For the Love of our Community Heroes 2021 - Winners Week 5

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!

ALAN'S STORY

My hero is my husband. He is a Journeyman Lineman for our areas power utility company (PGE). He works so hard, all the time and always says how grateful he is to have a career that he loves doing. Especially after the fires of last year, the wind storm at the beginning of this year, and the ice storm that’s currently still being worked on, he has been working long, hard hours to make sure they are able to safely restore the power to so many people affected. He comes home (sometimes after days of being away) without a single complaint. He loves what he does and he loves that he, and his crews, are able to help provide the warmth and comfort to strangers all around. It brings him joy to know that he is able to help so many people! I couldn’t ask for a better hero for myself, and our two toddlers!

KRISTY'S STORY

Kristy Callahan is a retired special Ed teacher who had volunteered at John Tuck Elementary. She has bought endless amounts of books, educational supplies and other supplies to help all students during the pandemic. She also has purchased countless books from out local bookstore Herrringbone Book store in Redmond for local children. This past Christmas she donated $200 in books for the owner of the bookstore (Brandon) to distribute books where needed. She also volunteers at an equestrian therapy ranch for kids. Kristy continues to give unconditionally and I’m so grateful to have her as my friend. I hope you consider her for this “hero” award. She truly is a hero.

JOYCE'S STORY

Dr. Joyce is a passionately committed 7th grade middle school science teacher in the Roseburg Oregon school district. Her commitment to her students bridges well beyond her pledge to educate to that of compassion and empathy for their personal needs of community and belonging. Faced with the task of teaching during these difficult times, she embraced the challenge, knowing that it matters most for those she teaches. The directions on how teaching will be conducted is ever changing and Joyce spent many hours of time on weekends and nights to prepare the best educational content to connect with students in this new platform. Her love of labs and “learning by doing” was the biggest hurdle and she committed herself on finding a way to continue the create the love of learning science. Her passion comes out in her teachings and connection with her students and those efforts are yield excellent results. Joyce sets and exemplarily example of professionalism and compassion for her students, positively changing lives every day!

She has my highest of recommendation for receiving “For the Love of Our Community Heroes-Sunriver Resort Getaway Giveaway.

SARAH'S STORY

I'd like to nominate Sarah for your Hero award. Sarah is the part-time Office Assistant for the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District. In past years, our Fire District hosts many community events. Due to the pandemic, all community events were cancelled. Sarah has spearheaded countless modified projects so as to continue this engagement, as well as ensuring that all COVID guidelines are followed, thus making it possible for our volunteers and the community to remain engaged.

An example of Sarah’s efforts was supervising the creation of 300+ Halloween bags with some important fire safety education materials and some holiday treats for elementary school students in the Sisters and Black Butte school districts. In prior years, the Fire District had turned our fire truck bays into a haunted house and carnival, complete with a costume contest and games. Local families really look forward to this annual event. Unable to make it happen this year, the Halloween bags contained treats and fire safety interactive games appropriate to the elementary-aged students. Sarah coordinated this effort by contacting the schools, ordering the goodie bag supplies, and involving volunteers to assemble the bags and drop them off at schools. The children and teachers were thrilled.

Another example where Sarah excelled was the Spirit of Christmas Giving Tree Program and the Community Christmas Dinner event. The Spirit of Christmas event allows local families to apply for assistance with gifts for their school-age children. The Fire District collects and processes the applications, distributes gift request tags to local businesses, collects the purchased gifts, purchases additional items to complete the family requests, assembles family bags, and on the Saturday before Christmas, families come to collect their bags. This requires a tremendous amount of effort and coordination. This year all prior practices needed to change. Sarah worked with the team and drafted numerous options, including distributing the bags to the families as a drive-thru event. Thanks to her organization, everything went smoothly and the District was able to continue the Christmas tradition of supplying gifts to over125 Sisters Country families. The District also used the drive thru/walk-up solution to distribute homemade Christmas dinners to-go for the community in lieu of the traditional event held at the Fire District’s Community Hall

One last example is Sarah worked very closely with Deschutes County Health Department to coordinate a COVID vaccine clinic for Sisters residents. The Sisters community consists of many seniors and retirees who are not able to drive to the Redmond fairgrounds, or St. Charles in Bend, let alone know how to schedule an appointment online. The Sisters clinic was able to obtain 100 doses of the vaccine, and county nursing staff administered the shot. Sarah did a tremendous job once again coordinating the effort by securing phone lines at the Fire District’s Administration building and lined out Fire District staff and volunteers to manage the appointment line. The event, held in the Fire District’s Community Hall went very smoothly and 100 Sisters area seniors were very grateful to get the vaccine.

Sarah always goes the extra mile. As a Volunteer with the Fire District I, as well as my fellow volunteers, appreciate all of the work that Sarah does. COVID has put a strain on our traditional volunteer opportunities, and we all miss being involved with the community in so many meaningful ways, but thanks to Sarah and her creative solutions, she has managed to keep the close-knit community of volunteers connected.

JULI'S STORY

I am in awe of Juli. For more than five months, she supplied 50 meals three times a week to the displaced people from the fires of 2020. This included three courses. These people had lost everything in the fires around Detroit and Blue Pool and were each living in one room at the Super 8 in Redmond. To get a delicious home cooked meal from Juli three times a week must have been a huge gift, and the semblance of normality. Another time, there was a family who lost their father in a car crash and she supplied 16 meals (again, three courses) just to be kind to a family who had lost their Dad. Her kindness and support of our community is extraordinary and she is certainly worthy of this great offer.

JACOB'S STORY

Jacob is a 24 year old EMT at Rogue Regional Medical Center. Growing up Jake at a young age became a head figure in the life of his mom and sister after things occurred out of some difficult situations. As someone who is quiet Jake never complains, always wants to help out however. And is passionate about doing what is right. Before working at Rogue he use to work at AMR on the ambulance. He started at the hospital during the pandemic. And what a time to start a first time journey in healthcare.

Jake has been diligent in not giving up, always making sure people are cared for, and putting his best foot forward with a servants heart.

TORI'S STORY

Tori is the glue for our Positive Community Kitchen family & pretty much every family she meets. This season when our organization needed to go the extra mile & recruit 2x our team, Tori recruited, on-boarded, and nurtured volunteers in through the unknown. She took the time to recognize that our volunteer team, was in as much crisis as many that we were serving. Tori, on behalf of PCK has wrapped her arms around the team to make sure that our volunteers are as taken care of as our community. One of the stories that sticks out recently is when our volunteer, who had previously been a meal recipient of our program and lived alone needed to move & sell her long time home. Tori made time this season to support this person by sorting closets and making goodwill runs in the overwhelming effort for this person. Tori is a generous mother of 2 youngsters who get to see what it looks like to go out of your way to give love. This holiday season, Tori found herself debilitated with sickness and was in bed isolated for 3 weeks or so unable to eat & just drained. It was at that time se realized just how much she was depended on across the board, but in that period sort of skipped the holiday season and any chance of R&R. To me, T is a hero because she doesn't see barriers to love, she seems to seize every opportunity to make sure people are cared for. It should be noted that, as Tori's boss, I have met her mother, and that lady is just as kind and generous. She has become a delivery angel from our community to make sure residents of Oakridge are fed too. All this to say, it takes a village and I think I speak for many when we say we are sure grateful to have these gals in ours.