Collaboration with 60 participants

In spring of 2022, Steven and William Ladd received an email from Oregon Senator Jeffrey Merkley’s Chief of Staff saying that she learned about their Scrollathon project online and thought it would be a perfect team-building exercise for a group of 60 colleagues meeting in-person for the first time since the Covd-19 shutdown. With the staff’s arrival in Washington, D.C., they would be available for a weekend event, thereby kicking off the post-Covid renewal of the Ladd’s community collaborations. It was a dream opportunity for Steven and William to evolve their nascent Scrollathon project into a full-fledged National Scrollathon program involving all 50 states and the 5 U.S. Territories. 

The Oregon Scrollathon was the first time the Ladd’s traveled with students from their National Scrollathon Intern program — and the first time  the interns had left New York, and, indeed the Bronx! — or seen Washington, D.C. They were included in numerous Senate activities, including some special experiences not available to most tourists. It was also the first time the Ladd’s began formalizing the language of Scrollathon, distilling the words that defined their goals for the project and identifying how those goals would be communicated and achieved.

After Scrollathon’s conclusion, Senator Merkley sent the following letter to his staff:

Team – It was wonderful to connect with you – in person and not as tiny squares on a computer screen – during our Creating Connections staff retreat in May 2022. This was our first team gathering since the beginning of the pandemic, with many traveling to Washington D.C. and meeting each other for the first time.

I am tremendously proud of the work that every single person on this team is doing every day. Whether you’re in constituent services or on the policy team, work in communications, out in the field, operations, mail or on the committee, I want you to know you have changed people’s lives, helped get them through some of the darkest and most difficult days in the history of our country, and continue to fight for what is right.

We work together and collaborate to create meaningful change. That’s what Team Merkley does. I am pleased artists and brothers, Steven and William Ladd, helped us capture that essence of Team Merkley by kicking off our gathering with a Scrollathon, during which team members transformed into Community Artists, creating an individual artwork that they imbued with personal meaning and shared with the group. This shared experience showcased the extraordinary capacity and depth of every team member, and the power of our community, which is now represented in a collaborative artwork on display in both our DC and Portland offices.

True to our mission, we also worked together to create something bigger than us. The team painted beads for the National Scrollathon, while sharing stories with colleagues— creating personal and professional connections. For the national project, over the next 4 years Scrollathons will take place in all 50 states, 5 territories, and Washington, D.C., plus 10 Native Community Regional Centers to illuminate the stories of Americans through community collaborations creating monumental works of art in celebration of America’s 250th Birthday in 2026. Our beads and portraits will be incorporated into our State’s Collaborative Masterwork that will be created with the people of Oregon during the National Scrollathon.

Thank you for being on this journey together. Like me, you believe in the nobility of public service and power of community. I am grateful each member of this team answered the call to serve others – to serve something bigger than yourselves. As our staff Scrollathon showed us, together we can make something powerful when we bring our talents together.

With gratitude,
Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley

Portrait Mural of 60 participants, Oregon Senate, Washington D.C.

Signature Plate of 60 participants, Oregon Senate, Washington, D.C.