February started off some mild winter weather and ended with almost a week of snow and weather related closures. Although the City only closed for 1 day, the center had to cancel activities, outings, events, rentals, and meals on wheels for 5 days due to OTSD’s closure. The plus side is we created a policy and procedure guide for weather related closures. We’ve now already used it twice in March as well!

Caroleana stayed busy with 9 new meals on wheels sign ups and 6 energy assistance applications. She also did multiple home visits. She had a few new clients participate in our monthly Bingo. She went on an outing with the seniors to a local thrift store and spent time with our wonderful seniors and brainstormed some fun ideas for future classes/events at the center. Another highlight for her was she attended her first SOAR meeting online and took the Strengthsfinders assessment, where she learned about her key strengths and found the whole thing insightful and fun. As Caroleana put it “It is great to learn my coworkers strengths and what is important to them.” One struggle Caroleana’s facing is that she’s wanting to offer a health fair at the center in May (which is Older American’s month), however she hasn’t had luck finding a mobile clinic for this.

Marc had most of the senior trips full (unfortunately some had to be canceled due to weather. Due to the closures, he stepped in and delivered Meals on Wheels to those in need that didn’t have enough food to last through the storm. 787 meals were delivered in February for Meals on Wheels (this number is lower due to us not being able to deliver on 2 of the days).

Carol has been busy planning upcoming community events. She confirmed 3 movies for the summer movies in the park: Puss in Boots, Spiderman no way home, and Lightyear. She is also working on sponsorships for Noah’s Quest, Movies and Music in the park, and a new event called: Walk or Run with Pride. Carol is also finalizing our summer recreation
guide (with help from the rest of the team), adding more sport camps with Skyhawks, and a new Mt. bike clinic for kids utilizing our Sandy parks!

Amy focused on the Sandy Community Garden Bed Sign-ups and advertisements for it. She completed her Strengthsfinder Analysis and participated in our Department’s team bonding. She also continued growing and learning with the Mt Storm Instructional League + the Mt Storm 5th/6th grade division. Amy has also spent time program planning with the Library (examples include: Makerspace, Children’s Day, and a New Teen Gardening Program). An application for Bee City is also in the works.  

Chelsea stayed busy creating flyers for the Community Campus Open house and focus groups, as well as attending various park project meetings, open houses, and focus groups. She also participated in the Strengthsfinders and the subsequent team building meeting. Regular duties were also completed like the monthly report, Agenda, meeting minutes, ordering supplies, and creating/distributing the March and April Senior newsletters.

John spent time this month helping out with all aspects of the recreation and senior side- he assisted Amy with getting the community garden beds up and running, helped Caroleana with the respite program, and helped manage the conclusion of Mountain storm. He led a planning meeting for the March/April senior newsletter. He’s also been involved with the Community Campus Park project with attending meetings, the open house, and senior focus group. John also updated our senior classes to go in the summer recreation guide- some fun offerings will include a a cooking class celebrating fresh summer ingredients from local farmers markets.

See below for some photos from Community Campus Park Project focus groups:

Parks Monthly report:   

Upcoming Important items/Dates:

• New Kids Tumbling class starts March 9th
• Mt. Storm Jamboree March 11
• Silent Disco for teens March 17th
• Senior Birthday Party March 20th
• April Teen flashlight Egg Hunt & Senior Egg Hunt
• Respite starting on Thursdays in April
• Solve It Clean Up Sandy April 22
• Energy Assistance can continue through the year- Cooling assistance specifically can start in June 

January seemed to go by quick at the Community/Senior Center.

The Community Campus Park Development plan officially got underway. January was month 1 of 3 full months of robust public engagement. Chelsea worked with the team on creating a project fact sheet and public engagement flyer (available in both English and Spanish). These flyers are available at the community center and are being used for tabling events. A copy of the fact sheet was also mailed out to the neighbors closest to the park. Chelsea created a project webpage that has a lot of information on it along with copies of the fact sheet and public engagement flyer. The first open house took place at the Community Center on January 26th. 34 people signed in and we estimate there was close to a total of 50-60 people there.

Chelsea and John worked on updating the Department’s reconciliation policy to streamline it and also help out the accounting team.

Carol’s Teen Silent Disco is scheduled for March 17th. Chelsea helped by creating the flyer. Registration is now open for this event and sign ups have started. Carol collected $250 in sponsorships for this event and also received pizza as an in kind donation- way to go Carol! A special shout out to Jeff Aprati for always getting Facebook updated to reflect our events.

Mt. Storm started off with games in January at Oregon Trail Academy,
Firwood, Welches, and Cedar Ridge. 3rd and 4th grade games are during the
week and the 5th and 6th games are all on Saturdays at Cedar Ridge. Some high school kids that play on the high school basketball team are helping ref. We have a total of 222 kids that signed up for this program. There have been some challenges with staffing in regards to a lack of gym monitors and referees.

Some new recreation classes have become hits at the community center such as Kinderdance and Mad Science.

Amy, our new Recreation Coordinator, spent the month of January settling in. Her first major under taking was bringing back the K-2 Instructional Mountain Storm program. This involved creating lesson plans, ordering supplies, creating a flyer, building a webpage, and inputting information into our software system to allow registrations. We’re happy to report this filled up extremely fast (within a week) and is going well.

Amy also participated in some tabling events to promote the Community Campus Park project and our upcoming events like the Teen Silent Disco and the Community Garden. The seed swap was her largest tabling event with an estimated 100 people in attendance. Amy also created a flyer for a new recreation class- kid’s Tumbling. The first few sessions of these tumbling classes were very popular and filled up in a number of days. Way to go Carol for finding a tumbling instructor!

Caroleana stayed busy this month. She signed up 6 new people for Meals on Wheels and completed 19 Energy Assistance applications. 2 home visits were also completed- these are going well so far. She is working with a volunteer, Samantha, to bring back our Respite program. The Respite documentation is complete, including: intake forms, brochures and informational packets. We look forward to reopening this great program in March under Caroleana’s guidance. Caroleana has streamlined our bulletin boards in the entryway. She is currently learning a new tracking document for NAPIS and learned about Mandatory Reporting.

Marc took the seniors on multiple trips including the Dog Show, First Taste of Oregon, dine outs at Cheesecake factory and La Carreta, and a hike at Tickle Creek. He also learned and took over the Transportation Log for John. He rode along with Amy and John on their driver road tests and is now able to administer these tests himself. 945 meals were delivered in January to our Meals on Wheels Recipients.

An exciting development for John and the Center is that our grant check is on the way so we can start to do improvements to our Kitchen which will eventually enable us to start congregate meals again.

December was a great month at the Community/Senior Center. Since so many in our department are new, we were all looking forward to the month of December to get to experience the holiday season with our seniors. We brought back some old events and also added some new ones. The seniors had the opportunity to go to Pittock mansion, Portland International Raceway, and holiday shopping with Marc at Clackamas Town Center. We also had a cookie decorating and a gift exchange here at the center. Caroleana got to meet lots of new seniors at our fun holiday events. She especially enjoyed helping with the gift exchange during our Monday social time. 

Caroleana also sent out flyers to all Meals on Wheels clients regarding energy assistance and has been getting numerous calls regarding the program. During December, 14 Energy Assistance applications were submitted with more in the works. She also researched and tracked down information for Medicaid clients who are on Meals on Wheels. We are starting to get vouchers and have submitted those for reimbursement. Way to go Caroleana! She has also been working on getting tax aid help here at the center for this new year.  AARP is unable to send anyone out to Sandy.  However, a local business has been contacted about offering free tax services and that’s in the works.

The Holiday Lights at Meinig Park were quite the hit! Evenings were cold but full of fun. It was great to see so many in the community come out to see the lights and experience the events. We estimate around 1500 people came out to the 4 events. Unfortunately a windstorm occurred on December 27th, so we were not able to have the Holiday Happy Hour, due to safety concerns and park damage, but we plan to offer it next year! We again want to thank everyone who helped us put these events on and contributed to them. A special shout out to the Parks department for setting up and managing the lights, IT for helping us with the timers, and Sandy PD for their increased patrols of the park to keep all the new equipment safe. We are very excited to have this be an annual event that gets better each year.

Chelsea worked a lot with Rochelle this month on the Community Campus Park Improvement project. They conducted interviews of the top 3 firms, picked a preferred consultant based on written and interview scoring, and then issued an intent to award notice.

Chelsea also organized a fun cookie decorating morning for the seniors, created the January/February newsletter and calendar, and coordinated the employee Holiday Appreciation Luncheon here at the Center.

The 2023 Winter/Spring Recreation guide came out on Dec 5th. It’s full of classes for youth, teens, adults, and seniors.

Mt. Storm practices started in December. Games start on 1/5 and will continue through mid-March.
Carol is busy working on sponsorships for music and movies, July 4th fireworks, and a new teen Silent Disco event in March.

Amy Lytle, our new Recreation Coordinator, started on December 29th in person. She is settling in and learning the ropes.

The month of November was a full month while we geared up for December and all the craziness that comes along with the Holiday season.

November was Caroleana’s first full month with us as our new Client Services Coordinator. She nested in the beginning and set up her new office. There was lots of learning: Napis forms, Energy assistance mailings, how to set up coolers for MOW, ect. She did her first home visit which happened to be her first intake client. She sent out 10 energy assistance applications (which helps residents in Sandy) and called all of last year’s list asking if they would like to apply for this year. Caroleana also designed a new Senior Nutrition brochure, welcome postcard, and thank you card. Along with this, she created a Senior Nutrition Program poster for the Holiday Lights in Meinig Park Event to help gain Nutrition donations for the Center. She also designed a Senior Event Calendar that will be 24X36 inches for the front lobby- including researching prices from 3 companies. The seniors have really liked this feature so far.

John, Caroleana, and one of our volunteers connected with Lake Oswego’s Respite Program Coordinator to observe and discuss how Sandy could replicate a similar program.

John met with the State’s and Clackamas County’s Nutrition coordinators to finalize and discuss our new plan for congregate meals.  We will be partnering with AntFarm to provide free meals in a congregate setting to our local seniors.  We have submitted our menu for dietary approval and are hoping to start marketing in January. John also received and signed final documentation for our $25,000 Congregate Meal Infrastructure Grant. This grant will help us to make necessary repairs to our kitchen.

-Our new Recreation Coordinator, Amy, started remotely.  She will be full time and in person starting December 29th. However, John and her have been working together remotely to get her up to speed before she starts in person. We are looking forward to being fully staffed!

Carol and John finalized and submitted our Winter/Spring Recreation Guide for printing.  Recreation Guides will be available Tuesday December 6th.

Carol has been busy with Mt. Storm. Registration closed with 218 total registrations.  Open Gyms and Skills assessments have been completed- more than 200 5th and 6th graders showed up for these events. Meetings will conclude on Dec 8th with all coaches, rosters will be complete and kids will be on the courts ready to practice before winter break.

The Lights at Meinig were finished up by December 1st. Tiana and her crew spent more that 200 hours total hanging up the lights, placing giant candy canes and nutcrackers, and running all the extension cords and timers. Carol received 1 more sponsorship for the lights in Meinig- Geren’s Farm and Landscape Supply. We are excited for all our holiday events coming up in December and hope the community loves what’s been created.

John, Tiana, and Chelsea attended an IPM focus group meeting with a few of our Parks
& Trails Advisory Board members to discuss our updated IPM.

Marc took a few smaller groups of seniors to Quiltopia and the Holiday Gift Market. He also took a full bus of seniors on a mystery drive through the backroads of Gresham and Damascus ending at Black Bear Diner for lunch. Many had not been to the diner before and loved it. The hike and lunch in Zig Zag was also well received.

Chelsea organized and lead a meeting for our employee appreciation luncheon and hired a caterer. We’re excited to gather with other city personnel on December 15th and celebrate the holidays.

The Community Campus RFP closed on November 16th. We had 4 proposals. They were ranked by a selection committee comprised of the project manager (Parks and Rec director), Parks and Trails Advisory Board Chair, Parks Manager, and Development Services Director. We decided to interview the top three firms and those interviews were scheduled for December 5th.

– We offered a Thanksgiving meal at the center the Tuesday before thanksgiving. We had it catered by Busy Bee Catering. The seniors enjoyed gathering again and getting to share a meal here. Our staff all came together to make this happen and was such a heart warming day for all of us.

Upcoming Events:

-Dec. 10th:  A Dramatic Reading with the Snow Queen from 6-7:30 (Meinig Park)

-Dec 15th: Employee Appreciation Holiday Luncheon at the Center

-Dec. 18th:  Estampa y Santa from 6-7:30 (Meinig Park)

-Dec. 21st: Shortest Day Walkway from 6-7:30 (Meinig Park)

-Dec. 26th: Center Closed (Christmas Day Observed)

-Dec. 28th: Holiday Happy Hour from 6-7:30 (Meinig Park)

October Seniors trips were quite popular. The Hood River Fruit Loop trip sold out within an hour and was a success day of. We already have a plan to offer this trip twice next year due to it’s popularity. There was a hike to Little Zig Zag falls with lunch in Government Camp- the group also made a quick pit stop at Trillium lake for pictures. The pumpkin patch was another fun outing.

Carol finished finalizing all sponsorships for Lights in Meinig. A total of $12,500 came in from
Everfresh Fruit Co, Clackamas Credit Union, Sandy Helping Hands, Barlow Vet, Just Rum Liepold Farms and Sandy Décor. The Recreation Department also spoke to Kiwanis, Sandy Actors Theatre, Sandy Chamber, Ant Farm, and Rotary Club about the lights in Meinig- all of these organizations will be involved and donating their time.

A good chunk of the lights at Meinig have been hung up- Shout out to the Sandy Police Department for increasing patrols around the park for the next few months to hopefully keep any vandalism at bay. We also finalized our Holiday Lights flyer- these will be hung up around Sandy and also neighboring towns starting in November.

Sandy Library and the Recreation Department partnered together for the Halloween Hunt in Meinig. It was a little wet but over 100 kids still showed up. Lots of candy was given out and we had 6 winners (3 middle school and 3 high school kids found the golden eggs.)

John did the Trick or Treat Trail with help from our Building Monitor, Brooke. They had approximately 400 trick or treaters.

Chelsea worked on the November and December newsletter. We decided to do a 2 month run this month due to the upcoming holidays. The plus side of this is now we have a template built for any other months we might want to do this.

Parks & Recreation has also taken over the Meinig Gazebo/Amphitheater and Centennial Plaza rentals. It’s great to have all the city rental options run through the same department.

The RFP for the Community Campus was republished late October and will close mid November.

We hired our new Client Services Coordinator, Caroleana Smallwood. She comes to us with years of experience in Senior services and has made an amazing impact on the seniors already.

September was a good month here at the Community/Senior Center. Our fall classes started mid to late September. Some filled up very quickly, like Parkour. Yoga has been popular as well, especially with drop ins.

The voice and creative theater arts class has been a hit as well with more students joining as class goes on.

Corn Cross was another success. They had a total of 385 participants- ranging in age from 3 to over 70! There were lots of donations of prizes from local businesses like Otto’s Ski Shop, Next Adventure and Everfresh Fruit Co.

Mountain Storm Youth Basketball is back up and running for this winter. Registrations opened at the end of September and will run through the end of October.

The team has been busy gearing up for our Holiday Lights Event At Meinig in December. This will be a month long event which includes lighting up Meinig Park and will have 5 specialty events, most geared towards families but one will be adults only. Local organizations are helping by donating their time and resources. Carol has also collected sponsorships totaling $10,000 so far.

Chelsea worked on finalizing a till/reconciliation policy.

Marc put together a last minute trip to the Dahlia Festival that filled up within a few days of opening. The ladies had a great time picking Dahlias. The hiking trips were also a success and the group enjoyed the beautiful weather. After one hike the group dined at Chang’s Mongolian Grill and it was very well received.

Our amazing team did a large clean out and reorganization of our upstairs storage closets. It was a large undertaking but we’re glad to have it done.

Our Client Services Coordinator position has closed and job interviews are scheduled for mid/late October.

Upcoming events:

October 22nd- Halloween Hunt for teens

October 29th- Trick or Treat Trail

The month of August has come to a close and summer is winding down.

August was filled with concerts and movies. Petty Fever brought in close to 500
people. Our Food and Beer vendors were busy and some of the gold sponsors (Timberline & Hometown Lenders) were also on hand giving out information. Our second concert of the summer, Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts had close to 700 people. It was awesome to see the attendees get up and dance in front of the stage. The last movie, Sing 2, John helped out with day of while carol enjoyed a much needed vacation. Great job Carol on these fantastic community events!

Softball ended with the 6 teams playing 20 games during the summer and the Mt. Hood Athletic Club Team walked away with the trophy.

Skyhawks Camps finished up in August as well.

Marc had a few great outings with the seniors- including taking them to Dinner at Roadhouse in Gresham, a mystery drive up the Clackamas River, a hike on the Cazadero Trail followed by lunch at the Red Apple, a hike on the Clackamas River trail, and a trip to Senior Day at the Clackamas County Fair.

With the help of our wonderful Meals on Wheels volunteers, we delivered a total of 1334 meals in August.

Chelsea worked with the team to gather data for our Cost Recovery project. August was also our first full month of building rentals so she created a policy and procedure document for handling the damage deposits. We had a successful employee picnic and everyone had lots of fun enjoying the music, food cart, ice cream, and games.

We were awarded a Congregate Meal grant of $25,000, thanks to John’s hard work.  The money will be used to get our kitchen up to code and working more efficiently so that we can start serving congregate meals once again to the seniors of our community. Way to go John! John also hired and trained a building monitor who will be here to cover for after hour events and classes. Brooke, our new building monitor, has been a great asset and helped us cover most of our weekend rentals in August.

The department is working together to plan a new event: Holiday Lights at Meinig, which will take place in December. More information to come soon on this.

The Parks & Trails Advisory Board did a Parks Tour for their meeting this month. It involved a tour and history of our Parks and Trails systems and everyone enjoyed it.

Olga, our Client Services Coordinator announced her retirement this month. Her last day was August 30th. She will dearly be missed by all of us and we wish her the absolute best on her next adventure. Thanks for all the hugs Olga!

Parks & Facilities August Recap:

Important Upcoming Dates:

September 5th- Center closed for Observance of Labor Day

September 11th- Corn Cross at Liepold Farms

September- Some of the classes listed in our recreation guide begin middle of September.

July was another great month at the Community/Senior Center. We welcomed the sun and warmer weather.

Carol had an amazing turn out for our Kids Events During Mountain Festival. The Mt. Festival Pet Show had approximately 34 participants. The Mt. Festival Bike Derby had approximately 53 attendees. Last but not least, the Mt. Festival kids parade had a whopping 235 approximate attendees. Way to go Carol! John, Olga, Marc, and Rochelle all helped with these events.

Skyhawks camps had 49 kids total for the month of July. The camps varied from basketball, soccer and a multi sport camp for younger kids.

July 30th was the first Movie in the park for this summer.  It was a hot one but 75 people showed up to see Encanto.  Timberline and Hometown Lenders 2 of our sponsors showed up and had giveaways and information about their businesses.

Marc had a lot of fun on our senior outings in July. The Saylers Dine out was the most popular and sold out. The Mystery drive to Cascade Locks was a big hit and mostly full. The group celebrated with ice cream afterwards. The Hidden Falls Hike was another popular sign up and the group beat the heat for that outing. Marc also took 2 ladies on a mini-golf trip and out to lunch.

Marc also stayed late and set up chairs for the seniors to sit outside the Center for the Mountain Festival Parade. A great time was had by all.

For July, we delivered 1367 Meals on Wheels.

John was busy in July. He negotiated with the county on our Meals on Wheels reimbursement rate. He and Carol worked on our Fall recreation guide and it’s now being printed. John led and conducted first and second round interviews for our open Recreation Coordinator position. We also finalized our departments Mission and Vision statement under Johns guidance.

The whole team worked together on starting our Cost Recovery process at the end of July.

Olga has been busy with continued Medicare support and general referrals. She also worked on getting Meals on Wheels reassurance calls done.

Upcoming Events:

Movies and Music in the park continues:

August 3rd- Petty Fever Tribute Band

August 10th- Johnny Limbo & the Lugnuts

August 20th- Sing 2

Skyhawks Camps run through August

Our Fall Recreation Guide will be out soon! Stay tuned to your utility bill or our website for more information or stop by the Community Center in Mid- August to grab your copy.

Some fun senior outings for August include a trip to the county fair, lunch at Bobs Red Mill, a visit to the Military Museum, and Bunco at the Community/Senior Center!

Although June had a lot of rain- we still managed to have fun here at the community/Senior center. Olga’s Moves and Grooves class started back up and has been a popular exercise class. Marc took the seniors on multiple outings such as a hike at Powell Butte and Milo McIver Park, a Mystery Drive to Timberline, and a day trip to the Zoo.

Olga has also been focusing on reassurance checks and case management, energy assistance, and general senior information and referrals for calls or walk ins. In June we delivered 1,506 meals on wheels.

Marc has been busy using Google Earth Pro to remap our Meals on Wheels routes for maximum efficiency and driver ease. He also puts a lot of thought into brainstorming ideas and research for our senior outings.

John has made it his personal mission to get the whole team on board creating a vision and mission statement. That process is well underway. The Parks & Recreation webpage continues to be updated to match our current events. John also attended a county lead meeting for all Clackamas county seniors centers to discuss our county contracts and reimbursements. He’s also been in discussion with Sage/Envoy about our electric vehicle and how we can promote that amongst our employees/volunteers.

Carol and John, along with the rest of the team, have been tag teaming a Fall recreation Guide. Carol has multiple instructors lined up to teach various classes this fall, as well as Mountain Storm Basketball, and some fun community events. Carol has also been busy getting softball and Skyhawks camps off to a running start.

Chelsea had a great June. The newsletter template that had been built the previous month made June’s newsletter process a breeze. This will serve us well going forward. She feels she now has a solid understanding of the monthly reports and meeting minutes/agenda process which is great. The cash till/reconciliation process is finalized and running smoothly.

Longest Day Parkway took place on June 23rd. We had an amazing turn out with an estimated 200-300 people. Everyone seemed to have a great time and truly enjoy the event. We are already looking forward to next years event!

Noah’s Quest- Carol had another great turn out for Noah’s Quest. There were approximately 73 participants and the weather was beautiful day of.

Parks Update

Upcoming Events:

July 4th- Fireworks show at Sandy High School in conjunction with Clackamas County Bank.

July 6th-8th- Mountain Festival Kids Events

July 7th- Mountain Festival Parade- the Senior Center is providing chairs for the seniors that want to sit outside the center and enjoy the parade.

July/August- Music and Movies in the Park.

Community/Senior Center Update:

May was the center’s first month back offering a more robust schedule of outings for the seniors. All were full within the first week. The seniors had a great time.

Carol has been busy getting summer recreational events planned and assisting with senior outings. She has softball leagues (6 teams) starting the beginning of June. See down below in our upcoming events section for more of what Carol has been working on.

Marc, our Transportation Coordinator/Driver, completed his Ride Connection training, had our vehicles serviced, and is getting the hang of his new job. He likes getting to take the seniors on outings and exploring local places with them.

John, our Center Manager, has been busy continuing to get the Community/Senior Center fully operational again. He’s been interviewing building monitors. One is starting in June which means we can start to rent out the building for events. Our waivers have also been updated which was part of that process as well. Our software system (Sportsman) is now fully updated to help us handle those requests. A 2nd Recreation Coordinator position has been posted which will allow us to offer event more recreational activities to our community. The Parks & Recreation webpages have been updated to more accurately reflect current happenings. Our point of sale system has come a along way since last month and the department is feeling like we have a good handle on having the update fully complete soon.

Chelsea is continuing to learn her new position as the Executive Assistant. She’s been helping John get the website and Sportsman updated. She is becoming our designated flyer designer using Canva. A lot of prep in May went into the June newsletter which has been completely redesigned into a bifold design. Chelsea also attended her first Parks and Trails Advisory Board meeting, completed her 2nd set of meeting minutes, and learned how to upload the meeting video to Youtube and Icompass.

Our Meals on wheels drivers delivered a total of 1,220 meals in May.

Parks Update:

Upcoming Events/Important Dates:

June 20th- Center closed in observance of Juneteenth

June 23rd- Longest Day Parkway at Cascadia Park

June 25th- Noah’s Quest 5k/10k/Kiddie Run

July 4th- Center closed in observance of the 4th of July

July 4th- Firework Show at Dusk

Summer Concerts and Movies in park (Various dates this summer)