We’ll be drawing inspiration from the excitement of the rodeo to create a unique fundraiser experience! Join us as we transform the Hood River Inn into a lively rodeo arena, filled with Western flair, festive spirit, and a touch of our beloved Pacific Northwest charm

The Gorge Grape Escape is the WSVEF’s main fundraiser, and supplies approximately 97% of our annual revenues.  

We are extremely grateful to the dedicated and involved people and businesses in our community who participate in this annual event.  

Whether you come as an individual,  become a sponsor of the event, donate goods or services, or provide the much needed volunteer services to pull this amazing evening together, this is truly a community event that shines a bright light on the commitment and importance we all place on our local schools.

Tickets available now.

WHITE SALMON, WA., February 14, 2024 - The White Salmon Valley Education Foundation will hold its 5th annual Career Day at Columbia High School on March 27th  from 8:15 AM-1:40 PM. Local businesses and organizations will have booths at the Career Fair portion, and local business owners, community leaders and others will participate in panel discussions about careers in small group sessions. There are still slots available for presenters and booths! Contact careerday@wsvef.org for more information or to participate.

About the WSVEF

The mission of the WSVEF is to enrich the education of PK – 12 students in the White Salmon Valley public schools.   To date, our district has been awarded $7.3 million, comprising external funds secured by WSVEF grant writers and community-raised funds directly awarded to our schools.  

Save the Date for this year’s Grape Escape!  October 14th at 6:00 PM.  We’ll be drawing inspiration from the thrilling universe of horse racing to conjure up a unique fundraiser experience! Join us as we transform the Hood River Inn into a race day pavilion, brimming with style, festivity, and yes, a splash of our beloved Pacific Northwest essence. Tickets available starting in September.

The Gorge Grape Escape is the WSVEF’s main fundraiser, and supplies approximately 97% of our annual revenues. We are extremely grateful to the dedicated and involved people and businesses in our community who participate in this annual event.

Whether you come as an individual, become a sponsor of the event, donate goods or services, or provide the much needed volunteer services to pull this amazing evening together, this is truly a community event that shines a bright light on the commitment and importance we all place on our local schools.

Email us to volunteer

Learn more about the Grape Escape event

Klickitat County residents, join us for a special workshop series just for you! Come share with your neighbors how you build relationships and find resources in our rural areas! Lunch is provided. Details here.

SESSION 5: Community Roundtable - an open forum to discuss additional ideas around building or sustaining "Communities of Care" in Klickitat (REGISTER NOW — it’s free]

Klickitat County residents, join us for a special workshop series just for you! Come share with your neighbors how you build relationships and find resources in our rural areas! Lunch is provided. Details here.

SESSION 4: Building Trust in Rural Communities - what tips, techniques, and best practices would you like to share and practice? (REGISTER NOW — it’s free]

Klickitat County residents, join us for a special workshop series just for you! Come share with your neighbors how you build relationships and find resources in our rural areas! Lunch is provided. Details here.

SESSION 3: Equitable Outreach in Klickitat County - how do you connect with different communities across the county? (REGISTER NOW — it’s free]

Klickitat County residents, join us for a special workshop series just for you! Come share with your neighbors how you build relationships and find resources in our rural areas! Lunch is provided. Details here.

Session 2: Creating Communities of Care in Klickitat County - what does this mean? What current resources do you tap into? What is missing? — REGISTER NOW (It’s free!)

Klickitat County residents, join us for a special workshop series just for you! Come share with your neighbors how you build relationships and find resources in our rural areas! Lunch is provided. Details here.

SESSION 1: Introduction to "Communities of Care" in Klickitat County— REGISTER NOW (It’s free!)

Gorge Roller Derby has selected the WSVEF for their first “Save our Schools” campaign!

Get down and derby with us on Saturday, February 11th at Columbia High School from 4-8pm. You are not going to want to miss this double header event! For more information visit www.gorgerollerderby.com.

Get your tickets now! 

All ages – Wheelchair Accessible – 6 & under free

Regular: $9.50; Students $7.50

Columbia High School, 1455 NW Bruin Country Rd, White Salmon, WA 98672

Doors Open at 4:00PM Bout starts at 5:00PM

Get your tickets online by 2/11/2023 12:00 p.m. https://www.gorgerollerderby.com/tickets/

Great songs by some of White Salmon’s favorite musicians: Jim & Mari Matthias, Lisa Harrison, and Bob Schwarz!

Let’s come together to celebrate how arts connect our community. Join us at Bethel UCC for a family concert by beloved local musicians and to learn more about how WSVEF supports our schools.

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist; Claire of the Sea Light, a New York Times Notable Book; Brother, I’m Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and Krik? Krak!, also a National Book Award finalist. A 2018 Neustadt International Prize for Literature winner and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere.
(Bio excerpt and photo from Literary Arts.) For more detail about the author see: https://edwidgedanticat.com.

Event details: Attendees will receive a virtual ticket to attend the event online, Thursday, May 21, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT.

Registration Required

Richard Powers is the author of thirteen novels, including The Overstory, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and spent over one year on the New York Times bestseller list. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award in 2006 for his novel The Echo Maker. Powers has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He lives in the Great Smoky Mountains. (Bio excerpt and photo from Literary Arts.) For more detail about the author see: http://www.richardpowers.net.

Event details: Attendees will receive a virtual ticket to attend the event online, Thursday, April 21, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT.

Registration Required

Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan. Her debut novel The Mothers was a New York Times bestseller, and her second novel The Vanishing Half was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and in 2021, she was chosen as one of Time’s Next 100 Influential People. Her essays have been featured in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel. (Bio excerpt and photo from Literary Arts.) For more detail about the author see: https://britbennett.com.

Event details: Attendees will receive a virtual ticket to attend the event online, Thursday, Feb 17, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT.

Registration Required

Cathy Park Hong is the author of three poetry collections and Minor Feelings, a New York Times bestselling book of creative nonfiction which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Hong is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her poems have been published in Poetry, The New York Times, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and other journals. She is the poetry editor of The New Republic and full professor at Rutgers University–Newark. (Bio excerpt and photo from Literary Arts.) For more detail about the author see: http://www.cathyparkhong.com.

Event details: Attendees will receive a virtual ticket to attend the event online, Thursday, January 27, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT.

Registration Required

What: The Next Door is hosting a 4-part series for the community partners of Klickitat County. Participants will learn about the resources available and strategies to serve the whole community.

Who should sign up? If you work or volunteer to support the people who live in Klickitat County, this is a great opportunity for you. Zoom links and materials will be e-mailed to registered participants.

Cost: Registration is free. Thank you to our sponsors: Klickitat County Community-Clinical Linkages Group (K-LINK), Washington Gorge Action Programs and the White Salmon Valley Education Foundation.

For questions, contact Todd Dierker of The Next Door, Inc.

REGISTER TODAY TO SECURE YOUR SPOT:

• Session 4: Community Partnerships — Register here.

Daniel James Brown is the author of Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II, The Indifferent Stars Above, Under a Flaming Sky, which was a finalist for the B&N Discover Great New Writers Award, and The Boys in the Boat, a New York Times bestselling book that was awarded the ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. He has taught writing at San José State University and Stanford University. He lives outside Seattle. (Bio excerpt and photo from Literary Arts.) For more detail about the author see: https://www.danieljamesbrown.com/.

Event details: Attendees will receive a virtual ticket to attend the event online, Thursday, October 14 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT.

Registration Required

What: The Next Door is hosting a 4-part series for the community partners of Klickitat County. Participants will learn about the resources available and strategies to serve the whole community.

Who should sign up? If you work or volunteer to support the people who live in Klickitat County, this is a great opportunity for you. Zoom links and materials will be e-mailed to registered participants.

Cost: Registration is free. Thank you to our sponsors: Klickitat County Community-Clinical Linkages Group (K-LINK), Washington Gorge Action Programs and the White Salmon Valley Education Foundation.

For questions, contact Todd Dierker of The Next Door, Inc.

REGISTER TODAY TO SECURE YOUR SPOT:

• Session 3: Community Interactions — Register here.

What: The Next Door is hosting a 4-part series for the community partners of Klickitat County. Participants will learn about the resources available and strategies to serve the whole community.

Who should sign up? If you work or volunteer to support the people who live in Klickitat County, this is a great opportunity for you. Zoom links and materials will be e-mailed to registered participants.

Cost: Registration is free. Thank you to our sponsors: Klickitat County Community-Clinical Linkages Group (K-LINK), Washington Gorge Action Programs and the White Salmon Valley Education Foundation.

For questions, contact Todd Dierker of The Next Door, Inc.

REGISTER TODAY TO SECURE YOUR SPOT:

• Session 2: Individual & Community Diversity — Register here.

Yaa Gyasi is the author of the forthcoming novel, Transcendent Kingdom. Her best-selling debut novel, Homegoing (2016), is an intergenerational saga following two split branches of a Ghanaian family through three hundred years of history. Homegoing won numerous awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for best first book.

Book Club details: Lecture only. Lecture with the author is on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 (6:00pm) online.

Registration Required

What: The Next Door is hosting a 4-part series for the community partners of Klickitat County. Participants will learn about the resources available and strategies to serve the whole community.

Who should sign up? If you work or volunteer to support the people who live in Klickitat County, this is a great opportunity for you. Zoom links and materials will be e-mailed to registered participants.

Cost: Registration is free. Thank you to our sponsors: Klickitat County Community-Clinical Linkages Group (K-LINK), Washington Gorge Action Programs and the White Salmon Valley Education Foundation.

For questions, contact Todd Dierker of The Next Door, Inc.

REGISTER TODAY TO SECURE YOUR SPOT:

• Session 1: Building Connections — Register here.

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and was named the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, a PEN USA Literary Award, Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund Writers’ Award, a Rasmuson US Artist Fellowship, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. (Bio from joyharjo.com) Crazy Brave is a “transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a haunting, visionary memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice.” https://wwnorton.com/books/crazy-brave/

Book Club details: Students will read Crazy Brave, have a book discussion on Zoom (date TBD) and will attend a lecture with the author on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 (6:00pm) online. Details: https://literary-arts.org/event/2020-21-portland-arts-lectures-joy-harjo/

Registration Required