“Dear Stranger” letter-writing campaign comes to the Philomath Museum

For 10 years, Oregon Humanities’ Dear Stranger project has invited Oregonians to exchange letters with people they’ve never met. Since 2014, more than 1,000 people have sent letters to Dear Stranger and received letters in return from other writers.

Participants came from every county in Oregon as well as 35 other states and four countries.

To celebrate the project’s 10th anniversary, Oregon Humanities is partnering with libraries and museums across Oregon to set up letter-writing stations, including one at the Philomath Museum. The bright red mailbox will remain there through October 31.

Oregon Humanities is a statewide organization that brings people together to talk, listen, and learn from each other.

“Dear Stranger is one of many ways we connect people across distances and different experiences and beliefs,” said Ben Waterhouse, communications director for Oregon Humanities, in a press release. “Reading a letter from someone you’ll likely never meet gives you a glimpse into another person’s life and mind. We hope participants will discover they have more in common than they might have imagined.”

The goal of Dear Stranger, the organization says, is to create a shared understanding among Oregonians with different backgrounds, experiences and beliefs. The premise is simple: Write a letter, receive a letter and make a new connection. Each round of the project asks writers to tackle a different question or topic. The prompt for the current round is: “What kind of Oregon would you like to live in?”

The letter exchange is anonymous and everyone receives a letter from the person who received the letter they wrote. What happens next is up to the writers. If they want to write a response, they can do so through Oregon Humanities.

Letters should be addressed to Oregon Humanities, Attn: Dear Stranger, 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111, Portland, Oregon, 97205. For this round, Oregon Humanities will exchange letters sent by October 31.

Complete instructions are available on the Oregon Humanities website. Please direct questions about Dear Stranger to [email protected].

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