News Archives:

First Brick Order Placed:  Even before we could have everything in place to begin our brick project, the first of several orders arrived!  The very first one was placed by Merry Harris of Medford, OR.  Merry  contacted us wanting to know how she could order one of the bricks for her son Erik.  It seems she is rather good at giving unique and special gifts and with Erik's birthday quickly approaching, she really wanted to have the very first brick for him.  We were happy to make arrangements so that Erik's brick was indeed the very first of many.  Part of what made this such a special gift was that Erik had grown up in Wimer and spent many a summer day hanging out at the bridge and playing in Evans Creek below with his brother and all their friends.  Erik has so many memories of the bridge and was saddened to hear of the collapse.  Erik left the Wimer area with his education and career taking him across the country.  He now lives in the Boston area and is very successful but still holds dear his childhood memories of growing up in the area.  So when you visit the site of the new bridge and see the brick for "Erik S Britt-Webb", you will know that someone in Boston is closely following all of our efforts and looking forward to seeing the new covered bridge in place.  We look forward to having Erik and his family visit the bridge when it is done.  Thank you Merry and Erik for your support!

Local Artist Support:  We were approached by two local artists who wanted to support the rebuilding effort using their talents and gifts.  Mary Geller and Pat Tracy have been kind enough to use their painting skills to create original art of the bridge.  Mary created a beautiful oil painting from a viewpoint not often captured of the bridge.  The original painting has been framed with material that remains from the covered bridge.  She has donated it to the group.  We plan to offer this at a benefit auction later this summer which should make a significant contribution to our overall goal.  When Ralph and Ellen Campbell, owners of Alexander's Framing & Gallery saw Mary's painting, they knew right away that more than one person would want this.  They decided to jump in and contribute to our efforts by having gallery quality prints made. They were kind enough to cover all cost associated with making these fine prints and we deeply appreciate their generous support. The prints turned out to be fantastic!  A limited first edition of the prints, signed by the artist, are now available for a minimum donation of $20.00 at Alexander's Framing & Gallery.  They are located at  211 Pine St. in Rogue River, OR, 97537.  Ralph and Ellen are also offering some very nice packages that combine the print and attractive framing.  You can reach them at 541-582-1245 or just stop by and take a look for yourself.  We will be adding these to our online store soon but to give you fair warning, the signed copies are going quick!  We are hoping there might be a second printing if the demand continues.  Pat Tracy who was instrumental in getting our group going in the early days after the bridge collapsed has also made one of her wonderful original paintings available to make prints from.  She too has a unique view of the bridge along with some of the occasional deer that frequent Evans Creek flowing below the bridge.  Prints of her painting are being made on museum quality acid free paper and are also suitable for framing.  These are available on a special order basis only.  These prints will be available for a minimum donation of $50.00.  Please check our online store in the near future for ordering details.  We would like to thank both Mary and Pat for their generous support to help rebuild the covered bridge!

Mary Geller Painting                  Pat Tracy Painting

(click on either image to see full size)

Baci Pizza Night - Letter Writing Campaign:  Oren Ben-Dayan, owner of Baci's Pizza in Rogue River has generously agreed to sponsor a pizza dinner one night in support of our letter writing campaign we are doing.  What is this letter writing campaign all about you ask?  Well, here are the details.  We have had great success with all of our efforts locally to raise funds and we appreciate all the support.  We also see that there is a large pool of possible supporters who might not live in the area or be following our project as close as we all do.  In an effort to reach these possible donors, we are asking that everyone think of at least five friends, family members or business contacts who might be interested in the project but have not been approached yet.  We will supply a letter that lists all the specifics of what our project involves and what our goal is.  The letter will also specify that all donations are tax deductible as we are a registered non-profit.  We will also have brick order forms and some post cards that we can include in the envelope.  All you have to do is stop in and visit with us, hand write a short note on our letter to each of your contacts and then hand address the envelope!  We will then make sure all packets are complete and mail them out.  This provides even the busiest of people the opportunity to make a big contribution.  We all know how it is to get solicitations in mass mailings.  So many of them go right into the trash.  But we all know that if we get something in the mail that is hand addressed by someone we know, we will be sure to read what they took the time to send to us.  Even if they don't respond, you got a chance to send them a note, say hello and let them know of your interest in the bridge.  In return for your minimum of 5 notes and addresses , we will have plenty of great pizza and soft drinks.  Be thinking of those contacts and check back here for the date and time!  We are working to have this in place in the coming weeks.  Be sure and let Oren know we appreciate his support the next time you stop in Baci's for some delicious pizza!

Upcoming Festivals we will be at:  We are working hard to prepare for all the events we have planned to attend this summer.  We will have our booth up and running with all of the new t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats other special items that are on the way.  We will be at the Pottsville Tractor Parts Swap Meet in Merlin, OR on April 2nd and 3rd as our first event of the year.  For those who have not been to Pottsvile, it is great chance to see a collection of old tractors and engines that were the backbone of the local farming and logging industries.  This early event will be a swap meet only.  They also have a great tractor pull event later in the summer and we plan on being back for that one too!  The following weekend of April 9th,  we will be in Medford, OR for the Pear Blossom Festival Street Fair in Alba Park.  This is a fun filled weekend with a parade and the annual Pear Blossom Run for all the runners out there.  This is a big event that really kicks off the start of spring.  Stop by their website at http://www.pearblossomrun.com/ for more information and schedules.  The next event we have planned is the Grants Pass Antiques and Collectables Street Fair on May 15th in Grants Pass, OR.  This is a huge happening with two whole streets shut down and filled with vendors for the day.    We hope you will stop by and say hello and check out all the ways you can support our project at one of these events.

Design Firm Selected!  Mike Kuntz, Engineer for Jackson County Roads Dept. has informed us that CH2M HILL has been selected from the Request for Proposal process to design the new covered bridge.  They are currently in the negotiation process.  We might know more as soon as January 2005 regarding the final details.  We will look forward to hearing more when the contract is in place.  This will be another significant step forward.  With the reception of our plan with the Commissioners and the design contract soon to be in place, permitting could be done later in 2005 and possible construction started in spring or summer of 2006!  All we have to do is keep on track with our goals! Update:  Mike Kuntz attended our January meeting to provide an update on the project.  CH2M HILL is working on the scoping phase which is the last step prior to the actual design.  We are expecting an update from Mike sometime soon as the paperwork part of the process is completed.  Once the design work is complete, we will have the bill of material we have been looking for.  We will then begin our efforts to supply what materials we can.  Check back here for more updates soon!

Online Store is OPEN!  Our online Store now up and running.  Cookbooks and Calendars are in stock.  Shirts and Sweatshirts to be posted soon!  Memory Brick orders to be taken soon now!  All transactions are secure through PayPal.  Visit the online Store, click here

Cookbooks are Here!  A great big Thank You to all that shared their recipes and the entire cookbook team!  Publishing went well and the books are here and flying off the shelves!  The end result is a great cookbook with many ties to local families and special recipes.  You can get yours at the Wimer Family Market or the Country Cafe in Wimer.  They are also available at Ben Franklin Pharmacy, Main Building Supply, Umpqua Bank, Evergreen Federal Bank and Alexander’s Framing & Gallery in Rogue River.

2005 Calendars are Here:  We were hoping to make a good effort at putting together a calendar for the coming year.  It was going to be a challenge from the start but Scott & Denise Purrier along with Dennis Rasmussen did a great job.  They were able to pull together some wonderful vintage photographs of some of the bridges in the area that have long since fallen.  The pictures turned out better than anyone had hoped.  We then got great support from Nighthawk Graphics in Medford doing the final preparations and Morningstar Press in Rogue River who pushed the printing through for us quickly.  The end result was a calendar that has really raised the bar for what we will have to do next year to exceed this one!  It will be a collectors item well beyond 2005.  You can get yours at the Wimer Family Market or the Country Cafe in Wimer.  They are also available at Ben Franklin Pharmacy, Main Building Supply, Umpqua Bank, Evergreen Federal Bank and Alexander’s Framing & Gallery in Rogue River.

(Click on the images of the calendar for the full size of each)

Seven Basins Watershed Council Support:  Dave Graham, coordinator for the council was a guest speaker at our August General Meeting.  Dave spoke to our group to express the councils support of our activities to rebuild the bridge.  The council is also interested in possibly improving the Mae Ellis park located next to the bridge with educational information about the watershed surrounding Evans Creek.  Both groups see this as a perfect opportunity to work together and showcase these assets of the community.

Monthly column now in Rogue River Press!  We are pleased to announce that we now have a monthly column, "Covered Bridge Update..." in the Rogue River Press.  Dave Ehrhardt and his staff have been fantastic in their support of our efforts.  They were kind enough to provide us with a website until we were able to get this one going.  Be looking for the column every third Wed. of the month to read about the latest news.  They also have a great website that can keep you up to date with everything in the area.  Their site is http://www.rogueriverpress.com

Email Newsletter now available!  We now have our newsletter available via email.  We will use this to share news on the project with you at least once a month or each time we have breaking news.  If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send an email to newsletter-request@wimercoveredbridge.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.  If you are currently receiving our newsletter and do not want to continue, please send an email to newsletter-request@wimercoveredbridge.org with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.  These directions are slightly different than those in the first newsletter that we sent out recently and are now working correctly.  We started our list with only those who had signed up for continuing information at one of the public meetings.  If you signed up at one of those meetings but did not receive the latest newsletter, please subscribe again.  We found some email addresses had changed or were incorrect.  Our mailing list is only for the purposes of this organization.  We do not share or sell any information with any other group so you will not end up on any other lists as a result of subscribing to ours.

Merchandise  available at Wimer Market:  All the great items we had at the Rooster Crow booth are now on sale at the Wimer Market.  Thanks to Bev and Dusty for their support.  A new order of shirts are on the way and we have added tank tops as requested.

Strategic Plan Presented to Jackson County Board of Commissioners!:  The Strategic Plan subcommittee lead by Linda Hugle did a great job putting our plan together and that effort really paid off.  We presented the plan to Dave Gilmour, Jack Walker and Commissioner-elect C.W. Smith on Dec. 7th. 2004.  The plan was well received and highly complimented by those present.  The level of dedication and commitment was evident by the scope of our activities.  The Board was quite impressed that we plan to exceed the original amount required and that we are looking at future preservation too.  The Board gave us an informal approval based on our plan and results generated to date.   What that means to us is that our efforts have in fact shown the intent to meet the requirements to keep the project moving forward.  It also keeps the grant money already set aside available as long as the project is active.  This was our primary goal in formulating the plan and we succeeded!  We are scheduled to meet again with the Board of Commissioners in August to review our fund raising achievements at that time.    Read the Strategic Plan, click here

Car Wash, Sept. 11th at the Umpqua Bank in Rogue River!  We will be washing cars and selling shirts all day Saturday.  Get your car or truck cleaned and buy a new wardrobe all for a great cause.  We will be out there at 8:00 am and stay until we have washed all the cars and trucks in Rogue River.  If you would like to help out during the day contact us as webmaster@wimercoveredbridge.org and we will add you to the team.  Even if you can only stay part of the time, we have a place for you.  Thanks to Umpqua Bank for their support and allowing us the use of their parking lot!  UPDATE - Results!  Thanks to all who stopped by and let us scrub their cars and trucks clean that day!  We had a great turn out and really appreciated the support the community has shown for our project.  We were busy from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm moving cars and some really big trucks! through as fast as we could go.  The effort was worth it as we raised $500.00.  After all the hard work was done, Abby's Legendary Pizza in Rogue River was kind enough to feed the whole crew!  What a great reward for all those waterlogged workers.

Evans Valley Fire Dept. Yard Sale Sept. 25th!  We will have a booth at the yard sale event with our information and shirts as well as donated items for sale.  If you have a few items around the house that you don't want or need anymore, why not donate them to our committee for sale at the event?  Your donations are 100% tax deductible and all proceeds from all the sales go directly to our bridge fund.  If you would like to make a donation, please contact us at webmaster@wimercoveredbridge.org or at (541) 855-2355.  Pick up service may be available.  This is a great event that benefits our Fire Department and the bridge too.   UPDATE - Results!  Thanks to all those who donated the unique and valuable items for us to sell in our booth as well as the local artists who donated the handcrafted raffle prizes!  These great items brought in the shoppers who bought nearly everything we had!  The support the community has shown the project is really encouraging!  The efforts to put this together were well worth it as we raised close to $1300 for the day.

With Bev Nolan watching closely, Levi Purrier draws the lucky tickets for our raffle winners.

 Bea Bachmann scored the wonderful quilted picture of the Wimer Covered Bridge.
 

Patsy Stillwell took home the beautiful glass window hanging.

Team Covered Bridge Wins Horseshoe Pitching Tournament and donates winnings!  It was an intense day of competition with a large field of teams but Todd Liles and Kelly Roberts stayed focused throwing ringers all day long.  Both have close ties to the bridge and were delighted to announce the purse would go directly to the bridge fund.  We would like to thank them for their generosity and making our shirts the official team uniform.  The crowd was so taken during the victory celebration that they all had to have our shirts, selling out the entire inventory on hand!

New Board Members Elected:  On June 12th, Pat Tracy informed the group that she had resigned her position of chairperson.  Pat put in a great deal of time and effort to get the organization going.  We would all like to thank Pat for all of her hard work and take this opportunity to continue the momentum we have going forward.  We wish her all the best with her new endeavors.  The committee had been evolving from a brainstorming stage of trying to understand what options we had to pursue and what it would take to meet the requirements of those options.  Once the community made it clear that they wanted to build a replacement bridge as much like the original one as possible, we had a better defined direction.  We now have some specific goals to achieve.  With this new direction, it was decided that the scope or the committee's work was expanding and that the board needed more members to address all the work to be done.  At the June 2004 General Meeting, elections were held to add new board members.  The new board members are Joyce Purrier, Dennis Rasmussen, Bill Sabados, Roberta Menteer and Dan Roberts.  Current board members Bev Nolan, Treasurer and Joan Knoeppel, Secretary remained on the board and in their original positions.  It was decided at this meeting that the new board members would meet again to address the issue of filling the position of chairperson.  These new members bring a great deal of enthusiasm and energy to the committee and look forward to really moving the group to the next level.  The new board met the following week to address the open chairperson position.  It was decided to add a new position of co-chairperson also.  Dan Roberts was elected chairperson and Dennis Rasmussen was selected for the co-chairperson .  They both welcome the new challenges that lie ahead.  If you would like to contact any of the new board members, their information is on the "Contact Us" page.

Rooster Crow 2004:  The community response and show of support for rebuilding the bridge was wonderful.  We would like to thank everyone for stopping by and making their support known.  We even had a float in the parade thanks to the Eagle Point Chamber of Commerce.  They loaned us the covered bridge float they use in their parades.  This float was awarded a second place ribbon in the non-commercial category.  Tee-shirt sales were brisk as well as other merchandise.  Overall the weekend brought in close to $2000.00!  It was a great team effort to put this together.  Be watching for our booth at future events in the area.  We are actively planning on having the booth at many venues, if you would like to be on the team that works in the booth, please contact us!

Our booth at the 2004 Rooster Crow.  The end result of much hard work by the committee, great job everyone!

The booth was busy all day long with many who support our project stopping by.

The replica bridge built from remains of the actual bridge.

The bridge float in the Rooster Crow parade.

Bev Nolan, Joyce Purrier and Scott Purrier show off the 2nd place ribbon awarded for the bridge float.

501c3 update, it's official:        We have completed the final steps in our organization being officially recognized as a 501c3 non-profit operation.  This allows for all donations to be tax deductible.