2022 Honoree - Brenda Patton

Louis F. Schultz Distinguished Service Award

Brenda Patton is the co-founder (along with the late Phil Hart) of the nonprofit Table Rock Foundation, which provides youth camping experiences of many types, including grief and trauma healing, empowering girls, and hands-on skill-building in forestry practices. From 1997-2006, Brenda and the Table Rock Foundation supported the return of the Salmon Ceremony, bringing this tribal tradition back to the land. She was a founder and past president of the Rogue Gateway Rotary Club. Brenda’s extensive work with youth also includes Rotary Youth Leadership Academy and the Interact Club at North Valley High School.

Four Way Community Foundation president Greg Fishwick said of Patton, “Brenda nurtures and embodies community connection: across generations as a Rainbow Grandmother and youth camp organizer, among community members as a founder of Rogue Gateway Rotary Club, and with the environment as a steward of resilient forests.”

Brenda and her late husband, Jan Patton, gradually purchased 375 logged-over acres in the Shan Creek area and diligently rehabilitated them for optimum forest health and educational, spiritual, and recreational use, as well as wood harvest. They were named “Tree Farmers of the Year” by the Josephine Forest Farm Association and the American Tree Farm Association for their outstanding forest management. In 2018, their practices proved both prescient and effective when their “Enchanted Forest” withstood the raging Taylor Creek Fire nearly unscathed, serving as a natural barrier to the fire’s spread. Biochar and forest management workshops there have trained forest rangers from four ranger districts as well as representatives from several restoration companies. 

Brenda Patton is a graduate of Rogue Community College, and as a Licensed Tax Consultant she owned and managed H Street Business and Tax Services until her retirement in 2018.