Gorge One presentation highlights North Shore Expo

Those who attended were encouraged to peruse stalls and meet local business owners, with the option of participating in a scavenger hunt, and raffle with various prizes. Pours of AniChe wine could be spotted throughout the crowd.

Genevieve Scholl was the key-note speaker for the expo, informing participants about One Gorge’s role in the community with her titled talk, “One Community, One Economy, One Future.” Scholl is the special projects manager for the Port of Hood River and provides administrative support for One Gorge advocacy group.

“The purpose of One Gorge is to bring together the public, private, and non-profit sectors of the Gorge together to coordinate legislative action,” explained Scholl.

One Gorge’s objectives are to advocate for vibrant sustainable communities and a strong regional economy, while increasing awareness of Gorge priorities in Olympia, Salem, Ore., and Washington, DC. The group also works to strengthen systems that support people, families and sustainable communities, while ensuring adequate resources for the region to plan, maintain, and construct infrastructure supportive of economic development.

“One of the things that I’d like to help people understand about One Gorge is that it is not a formal organization,” Scholl noted. “The One Gorge advocacy group is not a 501C3-C4-C6 profit organization, it’s not an economic development agency in the Gorge, it doesn’t provide a grant writing group, it’s not a dues-driven membership organization. You can participate in One Gorge at no cost, and it’s not a lobbying firm.”

Even though the advocacy group isn’t a lobbying firm, Scholl explained there are participants in One Gorge who employ lobbyists who can coordinate with those in One Gorge, “but One Gorge itself is not a lobbying firm.”

“Organized redundancy, coordinated with repetition, and strategically planned reiteration of the messaging of participants means that we can be louder,” said Scholl.

The primary responsibility of the group’s coordination rotates among members, and is currently under the tutelage of Hood River. Members coordinate and communicate through the page’s listserv, online forums, and monthly meeting.

Scholl pulled up an illustration from Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who!” of the final “Yopp,” a moment in the book when the noise proved to the other jungle creatures the Whos existed on the clover Horton the elephant had been carrying around.

In the book, “It was every Who had to make a noise, and that’s what One Gorge does,” Scholl explained.

“So really as we’ve gone along and developed this organization we’ve found out that it’s not really a thing, it’s actually a verb, it’s actually an action,” noted Scholl. “One Gorge is a shared habit among professionals to work together to amplify each other’s messages to those people that we’re trying to talk to in capitols and in DC.”