Fire Relief Fund for Margaret

Two weeks ago, four local fire departments responded to a house completely engulfed in flames. They were able to put out the fire, however the home was a total loss. The owner of the home, Margaret Boatwright, the Dallas High School Theatre's beloved costumer of more than thirty years, was safely in the DHS costume shop, working hard on costumes for Macbeth when the family received the news. They returned home to a driveway full of fire equipment, an army of responders, all bent on saving as much of their life in this house as possible. Luckily, the fire did not spread to the rest of the property since there was so much rain the couple days prior.

The house that burned, known by the family as The Farm, was the meeting place for family gatherings. Fourth of July picnics in the backyard and fireworks at the pond, Friday night wrestling in Margaret’s living room, and countless sleepovers with the grandkids were hosted there. The home itself, a farmhouse built around 1862, is not only an irreplaceable piece of family history gone, but an important relic of Oregon’s days gone by, razed completely to the ground.

Now Margaret is working on her next steps. Family and friends are working slowly to uncover any items that survived the fire. Cleaning up the debris from the fire will take time and money. Currently, parts of the structure hang precariously, the upstairs tethering on the few walls left of the downstairs, requiring a great deal of assistance in the dismantling.

So will figuring out Margaret’s future living arrangements. We appreciate any help you can offer during this time so very much. We are setting up a GoFundMe, and we’ll release more details when that happens.

If you have ever had a costume made by Margaret, whether at DHS or Pentacle Theatre, or even if she’s put a patch on your jeans; if you’ve been in her Sunday school class, taken the required piece of chocolate as your exit ticket from the vintage cookie jar in the costume shop, or just had one of her excellent hugs, please consider giving back to this remarkable woman who has made such an impact on so many people’s lives.

We understand the money might be tight at the moment what with the holidays approaching, so please consider sharing this as far and wide as you can to help reach Margaret’s extensive network of all the people who love her