Aberdeen Events Calendar

Listen to selections from oral histories gathered by Harbor area students come to life through readings and narrator panels. Through these voices we will explore what draws us to this place, what helps us persevere during times of struggle, and what cultivates our sense of belonging to the area known as “The Harbor.”

Voices from the Harbor is an event series produced with funding from Humanities Washington. This is the first in a series of three events.

The public is invited to join local historians and students from the Evergreen State College as they share selections from oral histories collected by and from Harbor residents. Participants will learn about the craft of composing oral histories as they listen to stories about the Harbor Region from the perspective of local residents.

Giving Voice to Experience is the first of three events planned for the Voices of the Harbor project – produced through a collaboration between the Evergreen State College and Window Seat Media; with support from Humanities Washington.

Historian Lorraine McConaghy will begin the program with an illustrated introduction to the war’s themes. Following that, guests may participate in a scripted “Readers’ Theater,” designed to portray the turmoil of the years 1914 – 1919.  The script is drawn from first-person sources such as letters, diaries and news paper stories. It allows modern readers to speak aloud the words of a past generation, and gain an sense of how Washingtonians of that era experienced the great social, economic and political changes: industrialization, immigration, women’s rights, radical labor, epidemic disease, and worldwide turmoil.

Join us as we salute Arnold Samuels, a local legend, and meet his biographer, John C. Hughes, chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of State.

Samuels’ remarkable Army service during WWII found him serving in Counter Intelligence Corps, helping liberate the horrific concentration camp at Dachau and working with another young Jewish G.I., Henry Kissinger.  Arnold Samuels is also the only person ever elected to the Ocean Shores City Council as a write-in.

Don’t miss this opportunity to own a signed copy of Washington Remembers WWII! Be there for this extraordinary presentation!

A get together of local history and memorabilia. Hotel Emerson was opened in April 1924 and will be 93years old on the 30th of the month. Stop in and tour the lobby and what is now the Hoquiam Senior Center, which was a part of original hotel building.
Several local buildings will be represented at this event.

To date the following have made a commitment to attend and share the time relating stories of the buildings and history of Hoquiam events.

Their will also be several Hoquiam Memorabilia Collectors attending and sharing stories and their memorabilia of local historic events. Bring your stories and memorabilia and share. Please contact me if you would like to participate.

What gives us a sense of place and belonging on the Harbor? Participate in a community mapping project to tell your story of what makes the Harbor…home. To participate, visit here to add to our online map or pick up a mapping kit at the Hoquiam Library beginning on Saturday, April 15.

We will compile community contributions from the mapping activity into a self-guided tour. The link to the tour will be available online or pick up a paper copy at the Hoquiam Library.

Join us for a reception at the Polson Museum on April 29 at 2:30 p.m. to discuss insights and perspectives sparked by the activity and learn about other historic walking tours in the area.

Origins. Remnants. Renaissance. Peel back the layers of meaning of places and spaces of special significance to the Harbor region’s identity along a self-guided tour. Then, join us for a reception at the Polson Museum with local historians and discussions of insights and perspectives sparked by the tour. Tour guides and information will be available on April 29 beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Hoquiam Library.

Voices from the Harbor is an event series produced with funding from Humanities Washington. Layers of Meaning: Experiencing the Built Environment is the second event in a three part series.

Shuttle service will be available at Simpson Elementary School. For those wishing to park at the lake, you must have a Discover Pass (passes are available at the park).

Activities include: Camp Pancake Breakfast; Trail Races; Music in the Park; Kids Games and Races; Artists’ Market; Food Vendors and more.

This session will be the capstone event for “Learnings from the Chehalis.” Over the past 15 years, community volunteers, citizens, and government agencies have been putting effort in to making the Chehalis River clean and healthy for people, fish and wildlife. How well have we done? This session will look at progress made on water quality improvement, salmon habitat restoration, water conservation, and the impacts of regulations and policies.

Our capstone talk will be held by a panel from the Chehalis Basin Partnership. The Chehalis Basin Partnership was formed in 1998 to provide a framework for local citizens, interest groups, and government organizations to work collaboratively to identify and solve water-related issues. Come with questions!

A challenge to dig up but delicious to eat, razor clams are entwined with the state’s commerce, identity, and history. Join author and clam digger David Berger to explore the twists and turns of a quintessential Northwest activity, from its pre-settlement days to the present. This program is cosponsored by Humanities Washington. For Adults.

A challenge to dig up but delicious to eat, razor clams are entwined with the state’s commerce, identity, and history. Join author and clam digger David Berger to explore the twists and turns of a quintessential Northwest activity, from its pre-settlement days to the present. This program is cosponsored by Humanities Washington. For Adults.

All October long, pick up a colorful world map at the Information Desk to trace your family’s passage from your ancestral homeland to Grays Harbor, with landing points along the way. We will supply markers and other crafting supplies for you to use. Maps will be available starting Oct. 3. Supplies are limited. Submissions may be posted to library social media.

Participating libraries: Aberdeen, Amanda Park, Westport

Explore the story of your immigration or an ancestor’s in this writing workshop under the guidance of author and poet Joanne Clarkson. Clarkson most recently published a volume of poetry, “The Fates,” which touched on her grandmothers’ immigration experiences.

Coastal Interpretive Center’s Rayonier: 90 Years of Land Management is a presentation about the 90-year history of Rayonier’s land management and modern forestry practices, presented by Mark Smalley, Engineering Manager, and Dan Stransky, the Senior Timber Marketing Manager for Rayonier’s lands in Oregon and Washington.

Throughout the Northwest, people have been reporting encounters with the Sasquatch— a hairy, eight to ten-foot-tall hominid —for hundreds of years. Yet no scientifically accepted evidence has been offered to establish this being’s existence.

Author David George Gordon evaluates the data gathered about the legendary Northwest icon, discusses the rules of critical thinking and the workings of the scientific method, and explains how one can become an effective “citizen scientist” by gathering credible evidence that can be used to substantiate the Sasquatch’s status as either Man-Ape or Myth.

He is the author of “The Sasquatch Seeker’s Field Manual: Using Citizen Science to Uncover North America’s Most Elusive Creature“.  Read more about the author here.

Presenter: Bill Pickell

Come for an exhibit of paintings by Robert Chamberlain illustrating marine activity of Washington’s ports, yesterday and today. They take the viewer from the Columbia, up the coast, through the Straits, and down Puget sound to Olympia.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“We are coming together because we are tired of Grays Harbor County’s economic devastation and we are working together to make our city a better place for everyone,” says Mashyla Buckmaster, organizer with Harbor Rising and Chaplains the Harbor.

June 12th, 2018

CONTACTS:
Mashyla Buckmaster (360) 580-4278
Stina Janssen (360) 301-3340

Downtown Future Housing Site Tour and Vigil to advance vision for 2,000 affordable housing units in Aberdeen Revitalization Plan

Aberdeen, WA – Residents of Aberdeen who have experienced homelessness first-hand and housing-insecure families advocate that affordable housing must be a central emphasis in Aberdeen’s Revitalization Plan. Saturday, under the banner “Harbor Rising,” we will gather to welcome the Most Reverend Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, to the streets of Aberdeen. Having sermonized at the Royal Wedding, Curry is now an international household name. Presiding Bishop Curry’s presence honors the work of our local community, which is rising to the challenge as we face down a housing crisis and advance lasting solutions.

Local residents will lead a downtown tour highlighting both our plight and our potential for future affordable housing and treatment centers, demonstrating our vision to the Presiding Bishop and members of the New Poor People’s Campaign visiting from across Washington State. We will end the day with a vigil at Aberdeen City Hall to honor the many lives lost due to homelessness in our community. The tour will meet at 3:00pm Saturday, June 16th in the parking lot next to Jay’s Fruit Stand (corner of South G St and E Heron St, Aberdeen, WA 98520) and will end at City Hall (200 E Market St) for a vigil.

Making housing a central priority in Aberdeen’s Revitalization Plan would address issues at the heart of citywide concern for Aberdeen’s economic future.
In recent weeks, the City has responded to homelessness with ordinances that would punish homeless people for the housing crisis. There have been community efforts to evict the largest homeless camp in the city. Like the City and the business community, we want a better future for our city and we want businesses and workers to do well.

We mourn the devastating loss of the Aberdeen Armory, which housed vital services including Meals on Wheels, the Museum of History, and Coastal Community Action Program, a provider of housing assistance. Despite the backlog the fire’s destruction will place on housing resources, we know that as a resilient community, we will rise.

Those who know homelessness firsthand have a vision to restore our county and its people by rebuilding our housing stock. One in sixteen people—approximately 1,000 people—are homeless in Aberdeen (DSHS 2017). For every 100 extremely low-income families in Grays Harbor, there are just 17 housing affordable units available. For the 1,775 extremely low-income households in the county, there are only 615 affordable units available, and for the 1,715 very low-income households, only 605 affordable units are available (American Community Survey Data 2016).

Meanwhile in Aberdeen, 11.7% of housing, 862 units, stand vacant (US Census 2010), most of these currently unfit for human habitation. We propose that 2,000 units be built or restored in Aberdeen to fill the gap in affordable housing availability. Harbor Rising imagines responsible agencies partnering with local organizations to provide housing including pathways to home-ownership and employment in housing construction and restoration. The Future Housing Site tour, led by people who have experienced homeless and housing insecurity first-hand.

The tour will end at City Hall for a vigil for those who have died on the street, prayer, and words from Presiding Bishop Curry.

Harbor Rising is made up of people with experiences of homelessness and housing insecurity, local residents, and organizations including Chaplains on the Harbor, Democracy Rising, Blind Justice and more.

In 1968, Vietnam, civil rights, women’s liberation, and conservation coalesced—and tragedy led the 6 o’clock news. It changed us in ways still rippling a half-century later. 1968: The Year That Rocked Washington features a collection of online stories and an exhibit at the Washington State Capitol with profiles, compelling photos, and artifacts that document the activism and aftershocks of a landmark year in world history.

Please join us for Channel Point Village’s opening Speaker Series event with John Larson, Executive Director of The Polson Museum in Hoquiam, WA, as he explores the theme “Capture the Moment” in relation to the museum’s community-based oral history project “My Harbor Story” and his work at the museum.

Harvest Moon, Storyteller and Quinault Tribal Ambassador shares stories from the Northwest Coast Indian tradition. In partnership with Hoquiam Timberland Library.