Shawn Donnille

“My parents were apolitical,” says Shawn Donnille, who grew up in Orange County, California, a Republican stronghold. “Every summer we spent two weeks in Nevada City, an old mining community, and connected with plants and wildlife.” At age 15, Donnille started an environmental club at Villa Park High School. “We planted trees on campus,” he notes, “and organized monthly debates.” After high school, he moved to Nevada City and took part in Earth First! campaigns to save redwood forests and to ban sport hunting of cougars. In 1991, at age 24, he took a job at Mountain Rose Herbs, a home-based mail-order business in nearby North San Juan. “There were two employees and me,” says Donnille, who was asked to run the business while the owner, herbalist Julie Bailey, was navigating a divorce. He moved it towards organic certification and built a website at a time when no one else in the industry was selling online. “It was an enormous success,” he says. In 2001, Bailey and Donnille moved the business to a small house in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, to be near farms and recreational opportunities. Today they are domestic partners and co-owners of a company with 200 employees in six separate Eugene facilities, including a newly opened retail store. They set their own wages at not more than 3.5 times those of their lowest-paid employee. An executive team of three now runs the company. “I devote my time to environmental causes and groups,” Donnille says. “That’s my job these days. I was chief petitioner for a ballot initiative to ban aerial spraying that almost made the ballot. We’ll revisit it next year.”

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!