For the Love of our Community Heroes 2021 - Winners Week 7

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!

SKY'S STORY

Sky is a coworker of mine and an amazing person and nurse in general who found herself in the right place at the right time. This is a facebook post from the I Love Bend OR Community Page, I think this sums it up my reason for nominating her well..."To the lady who saved our son’s life: I’m hoping the Bend community can help me locate the woman who came to our rescue this past Monday afternoon at Riley Ranch. While out on a family hike, our ten-year-old suffered a cardiac event and stopped breathing. A runner passing by stopped and performed CPR on him while we waited for emergency personnel to arrive. We truly believe that this act saved his life. In the chaos of it all, we didn’t catch her name but would love to connect so we can thank her. Perhaps she’s on FB or this story sounds familiar to someone who knows her. Our son is stable after being airlifted to a children’s hospital and undergoing open heart surgery. We are looking forward to when sedation is lifted so we can see our sweet boy’s smile again. There were also several other kind Bend souls that day who stopped to help. One was the police officer who drove our older boys home when my husband and I left with the ambulance. After dropping them off, he returned a little bit later with warm chili, cornbread, and a loaf of breakfast bread. This had me in tears when I found out. Several other bystanders helped by putting their warm hats both on and under our son’s head, and waited with us until help arrived. To the Airlink guys who transported us by plane in the night. I can’t think of a nicer, more professional, compassionate crew to care for our son and keep me calm. I can’t wait for him to meet you when he’s all better. Thank you Bend. We truly live in a special place and I’m forever grateful for the people who make up our community. ❤️
UPDATE: We found our hero, Sky!!! Thank you Bend!

DIANE'S STORY

Diane is my wife. She has been making masks for COVID the past year. She has given them to family and friends in Oregon and California and to the Lane County Public Health personnel. She asks for no money. Rather, she suggests that each mask recipient give what they can to the Springfield Education Foundation. To date she has made over 300 masks and is still making them. She even makes them to order in the colors and patterns people request. The mask's popularity is partly because of the unique design. It takes her about one hour to make one mask.

TIMOTHY'S STORY

Tim has worked tirelessly to help our community get a greenhouse kit set up, volunteering his time and money to plant a vegetable garden for the local food bank share. He is selfless, hard working and would benefit greatly from a little break at the Sunriver Resort.

ANNIE'S STORY

Annie is a member of the founding team for STARS (Sisters Transportation and Ride Share, www.agefriendlysisters.com > star). She has dedicated many hours getting STARS up and running and continues to organize pick up/delivery within Sisters and rides for non-emergecy medical appointments to Sisters, Redmond, and Bend for Sisters Country residents. Through the pandemic she has continued providing rides in her own car and helping anyone in need regardless of her own personal risk as a senior citizen herself.
I commend her for her selflessness and giving spirit. She is very deserving of your recognition.

LANCE'S STORY

At the time of this submission, Coos County is the last county in the extreme risk category in Oregon. During this difficult time, Lance has continued to work hard to bring services to our community that benefit the least of us. As Chief Innovation Officer at Waterfall Community Health, a community based health center that is a non-profit, he has created programs to meet the needs of the least served in our community. Coos County is one of the poorest counties, with one of the largest homeless populations in Oregon. Sadly, our needs are many. During the Pandemic, Lance implemented a free mobile flu vaccination clinic, and set up shop in our poorest areas. Often these patients would then make appointments for further health services. Lance is also about to open a center with comprehensive services for autistic youth and their families. Starfish Youth Center will include a state of the art sensory gym, the first of its kind in Oregon. These are just a few reasons why Lance is considered a hero in our community, not to mention, he was born and raised in Coos Bay. He truly is a hometown hero.

STEPHANIE'S STORY

My wife teaches 4th grade at Miller Elementary and she prides herself on building genuine relationships with her students and their families. Then COVID hit and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen her so sad. She cried for days at the loss of finishing the year without her students in an actual classroom. One day she stopped crying and told me that instead of remaining sad and angry, she decided to identify the exact reason why she was so sad and it was simple... she genuinely loves her students and she also genuinely missed them and they love her right back. In fact, for my wife’s birthday, her class organized a drive by parade in our neighborhood and our neighbors and myself stood their in awe. Watching these kids and their families shower their teacher with such love and gratitude. I don’t think there was a dry eye on the block! To her, this was the exact reason why she needed to pull herself together and stop feeling (as she put it) sorry for herself. She told me that the reason why she was so sad is also the reason why she is so grateful...she gets to fall in love with a new class every September and her heart gets to grow exponentially with each passing school year. This is pretty cool. Fast forward this year... she was terrified about Distance Learning for lots of reasons but primarily it was all about establishing relationships with her students and she wasn’t convinced this level of connection would be possible online. But she was wrong. She knows her kids. She loves them and she expects their best academically but she also prioritizes their mental health. She makes them feel like they matter because they really do matter to her. She told me that one day she asked her students what did they want their parents to know about their 4th grade experience so far and she would mention these things to their parents during a parent meeting she was having that night online. They told her things like they liked math and science was fun... stuff like that. Then this kid says, “Tell them we are going to be okay.” My wife stopped in her tracks and thanked her student for the gift he just gave her and all the parents she was going to see online that night. She has worked harder in the last year than I’ve ever seen her work before during her 13 years as a teacher and 14 years as a mother of our 2 boys. She doesn’t complain nor does she blame. She shows up and because if this, they’re going to be okay.

MALACHI'S STORY

My hero is a full time student and a dedicated delivery person who always goes the extra mile to brighten everyone's day. Rain, pandemic, ice, snow, wildfires, finals week... Nothing stops this incredible person from delivering hot meals and essential groceries to families in need. If he won this two night stay it would be a dream come true and he could finally get the rest he deserves.