Presenting Ashley Roth, occasional skunk-trapper, wife, mother, and community uniter.
Ashley Roth strolled through downtown Forest Grove one cloudy afternoon in April, 2014. A ten-month-old nestled into one arm, flowers and cards in the other. She had just started the Facebook group, Forest Grove Community. Rather than invite people through the online platform alone, she opted to hand out flowers to community members, with an invitation to join in the attached Dollar Tree cards.
This beginning is the perfect example of what Ashley embodies within the group, the special ability to bring the online offline, and vice versa. She started the page with the intent to create a place where community members could interact in a positive and uplifting environment.
“I was tired of people tearing each other apart over things, everybody just fighting instead of having civil discourse and trying to figure out a solution, or a plan. The whole online thing gives people a false sense of superiority.”
As of today, the community is 5,900 members strong. Given the group she has started, it is surprising that she has moved around more times than her 30 years of life. Her typical day starts like this:
6am:
- Wake up before the children, make coffee, scroll through the group posts.
- Follow the threads that might get out of hand, offer encouragement to those who are having a rough time, or need help. Enlighten the haters that Fidel Castro was a communist. Not her.
- Gently remind grown-ass adults to be kind.
- Answer some of the many messages she gets in a day.
- Delete the hate mail. “This is the year where I’m realizing I can’t please everybody.” She says. “If someone’s mean in the posts, I will usually give them two or three chances to turn it around. If they don’t; delete.”
- Get her children fed, dressed and off to school.
Then, when she can, she looks for people in the community who may need help. Among other things, she has raised money for local families, jump started a car, searched for missing pets, and even helped bait and set a live trap to catch a skunk—though she smelled like a walking tuna factory for the rest of the day.
“Many people have sort of lost their faith in humanity.” She says. And she almost did, too. When asked whether she has ever thought about quitting, she responds with a definitive yes. She tells about the time she spent a month personally gathering supplies and cash for a family in need, only to have them turn out to be—not what they claimed.
“It took me a few months to move through that, to want to give again.” She says. After that experience, she takes every summer off, and the other admins take over. The message she tries to instill in the community? “It’s ok to be nice, to be kind.”
Ashley Roth is a shining reminder that true connections can be found online as well as off, if we are willing to put the virtual swords and shields away, and truly care about our neighbor’s answer when we ask, “how are you today?”
Written by: Katie-Rose
