Nonprofits/Business

Bend Magazine: A Haven for Growing Remote Worker Economy

May 6, 2019 — In 2011, Bend native Carrie Douglass worked from home and felt stir-crazy. As the founder and CEO of the national nonprofit School Board Partners, a co-owner of Cascade Relays, a Bend-La Pine School Board member and a wife and mother, Douglass, 38, wanted to mix with the world while still clocking some serious productivity.

Bend Bulletin: Passing the Reigns to At-risk Youth

Published: July 8, 2017

Francisco and Josh pulled weeds and spread bark mulch at J Bar J Boys Ranch east of Bend. They and other adjudicated boys, who live at the educational and working ranch, have spent weeks landscaping the grounds in preparation for the 28th Oregon High Desert Classics, an elite two-week hunter/jumper equestrian competition.

“It’s pretty fun,” said Josh, 16, who is two months into an eight-month stay at the facility.

Ranch residents are boys ages 13-18 who display at-risk behaviors and have been convicted of crimes. Teens reside at the facility for up to 18 months while learning techniques to correct behavioral problems and taking academic classes.

Chores teach structure and accountability, officials said, and these two have no problem doing them.

“We’re just prettying it up a little bit,” said Francisco, 18.

J Bar J would not release Josh’s and Francisco’s last names due to a policy of the Oregon Youth Authority, which presently maintains custody of the teens.

Approximately 2,000 Central Oregon youths benefit annually from J Bar J Youth Services’ eight programs, which include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon and Grandma’s House of Central Oregon. J Bar J Youth Services is the largest Central Oregon service provider to youth and families. The Oregon High Desert Classics is also the nonprofit’s sole fundraiser. The competition’s $150,000 prize purse attracts more than 3,000 competitors, trainers and horse owners from every western state. Each year, the two-part event raises an average of $200,000 through entrance fees and sponsorships. Proceeds are divvied up across the organization’s eight programs according to need, officials said.

For the annual competition, youth like Francisco and Josh help a maintenance and landscaping crew set up six riding arenas, six lunging rings and 600 stalls. On this day, Francisco wore a navy bucket hat embroidered displaying the Oregon High Desert Classics logo. Bruce Waldrup, director of J Bar J Youth Services, gave it to Francisco as a gift when the teen helped with the fundraiser last year. Francisco said he and others enjoyed delivering hay and feed to the equestrians. Lending a hand is also a way for Francisco to repay J Bar J Boys Ranch. Group sessions at the facility taught him life skills, such as keeping his cool and being mindful of his actions’ consequences, he said.

Francisco currently lives at The Loft, a transitional living program operated by the Cascade Youth & Family Center, one of J Bar J Youth Services’ operations, located in southeast Bend.

“I thought it’d be nice to come back. I learned a lot here, and I got a lot of help,” Francisco said.

While preparing for last year’s Oregon High Desert Classics, he acquainted himself with the finer points of irrigation routing, which provides horses with water during the competition.

“I learned the hard way you need to wear rubber boots,” Francisco said with a laugh.

The two boys are members of a six-person Oregon High Desert Classics event team that is closely overseen by staffers, in accordance with the Oregon Youth Authority’s line-of-sight stipulations. To join, any of the 30 ranch residents provides a cover letter, resumé and undergoes a job interview. After a probationary period, which includes the “super-glorified” task of pulling weeds, they make the team, said Amy Fraley, the J Bar J Boys Ranch program director. Francisco, who now lives across town in The Loft, had to apply all over again. The application hoops are meant to simulate the job-seeking process that awaits the teens after they leave the ranch, whether they join the workforce full time right away or part time as they finish high school and continue their education.

The $5 per hour the teens earn gives those with legal restitution a way to pay it off.

When he was a ranch resident last year, Francisco quickly eliminated his debt by working six days a week. Soon he began adding to a savings account.

Josh, equally devoted to his work, is just getting started.

A classic show

Bill Jones, and Lyle and Mary Jarvis founded the J Bar J Boys Ranch in 1968 to help boys in need of foster homes. Deschutes County donated the 40 acres where the ranch stands today. The organization incorporated itself as a nonprofit in 1972. Originally, the J Bar J Boys Ranch was a cattle and pig operation.

In 1989, the organizers of the High Desert Horse Faire — a small horse show — asked the J Bar J Boys Ranch if its youth would volunteer during the event.

In 1994, J Bar J Youth Services assumed control of the horse show, although details of the transaction remain unclear, said Stephanie Alvstad, the J Bar J executive director.

To make the ranch land suitable for an elite horse show, the foster boys helped laser-level its grounds and removed large rocks. They added a layer of gravel and seeded its surface.

Now, with the help of an irrigation system, the ranch is a sprawling carpet of green that attracts equestrians from all over the west and Canada.

The Oregon High Desert Classics is a two-part horse show in which riders of a range of ages and abilities exhibit their horses — mostly thoroughbreds — in hunter and jumper competitions. The hunter discipline evaluates the horse’s skills required in fox hunting, which include a smooth gait and a safe jumping style over barriers, according to Practical Horseman magazine.

The jumper discipline is a more rough-and-tumble, timed contest where contestants and horses must exhibit a high level of boldness and athleticism. Competitions at the Oregon High Desert Classics include the Grand Prix and the United States Hunter Jumper Association International & National Hunter Derbys.

This is the second year the High Desert Classics has hosted the USHJA Children/Adult Amateur Hunter West Regional Championships — one of only four in the country.

Julie Winkel, who owns Maplewood Stables in Reno, Nevada, has hauled 20 to 30 horses to the High Desert Classics annually for more than 20 years. Her placements last year as the champion jumper and reserve champion jumper “made my year,” she said.

“The (Oregon High Desert Classics) is always our favorite horse show. The grass fields at the J Bar J Ranch are kept up year-round, and the footing is always great,” said Winkel, adding that dirt or synthetic surfaces are much more common at horse shows in the west.

She also appreciates the Oregon High Desert Classics’ popularity.

“It’s fun to see people from all over the western states show up,” she said.

While the J Bar J Ranch boys lend crucial help during the Oregon High Desert Classics, the event is a collaborative effort among the nonprofits’ eight programs, which recently acquired Grandma’s House of Central Oregon, a shelter for abused or homeless mothers and pregnant women.

During the Oregon High Desert Classics, the female students at Academy at Sisters — J Bar J Youth Services’ therapeutic boarding school for at-risk girls ages 13 to 18 — cater parties beneath cool, sun-blocking tents.

Teens involved with the Cascade Youth and Family Center sell locally roasted coffee. It’s the second year the students have had a chance to hone their barista skills, which will equip them with customer-service experience, Alvstad said.

Staff from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Oregon, another J Bar J Youth Services group that fosters mentoring relationships, will also help out.

Winkel said she has been impressed by the teens at J Bar J Boys Ranch.

“They have a lot of pride in their ranch, and a lot of respect for everyone that comes to the horse show. That’s really nice to see.” Winkel said. “I feel like we’re giving something back to the boys.”

Bend Bulletin: Inundated with Good Intentions

Published: Dec. 2, 2016

The Bethlehem Inn receives inquiries about holiday volunteering opportunities at its homeless shelter as early as a year in advance.

For this Thanksgiving, they had a special volunteer team confirmed to serve its 85-person dinner, three months ahead of time; it’s booked up for Christmas and New Years Day, too.