(Photo courtesy of KIDS Center)
A not-for-profit, commonly referred to as a “nonprofit,” is organized to achieve a purpose other than generating a profit. Using that criterion alone, Oregon is a very altruistic state — with more than 22,000 registered nonprofit establishments. Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties hold their own in terms of helping those in need — one example being the end-of-year Central Oregon Gives campaign that has raised millions of dollars for more than 80 charities since its inception in 2018.
And it’s not just millions of dollars that make a difference. To quote the operations director of Shepherd’s House Ministries, “If we make a dollar, that’s one more dollar than we started with, and every contribution helps us profoundly transform lives.”
Area nonprofits — grouped into the primary categories of education, family and children; animal welfare; arts and culture; and health and environment — include 1,300+ in Bend alone, with reported annual budgets as high as $9.7 million (based on 2020 figures).
Be it providing orthodontic care to underserved youth, strengthening foster families, increasing the number of high school graduates, supporting music education, transforming lives with shelter, promoting a positive understanding of disability and community inclusion, or fostering adoption of displaced animals — there are numerous charitable options in Central Oregon that need — and deserve — support from the communities they serve.
The articles below describe just a few of them.
Redmond Senior Center Serves Demographic ‘That Can Get Lost in Today’s World’
In Redmond, 22.6 percent of residents are 65 and older, with the number of older adults projected to grow dramatically in the coming years as overall population continues to balloon. (In Deschutes County, the number of residents 65 or older increased nearly 50 percent from 2010 to 2016.)
Yet despite these compelling statistics, only one resource in Redmond focuses solely on seniors — the Redmond Senior Center — a stand-alone nonprofit launched by volunteers in 1949 (74 years ago) when the city’s population was less than 3,000 residents. (It now stands at 83,000, with a growth rate of 3.9% annually.)
Unlike the Bend Senior Center, which is operated by the tax-supported Parks and Recreation Department, the Redmond Senior Center — currently operating on an annual budget of about $500k — is primarily funded by grants and donations. It does not receive tax revenues.
“We prepare 900 meals a week, or a total of 39,000 annually,” said Operations Manager Randy Graves, “with the majority delivered to homebound seniors through the federally funded Meals on Wheels program. Even during the height of the pandemic, we continued to provide Meals on Wheels for isolated older adults throughout the greater Redmond area. We serve a real need here for a demographic group that can get lost in today’s fast world.”
Impressive enough on its own, providing thousands of meals each year only partially explains why the Redmond Senior Center has been a “hub” of the community for so many years.
Partnering with Redmond Parks & Rec, the organization offers numerous exercise options, including pickleball, Zumba, chair yoga, and line dancing (which draws 20-25 regulars for the bi-weekly classes). Also on site is a library stocked with books, board games, and puzzles; and available pursuits such as bridge (“where no one talks,” according to Graves), pinochle (“where talking is allowed”), and bingo.
Another partner, Dry Canyon Art Association, brings in the works of local artists on a rotating basis for display on the walls; the works are also available for sale.
“Anybody can come here,” Graves emphasized. “We want the Senior Center to be a multigenerational facility, and average 70-80 visitors a day. We also host gatherings for outside organizations, including three local churches — “we’re really the cheapest rental choice in town.”
To help keep operations running smoothly, Graves is overseeing a complete kitchen renovation that is scheduled for completion in November. The $500k cost was borne by the City of Redmond and the Deschutes County Commission, each of which contributed 50% of the total amount.
Graves is grateful to Mountain View Fellowship for serving as a temporary kitchen during this months-long process. “They have been so gracious during this disruption that we also serve meals to all the homeless people who live there,” he said.
With the renovation’s end in sight, he is planning a celebration. “Someone donated a 900-pound cow — from which I ordered two prime ribs that we’ll serve on the day the new kitchen opens.”
Relatively new to his job as Operations Manager, Graves brings decades of credentials that include running Boys & Girls Clubs in the Portland area for 20 years; being a road manager for a fiction writer; coaching a girls basketball team; and serving as development director for a nonprofit, where he raised double the organization’s budget during the Covid shutdown.
“Redmond Senior Center members haven’t had leadership stability for a long time,” Graves said, “which is one reason I made a five-year commitment in accepting what I consider the best retirement job ever. I’m very blessed to be here.”
“I enjoy having people share their stories, and telling me who they were. I serve lunch just so I can interact with them,” added Graves, who is well aware of the importance of being socially connected, especially for older adults. (According to the Mayo Clinic, “socializing not only staves off feelings of loneliness, but also helps sharpen memory and cognitive skills, increases your sense of happiness and well-being, and may even help you live longer.)
As he has witnessed, “most of our seniors come down here about 11am, and when I ask “why do you keep coming here?’ respond that ‘I need to have contact with people — it gives me a sense of worth.’”
Not to mention relishing Graves’ sense of fun. “I plan to organize field trips, which has drawn great enthusiasm among our members, and turn a storage space into a pool room complete with a couch, bar stools, and bistro tables.”
As he explained, “I’m a very hands-on person, and don’t hesitate to sweep floors, move chairs, unclog toilets, and blow leaves in the parking lot. As the chef (who I consider our most important asset) told me, ‘You’re not like the others who just stayed in their office.’
That’s simply not how Graves operates. “My job is to build a team here. And partially because this isn’t my first rodeo, nothing fazes me. Sometimes it takes me longer, but I know I’ll get there eventually.”
Soccer Academy, Valuing Family Environment & Fair Play, Grows to 400+ Participants
Successfully recruiting youth throughout Central Oregon — from Bend to Sunriver, La Pine, Gilchrist, Crescent, and Christmas Valley — the La Pine Soccer Academy (LPSA) is clear on its mission: bring challenging yet fun soccer to this area. “Above all,” said co-founder Matt Tarter, “LPSA values a family environment, highly encourages fair play, and expects all members to respect coaches, game officials, opponents, parents, and players.”
When established in 2020, LPSA attracted 173 participants — a number that has grown to 400+ and encompasses “all different skills sets and athletic abilities, as there are so many positions to fill,” Tarter noted. “We even had to turn away dozens of boys and girls last year due to lack of space to play, and have added a second field as a result.”
In addition to “giving these kids something to do,” in Tarter’s words, the collegial games help “develop players who are bold and imaginative on the field, strong and energetic during activities, and audacious and fearless when challenged.”
A single mom reinforced those words: “My son hated it entire first season. But as the season ended, he told me that ‘I’ve made a whole lot of new friends (including a best friend).’ It shocked me,” she said, “as this was not his personality, which had been very unsocial. And he’s eager to sign up again.”
“We want to give these kids what they deserve and need,” added Tarter, a La Pine High School varsity soccer coach. “We don’t want them to be turned away due to lack of financial resources.”
In addition to field rental fees, La Pine Soccer Academy relies heavily on sponsors to help pay for referees, registration fees, equipment, water bottles, and uniforms. There is no minimum amount required — “we gladly accept any donation,” he said.
As a varsity coach himself (at La Pine High School), Tarter has a long-term agenda. “We pride ourselves that the kids gaining experience with LPSA will be able to make a seamless transition into high school soccer. We also hope to eventually turn LPSA into something bigger that will encompass other sports as well. We’re not just here for soccer, but for the community.”
The nonprofit held its first major fundraiser earlier this year, a daddy-daughter dance called “Ties and Tiaras” that attracted 300+ couples. “The community really came together to help us stage this event, which was wildly successful and hopefully will become an annual tradition,” Tarter said. “On the dance floor, couples ranged from fathers holding infants in their arms, to a dad escorting his mid-50s-age daughter. It was a magical night.”
Without Widespread Support, Community Kitchen ‘Would Not Be Able to Survive’
While the official population of La Pine is still well under 3,000 — 17 years after its incorporation in 2006 — the number of people benefitting from locally based services such as the fire department and medical care facilities is estimated at about 25,000. This broad reach extends to those needing food assistance, which is where La Pine Community Kitchen has played an important role for more than two decades.
Located in a 1930s logging company dining facility that was moved to its current site in 2008, Community Kitchen has been managed for the past five years by Sharri Dempsey — who, on the surface, looks like someone’s beloved grandmother, with a radiant smile and empathetic demeanor. But don’t kid yourself. When it comes to taking care of those who depend on the Kitchen’s largesse, she is emphatic and fiercely dedicated.
“I don’t care if the richest person in town comes to our door. If they need food, they’ll get it from us,” Dempsey said. “We never ask for identification, and we never ask for money. Our mission is to make sure that people are fed and clothed.”
“In serving low/no income veterans, seniors, disabled individuals, and families in La Pine and the surrounding rural area, we have no qualifying restrictions,” she emphasized. “Which means that basically, anyone in need is welcome to access our services.”
A social worker and mental health professional, Dempsey has written two books, taught English as a second language in Uruguay and Peru, and worked for ten years helping to manage 29 indigenous tribes in Washington State in areas such as child welfare and alcohol dependency. “I am grateful for those jobs,” she said in retrospect, “as they helped me to respect and love people, and support them in ways I couldn’t before.”
To quantify, in the month of August alone, La Pine Community Kitchen distributed 30,504 pounds of food in 41-pound boxes containing meat, dairy, produce, bread, and non-perishable items) and served 1,638 hot meals. Contributors included NeighborImpact, with almost 50 percent of that total, as well as Whole Foods, Fred Meyers, Safeway, Winco, Walmart, and the local Grocery Outlet. “In 2022,” Dempsey summarized, “414,000 pounds of food went through our food bank.”
(The nonprofit also maintains a Clothes Closet that, in 2022, distributed approximately 12,000 of clothing — from shoes to sleeping bags — at no charge to the recipients.)
Dempsey estimated that “the number of people we serve has doubled from 2019 to 2023. In the past year, we’ve seen a lot of young families in need — even with both parents working — due to the area’s high cost of living, including rent. (According to Zillow, the median monthly rent in La Pine as of September 2023 is $1,800.)
In addition to the increased need, she attributed the growing numbers of those served partly to “Community Kitchen becoming more well known, and having a greater capacity to pick up and store food. Those things have really made a difference.”
She explained that “70 percent of Community Kitchen’s funding comes from grants, and 30 percent from individual contributors, businesses and churches. The bottom line is that without the widespread support of our volunteers, grantors, individuals and the community, we would not be able to survive.”
And although reticent to admit it, Dempsey herself is a pivotal factor in the nonprofit’s survival and success. “Everyone deserves to be fed, and treated with respect,” she said. “I’m just an old grandma who loves feeding people and taking care of them. And our people deserve the best.”
Latino Community Association Seeks to ‘Empower All the Families of Central Oregon’
“Foremost among our current priorities is solidifying funding and our presence in the community — as well as strengthening and sustainably growing existing programs — to meet the needs of those we serve,” said Daniel Hernandez, interim executive director of the Latino Community Association.
“Without exception, our programs align with the Latino Community Association’s core mission: ‘To empower our Latino families to thrive, creating opportunities for advancement, and building bridges that unite and strengthen us all.’ And we offer the programs at various levels to provide room for advancement, rather than a one-time opportunity, so participants can continue to thrive.”
Hernandez emphasized that the nonprofit, which was founded in the early 2000s, “realizes that needs and priorities change over time, and that we need to adapt accordingly. All our offices are busy.”
“One of the trends we’ve noticed among the Latino and immigrant families coming through our doors is displacement in the areas of housing and unemployment, especially in rural communities,” he noted. “This is true in terms of both access and culturally specific barriers. And while some cities provide more access than others, the issue of navigating through this access often remains.”
To clarify, “once qualified to enrollment in the Oregon Health Plan (OHP), our clients — some of whom have never seen a doctor, or only seen one in emergency situations — may need assistance in system and benefit navigation,” Hernandez said. “An example would be making appointments to tap into transportation options.”
The Latino Community Association is now searching for a permanent executive director (Hernandez is serving in an interim capacity) “who can lead this unique and special organization. It will take a dedicated leader, and the decision will only be made by incorporating all the input from our community-based staff (who are bilingual in Spanish and English) and the overall area we serve.”
Hernandez added: “Although our programs and services primarily serve Central Oregon’s Latino and immigrant populations, if any of them ‘speak to someone,’ we welcome them wholeheartedly. We don’t exclude anyone — and have folks of all races, genders, ages, and backgrounds. We seek to empower all the families of Central Oregon.
