Mist-Birkenfeld Helping Circle Celebrates 90 Years of Assisting Its Community
By Scott Laird
The 2 tiny towns of Mist and Birkenfeld are the definition of tight-knit communities. Located in the foothills of the Coast Range—in such close proximity to each other they are often referred to as the same place, Mist-Birkenfeld—along a rural stretch of road north and west of Vernonia, they are the kinds of places where a large percentage of the population volunteers at the local fire department, neighbors look out for one another and generations of family members continue to live, many of them on the same properties their ancestors first homesteaded in late 1800 and early 1900s.
“That’s what this community is still based on—that there are generations and generations that are still here,” Ashley Cavett says.
Ashley is part of a volunteer group made up of local women who have been helping their communities for the past 90 years.
Shirley Kyser, the group’s former president, says Mist-Birkenfeld Helping Circle was originally started in 1935 to help care for Mist Cemetery. The group’s work has continued for nearly a century.
“Myrtle Matthews and Minnie Beach—they were the ones who started mowing the cemetery,” Shirley says. “Then they got other ladies in the community involved in it.”
Member Mary Lou Busch says many circle members have family in the cemetery.
“It’s our heritage,” she says. “There are generations of families there. If we don’t do it, who is going to?”
Over the years, the group’s work has extended well beyond the cemetery fence. The group has installed and paid for street lights in Mist, provided scholarships to local high school students who live in the Mist-Birkenfeld Fire District, and supported activities at the Mist School, the small elementary school that has served the community since the 1920s.
In early September, the group met at the Mist-Birkenfeld Fire Department to plan its annual Fall Festival, the main fundraiser that supports its community work.
Held on the first Saturday of November, the Fall Festival includes a hot dog feed, a selection of home-baked pies sold by the slice, silent and live auctions that feature handcrafted items from local artisans, and local entertainment. The family-friendly event is a highlight of the community’s calendar and packs the gymnasium at Mist School.
The festival is full of long-standing and popular traditions. Each year, a handmade quilt is raffled off. Vernonia resident Sue Whitman made the prize quilts for the 2025 and 2024 auctions. Sue recently learned about the Mist-Birkenfeld Helping Circle and was so impressed by the members’ community spirit that she decided to donate some of her handiwork to the fundraising effort.
“The women who started it would always do a handmade quilt,” Mary Lou says. “I remember when I first joined, we would all have little squares we had to complete to get them ready for the quilt.”
Homemade pies are another tradition. A sign-up sheet is passed around for bakers to make their specialties. Claudia Oblack makes marionberry pie—her family’s favorite—and she recently added pecan pie to her repertoire. Other favorites include cookies and cream, cherry cream cheese, chocolate cream, and several variations of apple pie.
The festival also includes an auction for handmade items.
“Everyone uses their personal skills and talents to create items for these auctions,” Ashley says. “We really come together to create these things for people, and it’s really great to see how other people really embrace your work and see who it goes to and how it makes them feel. It makes you want to keep coming together as we do in this small community.”
Group Secretary Cindy Bloomer says she has fond memories of her son participating in the auction as a teenager.
“He was honing his knife-making skills, and so he made one that was auctioned at the festival,” she says. “There was bidding for it, and it was just really sweet. You could tell he took so much pride in donating that, and then to see it go to someone who appreciated it—it was very rewarding.”
The festival has provided a multitude of stories to share over the years.
“1 year we had a goat come through—walked him right down the aisle for the auction,” Mary Lou says. “Another year, we had a big storm and the power went out during our Fall Festival. Because I was on the fire department at the time, we got the rescue vehicle and got the generators going, and then we finished our auction.”
Paul Ramsey, a longtime member of the community, first started attending the festival as a child in the mid-1960s.
“It used to be the big thing when you were small,” he says. “That was what you looked forward to all year, almost like Christmas. All my friends would always be there, and we all enjoyed the stuff they did. It was just a good time of camaraderie with your friends and family. You just couldn’t wait for that time of year to roll around.”
Paul recalls the festival’s varied entertainment over the years—a woman who played the marimba, a man who recited poetry, a man who played the carpenter saw with a fiddle bow, and the skits adults performed. He also remembers the large amounts of money older community members would sometimes bid during the auction.
The Helping Circle’s connection to Mist School is personal. Many members attended the school and had parents and grandparents who went there as well. Current President Joanie Jones was a teacher at the school for many years.
The group helps provide school supplies and library books for students and teachers at the beginning of the school year. Members also bought the tables and chairs in the gym and were responsible for building the original kitchen as an addition to the gymnasium building. The most recent remodel of the school kitchen was also thanks to Helping Circle.
As Shirley reminds the group, the previous kitchen in the basement of the building would flood most winters. It has come a long way since.
As a way to show their gratitude, students perform during the festival, a tradition Joanie helped foster.
The work of Mist-Birkenfeld Helping Circle is seen and felt across the Mist and Birkenfeld communities. Group members also help serve food and clean up at the Celebration of Life for community members.
Every year before Memorial Day, the group gathers to clean the white fence that borders the cemetery. Mary Lou brings over the water tender from the fire department to help the cleanup go quickly, and 90 years later, the group still mows the grass at the cemetery.
“I think there’s a real commitment to our community,” Mary Lou says. “We fight to keep our community going. That’s why we’re here—to take care of it.”