EUGENE, Ore. — Students from Southern Oregon and the McKenzie River Valley did not know each other before last week, but they share a bond forged by wildfire and terrible loss.
Each of them survived the devastating Labor Day fires that swept over their communities on Sept. 8, 2020.
Early last week, a group of students from the Phoenix-Talent School District, south of Medford, visited McKenzie High School in Blue River, east of Springfield, to deliver a gift: a metal sculpture of a manzanita tree branch that they created for the McKenzie students and community.
“We understand what they are going through because we suffered the same,” said 14-year-old Aaron Chavez after helping carry the art piece into the McKenzie High gym for an informal ceremony.
Chavez, a Talent Middle School student, and his family fled their home on that summer day with only what they could carry as ash and smoke from the Almeda Fire filled the air around them. The whole neighborhood, including the family’s home was destroyed.
In a matter of hours more than 2,600 homes were burned between Ashland and Medford as the fire raced north along Bear Creek parallel to Interstate 5.
McKenzie High School Student Body President Trent Peek, 17, understands what Chavez went through. While his family’s home survived the Holiday Farm Fire, smoke damage ruined most of their belongings. Despite the loss, he feels lucky. Many of his classmates lost everything.
The Holiday Farm Fire burned more than 173,000 acres, including over 500 homes and businesses along a 30-mile stretch of the McKenzie River between Leaburg and McKenzie Bridge.
“Fire actually helps seeds from a manzanita to sprout,” explained 12-year-old Mia Broffard, one of the students who helped to weld the sculpture.
A plaque on the sculpture reads, “This sculpture is a gift from our community to yours and represents our shared strength, courage, and solidarity.”
The students created 12 of the sculptures. One for each school in their district and the local fire station. Others were placed along the greenway path that runs between Phoenix and Talent where the fire spread.
Two of the sculptures were set aside as gifts for the McKenzie and Santiam school districts. After a delay caused by COVID-19 and weather, the pieces were delivered later.
McKenzie School District Superintendent and Principal Lane Tompkins accepted the artwork on behalf of the school in front of an audience of several dozen students in the historic gym that survived the fire.
The plan is to incorporate the sculpture into a new football field grandstand scheduled to replace one destroyed by the fire next summer.
“I am a social studies, history guy,” Tompkins said. “Years from now as kids come to visit, they will look back and remember this is what happened. It really hits my heart.”
