By Mary Owen
After much deliberation, GROW-EDC closed its doors at the end of June.
“I feel sad about this decision, even though I think it is the right one,” said Allison McKenzie, who served for the last decade as executive director and entrepreneurial coach. “If a group decides down the road that they want to start something up again, they could surely do that. And I feel strongly that local decisions should continue to be made at the local level.”
GROW is a locally driven, locally supported organization that offers free, one-on-one, confidential coaching and other resources to entrepreneurs in the North Santiam Canyon area. McKenzie, who left GROW in May to follow other paths, worked with more than 850 clients during her tenure, and spearheaded its youth engagement and tourism initiatives over the past few years.
In GROW’s final report to Marion County commissioners, ongoing funding instability was cited as the primary reason for closing the organization and the decision by the board to turn down an additional year of financial support.
Comments in the report included: “While we continue to believe that the work we do is important for the area and the economic vitality of North Santiam River Country, our experiences and conversations with Marion County staff in recent years, and especially this spring, have created concerns about our ongoing funding stability.
“Without a stable, ongoing funding source, GROW cannot hire and train an appropriate replacement for Allison or continue to do the work we have done over the past ten-plus years. Local foundations have been very generous with us over the years, but we cannot rely on them or other occasional funding sources for our longevity.”
McKenzie, who worked hard to keep the funding alive, agreed with the decision, saying, “They were concerned not about themselves, but about someone stepping into a no-win situation.”
Commissioner Sam Brentano, a former business owner and strong advocate for GROW throughout its existence, was disappointed with the decision to close.
“I worked hard to keep it going,” Brentano said. “I felt like GROW was the only program in the Canyon to give some assistance to small businesses.”
GROW leaves behind a legacy of hundreds of healthier businesses in the area, many of which did not exist when the organization began. Communities are now thinking regionally, and cross-business and cross-community collaboration is now the norm,
McKenzie said.
“The soul of our work is collaboration,” she said. “We believe that everyone has something to offer. Everyone gets to play, and everyone has something to contribute.”
Over the last decade, a culture of collaboration was built in North Santiam River Country, an identity that grew out of a need to create an interactive network of people helping people.
McKenzie credited people generously stepping up with “time, talent, resources and energy” for GROW’s success. Board members also thanked Marion County for the investment made in GROW and the communities it served over the years.
“We could not have done our good work without your support and partnership,” they said. “We thank you for the many years you contributed so generously to our efforts.”
McKenzie said she hates to see the “local people helping local people” program disappear but trusts the collaborative community spirit now embedded among area businesses, nonprofit organizations, and city government officials to keep much of the work going.
“Hundreds of people deserve credit for so much positive work done in this area over the past 23 years,” she said.
The Economic Development Corporation (EDC) was originally founded in the mid-‘90s to increase economic vitality in North Santiam Canyon communities.
“When I first took this job, North Santiam River Country – Aumsville to Idanha – we were still the odd child out in Marion and Linn counties, geographically a bit isolated and a challenging area to work with,” McKenzie said. “That is why the EDC got started in the first place – to spearhead local economic development projects.”
Some of those early EDC projects included getting bus service into the Canyon communities and building a rails-to-trails route through Mill City. Today, Marion County is taking on those larger economic development projects, such as advocating for changes in the Detroit Downstream Fish Passage Project and creating a joint wastewater sewer district for Mill City, Gates, Detroit and Idanha.
“Marion County has made significant investments in the area, beyond our organization, over the past several years,” McKenzie said. “In that way I think our communities will stay on the radar and continue to see benefits from that attention.”
McKenzie also hopes that the many participants over the years – hundreds of board members, volunteers and clients who have worked with GROW over the past decade – will take in how important their work has been, and how much they have contributed to the spirit of collaboration and optimism that exists today.
“Most of the programs like ours die out in just a few years, and we are one of the few entities that have kept a free, one-on-one consulting program going for more than a decade,” McKenzie said. “There are only a handful of them around the world that have managed to do that, and we are one of them.
“Life is not perfect here,” she added, “but it is much better and more hopeful than it was because so many people have pulled together to do good in our world, and make a lasting, positive difference.”
