Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon is getting ready to celebrate a century-and-a-half of statehood.  But as Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports, all those birthday candles are going to cost a lot of money.

The state capitol rotunda was packed last month as people gathered to celebrate Oregon's 149th birthday.

But everyone was really looking ahead to next year's party.  Governor Ted Kulongoski gave the whole state an assignment.

Ted Kulongoski: "Between now and this time next year, every Oregonian needs to learn how to pronounce sesquicentennial.  So let me just give it a try.  One, two, three:  Sesquicentennial.  Very well."

Saying sesquicentennial might be easier than paying for it.  Organizers are still drawing up plans, but nearly two-thirds of the $2.5 million the festivities will cost is coming from private donors.

Lee Weinstein:  "We are working with a very small budget."

Lee Weinstein is with the Oregon 150 committee.  A volunteer himself, he says things like office space and web design are being offered for free by Oregon businesses.

Still, organizers hope to raise an additional $1.4 million by the time the official celebrations kick off next February.  All this for a birthday party.  But Weinstein says it's especially important at this time for Oregonians to have something to rally around.

Lee Weinstein:  "The last 20 years have been a really tough time.  We've gone through a couple of really hard economic downturns.  Our forest products industry has changed dramatically.  And our economy's changed a lot. And we have a lot of newcomers now in the state.  This is, I think, a really important time now for Oregon to come together, for Oregonians to meet each other, to reach out, to go places in the state they've not been to before."

Oregon will be the first northwest state to hit the 150-year milestone. Both Idaho and Washington observed their Centennial in the past 20 years.

Former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro helped lead that state's celebration.

Ralph Munro:  "Some of our ideas were wildly successful and some of them flopped.  And that's just part of putting together something like this.  I think that you have to expect that. But when you're all said and done and we looked back on it, the overall grade we got was probably a B-plus, which is pretty darn good trying to put on a statewide birthday party."

Munro does have some advice for the people putting together Oregon's commemoration.

Ralph Munro:  "You cannot start this thing in Salem and work down.  You've gotta build it from the bottom up, grassroots up."

Lee Weinstein says they are getting local communities involved.  In fact, they're more than happy to latch on to existing events around the state.

Lee Weinstein:  "So, if you're putting on the Cannon Beach Sand Castle Building Contest, or the Dufur Threshing Bee, and want to have it associated with the Sesquicentennial, have it on our website, we'll highlight it in our marketing materials and our brochures."

Of course, listing someone else's festival on your website is a whole lot cheaper than organizing it yourself.  And keeping costs down is the name of the game when state revenues are flattening out.

The Oregon Sesquicentennial celebrations aren't expected to generate much income on their own -- unless T-shirt sales are really, really strong.

Online:

Oregon Sesquicentennial