Ashland Amigo Club’s annual picnic on 30 June 2024

July 4th is the highlight of the year for Ashland’s Amigo Club, whose members plan numerous events for locals and visiting Guanajuatenses. This year, events started on 27 June, with a city welcome breakfast, and continued until 6 July, when the last visitors returned home to Guanajuato.

The main event for all Amigo Club members is the annual picnic, hosted by members Suzanne and Richard Haveman at their beautiful home at the south end of town. Only three of our Guanajuato visitors had yet arrived by 30 June, but five more arrived later in the week (see next post about the July 4 parade and other events). [Photos by Karen Grove, unless otherwise indicated.]

Some of the Amigo Club members and visiting Guanajuatenses listening to reports of a recent visit by Ashlanders to Guanajuato for their major “Presa de la Olla” event. The Haveman’s lawn is the perfect setting for our annual picnic.

Señora Chela applauds after Mackenzie Locklin, Ashland’s Youth Ambassador, expresses how fortunate she feels to have had the opportunity to represent Ashland in Guanajuato. Behind Señora Chela is Kim Locklin, Mackenzie’s mother, and Larry Jones, long-time Amigo Club member. Photo courtesy of Jay Ach.

Mackenzie enjoying the picnic with two young friends and Jorge Hernandez, who was visiting from Guanajuato with his godfather, Rubén Rodriguez.

Left to right: Two long-time Amigo Club members—John Enders and Sean Van Ausdall (Amigo Club treasurer); Rubén Rodriguez and his daughter Ameli. Rubén is the current Amigo Club president in Guanajuato, and a Lions Club member. He studied in Ashland while his father was a student at South Oregon University (SOU). More recently, Rubén’s son studied in Ashland, making him the third generation in his family to do so. Sean and his wife Catherine hosted Rubén and his family in their Ashland home. Photo courtesy of Jay Ach.

Cristian Mendoza Ruvalcaba and Carolina Mona-Keene, professors in the OHSU School of Nursing at SOU, explain how they went to Guanajuato for several weeks as part of an initial Lions Club project to provide eye screening and glasses to low-income children in Guanajuato state. This project was initiated by Señora Chela, implemented by Lions Club member Nancy Lynch Patzer, and facilitated by Rubén Rodriguez in Guanajuato.

Amigo Club members Tom Lamoree—sporting a commemorative shirt from Ashlanders’ 2019 visit to Guanajuato—and Kernan Turner, author of the Entre Amigos column for Ashland News (https://ashland.news/; see “News” section of this web site for an archive of his columns).

Two other Guanajuatenses attended the picnic: Monica Herrera Zamora (left side), who had just finished studying music at SOU during the winter and spring terms; Karen Lucía López Villanueva (right side), who studied business at SOU during the winter and spring terms of 2023 and who returned to Ashland this year. Karen and Monica are both accomplished violinists and participated in the Siskiyou Violins ensemble during their stays in Ashland. They were invited by Faina Podolnay, the ensemble’s director, to accompany the group to Vienna for a competition there in July 2024. Photo courtesy of Jay Ach.

Table decor with U.S. and Mexican flags. Photo courtesy of Jay Ach.