Baker City Shriners celebrate 75 years of community service

Baker City Shriners marked 75 years of service Saturday, a milestone built less on ceremony than on the local routines that have kept the organization visible in Baker County for generations. The group’s reach has long stretched from Historic Downtown Baker City to Bulldog Memorial Stadium, with football, parade and barbecue tying its name to fundraising for children’s hospitals.

That public footprint has been part of Baker City’s calendar for decades. A 2023 Baker City Herald feature described half a century of football and fundraising for children’s hospital work in Baker City, and a 2025 story again pointed to the familiar mix of football, parade and barbecue that defines Shrine time here. The annual Oregon East-West Shrine All-Star Football Game has remained the most visible piece of that tradition, with event listings placing the parade through Historic Downtown Baker City and the pre-game pageantry around the stadium.

The local fundraising side has also carried real dollar value. One post-pandemic estimate put Baker City Shriners’ annual football-game effort at about $30,000, a reminder that the event is not only a social fixture but a revenue source tied to children’s health care. Shriners Children’s Portland has listed the East West Shrine Game in Baker City among its events, reinforcing the connection between the local celebration and the hospital network in Portland.

The group’s work has not always unfolded on its usual schedule. In 2022, local Shrine activities were back on schedule after the disruption that came with the pandemic. During that same period, Baker County ranchers, farmers, Shriners and others were still part of the broader effort to help children, a sign that the organization’s local role extends beyond one annual game.

The 75-year mark now turns the focus to succession. Baker City’s Shrine tradition depends on the next set of volunteers willing to organize the game, line up the parade and keep the fundraising machine moving. If that pipeline weakens, Baker County would lose more than a familiar summer event. It would lose one of its longest-running civic institutions, and a direct local link to the children’s hospitals the Shriners have supported for three-quarters of a century.