I got two more email updates from the Eugene Weekly. The paper has raised over $87,000 through its GoFundMe page. This figure does not include funds raised through other sources. When everything is added up, the paper estimates that they have raised over $100,000 so far. For those of you not in the know, the paper found out just before Christmas that it had been the victim of embezzlement. A former employee allegedly deposited funds in their own personal account instead of paying bills and making deposits in peoples’ 401(k)3 accounts. As a result, the printer refused to print them anymore unless they paid up front.
Since then, numerous members of the community have rallied in an effort to save the paper. Employees are volunteering their time to try to keep the paper going. The Weekly wrote about more of these efforts last Tuesday.
Accountants on the Go, a local accounting firm, donated two hours of their time to help the Eugene Weekly with their books. Sweet Lift Patisserie donated one day’s sales to the paper last Tuesday. MetroBru, a local coffee shop, donated a day’s sales on Wednesday. The Eugene Emeralds, the local minor league baseball team, have offered to help. 255 Madison, a food and wine club, is planning a big fundraiser in February. Old Nick’s Pub did a fundraiser Friday. Nelsons in the Whit donated $1 for every item they sold Wednesday.
If you live in the Eugene area or are passing through, please patronize any or all of these businesses if you can. And mention it is because of their support of the Eugene Weekly. Businesses, even those who want to support papers, make advertising decisions based on whether or not customers see their ads in a particular publication.
The Eugene Register Guard (sorry, paywall) did a story on the Weekly’s efforts to stay afloat and featured the office dogs, Biggie and Aksel. KEZI, one of the local TV stations, also covered the Weekly and wrote, in part:
One of Eugene Weekly’s supporters is the Sweet Life Patisserie. Cheryl Reinhart is one of the owners of the Patisserie and said they have a history of donating to causes across the city.
“We support organizers that we believe in or do important work in our community, and we believe Eugene Weekly is one of those organizations,” Reinhart said. “It provides independent journalism a little different from all the others here, and that's important to us."
With the widespread attention the Eugene Weekly has gotten from both locals and even people and organizations outside the area, the staff said they can't help but feel loved and supported by the community.
The goal now is to resume printing by the end of the month. You can donate to the GoFundMe page linked above, or you can donate directly here. Donations to Eugene Weekly TRIPS, their nonprofit arm, are tax deductible.
Meanwhile, they are starting to publish online again. Below is a selection of some of their recent work.
Shanae Joyce-Stringer is running for Mayor of Eugene. If elected, she would be the city’s first ever Black mayor.
“One of the first public events I attended in Eugene was Juneteenth, and it was honestly the first Juneteenth I had ever experienced,” Stringer says. “And just seeing how the community really showed up for this historic moment and celebrated. I could tell people were just really connected to their community here.”
Equity and inclusion are key components in Stringer’s grassroots campaign. She says, “Eugene is growing and becoming more diverse, and I believe that needs to be reflected in its decisions and how we operate.”
Stringer says she believes that there are a variety of ways that Eugene can be more equitable in serving every type of population, starting with increasing investment in access to mental health and addiction services, especially in the wake of Eugene’s only hospital closing. She says, “I’d love to see some more comprehensive centers that are equipped to address both mental health and addiction, providing specialized care to individuals.”
My honest take — she has a lot of good ideas for the city. Her biggest obstacle is the fact she has only lived there since 2021. Voters generally don’t support outsiders. But if she can overcome that obstacle, she would make a good mayor.
You cannot take in the sights and sounds of Eugene without running into the name of Maude Kerns, who did so much for the city. The premier art center there is named after her and is featuring a big exhibit on her life:
The exhibit covers Kerns’ non-objective work in more than 75 pieces from the center’s collection as well as work owned by private collectors and archived artwork on loan from the Lane County History Museum. Non-objective painting is a type of abstract art. A highlight of the show includes correspondence between Kerns and Rolph Scarlett, a well known non-objective painter from New York. Kerns and Scarlett exhibited at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York City, the forerunner of the Guggenheim Museum.
In 1978, two hunters stumbled on the remains of a dead woman who was pregnant in eastern Oregon. Her identity is unknown today and is a subject of rampant speculation. She is known as Finley Creek Jame Doe:
On Sunday, August 27, 1978, two hunters stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a woman — possibly a woman and a fetus — in brush near their campsite in Union County, a remote part of eastern Oregon near Elgin, a town north of La Grande, and approximately 140 miles from Lewiston, Idaho.
According to an article published two days later in a La Grande newspaper, The Observer, “Oregon State Police investigators today were still carefully unearthing human remains from a shallow grave found by hunters Sunday morning near Finley Creek Road, about 10 miles northwest of Elgin.”
The article continues, “Two hunters from Milton-Freewater, Ron Swinger and Lee Parr, found the grave on a brushy, wooded hill about 200 yards from Finley Cow Camp, a roadside hunters’ campsite.”
The Filthy Filberts is a newly-formed hockey team that is gender inclusive:
The Las Vegas Women’s Classic will take place Jan. 25 – 28, and the Filthy Filberts will play against women’s teams from across the country. Although the Filthy Filberts will compete in women’s tournaments, the team is gender-inclusive, as noted by the rainbow patch on the team’s jerseys.
“Having the opportunity to play with people who share your identities can be really important to help people feel more confident, safe, and welcome,” Walsh writes in a press release. “I’m really glad we’re creating that kind of space with the Filthy Filberts.”
Bill Poppie of Poppie Design created the mascot printed on the Filthy Filberts’ jerseys: a living filbert with a hazelnut helmet racing down the ice with a glare. So far, all fourteen members of the team who will be traveling to Las Vegas for the tournament have a jersey.
Want more journalism like this? Support your local paper. Support your local public radio & TV station. And support the Eugene Weekly and any other publication that is struggling to stay afloat. If we don’t offer hope and change to people, then others will do it for us. The decline of local papers, which feature local news and which give people the facts, and the rise of Donald Trump are directly related.