Three Things: Historical society’s funding fears, Easter egg hunt and Kings Valley in WWII

The Trump administration’s reduction and restructuring of key arts and culture-related organizations have forced many museums and historical societies across the country to scale back, cancel programs and have difficult conversations about the future of their various initiatives.

The Benton County Historical Society is not immune to those same impacts. Earlier this week at the Philomath City Council meeting, Jessica Hougen, BCHS executive director, went through how decisions at the federal level are having significant consequences at the local level.

“Sorry to be a Debbie Downer at the meeting but it’s really important that everyone knows the local impact of what’s happening,” Hougen said.

Hougen said there are three things that are impacting museums, libraries and other arts and culture organizations right now:

• The Institute of Museum and Library Services is effectively closed, which jeopardizes the $160 million in annual grants that support museums and libraries nationwide.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities staff was reduced by 80% and all grant programs have been suspended.
• The National Endowment of the Arts canceled the Challenge America Grant and made changes to its grant guidelines, including nothing “that promotes gender ideology” and “no programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Hougen explained what those decisions mean for the BCHS.

“It means that there’s going to be a lot more competition for state, regional, local funding,” she said. “This all comes at a time when most of the arts and culture sector still has not recovered from the pandemic, so foundations, individuals were already overtaxed by asks.”

In fact, she said a half a dozen significant foundations nearly a year and a half ago had to cease operations and reconfigure their entire business models to be able to handle the number of funding requests that were coming in.

Hougen said there is somewhere in the vicinity of 562 nonprofit organizations in Benton County.

“It’s not just arts and culture that are feeling the effects from the federal government, of course, every sector is,” she said. “So what it means is we’re all going to be asking all of you for more support. And it also means that we’re going to lose some of the nonprofits in our community who are doing really, really good work for us.”

Hougen said the BCHS is trying to be active and recently reached out to other arts and culture organizations. Together, they put together a statement with a request to the public to continue their support. 

“What we’re trying to do is just make every member of our community really aware that these things are not just happening in Washington, D.C.,” Hougen said. “They have direct impacts on the organizations that we all like to have in our community that do really important work and offer really important services.”

As far as the historical society’s budget goes, Hougen said $250,000 comes from Benton County, which because of what’s happening in the country right now, could become questionable.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with that funding but I can tell you that if we lose $250,000 of our funding, it’s not going to be great for us,” Hougen said.

Hougen said a response to the possible loss of that funding is not yet in place.

“But we are having some planning meetings to discuss what we would be forced to do if that happens,” she added.

Despite the challenges ahead, Hougen said she has an energized team in place.

“We’re talking a lot about the hurdles in front of us; we’re talking a lot about how we can work to lift up the community in a broader sense; we’re talking about partnerships,” Hougen said. “We’re looking at every opportunity we can to really be a good neighbor and be a good community member.”

Mayor Christopher McMorran thanked Hougen for walking the City Council through the historical society’s current financial picture.

“We in this room don’t have a lot of control over federal decisions but this is a beloved community institution and we might need to step up and help support those things that are important to our community,” he said.

Before getting into that ominous subject, Hougen went through a brief history of the Benton County Historical Society dating back to its formation in 1951 and including its move into the Philomath College building (1980), acquiring the John Horner Collection from Oregon State University (negotiations started in 1995 and went on for a decade), the addition of the Johnson Collections Center (2007) and the opening of Corvallis Museum (2021). She also went through the organization’s current work, programs, community events and provided examples of exhibits, and got into governance and budget specifics.

2. Good turnout for Easter egg hunt

In a move over to Philomath High School this year for the annual Community Easter Egg Hunt, several hundred kids ages 11 and under searched the tall grass on Clemens Field Saturday morning for brightly-colored plastic eggs filled with prizes, such as candy, stickers, tattoos, erasers and such.

Put on by the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo, this annual event appears to be getting more and more popular each year. The exact number of children participating wasn’t immediately available but organizer and emcee Chris Workman said it was the largest group to come out in several years.

Last year, 380 kids took part in the various age groups at the rodeo grounds. This year, Workman believes that number was easily above 400. Of course, pleasant weather conditions always help (only 203 turned out two years ago when it had been raining). The event was moved to the football field with the rodeo grounds in the midst of a construction project (new grandstands section and restrooms).

Beginning just after 10 a.m., there were staggered starts for the five age groups — 3 and under, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-11. The children waited patiently for the fun to begin, peering out into the Clemens Field grass to try to spot eggs and come up with a searching strategy. Organizers did a pretty good job of hiding eggs in the tall grass, which had purposely not been mowed.

After the kids had their fun, the teens and adults got a chance to search with the Golden Egg Hunt, which was staged in the Clemens Field grandstands. Some of the eggs had cash inside — $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills. The eggs with no money had the same prizes that the younger ones found on the field.

Workman said he believes the event brought in $310, which at a $5 entry fee means there were 62 participants. The cash hidden in the eggs added up to $250, so perhaps there was a small profit.

However, that money might need to cover the cost of buying more new plastic eggs than usual for next year’s event. Many of the eggs were so well hidden in the tall grass on the football field that you didn’t know they were there until stepped on. Of course, that means the plastic egg got busted.

“I heard an egg, I heard an egg,” one little girl called out after stepping on one.

All in all, a very fun time with a lot of smiles to kick off Easter weekend.

3. Kings Valley WWII casualties

During last weekend’s 170th anniversary celebration in Kings Valley, it was somewhat surprising to learn that the community lost six of its own during World War II — twice the number of those who were lost from Philomath.

One of the organizers of the April 13 event at Kings Valley Community Hall, Joe Fulton, shared a few details on each of those who were killed while directing those in attendance to a plaque that honors them and hangs on an interior wall.

Harley Craft was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He is among those still entombed in the USS Arizona.

Lloyd Cramer was killed near the Solomon Islands in 1943. His body was never recovered. The community held a memorial service for him on Sept. 19, 1943, at the hall, which was then Kings Valley Church.

William Dunn was killed in the Ardenz Offensive during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Dunn went down with a B-17 Fortress in an air fight over Germany. He’s buried in the Ardenz American Cemetery in Belgium.

Ivan “Ike” Harris was killed in the Battle of Angaur in the South Pacific in 1944. His body was shipped home and he’s buried in the Kings Valley Cemetery.

Harry Lawrence was killed in the South Pacific in January 1945 while serving with the U.S. Navy. Lawrence is buried in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Everett Smith was also killed in January 1945 while serving with U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. He was buried at sea.

(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).