Upriver, ID

Often times we take for granted people who do their jobs well. They get the job done and make life better for us, but we hardly notice the extra effort they exert. I am impressed with our current University of Idaho County Extension agent. Ashley McFarland does not just work out of her office organizing and coordinating such diverse programs as 4-H and Master Gardeners and the County Fair, she willingly lends her expertise in creating our monthly newsletter, advises UCU in endeavors such as grant searches and grant writing, assists in bringing programming to UpRiver such as the recent financial planning classes, and more.

This is my official THANK YOU to a busy professional who is not required to attend UCU meetings–but does, is not required to publish UCU newsletters–but does, is not required to search out presenters who will come and provide relevant programming to improve the education and employability of UpRiver participants–but DOES!

Thank you, thank you, and thank you, Ashley!

I just want to congratulate the community for pulling together to create a great day of celebration for the UpRiver area. Although I wasn’t able to participate in planning or in the actual day’s activities, I did get to eavesdrop on the planning that went into it as e-mails bounced back and forth putting all of the details into place. I want to commend all those involved in the final product!

Individuals who coordinated the many activities included Lorelei Dockery, Rosemary Niemier, Joanne O’Dwyer, Debbie Powell, Christine Ashmead, Richard Pullman, and others. Groups that provided fun events for the day ranged from the Friends of the Library to the Girl Scouts. I won’t even venture to name them all because I am not qualified to do that. I haven’t managed to keep up on it all. I do know that there was softball, horse shoe games, a parade, ice cream, refreshment stands, and more. These don’t just happen. Each person or group who offers activities like these contribute to the fun for everyone else.

The work and time commitment put into this annual event produced a great day of celebrating life in the UpRiver Communities! I appreciate everyone who continues to work to make UpRiver a great place to live, work, and have a family! Thank You, UCU and UpRiver citizens!

I apoligize for the neglect in posting our community activities for the last 3 months! A lot really has been going on here and I’ll begin by saying the technology classes were well attended and the content good. Adult education was one of our targeted areas of need for the UpRiver communities and we were pleased with the responce from people who took advatage of these free classes. Ashley McFarland from the extension provided instruction on Word processing, Excel and digital photography.After the first class we decided to look into using the school’s computer lab so that everyone would be on the same program. This proved to be a better location and we were able to accomadate more people. The digital photography class was the most popular class!

Also in January we had the first UpRiver Chili Cook-off! The winners were Clint Dockery first place and Carol Lee Dockery(his Mom) came in second! Go figure, I guess good cooking runs in the family! Congratulations to you both and thanks for the many wonderful good pots of chili that were entered. This was a fun and sucessful event and one that we hope to do on a yearly basis.

Another change in January was the format for our Newletter. Ashley volunteered to help us with the job by being our “editor”, thanks Ashley! We also adopted a mission statement and logo after many brainstorming sessions we came up with, “Our mission is to foster unity through community pride, leadership and service; by promoting productive development for the population of UpRiver.”

In April Karen Richel, M.S. came to UpRiver from Moscow University of Idaho Extension and taught workshops on financial “Fun”damentals. She was enlightening and entertaining for the 4 sessions that she offered. We learned a lot about the new credit laws, on-line banking, building a better budget and predatory lending, to name a few of the topics that she covered. In this day and age one can never know too much about money mangagement, and my only wish was that more younger people would have attended.

We had our annual community clean-up day in April and many organizations cooperated and coordinated their Adopt-a-Mile highway clean-up task. A total of 90 bags of trash was picked up by 4 organizations, covering 20 plus miles of highway! This event seems to be catching on and every year there are more people getting involved! UCU joined the UpRiver PTO and supplied hot dogs and hamburgers for the volunteers after the clean-up. The weather was a bit nasty, but the job got done and our communities look better for it!

Just in from the Idaho Nonprofit Center Newsletter: Consumer Financial Solutions invites Idaho non-profits to enter the “Win $10,000 for your Idaho Nonprofit” contest. Debbie Gray sent us this and we are all over it!!! Today Chris, Ashley and myself met with Becky Wolfe from the High School video lab to tape and edit a “voice over” narrated clip to enter. Our topic is the community center and what we would do with 10K! Wish us luck!

The UpRiver Community United folks met a week earlier than previously planned since one of our officers is going to be out of town next week. We are getting closer to adopting a mission statement and have decided on a logo including a motto! It reads, “working together for a better life for all”. The holiday decorations have been taken down and there was plenty of positive feedback from the community for our efforts! Thanks, Lorelie for all your community spirit this holiday season! I would like to add that this was truely a community effort and to recognize that there were many donations and contributions from several parties. It is amazing what a group can accomplish when we get together on a single project! In January there is a lot happening UpRiver! Starting with free technology classes at the CAF building in Fernwood. The first session is on January 14th and it will cover Word Processing. On January 21 come learn about data tables using Excel. Then on January 28th there will be a class on Digital Photography, with Micrsoft Picture Maker. All classes will be at 3:30-5:30. Now with the holidays over we are planning to heat things up and sponser our first Chili Cook-Off on January 30th at the Community Center in Fernwood (CAF building). There will be 1st and 2nd place cash winners, and a “People’s Choice” category. We will serve up the winning chili (along with everyone elses) at noon until 3 PM. Homemade cornbread, rolls and coffee all for $3, children under 7 free. Plan to stay and play some Bingo, win some 50/50 raffles and have lunch from 12-3 PM. See if you have what it takes to be the winner of our Chili Cook-Off! Everyone is invited, for more information call, Joanne at 245-4903, Lorelie, 245-9251 or Debby, 245-3097. Look for more classes in April on Financial Literacy. These classes are offered through the University of Idaho Benewah County Extension and UCU, no experience required. Our next UCU board meeting will be on February 11th at 6:30. We welcome newcomers always!

It’s offical, the 1st annual UpRiver Chili Cook-Off will be on Saturday, January 30th at the Fernwood Community Center (CAF). Bring your already cooked pot of chili in for judging at 11:00 AM. First and second place winners will receive a cash prize! There will be a “People’s Choice” category as well. Judging will be from 11:30-12:00. We will be serving up the winning chili and more to the public at noon. Homemade cornbread, rolls and coffee will be available for $3, children under 7 are free. Come play some Bingo, have lunch and win! 50/50 raffles throughout the afternoon. Help support community wide events like this and in the future! Lunch will be served from 12-3PM. The weather is cold outside and what better way to beat those wintertime chills than with some good hot chili and a little fun competition. Everone is invited. For more information call; Joanne at 245-4903, Debby, 245-3097 or Lorelie at 245-9251. Hope to see you there!
Joanne

Calling all people who like to eat and cook!! Now with the holidays officially over we thought it might be a good time to get together and see who really does have what it takes to win a Chili Cook-Off! The weather is cold out there and what better way to beat the chills than with some homemade chili (and cornbread please!)! So get out your favorite recipe and bring it on down to the CAF building on January 30th (time TBA). There will be bingo games going as well. All ages welcome!
Joanne

It was another exciting meeting on Thursday, December 10th in Fernwood! We worked on honing our mission statement and so far we have: “Our mission is to foster unity through community pride, leadership and service by promoting productive development for the population of UpRiver.” Ashley volunteered to be our newsletter editor and will format and publish the monthly UCU Newsletter! “Thanks”, Ashley kudos to you and your wiliness to support our efforts. Also on the agenda was the Home Depot grant, “Building Health Communities”. Debby and Joanne had submitted the grant earlier in the month and we will hear from them in Jan. if we received it. The project is to renovate the CAF building and would supply materials in the sum of $2,500. It will involve volunteer labor to paint, and make improvements in the kitchen and outside grounds.

In January the University of Idaho Extension, Benewah County and UCU will also be offering free computer classes! These classes will explore various software technologies that will help you when typing documents, manipulating data or managing photos. NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! In April we will be offering more classes directed towards financial literacy. Look for more information soon!

Community pride will be collecting donations of Christmas lights for the Community Building and a decorating party is planned for the 20th of December. Join members of the community for hot drinks and cookies while showing your community pride!
submitted by Joanne

There’s something about an “annual” meeting that causes looking back over the year more meaningful than our regular meetings. We have now been an incorporated entity since our filing date of July 2, 2007. It has been an exciting and productive time for UpRiver. We continue to make strides in defining our mission to reduce poverty, yet preserving our rural lifestyle.

At our annual meeting we reelected many of our existing officers; Richard Pullman will continue on as the UCU President, while acting as Board Member. Joanne and Darrell will continue in their Board positions as well. Lorelei has agreed to be Vice President, Debby will continue as Treasurer and Chris, Secretary.

We will be offering some financial literacy/planning classes sometime in January at the Community building. Ashley is working closely with the University of Idaho and making the arrangements for us. We are excited about the possibility to address economics and educate people in the surrounding communities. Topics such as Predatory Lending and Scams, Building a Better Budget and Managing Money & Debt, Basic Banking and Protecting Your Personal Identity are a few of the classes that we will have available to us.

Another item of intent is Community Pride. Lorelei is gearing up to light up the Community this Christmas season! She is seeking donations of lights and/or yard ornaments and volunteers to help with the decorating. There will be a collection box at the Flea Market on Saturday, November 21 at the Community Center. Also at the PTO Christmas Craft Fair on Dec. 12th. Then there will be the decorating party on Sunday at the Community Center from 1-3PM. We are planning to have a chili cook-off in January, so get out your favorite recipe and plan to enter!

The Building Committee is applying for a Home Depot grant to do some much needed renovations at the Community Center. I’ll let you know how that goes in January, when we find out if we are granted!

The Historical Society had it’s second annual photo showing on November 14th at the Community Center from 1-6 PM. Chris has next year’s calendars for sale and many people stopped by to buy one and s to look at the wonderful collection of photos that are now a part the archive! She has really breathed new life in to the community with an appreciation of the past! Chris especially enjoys visiting with the old timers to hear their stories.

That’s a brief summary for now. Our next meeting will be on December 10th at 6:30 PM at the Community Center. We plan to focus on our Mission Statement and design a logo.

With the fall in the air, and an energetic loyal group of 7(minus 1) in attendance we had a very lively board meeting! Our secretary couldn’t make it since she is now representing the UpRiver community as our school board representative. As in most small communities we all wear various hats at any given moment! I took the place of secretary and gladly recorded the minutes of our meeting. We all agreed that our Pioneer Day celebration was a success in many ways and that we had learned a lot! There were reports from the building committee, community pride, entrepreneural and communications. As far as our building concerns, we have plenty of vision for what we’d like our community center to provide. We constructed a list of needs for the inside and outside of the current building and prioritized them as a group. From plans for a covered picnic area, to the addition of decks with wheelchair accessibility, no one was short on ideas for improving our facilities. Community Pride is going strong with Lorelei’s enthusiasm and drive! We discussed lighting up the town this holiday season, starting with the community building.
Our annual meeting will be on November 12th at 6:30 PM at the CAF building in Fernwood. We invite everyone to come and be a part of making a difference in our communities. We are currently working on a business logo and mission statement to define who we are and what we do. Reducing poverty, improving lives through education, and building community are all part of our vision. The UCU, Inc. is a non-profit group and we meet every 2nd Thursday of the month at the CAF building in Fernwood at 6:30 PM. We welcome new members and encourage people of all ages to help make a difference in our communities.

I have been considering how to create the “vibrant and thriving village centers” and the “entrepreneurial environment” envisioned at our Upriver Visioning Rally. New businesses must be created that will make up these centers. Can we help individuals create new businesses? Introducing the “Upriver Self-Employment Initiative”

What does it take to start up a successful business? In his book, “Don’t Set Goals (the old way)”, Wade Cook says, never set a goal for yourself, simply set out to do and be what it takes to succeed, by doing so, you will accomplish far more than you envisioned. What does it take to succeed? What do successful people do that makes them successful?

One aspect has to do with knowledge or know-how. With all the books I handle in my bookstore, I am convinced that I have touched the knowledge I need to succeed and help others to do the same. In the wealth formula, the effect of knowledge is exponential. Knowledge not only determines how to do something, it actually determines what is possible. So, I need to take classes, read books, surf the web, meet with like-minded people, etc., looking for knowledge that will help.

Friends and acquaintances are also important. How well connected we are has a direct effect on how successful our business efforts can become. It turns out that counseling with others is the surest sign of success for the beginning entrepreneur. It’s time to start a new group, “Upriver Self-Employment Initiative”. We can all get together to help one another succeed.

Have you dreamed of starting your own business? Do you have a good business idea with unknown potential? Are you just unemployed and looking for profitable work? Call me at 245-9183, help us help you make success happen.

Richard Pullman
http://www.myspace.com/richardpullman

A couple of Thursdays ago, we got together for our monthly community meeting. Upriver Community United (UCU), remembering our past and looking to our future.

Building Committee: Our plans for building a new community building have been shelved temporarily due to a lack of volunteers willing to work on the project. We talked about needed improvements to the CAF (Community, Ambulance & Fire) building and grounds, everyone should bring a list of suggestions to the next board meeting.

Community Connections Committee: We have put our Wild Blue Internet service at the CAF building on suspend to save money for now. The service can be reactivated at any time we need it. A Website Editor volunteer is desperately needed. We have changed our meeting night so our newsletter & blogging volunteer will be able to attend the monthly board meetings. The University of Idaho Extension office will be helping our community by offering many of the classes requested by our upriver residents. These classes will be held at the CAF building. More information will be provided as it becomes available. The Flea Market has been suspended until there are more interested vendors.

Community Pride Committee: We reviewed our first annual Pioneer Day festival and started planning for next year. Everyone should bring a list of possible improvements for next year to the next monthly meeting. As always, what we can do is limited by the volunteers who are willing to do the work.

UCU Historical Society: Our booth at the fair was a huge success, we won a Grand Champion–Community Booth. We have begun planning for our 2010 calendars which will be printed in October. The next UCU Historical Society meeting will be held September 28th at 6:30pm at the CAF building.

We discussed some possible fund raisers, possibly a Poker / Snowmobile ride in January. The annual meeting for UCU is coming up in November. Our next Monthly Community Meeting will be on September 14th at 6:30 pm in the CAF building, everyone is welcome.

We held our first annual Upriver Pioneer Day on Saturday, July 25 2009. Many of our Upriver residents and organizations came out to participate and enjoy a day in the sun. It is so gratifying to see this enthusiasm and unity manifesting in our community.

We started with an action item on our Community Action list, “have an Upriver Festival”. As we were looking for a theme, we were inspired by Jim Crofts who has been teaching at the Upriver School. Jim taught the kids pioneer skills, like how to create cabins, furniture, tools, etc from the raw trees and logs just as our forefathers did using nothing but hand tools.

Now with a theme of “Pioneer Day” we began brainstorming. We came up with a truly awesome list of Pioneer Day activities. By the way, we owe the success of our festival to Lorelei Dockery, the chairperson of our Upriver Festival committee (of the UCU). With so few volunteers coming to our committee meetings, we looked to our Upriver organizations for help.

In an absolutely invigorating display of solidarity, the people of our communities stepped forward. Our volunteer fire and ambulance group took on the breakfast. Drifters Café took on lunch and our UCU (Upriver Community United) group took on dinner. We had help from the Friends of the Library, the Senior Center, Fernwood Bible Church, Upriver Youth Athletics, Upriver PTO, UCU Historical Society, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Emida Secret Sisters, and of course Upriver Community United, Inc (UCU).

We received help from so many individuals and I don’t even know them all (I’m only the president of UCU). Grey Wolf came with his ever popular Tomahawk Toss. Jim Croft set up a display of a miniature hand made Upriver Homestead (before the mills) as well as some historical boards and some old fashioned hand tools. Melody Croft set up and old fashioned spinning wheel and demonstrated her old treadle sewing machine. We had free Gospel Music by the Owndey’s and the Smiths. Fun and profitable for lots of folks.

Thanks to the St. Maries Gazette, they provided great articles and pictures on our festival both before and after. It seemed like almost all the people who came were Upriver residents (Emida, Fernwood, & Santa). This means that our festival has lots of room to grow as we attract more visitors and participants in the future.

Take a look at the pictures I uploaded on

www.myspace.com/richardpullman

I think we got pictures of everyone in the Parade. For the festival, I tried to get everyone, but I missed some and some of my pictures didn’t turn out.

Thanks again to everyone involved.

Richard Pullman

Thursday we had our board meeting for our community organization, Upriver Community United, Inc. They let me be the President. It is so inspiring to see our motivated volunteers step forward and say, “I’ll do this” or “I’ll take care of that”.

We spent most of the meeting talking about our community festival coming up. It’s the first annual Upriver Pioneer Days in Fernwood, Idaho on July 25th. I posted the detail of the Schedule and stuff on our website calendar at

www.upriverunited.org/calendar.html

This is so cool. We’ve got volunteers to mow the lawn at the CAF (Community Ambulance and Fire) building every two weeks all summer. To fix the fence and get everything ready we’re having a workday on July 19th, everyone come and help.

Don’t tell anyone yet, but there’s a rumor that the grant proposal for our Upriver Cell Phone & Broadband towers is almost complete. Five cell phone towers for Upriver. We can bring our Upriver communities out of the 19th century! Looks like Obama’s stimulus money might actually do us some good.

What a kick!

Richard

3rd Annual Cleanup Day—April 25

Warm weather is again exposing the earth, along with all the debris that has accumulated over the winter months. Spring is cleanup time and the third annual Cleanup Day is set for April 25th.

Since we started Community Clean-Up Day three years ago, many of the miles between Emerald Creek Garnet Mine and the far side of Emida have been ADOPTED. That is so exciting! However we do still have many miles to spruce up to make our community sparkle after a long winter.

Beth Halvorsen will be coordinating volunteers for this effort. Please call 245-6726 to claim a mile or find out where you could be helpful. She will be getting the orange garbage bags and disposable safety vests for all volunteers to have whether you have adopted a mile or are helping with unclaimed miles.

Large Highway Safety Signs will also be set-up along the highway from 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
To set this all off, Ron Halvorsen Insurance is sponsoring a coloring contest at UpRiver School. There will be three age groups and the winner in each group will win a $15.00 gift certificate.

This is a great day for those who have adopted highway miles to join others who are cleaning the unclaimed miles in making a clean sweep of the area. We will have fun and camaraderie while improving our scenic byways. Join your friends and neighbors in restoring the beauty of our community on the last Saturday of April.

Thank you all in advance.

The Entrepreneurial and Communications Committees have merged and changed their names to Community Connections. Current leadership consists of co-chairs, Rosemary Niemier and Judi Heicksen.

Come to our new Community Connections meeting, where we are “networking for success,” Sunday, May 3, at 7:00 p.m. at the CAF Building in Fernwood. This new time is temporarily necessary because the Drifter’s will be closed at our regular time. We will see how this works for people who are interested, but have been unable to come to our morning meetings.

We are working on scheduling interesting classes for the community, grants for continued outreach, a possible food bank, and other ideas for improving resources in our local area~~share your thoughts with us.

Call Richard Pullman, 245-9183, or Rosemary Niemier, 245-1459, for more information.

The upcoming community festival titled Pioneer Days is developing as different organizations have offered to take on a variety of activities from food booths to horseshoes and other games. The main emphasis is that the day will be a family-friendly festival, which will encourage participation by all members of the community, down to the youngest family members.

The PTO, Girl Scouts, and 4-H will be sponsoring activities along with the Senior Center, Church, Library, Fire Department, and others. Plan to attend and participate in the judged parade.

We are looking for a Grand Marshall and will take nominations addressed to the Upriver Community United, PO Box 341, Fernwood, ID, 83830. Think Pioneer Days and consider people who have a special connection with our historical roots.

Some have asked about the outcome of the effort to have signs made to highlight the historical significance of the area. It turns out that no one from the Department of Transportation has returned calls or responded to the materials submitted for the project. It seems that budgets have been cut and the DOT is very preoccupied with other matters that prevent them from dealing with historical sign markers at this point. Therefore this project is on hold for at least the near future.

The Historical Society reported that they have a small balance of money in reserve from the sale of the calendars and memberships. They have published their second quarterly newsletter this month. They have gotten access to the Benewah County archives of school reports which detail general information about school enrollment, attendance, the needs of the children, and so forth. The records go back as far as 1915 and indicate that there were 30 schools in the county at one time. The society has also obtained photos of the Fernwood Train Depot being moved.

They would like to start inviting local “elders” who have a lot of knowledge of the area to their meetings and record the “chat” sessions.

Two students from UpRiver School’s yearbook committee were given a tour of the photos in the CAF building. At school they went from class to class sharing the source of the calendars that were donated to the school. There was a lot of interest generated among the students as they got a glimpse into their roots.

The historical group hopes to find grants and do more fund raising to support their work and the cost of restoring and displaying the numerous photographs and artifacts that they are accumulating.

Delegates to the grant-writing workshop (Richard Pullman and Judi Heicksen) reported that they not only learned a lot about grant writing and came away with a lot of resources, but they also wrote a grant for creating a dedicated computer lab at the CAF building. This grant is a work in progress right now. It was created to experience the actual process of grant writing and was based on a plan visualized on the spur of the moment.

When brought back to the Entrepreneurial and Communication Committees, Rosemary Niemier brought up the vision that others had of creating a community food bank in the CAF building, if permission could be obtained. This idea, merged with the computer classroom idea, alters the space requirements, costs, etc. The Board concurred. They have a vision of a future food bank as well, and envision the possibility of making any space alterations in the building temporary and transportable so that they can be reused in any future location we might acquire, while leaving the present location available to any future plans of the county.

As the grant is developed Richard will continue to work on the financial piece while Judi works on the narrative. We will continue to look for grants that can benefit the Historical Society, a food bank, community garden, and other activities to benefit the area.

You probably noticed this listed in the classes below (under Computer Classes), but we wanted you to take notice that there is an opportunity here to develop a resume and search for job possibilities with an experienced guide.

Sign up for this class for FREE ( a change in fee from that listed in the newsletter and on registration forms that have been sent out previously!)

The time has also changed to evening for those of you who cannot make it during the day because of other obligations. It is now scheduled from 6:00-9:00 PM on March 5.

Register by calling the Extension Office at 245-2422.

*Note:  The limitation of 7 students is due to the number of computers we have available. This number may be flexible if you have a wireless capable computer that you can bring to the class. 

Bring your own wireless ready computer or use one of ours for these classes. Register by calling Richard Pullman at 245-9183 or mail registration to the address given. You will be contacted to confirm registration. 

 INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS, Richard Pullman instructor, Tuesday and Thursday, February 24th and 26th, 1:00pm to 2:30pm, cost $10, limit 7*.

Intro to Computers is a two-day class (1.5 hours each) designed for the beginner. It will include such basics as turning your computer on and off, exploring the various uses of the computer, definitions of commonly used words, and answers to commonly asked questions. The second day will provide an opportunity to finish up any areas not covered by the first day and give time to practice with guidance what was learned in the first session, answering any questions that have arisen in the meantime.

LANDING A JOB IN THE E-WORLD: how to use your best resource (THE INTERNET) to land a job and launch a career, Ashley McFarland instructor, March 5th, 6:00pm to 9:00pm, No Cost, limit 7*

. Landing a Job in the E-World is a 3-hour class designed for the job searcher. It will cover job searching on the Internet and resume construction. Topics covered will be: Online Job Searching; Tools To Find The Job You Want;  Online Applications; Resume Building; and Communicating With Employers. You will have in-class assistance to find jobs and write resumes You should have a background in word processing (preferably MS Word), have an idea what kind of skills you have, and what types of jobs you might like. 

More classes will be scheduled in the future.  If there is enough interest in the courses some may be repeated.

We value feedback and will be finding instructors and scheduling classes to fit the need. 

*Note:  The limitation of 7 students is due to the number of computers we have available. This number may be flexible if you have a wireless capable computer that you can bring to the class.

UpRiver Community United has had an immensely busy and profitable time since the last newsletter. We received the grant money for which we applied and have made major changes at the CAF building.

·      We hired an electrician to upgrade the wiring to bring it into compliance with code in the kitchen and make the main room useable for a computer lab. While he was doing that, he made sure that the wiring for the ambulance room downstairs was also protected.

·      A plumber fixed the ladies’ and men’s bathrooms so that the fixtures work properly, replacing the sinks and vanities, fixing the toilets, repairing the mildewed walls and floors.

·      Doors have been fixed to add security to the room that will be used to house our equipment and to the front door.

·      We subscribed to WildBlue satellite Internet service and they have installed the dish.

We have also purchased a desktop computer and wireless capable printer as well as software, wireless adapters, and thumb drives for our computer classes. A laptop computer lab is on loan from the U of I Extension Service so that we have 6 laptops, in addition to the desktop, on which class attendees can train. The router is in place and we seem to be ready to offer computer classes!

Thank you to all those who have helped make this happen:

      Charlie and Christine Ashmead, Richard Pullman, Joanne O’Dwyer, Rosemary Niemier, Ashley McFarland,  and Rusty Nail Construction

After hours of preparation, (thanks to Chris and Carol Lee), the collection of local historical photos were framed and ready to hang for this week-ends public viewing! Friday afternoon Chris, Carol Lee and Joanne met at the Fernwood community center to create a gallery-like atmospere in which to show off the 40+ photos that were part of the beginnings of the UpRiver history.

“I have really enjoyed this project!”, exclaimed Chris Ashmead (who is now the chairperson of the newly formed Historical Society.)

The walls were draped with black felt that created the backdrop for the photos that were on display on Novenmber 8th.

“Over 70 people came through the door to view the collection and many bought membership in the Historical Society!”, Carol Lee who manned the table was pleased to say.

Calendars were also on sale that featured the theme, “Now and Then”. We had visitors from as far away as Spokcane, Wallace and Coeur ‘d Alene come to reminience. One such visitor, who donated several of the photos, grew up in Fernwood in the early 1900’s. Her daughters escorted her and stayed for the coffee, homemade cookies (thanks to the volunteers who baked for the event!) and company. You see, Ruth (Sinrud) Cunningham’s father was Peter Lewis Sinrud, the superintentdent of the Blackwell Lumber Company from 1921-1934. Needless to say his photo was proudly on display which gave the family a feeling of belonging. That’s what this is all about, as the conversations in the community center seemed to be telling. People all have a story to tell and it helps to define a community.

I want to give credit to the many people who have come forth with photos and stories: the Issacson family, Bud McCall, Gertude Gray, Bud Harvey, Shirley Harvey, Charlie Peel and Terry Rogers to name a few. The UpRiver Historical Society hopes to continue to document the colorful past of the UpRiver area and we welcome new members! Our long term goal is to secure a location for our artifacts. As for now we have stimulated a lot of interest and have met many interesting folks!

The UpRiver Historical Society is affiliated with the non-profit group, UpRiver Community United, Inc. We meet every last Monday of each month at the CAF building in Fernwood.

We had our first UpRiver Historical Society meeting on September 30 at the Community Center in Fernwood. Christine Ashmead was elected chairperson. We discussed the historical photo project and set a date for the public viewing for November, (date to be announced!) at the CAF building. Time will be annouced.

Calendars will be on sale at that time with memberships available to join. One year memberships will cost $20 and includes a free calendar, 10 year memberships will be $200, plus a free calendar for the 10 years joined. Lifetime memberships will be offered for $500!! Memberships will include a certificate and free calendar for every year paid membership. We discussed the group’s plans for securing a location to house photos and possibly having it be visitor center where poeple can find information about the UpRiver area with maps of the local attractions.

This years’ calendar theme is going to be “Then and Now”, featuring photos of the area in the past and how it looks now. The group plans to focus on grantwriting, and generating more historical intrest.

The next meeting and all future meetings will be on the last Tuesday of each month. October 28th is our next meeting, at 6:30 PM at the CAF building.

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…That is what the Entrepreneurial Committee is all about. At least that is how I see it.

We are committed to making UpRiver a good place to live and to that end, we want to make living here more comfortable and a little easier. That means that you need to have access to some of the resources that others take for granted because they live in bigger communities.

Stretching your money, time, and space are things I think would help most people.How can that be done? How can outsiders help individuals accomplish these things? Those are the kinds of questions we have been brainstorming. These thoughts are what produced the surveys that we generated and circulated. We think if we can connect you to resources that will help and inspire you, then you will be able to go farther and do more than you ever thought you could.

We are excited about our new status as a non-profit organization that will help us raise funds for these activities and now we have a grant that is helping us move forward. At the last meeting of the Communications and Entrepreneurial (may I change that name?) Committees, on Monday, October 6, we discussed having speakers come to a community dinner to give us all a “shot in the arm.” We are looking at the possibility of early December in order to locate a presenter. We also were reminded of the Open House the new Historical Society intends to offer in November. (More details will certainly be coming.) We are talking to instructors for various classes that will soon begin to be offered at the CAF building.

We are still brainstorming ideas for reaching everyone with useful and inspirational assistance and welcome all comers with their ideas. Bouncing ideas around causes them to pick up momentum and creativity. Your input is valuable and needed. Please pick a meeting date, time and place that works for you and drop in. We have meetings all through the month focusing on different topics. All meetings are open to UpRiver folk and we encourage, encourage, 

encourage

you to come! Check the calendar until you find one that fits your schedule, then come on in!