Morgan Murray
Meet Morgan Murray:
Morgan hails from the tiny town of Steuben, NY. She attended The College at Brockport and earned a degree in Therapeutic Recreation where she had the opportunity to complete her clinical at the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah. Through this experience Morgan realized how important planning and policy are to creating effective and lasting changes in the built environment—something that must be done to improve accessibility. Morgan is passionate about inclusion, sustainability (economic, equitable, and environmental), and universal accessibility. She is confident that through service with RARE she will discover creative ways to engage the community in conversations surrounding these growing issues.
Morgan is a recreation enthusiast and lover of all things outdoors. In her free time she can be found riding her bike, skiing, kayaking, or camping. Morgan’s favorite tree is a Blue Spruce but she gives major props to Cedar trees.
Community and Organization:
The City of Warrenton is a neighbor to Astoria and Seaside on the North Coast. The City covers a large geographic area and is surrounded by water on three sides (Young’s Bay, Pacific Ocean, and Skipanon River) as well as many estuarine wetlands throughout the city. Warrenton offers an expansive trail system and a plethora of land and water based recreation opportunities for the community.
This is a typical small town in Oregon. It is a “blue collar” working town with most of the retail shopping for Clatsop County. Warrenton takes pride in being built on the economic base of natural resources such as logging and fishing as well as the efforts of hard working families. There is growing momentum for revitalization and rebranding. The community has adopted the slogan “All in Warrenton” as its motto.
Project:
There were five identified projects that Morgan tackled during this service year. In her role as the Project Manager she: (1) Updated the Parks Master Plan; (2) Created a Concept Plan for the Forest Rim neighborhood park; (3) Planned and promoted the Sunday Streets event—a car free, bike and pedestrian event and the first of its kind on the Oregon Coast; (4) Assisted the Community Development Director in data collection and analysis for an Economic Opportunities Analysis; (5) Designed a new wayfinding system for Warrenton’s bike and trail system. For each project Morgan developed and implemented a Public Involvement Strategy as well as a diverse offering of events to attract new partners.