Mossyrock Area (including Salkum & Silver Creek)

There's a New Blog in Town!

2007-08-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

There's a new blog for the Mossyrock community -- check it out at mossyrockwa.blogspot.com! You'll find community info, polls on various topics so you can share your opinion about life in Mossyrock and what you'd like to see in the future, photos, videos/podcasts, and more. A team of high school and college students are sharing their time and talents to create the Mossyrock blog -- visit the blog at mossyrockwa.blogspot.com to see what a great job they are doing!

BBF gets great press!

2007-08-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Visit the Blueberry Blues Fest website at www.mossyrockfestivals.com to read some of the great articles and even a sound clip of a radio interview. Video clips and photos of the big event will be posted soon!

Thanks to All from Jackie Morris

2007-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

The Blueberry Blues Fest was fabulous. I'm getting nothing but positive feedback, and lots of it! It was a fun family weekend for all! Lots of people, a great parade, lots of old cars, and the music was great! When "Organized Chaos" came on at the end, the little kids started dancing, and everyone else followed their lead. We had folks of all ages out there on that lawn having a TERRIFIC time!.......exactly what we wanted.

And we had a really wonderful surprise at the end. When we got there to clean up the next day, there was very little to clean up! The crowd was from everywhere and they all respected our little town. A good time and a very good, respectful crowd.

This worked because we had a wonderful, creative, festival committee who met every week and had a great time doing it. It was work, but it was also a lot of fun. We also would like to thank all of our sponsors from the business community and organizations who gave us their support. We could not have done this without them.

Especially we'd like to thank Ruth and Paul Ghosn who allowed us to use the lawn which is an extension of their front yard for our musical events, and the wonderful musicians who all donated their talents for this event. Paul Stewart and the East Lewis County Chamber of Commerce gave us support and encouragement, as well as helped with many details. It was a lot of people working together to make this happen. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sincerely,
Jackie Morris
Mossyrock Blueberry Blues Fest coordinator

A Message from Jackie Morris, Blueberry Blues Fest Coordinator

2007-07-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Team!! Looks like we are going to have one great music festival and all our hard work and effort is going to pay off. Very special thanks to all the musicians who have donated their time to making the first Blueberry Blues Fest filled to the brim with great, exciting and fun music! Thanks to the team members, our sponsors, and to the City of Mossyrock for their valued contributions. Lets have a great first Blueberry Blues Fest!--Jackie

Mossyrock Public Market, Saturdays thru Sept 1

2007-07-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Mossyrock Public Market -- a local Horizons project -- is going strong every Saturday in downtown Mossyrock, just west of Mossyrock Auto Value on State St.

Check out the website at www.mossyrockpublicmarket.com to see the list of vendors, and more photos from the market.

Thanks to the charter sponsors and in-kind sponsors who supported this project, and to the initial coordinator, Ray Olson; current coordinator, Sharon Debuhr; and all of the volunteers, vendors, and of course the customers too!, for making this a success!

The market will be open through the first Saturday of September (Labor Day weekend), 10 am-4 pm. Stop by and "shop local"!

Blueberry Blues Fest Coming Aug 4th!

2007-07-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

The Blueberry Blues Fest committee has been working hard to create this fabulous first annual event! Businesses in the area have come on board as Charter Sponsors and Event Sponsors. There's a great line-up of musical talent and fun events for all ages. A group of committee members and community residents will be doing a PSA and will be in the audience of KOMO's Northwest Afternoon on Friday, July 27, 3-4 pm. Watch the show and see your friends and neighbors on TV!

Find everything you need to know about the Fest, including contacts for more information, by visiting the website at www.mossyrockfestivals.com.

Kudos to Jackie Morris and her family, and all of the volunteers, sponsors, and enthusiastic community members for all they are doing to make this event a success!

Don't miss it! Read more in the Summer edition of the Mossyrock Area Horizons Newsletter

Mossyrock Public Market Opens Opportunities

2007-05-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

Local residents and summer tourists will soon be able to enjoy an open-air shopping experience every Saturday, from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, in downtown Mossyrock. Vendors will be selling fruits and vegetables, baked goods, processed foods, arts and crafts, plants and nursery items, and other unique products.

Community participants in the Horizons program, in association with the East Lewis Chamber of Commerce, are coordinating the new market, which will be open every Saturday from May 26 to September 1 from 10 AM to 4 PM at the corner of State and Williams Streets in Mossyrock, next to the Auto Value store. More than a dozen community volunteers have been preparing for the market for the past several months, after coming up with the idea at a Horizons Community Action Forum.

“I think this is a great opportunity for the people of the community to network and meet each other and do a variety of fun, volunteer work,” Mossyrock high school teacher Wendy Gardner said of her involvement to help prepare for the Market. Sharon Debuhr of Debuhr Sewing and Design in Cinebar remarked that “It’s a great way for an entrepreneur to launch a new business.”

“I’m looking forward to having the market close to home, so we can sell hot, fresh batches of bread,” remarked Jackie Morris, bread baker at Pan y Pastel Artisan Bakery, who also participates in the Chehalis Farmers Market on Tuesdays. Local berry farmer and nurseryman Glenn Aldrich is also excited about the new business opportunity. “It’s a real nice way to get some new businesses in town,” he said.

Aldrich is one of several in-kind market sponsors and has donated planter boxes and plants to decorate the market entrance. Mossyrock Auto Value is donating the space for the market. A growing list of charter sponsors includes the Mossyrock Grange, Silver Creek Ice, Smith and Sons Grocery, Nick Nichols Enterprises, Debra's Cut and Boutique, Neighborhood Deli, Mossyrock True Value Hardware, and Riffe Lake Campground. Student volunteers at Onalaska High School have been helping to create promotional materials for the market.

The Market is charging vendors only a very minimal fee for each 10 foot by 10 foot booth space and expects to have a wide mix of items for sale including food, produce, and handmade items. All products must be grown or made in Washington and only new items will be sold. The Market is making special outreach efforts to the area’s growing Hispanic community, and has created flyers and vendor application forms in Spanish, available at the Chamber office (118 State St., Mossyrock) or online at the market website, www.mossyrockpublicmarket.com.

The Mossyrock Public Market is a project created by residents from Mossyrock, Salkum, Silver Creek, and Cinebar who are participating in the 18-month Horizons program, a community leadership program to move from poverty to prosperity and create a more thriving community. Horizons is funded by the Northwest Area Foundation, delivered in Washington by WSU Extension, and coordinated locally by the East Lewis County Chamber of Commerce.

For more information visit www.mossyrockpublicmarket.com or call 360-983-3778. If you'd like to be a vendor, call the vendor coordinator, Sharon Debuhr, at 360-985-0907.

Get Involved: Mossyrock Blueberry Blues Fest!

2007-04-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Festival Committee and other interested persons,

Let's get together and organize our work! We've done plenty of brainstorming and such; now it's time to dig in and get the work done! Thanks to the hard work of Ivy and Debbie and the generosity of the business community, we now have some money to work with. We'll need to decide who will manage that money (treasurer). We also need committee heads for all our activities, and people to work on those committees. Click this link to see a tentative organizational plan for us. It's not written in stone. We can change things around and add to it if you think something else might be better. Some of the committee head positions have already been filled.

Please take a look at it and decide where you could fit in. Think about the people you know, and who might want to help us. Bring as many of these people as you can to our meeting. We can recruit others later. The more we spread the work around the better! One of our goals is to get as many people in the community involved as possible. Judging from the response we've had from the business community and others, there is a great deal of interest in this festival. Let's get people going to get it done!

I've reserved the Mossyrock High School library for our next meeting: Tues. May 1st, 6:30 p.m.

The school art teacher said it is a bad time to try to get the kids to make a logo as they have too many other things to do right now. Please let me know what you think of the logo above. Wendy sent me the clip art of the blueberry pie, and I incorporated it into the logo I had already put together. I like it better. What do you think?

We have a little web page which will grow as we go. http://www.mossyrockfestivals.com/ Shelley put it up for us. (thanks Shelley) Notice our sponsorship forms are up there and also our vendor application form.

Several of us attended the Leadership Plenty training on Saturday. It was fun, and useful. However, we need more people to do this with us! This training is good for people in any organization, not just the Horizons group, and is free to all. The Horizons program requires us to have at least 25 people in this training in order to retain their sponsorship and funding. (Remember the up to $10,000 grant we are hoping to get for the community at the end of the program.) We need a few more people to meet the quota. Please join us if you can! There will be a makeup day for those who missed last Saturday, so it's not too late. The training is free and breakfast goodies and lunch are provided free too. More info: http://www.horizonsweb.info/LeadershipPlenty.htm I hope to see you there.

My best,

Jackie Morris, Mossyrock Blueberry Blues Fest coordinator
Email: info@mossyrockfestivals.com

LeadershipPlenty continues this Saturday!

2007-04-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who attended the first of five LeadershipPlenty training sessions on Sat., April 21. We covered module 1 and part of module 2 and we'd love to have more people join the class. Remember this is open to teens too! In fact, Paul Stewart (one of the facilitators and also director of the East Lewis County Chamber) visited the Onalaska school board meeting earlier this week to talk about Horizons, and some teachers asked about the possibility of bringing the LeadershipPlenty training to the high school next year.

We will have a make-up session for anyone who missed the first session, at a date that folks agree on. Let's get the word out about LeadershipPlenty this week -- in fact, as a special incentive, we'll have a gift for everyone who brings someone new to the group this Saturday!

The remaining dates are April 28, May 12, May 19, June 2, and one make-up date to be determined. The program runs from 9:30 am-2:30 pm in the Mossyrock Community Center. You can find flyers (in Spanish and English) and lots of information about Horizons and LeadershipPlenty online at http://www.horizonsweb.info

Thanks for your participation in creating a more thriving community!

Press Release--Community Leadership Training

2007-04-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Three East Lewis County community members -- Lynn Hamilton (Salkum), Chris Lambert (Mossyrock), and Paul Stewart (Mossyrock) -- recently attended a state-wide "train-the-trainer" conference in Moses Lake, as part of the Horizons community leadership program that is underway in seven states. They are now certified to teach the LeadershipPlenty® program to community members.

LeadershipPlenty® is a program developed by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change for people who want to work with others to take action in their communities. It is designed for people from different backgrounds and occupations who want to participate more effectively in community problem solving. It is free and open to teens and adults.

The 25-hour training covers 9 modules. Topics will include identifying community assets, managing conflict, planning for action, managing groups, making meetings work better, creating partnerships, measuring results, and race relations.

The intensive training will be held on five Saturdays: April 21 and 28, May 12 and 19, and June 2, 9:30 am-2:30 pm (participants are asked to commit to attend all five sessions). The classes will be held at the Mossyrock Community Center. Lunch will be provided.

LeadershipPlenty® training is available to anyone within the East Lewis County area that is interested, on a space available basis. Gas cards are available to help with transportation, and funds for child and elder care can be provided if requested in advance. The three certified trainers will also be available to present the program to other communities and groups later this year at no cost.

To sign up, or for more information, see http://www.horizonsweb.info/ or call the East Lewis County Chamber at 360-983-3778.

LeadershipPlenty® is part of the 18-month Horizons program, a community development program that seeks to reduce poverty through community leadership. It is coordinated locally by the East Lewis County Chamber of Commerce, delivered by WSU Extension (http://www.horizons.wsu.edu/), and funded by the Northwest Area Foundation (http://www.nwaf.org/).

Pam teaching video

2007-04-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Pam demonstrating video interview techniques

Shawn at work

2007-04-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Shawn hard at work...