The Endowment Fund is named in memory of Bill Wooten, the Fair’s visionary, community-minded co-founder Bill Wooten. Endowment Fund grants tangibly represent the Fair’s deep appreciation to our neighbors in the Fair’s home community. Endowment Fund grants reflect the spirit of the Fair by supporting youth-centered projects in the Fern Ridge community that:
promote the arts, education, and cultural diversity;
work toward creating a peaceful, just, and environmentally sustainable society;
build community through collaborative efforts.
2025 Bill Wooten Fund Recipients
In 2025, the Oregon Country Fair (OCF) Bill Wooten Endowment Fund has awarded a total of $20,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations serving youth in the Fair’s neighboring Fern Ridge communities. This funding tangibly represents the Fair’s deep appreciation of our home community. Endowment Fund supported projects reflecting the Fair’s commitment to the arts, education, cultural diversity, peace, community building and the environment.
Culture Jam
Fern Ridge youth will receive scholarships to attend the eight-day arts-based Culture Jam empowerment camp for teenagers held each summer at the Fair site. The camp helps each youth discover their talents in a supportive environment and is committed to ensuring that financial circumstances do not interfere with a teen’s ability to attend camp.
Elmira Elementary School
Beats in Motion will involve all students in drumming fitness (increasing heart rate, keeping time/rhythm, and choral drumming) and in learning about drumming styles from different cultures. Students will showcase their work at an “Informance” for parents, peers, friends and the community.
Lane Arts Council
For a reading/arts collaboration project with the Fern Ridge Public Library consisting of free workshops that will engage students’ creatively in their learning, connect more families to the summer reading program, deepen participants’ understanding of creative storytelling, and provide high quality arts experiences.
SMART – Start Making A Reader Today
Community volunteers will be trained and supported in helping students at Elmira and Veneta Elementary Schools develop a love of reading, with books representing diverse identities. Teachers consistently report increased reading engagement and confidence, which are closely linked to overall literacy success.
Veneta Elementary School
All students will participate in From Mud to Vessel, learning techniques for joining clay (including coiling, slipping and scoring, and pinching), and developing a foundation for understanding structural integrity and architecture. Each student will create a functional pottery vessel and help develop a collaborative art piece.
Wordcrafters
This collaborative project with Elmira High School will engage all 9th and 12th graders in creative writing residencies focusing on spoken word performance. Teachers welcome Wordcrafters’ residencies for their ability to engage students and enlarge their writing experience and skills – skills that help build school success.
The annual Leslie Scott Imagine Grant Award is given to the funded project that best represents former OCF General Manager Leslie Scott’s contributions to the Fair, which include providing opportunities for youth, reaching out to our neighbors, and nurturing creativity. This year’s awardee is Lane Arts Council.
The Fair also makes grants to social service agencies and nonprofit organizations in Oregon through both the Jill Heiman Vision Fund and the Board of Directors’ Donations Fund. To date, the Fair’s total philanthropic giving exceeds $1.5 million dollars.
Philanthropy was the catalyst that began the Oregon Country Fair, has been essential to developing its long-lived success, and will provide opportunities that further its mission into the future.
