The 28th annual Carrie Young Memorial will see changes this year, but the legacy of giving continues with many items for auction and a chance for the county to give back.

Organizer Lucie Immoos said the event will start at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 on the radio through KJDY. Bidders can call 541-620-2098, 541-620-0220, 541-620-2958, 541-620-0233 and 541-620-2534 to make their bids.

The event was originally scheduled to be held in the Grant County Fairgrounds heritage barn, but Immoos said the memorial for her sister would not be an in-person event this year.

Oregon’s two-week freeze was one of the deciding factors.

Immoos came into this year hesitating to ask people for donations due to the fires throughout Oregon and the economic impact of COVID-19.

However, she feels she received more donations this year than ever before, including items the memorial has never auctioned before such as two, 100-gallon fuel delivery certificates and a fishing trip on the Columbia River.

Businesses that have been shut down for months also donated items to be auctioned.

“I am absolutely so grateful for everybody that participates in the memorial, everybody that’s donated to us and my team that builds everything,” Immoos said. “It’s been a huge effort provided by the community in the county and out of county.”

Immoos created the memorial in 1993 to honor her older sister, Carrie Young, who was killed in a car crash.

When Young passed away, the family learned that she purchased gifts each Christmas for residents at Blue Mountain Care Center in Prairie City, where she worked.

With the money raised by auctions, Immoos makes sure that residents at Valley View Assisted Living, Blue Mountain Care Center, Mothers Creek senior home and others around the county receive some form of heat through the purchase of heating supplies such as furnace oil, propane and firewood.

Funds raised also go toward groceries and other needed supplies for hundreds of elderly residents.

Immoos said the importance of the memorial rose this year, especially with the tribulations brought from COVID-19 to the seniors in Grant County, with some of them being behind doors at assisted visiting facilities for months without visitors.

“I’m hoping to give them a nice Christmas, and I reached out to the assisted living facilities to see if they have something available in each home such as a Zoom or Ipad where they can see their loved ones,” Immoos said.

Immoos hopes she can provide technology to the seniors so they can reach out and see their loved ones, but she said they will make sure to take care of the neediest of people and provide them the necessities.

“My biggest joy really is helping the seniors at home, and they’ve been locked down, and I hope to give them some joy,” Immoos said.