of history. I do think people have been impacted by the classism, and people usually don't think that they're interesting, and that they'd have a story to tell. And that's just not the fact they just need to be paired with a great interviewer. And we want to teach the youth how to conduct those interviews, as well as develop material and look for submission opportunities that are unique to the youth, you can really build a great resume because there are a lot of contests that are targeted toward getting youth writers published. And there's sometimes some awards for that. And also, there are a lot of studies that show that having intergenerational communication is so beneficial to both parties. It's really good emotionally, psychologically, for physical health. A lot of that has to do with adding purpose and meaning to life as well as I would say, like de mythologizing, both parties like the way that both youth and seniors are presented in the media is just not accurate. And like bringing those people together so that they can get the exuberance and wisdom, all tied together in our community, I think is really important. So we are pairing youth interviewers from 12 to 18 years old, and as senior storytellers 60 years and older to conduct an interview on May 11. And then later, we will have a presentation of the essays and some prizes that are awarded from the community. And we're hoping to really expand it and make it an annual event and grow it bigger and bigger.
So the students are getting this information from the school district and now we've shared it in both English and Spanish to the school district. Is this targeted to all students or journalism students or just any kind of student that's a writer or just anyone,
all
all students and we've tried to reach out also to homeschool you don't have to be you know, enrolled at Central to do it. I think in future years, we'll probably also want to expand that age range to get both younger and maybe like the college students involved, but for now 12 to 18 and I would argue that there is no thing that you want to do in life that having writing experience is not important for so if you know you don't have to be into journalism because if you want to be a doctor, you still may might need to present your material articulately. And this would be an opportunity for you to develop those skills.
Have you picked up this concept from any other community? Or Did y'all really just come up with this organically? Did you model this after anything?
There is a listen to a legacy, like national project. And I think that we will be trying to encourage students to submit their essays to that project as well.
And do they have kind of the same presentation schedule like y'all are planning to do? Would they present those on like a national level? Like do live presentations in the same form and format? Or is that a different thing?
I'm not sure about that. I think that they do publish them into like a journal. And that's, that's a specific thing. But this idea of capturing stories of the of the every man or every woman, if you will, has really expanded with the technology that we have. So nowadays, there's a story booths, that you'll find it a lot of different, like museum installations, there's mobile storytelling booths, where you're not paired with an interviewer. In that case, you are just going into a recording booth and saying whatever's on your mind. And then you can often go also listen to a story in those circumstances.
I
I think this is really important. You talked about bridging the divide between the generations, and I can't think of a time in our lives where that's more important to understand each other and understand each other's perspectives and respect each other's journey. So I think that this is an incredible opportunity for our community. And we're really grateful that our volunteer base is putting it together. Because guess what, none of you get paid for any of this, right? This is stuff that you're all doing in your, quote unquote, spare time. So that's very interesting. So if people young people, let's say, I'm a kid in that age range, how do I sign up? What do I need to do?
Well, you need parent permission, anybody who's interested in participating can just go to the city hall website and call and ask to speak to Suzanne Dufner. And she will put you guys in the Google documenters or send you that form to fill out for yourself. Okay, and if you do follow along on our city, social media, or receive our E newsletter, and even our utility bill newsletter, you did see that information with a link to sign up. So please, there's also a QR code. If you're, if you're into QR codes and signing up that way, you can definitely sign up.
If I'm a person 60 Plus, what do I need to do the same the same concept, I just need to to go click on those links and sign up to participate the same way?
Yes, and either for younger people or older people who may not have access to QR codes and links, that's where I would just suggest that if you don't want to go that route, you're welcome to just call the city hall and get in contact and we will help you get signed up that way. I love it.
Okay, and what do you hope outside of kind of kind of that bridging that divide and the everyman story, are there any other takeaways, you want to see what other things would you like to see happen from this event?
I think it would be lovely. If it created an ongoing conversation and ongoing connections, I would like to also mention that we do have prepared questions that the students will be choosing from and so if you are being interviewed, and you'd like to prepare ahead of time, we can send those to you or you can just when we meet together on the 11th, there will be a front loading portion where we talk about how to conduct a respectful interview on both ends of that.
So very, very cool. And you're working alongside our Senior Community Center with this project as well. Yes. Okay. Great. That's such an incredible resource. So I'm so grateful that those two are pairing up.
Yeah, working with the senior center is amazing. Because one of the things I would hope would come out of this is just the youth understanding how many programs that are going on that you don't have to be a senior to participate. There are ASL classes, there are sewing classes, those are two that I happen to know about, because I've attended them. But there's many more things that are going on exercise and art, and it'd be great for the community at large to really get involved with the senior center.
That's very important that you said that because some seniors, community centers have age limits on what you can do and how you can participate. I mean, sometimes it's 50 years old. And we are unique in that way where you like you said, you don't have to have, you don't have to be 50 plus you can be any age. And so thank you, Amy for bringing that up. Because like she mentioned, there's several classes, there's a writers workshop that that meets poetry groups, Symphony Orchestra, I mean, you name it, there are so many groups that meet at our senior community center. So that's another reminder to check the website. And the calendar of events there are they have so many events on their calendar, they have their own calendar, because I couldn't keep up with all those things that are going on at that senior community center. And after the essay contest ends on the 11th I know that you guys were planning on a bigger event maybe towards the middle of June to kind of bring people in to let them hear these stories. Is that correct?
Yes. In June we are either at the library or the Senior Center we will be having a display that's open to everybody, not just the people who participated and I'm sure we will be filling that out with other historic displays. The questions can run anything from like personal like what bothers you about human nature? Were you ever bullied to World History? You know, what do you remember about the women's civil rights movement in the 70s, or local Monmouth history, or Oregon history, where were you in Mount St. Helens blue or when the tower on campus came down, so we're looking for a really variety of questions to capture those legacies. But we will be presenting the essays, there'll be prizes from the community for the participants, a lovely display, I'm sure that we'll work out some additional components to the display pictures and things from history.
Well, please stay tuned. I know our KMU Z audiences, hearing this a little too late to get their entries into participate. But we do hope that you'll listen to this and come back for the June event and see all of what the stories that came from this, I can't wait. We have so many people in our community who have lived very interesting lives and don't even recognize themselves as interesting people, right? They just think that they've just been going about their business. And I'm so excited to hear what's going to come from this. So thank you, Amy, for it was this your brainchild of the historic commission as a whole is that this is something that y'all worked on together.
Oh, we work on everything together. I had come in contact with the listen to the legacy project, but was had to bring it to the commission. And of course, like have to develop with them get feedback on questions and building like what the event would look like. So it's definitely a team project. And then we have that historic survey and we're already kicking into gear for the next history and mystery. So look for that.
Okay, well, thank you, Amy, so much. And we will keep everybody posted. Please tune in to city newsletter website. Stay. Stay tuned to all of our ways and means of communications, and we will make sure you know when this is happening. Logan
Hello.
Hi, Logan, you are the director of the Veterans Resource Center at Western Oregon University. How long have you been in that position?
I've been in that capacity since June 2021. So coming up on three years that summer, were you a Western Oregon student? I sure was I actually went there in 2013 dropped out to go on a deployment with an Oregon Army National Guard and then came back and finished up in 2019 Later,
do they really consider dropping out when you leave for deployment purposes?
I don't know. I mean, what do you call it? I didn't come back for six years. Okay. Fair enough. But I don't know if it's that if I would call it dropping out.
But fair enough. Okay. So like in Are you a local? you from Oregon? Tell us more about your origin story.
Yeah, I just grew up down the road in Corvallis. Go Beavs. But I just care if an Oregon team wins. That'd be great. I went to St am Christian K through nine transfer over to CV and graduated out of Corvallis.
Now, you mentioned that you were deployed What branch?
Yeah, I enlisted in the Oregon Army National Guard when I was at CB, is that something that you always thought you were going to do is military service? No, not really. There's not. There's no one in my family. That wasn't a military. My only connection is my mother's father. But he passed away before I was born. So I didn't know anything about that. It was really a way for me to gain access to be able to attend college. Actually, that was one of the main incentives. And I did have some role models that were in the military as well. Your deployment, where were you deployed? I went to Afghanistan in 2014 2015. And it's been almost a decade now.
Can you believe it is weird to think about? Yeah. So once you've left your military service, are you surprised now that you're working in a university? Are you kind of thinking this is a really good fit?
No, I am. Yeah. I've never been the best at forecasting my future, to be honest. And I certainly didn't see myself landing in higher education. But circumstances happen along the way, especially while I was at Western, they had a large impact on me. And I wanted to come back when I heard about the opportunity.
Are you comfortable talking about what that was?
Sure. Yeah. So like I said earlier, 2013, I stopped attending Western, went to some army schools, and then I went overseas. I started as a Ford observer. That might not mean a lot to people. But 20 overs infantry is like a typical rifleman, you can think of whenever with scouts. And then when I came back actually went to ITT Technical in 2015 16. For network systems and cybersecurity. And then if y'all y'all remember the Department of Education, shut them down. I do. December 2018. That was wild. We got like a one day notice. So like, we just and I didn't check my email. So me my buddy wrote a motorcycle there showed up doors are just changed. We're like, Okay, we are no longer students of it. But I had a great time a year Western. So I was like, Okay, that's a that's a place I know, that I'm familiar with. So I brought one of my buddies, I met there and a few of his friends from ITT, back to Western. And then yeah, I graduated three years from there. And one of those really impactful experiences was that Western because I lost a year my GI bill going to ITT Tech, so I wasn't really going to be able to graduate debt free like I want to do with working as well. And the current person in my role at Western at the time was Andrew Holbert, who's actually now the executive director of Courtney house in Salem, which has amazing resources for low income veterans. He went and advocated for me at the Capitol With a whole bunch of people who were in my situation, and ended up helping the Forever GI bill get passed and helped me get back that time. So that was re added into my GI Bill and I was able to finish up with some time to spare.
So do you think that that would have happened at any other university where you would have gotten that level of commitment from folks around you to ensure your success for that level, like going to the state and lobbying the Capitol?
You know, I can't speak for every university, but locally, I would say it is pretty unique. Kind of like the intimacy, the level of connection that we have with our students with a really small class sizes and a lot of support staff. It does seem unique to me. And I now have the honor of being able to build those personal relationships with our student vets, and really the whole military community, so family members, ROTC, etc. In visiting other institutions, it does seem somewhat unique.
The Veteran Resource Center, I remember when I came to Western being struck by how many first generation students we had, how many veterans we had. What tell me more about the Veteran Resource Center? Do you know how much of our student body per percentage are student veterans? I do?
Yeah, we have about 81 veterans, some of them save their benefit for letter later or don't self identify. So we have no way of exactly knowing the number. But it's about 81, the total military community that the Resource Center serves, so the family members, guardsmen cetera, that's about 150, maybe slightly under. And I think it's about 1.5 to 2% of our current student population, it was in the fall. I know It's spring now. And I would say that's about on par or slightly ahead of most institutions.
And so you mentioned that the resource center not only helps the veteran student, but also the family as well tell me more about that.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the things I'm grateful for over the past few years is the attention on veterans transitioning back to civilian life into education, there are stigmas and unique challenges they face that are barriers, and we have great education about those things. But something that isn't talked about as much is some of the challenges for our currently serving National Guardsmen and the families so dependents into kind of the populations around the veteran population, they have similar issues that are not talked about. So we try to be a one stop shop for the whole military community on campus, we have three programs and services. We'll talk about those in a second. But the lounge the space itself is pretty awesome. So you have a good mix of all these people, student veterans, dependents, guardsmen, staff, and faculty that were veterans are our veterans rather, or military friendly. Lots of people pulling through. So when I started, for example, we had about 80, people come through the first term. And now just last year, we had a little under 500. So it's growing very steadily, and there's a lot more engagement. So there's a lot of connection to be made there, which I think is extremely important in higher education have those personal connections. And we also offer some supplementary programs, like I alluded to earlier. So we have an equipment loan program, mostly for access, if there are any issues with people getting access technology, they can just, you know, loan, a MacBook or whatever they might need from us for a term or so we are launching a new program, it's more of a rebranding really called the military Connections program. So anyone on our community can connect with the database, a pool of staff and faculty at Western for mentorship or an academic advisor, really whatever relationship the person is willing to have at the student. So we're starting to collect that information. We'll have that up soon. It's really exciting, especially for our veterans, right? It's like if you move across the country, you get out of the service, like all this western place, great. websites on point, that's great. They come on over. And then they have no network, right? They have no community in a lot of these cases. So we want to help give them a starting point for building a professional network and, you know, an academic advisor who has been in their shoes, etc. So that program I'm very excited for I really love
I know that your office, the Veterans Resource Center is located in the Warner Center on the bottom floor kind of across the hall from Abby's Abby's house, where you're located. And there's always folks on there, it's always people just sitting on the couch watching TV playing foosball, you've got people helping folks navigate the school, like, Hey, this is how you register. This is how you do financial aid. This is just kind of, sometimes if you're a non traditional student starting school at 30 years old can be incredibly intimidating. Right. So that has to be such a big I mean, I know that I graduated college at 35 years old. So I do understand how intimidating it can be going back. So have you heard from your students about the difference that you've made? If you've been told any testimonies from your student veterans, or is that just something that you can see, and not so much hear from them? Are they going to be willing to share those things?
It's a good question. I don't tend to solicit feedback like that, you know, but you can definitely see the difference as far as the vibrancy of the community and just the amount of people constantly in there between classes before classes. I mean, it's awesome. We do offer free coffee and some basic things reprinting storage stuff like that stuff that keeps bill going through but it really has become more than that. Like keep people hanging out there for hours, most days of the week just chatting. Like you also said we have a Fortunately, we were a part of the VA work study program. So we have four students that technically work for the VA. But I supervise them out of the Veterans Resource Center at Western. So they're they're kind of like a receptionist role. They also help me plan programs that are making those connections. For those students that come in first day and have no idea what's going on, hey, how do I get a parking pass? How do these things, they help get them connected? Answer all the questions and then they also connect them with another student who's like a junior senior, kind of in their shoes.
So makes a huge difference and like graduating and being successful and realizing you're not the only person to feel a little bit, sometimes it's a mystifying process higher ed, it can be a little mystical. That's incredibly cool. Now, you've got some flagship events, I know that you have your ruck and run during Veterans Day during that era. And that but Memorial Day is what's coming up. Tell me about some of your Memorial Day activities, including the Memorial Day banquet, anything that's open to the public, just things or even things that are not tell us about some of the things going on in May.
Okay, yeah. So, naturally, Memorial Day is pretty big holiday for us. So almost all of our events focus around five days around that time, the Student Veterans of America club at Western, they tend to do community service oriented events each year. For example, last year, we went to this cemetery and film with and did some headstone cleaning has a huge veteran population. I know they have plans to do something similar this year, excited to see what they announce. The VRC banquet is definitely the big one. We typically do it Tuesday after Memorial Day, so we can get more folks to attend which this year is May 28 430 to 6pm. It will be the eighth annual memorial day banquet and it's just an awesome time for the whole community to come together. And you know, learn something about veterans culture partake in some ceremonies, honor the fall on we have great food drink, it's just a really, really great time to connect and kind of honor those things. It's typically open to the Western Community. But But this year, we are also inviting any Polk County Veteran to come out to the event for free and their families, we do have an RSVP form that we'll be pushing out soon.
So Logan, how can people help the Veterans Resource Center? Are you looking for volunteers? Are you looking for resources? What can people do to help the work that you're doing?
Western does a very good job at supplying us with most of the things we need. And we are also very grateful to have earned a grant with od VA for an 18 month cycle. So we are having most of our needs met. One of the things that is difficult to fund and we end up needing a lot of a lot of it is just snacks, like, you know, they come in, they have coffee, they're hanging out for hours, and they come from all different backgrounds and some of these, you know, dependents guardsmen, etc. Like, it's times are tough, and there's not really any group that is immune from needing help. And we really like to provide, you know, snacks to them like beef jerky, goldfish, ramen, whatever we can get our hands on, but we just can't sustain to the demand. So I do some fundraising throughout the year. But it's, there's a lot of other work to be done, you know, so we would love support to our foundations, we can make that stuff happen. direct donations of snacks would also be welcome anything that can go in a locker and as you know, nonperishable be great. That'd be a huge help.
Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Because I know some of our audience members, they love a call to action, right. They want to know how they can give back to their groups. I know the historic board and commission is completely full. Y'all are not currently looking for volunteers right now. But keep an eye out on the city web pages because we will always update you when those board positions do open up. I am so glad that I had these two guests today come and tell you about the events that are happening in our town again, our our volunteers and our folks at Western Oregon they do so much with with small staffs or just volunteer base and we just we are so lucky to have these folks in our community. So just to wrap up a few things that we heard today and to kind of give you some things to look out into the future. Mama is celebrating AAPI month during the month of May and on May 11. There's going to be a vendor market and mainstream report from 12pm to 5pm. You're going to find Hawaiian food deserts, accessories and more. And also some free food tasting from some of our local Asian American owned restaurants. You also want to put on your calendar, the Memorial Day banquet. If you're a Polk County Veteran or Western Oregon University student, faculty or staff that has been a service person, please join them may 28. That's a Tuesday 430 to 6pm. Please RSVP you can find that RSVP form at Western Oregon University's Veteran Resource Center's website. Please go online to find out more information on that. Also Western Oregon University on May 30. There's an academic excellence showcase that's going to be on campus details to come. But it's an opportunity for the community to see some of our seniors do their senior projects and capstones and it's pretty exciting to see what these young people are going to be doing as they enter the workforce. Also just to let you know June the month of June it is coming it is approaching. It's going to be pride month June 1 We're going to be celebrating in Monmouth. Stay tuned to the city website you're going to see more information about the vendors that we have signed up and the family activities that we have lined up for you on that day. There is also June 8 at 7:30pm Smith Fine Arts is having their final performance of the season. Maka Hassan's is going to be performing and you don't want to miss this. So please buy your tickets online at Smith Fine Arts. Western Oregon University's graduation is June 15th. So be prepared to enjoy the festivities we're gonna have lots of families in town that weekend to celebrate our graduates oh and can't wait for make music day June 21. If you are a musician and you want to if you have a jug band or you play the spoons or you just want to sing acapella please contact the Monmouth independence Chamber of Commerce. several locations around our two cities are going to have live performances and we would love to have our musicians sign up and even if you're not a musician and you just want to hop around and listen to live music that will be happening all day in Monmouth and an independence on June 21st. Thank you all for tuning in this month Monmouth monthly don't forget rate review subscribe tell a friend we appreciate all the support that we've been given so far and we will see you again next month.
Thank you for joining us for Monmouth monthly My name is Sabra Jewell. Our music is catching up by chill Study and we record it at Indy Commons which is a co working community in independence Oregon. Please find us wherever you find podcasts rate review, tell a friend and we will see you next month.
