Molly Carroll

Dan Duggan recommended Molly to me. She's a busy lady these days as she's about to release her second book, but she made some time to meet with me at her home. And as soon as I walked in, I felt like I was visiting an old friend. Molly is so warm and bright and flashes a big smile that also shines through her eyes. We chatted for a bit both before and after the interview and then ended up outside afterwards with our dogs in the park near her home. I got to see her engage with another stranger in the park and saw that she extended the same courtesy and friendliness to them. I was really warmed by that. Molly’s good people, as they say. Take it from me. 

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Who are you?

I'm Molly Carroll. It's funny when you ask that question because I'm reading an amazing book right now called Awareness by Anthony de Mello. Anthony de Mello has passed but he was a Jesuit priest from India. We attach who we are to our persona. So I'm sure most people would say, I'm an author. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. And I'm trying to remind myself that I am all those things - I'm a therapist - but I'm also kind of just like a human being having a human experience. And what comes along with that. And not attaching so much of who I am to my labels and titles and things like that. I would say one thing that I'm very, very proud of: I'm a diehard Nebraskan. I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. So I love the state of Nebraska. I think it's an undervalued state and it's a beautiful place with beautiful people. I'm really proud to be from Nebraska. 

Where do you come from and what brought you to Bend?

I'm from a very large Irish-Catholic family. I grew up in the Midwest the majority of my life. But I left - and that was a really interesting journey - I left and went to school in Arizona. And then I lived all over. I traveled and skied. I lived in Colorado. I lived in Whitefish, Montana. And then that was the first time that brought me to Bend. So I came to Bend in 1995 on a fluke. I was just driving through and actually applied for a job as a teacher - I was a teacher at the time - and got the job. At an old preparatory school in Sunriver that's now closed. And lived here for two years. And then traveled on to Barcelona - got a job internationally - and taught at an international school for a couple years. And lived overseas, which was an amazing experience and I learned a ton about myself. And then brought me back to San Francisco where I was only supposed to be for six weeks and ended up staying almost 10 years. So then that brought me back to Bend. I was a teacher in San Francisco as well and got some other careers - got my Master's in counseling psychology and started two after-school programs for kids and then became a therapist. And then after my husband and I had our first child we knew we wanted to... the city was just too much. 

I actually will tell you a story. I don't know... it's just what it was! I was pushing my baby stroller along Golden Gate Park - we lived on the skirts of Golden Gate Park - and I was pushing my son in my little stroller on a walk and I felt this bump. And I looked down and it was a syringe. And then I was like, Oh, gosh. Great. I lived in the city, I mean I've seen syringes before. And then I keep walking and something gets stuck in my tire and I'm like, Oh, what is that?! It was a condom. And I was like, Shit! And it was at that moment that I called my husband and I'm like, We gotta get out of here. I love the city. My soul is in that city. I looove San Francisco. We never lived outside of the city - we always lived in the heart of it. But I knew for the well-being of our family. We were fortunate enough to be able to come back to Bend in '06 and we've been here ever since. So you could say a condom and a syringe got me back to Bend (laughs). 

What does community mean to you?

The first word that comes to mind when I think of community is support. I think when you're struggling and you're having a really hard time, you really see your community. It's that quote - I think it's by Maya Angelou - Everyone looks beautiful in the sunshine. It's when the clouds come in that you see people's true colors. And I feel like the community, for me, in Bend has been about support. Because in the ten years that I've lived here I've had to deal with a lot of tragedy. My best friend's husband died and he was a big part of this community. And I got to see how beautiful Bend was in supporting her and her family and our group of friends. And then my father dad. And I got to see how beautiful my community was when my father passed. And the people that showed up at my door or just dropped off food or picked up my kids when I couldn't. You know, your brain just isn't the same. 

The first thing that comes to me with community is support. Is showing up. Because the older you get - and I'm not even that old - things just happen. You know, people die. People get cancer. It's just life. It's the impermanence of life, from a Buddhist philosophy. So it's not necessarily a sad thing, but it creates a lot of uncomfortable emotions. And when you're in that essence of uncomfortable emotions, you need support. And you need to know people are here. So the one word that stands out more than anything in community is support. Is showing up. Showing up for each other. And I think Bend does a great job of that - they show up. 

What do you most appreciate about this community?

The other thing that I think that I appreciate is this evolution. Bend is evolving. And I'm in awe of the consciousness of the evolution. Even regards to what we were talking about - in the sense of the growth. I've sat in City Council meetings - I'm very passionate about trees. I wrote my Master's thesis on the healing aspect of nature through a metaphor of trees. So I had to study the ecosystem of trees - the root system of trees. And I went to a City Council meeting with this amazing woman in town who's fighting for these trees - because we're cutting down a lot of trees with the growth of Bend. And I just think everyone was open-minded. You know? There were builders there and there were investors there and there were environmentalists there - all in the same room. And I really appreciate that Bend is a place that I think... we're okay with evolving and opening our eyes to everything that needs to come with the evolution and the growth of Bend. So that's one thing that I appreciate. It's evolving artistically - there's amazing art communities coming in. It needs to evolve more with diversity. But it's evolving more in its essence of spirituality and awareness around the world. I was talking with my sister - I was just home a couple weeks ago - she lives in Kansas City and she was like, Do you guys talk about politics? And I'm like, Yes! Look at my Facebook feed. We talk about politics and we talk about worldly issues. Even though we're a small community, we're very worldly and intelligent about what's going on in the world. The evolution and evolving is important to me. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I might be the opposite of what a lot of people have said. I don't mind the growth. I lived in big cities. I see the beauty of big cities. I appreciate interesting restaurants and I appreciate more speakers coming. As a writer and a curious person, I yearn for interesting people with different ideas and different philosophies and different politics even. I think when a community grows it brings more of that. It just does. But, that being said, it breaks my heart. I lived here in 1995 when there was 18,000 people. And it breaks my heart to see all the growth in another way, too. All the neighborhoods that used to be trees that I'd run in. Almost kind of like, if there's an empty piece of land it's like gobbled up in two seconds and developed. So I worry about the rapid pace of the growth. And are we being conscious enough? Not even necessarily of the numbers of people and the traffic, but I feel more of the soul of the land. You know? Like the crying of the soul of the land more than anything. That's what's the hardest piece for me. I see a tree a cut down and like my heart aches. Or I see a plot of land that was beautiful and now it's just dirt. Did you ever read Wump World, that children's book? It's a beautiful book. It's about these beautiful creatures called Wumps that lived in this beautiful land. It tells the story of growth and development that isn't done consciously. So I sometimes get that Wump World feeling driving around that makes me sad. So it's a two-sided coin for me. I appreciate it and it also kind of breaks my heart a little bit. 

What do you wish for the future?

That's an interesting question because I'm writing a piece write now about what happened in Las Vegas. I thought of this metaphor today as I was writing the piece and I imagine it as the first crack that happens in your windshield. The rock hits the windshield and it's just a little crack. You think, Oh, shoot. Oh, great. But you don't do anything about it until it starts spreading more and more and more and more and pretty soon this crack has spread across your entire windshield of your car and you don't see things the same way. It's splintered, it's split, it's broken. And I keep thinking that our world and our present moment and our future are a little bit like that right now. We're all seeing this slow crack develop and we're all kind of sitting back, waiting to see what's gonna happen. Or we're sitting back, waiting for someone else to fix it and for someone else to come in and save the day. Right? Me included. So I think for our future right now, not to be dire, but I think we're in a little bit of a cracked-windshield situation. I think this crack is slowly growing and there's gonna be a time that it's gonna shatter and we're gonna have to fix it. And I think we're all sitting back and kind of watching it grow. Just to see what happens. Not to be pessimistic or dire about our future, but I think there's gonna be a massive awakening that's gonna happen in the next couple of years. I'm a glass half-full person. I'm actually a very hopeful person, so what my hope is is that this crack is gonna happen - this awareness, the awakening's gonna happen... we'll figure it out. So I worry a little bit about the future. I worry about my kids. I worry about the environment for my kids. I think that we're survivors. I think we'll survive as a species, but I think that we have some uphill battles to climb. Our day-to-day life won't be affected as much, but I think that there's gonna be some things that have to be changed with technology and the environment. I think the future is gonna be very, very interesting. 

I might just ask you again, though, what do you wish for the future? 

Awakening. To wake up. People to start looking at what's really happening. Me included. 

What would you do if you had more time?

People who know me are probably gonna laugh at this one. My whole life I've been given a hard time because I'm a really early riser - that I get more done by 6AM than most people get all day. I've been just trusting with the first things that comes to my mind, practicing this intuition. The first thing that I would do is spend more time with my kids. I'm embarrassed to even admit that. That's hard and you're gonna write that. I think I would spend more time with my kids. I think I would spend more time in nature. I go, go, go. I love a full plate. I love a lot on my plate, you know? I had this crazy experience. I had this total breakdown with my husband. I had this tight attachment to the success of my next book. Oh my gosh. It's just gonna flop. Why do I do this? Why can't I just be at home all day folding laundry? Or be happy going to an exercise class and being with my kids? Or having a cup of tea, reading a book? I go, go, go. I love a full plate. I love a lot on my plate, you know? Luckily that day we were leaving to go to the Wallowa's. We go camping. We set up camp. My husband was great. He was like, Molly, it's gonna be okay. What's gonna happen is gonna happen. It's out there. It's done. So we go to the Wallowa's. I climb out of the tent, I get a cup of coffee, and I'm walking down to this lake - my kids are fishing down by the lake. And I walk down to the lake and I hear this huge voice come in. Huge. It says, You are all fucked up. You have got this all wrong. If you are seriously gonna attach your worth and your being to the success of this book, you are fucked up. It is messed up. There are only a few things that matter: Love, family, friends, nature, and intuition. That's it. And so in that moment I cut this cord. And ever since then I've had this release around attaching to things or ideas or concepts to success or to identification of worth or whatever. And I've really realized that time is so precious and that it's around my family - my kids and my husband - and my close friends. And my big, extended family. Time is.... we won't even go into quantum physics. There's really no time. But, if we want to look at space and presence, it would be around being more with my children and my husband and nature and writing and reading - I love books. I'm often now reminded of that - that's really what's important. 

Joshua Phillips

Dan Duggan recommended Joshua to me. Joshua is a naturopathic physician and the clinical director at Hawthorn Healing Arts, which he founded with his wife. We agreed to meet there and found a quiet spot to chat. It seemed to me that we went from complete strangers to friends in the moment we met and our conversation was filled with a rare sense of familiarity. Joshua was so warm and giving of his time. I continue to be so pleased with these interactions as people keep making space for these interviews and offering their genuine and caring perspective. 

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Who are you?

I am Joshua Phillips. 

Where do you come from?

Well, I was born in Michigan and grew up mostly in Southern California with a three-year diversion to southern Germany, where I lived for middle school years. When I was in California - kind of between dad's place in Colorado and my mom's place in Southern California. Only child of a single mother, for the most part, was my growing up experience. Yeah, moved around a lot. College was sort of all over the place after high school - a year in Colorado, a year in Northern California, a semester break to ski Lake Tahoe that turned into three years (big smile) before moving up to Portland. And I've been in the Northwest now for over 20 years. 

What brought you here to Bend?

Really I guess, sort of the promise of a certain lifestyle is what drew me to Bend. I met my now wife in the naturopathic college in Portland. She was studying acupuncture and Chinese medicine and me, naturopathic medicine. And in our second year, third year maybe, spring break we took a road trip and decided we were gonna look for the town that we would move to after graduating from the program. We went to Sand Point, Idaho, which strangely I had a weird dream about the other night - of someone trying to convince me to move to Sand Point, Idaho - which I haven't thought about in 15 years. And we went to Bellingham, Washington, which was another on the top ten list. And we had a strange experience in Bellingham. And it's kind of funny because every time I've been back to Bellingham since, I love it. And I love sailing. And I love the ocean. So it seemed almost like a no-brainer that I would be in a coastal town, but everything that happened in Bellingham was just like a no. I had a buddy who had given me the phone number of a mutual friend who invited us to dinner and we showed up there and he dashed out the door, said he'd be back in 15 minutes - he forgot something at the store. As soon as he left, this vicious pitbull comes out of the back room, corners my wife and I in the kitchen - we are literally on the counter of his kitchen for 45 minutes (laughs), waiting for this guy to get back. And he's like, Oh, sorry. She's fine, don't worry about it. Everything that happened in Bellingham - it was just like No, no no, not your town. Get out of here. So we came and visited Bend - and we had been to Bend, you know, come down from Portland for ski trips and what not - and everything about Bend was just the opposite. It was a yes for us. You know, I'm an outdoors person. I love skiing and mountain biking. So, for me, if I look back on my life the last 20 years, I've kind of located myself near ski areas and recreation towns. So that's a big drive for me. Yeah, so Chelsea and I decided to move to Bend right after school and found a hole-in-the-wall office to throw a sign up on the front door and that's kind of how we got rolling. 

We own the business together. We have been in a number of different offices - we've been in Bend for about 14 years now. Hawthorn, as it is now, was something I had kind of been dreaming of for a while. We had largely been in our own private office or maybe there was a massage therapist that shared a room or something, but I'd always wanted to be more in community with other practitioners and have a group practice with folks with different types of training but all sort of under the umbrella of holistic medicine. And I also wanted to have a classroom space where there was a place for people to gather in groups. It's funny, talking about that Tribe book and realizing, you know, how motivated I am by that mentality. I think that's been brewing under the surface for a long time. So anyways, we wanted to have a place with a classroom where we could do educational programs and workshops for folks and then have a small kind of retail offering in the front. So, this was born of that idea about seven years ago. Chelsea and I took this on and started kind of bringing this group together that we now have today. 

What does community mean to you?

Yeah (sighs). Yeah, community is so much about connection. It's so much about, I guess, finding a sense of brotherhood among people that maybe are different from me - that maybe aren't in the bubble of holistic physicians. You know, sometimes my wife and I will say that we realize from certain moments or events just so how we really have this worldview - we really have this idea about who we are - particularly living in a place like Bend, which is also its own kind of arena of thought forms. So I think community is when people can come together and be appreciative of each other's differences. Sort of recognize many different political beliefs, social ideals, personal values and morals, and yet still find common ground. Still find the thread of humanity that really weaves us all together. Because I think there's something underlying - something fundamental and foundational - that few people would disagree on. So, for me, community is when people can come together with that kind of acceptance and tolerance for one another. And I think ultimately what that really does is it galvanizes and it creates... not only does it create tolerance and acceptance, but it actually sort of elevates each individual to another place within themselves when people gather in a way of community. 

Yeah. There's probably more I could say about that (laughs). And I'm obviously influenced by this book that I'm reading right now, but I think it's not just something that is important or worth striving for, but I think it might be crucial for our survival. And, I notice for myself, I can withdraw in my own mind and my own thoughts and my own work and find myself walking through days and weeks where I'm around a lot of people, but I don't feel like I'm really connecting. And I notice that, you know, there was an equinox gathering that we went to the other night. And it was small - I didn't really want to go, I wasn't feeling social. But as soon as I got there I realized the value of being with this group of people and probably especially when I didn't want to go and I would rather squirrel away and do my own thing. It feels to me like it's crucial for well-being, for my level of contentment and happiness, to be proactive and take active steps to be in community - to create community in whatever way makes sense. Obviously that ties into my drive to create a center that's a group practice and has community inherently in it. 

What do you appreciate most about this community?

I guess I could just speak to the community of Bend or Central Oregon that we're in. Or I could talk about my office, which I have a lot to say about, as well. You know, you could stereotype and kind of categorize people - there's folks that fit the frame of the athletic crowd who come to Bend because of the athletic lifestyle. You know, maybe young families or people of a certain economic status. And then you've got a community of folks that seems like they've been here forever, maybe they're more sort of the salt of the earth or the farming or ranching contingency of the area. And a lot of people that move here with a lot of money and retire - sort of the more glitzy contingency, the Porsche and Audi crowd, I don't know. I think the thing that I notice that's a unique thing about this community is that you could sit down at the bar at Deschutes Brewery and be sitting next to people from all of those different contingencies and social backgrounds with different life stories. Maybe one guy on one side of you is trying to figure out how to pay his power bill that month and the guy next to him is investing in million-dollar properties. And there seems to be kind of a an egalitarian vibe - at least in that context - where everyone can shoot the breeze about the same thing and talk about skiing at Mt. Bachelor or talking about world events. That's something that I've noticed and I don't know how accurate that is - maybe it's my optimistic hopefulness that that's really happening (laughs), but that's been my experience. There seems to be a willingness for... I don't know... classism doesn't exist maybe as much as it does in bigger cities. That's one thing I like about this community. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

You know, of course I have thoughts - I'm a lot less polarized and engaged in at as some of those editorials that are always flying through the paper. I moved here 14 years ago, roughly, and there's a vibe about Bend that was there then that is still here now - that really doesn't feel like it's changed that much to me. I live in the same house that we bought when we moved here 14 years ago. So maybe that's part of it, too, is that I've really been rooted in the same little neighborhood, in the same little house, and maybe haven't been as engaged with the hole real estate transaction thing. In one sense, I understand where people are coming from with the frustration and endless sort of finger-pointing at wealthy Californians who are coming up here. I just haven't had the experience of feeling like there's a disrespect or there's a flagrant sort of abuse of a beautiful town in any certain way. It speaks for itself, it's human nature. If they're living in a place that has grown tiresome for some reason and they see another beautiful place that looks more attractive and they've got the means to go there, of course they're going to! And so would I - I did! So can I harbor ill feelings towards people who want to move up to Bend and buy a nice house and retire? You know, it makes perfect sense to me. I think a town like Bend will continue to grow. How that's handled in terms of infrastructure and city planning and all of that is kind of beyond me. There's moments where I've grumbled in mid-summer traffic on Greenwood or Newport Avenue, you know it's like, Wow, this really does feel different than 10 years ago. But it seems kind of fleeting and it seems not to be the rule of every day. So, yeah, the growth of Bend - it feels natural to me and it feels sensible and who wouldn't want to live here? I don't harbor some of the frustration that I think a lot of people seem to. 

What do you wish for the future?

Wow. Hmmmm. That's a big question. Well, there's all the wishes for myself. There's the wishes for my family. And those are kind of a constant conversation with my wife and kids and my inner dialogue and, for that reason, aren't super interesting (laughs) to talk about. It's sort of a well-worn path. I guess it's more interesting to talk about what I want for the future of humanity and the future of our existence on planet Earth. You know, I've never been one to worry too much about planet Earth. People talk a lot about saving the oceans and saving the mountains and so forth, which of course is a noble cause. But I am pretty confident that the world's gonna take care of itself and we should really take care of ourselves and probably by doing so in more of a holistic and sustainable way we'll also be taking care of the Earth. I think it's our own survival on planet Earth that's at jeopardy, if anything, based on how we're treating our environment. My wish for the future is that it seems like maybe there's a tipping point at which enough of humanity reaches sort of an understanding about how to move through a lifetime - how to behave as an individual and how to behave in community, how to behave as nations - that not only is taking care of individual needs, but is also leaning towards seeing the whole in every action. Seeing the community, seeing the town you live in, the state that you live in, the nation that you live in - and sort of I guess gauging one's actions and desires based on not just individual gain and profit and affluence, but also for the welfare of the whole - the whole organism. I think that there's individuals who are already there, families who have been there, maybe certain groups of people or certain communities that have been there. Maybe there's a tipping point when enough people start to gain a certain kind of awareness or conscientiousness about their actions and the way that they live that it hits some tipping point where all of the forces that many of us feel are destructive and self-serving and short-lived and short-sited... that maybe you hit some (What is it the 100th Monkey phenomenon or something like that?) point at which there's enough momentum or enough sort of inner awareness of how we walk in this world that it's more of the norm - it's more of what we would call mainstream. Maybe a lot of the things I believe in are more alternative or sideline at this point, but despite the language that you use or what you call different movements or ideology, I think again there's a common thread that's woven through the middle of it that makes sense to most people. I guess that's my hope for the future - is that somehow humanity, one step at a time, starts walking in that direction as opposed towards a direction which is sort of destined for implosion and self-destruction. 

And, obviously, my chosen path or one of my chosen paths has been through holistic medicine. I really believe that the path of holistic medicine, just inherent in it's name holistic, is that we're seeing that mind, consciousness, thought, the function of the liver, the gallbladder, and how we breathe and move are all connected and are all one very intricate organism. I had the opportunity, actually, to do a talk - the Environmental Center had one of their Green Drinks and we hosted it a year or two ago - and I was charged with giving a little talk about how what we do adds to the environmental movement. And it was really easy for me and I was really excited to share with this group of people that I really believe that as people heal themselves in a holistic way and recognize that when uncomfortable symptoms come up in our bodies or we get a disease process, that it's rarely a mistake. It's usually the correct thing for the body to do given a certain set of circumstances - the way we eat, the way we don't care of ourselves maybe, many other things - that many times when we get sick there's a good reason for it. And when you approach a disease or an imbalance in the body in that way, we're given an opportunity to learn something about ourselves - to learn how to create an environment, internally and externally in our lives, that are more conducive in allowing for the body to heal itself. I think when people approach illness or being proactive about their health from that standpoint that a healing process starts to occur that not only allows you to be more in touch with yourself and understand your body and your mind in more depth, but also your environment and to be more connected with your environment. From a certain perspective, someone who undertakes a holistic healing path in earnest will naturally become inclined to become an environmentalist to some extent. Because that relationship, really, is inseparable. 

Kecia Kubota

Remember Becca? Well, she recommended Kecia to me. The funny thing is that I had already met Kecia through Betsy at a Community Conversations meeting. And I met Betsy through an assignment I got from The Source. I just love tracing connections back! And now Kecia and I have our own history. I am keenly aware of the access this project grants me and I feel very honored that so many lovely folks have agreed to meet with me - Kecia included. She's got a great laugh and a powerful mind. I get the impression that she's been thinking pretty hard about so many things for a long time. If you listen to the audio, you'll hear her take pauses while she's thinking of the right thing to say or the right way to phrase something. I love it when people communicate with intention. Thanks so much, Kecia! 

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Who are you?

Who am I? There's the statistics of: I'm Kecia Larissa Harumi Kubota, I'm 47, mother of two beautiful children, the partner of a husband. I'm a lot of things and have enjoyed seeing how I morph over my life. When I was little people would ask, What do you want to do when you grow up? and I said I want to be a peacemaker, I want to create world peace. I still consider myself a peacemaker. And it's morphed - what that means and how that looks. And sometimes I've had real identity crises over not because I didn't become a diplomat with my international relations degree. I'm not making world peace, which was really my goal originally. But along the way, I realized that really the only way we're gonna have world peace is, as cliché as it sounds, one person at a time. And that it has to start with our kids. That if they're not growing up to be positive expressions of themselves in the world, we're not gonna stop wars, we're not gonna end world hunger. So I really early on realized that you just gotta start one kid at a time. I really intentionally stepped back from... I don't want to be a diplomat negotiating! because that's when it's already too late. I shifted my focus in graduate school to youth development and see that as my purpose. I'm a talker, so I'm gonna go waaaay off on tangents from the questions. So, who am I? Right now, I'm Executive Director of Camp Fire Central Oregon and it's my way to try and help youth discover their spark and become the best versions of themselves as a way to create more world peace. 

Where do you come from?

Born and raised in Hawaii. But lived a lot places. Come from a mother born and raised in Mississippi - and a lot of culture that came with that - and a dad of Japanese decent, born and raised in Hawaii. I feel very connected to my parents' heritage. When my mom left the South to move to Hawaii when she was 25, it was really choosing a different culture for herself. So, grew up as a hapa haole, what they call in Hawaii someone that's half white and half something else (laughs). That's a lot of shaping who I am. As is typical of a lot of ambitious people in Hawaii, I moved away for college. I've lived in Southern California, I've lived in Germany, I've lived in Vermont, I've lived in New York, back to California until Bend. And so Bend now for 15 years - feels like home. 

What brought you to Bend?

Family. My brother's lived here even longer. My husband and I were down in Santa Barbara and when we were expecting our first, we knew Santa Barbara wasn't the place we want to raise our kids. We didn't want to live in a very tiny studio apartment to raise our kids, so we relocated up here to be near my family. And once I got here, my mother in Hawaii still said, Alright, both my kids and grandkids in the same place - and she's moved and since then, my husband's parents have moved here and then we moved my dad here from Hawaii. So we kind of all gathered to be with family. 

What does community mean to you?

Wow. Well I've been involved the Community Conversations project and it's been really interesting to explore all the different levels of community and how we would define community. And I do see it on all levels and I think it's really important to respect how many different aspects of community we all are involved in. I think community should be affinity groups and whatever that means for a person. Sometimes that's physical location, sometimes that's areas of interest, sometimes that's political, philosophical, spiritual alignments - all of those become our communities. There's a community right here in this building - BendTECH co-working space, right, is a community. Eh, I'm somewhat affiliated with it. But community can mean so many different things and I think that's the beauty and the challenge of the word. And why some people can feel really connected and others disconnected. It's maybe a lot in the definition that we choose for what community means. I think there's the communities that we inhabit, physical or otherwise, and then I think there's really this ideal sense of a community that everyone sort of aspires to. It's a lot more nebulous, I think, to try to figure out - it's about longing for something that we don't have. And it's always gonna be somewhat idealistic, I think. 

What do you appreciate most about this community?

It's interesting because I think when you ask a question like that, maybe it's just me, but I think it's probably most common to associate that with a physical, geographical community that you live in. What most top of mind when you ask the question and knowing that it's open-ended, what comes top of mind is just feeling that sense of community in a big sort of a How do I go in and out of my day? And so it's We are all floating through, whether it's you're on the parkway and you're like, Oh my gosh, there's so much more traffic now than there was five years ago! Right, this community is growing (laughs). Or walking in Jackson's Corner and, Oh, all these people that smile and they know my name when I walk in the door! Love this community, you know? So what do I appreciate? I think as far the physical community, I appreciate the love of the outdoors and how important that is to the majority of the community. I appreciate that there's an intrinsic goodness in the community as a whole. And that there is a lot of desire to make sure it's a very livable community. And it's not to say that we're there yet. But, you know, there's Bend2030 project, there's all these kind of different movements and collaboratives. That's really intentional. We want to make this place a great place to live. That striving to be conscientious about how we grow, be conscientious about where we're headed - is something that I really appreciate. Lots of things I'd like to see different. Coming from a community in Hawaii that was so diverse is something I miss here. 

I'm having a hard time with the question! I'm trying to place myself. Which community am I talking about? Or which community do I associate with? And which community right now do I appreciate? It's hard, you know, not that there's negatives, but sometimes I think it's that sense of the placement of, right? I can have my family, with bringing so many people in my family to the community, and we'll have family dinners. I know it's pretty awesome to have a family community of 15 people in town! A lot of people don't have that kind of luxury. And then there's other times when it's so easy to feel so disconnected from other aspects of our community. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I was just thinking about this the other day. Is there... I'd be really curious about the sort of urban development - at what point in the size are there things that just end up? What is that point? I feel like there is this sort of this critical mass where you start to lose control. Or individuals start to feel less control of the ability to shape a community. I don't think we're there yet, but I was really thinking about that the other day. It's interesting from the nonprofit and applying for grants... Bend is one of those weird outliers where it's like there's rural money, right, and yet we're not rural, but we're not urban. What's Bend? We're kind of this little urban in the sea of rural. I like learning from others, so as far as Bend's growth, I do think it's inevitable, you know? Bend Sucks Don't Move Here bumper stickers is not going to keep people away (laughs), right? It is beautiful. And there is so much to offer. It's kind of interesting because so many people that say they don't like the growth, myself included - sometimes I'm just like I hate the traffic! - but man, I'm so glad for the variety of restaurants we have. And I'm so glad for so many things that would not be part of a smaller... we wouldn't have those things in a smaller community. Right? We wouldn't have this amazing symphony orchestra here if we were much smaller. There's so many things that only a certain amount of size can sustain. And we appreciate those things, then you gotta take the good with the bad. So, how do I feel about Bend's growth? I think I appreciate that there are a lot of people in the community that are very consciously caring about what it's gonna look like in the future and trying to develop it in healthy ways, in sustainable ways. And I appreciate that they're putting a lot of thought into making it more accessible instead of more exclusive, too. I think that it could be going in a really different direction and not being nearly as accessible or welcoming to... they're consciously thinking about transportation, they're consciously thinking about affordable housing. There's a lot of communities that that's not what they put as priorities in how they grow. That's something I really appreciate. 

What do you wish for the future?

One of those big, open-ended questions! My future, the community's future? World peace? World peace comes back down to the individual. I was just having a conversation with my board of directors - everyone is so busy, you know? And everyone has the best intentions of the things that they want to do. Serving on a board as well as working hard at a job and being the best parent that's always at every activity for their kids. And the world is just like, Ughh. The technology and the pace of information that's just bombarding us all the time. It's scary to think, you know, that's a fast track train to the future. And yet I sometimes wonder whether... what I hope for the future is that we can figure out a better balance to that. To innovations in technology - doesn't mean that we're plugged in as much as we are as a society. And to slow down. It shouldn't mean that, Oh, now we can work 12 hours a day. You know? Again, bringing it back to I do think there is clearly a connection between world peace and individuals that are feeling so stressed out, so overworked, so on that treadmill rat race of I'm just trying to make ends meet and I gotta work more and more hours to do that and then I've got more and more distractions. I'm hard on myself, you know? I'm not the best mother that I want to be in my ideal world, in my ideal future. I'm not the best mother I could be. I'm not the best executive director of a nonprofit I could be. I'm not the best physical body that I could be. And I'm hard on myself about all of those things that I'm not doing well. Without focusing on what I'm petty damn good at, you know? Every single person's feeling that - okay so maybe not everybody, but it feels like the common man is. So all of that does start leading up to why an ideal community or society or world peace feels very unattainable. That's sounding kind of dreary. So what do I want for the future I think is as a very greater society feeling like we can come back into balance with priorities. And care for our physical and emotional and spiritual well-being. And how all of those play into the health of our communities, whichever ones we inhabit. 

Angela Moore

You ever meet someone and right away decide you'd like to be their friend? That's what happened with Angela. She used to work at one of the local publications I occasionally shoot for and I'd see her every time I swung through. Always bright, always smiling, always friendly, and clearly a smart-ass. In short, my kind of person. She's a freelance writer now and a talented and lovely human. She's got a big heart and a smile that is determined to get one in return. I look forward to getting to know her more. 

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Who are you?

I am Angela Moore. Probably the most accurate kind of blanket sweep of who I am is I'm kind of a dork. And I'm kind of a doofus - I've been called many times before. But I think in a (laughs) lovable, fantastic kind of way. God, I moved around 13 times before I was 18 to different states and different countries and, the rare occasion, different cities within that state. My dad is in the shipping business, so pretty much anywhere there was a port, we moved. That was actually kind of nice. People will ask, Well, don't you feel like you missed out? Or, That must have been really hard moving to different different areas, especially being young. Aside from not having anything to compare it to, I actually find myself very fortunate to have been able to do that. Not just because I got to go to schools in Hong Kong and Denmark and be able to travel to places I never even thought that I would travel growing up, but aside from that, I did not have to grow up with other people. So my personality is something that I've taken from each one of those moves. Whereas people have had to grow up as a unit - I think that's very difficult, especially when you're trying to find out who you are and things like that. I feel like those people's personalities would mimic their friends' more so than myself. The longest place I ever lived before moving to Bend was three years and that was in Hong Kong. Each time I was able to move I got to shed whatever I didn't like about myself at the time. So it kind of gave me a little bit more freedom to play around with, you know, who I could be or clothes or jokes or, like, hair. I had the great privilege of being able to start over, which was really nice. Especially, you know, you do have the pressure from your group of friends or the school or whatever to try to fit into this mold and I didn't have to do that, which I think was really nice. So, I don't know, who I am - still to be determined. Aside from the dork and doofus thing. That's pretty well-set in there and I don't think I can do anything about it. 

What brought you to Bend?

(Laughs) God, I did the call home. I had just moved to Hawaii from Eugene and was like, This is it. I'm gonna go pursue my writing career on a beach. This is gonna be great! I'm gonna watch the sunset all the time. Which is always so nice to think about, but then you actually try to do it, you know, and it just doesn't work out. So I had moved to Honolulu, Hawaii - right in Waikiki. I didn't know anybody. I was there by myself. And the minute the plane landed, you couldn't get me to stop crying. I just felt like I had just made a huge mistake. I got a job pretty much immediately doing food service - which is something that I've done sometimes in the forefront of my life, but for the most part it's been easy pick-up jobs and things like that. I had gotten a job right on the beach and it was this great restaurant and tourists everywhere and people just having a great time and I was just miserable. I would ask people, too, Why do you live in Hawaii? And the general consensus that I got was, Get out while you can. This place is gonna suck you in. (Laughs) Holy crap! And what they meant by that is that you will get in a financial tunnel, whirling down. Because rent there is higher than Bend. It's insane. It's one of those places where you can't buy property if you're not a native. It's not like I was looking to buy property anyway (laughs). But, you know, the rent was so high. Utilities were so high. Food was so high. And the water - you had to buy bottled water to cook with. You had to buy bottled water to drink. But yeah, I had gotten a job pretty immediately. It just wasn't the money I thought I was going to make because it's this great restaurant right on the beach and there's tourists everywhere. Culturally, Japanese and Australians - they're not a tipping culture, so what I was walking away with was mostly just that minimum wage at the time. And I was talking to my mom and I was really like, I chose I was gonna do this. I saved up my money. I said goodbye to all the people that I needed to say goodbye to. Tied up all the loose ends. I am gonna stick this out for at least a year. And then I can reevaluate if I still don't like it. (Laughs) Like a month and a half in, I'm talking to my mom and I just cannot stop crying throughout the whole conversation, but I'm trying to be super positive. It was just a mess. My mom and my dad were living in Vancouver, B.C., at the time and my dad was tinkering about retiring (which, fast forward, he never did). But they bought a retirement house in Sun River and they were like, Why don't you come back? We miss having you around. And I was like, Okay! I mean, literally that night I bought my plane ticket back with the last bit of money that I had. So, yeah, that is why I'm in Bend - I did the phone call home. Need help! Didn't plan my life well enough. (Laughs)

What does community mean to you?

Oh, man. I can visualize it. I have a harder time saying it. Community to me means just giving a shit about the person next to you. And it doesn't have to just be the person within your four walls, but the person across the street or the person down the road or the person on the other side of town. Having empathy and caring about other people's situation even if it doesn't reflect in the least your own. Being able to empathize for somebody, whether it's their business closing down or a bad break-up or whatever it is, having that baseline understanding that everybody is going through their own thing and applying that kind of empathy towards other people, just in your daily interactions, makes for community. I don't think it necessarily has to be a centered group of people within a geographical area. I think being in a community comes and starts with the individual. 

What do you appreciate most about this community?

You know, more and more I've been getting a bit disappointed in the community. Maybe it's only because of my recent interactions at my past work place. I felt like we were a community of people fighting against each other. Let me try to think of a really positive thing to say because there are positive things, I just feel like I've been jaded recently and it's kind of clouding my ability to care (laughs). What I really like about this community is something that I appreciate about other communities, specifically in the Pacific Northwest, is that people will smile at you. I know that kind of sounds stupid, or it's a really small thing, but I was on the East Coast not that long ago - and I am absolutely one to make random comments to a random person just walking down the street just for that little bit of brief interaction; that acknowledgement that I'm a person and you're a person, too, and we're in this together. We're on the same page. It may be a totally different book, but we're in it together. And I said something, just randomly to somebody, making a joke about something, and they just looked at me and just walked straight on. And I felt like that was completely unnecessary. But it was a huge reminder that, Wow, we're not in Oregon. We're not in Washington. We're on the East Coast. In Oregon, people, whether or not they're having a good day or whatever, are generally pretty nice just right off the bat. It may be fluff and all a veil, but people are sweet to each other. They're nice. So I think the thing that I would say I appreciate about the community that we live in here is that people aren't afraid to smile at you. 

It's crazy how uptight people can be when you step outside of Oregon or you step outside of Bend. People are more open to other people here. Which is really interesting, too, because Bend is predominantly white. (Laughs) My roommate - I was making the joke, makes up like 30% of the black population in Bend - but he had friends from California in town and they're Mexican and they made the comment that there's just white everywhere. It's a sea of white. Whatever, it's just the town that we live in. Oregon, but Bend in particular - we pride ourselves on being very heavy in culture and being really interested in other people's cultures, but it doesn't reflect on our population. We have Thai food here and Indian food and... I guess that's it. Thai and Indian (laughs) food. We have these plays and this community theatre and these small-town book shops and it is a very cultural-centric town, but without the actual culture being here. Who knows what it will be like in 50 years. Or even five. Shit, things are changing really fast!

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I do have thoughts on Bend's growth. Everybody at one point has certainly thought about it, whether it's a priority for them or, you know, some people are more invested in the growth, whether it's going to get smaller, larger, or stay the same, especially property owners. I am disappointed in a lot of people's greed all of a sudden. Everybody wants a piece of that real estate money. Renters have been living in areas that all of a sudden their rent just went up $500 overnight. I don't blame the smaller mom and pop real estate companies that have bought this house and they're just renting it out for whatever. You know, I don't totally blame or hold them super accountable as individuals, but when each of those people have that same mentality of Oh, I'm gonna raise the rent on this or Oh, I'm gonna charge this amount for this, then it becomes a massive problem. If everybody's doing it, then it's gonna be an issue. It's interesting, too, because we are a tourist town, but a lot of the jobs are hospitality. Hospitality (laughs) doesn't make all that much. I don't know if that's a huge newsflash, but the hospitality is a working class people. And if you're tying to hire all of these people to work in this restaurant or, sorry, work in this brewery is pretty much all their is, or hotels, you know, the living wage to be in Bend is becoming just more and more difficult to actually obtain. So, with that growth, I would hope that people get a little less greedy and realize that there are people that they're renting to or that them making a few hundred extra bucks a month means that's getting taken away from somebody else and that somebody else could be a family and kids and things like that. Trying to even fathom buying a house here is just like painful. With that growth of people coming in to buy property here, it's gonna shove the people like me out because I can't think long-term here. And anytime you're in an area where you can't think long-term, you don't become as invested in the community or the politics or anything like that. I think that is a big shame when that happens. 

I think the college coming in is a good thing - not just for the economy, but kind of as a reminder that not everybody in Bend is an old retired couple that has a lot of money. Having that amount of students on a budget is going to have to force prices to go down a little bit. With more and more people coming to Bend, oh okay, here we go - I'm about to go on a giant rant here (laughs). I have, like I said earlier, traveled around a lot, lived in all kinds of different places. The blinders that Bend, Oregon, has on anything that has to do with crime blows my mind. I will walk through a parking lot, you know, to get to whatever (I'm not just randomly walking though parking lots - or am I?) and there will be cars unlocked, purses right there, laptop right there. Bikes just scattered around with no locks on them. I'm like, Where do you people live where you think like this is fine? But, unfortunately, for the most part, it is. I think people are gonna get a very, very rude awakening the more and more people that come into this town. Because the more and more people coming into this town aren't necessarily gonna be the white collar folks or whatever. It's going to be people with a criminal mentality. I have seen recently our homeless population has grown quite a bit, or I don't know if it's grown so much as I've seen it more, and I'm not saying that all homeless people are criminals. I'm just saying more people with alternative lifestyles are gonna come in and their alternative lifestyles may not match up with our judicial system or the same kind of standards in life that other people have. With the population coming in, yeah, people are in for a rude awakening. The purse right in the front seat! I would just never do that, you know? 

What do you wish for the future?

I want something that's mine, whatever that looks like. And I'm just talking about where I'm gonna live. Since I have that travel bug in me that was like kind of crammed down my throat growing up, I do get a little antsy after two or three years. I've moved around in Bend like a hundred times, just because I feel like I need to make that move with my surroundings. But for the future what I really want is to be able to have something that's mine, either on a piece of property but ideally, I would love to have a traveling tiny home. Or my boyfriend, Seth, and I are talking about re-doing a school bus and being able to travel and not be tied down somewhere. And really see a lot of the world, not just outside of the States, but within the States as well, because there's just a lot to see. I don't have any kids and we're not gonna have kids, so having that kind of freedom where other people don't, I feel like it puts a little bit more pressure on us to take advantage of that. What, ultimately, I want is to live more self-sustainably. That has always been a real big priority for me. People have these lush, beautiful lawns, and I'm like, You know how much food you could grow on that? Along those same lines (laughs), I can't grow shit! We have like four beds out there in the garden in our backyard and I think one of them is accidentally growing something, but everything else is just this barren landscape. And I tried to. But with self-sustainability I'm going to have to educate myself a little bit more on that, which is fine. I do want to know where my food is coming from - I think ultimately is what is the big priority. I am a candy-aholic. I fucking love candy. And, unfortunately, candy comes in an insane amount of wrappers. The other day - I'd like to say it's the kitchen trash that I took out (laughs), but it's the trash can in the bedroom that I took out - that was just full of food wrappers. And that's all it was. It was just food wrappers. That 20 seconds of joy that I got on that sour piece of candy - which by the way, sour's the way to go, don't give me chocolate, give me sour fruit candy - that's just gonna be in a landfill forever. I felt just so insanely guilty about that. It is considered a treat for most people, not, you know, a food group. People aren't supposed to be eating it that much and I feel like my participating in the sour candy trash movement is a little too high for my taste right now. So, we're talking about buying in bulk and being able to do that. I just need to do it. Dammit. Knowing where my food comes from, cutting down on my footprint in the garbage world - is something that is a really big priority for me. I'm not gonna push it on other people to do. I don't suspect other people are gonna follow my lead or anything like that, but I feel like anything you can do to chip away at your environmental impact or just, you know, a more healthy lifestyle for yourself makes a big difference. I'm not out to change the world. I'm out to do better for myself and my clan, pretty much, and if the trickle down effect is beneficial for a community or a community greater than just in my own little world, it's a plus. I feel, unfortunately, really overwhelmed when I try to think of making a difference in the world. You know, there's so much shit going on. And it's sad. And a lot of the times, I feel like a turtle on its back. Whatever I'm doing, whatever movement I'm creating, I'm just... all I'm doing is like spinning in a circle, making myself dizzy. Along the same lines of what community is and how you can better impact a community, I think it needs to start with you and making changes for what you want. 

Do you have anything else you want to put on the record?

I just wish people were nicer to each other. Everybody can get a piece of the pie. That pie is fucking huge. You don't have to step on other people to succeed, you know? Yeah, you can share that. You don't have to put somebody down to bring yourself up. You don't have to step on anyone to get what you want. I think that is, unfortunately, an American culture thing. We're not real heavy on the family unit. (Laughs) Here we go. I also really think that the downfall of a lot of society is our lack of a strong family unit. It doesn't have to be mom and dad and 2.5 kids. It could be your mentor and your sister. But I think kids growing up not having a solid family unit - that becomes less of a priority for them to pass along later in life. It's a lot easier for dads to bail on their kids because the woman is the one physically having the kid and they're just kind of stuck with it. As well as there's a lot of pressure in society that like, you can be a deadbeat dad, but if you're a deadbeat mom, you are the lowest of the low. But that same expectation isn't put on fathers, which is astounding to me. I truly just don't understand that. I understand it on the level of misogyny and just, you know, all of that, but as a human being or a person, just bailing on this tiny person that really needs you... Each generation that that happens to, that family unit is just crumbling. Unless one of them does that whole opposite turn. Again, going back, the individual needs to be the one in any unit to stop that cycle and be able to move on. 

What my initial point was is that I wish women were nicer to each other. Oh, it's so upsetting how ingrained the competition thing is with women. You flip through magazines or TV or anything like that and it's always like How to win that man back or How to stand out amongst other women or just anything like that. It's like Ladies, we're fucking great! We are taught to be super catty to each other, which is just so unnecessary. You don't have to be mean to her. You don't have to talk shit behind people's backs. There's that saying, Guys will get into fist fights and girls will give each other eating disorders. And that, unfortunately, is totally true. We are pitted against each other. We pit ourselves against each other. We compare ourselves to each other. Seth and I were joking about something and he made the comment, Oh, babe, you are a supermodel, except you're really fucking short. And that just got me thinking about how ridiculous the beauty standards for women are. Men definitely get that as well. But my own experience as a woman, you know, I was able to shed different parts of my life that I didn't like and move on to the next place as a kid, but you can't shed that kind of popular culture. That is everywhere. You know, depending on what country you're in, it might change a little bit, but the standard is tall, beautiful, quiet, submissive, but also a freak. Aesthetically, I have bags under my eyes and I get the occasional pimple and stuff like that and I don't always look great. And I feel like I would be just personally more confident in myself if I didn't flip through every airbrushed frickin' photo in a magazine. What they do with celebrities and thinning them down all the time. She didn't need to be thinned down. The standard of beauty is a really unfortunate thing for women. Because each woman has their own feeling of inadequacy as far as aesthetics go - that puts more pressure for women to put down other women. Maybe I'm not feeling really great, well, Her hair is disgusting or Look at the fat roll. By pointing out the flaws in other women, a lot of the times women will feel better about themselves. You know what? What you can do instead is find something you like about that person or you know what, fuck it. It doesn't even have to be true. I try to compliment another woman at least once a day, if I ever leave my house (laughs). But I try to say one nice thing about one other woman and that's my little part in trying to make the world a better place. It's super unfortunate. I wish women were nice to each other. 

I also wish people would do more when they see something. If you see something, you say something - I think that's just something people kind of spout out and not really apply to themselves. I really do, I try to stand up for what I believe is right within my own little area. I think about this all the time and I should probably just let it go (laughs). My dad has box tickets to the Ducks games because he went to the U of O. And Seth and I were sitting there - and it's the box seats, so it's nice - and the guy in the aisle next to us is just eating peanuts and I look over and there's just a pile of peanut shells on the floor and he just left. He just left it for somebody else. And I just thought that that was such a terrible representation of the upper crust of society not giving a shit about anybody but themselves. And I wish I would have said something. I didn't because these aren't my seats, these are my dad's, I'm supposed to be representing something else. But, you know what, that doesn't matter. That was wrong. That dude's a douchebag. Somebody should have said something and fuck, I wish that was me. I wish I would have said something. But I also try to apply that now to like, No, just say it. Remember the box seats and the peanuts? It's gonna haunt you. Say something! I wish that more people would call out other people for their shitty behavior. There's a gazillion ways to say something. You do not have to take the hostile approach in saying something. There's just so many different ways to say something that you don't have to be a dick about it. You can still be assertive without being hostile or super confrontational. Well, I'm not saying something. I don't want to start a fight. You don't have to start a fight. You know what, you can start a conversation. I think a lot of people confuse those things. Really, all of you have to do is make the decision for yourself that you know what, I'm gonna try to stand up for what's right by creating a conversation and a dialogue instead of just yelling at somebody. That fucking peanut guy!

Maribel Ramirez

Tanya recommended I reach out to Maribel. They are friends from back in the Miami days. I really love getting these referrals because it allows me to meet people I would very likely never run into otherwise. I met Maribel at Golden Om Pathways, which she is the founder of, and had the wonderful pleasure of conducting our interview in a very serene space - listen carefully to the AUDIO (brand new feature at the bottom of the page!) and you'll be able to hear bubbling water in the background. Maribel has a soft but deliberate voice and communicates directly and thoughtfully - traits that will serve her well as she pursues her education in counseling. 

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Who are you?

Mmmm. Ah, I'm so many people. Right? But, yet, essentially the same person that I was since I was two years old and as far as I can remember. But it almost seems like we have so many lifetimes in one. And there's a continuous essence that follows through all those different chapters, but definitely lots of changes. Right? Not the same person that I was at 19 or at 25 or at 30. And at 43, I'm emerging, I feel. Like I am finally coming into my own and all the practices and all the learning that I have done is finally kind of showing up and manifesting in my life in all these amazing ways. 

Where do you come from?

I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. My mother was Cuban-Chinese and my father's Colombian. And I've lived in different places. I spent five years in Costa Rica and I feel like that's very much one of my homes. I've always been attracted to the Pacific Northwest and that's how I ended up here. I like the sun, so Bend was the perfect place to be at. 

What brought you to Bend?

I love the energy of the Pacific Northwest. I love the open-mindedness here. I love that the West is always kind of like a few steps ahead on everything. I love Portland and I love Seattle and I love all the small towns in between, but I don't think I can do the rainy. So when I found Bend I thought, Okay, this is it. This is perfect. 

In the year that I've been here, I've seen it grow. And I've seen more diversity than when I first got here. I grew up in a place where I was the majority, so I have never quite experienced not being the majority. I never notice. I never go around thinking, Oh my gosh, I'm a minority. Oh goodness, there's no one else around like me. Until Tanya pointed it out when I first moved here. We were sitting and having a beer at The Lot and she said, Wow, look around. How does it feel? And I'm looking around and I'm like, Great! (Laughs) She's like, You're the only brown person here. And I was like, Whoa! Oh my goodness. It's true! (Laughs) And all of a sudden, I realized. And then I went through a few months where I went through it. Oh gosh, I'm the only one here. The self-consciousness kind of started creeping in. And of course she didn't ask me to make me feel self-conscious. We just have a very open kind of dialogue going all of the time. And then I started looking for the other Latinos in this community and I didn't find them at the places where I was frequenting. You know, they weren't having dinner at Spork. They were not having a beer at The Lot. They have their own places that they hang out at. And they usually work service jobs. And it was a real eye-opener to understand. I mean I had an idea of what it was like to be a minority somewhere outside of Miami, but I didn't realize how real it was until I went through that. Until I walked through that place of, Whoa, this is what it's like in other places. 

What does community mean to you?

That's a great question. Community means shelter. It means home. It means diversity, for sure, where I come from. It means different people coming together to make something work. To make something grow. To make things happen. I think that's what community means to me. And there's probably a lot more, but I'd have to sit with that for a bit. 

What do you appreciate most about this community?

What my experience has been has been an incredible openness. People have been very welcoming and very receptive - sometimes inquisitive - and always warm. Bend has kind of opened its doors to me. It's been a really beautiful experience so far. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

Yeah. You know, I can see both sides to the argument of growth in Bend. Coming from Miami and seeing what Old Florida used to be - it went through a stage when it was first starting to grow where a lot of people from the fashion industry, but mostly thrift stores and artists and cool little teahouses and places to hang out at. And then it grew and grew and grew and grew and it just became a giant strip mall with Victoria's Secret and the Gap and Banana Republic and all the places where the thrift stores used to be and the cool little shops and all of that. So, in a sense, I'm a little bit intimidated by growth. But, at the same time, coming from a city where there's so much access to art and culture and diversity, being in a place like Bend, I feel like it can use some more culture, art, and diversity. And the only way that can happen is by bringing in some new blood. So, sometimes people ask me, Why did you come to Bend? and I just jokingly say, Because Bend needs more brown people. So it's a tough question to answer. How do you bring diversity without growth? It's impossible. And I do feel that diversity is important for health. Even genetically speaking, you need to mix up the genes in order to create stronger breeds. It's just the way it will go, right? The world is getting bigger and every place will get bigger along with it.

What do you wish for the future?

Oh my gosh. That's such a heavy, loaded question. Of course, and this is cliché but it's true, I wish for peace and I wish for higher consciousness. And I wish for evolution, growth, and awareness. And I wish that we continue to evolve as a species but come back to our roots as indigenous people because we all are indigenous people from somewhere, right? I would love for us all to live closer to the earth in a more sustainable way so that we can succeed as a species. That's pretty much it (laughs). 

Tanya Hughes

I didn’t know that Tanya and I would become pals before we got around to meeting officially for this project, but that’s how it happened. Summer recommended Tanya to me back when we did her interview. I met her Tanya briefly then, but didn’t get her contact info. Then Summer reminded me of her again when I reached out to ask for referrals. Tanya immediately suggested we meet for a beer to chat about the project and life in general, so I jumped on the opportunity. Then we set up a time for the interview. And in the meantime, we hung out at a backyard barbecue together. So, by the time we settled into Tanya’s tiny home and got down to the actual interview, we were fast friends. Tanya is a total bad ass. She doesn’t mess around and has a brain full of beautiful thoughts and a really cool way of putting them into thoughts. And in addition to working with Summer in the flower studio, she also handcrafts these beautiful essential oils. 

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Who are you?

I have to laugh at that question because my very sarcastic self says, Who am I not? (Laughs) It's one of those pet peeve questions, Who are you? When in fact, you're just like, Yeah, tell me what you do. (Laughs). Who am I? I don't know how to answer that. I honestly don't know how to answer that because I do go back - even though I was sort of joking about it - like, who am I not? At the risk of sounding super, I don't know, overly deep, I feel like I'm somebody that's always becoming. I feel like that that is always shifting and changing. That's always been the center of how I've lived my life to this point because I'm really interested in experience and experiencing things. And I'm really interested in growth and evolution and all of those things mean that if you do really want to grow, that you're constantly trying on different identities and letting go of the old ones. So that question of Who am I? is sort of difficult to nail down and sort of humorous to me. 

Where do you come from?

Where do I come from? Again (laughs), I go into this very quippy space of Where do I come from? Ummm, planet Earth (laughs). Planet Earth. I think that actually I feel most comfortable - I'm sort of evading your question a little bit - connecting with a geographical answer which is really more around the Pacific Northwest. There's something about the land and nature that feels very, like it's always been a shelter for me and it's always been something that has made sense to me. So, even though I might be from the Universe or the stars or something much more cosmic than an actual city, I feel like nature is where I'd like to say I come from. 

What brought you to Bend?

The sunshine! (Laughs) I mean, why else do you come to Bend? Other than maybe if you love powder and you love skiing and outdoor sports. It was definitely sunshine. I wanted some place that was again more Pacific Northwest because I resonate so deeply with this part of the United States, but I didn't want to be in the grey, damp, mossy, depressing area on the other side of the Cascades. So, Bend felt like a good place to go check out. And I hadn't been here in years. I was a big snowboarder for a long time and haven't done that for a good 15 years, so I had no idea how much Bend had grown. It was a very spontaneous move, but I'm glad that I made it. 

What does community mean to you?

I feel like community at its best is this balancing act between being true to oneself and learning how to be compassionate with other. And when I say other, I'm talking about human beings, I'm talking about animals, I'm talking about nature, the environment. I feel like community is this amazingly rich opportunity to be witnessed, to be supported, to be loved, also to be challenged. I think challenge is a big part of community - healthy challenge. I would say healthy challenge is surrounding oneself, either consciously or unconsciously, with people that are going to help make one the best version of oneself possible. And that usually can be uncomfortable. If there's growth involved it's usually uncomfortable. So community for me is a fusion of all of those things. Ideally (laughs). 

What do you appreciate most about this community?

Community didn't bring me to Bend, right? Nature - an aspect of nature - brought me to Bend. And then community unfolded as I lived here, which makes sense (laughs). The community that has opened its arms to me and that I've opened my arms to has been wildly creative. Some of the more productive, multi-faceted, creative people that I've ever met have actually been in Bend. And what I mean by that is, you know, I've lived in Seattle and Miami and Salt Lake City and certainly I've met some creative people, but a lot of them were sort of not multi-dimensional. And most of the people that I've met in Bend are multi-dimensional. So, what I appreciate about that within this community is that that creativity lends itself to some really interesting relationships, really interesting conversations, really multi-faceted ways of living and existing and being with one another. It kind of dovetails back into that original question around like What is community? And me really desiring and saying that the best of community is not just How do we stroke each other's egos? but How do we challenge each other to be the best version of ourselves possible? I feel like the community in Bend that I've found really represents that. Which is sort of surprising, because again, that's not what I came here for. So it's been a really nice experience. And certainly I think some of that probably has to do with my age and what I'm available for at this point. And how I think one's community can also reflect how you're showing up, right? So if I'm showing up in a way that is really honest and has a sense of authenticity and is willing and has a sense of interest, then I feel like more often than not that that is what is gonna be reflected back. That's been my experience here, for the most part, with community. It's a small community of people that I know, but I feel like it sort of just keeps growing by the day.

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I do. I do have thoughts about Bend's growth, but they're more thoughts around the infrastructure of Bend. Less so of people's personal reactions to the growth itself. More concern that the influx of people and that impact in terms of everyone's quality of life here. So that means, for me, affordable housing, access to specific services from healthcare (being able to find a health practitioner with so many people in town), being able to actually physically get around town in a way that feels safe. If I'm riding a bike, it's not super congested. I can get around without feeling like I'm gonna get run over. So just those day-to-day sort of life experiences. I'm not super convinced that the city council or the structure of Bend is equipped to deal with how quickly it's growing. So that's my only criticism. But I think that's a criticism that can be said with any growing city. I don't necessarily think that Bend's growth is unique in that way at all. I think that is actually is probably unfortunately super reflective of what's happening in a lot of towns this size that people feel attracted to moving. So that would really be my bigger impression around that. It's less around sort of the noise of people that have been here for a while and being really bummed out there's new people moving here and how quickly it's growing. I can be sympathetic to that, for sure. There's so many fantastic things about it and the access, again, for someone like myself who loves nature, is really, really exceptional. The risk of losing that due to a lot of people coming in - yeah, I can see how that would be a bummer. But similar to how you just prefaced this question, I think there's something bigger at play. There's more advantage to having some of the people who have come who are moving to Bend in terms of helping build a more stable economy, helping making it more vital and interesting, helping participate and be a part of a community. I think there are more ups than downs, for sure. 

What do you wish for the future?

I wish for the future to increase my awareness around my own footprint. My footprint in terms of how much I use resources. Which part of the reason why I've moved into a tiny house is because I really want to understand how much water I use. I really want to see what it means to live solar and to live smaller. What does that actually feel like? Physically have a space where I'm able to consume less because I simply don't have space to put it (laughs) so I can't really accumulate things. So my hope is to continue to really own that and play with that in a way that's not only for living a greater, truer quality of life for myself but also something that has a lesser impact for everyone else around me. And I would love for this city or communities to also take that very seriously and to take that on a little bit more. To really start asking the question of What is enough? Honestly, like, What is enough? Not just like, What do I feel like today? or What do I need? but What is enough? Because I think we all have more than enough. So, for the future, I don't know if that really answers that question. To distill it down, I guess it's just about becoming more and more conscious as a human being on the planet and all the facets about what that means - about how I feel things, about how I express things, what kind of work I choose to do, where I put my dollars, what I give back to the environment, what I take. Hopefully I give more than I take.

Francie Towne

Megan recommended that I reach out to Francie. And I am so glad she did! Francie invited me to her home, where I got to briefly meet her husband and two sons. They split to go play soccer and Francie and I chatted at the kitchen table over cold-brewed coffee and got to know each other. Francie speaks genuinely and offers little room for doubting her sincerity. I appreciated her candor and thoroughly enjoyed my time with her. In addition to the full-time job that is motherhood, Francie is an artist. Take a look at some of her work here and here.

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Who are you?

My name is Francie Towne. I am a mom. I'm an adoptive mom. I'm a cancer survivor, I'm a teacher, artist. And I really love my husband (laughs). I feel grateful for my family. I love to live a life of gratitude because I think that gratitude is like as necessary as medicine. (Laughs) Or water, maybe water. What do I add to that? 

Where do you come from?

I was born in Dallas, Texas, but I grew up in Big Fork, Montana. I met my husband in Montana and then we moved here for his work. He teaches chemistry at COCC, the community college. So, yeah, we came from Montana to here and we love it here. We came five years ago. Forrest got a job, so we moved. It's been good. We don't really want to move. It's been a healthy move for our family. 

What does community mean to you?

Community is really important because it can be your town but it can also be who you hang out with and the people that you are friends with. I guess we learned a lot about that when I went through cancer. I had breast cancer in 2011. My older boy was 10 months old when I was diagnosed. That was a really awesome experience in the sense of community because you learn who your real friends are. People who are not afraid of hardship will come running to your aid and people who are haven't experienced it yet might be a little afraid to, which I understand now. You can't be angry at somebody who hasn't experienced something yet. But I'm glad I went through that because I can have compassion. So I think that community for us was just being blown away by people who are willing to come help you and I guess also not being afraid to show who they truly are. We all have this front - we'll wear like certain clothes or we'll make ourselves look a certain way and we talk a certain way - but when it really boils down it's like, Are you who you say you are? People find that out. People are smart. (Laughs). But I guess I love to be a part of community that's honest and that's a really hard place because people don't want to be completely honest about that. 

I also, to say something about community, I love Jesus. I'm a Christian, I guess I could say, but I don't know if there's like a stereotype that comes to your head when you hear that. I love Jesus' model in how he set up the church at the very beginning. After he had died on the cross and rose again and ascended to heaven and he left the disciples to continue his work by spreading the news about Jesus and God, the church was basically a safe place to go. Like if you had financial need, if you had a health need, if you needed prayer, if you needed encouragement - that's what the church was for. It wasn't a place of judgment. It wasn't a place of like, Oh, you're not following all the rules! That's what the Pharisees were doing - that's not what Jesus was doing. The church should be this safe place, so community should be that. I feel like the church is part of that community and it should be responsible for helping people and not judging people. Does that make sense? So, I love that model and I love the idea of feeling safe and not being judged and not judging people and not assuming things about people.

What do you appreciate most about this community?

People are really kind here. And I feel attached to this place 'cause I feel a lot of people here love the same things about life. You know, they love the outdoors and they love being together and they love beer and they love community and they love, you know, enjoying those things together. And I think that is a good recipe for a healthy community. I also appreciate the community here because I see people reaching out to homeless people. And that's not the community that you hear about or think about when you think about Bend, but there's a lot of homeless people. There's people whose full-time job is to reach out. Like people at the Shepherd's House, they're all about getting them off the streets and teaching them about truth and getting themselves out of that rut and sending them on in a healthier life. I see that kind of lifestyle - just being willing to get down on your knees and help people and not be like, Oh, I'm so amazing - it's like you're in the dirt and you're not expecting to have anybody give you anything for it. And I think I admire it a lot. And that's part of the community - is being willing to get your hands dirty and being okay with it. I admire that a lot. I want to see more of it. And I want to get my children serving at the soup kitchen and comfortable in that environment because once you start helping people, you can't stop. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I don't think anyone has a right to make people feel like they aren't invited. Have any of us not been new to something? Have they been treated badly before? That makes me wonder if they've been treated that way before. When I first started teaching, I had to do my student teaching and the principal of that school was so unkind to me. I fortunately realized that that's the way she was treated when she started teaching, so she felt like she needed to be unkind to kind of initiate the next generation of teachers coming in to see if they were real. And I just don't think that's the way to go about it. I think that showing people kindness is like a way of inviting people and identifying with people because, I mean think about Megan - she brought so much beauty to Bend, you know? She paints murals and she's decorating our coffee shops and she's making the world a more beautiful place and she's doing it while inspiring other artists and she's doing it while she's, you know, encouraging people on in any journey, whether they're artists or not. And then there's like the whole, Oh, they're from California. Californians can't come here. Well, I have friends from California who just come to Bend and they make it better. And they make it why we love it here. You can't throw stones at people. If you've never been new, then you can throw a stone. That story, going back to Jesus again - I love him. There was a prostitute and she was about to be stoned in the middle of the square. Do you know this story? And he was like, If you don't have any wrong, if you've never done anyone wrong, then go ahead and throw it. And everybody put their stones down and walked away. And it's like that's the same thing here. You can't treat people like that. We are all capable of wrongdoing and we have to be forgiving and invite people in. That's why we're a community (laughs). I don't know if that was a mean thing to say. I think it's true, though. I love people from other places. And we need more diversity here, too. Bring 'em on. 

What do you wish for the future?

I want to be able to see people really care about each other in a way that you're not hiding behind your closed doors all the time. When you come home from work, do you open your garage door and pull your car in and close your garage door while your neighbor is out watering the lawn or do you go visit? I feel like we're still in this place - at least my neighborhood - we can't get to know people here. I try to look people in the eye and they will not look at me. Like when I go to get my mail. During the solar eclipse - we stayed home - there were people out in the yards and I tried to have conversation and everybody just kind of wanted to stay in their own little safe place. There are other places in Bend where the whole community would come together in their neighborhoods and enjoy it. I would love to see that everywhere. I don't know if that's because of how I grew up or where I grew up. I'm sure it is, it's all part of who raised you and how you're raised. But I would love for more people to reach out. I don't really feel like I could ask anyone around here for a cup of sugar. Well, our neighbor right here I could. But anybody else, I would feel like I would be a bother to them. And I would totally want them to knock on my door for such a small thing. I mean, it's hard to ask for help. But to be needed, we all love to be able to give. But to ask is a different... the short answer is I would love to see people be willing to ask for help more and let their guard down and let their pride down and just ask. I would love to see that. Sorry that was long-winded (laughs). 

I think something that brings me the most joy in the world - and I'm not that old, but I have seen how much encouragement really pushes people forward - and I just want to keep doing that. And I've just decided lately, like, I want my art to be able to encourage people. If they look at it they know that they can push through whatever they're going through. I don't know how that's gonna look, but I would love to be able to... like kind of what you're doing - it gives people hope. It gives people a purpose. Or they see something good in the world and they want to go towards that. That's what I would love for my art to do and that's what I think you're doing. That's my goal, I guess. 

Do you have anything else you'd like to put on the record?

My favorite food is ice cream (laughs). That's it. 

Megan Pettibone

When Summer recommended Megan to me she described her as a “fairy”. Then, the night before the interview, I met another of Megan’s friends who used the word “magic” in her description. So I wasn’t terribly shocked when I stepped out of my car to find a living and breathing smile in human form introduce herself to me. Megan and I met at the Waldorf School where she works as the school counselor. We sat at a low table on mini chairs in a room that had the kind of vibes I wish I had even briefly encountered during my developmental years. And Megan’s the kind of woman every single parent should want their children around. She is so pleasant and exudes joy from every pore. I challenge anyone to try to contain a smile in her presence. 

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Who are you? 

I am Megan Pettibone. And I have lived in Bend for two years, actually, to this date. My husband and I moved here two years ago from Boston. 

What brought you to Bend?

Well that is a pretty fun story. Both my husband and I lived in the greater Boston area. I lived there for about eight years and he lived there for a couple years. And I had done the rat race stuff where I took a train commuting in 45 minutes to an hour, commuting out 45 minutes to an hour. Every day. Sat at a computer. I was the executive assistant to several high profile executives. One was like Boston's biggest landlord, another one was for a really awesome educational nonprofit. But my existence was supporting these people and making them show up in their best capacity. And I was just, you know, really cranking it out. So that didn't feel like it was in alignment with where I would feel like I was doing the best work for myself. It was a lot of work - and hard work - but it wasn't fulfilling. It wasn't satisfying. And it was all for someone else in a way that I didn't necessarily feel like it was making the biggest impact. The nonprofit was a good one to work for, but again it wasn't the right capacity for me to be working. 

So, I decided to go back to school. I got my Master's in Education to be a school counselor. And that was in 2010 - I started - and I graduated in 2012. That was after I had worked for the real estate landlord. Assisting him, one 55-year old big child essentially (laughs), I was like How about I spread the wealth and maybe work with several actual children in helping them get themselves to a place that they can be productive, happy, and following a path that was gonna be a good one for them. So that's why I went back to school. I did my practicum internship at a technical high school/vocational school, which was awesome! It was such a neat environment for kids to be able to have their hands experientially learning trades so that they were set up for being able to get a job right out of school if college wasn't gonna be the answer for them. For me as an academic, you of course want for college to work for everyone, but in reality it doesn't. And for those kids who needed to be able to have an alternative, that was the most beautiful, awesome thing that I could imagine. So I was so happy to be there. And then, in practice, working with kids that were not far off from my age - and I have a general childlike approach and wonder to most things. And so that doesn't really land in the same way with high school students where it's just kind of like, Oh god, is this lady for real? (laughs) Are you serious?! I just wanted to be Miss Frizzle. That was all I wanted - to provide an experience for kids where they were excited about learning. And it just wasn't really the right spot for me to do that. So when it came time after I graduated to find a job, it was rough. And it was not easy. And I didn't feel compelled to be in the traditional, mainstream education system. That was right when Common Core was getting introduced and all of these expectations of like kindergartners for being able to read thousands of words - no thank you. That didn't set right and well with me. So then I found this educational nonprofit. That was awesome, but that same type of work where I was just looking at calendars all day and sending out thousands of emails and having to think well of funders and all of those kinds of things where I just wanted to be with the kids. And I just wanted to be knowing they were getting access to really good quality experiences that were going to lend to their overall development. Not just whatever these benchmarks are that they hard to hit for test scores and things like that. 

So, we decided - my husband and I - were we like, Let's be intentional about our lives. Right now we are existing in a town, in a place, and in careers that happened upon us because of the way that things unfolded and we don't need to have it be that way. So let's adventure and explore and figure out where we want to be and the United States, where we want to be in our careers, and who we want to be in the world. So we packed all of our stuff up and put it in one of those PODS units - got rid of a ton of things - and then we hit the road in June of 2015. And we spent three months with our dog - we have a little, 13-pound Dachshund/terrier mix and he is the man - his name's Wally. And the three of us car-camped and drove all the way around the United States. We started in Boston and came down south and then across and then up the west and when we came through Bend we were like, This place is awesome. You immediately get a sense that the people here are so glad to be here. And when you see and you spend three months driving around, you see ghost towns. You see places where it's desolate - where it used to be thriving and vibrant and had a community and then it's gone. And you have tumbleweeds and you have empty storefronts and paint chipping all over. And those were not places that I felt compelled to want to stay. And it's not to say that they're not worthy of it, but it wasn't the hook (laughs) to get us in there. And so when we came to Bend we were like, This places is awesome. We have more places to go, so we're gonna keep on, but this is gonna have a flag, you know, on the map. And then we made it all the way to Colorado and had family and friends there that we saw and then we were like, Okay well, we've got to decide. Are you we gonna go left or right? And our choices of our two tops towns were Bend and Asheville, North Carolina. And so it was like, This one has all of our family and friends on the East Coast - we're close to it. This one is new. This is a new frontier. We know nobody here. It would be uprooting everything, but if we don't do it now, when are we gonna do it? If we go back East, then the gravity of our family and life there will probably keep us there. So this is our chance. This is our opportunity. Let's do it! And there was a job posting for the aftercare position here and I was like, Well, I'll just send in my stuff and if we get an interview, then that's where we're going. And I got the interview and I was like, Okay! I guess we're going there! (Laughs) And so we came out here. We lived in the woods for a couple weeks while we were trying to find housing. And then we moved into our house on the 29th of August - maybe that was yesterday, yeah. So we did that yesterday and now we've been here for two full years and I'm operating in the capacity as a school counselor at the school of my dreams! Something that I started seven years ago is now actually coming to fruition in the place that I feel so at home - in the school, in the community here at the school, in Bend, in the community here in Bend. It just is proof positive that when you do decide to live intentionally the things comes together just as you hope. Maybe not in the time that you hope or, you know, it doesn't necessarily pop right up right away, but if you keep working towards it, then the opportunities happen, doors open, and connections are made that are just really beautiful and awesome. So that was how we ended up here. Interviewing a lot of towns that didn't quite fit the bill and then deciding that this was gonna be the place that we were really glad to set our roots down. 

What does community mean to you?

Gosh. Community means a sort of undying and unconditional support and love for the people that you are sharing your space with. There are times that it is a struggle to bring people together and where there are opportunities for being able to work through differences. And understanding that when you do come to recognize those, address them, and then decide together that you want to work together to be a united front, then it can really create a beautiful environment for the people that you share that with. And Bend is really cool in that it has its overall community and then all these sort of micro communities that make that up. And so you can find your way in your self and then in your micro community and then, in that, adding to the greater community to really build something vibrant and beautiful. And that's sort of what this town does well and what we are contributing to and trying to bring more of in, you know, the creative community, the musical community, Makers, the outdoor community. You can find people who share common interests with you in really neat ways and then have them lead you to other things that you didn't even know. So, I think that community is just an interweaving and a webbing of vibrance that we can plug into and add little electrical currents (laughs) of our own to it.

What do you most appreciate about this community?

The friendliness of people. Coming from the East Coast where everybody is heads down and angst and anger and just keeping to yourself - there is a lot of gravity to that. And when that is how everybody is interacting, you just sort of get sucked into it. And I remember coming here and just feeling the sun on my face, you know, and being so much more upright here - physically upright - in a way that I wasn't there. You know, you're slouched and trying to jam yourself into a train and things like that. Here, it's like there is a breath. Not right now because of all the smoke, but the clarity of air, generally speaking, is something that is uplifting. Everything is so uplifted here. So, I was shocked sometimes with how friendly people were and inviting. You know, where I used to come from, that would make you suspicious. (Laughs) Why are you being so nice to me? And it's just because people want to here. I know my neighbors here better than I knew my neighbors anywhere else that I've lived. And that's because they have made the conscious of effort to reach out to me when I walk by with my dog. Hey, what's your name? You walk by here all the time. What's your name? Oh, I'm Megan. You wanna have a glass of wine? Okay! That literally happened last week. There were a couple that are in their 60s and early 70s and I walk by them almost every single day and always say hello. And she was like, You walk by here all the time. I'd like to know you. You're obviously part of the hood. Let's chat. (Laughs) And that was just such a beautiful thing. And now I look forward to walking by their house and if they're outside, then having a few minutes to stop and chat. So that has been just an unbelievable warmth and cool thing about this town, very specifically. And then, you know, all the other fun sparkles and trappings of the festivals, and general offerings of community coming together, and cool things to do, tons of music. I think people are mostly minded to support each other here, which is a really cool thing. So that's seven things that I like about it (laughs). 

Do you thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

It's no secret if I've come in that last two years that I am part of that growth and I'm part of the wave of people that see what Bend is and what they have created here and what we now have created here. And wanted to tap into it and be a part of it and be able to take and give. I think if that is the spirit that people come and create the growth in this town, where it's take and give - What are you going to give back to the community and what are you going to bring to this to continue that vibrance and to continue letting this place be something that people want to be a part of? - then I think it's good. As I said before, driving around the United States and seeing towns that are these ghost towns - desolate, nobody wants to be there, nobody wants to touch it with a 10-foot pole, you just cruise right on through - that's not the place that people want to be anyway. And we don't want our town to be like that, either. So you have to think well of the quality of what we're doing in that growth. And I think to a certain extent, it's an unavoidable thing that people are... they're coming (laughs). And I'm not a fan of setting up something that says, Well, we've reached our capacity and that's the end of that so no, you may not. But I do think it's important that the people that are coming here are coming with a spirit of continuing a vibrant community and not just coming to take from it. If that makes sense. 

What do you wish for the future?

I say growth (laughs) not necessarily in that physical capacity, but I see evolution. For myself, for our town, to continue to seek opportunities for growth and for greater understanding and for coming together and feeling invested in something bigger than myself. And right now, it exists in this capacity of being able to contribute to the education of these wonderful children and showing them how important our community is and what we can do to the greater community. One of the greatest things that this school does is during Valentine's Day, the kids make felt hearts with the nursing home down the street - Fox Hollow - and the kids will work with the residents there. And they make hundreds if not thousands of these little hearts and then, on Valentine's morning, the kids go out at 6:30 in the morning. They meet downtown and they put up - it's a heart bomb - and there are just hearts everywhere downtown. And so to be working with other people in our community that are so usually disconnected - you know, young kids and older folks - to bring them together to have this gift that they give to our greater community - that's what I want for everyone. It's such a beautiful opportunity for our young kids to do this, but that's something that grownups should do, that's something that old folks should do, take your dog and go do it. The spirit of contributing to beauty greater than ourselves is what I'd like to see for myself and for everybody in this town. Yeah. 

Anything else you'd like to put on the record?

Umm, no, I just love living here. (Laughs) And that's really something to say because before our road trip, before deciding intentionally how we wanted to be, I always hoped to be somewhere else. And I always thought about what it would be like to be somewhere else. Oh gosh, I bet it's better there. I bet it's better there. Since I've moved here, I've had no desire other than for fun trips, you know. To be where I am and feel so complete in that choice is like the best thing in the world. So, Bend has been able to give that to me and I'm really grateful for that. 

Dan Duggan

I met Dan through Betsy Warriner. She had a small group of people over to her house to make some early plans for a new organization called Community Conversations. Dan was one of those folks. At the end of the meeting and after having been around him for an hour or so, I asked him to take a look at this project and see if it was something he’d want to participate in. He contacted me shortly after, saying he was in. So I met him at his house and we had a really lovely chat. Dan exudes kindness with his eyes and his tone and matches it with his words and actions. It all seems to match up with him. He’s the kind of man I aspire to be. My life hasn’t been full of positive male role-models, so I’m really pleased to know Dan and to call him a friend. 

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I would start by saying that I'm a creative person. And my work, well, I spent 30 years in hi-tech - running companies. And I spent the last 15 years as a consultant, sharing what I learned as a leader in business with other business leaders. And the big thing I learned was that if you lead from your heart and let it inform your head, you're gonna make a whole lot better decisions and your company will be more successful and your team will be way more productive and happy. So that's what I do in my work is I try to help business leaders find that place, you know, that experience inside that says, Oh, I know who I am and I can just be that. Instead of trying to be something that they're not. Or whatever the picture of the year is of what a great leader is supposed to be. That screwed me up for decades (laughs). I work as an executive coach; I work as a consultant inside businesses because I've got a lot of operational experience, but mainly I work on how people relate to each other so that they can talk about the real things and they can support each other in accomplishing something that matters to all of them. 

Who are you?

I am a 68-year old male, white, Irish background, born in Portland, Oregon. Grew up in Seattle, Washington, moved back to Portland in my early 30s, and then migrated to Bend in 2015. Married, five children, four grandchildren. Singer-songwriter as a creative thing that I like to do. Public speaker. Grandfather, father, hopefully successful husband. My wife and I have been together - second marriage for me - for 20 years, well 26 years, we're celebrating our 20th anniversary in October. We're gonna go back to where we had our honeymoon in New Mexico. What else? I'm a person who loves the outdoors, so I'm a runner. I've run five marathons - my favorite one was Boston in 2009. I am a spiritually aware person, so I know I've got a heart and I know it's connected to something bigger than me and that everything is connected and that there's something out there that's bigger than all of us that is taking care of things and taking care of me. And I actually can connect with that and know that I'm okay so when stuff happens that I don't like, don't want, or don't know what to do with, I can go back to that place that says, Yes, but you're okay. And that's part of what I like to share with other people. There's probably more, but there you go (smiles). 

What brings you to Bend?

It's like when I come over the pass from the valley, something happens - I just relax. And I just know like I'm home, like I belong here. So it's the smell of the pine trees, it's the beauty of the bark, it's the underbrush compared to what it is on the other side - while it's really lush and beautiful over there, there's something accessible about this side. It's the lakes, it's the river, it's the mountains. It's the friendliness, it's the accessibility of the people. I've been so energized and impressed with how people care about where they live. And they're just outgoing. Have I run into a cranky person yet? I'm not sure. Not one I can recall. 

What does community to you?

It is a magical thing that occurs when people are willing to let go of their judgments and biases and just accept each other for who they are and appreciate who they are. And then this magic thing happens where people come together, sometimes it's around a cause, but it can happen in groups of two, it can happen in groups of 500, and it's fleeting, I think. It isn't all the time because the judgments and biases get in the way and this desire to sell your point of view instead of be open to the other person's point of view gets in the way of community. It's owning your own crap and admitting that we all have them - we all have judgments and biases - but setting that aside and saying, Who is this person sitting in front of me right now? And who are these people I'm interacting with right now? And what do they have to offer? And what can I learn? And what can I share? To me, that's community. 

Has community always been something you've sought? 

You know, I don't think so. I think there was a big part of my life, in fact it still is true, I'm a bit of an introvert. So, I'm really comfortable being on my own. I can entertain myself really easily (laughs). Reading, working puzzles, I love the newspaper, watching sports, playing music - so it isn't like I've got to have people around me, but when it happens it is so rich and so fulfilling that it's better than anything else at the same time. People that are labeled an extravert, you know, need that interaction all the time. I don't. I'm more comfortable doing what we're doing right now. Particularly if it's a schmooze kind of thing and it's all chit-chat - pseudo community, I call it. Not fulfilling, don't like those things. I'd rather have something meaningful happen. 

What motivates you now to want community? 

Well, first, there's a need. When I look at what's happening in our country and, of course, what you see on the news which is carefully selected to get our attention and fear and loathing and all that stuff. But I know there's so much more positive things going on. And we need that. And we need to figure out how to bridge the divide by being curious about what's going on with other people. And when I do that, I discover that they're a whole lot more like me than not. And when we can relate on a human level, then all that other stuff is more noise and doesn't have to create the wall that's up there. That's the first thing - there's a need for people to come together and find out that we're all pretty much human beings doing the best we can do. Then secondly, it's way richer and more fulfilling, yeah rich is the right word. The experience of life is just better, you know, when people are able to communicate with each other and be with each other in that way. 

What's your favorite thing about this community? 

The friendliness. The accessibility. They talk about six degrees of separation, I think it's like two in Bend. I keep running into people - this happens all the time - and I do a lot of networking because I'm trying to grow a business base here since I was Portland-centric for so long. And what I find is when we start talking, we all know somebody mutually that we didn't know we knew and it's pretty cool. So I really like that. I like that people care about where they live. I like the size of Bend. You know, in Portland anymore, you don't know if it's going to take 15 minutes or two hours to get from Point A to Point B because the traffic has just gotten so terrible. And the experience of being in traffic isn't a fun one. Here, the longest trip is 20 minutes. You can drive to Sisters in a half an hour - you can be in a-whole-nother city. So when people complain about the traffic here, I just kind of chuckle (laughs). Compared to what? You know? I got 16 cars that are backed up at a circle, but that's gonna clear in like three minutes and then I'm on my way again. And that's the worst of it!

And there's a lot going on. I mean, there's a ton of stuff going on - a lot of creative things. There's great music here, great restaurants. There's theater, there are just tons of activities for free and for not, the access to the river. Depending on how fast I run, I'm like 45 seconds from a trail (laughs) from my front door. Then I can run for an hour or two without having to be on a street. So, what's not to like? 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth? 

I am concerned that it could be, because other cities have experienced this, just growth for the sake of growth. But I don't really worry too deeply about that - I mean, it's very challenging. Particularly the rate of growth - the number of people that move here. I read somewhere it's 14 people a day move to Bend and that's accelerating. But I've been lucky enough to be exposed to the people that are working on how do we grow in a holistic way that retains the quality of life here in Bend that attracted people to be here to start with? Bend2030 is a great organization - I know Erin Foote-Morgan. I'm a facilitator for Opportunity Knocks. It's peer mentoring groups and there are 26 of them in Bend. This is like unheard of. Primarily people in business, but from all different walks of life. The one that I'm facilitating currently (and I'm going to be moving on to facilitating another pretty soon) is people that are involved the conversations around How do we grow? and How do we grow in a holistic way? So Bend2030, the City Club, Chamber, and a bunch of other nonprofit organizations that are in that group - so I'm in those conversations with people. Betsy's part of that. That's how I met Betsy because she was a member of Opportunity Knocks early on when I started facilitating that group. So there's many, many people - this is why I don't worry - that are really more than interested, they're invested in making sure that everything's considered when we grow so that the quality of life is retained. And that's a tall order. And there is this East/West divide. And part of the city planning that was done when they put in the parkway - I've learned because I wasn't here when that happened - has exacerbated that problem. There's not a lot of easy ways to get across. I think there's a mindset, too - I think it's more imagined than real in my experience when I actually talk to people, but it's not untrue - that there's the affluent and then the other people. So somehow that's got to be part of it. How do we bring everybody together? And transportation is a big piece of it. Including people in conversations about how we grow is really important and Bend2030, in particular, and what Betsy's trying to do is part of that - is part of not leaving anybody out of the conversation so everybody's needs are considered. And the economy is beginning to become more diverse. But it's a lot of start-up and there's a lot of people - you and I are part of that; we're dabbling in a lot of different stuff to make things work, right? - are in that mode here. But it's also a choice. They want to live here, so they're willing to do that. I don't get a big sense of entitlement from people that are willing to do what they need to do to be able to be part of this community. So, I don't know if that answers your question. It's a very big challenge and it's on us right now and it's going to continue to be on us. As long as enough people are conscious and are having these conversations and are willing to consider everybody's point of view and include those in how we grow, then I think we've got a shot at doing it pretty well. Yeah. 

What do you wish for the future?

Well, first that we retain and expand this friendliness - this experience of community that already exists here. That what attracted people here is maintained and not distorted or warped or tainted somehow. That that purity of intention is still there. For me personally, I want to continue to be active in community affairs. I want to give, when I can. I'm at that point in life where, you know, I'm available to give back. I want to pursue my creative urge more. So that's going to show up in music and speaking, primarily. I've dabbled in improv - that's a kick. So stuff like that, you know? Kind of being out there and being visible and sharing what's in my heart that I think will be useful to other people. And having time to travel. My wife and I like to take off and see places.

How do you pronounce your last name? 

Well, it depends on where you live. So it's interesting you're from the East Coast. Back there it's Duggan. And it's spelled that way. There's a story about that. My dad, Frank - Francis Xavier - good Catholic, Irish kid, was in the army in World War II. He was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama - did his basic training there. And the drill sergeant said, "Dugan!" And my dad corrected him and said, "No, it's Duggan." And he said, "Not here, you're Dugan. And I'm the drill sergeant and you're not." You know, in his face and everything. From that point on, he was Dugan. He met my mom while they were both serving at this air base there. He was in the Army Air Corps and my mom was a trainer in the Army Air Corps and they met and married while they were both in this service. But she was from Portland, so after their service was done, they moved to Portland. So he was Dugie. That was his nickname, Dugie. So, yeah, always been Dugan.

Becca Tatum

Summer recommended Becca to me by referring to her as "the mutha f*cking queen". After spending a few minutes with her I could see where the compliment came from so I consider chatting with her for an hour to be a great privilege. We sat over coffee in the open space at Thump Coffee, which she has been using as her office. Becca's got a deep and genuine laugh which seems to be constantly at the ready. As we talked, she articulated meaningful thoughts while making it obvious that she maintains hope and optimism for the future. She's a doer and a go-getter and a lovely lady. Becca raises money for nonprofits - check out her website to learn more about what that looks like. 

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Who are you?

(Big laugh) You're gonna start with an easy question. Oh, how do you want me to answer that? I'm Becca. What more do you want me to tell you? Anything I want? Actually, can I ask you the context of the project?

I'm relatively new to Bend myself. I moved here with my husband and our daughter, who's three now, Memorial Day weekend in 2015 - so two years ago. Summer and her husband know my husband from back east. We moved from the NYC Metro - I'm from Philly originally, so I spent my whole adult life in big, urban metros. We wanted to move west. We were living in a one-bedroom with a one year old. And Bend was one of the places on the short list. And Dan, my husband, is a chemist and actually got a job at Bend Research, so unlike other peoples' How I Got to Bend stories, kind of had an anchor job. It's really interesting the dialogue around being new here or, you know, what does it mean to be a local? I certainly have my version of our narrative, but everybody hates Californians, so the early version of that was, Well, at least we're not from California. We're both driving around cars with Connecticut plates on them and all of our neighbors were like, Oh, hey, it's so good to meet you! People seemed very impressed that we moved here from the other side of the country, as though that made it more palatable. But also that Dan had a job at Bend Research... I don't know whatever judgment is connected to that if there was any. 

I have gotten really involved in work in Bend. It has been one of the really nice things about living here. So when we moved, I was still looking for a job locally. In the end, ended up keeping the job I have in New York, which is two days a week raising money for a school that I helped start in 2003. It's a low-tuition school for bright boys from low-income families - George Jackson Academy. So that school's 15 years old and when I went back to graduate school, now seven years ago, ended up kind of in a part-time role raising money for them, working on the operations side. It's a small organization, though, so I kind of do a little bit of everything. And prior to that my career was in education. I taught and then I ran a middle school in Philadelphia. Did a bunch of stuff, school leadership stuff. So, anyway, we moved here. I ended up continuing to do that job. First year, I wrote my dissertation, which is done. So now I'm a doctor. Not that kind of doctor, but anyway (laughs). Yes, it is pretty cool. I started to grow what was initially a grant-writing business, which is really, more broadly, non-profit consulting. And I work with a bunch of clients here in Bend. I have a couple in other places, too. 

I find Bend to be a great professional place for me. We moved here and I was kind of like Alright, we're gonna see how this works! I want to have meaningful work and I'm gonna see if I can make that happen. And because of people's willingness to network and connect and introduce me to people and share stories and say, You should really meet this person - that's happened very organically and very quickly for me here. I ended up working in this coffee shop like every day. Every morning I drop off my kid at daycare, I come here. I usually leave by about 12:30 to go get her, some days I stay later. This being one of the centers where there's a lot of business start-up energy happening. People are on the hustle. 

But, again, I find it to be a very generous community of thinkers and businesses, where folks really are like Oh, hey, you have a cool idea. You should go talk to this person who has this other cool idea! On the scale it's different, right? Bend is so much smaller that there's also a sense of understanding some of how the decision making happens on a civic level and who some of the players are, but also maybe even how to change that and shift the landscape. Coming from New York City, forget it. I can make change within the organization I worked for, in the school I attended, in my neighborhood, but it wasn't gonna be like the whole city. So that's something that I really love about living here - a sense of opportunity to make a difference. And, yeah, the conversation about growth is very real. So, what I like about some of the work I'm doing is it's actually about entering into that conversation and trying to be smart about it. One of my clients is Bend2030, which works on transportation and housing projects. We also landed a big grant to do this totally cool project that is basically helping smaller organizations that serve more marginalized communities to have greater capacity to be part of decision making around transportation and housing. Bend2030 is one of the groups that I'm really excited to work with because I feel like they're saying, Okay, we're growing. Let's talk about how to actually bring a bunch of diverse viewpoints to the table and hammer out some plans so that we don't just wake up in 10 years and feel pissed off that something happened to us. Let's be active agents in that. It's about stuff that I think matters. Not just affordable housing, it's workforce housing. It's housing for people that make 35,000 dollars a year or under-the-area median income. And then the transportation piece is one of the other major threads you hear people talk about a lot in town. Either it's congestion or the road maintenance and the way that the taxes are structured in Oregon... we have inadequate tax funding for our roads. I think. Maybe you shouldn't quote me on that (laughs). But anyway, the city's in a tough spot in terms of doing what it needs to do for road maintenance. 

Anyway, most of my work before moving here was in education, so it's been fun to actually be part of an organization - and what I do with Bend2030 is raise money and help get grants and funding for them. And they're not my only client here. I work a couple of other organizations that are doing different stuff. One that's doing youth mentoring and another that is what you would call more direct service. They raise money to buy school clothes for kids. Assistance League is the name of that organization. It's amazing. It's a very small thing. It makes a really big difference. It addresses the need sort of at the endpoint. Not at the like, How do we change poverty so children don't need to have someone else buy them clothes? What I like about my work is that I get to do things that access change at a bunch of different levels. If I had my way we'd have some kind of massive summit and decide to fix everything and everyone would agree and it would be great (laughs). Unfortunately, that's not how it works. You kind of have those conversations with people who have a bigger picture about it and then you just go back to work and do your thing (laughs). Like I heard you say about this project, it's like maybe the day-to-day is I'm gonna sit down and find out somebody's story and then tell it and that's a thing. But the bigger picture is how do we enter into this dialogue about what it means to welcome our neighbor to our community even if we believe that that is gonna impact our life? I think that's the hard part. Because there are trends in Bend that have made it really expensive for folks that have lived here for a while. And housing prices and rent and rental vacancies are huge. I'd be pissed! I'm glad I don't live in New York anymore because there's no way I could afford an apartment. There comes a point where you're like, Well that's not okay. And you want to be mad at somebody about that. Those are important, very real issues. The thing is, right, it's not just about people from California or people moving here. And I bet it's not a monolith, like who moves here and why they move here and how old they are. Anyway.

What does community mean to you?

There's a quote. It's a quote, but I'm not going to quote it right. Community has been the central focus of a lot of the work I've done in my life. For me community is finding a way to make space for everybody to value and feel valued by one another. And creating some sense of safety around that. Well, safety is maybe too strong a word. In a classroom setting, for example, creating a sense that we get to take risks and are going to support each other. I don't mean that in a saccharine way either. I mean it in a real way. People belong to lots of different communities. We have communities of friends, maybe we have community at work, community of neighbors. But the quote that I was thinking of is from a Quaker educator named Parker Palmer who said something like, Community is where the person we least want to be with always is. You know, community also comes with this built-in challenge. You know, it's not just like, I get to handpick all my favorite people and we always get along. I think that community means acknowledging we actually all have things that are easy to deal with and prickly and good days and bad days. You get to be okay with the fact that it sometimes is hard, but kind of have the bigger picture in mind and have some resilience about that. That doesn't mean that you have to hang in with a situation that's toxic. It's not easy. People aren't easy. People are complicated. And awesome. And that's what makes it interesting. I say this and I'm not perfect in terms of seeking out communities where I am uncomfortable or don't fit in.

It's really interesting coming from New York. I have mostly, in my career, worked in communities where I am a racial minority. Where I am a white woman who is in a classroom with brown and black kids and, you know, screw that up all the time. I have so many things that I don't get and didn't get and I look back like 15, 20 years and I'm like, Oh, I can't believe I said that or I did that. And it's a privilege for me to get to choose that. Those kids may not have those same privileges. It just is. Their like, This is what I look like and a lot of the time I'm going to be in this world where I'm surrounded by people that have a different kind of privilege than I do. Another thing that's interesting moving to Bend from New York and before that Philadelphia is I am accustomed to feeling fairly conscious, intentionally, about issues of race and race privilege. The graduate school I went to is a very, very progressive seminary at Columbia in New York, called Union Seminary. Within church settings, which are often even way more conservative than the regular population, just like super progressive. Where I was like very middle of the road. I was in there writing papers and people were stopping traffic on the FDR Drive and part of Occupy and really putting themselves out there; putting their bodies out there. Moving to Bend, it is really interesting. I'm more conscious of the fact that I look like I could be from here. There's sort of a predominant narrative in Bend, which is, Well that's just Bend; we're really white. It's like, well, actually, we kind of have this fairly substantial Latino community. They just are a little bit invisible for reasons that probably make sense. Other racial and ethnic minority groups actually exist - I happen to be married to an American-born Chinese man. Our daughter is bi-racial. That's not my body. I'm not going through life with that. I can't claim to understand Dan's perspective. When I first moved here and I was doing some leadership training stuff and folks asked what I noticed about this gathering of community leaders. And I was like, Well there should be more people of color here. And the response was, Well that's just Bend. My feeling was that if we're going to be super nerdy and annoying about it, actually the census said that if it were 8%, then there should be eight people out of a hundred. So why are there not eight? Why is there only one? It's an interesting switch to that. It's something that I feel very conscious of because of coming from the East Coast, which is very different, and New York and Philly, which are both very different demographics.

What does it look like when we talk about poverty in Bend and we talk about housing? For me, it's an interesting check. Maybe these are people that didn't vote for the same President I voted for, you know? And like, Shit! What do I do about that? Because that's community, too. There are pastors who don't think women should run churches. Or don't think queer people should have membership in a church or get married. Those are things I believe should happen. (Laughs) Long answer about community. I think that there is sometimes a reluctance to talk about hard things. I don't think that's unique to Bend. But I do think that may be also part of why there are some growing pains. I think there's a layer to the We hate Californians which is about income and about socioeconomic groups. And that is real. That's something we need to tackle. There are sort of labels that identify populations on the basis of wealth and poverty, but we aren't necessarily talking about that. When we moved here, we came out for Dan's interviews. So it was like, Let's drive around and look at some places where we might be able to rent a house. We were staying with dear friends who had moved here right after the housing crash - so a very different time. They were basically like, Well, I guess you could look on the East Side. We were like, What's wrong with the East Side? You know, I used to live in Harlem. I moved into a building in Washington Heights where somebody had been assaulted. You know? Is there a lot of violence? Are there real big issues we need to know about? And it was like, No. Partly it's that you can't walk to the pub. Maybe that's it. Or you can't ride your bike everywhere. But it's also a little bit code for The poor people live there. That's where the trailer parks are. Or that's where the apartments are. Or that's where you might run into tweakers at the Safeway at 10 o'clock at night. It was all relative when we first moved here because it was like, Oh but I'm not commuting an hour and a half to get to work into New York City. We were like, Really? We're going to complain about 10 minutes? No, forget it. And I still feel that way. Yeah, it's like, It'd be nice to be able to ride my bike to Brewfest (laughs). That's a pretty high quality of life. There are really meaningful conversations happening. Let's not just let market forces continue to move in these directions that do create a separation between lower-income folks who maybe don't have access to transportation to get to work or their aren't bike lanes to ride in. These are things that are in conversation. It's interesting. I've met so many people that really deeply care about life here and want to do something. And have different ideas about what that thing is and how effective it's going to be. I kind of get to be in this great position of totally backseat driving and raising money for other organizations and being critical of or supportive of what they do on my own terms. 

What do you value most about this community? 

I would maybe repeat some of what I said earlier, which is, this feels like a community where a lot of people want to connect and talk about how to make a difference. Make a difference is a little cliché. I continue to meet really interesting folks from lots of different professional backgrounds but who are like, I have an idea. Let's think about if this has legs and we can do something with it. That has been the unexpected thing for me about moving here. It's been really easy to connect. It's been easy for us to make friends, honestly. I have met so many interesting people who are sort of open. There's an openness to connecting and I kind of wonder, Is that 'cause we keep meeting people who are new here like us? And so we're all like, Hey, I don't have any friends. You wanna be my friend? Cool, let's go get a drink! You know? There's a different spirit than other communities than I've lived in, which have felt much more closed. So, I guess in a word, I would say it's the openness of the people that I meet here and the sort of willingness to get to know each other a little bit. And it feels genuine. I make connections with people I don't know here regularly and it's easy and it's genuine. I guess, too, a lot of people that I meet here feel very present. They're not distracted. The work climate here is very different, too. It's not as crazy driven as New York is. Some people may disagree with that and I certainly know people that work very hard, but there isn't this sense of I can't do anything else right now or I have to reach the next level in whatever. There's a sense of Ehh, I'm gonna take a day off and go do something. That's a quality of life issue that I like here. And I feel like that's been important for my family. It's true for my husband, too. So, that's nice. We want to have some energy leftover at the end of the day (laughs) - not use it all commuting back and forth from work. 

What do you wish for the future? 

A new presidential administration. That is relevant. The short answer for me personally is balance. Get paid to do work I like. Have time to raise a kid who's a kind person. And be a good partner to my husband. Run a few half marathons. Have community of friends. I want a stronger progressive church community here. I want there to be very prominent, visible spaces that are connected to a church identity that are like, Hey, we marry gay people here and our pastor's a woman. And there are some, but I mean this is just my personal like... I have a seminary education and I'm coming from this setting where the most amazing people I know are folks that experienced such repression in their church communities because of their identities, their skin color, or who they love. And it has been hard to be in a community where the really visible churches are so conservative. It feels oppressive to me, honestly. I wish it didn't because I don't think that's like Bend's fault or the church's fault. I've thought about starting a church and pastoring a church. At the moment, the pieces aren't there. There aren't enough other people to sort of have a foundational congregation to get it off the ground. Even though I raise money for a living, it's actually easier to raise money for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit than it is for a church. There aren't as many foundations. And church is a weird thing to be into when you come from a liberal, progressive background like I do. I grew up Quaker, so on the East Coast people get it. So I'm kind of coming from this fairly Universalist church identity. And at some point was like, This is a really big institution that has a lot of power in this country and some potential to use that in ways that leverage social justice conversations. That stuff's important to me. 

Do you have anything else you want to say?

I love living here. I'm excited to raise my kid here. And I'm interested to see how it changes. Because it's gonna change. That is a given, so what is that gonna look like and how do we contribute to that? We really got a life upgrade when we moved, for sure, and I'm grateful for that. 

Elise Kukulka

Dan McGarigle has been an all-star in the referrals department. He contacted Elise to tell her about this project and I was glad to hear she was keen on participating. We set up a meeting over at Fearless Baking where she is the founder.  She recently sold the bakery to Thump Coffee, but she continues to work there as their "Jane of all trades". She's one of that rare breed of folks who says hi to passers-by and she was showing that smile pretty much the entire time we chatted, so I can only assume that's a regular thing. Keep an eye out for her at the bakery and out on the trails, where I'd guess she's shredding. 

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Who are you?

Who am I? Elise Kukulka. I'm originally from Buffalo, New York. I moved out here about six years ago now. Just to be closer to the outdoors and I always wanted to live in the West Coast. I kinda felt a little like a fish out of water on the East Coast. I was always driving up to the Adirondacks and different places to be outdoors and living a completely different life during the week - going to work in an office and stuff. So that's kind of what drew me to the West Coast. Obviously Fearless is a huge part of who I am. I love baking, I love interacting with customers, I love working with my employees. And then, when I'm not here doing this, I'm usually hanging out with my dogs, doing stuff - I have a house in Bend - so I work on the house. I go out skiing. I go out biking. Kind of standard-issue Bend person. I feel like I bring a little bit of East Coast mentality and work ethic and style to the West Coast and to Bend and to the environment at Fearless. 

What brought you to Bend?

The community is what drew me most to Bend. I looked at moving to bigger cities. I was looking at Portland and Seattle and I thought I really wanted to have that big city experience. And then when I drove through here, it really made sense. It was laid back enough but it still had all the amenities and the access to the outdoors. And I think, really, it nurtures entrepreneurial spirit and that was so cool to see. I didn't necessarily move here thinking that I was going to open a business. I initially tried to get into the industry - my background is in marketing and business management and product management. And so I looked at that stuff and it kind of made sense to be in this town and in a little bit of a smaller, tighter-knit community, with all like-minded people. Definitely a lot different than Buffalo (laughs), which is kind of standard-issue East Coast. You know? You work your day job, you go home, take care of the house, and that kind of thing. I wanted to be outside more. And I wanted to have that work/life balance. I feel like I was in an environment that everyone else was kind of thinking that way as well. 

What does community mean to you?

Like-minded people, having that. You know I think about tight-knit neighborhoods and people supporting one another. I definitely feel that in terms of the business community. I have a lot of friends that own businesses or have started businesses or are working for other small start-ups and it's really cool. We're able to collaborate and support one another. It enables us to kind of have this lifestyle. My sense of community was different when I was in Buffalo and then when I moved here, it evolved into probably a little bit more tighter-knit, like-minded, kind of like choosing your own family situation.  I think right now we're experiencing a really big change in community and I think some of what I moved here for and some of what our mentality is... is being challenged. I think it's interesting right now to see how to maintain that through this influx of new people coming into town and having so many more people here. I hope we can try to maintain that identity we have of being in touch with the outdoors, taking care of one another, kind of leading by example, and have it still feel like a small town even though we're growing. That's something I've been thinking about lately. 

What motivates you to want community?

The quality of living. I don't know. It's just really nice. I always relate it to having come from Buffalo. The community there is wonderful. We always joke about how we have really terrible sports teams, but there's no bandwagon fans. You just stick with them. Moving out here and having community and like-minded people, it's just different. I realize how fortunate we are to have the things that we have and I don't think we can have that without being connected to one another. And connected to what's going on in the community, but also on the trails and things happening for us to maintain it and for us to maintain that quality of life. Just the ability and the flexibility to be able to go these amazingly well-maintained trails - there's whole groups of people behind that. I think it just gives life more meaning and the more connections you can make with people and how things happen, you just appreciate more. We can help each other through these different obstacles. I've had plenty of times - whether it's just an ear a friend is lending me, a fellow business owner, or if it's someone that we team up with to do events and races, or if someone's trying to get something off the ground - community is connection and support and having that has brought so much more fulfillment and joy in my life. And for me to be able to do that for someone else is really fulfilling. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I do. I definitely see both sides of the coin. When I'm on a trail I'm like, Oh man, it's so busy! or when I drive over the Colorado bridge and I see everyone in the water I'm like, Oh man! and I sense an inconvenience because it takes a little bitter longer to get around. Are people respecting the trails? Are people respecting yada yada yada? I see that end of it, but I also see the positive end, which is culture. We've got a four-year college now and that can only improve community. We have educated people coming in. The things that draw people here and the types of people that are drawn here are generally pretty active and fiery and passionate people. So what a great community to harness to make those improvements and continue growing. Every time there's change, I think it's natural for people to feel a little bit hesitant about things. I do that in my life. It's always a little bit uncomfortable. For me, I just look at the positives and the negatives. Obviously, positive, it's great for business. I think I worry about some of the infrastructure, like whether or not we have the capacity to continue to maintain this growth. And that includes the streets, but also the trails and people going out in nature and making sure they're respecting where they are and being safe and carrying out what they're carrying in. So, I guess I see both sides of it. And it's going to happen. It's happening and it's been happening. Kind of just like lean into it and stay positive and lead by example. Instead of snuffing people off, kill 'em with kindness. Just try to be there to guide them in the hopes that they will pass that on to the next person they run into and I think that will continue to foster a really great culture in our community. I think that's the only thing we can really do. Instead of crumbling because the influx is happening - trying to fight it - just lean into it. Inevitably, people might stay here, they might be long-term residents, they might be short-term residents, the winters might scare them away, but I don't know. Why not? It's better than being in a community like Buffalo where it's like Rust Belt City - suffering, and nothing ever gets done. They have debates about what color to paint the Peace Bridge for like years and it doesn't get done. Or dilapidated buildings stay standing because there's people fighting to keep them and then it just stunts community and creates poverty. There are definitely two sides to the coin. I live in this little utopia. And I feel really lucky and fortunate. I definitely have days where I'm grumbling, but for the most part, it's pretty cool. And I think it's great - the ideas and the people that are coming to this community. Some may stay and some may go, but it's kind of a cool thing to be a part of.  

What do you most look forward to here in Bend? 

Skiing. I think I would ski 365 days of the  year if I could. Yeah, that snow is just the best thing ever. The town gets a little bit quieter usually. I like going up to the mountain and I like backcountry skiing - getting away from larger groups of people. That's an area that's starting to get busier that I notice quite a bit. But, it's fun! In Buffalo, I'd bring my stuff to go ski to work with me and then I would go night skiing. So I'd have all my stuff with me and bring my boots inside and people were just like, Oh, what are you doing? Oh, man! You know? It's cool to be amongst people that have the same mentality. I look forward to winter all the time. I'm getting into mountain biking, which is fun, but for sure the winter - everything about it. 

What do you wish for the future?

Especially now that I've sold Fearless but am on to run it, I want to bring it to a place where it can have continued success and growth with Thump. Personally, for my career, I look forward to that. I look forward to transitioning Fearless into a bigger kitchen - teaming up with Thump and seeing what else we can do. And for me personally, I just got a house in town and so I'd like to continue to be able to maintain the lifestyle that I have. I don't know, just continue to take my dogs out on the river and just kind of live simply. And be able to have the freedom to be able to travel a little bit more, for sure. I moved here six years ago and I've basically made trips back and forth to Buffalo and that's about it. I feel like it takes a few years to get your groove in a community and I'm kind of at that point where, I don't know, it's more like home and not just a place I moved to. And so I want to continue to establish that and hang out with friends - nothing too fancy (laughs). 

Donna Noyes

Marlene recommended Donna to me. She referred to Donna as a "fireball" and an "active, great citizen". I reached out to Donna via email and we arranged a time to meet amongst her busy schedule. Donna swims in the early mornings and volunteers here and there and has various appointments and engagements, but she managed to find the time to fit me in. She's got a twinkle in her eye (with maybe even a little mischief in there) and an ever-ready smile. We had a great time talking. I could have listened to her travel stories for hours. 

• Donna Noyes has passed away since participating in this interview. She died unexpectedly on November 24, 2018.

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Who are you?

Oh, well, I'm a single person. Since I moved to Touchmark, I'm not the oldest one in sight. Usually, I was. I enjoy helping other people. I never had any children, so I help lots of people now, which I think is important. I think it's important to help people other than your family. Because you're kind of obligated to help your family, you know, you had something to do with them being here. It's fun to meet other people, so I volunteer a lot. With this flower project, I wasn't good at making arrangements, but I washed all the buckets that they came in and everything because somebody had to do it. And that's fine. Now I gotta find a new volunteer job. But I do volunteer with Abilitree. I go fishing with them. In fact, tomorrow's my fishing day. We're going down to the Deschutes. They're forty years old, some of them. I say I went to grad school so that I could put worms on a hook. It's kind of fun. It's self-satisfying to help that group of people. They just, Oh, Donna! Donna! You're here today! Because I do travel a lot and so they do miss me a little bit. That's kind of satisfying to me. I've been pretty active in church. I attend the Methodist church now. I enjoy helping people. The Methodist church, on Wednesdays, feeds breakfast to homeless people. That's a whole new ballgame for me. It's really kind of fun. And I like to work with children. I taught in a high school in Michigan, but I like to work with kids - little kids. So I do that in Sunday School and stuff at church. 

Where do you come from and what brought you to Bend?

I grew up in Upstate New York and went to college there and then worked all my life in Michigan. Because that's where the job was. I'm an only child and everybody thought, Donna's going so far away!, but my parents brought me up to be independent. I worked 33 years in Michigan and then I came out here because my Michigan friends were here. Well, somebody talked me into skiing in Michigan. You know what those hills are like. And I said I'll never do that again because every muscle I didn't even know I had hurt. And it was too expensive. Well, they talked me into going a second time and I got hooked. So we skied every weekend with a bunch of kids from Ann Arbor. So I came out here to ski. I met these people in Ann Arbor and they became my friends and they retired and they asked me and I came out here to ski. And I just love it out here. When they talk about ice on Mt. Bachelor, they don't know ice out here. Somebody said to me, You turn on anything! And I say, Yeah, that's what I learned. And they say it's too icy. They won't do that. But you know what the East is like for ice. And I came and I stayed. I've been here 28 years now. I was a little younger and I got to ski in the mornings and play golf in the afternoon, which is fun. But I'm not a real good athlete, I just like it. And I like to be outdoors. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed being in Michigan, but I could retire in any state. I took a sabbatical and lived in Anchorage and I could of stayed there. I always find things I like to do. It makes it fun. I like people. I've met a lot of people here, so that's fun. 

What does community mean to you? 

I like to see a lot of different age groups and a lot of different ethnic groups. Bend certainly isn't the ethnic part, as far as I can see. I like them with a common goal of maybe making everybody better, helping other people. And I think they do it pretty well. I think the business community - I'm just amazed at what I see. I don't know any of the business people, but they contribute a lot to this community. I've seen a lot of people and they're always giving, giving, giving. They give lots of money that we don't even know about and then their time. If you have money, it's easy to give it. It's harder to give time. And I like to give time. Community, I guess, is working together with all ages and ethnic groups. It's hard to see that. I lived in Lansing and Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, of course, was mostly college activities, but Lansing is the capital and there were a lot of ethnic groups there. And I had a lot of African American kids in my classes. I credit my parents for that feeling that I didn't know the difference between pure white and just plain American as far as I'm concerned. I like to get to know new kinds of people and that's why I like to travel. 

What do you most look forward to here in Bend? 

I came to ski. I moved here to ski. A couple years, I skied a hundred days. And mostly downhill. That was what I liked. I came out here once to ski and the mountains were so great I just wanted to come back. I really hope I can help people better themselves somehow. By example, maybe. First I wanted to live as long as my grandmother did, then as long as my father did, and now I'm working on my mother and she died at 93. And I want to be retired longer than I worked. And I'll make that, I hope. I enjoy listening to people and their stories. 

What do you wish for the future of Bend?

Of course we're upset with the traffic because there's more people, but that's what growth is. My answer to that is I don't like to hear people say It used to be because we all take advantage of what it is now. When I first came it was 18,000 people - 28 years ago. We've grown a lot. We have a lot of musical things that we didn't have. I just hope it grows in cultural things. We have a lot of art that I may not understand, but I think it's good. And I hope Bend can continue growing in a very positive way.

Anything else you want to put on the record? 

No, I can't think of anything. I could tell you I've visited 87 countries. And I'm going to Sri Lanka. I thought if I took one trip a year that would satisfy me. But I got up to three big trips a year. In October I'm going to Sri Lanka. I was going to go to the Philippines on the way to Sri Lanka, but the State Department's put that under a watch country and I don't want to do that. Selfishly, it's hard to find a place I want to go next. I've been to India four times and, of course, that's kind of like India was and I really like it. But it's because of the people I met. I always have a good time, but it's always because of the people I met.

Do you travel alone?

Yeah. Most of the time. I went to Europe in '57 with four other girls. I can tell you lots of details about that trip. We drove a VW around. And I was the only one who knew how to drive with a clutch and so I did all the driving. And I had a good navigator. So we made it around those circles in Paris. And then I went in '59 with one other girl and we went on the train all over Europe. I've been to a lot of Third World countries. I really like Third World countries now. It's hard for me to go to other countries and see them misuse some of our money - our U.S. money. I went to Russia as an exchange person - when I lived in Bend, since I retired. It was fabulous. I stayed with a family, you know. You can ask me a country and I can tell you story (laughs). I like to travel. And I don't mind traveling alone. Because you're forced to meet people. And so when I came to Bend I knew this one couple. And I met some of their friends. And then I went to church because I was brought up that way and met people there. But that was a community, you know. People always ask me, How come you didn't get married? My standard answer is, Just lucked out! And there's no comeback. Everybody's surprised. And I say it in front of couples and nobody has anything to say when I say that.  

Megan Myers

I went to a local coffee shop with a friend and walked around to their porch to leave Pal (my dog) there while we ordered something to drink. Megan was sitting back there, reading. I let her know I would be back soon for Pal. She was immediately very kind and the three (or four, if you count Pal) of us chatted and chatted and chatted. Megan had been talking to people all day at Summer Fest, but was still gracious enough to entertain our questions about her and her art. I asked her to participate in this project and she agreed and, soon after, I had the privilege to meet her at her home where I learned that Megan is the genuine article. I doubt very much that there is a kinder or more genuine person out there, but if they exist, I look forward to meeting them. Be sure to look at her paintings. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of her soon. 

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Who are you?

My name is Megan Myers. I'm a native Oregonian. I'm an artist - I'm a painter. I'm a small business owner. An animal lover (laughs). Oh, and I'm a runner! Those are kind of my identifiers.  

Where do you come from?

I'm from southern Oregon. I'm from Medford. I grew up there - I went to high school there. 

What brought you to Bend?

Initially, what brought me to Bend is I was trying to get closer to my hometown. Because I left for college and moved to Seattle and that's where I spent my twenties and went to college and started my career there. I moved to Portland for a couple years after that. Me and my partner, Matt, decided to move to Bend mostly because of the outdoor access. We just sort of found ourselves here quite a bit because we loved running out here. And he's a mountain biker, too. We really wanted to live in such a beautiful place. And I think that's what brought us here, but what kept us here has been the people. We've been really fortunate to have built the relationships we've built here. Both of us just feel like we were really welcomed and we just have really, really cool groups of friends here now. I don't expect that we will be leaving. We love it here. Because southern Oregon, where I grew up, is so close to Bend, I spent a lot of time coming here when I was a kid and stuff. And culturally, I see a lot of similarities. When I started coming to Bend as an adult, it felt so familiar to me. And not just the part of the country or the part of the state, but like the way people treat each other here. The way people have pride in their work, but are still humble. I've just felt really at home. Like, in my heart of hearts, I've felt like Bend was where I was supposed to be almost more than where I grew up. But it echoes so much of the place that I grew up in. That something I love about it, too. 

What does community mean to you?

Community's a huge part of my life. It's very, very important to me. I would say that it's one of my core values to be a good community member and to be active in the community. Sometimes being an artist can be a really solitary venture, but I think the reason I'm an artist is so that I can use it to connect to my community. I spend a lot of time at festivals, having a booth or putting up art shows in businesses around town. And so I've gotten to interact with a lot of really interesting people here. Being a good member of the community is something that I just think is really, really important. What that means to me is being, first and foremost, mindful. So when I'm moving through my community, I try to be mindful of how my actions and behaviors can be affecting other people. I just try to make sure to be mindful of who's around me and what their values are. On top of that, living intentionally, so going beyond mindfulness and really trying to think, How can I make people's lives better when I interact with them? And that doesn't always mean a grand gesture, but you know. I think people in Bend are really good at this and that's been inspiring to me. So you say hello to your neighbors. You ask how they're doing. If you see someone that needs help, you offer to help them. You use a blinker in a roundabout. You let pedestrians pass through an intersection. Just kind of small acts of kindness, but to think that they might help improve the area you live in. Like, as I said before, when we first got here I felt really welcomed by different parts of this community. I felt really welcomed by the running community. People immediately started asking me to go on runs with them. Go to FootZone and join the group runs. I started feeling, just out of the gate, really supported by the art community here. Artists in town I didn't even know would reach out to me over social media or they'd come to an art opening and they'd offer to go out to coffee with me and talk to me about what I was doing and what they were doing. Offers to collaborate. I felt really welcomed by businesses who often wanted to collaborate or were just interested in what I was doing. And so they inspire me to be like that. Those people, right out of the gate, inspired me to want to welcome others. When you do that, you inspire people to be their best selves. And if they're inspired to be their best selves, they're going to be good community members because they feel connected to their community. I just have been really grateful. I know there are a lot of people moving to Bend and I know that it's really hard - that change is really hard for people. But we're all humans and I think if we're all treating each other with respect and generosity, it's kind of like the pay it forward or like, you know, the be the kind of change you want to see in the world. If you model the kind of behavior you want your community to offer, then I think that's the best way to teach people how to be a good citizen in their community. 

Well, I don't think there's a lot to lose from doing it. The worst thing that could happen if someone could kind of ignore you or shut you down, I guess. But I don't know what else - there's not really another repercussion of being friendly. What you can gain is so much more valuable because you can gain a real connection with someone and, you know, have a relationship. Or maybe learn about something you didn't know about. Or they can open your mind to new possibilities. 

What do you most look forward to here in Bend? 

Ohhh. It's so hard. I feel like I'm living in the present so much right now. I haven't thought so much about the future of it because I'm just so happy with how things are going. I always look forward to the different seasons just for different activities. Just being out in nature is a really big part of my happiness and who I am. And it also inspires so much of what I do for my artwork that it's nice to have the natural changes here. It's really visible when the seasons change and I really like that. I just look forward to see what other creative endeavors people are coming up with. There are really cool businesses opening. People just astound me with their ideas. There's like so many of these mobile boutiques and mobile coffee shops. I just like that people are thinking outside the box. And they're doing it because they want to live here and they want to make a living here. There's a lot of things that are enriching our community and I'm excited to see what people are coming up with. I think it's exciting. 

What do you wish for the future?

I just hope that my business keeps going. It's been doing really well here the last couple of years and it keeps kind of getting bigger. Yeah, I just hope that I can, on a personal level, keep it afloat and keep doing it full time. That's just kind of the dream. 

And on a community level, I'm hopeful for the future that the changes that are going on in Bend start to be embraced by people and not looked at as an obstacle. I understand that there are some problems, like with home pricing. And there's a lot of issues that fast growth and population cause, but I'm just hopeful for the future that our community will stay really strong. And because of that strength, be able to work together to solve those problems. And it won't become sort of an Us vs. Them kind of mentality here. I see little things, more online in little forums and stuff than in person, where I can just feel so much pain of people that are local. I feel so bad for them that they feel so negatively. I just hope that they can find a way to keep loving Bend and keep loving their new community members as well. That's something I hope for the future. 

Summer Robbins-Sutter

This story and my meeting Summer is kind of a dream come true in the timeline of this project. One of the things I hope is that people of this community will feel more connected to each other because of the stories they read here. Summer commented on the story of Brandon and then I reached out to her to ask her if she would like to participate. Despite this being her busy season, she made some time for our chat. During our interview, she talked about "that Backporch guy". She doesn't (or didn't) know him, but she continues to be influenced by his kindness a couple of times each week when she goes to get her coffee. Summer and I share a sensitivity to this world and its happenings and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at her studio with her and the ladies that work with her. 

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Who are you?

My name is Summer. I am an event floral designer here in Bend. We only do weddings. 

Where do you come from?

I come from a lot of places, but most recently I come from New Jersey. I've lived here for two years. 

What brought you to Bend?

A new life and a new lifestyle. We had children who we wanted to give a good life to and we didn't want to give them that life where we were living because we felt like it was too expensive. We didn't want our kids to be raised in a place where it was so fast paced and where they had to have a certain type of car and go to a certain type of school. We didn't want them to experience those pressures, so we moved here. And they love it. And we love it. 

I always knew about Bend because I used to be an avid rock climber and Bend is, obviously, right next to Smith Rock. But I always worked too much so I was never able to get a chunk of time off to come out to Smith Rock to climb. So Bend was always kind of in my head, but I never really knew enough about it. And then my husband's a skier and he's a mountain biker, so you know Bend is like in every mountain bike magazine. We came out to Portland because I had a job opportunity a few years ago. We loved Portland but it was so grey. I knew that I couldn't live in that much grey - I had to have a little bit of sunshine. So, we went out as far as Hood River, and they were like, Why are you guys here? Basically, we go to a bike shop everywhere we go because my husband's a bike dude. So we went to this bike shop in Hood River and we were just chatting up the guys there and they were like No no no, this is not where you guys want to live. Hood River's great and everything, but you guys want to live in Bend. Bend is really where it's at. So then, you know, the name comes up again and we were leaving the next day, so we really couldn't drive down to Bend, but that was kind of the spark. By that point we had one child and right after that I got pregnant with our second child. So, we had a list of places we thought we might want to live and I started doing the research on Bend. On paper it seemed like the perfect place. 

So, we moved here and it was, I swear to god, immediate. It was like immediate community, immediate welcome, immediate people wanting to partner with me and collaborate with me and support me and refer me (because this is a business which you can advertise all you want but if people aren't referring you, forget it, you're not going to do very well). And that's one of the reasons I love Central Oregon because we support our own, you know. I'm the same way. If one of us does well, then all of us do well. If somebody comes to me and hires me for flowers, one of the first things I do is ask them, Do you have a make-up artist? Do you need me to give you some ideas of other vendors that you might like? Do you have a photographer? Do you have a planner yet? I want to be as helpful as possible. I want to make sure that they have the best day that they could possible have, but I also want to make sure that I get to work with all these amazing people who are here in Central Oregon. I believe in community and I was so lucky that these people believed in me, too, right away. Because my business has grown so much within the last... you know I've only been here for two years and we just got a huge award. I couldn't have gotten that award if it hadn't of been for the other vendors voting for me. We are Oregon Bride magazine's Best Florist: Outside Portland 2017. That's pretty awesome. It's not just me that wins; it's all of us.  

What does community mean to you?

Support. Supporting each other, lifting each other up. Helping out whenever somebody needs to be helped out. There's so many people like that here, too. Why are you paying somebody to paint your house? I'll come over and I'll paint your house for you. I'll be happy to do it. Just give me a beer. People like that. That's what community means to me. We came from a place where there was no community. We always felt so alone even though we shared walls with people. And even though we were literally never alone. Here that's not the case. So, yeah, support, is probably my definition of community. 

Why is community important to you?

I feel like it's important to what I want for my lifestyle and what I want my kids to have for their lifestyle and my husband - for us as a family. I didn't really like being an island back when we were living in New Jersey. You know, I worked in Manhattan and it's just not fun to always be alone. It's important to really get to know people. I think that's the best part of being a human is connecting with other people. 

What do you most look forward to here in Bend? 

The fresh air. I really love that. I really love how sweet the air is here. You get used to it, so you don't really notice in when you've been here for a little while. But then it will rain and then you'll smell it again. That's something that when we first moved here we noticed right away. I was in the Lowe's parking lot and I was like, Holy shit, it smells amazing! This is so great! And then we went back east to visit family in November. We were in Hoboken, which is where we used to live and where our first son was born and I just remember driving into Hoboken, rolling up the windows, and being like Oh my god, there's so much smog and it smells terrible and our kids are ingesting this! I can't believe we were there giving that air to our kids for so long, but we were just used to it. And now that we're here, it's just, you know, lichen grows here. It doesn't grow in a lot of places - it has to have clean air - and it grows here. And that's super cool. So, yeah, I don't take that for granted at all. That's my favorite part. 

What do you wish for the future?

The community, I want it to grow gracefully. Because it has to. It's not going to get smaller. It's an awesome place. People should come here. People should live here. It attracts a certain type of person and the people that live here are awesome. And the quality of life is awesome. It's important for all of us to understand that. There are a lot of people who are pushing against that growth and there's no reason to push against something that is already happening. That will just drive you crazy. I really want this town to grow gracefully. The other thing I love about Bend is that there is an urban growth boundary. So, there's wilderness outside of this. And we can access that so easily. As long as we continue to respect that and respect all the beauty and all the natural things that are given to us here - without us even thinking about it. I think that grace part really has to come in. I hope for its growth, I really do. 

Personally, the work/life balance thing is something that I'm working through. I don't come from a lifestyle that had a work/life balance. Here in Bend, that is the culture. You work to live and not live to work. Having my own business, you know, I'm super committed to what I'm doing and I'm super committed to the people who work with me and to our clients, so stepping away from that and also being able to focus on my family a little bit more is what I hope for myself. I also hope that we can actually start growing stuff out here (laughs) and all the rodents stop eating it. I'd like to be able to support my business a little bit more with things that we grow. That's all about being new and figuring out what this climate is. Figuring out the desert and growing things in the desert, which isn't supposed to happen.

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

This town has always been growing. It's always been a boom town. Almost always. That's the thing that people, for some reason, don't realize or have short sight of. They're like, Well we've been here for so long and so we're the only ones that are authentic Bendites. This whole town, though, has always been new people moving in. It's always been like, Oh, Them and Us. It's always been like that. That's just the way this town is. I don't really encounter a lot of people that are like, Oh, you're new so we don't want anything to do with you. Everybody I meet is wonderful. Everybody I meet, I get that personal connection right away. That's one of the reasons I love this town is because of that personal connection. That's one of the reasons why we were drawn to this town. Because we came out here to look - to think this might be a great place for us to raise to kids; a much better place than where we came from. We wanted a better lifestyle. Go into the grocery store and people are talking to you. You're standing in line and they're striking up a conversation with you. And whether or not those people are from here or if they're tourists or whoever they are - it doesn't matter! It's like they're just really nice. And that's cool. And I work with a lot of tourists. Those are my customers. This town attracts a certain type of person and wherever they're from, they're just lovely people. It's that personal connection that I think this town really gives me. We moved here for that sense of community. For me it's been immediate. The community has been immediate. 

There are a lot of really smart people in Bend. We are going to have to figure it out. It's not going to be sustainable otherwise. My hope is that the right representatives get into City Hall and make the right decisions for the town. I feel like that's not happening right now. That's not a comment on I know how to do it better because I don't. I have to say I would never complain about the traffic because I come from places with real traffic. Even if I start to get a little perturbed about it being a little slower, I just look at the mountains and it's beautiful. This town is really special. I actually am really hopeful. I do think the infrastructure will improve. We're growing so quickly, it has to happen. When you come into town and you see that Welcome to Bend sign and it says 80,995 or something. I mean, that's not real. That's not a real number. The real number needs to be up there. And I think people need to come to terms with what that real number is, too. From the minute that we moved here I knew that was wrong. And that hasn't changed in the last two years and I meet people who have moved here yesterday, last week like every day. That number is swelling. We need to stop ignoring that. Sorry, I got on my soapbox a little bit (laughs). 

Bronwen Lodato

Dan McGarigle (interview from a few weeks ago) recommended a few choice people to me. Bronwen was one of them and I can absolutely understand why. After a couple of emails back and forth, we made arrangements to meet at her studio. We hit it off immediately and had a great chat while two of her assistants prepared for an upcoming trade show. Bronwen makes beautiful jewelry, which I highly recommend you take a look at. She's also a delightfully warm person. So, keep an eye out for her. And be sure to say hi when you do find her. 

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Who are you?

I am Bronwen Lodato. I am a free-spirited woman. And a mother. And a spouse. And networker of amazing women friends. And a small business owner. And a creative person that is lucky enough to be making a livelihood out of what's fueling me creatively right now. I'm a Bend girl. I'm an outdoor girl. I do a lot of outdoor things - it's a big part of who I am and who I have always been. That feels like a really true part of my personality and spirit. 

Where do you come from?

I was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but I grew up in Washington State. Just north, like six hours north, in Wenatchee, Washington. High desert, due north, in a little agricultural valley on the Columbia River. I grew up on a cherry orchard. My dad and mom had met another couple when my dad was in the Air Force - another Air Force couple - and the four of them just fell in love. Which is so rare, for all the chemistry of the four to be equally connected. And they were like We want to go homestead somewhere. Where are we going? So they went to Washington State and they bought two adjoining cherry orchards. The Parlette's ran their orchard and we ran our little orchard. There was a shared dirt airstrip - because my dad and the other gentleman were both pilots. I grew up with limited financial resources but crazy family connection and love and friend love and amazing experiences. 

What brought you to Bend?

Right after college, I started working for an outdoor school called Outward Bound and the base camp is here. It was Pacific Crest Outward Bound School at the time. Now it's Northwest Outward Bound because they kind of joined several Northwest schools. And I was interviewed and hired over the phone by a gentleman who is now my husband. I didn't know that at the time (smiling). That was 20 years ago. I came and worked for Outward Bound for several years, doing courses in the Three Sisters and on the Deschutes. It was less of a living in Bend kind of experience and more of a being really familiar with the natural and wild and scenic landscape and rivers and mountains here. We would do long courses - like 30 days, multi-element, half the time on the river, half the time climbing and mountaineering. We'd come into Bend for sushi when we were off course, but really I was at the base camp. Mike (my husband) and I were really good friends for those first two years and by the end of the second summer, we started dating, and decided to spend the off season in Bend. So, we got a little apartment here and I, you know, waitressed in a restaurant and worked as an ambassador at the mountain and just scrapped it together. I started doing a lot of yoga and doing a teacher training and that kind of thing. And got a living in Bend experience. We lived in this teeny little apartment. So then we left in 2000 and just came back a little over five years ago. Through this whole time we've been doing other things - living in Colorado and most recently in Berkeley. We never really saw living in Berkeley long term. We knew that we wanted to have a child and we knew we were not going to buy a house. It was so expensive. It was too busy. We just didn't see it. Through the years we would come back to Bend like every three or four years. Like, Do we want to go back there? We still had friends here that bought houses and had kids and started their whole lives here. Every time we'd leave we be like, Oh, we're not quite there yet. It's not quite ready yet. And then we had our daughter in Berkeley and after like one year we were like, We're out. Where we gonna go? Bozeman? Boulder? Bend? And it was just kind of obvious. My family's in the Northwest. His family is in the Northwest for half the year. It always felt like home. There's no other place that feels homey enough that we would pick up and move. And I felt like I could take my business - we're wholesale mostly - anywhere. I felt like I was going to be able to have the resources that I would need to get to kind of seamlessly - I had a lot of anxiety about it - slide in. I held so much anxiety about the move. I'll miss the farmer's market and the magnolias that bloom in February. How will I ever find an assistant as great as the assistant I have here? All of those stressors are the things I never should have spent half a second worrying about. From the moment that we got here it was just like, Oh yeah. Oh, definitely, yeah! Friends, everything was just right. It's just right that I'm here. 

What does community mean to you?

Everything. Pretty much. Really. For reals (laughs). It means that I am here, operating independently in my own space and conducting my life and my thoughts and my feelings and my work and I am completely buoyed and supported by this greater thing that is so very apparent and real to me here. It means that I have several other families that really know my child and love her and will care for her (and do) and will ask me to participate in things that are important to them. It's not even a question. It's just a feeling of wanting to stay plugged into this source, which is, essentially, a group of people choosing to be together and have a shared life. It's what I was missing in California. I grew up with it. I grew up with community, like really strong community. That was always really important to my parents and they created that for us. It's a familiar feeling, so when I haven't had it at times in my life, it's just a very obvious space. It's an empty space. I have it more than I've dreamed. It's so awesome. I would never choose to leave this community right now. Never say never, but... it's huge. If people say, What do you love most about Bend? that's what I'll say - Community. You start getting a shared history with people. Human connections are sort of boundless and they're all up to you - how deep you want to go with human connections and friendships and relationship? I love that people here are not afraid to connect. 

What do you most look forward to here in Bend? 

Summer (laughs). No, I have to say, I am a four season person, but I love three seasons more than one. That is to say, I love winter and I love it to last three. months. hardcore. Let's ski, let's do all the winter stuff! And now let's get spring! But I love to see the change because it feels cyclical to me and I like that. That's an important rhythm in my life. I grew up with four seasons, so I think it kind of comes back to that. It's the fall now, this the time when, naturally, you're just going a little bit more inward and you're kind of tucking in around yourself a little bit. I guess just how the four seasons, environmentally, kind of affect the interior, emotionally. I love the feeling of change. In life and in my heart. I really like change. That part is really great. You know, there are so many things that I do here outside that are just easy. Hopping on your mountain bike - it's an after work kind of thing. With friends or by yourself or with your partner or with your kid. I do like raising a kid here. It does come back to community. It feels nurturing. Bend is a place that supports you in your path. What are you doing? That's cool. Let's make that happen. And I have to say, not on a daily basis, but at least every other day, I catch myself feeling full and authentic gratitude for how pretty it is here. I still really feel that all the time. I'm not manufacturing this feeling of thankfulness (laughs), I actually really feel this! Whether I'm mountain biking or skate skiing or just taking a walk or if I'm watering the flowers on my porch. To not lose sight of that and not not notice those things. I am person who really holds dear and values beauty - aesthetic and natural beauty. It's important to me. It's my work. Having beauty around me is important. It's here. I totally resonate with the landscape here. 

What do you wish for the future?

Well, it is crazy, and I'm not one of the people that's grumpy about how quickly Bend is growing. Although, I have my grumpy moments. Really what I see and what I feel and what I like to participate in creating is I just want to retain the spirit of a small Bend - smallish, medium size. I totally like a medium size town. There's enough people to support you in your endeavors and your business - and they do - and yet it's small enough that community really feels possible and easy. I guess right now, one of my great hopes, however I'm participating in it, is that the planning for the changes of this town are taking into account, of course, my core values which I feel I share with the majority of the people that live here. To also be really open and say, You know, there are so many possibilities here. There's possibilities with change and growth and there's power in that and kind of collectively deciding which way to drive that. But I see staying here. I see my daughter graduating from high school and beyond. I see my life here. I don't know if I'm going to become a little old woman here or anything. I'm a super wide open person. But I sense and I feel that my work is strong and organically flourishing, creatively and financially - meaning all those things in a business sense. I see that continuing, for sure. I see my connections here continuing to broaden and deepen, which they are exponentially. It takes a little while to kind of hone in on who your people are. Everybody here is so kind and there are so many quality, great people here. Honestly, we have so many people coming into the studio... I've met so many of my friends because they're my customers. I'm like, Oh my god, yet again, another amazing lady! But you have to choose. If you're going to deepen this relationship, it's time. Opening and sharing and being willing to invest. That feels super abundant and time-constricted sometimes. (Laughs) What a great problem to have! I feel like there are so many quality people here that are so interesting that it's okay to have broad relationships with people and then kind of hone in on who's the little core that you're going to put right around you and invest deeply in those. You know, it's like concentric circles of friendships. I do see Bend continuing to support my happiness here. I'm really happy here. Super happy. 

People are so kind here. That's a thing that people say. I moved from California. Practically everyone I knew moved from somewhere. Most people have moved here from somewhere. I've had friends visit in the past two years that give all these examples of people being seriously, genuinely nice. It's so true. You notice when people are outwardly friendly. I'm Sicilian and (laughs) people are not outwardly friendly. It's a different thing. It makes you feel proud about your town. Seriously, people are really nice here. 

Marley Weedman

I like to deconstruct how I meet people and how things come about in life. For example, several days ago, I went to one of my favorite local spots - Good Dog - with my dog, Pal. We go there often and I try to walk a different route as often as possible just to keep things fresh. On this day, we ended up at a good swimming hole and I ran into Marley and her friend, Jenny. The three of us chatted while the dogs romped about and I learned that Marley has a rich history here in Central Oregon. She agreed to participate and we made some plans to meet at her place. Would we have met if I went left instead of right or if I had taken longer to chat with those other folks? Who knows? It's fun to think about. At any rate, I'm grateful to have met Marley. Here she is. 

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Who are you?

I'm Marley Weedman. I am a fourth generation Central Oregonian. 

What does that mean for you?

My great grandpa came on a Model T from Ohio. My family grew up in the Klamath/Chiloquin Reservation area on my grandmother's side. So she grew up over there. My great grandpa on my grandfather's side was the mayor of Prineville (laughs). And then we go way back, too. I'm related to a couple outlaws and all kinds of crazy. I was born in Portland. My dad's originally from the Camas/Longview area. So my parent's met in Portland and then they eventually came back when I was two. In these apartments we are sitting in right now, we lived here when I was a baby, just like four doors down (laughs). Yeah, so it's full circle. It's fun. There are certain areas that are more significant than others. Like, these apartments. When I think about home, I think about where I am right now. My grandparents just sold their house of 30 years that they built when my mom was in high school. So move-out date is in a couple of days. I've been trying not to think about that. It's weird. I need to expand. I've traveled, but I need to maybe live somewhere else. But I'll always come back here. 

What do you like about Bend?

I like my connection to every place. Like, every place here is not a street -- it's a landmark. Everything reminds me of something. I know it like the back of my hand, but there's always new things to find. You can drive any direction and there's a completely different landscape and it's beautiful. 

How do you feel you contribute to the community?

Well I can't go anywhere without someone recognizing me (laughs). I get stopped on the street, people asking if I'm Sue's granddaughter. I haven't seen you since you were this big (laughs). I work in a really highly trafficked area; I work downtown. So I'm forced to contribute every day. I have to show up and represent the community no matter what.

What does community mean to you? 

Supporting each other and the environment around us. Continuing to make connections no matter how insignificant they are. I think it's important to just be nice. Because you never know. I've had some really shitty days and sometimes the difference between a tragic ending and making it through the day is just because my barista befriended me or something. 

Were you raised with a strong sense of community?

I was, yeah. I grew up a competitive swimmer. I didn't have friendships, I had sibling relationships. You spend six hours a day with the same group of kids every day, you're kind of forced into a sense of community. And then it kind of expanded to different teams around Oregon because every weekend you're together. 

Do you have a favorite memory from here?

When I was in high school, the building above Thump used to be called The Poet House. Mosley Wotta started it and it was like a group of kind of significant artists in the community and they built this creative space for teenagers. We were walking through downtown the other night and the bars were crazy and I was like Do you remember when it was 1:00 in the morning and we were 15 and we were the only people downtown? ((Laughs) We used to go and hang out there all the time. There were concerts, there was spoken word - it was just like a fun opportunity for some of the kids that didn't fall into some of the other molds in the community. But, I miss that. It was really nice because it was a safe spot if you wanted to hangout. You could set up your easel or whatever. It was really fun. 

What do you wish for the future?

I'm struggling right now. I recently went through a major breakup. I've worked in the same spot for five years. So I'm struggling with kind of wanting to move away. So I'm hopeful that Bend can be left in hands where people are going to take care of it and nurture so that one day when I do come back - with my family, hopefully - it will be better than I left it. 

Do you have thoughts on Bend's growth? 

Someone came into the store who obviously hated the tourists and she was like Are you having an alright summer? Are the tourists being nice to you? And I said, Of course because I'm being nice to them. If people ask my opinion on moving to Bend, I'm going to tell them the winters are crazy. It's hard to drive in the ice if you don't know how. It gets hot. Like, I'll tell the truth, but I'm not going to discourage anyone. And I like to encourage people who care about the recreation and all the things that make Bend beautiful. I'd much rather have an expansion of people who care than angry people. Like, it just doesn't make sense. That's what makes it hard to live here right now, it's the opposing sides. 

A lot of the small town mentality comes with negative things like racism. It's crazy. All of Oregon was built on racism and sexism and it's a good thing that people are moving here. It's a good thing that more ideas are coming together. It's a good thing that gay people live here now. If I didn't grow up the way that I did, with open-minded parents, I would be like half the kids that went to my high school. My parents taught me to do unto others and to love people. Because everybody's going through something and it just doesn't make any sense to diminish anyone. It's stupid. People are always going to be assholes, but that's just too bad for them. (Laughs) If you can't wake up every day and be thankful - like I get to look out to wildflowers. That's awesome! Not everybody gets to do that. It's a different mentality, like you can just take a breath here. 

Brandon Harris

I went to grab some lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago.  Backporch Coffee Roasters was next door and closed, so we sat on their picnic tables as we ate. This super friendly guy came in and out of the coffee shop a few times, and we had a few small interactions. He was notably friendly, like nearly bubbling over with kindness and wore this giant smile the whole time. We'd traded small talk each time he went in and out. Then, on his way out for the last time, he gave my friend and me each a can of beer. "To lighten my load", he said, as he was about to pedal home. I called Backporch a few days later to attempt to track him down. They gave me the company email address, attempting to filter out the creeps. I wrote, explaining this project and my intentions. I soon got a text message from Brandon. We met again at Backporch for the interview and it was more of the same friendliness, positivity, and big smiles. Keep an eye out for this guy -- he'll brighten your day. 

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Who are you?

I'm Brandon. Brandon Harris. I was raised in raised in Texas, but born in Idaho, and now I live in Bend, Oregon. It's a pretty rad place. I really like being here. 

What brought you to Bend?

I'm a coffee roaster by trade. And a barista. And I knew that the business was thriving here. There are so many great coffee shops with so many great people that I just knew this would be a place where I could really thrive with my craft. And so, that's exactly what I'm doing. For the last year now, I've been doing that. (Big smile)

What do you like about Bend?

So many things: good beer, good music, meeting new people every day, all the coffee, cycling, being able to just hop on my bike and ride wherever I need to go, and then the mountains, you know, the great scenery outside of the town. And there's a hundred waterfalls I haven't checked out yet, either. I knew that coming here with coffee in mind as a job, everything else would follow suit. 

What does community mean to you?

I think community is supporting the common idea of just being good to one another and helping out in any way that you can. Whether that be getting somebody's latte because they forgot their wallet in their car, but there's a line and you know that it will back up, or just being nice in a roundabout (laughs) and letting somebody go instead of trying to steal the gap. There's a number of things that community can breed, too, and I think that the most important one is love for each other. And I think in this type of generation, this world we live in, there's a lot of bad. And it gets reported on easier than all the good, but I think this community, with everything between physical activities and professional chefs and professional beer brewers and coffee brewers, with all the like-minded people that fill in the community here, it's a really beautiful thing because that whole idea is moving forward. There's no competition here, that's the one thing I learned about when I moved here. There's no competition in the sense that the person down the street who also sells coffee isn't my enemy; they're just doing it in a different way than I do. And that's cool, to learn about something different, about how we do the same thing. You know? Everybody ties their shoes different, right? We all learned a different way and that came from something, but we still put our shoes on every day and go and serve the community. It's really cool. 

Honestly, when I got my first coffee job in Nacogdoches, East Texas, at a coffee shop called Java Jack's. I realized just how integral coffee was every single day, but also the tiny conversations that wrap up the transaction in a neat little bow. I mean, we're not pushing people through just to get them their drink. The person who comes up is not just their drink; they are a person. The saying goes that You could have the best coffee in the world, but if there's a jerk serving it to you, then it's not going to taste any good. But then you could have the worst coffee in the world, but if you've got somebody really nice and passionate serving it to you, it's going to taste like the best cup of coffee. So I learned about community through coffee, through those people who show up in the shop and they haven't seen each other in five years and they give each other a big hug and they go and sit down and they chat all day. You know? That's why coffee breeds love and community, because it's this thing you gather around. Such a small thing to gather around, but it brings everybody together. It's like a campfire, coffee's like a campfire, man; everybody sits around it, everyone talks around it, everyone stare's at it when they're thinking about something. You know? You consume it and it warms you. It's a beautiful thing and that's why I'm so interested in residing in this community for so long. I mean, I've only been here a year, but I don't see leaving. I've moved to a lot of places and none of them were with a damn compared to this. (Laughs) This is great! 

I grew up in a Christian home, so with that comes all of the people in your community that stick together and help each other move and go out for potlucks and things like that, you know. That's where it all began, really. I grew up in the suburbs of North Dallas and I mean just meeting up with friends on the block to go play games outside, kick the can, from that onto being in the church with my family and seeing just how family was formed and community and love in that way. And then kind of losing sight of that because I went all individualistic when I moved to college and then regaining that focus once I realized that coffee is this thing that really gets everybody going and everybody can gather around it. Knowing, too, that I'm a personable person and know that I can make a five-minute transaction seem like a great conversation, even though it's such a short amount of time — those are assets that I didn't ever see in myself until I got into coffee. Then I realized I could do that at the register and get great tips (laughs). But, of course, it's not for the tips. I realized that's an asset I have that not many people have and you can't train it, you can't teach it. If you're a personable person, you are, and if not, you're not. And that's okay. Someone's wearing a band t-shirt or someone's saying something about what they're about to go do - mountain biking, skiing — I've done enough things and I've gathered enough things in my life that I can be able to relate to them on a base level and, in that way, we become equal right then, for that second. That's another aspect of community that's so important. Coffee leads to community. 

I love roasting, especially on the new machine. Roasting is this scientific dance with the coffee because it starts as green and you put it into this 460-degree machine and, with what I've picked up along the way, it's amazing to know that I have a muscle memory of sorts in my mind about what numbers to hit at what time. And so I love roasting because it's this dance I'm doing trying to keep the bean going on a smooth path without getting too low in temperature or too high in temperature because both of those will become detriments to the coffee. Whether it be slowing it down to create body or speeding it up to create acidity or knowing that after the turn around, up until the first crack, there's the sugar-browning phase and things like that. Just knowing those things keep me coming back, wanting more. Every roast is different, too. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I've always been a patient person, so if I have to sit in traffic it's just more time I get to myself. That's more time I'm not concerned about anything else. It's more time I'm just sitting with myself. So, for me, it's fine. I see a ton of people talking about Californians or it's too busy or it didn't use to be this way 20 years ago, but I feel like there's no positive progression that comes from those type of thoughts and then you're only highlighting yourself. And then when you're highlighting yourself, you're not thinking about anybody else. And then you're not thinking about community. You're not thinking about these things that brought you here in the first place. It's a beautiful thing to have people move here. I moved here. You moved here. People who talk about Californians probably moved here at some point in time. It's like if you didn't vote, you don't have an opinion. Right? So, if you weren't born here, then, I mean, you really don't have the right to say those types of things. Everybody has the right to their own opinion, truly, but man, keep it to yourself if it's negative. It only takes a tiny rock to create a ripple and one of those days, that ripple is going to reach the shore, whether we see it or not. And if kindness does that, that's great. But if hatred does that, then what kind of shore are we hoping to land on eventually? The aspect of not wanting more people to be somewhere that's so awesome is really selfish. These aren't my mountains, these aren't my bike lanes. I have my own things, I have my own life going on. If somebody's willing to speak negative towards anybody else, then they should probably just open their eyes and see what's around them truly before they decide to speak. 

People are busy here. Time is money here. People get tunnel vision. They don't see the reason they moved here anymore because they're so jaded by maybe their mundane routine. Maybe they're not getting out enough. I tell you what, you go hike to the top of Pilot Butte, you don't think about anything. You don't think about anybody who moved here because you're doing something for yourself and you're also letting your mind unwind. But if you spend your whole day behind a desk and then the rest of your free time thumbing through Facebook and then you get home to the person that you sulk with and that's all you guys do, then, those type of people, I really wish they could somehow break that mundane, everyday thing. And not with alcohol, either. With some sort of - go ride a bike. Tourists are going to be here. This is a beautiful town, it's a tourist town. It's just how it's going to happen. Maybe people see other larger cities and their problems and think it's gonna happen, but we have a great local government. 

What is the main issue behind there being more people somewhere? It's not like a lack of resources exists in our culture anymore. We're not barbarians. We have all the water, all the beer, all the weed, all the food we could ever use. So what really is more people? It's just traffic. Or waiting in line to get the good you want. But if you're at a place worth waiting in line for, then the line isn't even the issue. You know? You're at a place you have to stand in line for, that means that good is of high commodity. Like coffee, people wait in lines for coffee 10 minutes, 15 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes because it's good. And it's worth waiting for. Even driving on these awesome roads and seeing a cyclist pass you and you're still waiting in your car, you're waiting to get to a good thing. You're home in this great place — Bend. 

What do you wish for the future?

For myself I just want to get better at coffee, start taking more time for myself and not focusing on how other people view me. There's a certain issue I've had in my life about inadequacy. And I don't think I'm inadequate by any means, but sometimes, you know our culture is driven to comparison, right? You can see it everywhere. You can see how someone would compare themselves to another and feel inadequate and I think that I've fallen trapped in that. Especially coming from North Dallas, which was very rich. It didn't use to be, but when I left, it was very rich and was very vanity-driven. One of my goals is to continue pushing myself harder and harder within coffee, within my friendships — how can I be a better friend, how can I be a better person to everybody? And also within my physical activities — how far can I go on my road bike, which route am I going to do next when I go climbing? Money's not really a goal for me. I have enough. I save enough. I can take care of people when they need it and then I can take care of myself when I need it. I've never been in a place where that's been a thing. That used to be my goal — to make more money. But now I make enough to where I have some leftover after everything's taken care of and I can take care of others with it or myself. Now my goal is just to get stronger, become happier, serve my community better, get better at coffee. 

I hope that for the community that folks can see that we are in a great place and that you'll feel a heck of a lot better caring for someone else or going out of your way to help someone else than you will about sulking about how you're inadequate. Or feeling regret because you didn't do something. Everybody's had that day off where they wish they would've gone out and done something. Or like as a young kid, you wait in line for a roller coaster then you freak out at the last moment and you wish you would have gone. Because it was scary. But getting out there and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone leads to growth and leads to someone being able to teach someone else how to go and do that same thing. There's a number of people I've introduced to climbing and they're climbers now. And it's amazing. 

That's another thing, I want to be a better teacher. I think I'm pretty good now, but I think I can get so much better. So much more tactful with the way that I might tell somebody that they're not doing something right. Because it's usually in a busy condition and I don't want to come off as rude, but how else do I tell somebody besides telling them point blank? There's a way to do that that I could get better at as well. A number of goals - drink more water, you know? (Laughs) 

Dan McGarigle

I came across Pine Mountain Sports because I drive by there on my way out to the adventure lands on a daily basis. Then, I had some friends come to town who needed to rent mountain bikes, and I thought of that shop. Every person in there has been super kind and they do really great work. The whole place has a sense of quality and fairness and friendliness. It's a great reflection of this town. I kept meeting this guy, Dan, who was just so kind and sincere. I eventually asked him to participate and, without hesitating even for a second, he agreed. I later found out that he owned the place. With a boss like this, it's easy to understand why the rest of the staff is so friendly. 

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Who are you?

Dan McGarigle. I own Pine Mountain Sports here in Bend, Oregon. 

Where do you come from? What brought you here?

I'm originally from South Bend, Indiana. Then I moved to Bend, really, on luck. I was supposed to move to Portland. The guy I was going to move to Portland with actually got a housesitting job in Bend for the summer of 1995 and I've been here ever since. 

What do you like about Bend?

Love of life, great community, accessibility to the outdoors, great place to be a dad, great place to raise a family. Just, you know, being spoiled rotten to lay it out honestly. Why would you ever leave a place that spoils you as much as this place does? It depends, I guess, on your view of life and your priorities, but overall, I don't think I was supposed to be this lucky to actually live in a place that fits my needs as well as this place does. I just feel really fortunate to be here. 

What does community mean to you? 

Long story short, where we, especially these days, we follow headlines, we turn on the news, we're bombarded by media from all over the world. I don't believe that those things actually affect us as much as the community around us - how we engage it, how it engages us. They say, think globally, act locally. You know, you can paraphrase it anyway you want, but ultimately, the community that you keep is a huge influence on the quality of your life. You know, Bend's got a great community. Right now, you know, it gets pushed and pulled on a little bit just because of growth and so many new people moving to town, but I really do believe that Bend still is one of the greatest communities in the country. It is as much intoxicating as the accessibility to the outdoors and the lifestyle. You can have those things, but if you've got a dysfunctional community or a community you choose not to participate in, you're missing out. There's that whole other set of resources on why people choose to live here. 

My mom was always heavily engaged in her profession, as far as health care and volunteering and being involved with community efforts and things along those lines. Seeing that as an example as a child, it really had a profound impact on me as far as who I am as an adult. I don't really think that the community I grew up in was as engaging and as active as the one in Bend is, but taking that influence and bringing it with me and making that part of who I am, who Pine Mountain Sports is, that's only helped me live the life that I want to live. My mom gave me the tools, that when I did find the community I wanted to be involved with, to get in. To make an impact. To do the things you want to do. To not listen to the people who tell you No, you can't or Nobody does that. We just do what we want to do. Between the community and Pine Mountain Sports, we have a great vehicle. We can actually get a lot of stuff done, which is awesome. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

I would tell you that I don't prescribe to it, personally. I don't understand it. These days things are so touchy and to tell people, Hey, you're from a certain area. You can't move here. That sounds like a big picture thing we're hearing right now. That's not the community that I want to participate in and, more importantly, that's not the community that I'll ever believe that Bend is. Because, simply put, that's not me. That's not my friends. That's not something that I think Bend is or want it to be. You know, I was here first? Come on, that's like the lamest excuse in the world. (Laughs) But I do understand where people are coming from. The direction that I share with people is that if you don't like the way that certain people are acting in the community, or that you believe that the community is going, the only way to keep the community the way you want it to be is actually to be the community that you want it to be. And that means that we, as the people who want Bend to keep the character that it has, the small town feel, the expectations of one another, whether it's treat each other in a certain manner or participate at a certain level, it's up to us as every individual inside it, to be that. If we choose to use other people's direction as ways to allow it to waiver from our own, then that's on us. That's not somebody else's fault. That's on us for changing the way that we view the community that we live in. Because somebody new moved here? It's more so, When in Rome. What we preach as longstanding members of the community, as a small business, as the culture of the outdoor community here in Bend - what preach is what people will follow. You have to believe that. Because you can't beat into people what you want them to be. That just doesn't work. And you can't think lesser of them because they aren't quite used to participating in a community like the one we envision. So, anytime I hear people complaining about the way that things are changing, my constant reminder to them is, Well then don't let it. Then represent what you want our community to be. That's the best way we're going to keep it that way. I honestly believe that a lot of the new people that are moving to Bend are moving out of bigger areas, and I'm sure some people aren't, they come to Bend because of a couple things. As much as it is like for myself, the outdoors and the accessibility, the other portion is that I believe that most of those people want that sense of community. And whether they're so far removed from it they don't know how to participate in it or they simply don't understand everybody's vision for living in Bend, then that's our opportunity to show them. I really do believe that most people move here because it's a departure from the place where you didn't know your neighbor and everyplace looks the same and everyplace is crowded. Yes, that's beginning to happen a little bit here. We're getting a little bit busier. But also, in the big picture of things, it just comes back to that same philosophy of If you don't like what you see, then be something different. Show people how they're expected to participate and be involved and treat each other in the community and they will. If they don't, that's their choice. And your not going to change people. You can teach people anything, but changing them is very difficult. That's my philosophy about it: Hey you don't like what you see? Well then don't be it. Let people know this is what you want to see. Tap somebody on the shoulder and say, Hey, you know, this is our community. This is what we do here. The biggest thing I do, I just urge everybody that I can to get involved with nonprofit volunteer work and setting that precedent for Bend being the Bend that you want it to be. It really is up to us to dictate what we want our community to be. 

Do you have a favorite activity? 

My favorite recurring activity, as silly as it sounds, it's every year. It is every year I look forward to Oh man, bike season's rocking, we're having a bunch of fun! We're going camping, we're fishing, we're doing this, we're doing that. It started snowing. Let's go skiing. And then, before you know it, as you get tired of skiing or you get a little skied out and weather starts changing, it's spring again. I'm pretty much so stoked for every year that comes around because there's always something to do, there's always something fun out there. I see how my friends that don't live here, how my family that doesn't live here, I see how their lives can be. Ours is a little more exciting. We have some fun. The accessibility that we're afforded in Bend is even unmatched my very few outdoor communities. I don't take it for granted. We're pretty darn lucky. I just feel like a big kid! 

What do you wish for the future?

The biggest thing that I hope for the future, as silly as it sounds, is to be a great dad. Have a strong family. Love my wife. Keep that sense of really the three things that are the most important to me right in front of me - to stay focused on that. When it comes to our community, the biggest thing is how much Bend grows, how much it changes, I have no control over that. And none of us as individuals do. As much as we want to talk about We should build a wall around the place or we should just shut off 97 and lock the place down. That's not realistic. What is realistic is actually setting the example. We're going to grow. Yeah, by the time I leave Bend or if I die in Bend, Bend's gonna be 150,000 people. I can't stop that. I can do a lot of things, but I can't stop that. What we've been afforded by building Pine is that it gives us a stronger voice in the community than most. And because it's a small business, we can use it for anything we want to do. If we want to host community events, we can do that. If we want to promote a sale, we can do that. But also, if we want to set an example for what we want Bend to be, how we foresee the Bend community growing and how we can influence it, that's one of the great things about Pine. We've got a great crew here. All of us, I think, believe in these same things - of growth and expansion. We see new customers in the store literally every day saying, I just moved to town. And we're stoked for them. Because of Pine being simply a small business in a small town, it's got a voice. And we can use that voice for a lot of things. As soon as Pine stops being a resource for this community, beyond bikes and skis, we'll close up shop. That's really not who we'll be. But also, because of it, we get this vehicle. It is a spoil to have it. Because we can help whoever we want to help. We can promote what we want to promote. And we can set an example for people to follow. And it's a very visible one. That's kind of what I'm hoping for the future, is that Bend can hold onto its character and its qualities even though the quantity is going to get larger and larger. That's me. 

Marlene Alexander

I heard of Marlene through Arden and her mom. They spoke very highly of Marlene and I was hoping she would want to participate in this project. It turns out that she did and Marlene invited me to her studio. I went over during Arden's class and observed for about an hour. It was such a privilege to be there! Marlene has a very calming presence and I can imagine her influence stays with her students for their entire lives. In addition to teaching these children, she founded the arts program at St. Charles Hospital here in Bend, manages the Arts in Care Gallery, and gives talks for the National Association for Arts in Health. If you'd like to see some of her work you should make your way to the Oxford Hotel during the month of June.

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Who are you?

Hi there. I am Marlene Alexander. I am a children's art teacher, painter, musician, and anything else I want to be. 

Where do you come from? What brought you here?

I'm from Missouruh (Missouri) and my husband was actually born in Astoria, Oregon, but came back to Missouruh. His father was on a Navy ship in Astoria and then they came back to Missouruh where I met him in high school, actually. Then he ran track for the University of Missouruh and then joined the Navy after that and became a pilot. And he was a Navy pilot in Vietnam. I graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design. Then I became a stewardess for United Airlines. And he was on R&R in Hong Kong and called and said, "Hey, can we get together?" I hadn't seen him for a year. And we got together. And six months later, we were engaged. And he decided he wanted to come back to Oregon, where he was born, and I'd flown in and out of Portland quite a bit, and he wanted to go back and get his Master's in Journalism at the University of Oregon. We landed in Bend in 1970/71 for a job at the Bulletin. Because Bob Chandler found him at the U of O in the journalism school and liked him and here we are, still in Bend. 

How do you contribute to the community?

My huge passion is my children's art school, which I call Creative Arts. I started the school in 1976. I had been a member of the Art in Public Places, so while we were meeting (this is the group that does the sculptures in the roundabouts) several of them said, "Why don't you start those classes you want to start?" And I said, "I think I will." And I did, right here in this room. I just, as an artist with a love for young people and wanting to make strong creative citizens for the future, thought, I'm going to start my classes. And it's just been great. I haven't advertised. Most of the kids stay with me until they're too old to come back. And here I am, still doing it. And I love every minute of it. I get a card every year when I start in the fall from my husband that says, "You've never lost your passion yet for those children." And I haven't. One of the beautiful things is that usually I have every year one or two of my former students that come back to be my assistants. They know how I think, how I feel, and they just pitch right in because they've been here as a student. I not only have my students directly here in class, but I stay in touch with them and they stay in touch with me. And we've just clicked forever, most all of them. And I hear from most all of them all the time. 

So the kids come back and they help me and I hear from 'em. And I hear from their parents. I do art history with the students as well and so many of them travel with their parents and the parents always tell me that they'll know a Gauguin, they'll know a Van Gogh, they'll know the title of it, and the parents will say, "Tell me! Teach me!" 

I've never ever, that I can remember, been too tired to come into my studio and work with the kids. They just lift me up immediately. If I was tired, I'm not tired when the kids get here. It just goes away. I feel real fortunate. I feel blessed to love what I do. 

The closeness of this is really rare and every one has thanked me for this creative background. It doesn't matter what field they go into. Several of them are doctors now. A couple of them are lawyers. Some of them are artists. It doesn't matter to me what field they're going to go into because what I work on are developing early on their senses and their creativity and their out-of-the-box self, sometimes to move forward with some creative thoughts. No matter what the field is, you still need some creativity. I think I've given it to most of 'em and they all appreciate it and know it. It warms my heart to know that I've made a difference. Making a difference with the kids that are your future. It's sad that I won't probably be around to see every single one of them, what they do. That's hard to think about sometimes, but I know they'll do well. 

What do you wish for the future?

I don't have any desire to retire from teaching. I love it. I used to teach watercolor at the college for the community ed. I've given a lot of talks up there. I'm just not interested in retiring. I'm interested in staying creative. I want to keep painting forever and keep showing my artwork. And stay active. Stay active with my family, with my grandkids, and the other kids that I know. I just have no desire to stop everything. It just means so much to me to do this. 

Another passion is my arts in healing, which is to me, all the same. Everything I have passion for and am compassionate for are all the arts, which are all, to me, the healing arts. Whether it's good or bad, the art touches somebody. That's important to me. My paintings, I hope, touch somebody. Whether it's negative or positive, they've talked about 'em or they've looked at 'em. I like that. I like being productive with the arts. And sharing it, I guess. 

I don't see anything changing much in my future. I still like to cross country ski and bike and I shoot competitive pool. I play music, you know, I play my bass. I've just got a lot of activities. I feel fortunate to have them all. I can't imagine not having those. 

I know what works with these kids. And I know how important it is to me and to them to get to know each one individually. I don't look at it as just a class. I really know each one in here. And that's important because I can tell when one's having a hard day or one's really happy and I get really sensitive to that. 

David Young

Garret Caster recommended I connect with David. I spent most of May on the road, so it took a little longer than I planned to connect, but we finally met at his house and chatted for a little while on his back porch in the company of his dogs and the peeping baby birds who provided a lovely background chorus. David and I share a number of things in common (we are similar in age and appearance, share a life outlook and philosophy, and speak in a rather matter of fact manner) and it was refreshing to connect with him over those points. David's got irons in a bunch of different fires. Keep an eye out for him and say hey when you find him. I get the impression he'd be glad to say hi and throw a smile your way. 

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Who are you?

David Young, Bend native, 35 years old, married to an awesome lady named Erin Young. She's a teacher over at Miller Elementary. I currently own Bend Event Sound, which is an event DJ company. We provide services for Central Oregonians looking for their music and PA (public address) needs. I also am a marketing manager at a local digital marketing company. Yeah. I have a couple other companies, too, but they're just getting off the ground. 

Where do you come from?

I'm from Bend, actually. I was actually born in Colorado. My wife was born in Bend. But I grew up here ever since I was knee-high to a duck. So I have a lot of roots in this community. After having left, I am back now. Been back for about five years. I went to school in Seattle. 

What does community mean to you?

Community is everything. I believe that we have a strong sense of community in Bend specifically. I lived in several other big cities and I've made a lot of good friends and met a lot of good people, but since this is kind of home to me, it has a little bit more meaning. Community is important for a multitude of reasons. It kind of encompasses a whole lot of things. When you say community, it's such a broad term, but I also feel like when I go out in public, even today with my wife, we're more than likely to see someone we know, which is awesome. Always seeing a friendly face. Just having established connections in this wonderful town where we're able to reach out if we need help or if someone needs us to be a part of something or help moving or just however that looks. 

I used to sit on the board for the Bend Community Center and I helped with their senior projects, the food projects, the firewood projects, and stuff like that. Once I had a kid, I had to step down from the board just because it was too much of a time commitment for the new responsibility that I had. Just having your face and having your presence out there and letting people know that you're involved from an integrity standpoint and a personal standpoint has always been super important to me. Even when we were little with my family. We were raised in that way. We would always volunteer down at the Community Center, where I ended up working and being a part of for a little while. My dad would take us down to the Pilot Butte Nursing Center during Christmastime and we'd sing Christmas carols and stuff like that. 

Do you have a favorite memory from here?

I don't think it's legal to go there anymore, but Skyliner, which is where the first ski hill was, towards Tumalo Falls, used to be the sled hill. And when it would snow there was a pretty intense black diamond-ish sled hill. But it was littered with people always just because it was such a kick-ass spot to be at. Going sledding there during the winter times and then doing the PPP (Pole, Pedal, Paddle) when we were super little. Just being on the team with all my little friends, when we were like in 5th or 6th grade, was really cool. 

Do you have thoughts regarding Bend's growth?

Hey, they're most likely leaving a situation they don't want to be in. So everyone's welcome to experience what we grew up with that we took for granted, essentially. Having lived in different cities and traveled so much, bring 'em on. What are we going to do, say no? Just having a bad attitude towards it is not going to solve any problem at all. I can tell you that the infrastructure of Bend is not made to handle the amount of people that are here, but it will work out some way. So, learn to take the back roads. 

What do you wish for the future?

Freedom. I'm coming under some new philosophies as I mature and get a better grasp upon how I see things in the world. Being free doesn't essentially mean having millions of dollars, it means having next to no debt. There is a minimalist-type approach to my life as of late that is super healthy for me. Those kinds of philosophies are super important. That relieves stress which helps you focus on things that are in front of you, which helps you become more present, which helps you become a more engaged human being on a day-to-day basis. Instead of stressing about bills or stuff or anything like that. The freedom to do what you want when you want and just chasing after what you're truly into. It's just a series of asking yourself questions on a daily basis and being on yourself because, if you don't, autopilot kicks on and you're just going to become like everybody else. 

I think the community of Bend as a whole, so far, is doing a really good job. That's my personal take. With all of the concerts and events and pub crawls and 5k's and marathons and cycling events and beer events and all that kind of stuff, there's a pretty community-driven effort, for sure. 

Anything else you want to put on the record?

Stop wishing, start doing. Decide and execute. 100%.