In 2011, I began teaching at the John Muir School in Ashland. As a public school with a focus on the outdoors, we spent most Fridays exploring a variety of natural locations around the Rogue Valley. We relied on parents to drive students on trips, and Tonya Graham made that happen.
Tonya would relentlessly, all year long, personally track down enough parent drivers to make our trips happen. She’d start early in the week hunting drivers for our trips and, if in a pinch, she’d drive kids in her van. It was a thankless job that required incredible persistence and commitment. Tonya happily did it for years.
I think of all those kids who deepened their connection with nature in diverse settings throughout Southern Oregon because of those countless trips. Imagine what that persistence will do for our city when she’s mayor.
