May 17, 2025
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Picture This: 2024 — The year in photos

Audrey Flint leads the Broadway Boomers, dressed in their personal versions of Cruella de Vil, in a dance down Main Street in Ashland's annual Halloween parade on Oct. 31.
December 31, 2024

A look back at the year as seen through Ashland.news photographer Bob Palermini’s lens

On Jan. 9, SOU President Rick Bailey talked about the impact the three former professors who received the President’s Medal had on the large number of students they taught during their careers at Southern Oregon University.
D.L. Richardson welcomed a large crowd to Ashland’s Historic Armory for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Jan. 15. The 2024 celebration was the first big celebration after a three-year absence due to the pandemic.
The Lithia water fountain on Ashland Plaza was covered with three to four inches of snow the morning of Saturday, March 2, 2024.
Tim Campos, an Ashland native, came back to town to become brewmaster at Ashland’s Noble Fox restaurant which officially opened on April 5, 2024.
Casey Shillam began her duties at SOU in March as Provost & Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs.
Richard Hay and Jonathan Luke Stevens view Shakespeare’s Second Folio at SOU’s Hannon Library. Hay worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 63 seasons, designing the festival’s theaters and 246 productions. He designed sets for the entire Shakespeare canon twice. To date SOU librarians have cataloged over 2,000 of the books Hay has donated to the library.
A girl twirls in her colorful regalia as she dances to the Screaming Eagle Drum group during the 31st annual SOU powwow on April 13, 2024.
Matt Reeder, one of the Ashland water treatment plant operators, works in the control room of the city’s 1948 plant in April 2024.
At a demonstration on the Ashland Plaza on April 22, Debbie Niesewander, an Ashland homeless advocate, holds a sign reflecting her feeling about the night lawn, Ashland’s campground offering. She says that location generated more tickets to homeless persons than the rest of the city in the first quarter of 2024.
After delivery of logs by a helicopter, a crew processes and sorts logs to be stored before transport out of town. The helicopter logging project removed dead and dying trees in the forest above Ashland in April and May.
The 32nd annual Rogue Valley Bike Swap drew hundreds of riders, including Kirk, visiting from Mt. Shasta, who came with his Aunt Leci to find a bigger bike. With the bike path close to her home in Talent, they are looking forward to biking together this summer.
Raiders sophomore running back Gunner Yates makes a leap for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Raiders 54-24 win over Japan’s Kwansei Gakuin University on May 4.
First grade students pass through a balloon arch to the cheers of Rotarians on their way into the Ashland High School Mountain Avenue Theatre for the Ashland Reads event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Ashland and the Rotary Club of Ashland Lithia Springs on May 8.
Southern Oregon University students protesting the war in Gaza were asking university administrators to join them in calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza at a May 15 rally on the university campus.
With many looking from both inside and outside the shop, Eileen Polk, Tyler Hokama, Tim Bond and Karus Walsch cut the ribbon to open the new OSF Gift Shop on May 17.
Helman School students water their planting near Ashland Pond in May as part of a project to restore riparian habitat in areas impacted by the 2020 Almeda Fire. The school has partnered on projects with the Lomakatsi Restoration Project since 2006.
Zaza Espinosa, 6 and her brother Gus, 5, try on junior turnout gear at the Ashland Fire & Rescue open house at Fire Station 1 May 31.
Caps are in the air after Ashland High School graduated 209 students at a ceremony in Litha Park on June 6.
Cadets from the SOU ROTC raise the Juneteenth flag, which flew along with the U.S. and Oregon flags during the month of June in front of Churchill Hall on the university campus.
Barb Settles, a Community Emergency Response Team volunteer, listens to instructions for the canvassing training exercise in the Ashland Fire & Rescue Station No. 1 conference room in June.
Southern Oregon University’s Schneider Museum of Art held the opening reception for its summer exhibition of photographs by three, female-identifying, Oregon-based photographers on June 13.
Daniela Alves de Castro Hopper was excited to receive a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling durring SOU’s graduation cerimony on June 15. She was one of 1,300 students to receive degrees that day.
Ten-year-old Rae took OSF’s Green Show stage to share about the significance of Juneteenth and why it is a day to celebrate freedom and the rich cultural heritage of the Black community.
An Ashland high school student spoke to approximately 75 people about her fears for the future at the “Majority over MAGA” rally on the Ashland Plaza Sunday, June 23.
Boy Scout Troop 112 leads the Ashland 4th of July parade as the 173rd Fighter Wing out of Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls conducts its second of nine flyovers. The planes fly at 1,000 feet above ground level and about 400 mph airspeed.
Led by Intern Cameron Aalto and Executive Editor Bert Etling, Ashland.news participates in Ashland’s 4th of July parade for the first time with a group of staff, board members, contributors and supporters.
Jess Freedman was out Sunday, July 21, replacing shirts at the Say Their Names Memorial at Railroad Park. The memorial was vandalized again in November.
An Ashland firefighter goes up a SOU Cascade dormitory complex stairway with a hose to connect to the building’s standpipe system. The fire department used the soon-to-be-demolished buildings for training in July and August.
Geoffrey Riley (right), who retired from Jefferson Public Radio in August, had been an on-air personality at JPR since 2000 when he started as a back-up host. In 2009 he became the host of the Jefferson Exchange program.
A night lawn camper removes his possessions from the lawn on Monday, Aug. 26, before the 8 a.m. deadline.
First responders from throughout the Rogue Valley converged on the southbound onramp at Exit 11 of Interstate 5 south of Ashland on Sept. 4 when a fast-growing grass fire prompted evacuation of nearby residents before being contained.
A crew from M&M Services uses an excavator to shape the banks of Bear Creek and install logs to stabilize it as part of a Rogue River Watershed Council project in Talent to improve water quality and aquatic habitat in an area of the creek damaged by the Almeda Fire in 2020. The project used logs that were cut as part of Ashland’s helicopter logging project.
Rainbow flags, stickers, and clothing were prevalent in Oct. 5th’s Southern Oregon Pride parade in downtown Ashland.
The Bear Creek Salmon Festival returned to Ashland’s North Mountain Park Nature Center on Saturday, Oct. 12. In its 17th year, the festival celebrates the seasonal cycle of Pacific northwest salmon species, environmental stewardship and community. Children were invited into the salmon tent to hear stories about salmon and nature.
Afterburnt, a post-Burning Man “decompression” event, was held in Lithia Park Nov. 11. A DJ provided music; jugglers and fire dancers performed after sunset.
Ashland filmmakers (L to R) Courtney Williams, Monica Lynn Cortez and Nisha Burton, along with about 40 others, including six SOU film students, filmed “In a Pickle” in Lithia Park and other Ashland locations in November.
Judy Blickenstaff, a volunteer at the Ashland Community Food Bank, fills a customer order on Nov. 13. The food bank saw a 140% spike in demand in 2024.
Erin O’Kelley Muck, Executive Director of Ashland Climate Collaborative, was part of group of bicyclists from the organzation lighting up the Festival of Light parade in downtown Ashland on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
A shopper captured a staff photo at the grand opening of the new Goodwill store at 777 E. Jefferson Ave., Ashland on Dec. 5. The new store is about twice as large as the old one and includes a Job Connection Center.
Stracker Solar VP of Operations Eric Wolfe helps guide the second of three 28 solar panel assemblies to the top of its mounting pole at TC Chevrolet. Founded in Asland in 2016, Stracker has installed over 70 of its massive solar power systems.
This car, spotted on the streets of downtown Ashland, gets waves and honks from fellow drivers, according to owners Miguel and Brisa Durand. Miguel saw the “light up your car” trend on social media and decided to give it a try.
Shneur Zweibel, Ashland, served doughnuts before the Grand Menorah Lighting on the Ashland Plaza on the first night of Hanukkah, Dec. 25.The 21st Grand menorah Lighting in Ashland Plaza was hosted by Chabad of Southern Oregon.
Picture of Bert Etling

Bert Etling

Bert Etling is the executive editor of Ashland.news. Email him at [email protected].

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