For the Love of our Community Heroes 2021 - Winners Week 4

We Invite You to Follow Along Our 10 Week Campaign and Read All About Our Amazing Oregon Heroes!

Sunriver Resort's “For the Love of Community Heroes” campaign invites community members to privately nominate their Oregon hero. In appreciation, we are offering a complimentary two-night stay at Sunriver Resort for some well-earned time to relax & unwind, amidst all the beauty Central Oregon offers.10 winners are selected each week, for 10 weeks. Below are just a few of the stories that our nominees have allowed us to share, more stories to come. We invite you to follow along our 10 week campaign and read all about our amazing Oregon heroes!

AKESHA R'S STORY

My mom is an ER nurse, but when covid hit she was working on a covid positive only unit. Often times, our nurses get overlooked unless they are in the ER or ICU (she is in the ER now). But not only did she work on a covid unit, she did it as a single mom while transitioning me to online school too. She was helping train staff on their PPE and worked a lot of overtime. She is kind, compassionate, and takes care of others, including me, with a lot of care. My mom hasn't been away during any of this, and her only outlet to help her manage her stress was taken away because of shut down. My mom saves lives, and is and will always be my hero.

DON T'S STORY

Don Thomson is the director of the wellness center on the campus of Willamette University in Salem Oregon. He was tasked from the very beginning in February of 2020 to be the point person for the university's covid response. He formed countless committees to plan over the summer for opening the college to hybrid learning. He has continued to this day to be the driver of the University's Covid response. He has put in upwards of 80 hours per week, while also being a dad and a husband. He has done an amazing job and the university has successfully stayed open with very few covid cases and no college community spread. He is an amazing leader, always making sure his medical and counseling staff are doing well and supporting us through our professional and personal challenges as we navigated our year of covid. He is our hero and could use the the away from work with his wife. Thank you.

DAYMON'S STORIES

My Dad, Daymon is a Nurse in the NICU at River bend hospital here in Springfield Oregon. He ALWAYS goes above and beyond to take care of his fragile, baby patients! Since Covid hit, they have had MASSIVE restrictions on visitors in the NICU which can make the parents of babies very frantic. Sometimes only one parent can be visiting their baby at a time. My dad works SO hard every day to make sure the parents are taken care of, calmed down, and assured of the quality of care their babies will receive. He has saved many babies lives and he deserves a little vacation!!! Above all of that he is an AMAZING Father and grandpa to his grandkids. My husband is from New Zealand and my dad helped us tremendously with getting his green card and with our living situation, he truly is a saint!!! He ALWAYS tells me how much he LOVES Sunriver and how it’s his favorite place to go, so I KNOW this would make his life! He’s been pretty stressed out lately With work and bills and every day life and I would LOVE if he could win this free stay. Thank you so much!! - Amanda

I would like to nominate my husband Daymon Smith. He is truly my hero and a hero to many in our community. He is a frontline Registered Nurse at Riverbend Hospital, working on the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit. He has devoted his life, whole heartedly, for 24yrs, caring for the most fragile of our community while offering parents empathy and comfort as they maneuver through the unknown with their most prescious gift of life. As we raised our children, we partnered together to provide children in our community a safe family environment through the foster care system. He is an excellent and involved father to all of the children we have been blessed with. I am a stay at home Mom/Grandma. This year is our 30yr anniversary. I would LOVE to be able to do something for him, on my own, to show him how much he is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your consideration. - Jennifer

JOHN'S STORY

My husband, John Holland, is on the front lines supporting folks in mental health crisis every day. In a small town, without psychiatric beds at the local hospital, his mobile crisis team of social workers is a huge part of keeping our community of Tillamook County safe. He is called to local schools, out with law enforcement to homes, to the jail, and to the local emergency room to do crisis assessments. He primarily interacts with children and adults considering suicide or after an attempt. This is a hidden epidemic, and his calls have only increased as the pandemic and social restrictions continue indefinitely. He treats each person with an amazing amount of compassion, normalizing mental health conversations, telling patients how proud they should be for asking for help, and telling each person they are courageous for speaking up. Alongside the emergency room doctors or other professionals, he determines if folks can create safety plans and return to the community with support or if inpatient care is needed. If that's the case, he diligently advocates to find the patient that higher level of care that can stabilize them and help them regain their footing. He works every day in a front line area that is under the radar. My husband may not wear the uniform of fire, police, or doctors, but he is a front line responder all the same, going where he's needed in hard places, long before vaccines were available. He's saved the life of mothers with young kids at home. He's reassured teenagers who no longer want to keep going. He's advocated for a grandfather in the throes of grief when their spouse has passed away, and he didn't know if we wanted to stay on this earth without her. My husband is a hero.

MICHELLE'S STORY

My hero is my mom, who has been working crazy hours to help coordinate the vaccine distribution here in Portland. As a pharmacist working for a Hospital in Portland, she has been involved in the vaccine distribution since day 1. On top of her normal work responsibilities, she will go in to the distribution center to help make sure the vaccines are ready for the next round. Sometimes this means working until 10pm, only to turn around and be back by 4:30am the next morning. She is giving up her weekends and evenings to help make sure everyone gets a vaccine. That's why she's my hero!

CHRISTINA'S STORY

My mom is the Upper McKenzie Fire Chief who was responsible and gained national attention for calling a level 3 Evacuation during the Holiday Farm Fires this last summer that saved many lives. She fought the blaze with her volunteers while her own home burned down. She is more than deserving. She is beaten and hurting emotionally as she is finally able to cope with everything. This would be a much needed escape for her.

ERIK'S STORY

Erik is a veterans service officer for Crook County. Erik spent 6 years in the US Army as an Infantryman. Erik was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom for all of 2011 and spent 3 years as cadre at the elite US Army Ranger School. This man goes above and beyond his job duties to help veterans get the services they need. During the pandemic office visits were not available, and veterans had to call. He would spend hours on the phone sometimes with one veteran just to make sure they received all the help they deserved. Erik continuously looks for ways in not only Crook County, but all of Central Oregon, to assist veterans especially during this time of chaos. He is so passionate about not only helping veterans but their families as well. He is now helping to organize free transportation through Cascade East Transit for veterans needing assistance getting to medical appointments. I am so grateful to know Erik and his big heart! Erik has been a Veteran Service Officer since 2018, participating in a number of groups in our community to include The Central Oregon Veteran's Council, Band of Brothers, and the Oregon Association of County Veteran Service Officers. He loves spending time with family and friends, especially his certified Therapy Dog, Lily, who helps him in his work.

URSULA'S STORY

Hello, my name is Renita and I am the Director of Nursing at a SE Portland long term care nursing facility. I would to love to nominate each and every one of our nursing staff at our facility to show them how much I appreciate their dedication to the nursing profession over the course of the last year. They have worked the tails off during this pandemic. However, out of all of them I have one nurse that really stands out.

I would like to nominate Ursula for the community hero. She is one of our community’s nursing heroes at our long term care nursing facility in SE Portland. Back in early November 2020 we endured a Covid outbreak in our facility. Ninety percent of our resident became sick within a 2 week span. Approximately fifty percent of our nursing staff became sick as well. This was devastating to our community, our residents, our families and our employees. One cannot really describe how traumatizing this was unless you were a part of it. We turned an entire wing into a Covid Unit. We had to implement 12 hour shifts to staff the facility. Thankfully, Ursula was one of the nurses who did not contract Covid. She worked night after night after night on the Covid unit. At one time we had 34 sick residents that needed close observation of their vital signs and respiratory status as their condition could change at any moment. Ursula utilized her critical thinking and nursing skills to care for these residents. The intensity of this outbreak lasted about 6 weeks. Unfortunately, we lost quite of few of our loved residents due to this Covid outbreak. Subsequently, she and many others suffered post traumatic stress from this nightmare. Ursula recognized this trauma was affecting her mental well being. She consulted with her health care team and sought help for herself. This is highly unusual and she was very brave as nurses often just suck it up and keep moving forward despite their own needs. The guidance she sought helped her identify ways to cope and some tools learned to help alleviate her grief and she is taking steps to heal. She has continued to work and goes above and beyond. She covers shifts and works doubles as nurse staffing after this outbreak continues to be very challenging. She also is mentoring a nursing student and volunteered for this assignment. Ursula is a mother of 2 young girls. She and her girls really deserve some time away. A 2 day stay at Sunriver would really be fun for her and her girls. I myself have been there and the grandkids loved the community pool. Please consider her. I highly recommend her and this would contribute immensely to her continued healing. She continues to be dedicated to our community and provides excellent nursing care to our residents.

MIKE'S STORY

Mike has been a volunteer and co-ordinator for the Newport Surfrider Organization for the past 5 years. He has been communicating to the local group about beach clean-ups, events, and provided general support for the group activities. Most importantly, he has been instrumental in organizing virtual educational events this past year about plastic pollution, beach environmental concerns, and erosion. Mike's is a life-long surfer and his dedication to preserving our beaches has also been a life-long endeavor.

JEN'S STORY

Jen is the current director of United Way of Southwestern Oregon. She has spent countless hours rebuilding our organization in every way possible. She is always working to provide support to our local nonprofits and the work that they do in our communities, and when I say always working I truly mean that. She serves on many other boards and committees, attending meetings to find out where needs are, what can be done about the issues. She has engrossed herself into the nonprofit world to go beyond the boundaries of just being the director at our local United Way. If UWSWO can't provide assistance you can guarantee that Jen knows exactly where they will be able to get the help and support that they need. She is one of the most driven, dedicated, humble, and grounded people you will ever meet. Without her unwavering attention we would not have been able to provide over $250,000 in Covid relief support to our local organizations and nonprofits. Jen always has a smile and a positive attitude. She is an amazing leader in our industry and I would love to see her get more recognition for everything she does.