Carol:

Corn Cross for the kids was a huge success. We had over 120 kids and 80% of these kids are ages 2-16 that came from Sandy. The kids course was longer this year with more time in the corn maze. Thanks to Coach Robbie with his skills and bringing his obstacles and air bags, the kids were challenging themselves on these fun obstacles. This was the first year Northwest Trails Alliance came to be part of Corn Cross. They gave out medals to all the kids. Parents were so excited to have the kids go through the maze and have it more challenging. Everfresh & CCB were our sponsors for this event.

Finishing up on sponsorships for Winterfest events. So far, we have $11,000 raised. We have some new sponsors like Wegener Travel and Cruise and other businesses changed their sponsorships to higher levels.

Amy:

Held a softball umpire meeting to learn from the 2024 season and make changes for the 2025 season.
Facilitated a volunteer day in the Sandy Community Gardens with the Sandy Rotary Club.

Coordinated for a Master Gardener to present in the Sandy Community Gardens about Fall and Winter gardening. Hosted a volunteer work day in the gardens after the Master Gardener finished her presentation and Q&A. 

Assisted with Kiddie Cross at Liepold Farms.

Held an outreach booth for an event at the Library. 

Hosted an Insect Hunt in Meinig Park with an OSU Naturalist. 

Began instructional league classes for the Mt Storm Basketball league (about 50 children enrolled). 

Opened registration for the 3/4 and 5/6 grade Mt Storm Basketball league. 

Opened registration for the 2025 season of the Community Gardens. 

Distributed Fall Recreation Guides. 

Started promoting the #Leavetheleaves campaign in Sandy!

Caroleana:

September went by way too quickly.   

Caroleana had over 280 senior related calls.   This month the center had 8 new MOW clients; which involved home visits with each client and a completed NAPIS form for Clackamas County.   Caroleana further offered and assisted each household with other available resources. 

Caroleana helped support our team by packing coolers and delivering several routes for meals on wheels.  

She also went on a hike with the seniors to Troutdale’s Blue Lake Park.  It was a beautiful day and the bus was full.  

The summer cooling Energy Assistance program ended this month.  Caroleana completed and submitted 6 applications. 

Started on a Legal Aid Clinic letter and intake paperwork.  

Starting to plan and meet with Jolie at Mt Hood Hospice for the Veterans event in November.  

Attended several online trainings that helped enhance my job skills and knowledge base on local community resources in Clackamas county:

• Self neglect Training- which was very helpful and insightful.  Assessing a client’s capacity to understand choice 
• Elder Abuse & Domestic Violence training learned about Adult protective services-  adults have autonomy and can make their own decisions 

Learned many helpful facts and resources for this hard topic.  There are 4 protective orders in the state of Oregon to protect individuals who are experiencing or have experienced abuse.  

September Events: 

Mt. Hood Hospice Class unfortunately no one attended.  

Legal Aid classes – Scam Prevention well attended by 6 community members.  

Marc:

TRIPS

– Dine out at Old Spaghetti Factory in Clackamas – 12 people

– Mt Angel Oktoberfest – 13 people

– Hike & Lunch at Blue Lake Regional Park and Troutdale Station Food Carts – 12 people and Caroleana

– Spirit Mountain Casino – 10 people 

– Dine out at Busters BBQ in Gresham – 10 people with 3 meeting us there

– Hike & Lunch at the Clackamas Community College Trail Loop and Lil’ Cooperstown in Oregon City – 10 people and Carol

Meals on Wheels:

– approximately 1053 meals delivered in September

– covered one of the routes for one of our volunteers

Chelsea:

• Processed invoices related to various park projects. 
• Attended meetings in regards to various ongoing park projects
• Took and recorded meeting notes for ARC’s work at Cedar Park 
• Shopped for refreshments for Meinig Park’s Open House and helped set up for the event. 
• Joined the Parks & Trails advisory board for a tour of Cedar Park 
• Participated in Cedar Park’s sign plan meetings. 
• Attended an inclusive play seminar
• Received an official close out notice for the Bluff Dog Park Grant. Reimbursement will be coming in October. 
• Received and filed a signed agreement for Deer Pointe Phase two. 
• Submitted highway banners for manufacturing. 
• Assisted John with building a webpage for Meinig Park Improvements and participated in meetings about it. 
• Recorded survey responses for Deer Pointe Park’s survey #2. We ended up getting 35 responses!
• Ordered food and helped set up for our Team’s quarterly all staff meeting.
• Drafted various signs and publications for upcoming Parks & Recreation needs. 
• Booked the caterer for the Senior Thanksgiving Luncheon at the center.

John:

Open House for Meinig Park Upgrades
In September, we successfully hosted an open house to discuss the proposed upgrades for Meinig Park. During this event, I provided educational insights and detailed explanations regarding potential enhancements to Fantasy Forest. To complement the in-person open house, we developed an online survey to capture a broader range of public feedback.

Educational Training on AI in Recreation Planning
As the RSS/SPRINT Section Leader for ORPA, I played a key role in developing and leading an educational training session on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance recreational planning. The virtual training had approximately 20 attendees, indicating strong interest in this innovative approach.

Clackamas County Quarterly Meeting
I attended the Clackamas County quarterly meeting, where we discussed the upcoming budget in relation to OAA funding. We focused on strategies for allocating these funds among the various Clackamas County Senior Centers.

Planning for Winterfest
Collaborating with Tiana, I contributed to the planning and development of our Winterfest experience. Our primary objective is to incorporate sound and music throughout the park during December while also introducing large-scale, attention-grabbing features.

Tour of Fresh Water Treatment Plant
I had the opportunity to utilize our Recreational Vehicle to conduct a tour of the fresh water treatment plant for our elected officials, enhancing their understanding of our facilities and operations.

Parks & Facilities Team:

Upcoming Dates:

Mt. Storm registration for grades 3rd -6th is now open!
Open Gyms and skill assessments for Mt. Storm in November.

October 2nd- an OSU Naturalist will be leading a Full Moon Hike at Sandy Bluff Park from 7-8pm. We will be hunting and learning more about bats in honor of International Bat Week.
3.

October 3rd- from 6-7pm we will be having a “Creepy Crawlers” insect presentation. Drop by to get up close and personal with a variety of bugs!

October 8th- Mt Hood Hospice class 

October 10th- Drop by the Sandy Community Center on Thursday, October 10th from 6-7pm to listen to Dr. Graham Frank discuss the affects of forest fires on our local ecosystem. Graham is a forest ecologist at OSU studying how the biodiversity in our forests respond to disturbances in the environment, and he’s excited to share his knowledge with our community! This event is hosted by Sandy’s Bee City USA Action Group. For more information about this event and the Action Group please call (503) 668 5569. We hope to see you there! 

October 22nd- AARP Safe Driving Class

October 25th- Halloween Egg Hunt 

November 8th- Veteran’s Event:

November 22nd- Annual Tree Lighting at Centennial Plaza

Carol:

August finished up with the last concert, Jennifer Batton & Full Steam. The concert
brought in close to 350 people and the last movie Kung Fu Panda 4 had over 50 people. Our food and alcohol vendors were very busy at the last concert. Total donations from the 50/50 raffle for all 3 concerts was over $600. The second concert was a fundraiser for shop with a cop and SPD was able to walk away with over $400 because the winner donated all of the money back.
I9 Camps finished up in August and we had a total of 50 kids during the summer.

Amy:
– We had another good year of Movies and music in the park

– Final co-ed softball tournament happened August 10th and 11th.

Amy hosted her first Sunset and Full Moon Hike at Tickle Creek with the help from an Oregon Naturalist from the OSU extension office. This hike was focused on learning more about our nocturnal pollinators. During the hike, the group was able to see many native Oregon plants, pollinating insects, and plenty of bats! 

– Held a Summer Bee City USA Action Meeting

-Assisted with the Volunteer Appreciation Party held at Meinig Gazebo.

-Organized 2 Volunteer Work Days, 1 which donated 22 pounds of fresh produce to the Sandy Action Center and the other was a volunteer day assisted by the Sandy Rotary Club.

Caroleana:

August was a full month with some hard aspects of the job which took place.   

Caroleana had over 332 senior related calls.   This month the center had 5 new MOW clients; which involved home visits with each client and a completed NAPIS form for Clackamas County.   Caroleana further offered and assisted each household with other available resources. 

Caroleana helped with several Meals on Wheels routes this month; route #1 and route 3. 

Caroleana continued to make calls and schedule appointments for the summer cooling Energy Assistance program.  She completed and submitted 12 applications. 

Caroleana helped the team with flyers and advertisements for rec events.  She also helped at the summer concerts.  She helped with the National Night Out with Sandy Police and shopped and prepared the yummy ice cream sandwiches.  

She helped with the planning and implementation of the Volunteer Appreciation Event at Meinig Park.  Specifically I put together 5 baskets as prizes for the event with Carol.   She volunteered with Mt. Hood Hospice and attended the Time of Remembering event also at Meinig Park.  

Starting to plan and meet with Jolie at Mt Hood Hospice for our Veterans event in November.  

Events: 

Mt. Hood Hospice’s Class on Empathy in Action well attended by 3 community members

Embold Bank financial class had a class scheduled for August 20th & unfortunately no one attended. 

Legal Aid classes for the end of summer on the last Tuesday in Aug was well attended by 6 community members.

  

Marc

SENIOR TRIPS:

-Dine out at Applebee’s in Gresham – 9 people with 3 meeting us there

-63rd annual Junction City Scandinavian Festival – 10 people

-Hike & Lunch at Kelly Point and Panera Bread – 11 people and Amy joining us

-“Putt Putt” (Mini Golf) at the Aerie at Eagle Landing in Happy Valley with lunch at the Happy Valley Station Food carts after – 9 people with 3 meeting us there

-Dine out at Nicholas in Gresham – 11 people with 3 meeting us there

-Hike & Lunch at Shadow Ridge Trail and New Seasons Market in Happy Valley – 12 people with 2 meeting us there

-Oregon State Fair in Salem – 11 people

Meals on Wheels:

We delivered 1243 meals during August.

Chelsea:

• Processed invoices related to various park projects. 
• Attended meetings in regards to various ongoing park projects
• Took and recorded meeting notes for ARC’s work at Cedar Park 
• Took meeting minutes from the Parks & Trails advisory board meeting on 8/14 and uploaded the video. 
• Created the September/October senior newsletter 

• Did a deep dive of our park project budgets. 
• Mailed out another round of Deer Pointe Park surveys to approximately 180 neighbors. 
• Helped edit the Center’s fall recreation guide. 
• Did research for highway banners and wayfinding signs for Cedar Park. 
• Participated in Cedar Park’s sign plan meetings.

John:

Continued planning for 2024 Winterfest:

• Worked with our IT department and Parks and Facilities Manager on the possibility of adding permanent speakers throughout Meinig Park.  This will help enhance the experience of Winterfest by providing the opportunity to play themed music throughout the park and allow us the ability to MC our events.
• Purchased new (showstopping) decorations to enhance the overall experience of Winterfest.
• Completed contract for the installation of our City Tree Lights and Facility Lights.
• Picked out the Large (Plaza) tree with the help of our Parks and Facilities Manager.
• Updated our sponsorship flier and opportunities.

ORPA Board Meeting:

• Met with other Parks and Recreation professionals from around the state where we discussed best practices, our annual conference and other initiatives pertaining to Parks and Recreation Professionals.

Cedar Park and Basecamp Sign Package:

• Worked with Spoke N Wheel design to help create signs for our new park that will help address:
  • Park Rules
  • Maps
  • Wayfinding options
  • Jump Line names and locations

Parks & Facilities:

Upcoming events/dates:

-Fall classes start at the Center the week of September 9th

-Kids Corn Cross at Liepold Farms on September 15th

– Sandy Rotary Club in the Gardens + Volunteer Work Day (Sept 11th & 28th)
– Mt Storm Instructional League begins Sept 17th

– Fall & Winter Gardening Presentation @ Library w/ Bee City Action Group Table