Public Invited to Be Part of ‘The Little Town That Does: These Are Our People …’

Camas, WA — Papermaker Pride, Lara Blair Photography and Lacamas Magazine are working together on a project called “The Little Town That Does: These Are Our People (Let’s Take Care of Them)” as a way to highlight positivity as our community continues to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

The purpose of this project is to bridge gaps and reduce polarization in a harshly divided world.

“Camas always seems to find its own way through crises,” said Ernie Geigenmiller, Editor & Publisher of Lacamas Magazine. “We did it through the McCleary battle two years ago, avoiding a teacher’s strike, and we can do it again — the Camas Way. We can’t change what’s happening, we can’t suddenly make the pandemic go away, but we can find positive ways to deal with it. And, we also invite our friends in Washougal and Vancouver to participate.”

Lacamas Magazine is inviting people to come in at the 411 Studio in Camas — one or two at a time — to have their photo taken on a white background, and then participate in short interview to discuss resilience, patience, kindness, respect, teamwork, and apply those attributes to working through this pandemic.

The goal is to get about 60 participants, and then show these short videos periodically to gain perspective on how people are managing things. When it’s all done, the objective is to place all these photos on a movie poster and provide some encouragement in the community.

“It’s about telling their stories,” said Geigenmiller. “And having it on the record in photos and videos. What we are going through as humans is painful, yet fascinating.”

The first two town participants are Camas High School seniors Jack Harris and Dave Peddie, who are also champion swimmers.

Peddie addressed patience.

”For me, patience means being proactive,” he said. “Over the last few months there were a lot of things I couldn’t do as far as my swimming went. I couldn’t go into the pool, I couldn’t hit the gym so my friends and I had to find ways to stay fit so we went swimming in the lake and did workouts like running and so really just finding ways to still reach your goals and do what we would usually do with what we have. It’s important.”

Peddie’s short video and photos will be part of the town project, and he, along with Harris, will be part of a movie poster with stills of all the participants.

If you’re interested, please send an email to [email protected] with “Little Town That Does” in the SUBJECT line.

Hope to hear from you!