Nominations sought for Oregon Heritage Excellence Awards

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Nominations for the 2020 Oregon Heritage Excellence Awards Program are now being accepted.

Applications can be found online through the Oregon Heritage website www.oregonheritage.org or by contacting Oregon Heritage Coordinator Beth Dehn at Beth.Dehn@oregon.gov or (503) 986-0696. The postmark deadline for submitting nominations is January 26, 2020.

The Oregon Heritage Excellence Awards recognize individuals, businesses, and organizations for outstanding efforts on behalf of Oregon heritage, drawing public attention to these efforts, and raising the quality of heritage-oriented activities. The Sally Donovan Award for Historic Cemetery Preservation is a special category that may be awarded to one individual, organization, or project demonstration excellence in preservation of historic cemeteries.   

Nominations are encouraged for organizations and projects of all sizes and heritage purposes and for volunteers and professionals from all heritage sectors.

“The award recipients represent the extraordinary efforts to preserve Oregon’s heritage,” said Beth Dehn, coordinator for the Oregon Heritage Commission. “They also serve as models for others on how to develop new ideas, approaches, and innovations.”

Last year’s recipients included:

-- Building a Better Community: The Canby Women’s Heritage Trail, the first heritage trail in the state to focus on accomplishments of women, with a multi-layered approach to community engagement.

-- Cultural Resources Department of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, for 30 years of dedicated work as a department to preserve and celebrate the Tribe’s cultural history, recently culminating in the Rise of the Collectors exhibit.

-- David Dittman, for reporting an archaeological find on private land going above and beyond expectations to engage the public with the find. 

-- Ann & Owen Nicholson, for their critical role in providing Nehalem Valley Historical Society with a museum and archive.

-- Kylie Pine, for going above and beyond her professional capacity as curator at Willamette Heritage Center to impact the community through teaching, volunteer work, board service, and publications related to local history.  

-- Richard & Judith Wagner, for extraordinary research, writing, and community engagement related to Coos Bay area history.

-- Salem Depot, an excellent preservation project spearheaded by the Oregon Department of Transportation that overcame challenges, worked across agencies, and merged multiple modes of transportation to rehabilitate an historic building.

Awards will be presented on April 23, 2020 at the Oregon Heritage Conference in Corvallis by Oregon Heritage, part of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

The announcement for 2020 awardees will be made in mid-March. Tickets for the awards presentation will be made available this coming spring.