A Letter from MRWC Executive Director, Holly Purpura
First and foremost, we hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy during these uncertain times.
To keep others healthy, we urge you to Stay Home and Save Lives. Together, if we practice social distancing, we can do our part to protect our fellow Oregonians. Additionally, we urge you to stay close to home for any outdoor activity, as travelling to that camping spot or going to the coast exposes locals in rural communities with already limited access to healthcare.
The Council has cancelled or postponed all upcoming in-person events until further notice, including all volunteer activities:
- April 18 – Earth Day of Service Dunawi/Starker Arts Park wetland invasive weed pull
- May 16 – Let’s Pull Together invasive weed pull
- June 20 – Spirit of the Marys Silent Auction (postponed tentatively until September)
We will be conducting our April 15th Board Meeting over a videoconference platform. This meeting will still be open to the public. If you are interested in attending, please contact us by email.
With precautions, much of MRWC’s work is moving forward as planned or with slightly elongated timelines, and we have plenty to do to keep busy in the weeks and months to come. Out of an abundance of caution, staff will have limited office hours and will be teleworking where possible. If you need to reach out, please contact us via email or call us at our office line 541-758-7597.
Stay safe friends, and let’s all do our parts to help others stay well.
Sincerely,
Holly Purpura, Executive Director
Educational Resources
- The Internet Archive National Emergency Lending Library offers free access to their 20 million+ digital books, 4.5 million audio books and concerts, and 4 million videos (including television news programs).
- Get in some couch birdwatching! Cornell Lab has free live streaming of birds around the world!
- Virtually explore five different National Parks, including traversing an ice crevasse in Kanai Fjords National Park or caving at Carlsbad Caverns.
- Get creative with the official Oregon Coloring Book, available for free online.
- The OSU Library has put together Homeschooling Resources, most of which are freely available online.
A longer list of educational resources can be found under the Educational Resources tab.
Know of some great educational resources that have been a huge help? Let us know by email at MarysRiver@mrwc.org!
Additional Resources
- Benton County Recovers is a new website organized by the Benton County Emergency Operations Center dedicated to coordinating donations, volunteers, and those in need in Benton County.
- The United Way of Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties also has a great guide of resources available to Benton County residents and opportunities to give back.
- Comcast is offering 2 months of free internet service to low-income customers. Many utility services have announced they are suspending disconnections as a result of unpaid bills, including the City of Corvallis water service, Pacific Power, and NW Natural.
- Grocery delivery services are available in Benton County to some locations through Instacart, and Fred Meyer Pickup is also offering the first 3 pickups for free. We are not endorsing any of these services, but they could be an option for some households.
Here are some of the local grocery stores that have hours dedicated to vulnerable shoppers:
- Safeway – Tuesday and Thursday 7am to 9am
- Fred Meyer – Monday through Thursday, 7am – 8am
- Market of Choice – Tuesdays and Fridays from 7am-8am
- Natural Grocers – Sundays 9am-10am
- Winco – Tuesday and Thursday, 6am-7:30am
- Trader Joes – Daily 9am-10am
- Walmart – Tuesday 6am-7am
This list of grocery stores above is not all-inclusive and is in no particular order. These times could be subject to change.