Join us for this family friendly event on Mother’s Day in our newly acquired fir grove! We are partnering with other local businesses and groups to make this a fun day for everyone in the family. Make sure to stop by Prismatic Coffee and Root Cellar Market while you’re at the fair!

Activities include:

• Plant sale (veggies and herbs) in partnership with the Pringle Creek Community’s Urban Farm

• Family partner yoga with Chantal Barton of Resonance Yoga Collective - free but donations in support of the fir grove are appreciated! Chantal will host one 20 minute session at 11:30 and another session at 12:30. These sessions will be great for parents and kids under 12, and we encourage bringing a blanket and yoga mat. Chantal will have some mats available to borrow.

• Baked goods from Ember & Whisk

• Kombucha from Rhythm Craft Kombucha

• Sustainable nature crafts

• Fir grove scavenger hunt

• Live music!

We are hoping for sunny weather but the fair will go on rain or shine!

We encourage walking, public transport, or carpooling if you are able. If you drive, there is limited parking at 3911 Village Center Dr SE as well as street parking. When parking on the street, please only park on one side of the street and avoid parking on the grass.

Capacity in the hall is limited, so please RSVP by submitting this form.

The SLC’s mission is to provide a unique living laboratory that educates and encourages sustainable practices in daily life, and we believe that understanding the history of this living laboratory is important to achieving our mission.

The second presentation in this series on the history of the Willamette Valley, including Pringle Creek and Chemeketa (now called Salem), is by Cara Kaser, M.A., member of the City of Salem’s Historic Landmarks Commission. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Kaser served as an Architectural Historian with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. 

She has worked on various historic preservation projects throughout the west coast, including the Ernest Bloch House (Newport), Joseph Jacobberger Country House (Portland), Weston School (Weston), the Roba Ranch (Paulina), the Egyptian Theatre (Coos Bay), and Sacajawea State Park (Pasco, Washington).

Ms. Kaser will be presenting on New Dreams in Old Buildings, a focus on early building practices in Oregon.

The SLC appreciates any help we can get to continue hosting events like this! A $10 donation would be greatly appreciated, but feel free to donate what you are able to. You can donate online or in person at the event.

Capacity in the hall is limited, so please RSVP by submitting this form.

We are still finalizing details for other presentations in the Willamette Valley History Series; in the meantime check the SLC events page for updates and sign up to receive email updates

Capacity in the hall is limited, so please RSVP by submitting this form.

The SLC’s mission is to provide a unique living laboratory that educates and encourages sustainable practices in daily life, and we believe that understanding the history of this living laboratory is important to achieving our mission.

The third presentation in this series is “Fairview and Oregon’s Radical Eugenics Program in the Twentieth Century”, presented by Dr. Kimberly Jensen, Professor of History and Gender Studies at Western Oregon University.

The Oregon State Institution for the Feeble Minded (OSIFB), renamed Fairview in 1933, was at the center of the state’s eugenic sterilization program in force from 1917 to 1983. This presentation will provide an overview of eugenics in Oregon and the nation and Oregon’s broad eugenic categories related to “feeblemindedness” and “degeneracy” that targeted people of color, gender nonconforming people, people who challenged social norms, and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We will consider how state-coerced sterilization impacted OSIFB and Fairview residents, including policies about parole and discharge, and how the institution’s hospital became a destination for dozens of girls and young women who were inmates of the Oregon State Industrial School for Girls (later Hillcrest) for their own coerced sterilizations between 1926 and 1951.

Dr. Jensen received her Ph.D. in U.S. and women’s history at the University of Iowa and is professor of history and gender studies at Western Oregon University. She is the author of Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (University of Illinois, 2008), Oregon’s Doctor to the World: Esther Pohl Lovejoy and a Life in Activism (University of Washington, 2012), and Oregon’s Others: Gender, Civil Liberties, and the Surveillance State in the Early Twentieth Century (University of Washington, 2024) and a number of book chapters and articles. Several articles have been recognized with awards including the Charles DeBenedetti Prize in Peace History, 2019-2020 and the Joel Palmer Award from the Oregon Historical Quarterly in 2008 and 2018. Dr. Jensen works to make history accessible to diverse and broad audiences as a member of the executive and editorial boards of the Oregon Encyclopedia.

• Personal webpage https://kimberlyjensen.net/

• WOU webpage https://wou.edu/wp/kimjensen/

• Oregon’s Others: University of Washington Press https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295752587/oregons-others/

The SLC appreciates any help we can get to continue hosting events like this! A $10 donation would be greatly appreciated, but feel free to donate what you are able to. You can donate online or in person at the event.

Capacity in the hall is limited, so please RSVP by submitting this form.

We are still finalizing details for other presentations in the Willamette Valley History Series; in the meantime check the SLC events page for updates and sign up to receive email updates