Rachel Alexander chats data with Lillian Govus, then the communications director for Salem-Keizer School District, at a July 10 meeting on school reopening. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Salem, it has been a year.
After living through 2020, I finally understand why the expression “may you live in interesting times” is considered a curse, not a blessing.
If there’s a consolation in this year, it’s that interesting times often make for the best stories to tell – and amid much suffering, anger and loss this year, our community showed resilience and care.
Here are the 10 stories that stuck with me the most this year.
1) The early weeks of the pandemic were disorienting – a new virus was out there and people were sick and dying, but everything felt abstract as many of us began spending most of our time at home. This article, about a church in my neighborhood hit hard with a wave of Covid that started just days before the state shut down, helped me grasp what this year would mean for so many families and communities around Salem.
For Salem congregation, a stunning concentration of COVID, a reliance on faith
One by one, members of a Salem church fell ill with the coronavirus. Church leaders worked to share encouragement and hope, tested by hospitalizations and rules of separation.
Joshua Lindley receives supplemental oxygen to help him breathe while hospitalized with COVID-19 at Salem Hospital (Courtesy/Joshua Lindley)
2) Historical research is one of my favorite things to write about. Throw in a century-old cookbook with hidden feminist treatises in the appendix and you’ve got me hooked. It was so fun to bring alive a piece of Oregon history and geek out about obscure documents.
The 19th Amendment, which granted many American women the right to vote, was ratified 100 years ago. Cindy Richards, who’s studied the suffrage movement extensively, says the tactics activists used to win the ballot in the Northwest are a powerful example of local political engagement.
Cindy Richards, professor of civic communication and media at Willamette University, holds a copy of the 1909 Washington Women’s Cook Book, a publication from the state’s suffrage association (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
3) Reporting this story was maddening. Data was scarce in the early months of the pandemic and getting clear explanations for the numbers we saw often took days of repeated badgering as public health agencies scrambled to respond. Working as a team, the crew from Salem Reporter was eventually able to offer the public better clarity about how our county became a hotspot for Covid in Oregon, and highlight concerns from the people most affected about the response.
WATCHDOG: In Marion County, high concentrations of coronavirus blamed on inequality of care
Marion County leads the state in the rate of infections of COVID-19 yet public health officials can’t pinpoint the cause. Community leaders and health providers say as the crisis unfolded, the Woodburn area endured supply shortages, delayed government responses and racial stigma against the Latino community.
A sign directs patients at Salud Medical Center in Woodburn on Wednesday, April 29. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
4) This was not the most impactful or widely-read reporting we produced on the Santiam Canyon wildfires, but it was the immediate, day one reporting that sticks with me the most months later. I live just a few blocks from the fairgrounds and spend most of the day walking back and forth between the evacuation center and my house, struggling to breathe under eerie orange-red skies. Amid the uncertainty and chaos of expanding evacuation orders, people needing help, volunteers seeking a place to be useful and so many people just wondering if their homes were standing, being able to gather and share information with the community was a privilege – exactly why we do the work we do.
Fleeing by the thousands, Santiam Canyon families seek refuge in Salem
By 8 a.m., over 100 families had gathered at the Oregon State Fairgrounds after evacuation orders forced them from their homes up Santiam Canyon. Red Cross volunteers were gathering information about shelter needs.
RVs and trucks sit in the back parking lot at the Oregon State Fairgrounds after evacuating due to wildfire on Tuesday, September 8. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
5) This was a team effort to chronicle the arduous task ahead for Canyon residents after the fire was contained and people began venturing back in to take stock of the damage. It was a heavy lift, but helped me understand our region better.
ROAD TO RECOVERY: A ‘can do’ spirit emerges as Santiam Canyon residents face rebuilding
Homeowners and business operators throughout the Santiam Canyon are assessing the damage and options for the future. Rebuilding will be a long, tough process as specialists plot a path forward for the national forest.
Parishoners gather for a service at the Gates Community Church of Christ on Sunday, September 20. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
6) “Who’s getting left behind?” is a question I ask myself a lot. The year 2020 produced no shortage of possible answers in education reporting, but early attendance data and conversations with educators made me want to take a deeper look at Salem’s Marshallese and Chuukese families. I tried to capture both the particular challenges of online school for many students, as well as the work some very dedicated and overstretched educators were putting in to try to make things better.
Salem-Keizer schools have more than 300 students who speak Marshallese as a first language, but there’s just one Marshallese-speaking outreach worker for the district. With school online, educators are using home visits to bridge gaps and connect with families.
Ken Ramirez, community outreach specialist, checks in with Dunly Juda, a junior at McKay High School on Thursday, October 8 (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
7) I meant to report this story much earlier in the year, after seeing student activists raise concerns about school discipline at school board meetings. I requested the data in late 2019, then got sidetracked with other projects and the pandemic. When activists began demanding the district remove police from schools over the summer, I picked this back up, hoping it might add clarity and context to the concerns being raised.
Black Salem-Keizer students for years have had the highest expulsion rate of any racial group in the district. Black and Latino students and community leaders say they’ve long pushed to address disproportionate discipline rates and are only now being heard.
Protestors rallied outside of the Salem-Keizer school district offices on Thursday, June 18 to urge the district to cancel their contract for police officers in schools. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
8) When schools closed abruptly in March, I immediately thought back to the final months of my senior year of high school. By that point, classes often took a backseat to things like spirit week, prom and writing thousand-word essays in friends’ yearbooks, and I felt awful for the kids who had looked forward to finishing high school for years, only to end it all with a whimper. I asked some school counselors, teachers and student journalists for help finding seniors to talk to and tried to capture this odd moment in time.
“The Class of COVID-19” – seniors reflect on the end of high school that wasn’t
Without knowing it, thousands of Salem-Keizer seniors had their last day of school on Friday, March 13. We asked the Class of 2020 how they’re feeling as they prepare for college or take on work with little chance to celebrate, see friends or say goodbye.
Kayla Diaz accepts her diploma during the the Early College High School and Roberts Teen Parent Program combined graduation ceremony at Sprague High School on Thursday, August 6. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
9) This year has been a case study in how fragile our support systems for working parents are. I wanted to capture the struggles of child care from multiple perspectives – both as businesses and as a crucial, often undervalued tool allowing many parents to earn a living. I’m hopeful the future of the industry is a little less bleak now than in the fall, and intend to follow up in 2021 to see what the final months of the year have brought.
Salem child care providers say months of operating at reduced capacity while complying with state health guidelines have put them on precarious financial footing, forcing some to close their doors. That’s bad news for parents, who already faced an uphill battle finding affordable child care before the pandemic.
Children in day care at the Boys & Girls Club of Salem begin a lava lamp activity while observing social distancing guidelines on Aug. 13, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
10) After it became clear local schools would not reopen in the fall, I struggled with how to best cover education locally. District policy and school reopening guidelines are important, but my favorite reporting always starts in the classroom. Finding a trio of teachers who were trying something new and sort of weird to make online school suck less was so fun.
For three teachers, online wood shop now includes ghost stories, costumes and plenty of teamwork
Teaching to a screen of black squares on Zoom is challenging even for experienced educators. Woodworking teachers at McKay, North and South high schools combined their classes this fall so they can engage more easily with students and help keep each other sane.
Construction teachers Joe Simon, left, and Michelle Zielinski discuss an upcoming project for their virtual classes on Oct. 21 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
