“If you build it, they will come.” And come they have. To date, the Sunriver Homeowners Aquatic & Recreation Center (SHARC) has had more than 1.4 million visitors through its doors since opening in May 2012.
Some would say it was a crazy idea – asking members of the Sunriver Owners Association (SROA) to fund an $18 million aquatic facility in the middle of the recession.
Sunriver was at a crossroads. At more than 40 years old, SROA’s main aquatic facility – the South Pool – was past its prime and requiring a major reinvestment. In addition, the pool could no longer accommodate the throngs of people using it.
With input from owners, surveys, various task forces and recommendations from recreation analysts the board looked beyond the “now” and what would be needed years down the road. It was determined that much more than just another pool was in order, and the idea of SHARC was born. It was then up to owners to vote on whether or not to approve the project.
With bated breath the votes were tallied on a Saturday afternoon in August 2010. It was one of the largest voting returns (3,392) in Sunriver history. The project was approved, construction began and SHARC opened in May 2012 to Sunriver owners, visitors and the general public.
In celebration of this five-year milestone, the Sunriver Owners Association is hosting an anniversary event in conjunction with SHARC’s annual soft opening of the outdoor aquatics on May 20-21. All outdoor pools, waterslides and the lazy river will be in full operation from 10am to 4pm each day. The indoor pool will be available until closing.
Admission on both days will be $5 per person along with three, non-perishable food items, in which Holy Trinity Catholic Church and their nonprofit Care & Share food bank program is the recipient. In 2016, Care & Share distributed more than 2,100 boxes of food to families throughout the greater Sunriver and La Pine communities.
The May 20 anniversary celebration will include carnival games, photo booth, arts and crafts and a virtual reality experience in Benham Hall. In the outdoor pool area there will be an inflatable human foosball activity and a Spiderman obstacle course for youngsters. The band Mango Stew will perform from 2 to 4pm with an eclectic mix of island energy and tropical flair music to kick off the summer season ahead.
www.sunriversharc.com/calendar
541-585-5000
Here’s some interesting SHARC facts:
SHARC is open 365 days a year, including holidays.
All SHARC pools combined total 358,498 gallons of water – or the equivalent of 3,600 average-sized bathtubs.
The indoor pool trusses and timbers are made out of Alaskan Yellow Cedar – a species of wood that stands up to moisture and is decay resistant.
4,696 bottles of sunscreen, 8,987 pair of goggles and 10,477 swim pants have been sold.
5,100 rolls of jumbo toilet paper have been used since opening.
SHARC contains enough electrical wire to connect a line from Sunriver to Terrebonne.
There is more than three miles of pool piping.
More than 3,000 yards of concrete was poured.
482,000 pounds of rebar or the equivalent to 121 SUVs was used in building SHARC.
The project provided more than 175 on-site construction jobs and took more than 81,000 man hours to complete. To put it another way: If one individual had worked on the project alone during 40-hour weeks, it would have taken that person more than 40 years to complete SHARC.
Sunriver is a planned residential and resort community southwest of Bend in Central Oregon. Located near the base of the Cascade Mountain range, Sunriver’s 3,300+ acres are part of unincorporated Deschutes County, but the community is essentially self-governing. Sunriver is governed by the not-for-profit Sunriver Owners Association (SROA) — led by a nine-member board of directors and staff to provide administrative services, recreation programs and facilities, and maintain more than 65 miles of roads, 33 miles of pathways and a variety of community amenities.
