Nonprofits are the winners of Bend’s fundraising game card
Every Sunday morning, there’s a line of people at Silver Moon Brewing’s side door, waiting to indulge in a breakfast cocktail and throw money at a good cause.
This is Not’cho Grandma’s Bingo—six rounds of fun and fundraising games with host Dusty Riley and her partner, Stacia Guzzo, cofounders of YOUNI Movement, a company dedicated to promoting inclusivity and awareness at community events. The duo provides event planning, production and execution. As emcee, Riley brings high energy vibes and a pay-it-forward spirit to each gathering.
Not’cho Grandma’s Bingo started about nine years ago, when Riley was general manager of Silver Moon Brewing and planned the brewpub’s events. “It was a natural arm for Silver Moon to be a hub for the community and to support local nonprofits,” she said.
In 2016, the bingo games raised money for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue foundation each Sunday. The bingo program continued to grow from there, and in 2024, almost 30 nonprofits benefited from the events at Silver Moon Brewing. Riley estimates that more than $2 million has been raised for organizations throughout the region.
Working closely with the featured nonprofit in the weeks leading up to an event, Guzzo and Riley design a program to meet the organization’s goals, from raising money or identifying new donors and volunteers to increasing awareness of a nonprofit’s mission.
“It’s very intentional. You may show up and think, ‘This is crazy chaos!’ But it’s carefully crafted. It might seem like this spontaneously crazy event, but ultimately we’re working for that communal uplift,” Guzzo said. “People in the audience aren’t even aware that we have goals in mind.”
In Oregon, bingo games are governed by the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ). Nonprofits must apply for a bingo license, and there are restrictions and legal hoops to jump through. Each October, YOUNI Movement opens up its schedule for the coming year to connect with nonprofits. Those interested in participating must meet all Oregon DOJ requirements, and representatives are asked to attend a Q&A. Upcoming beneficiaries include Healing Reins, Saving Grace, Mount Bachelor Ski Patrol and Bend Park and Recreation District. The schedule is full throughout the spring.
Deschutes Children’s Foundation Executive Director Cassi MacQueen is a longtime partner with YOUNI Movement, and the Foundation has fundraised through Not’cho Grandma’s Bingo many times over the years.
“The participatory, high-energy bingo events they run are some of the most fun and effortless fundraising opportunities we’ve ever enjoyed,” MacQueen said. “Being able to invite our supporters for a boisterous event that celebrates community and inclusion while furthering our mission? Yes, please!”
Noting that there is a trifecta that brings these events together, Riley explained how she and Guzzo, Silver Moon Brewing and the nonprofit all share in each other’s goals. “One of them,” Guzzo added, “is that we can inform and introduce the community to even more of the amazing things that are happening in Central Oregon.”
There’s a lot to love about the crisp, clean air of fall in Central Oregon. But the slow demise of the brightly colored plants and flowers in decorative pots can sting a bit. Instead of dwelling on the loss, rejoice in the changing season and replant those big pots and containers with something seasonally appropriate.
Pick a container: Select a container to reflect or complement your design aesthetic.
The orange, green and brown colors of pumpkins and squash are synonymous with fall, so you can incorporate those colors with seasonal plant selections. For starters, there’s the tried-and-true potted mum. This will add a burst of fall color, and the hardy plant blooms throughout the fall in Central Oregon. Or fill a pot with ornamental cabbage, kale or ornamental grasses. These pretty plants add a pop of deep purple and dark green and can typically survive the high desert’s cool fall days.
TIP: Move plants away from wind to protect them from drying out. | Photo of Schilling’s Garden Market
If you’re looking to step away from planting this fall, access your artistic side by collecting found objects from the garden or hiking trail and arranging them in your pots—whether curly willow branches, moss-covered sticks, dried flowers, lavender or the corn stalks that didn’t thrive in this year’s garden. Whatever you choose, embracing the changing of the seasons will give a fresh look to your front porch or entryway.
It’s called the high desert for a reason. In Central Oregon, an average year of precipitation is between 12 inches and 20 inches, the majority of it in snow. It’s dry, it’s cool at night, and frankly, it’s not a place that’s particularly suited to a lush, green lawn.
That’s why so many people are getting on the xeriscaping bandwagon. Xeriscaping is growing in popularity in the dry climates of the American West, and the City of Bend is part of the movement. Earlier this year, Bend landowners were offered a Turf and Removal Rebate, consisting of $3 per square foot up to $3,000 for projects that replaced lawns with water-conserving xeriscaping. About 60 percent–4.5 billion gallons—of Bend’s water goes to landscape irrigation, most of which is residential.
According to Dan Denning, the city’s water conservation program manager, the funds for the rebate program were allocated within three weeks. “With more frequency of extreme drought and the variability of how we’re getting our precipitation–like these summer deluges where we’re getting a few inches an hour–and in the growth we’re experiencing, we’re seeing a shift in how much water we use and when we’re receiving the water,” he said. “So for us, it’s a strategy for trying to keep up with population growth.” Whether incentivized by a city rebate, or with water conservation in mind, xeriscaping can be accomplished with simple steps.
Where to Start
Homeowners may not know where to start a xeriscaping project or worry that their new landscaping will be a big pile of rocks. One of the biggest misconceptions, Denning said, is the idea that Bend will end up looking like a rockscape. He said plant material and mulch is vital to a good-looking xeriscape project. The lushness created by selecting the correct plants also has a cooling effect. A landscape of many rocks actually radiates heat, and the plants will require more water, he explained.
It doesn’t have to be all sagebrush, either. There are plenty of pretty, green native plants that bloom.
Denning understands the temptation of a lawn. “We continue to put grass down because it’s cheap, and it’s what we know,” he said. “We know how to mow a lawn and what it should look like. Xeriscaping is uncharted territory for some people.”
A Seven-Step Process
Xeriscaping is a seven-step process that starts with designing and planning out the space; ensuring efficient irrigation; analyzing the soil and making necessary improvements; picking out the right plants; selecting practical turf areas; using mulch; and then maintaining the space appropriately.
Xeriscaping just a small area of your yard can make a difference. Pick an underused area or a spot where your lawn is already looking a little shabby. Then, consider potential areas for use, maintenance goals and how much sun the area gets each day: does water already flow to that area of the yard? How will you irrigate it? Consider irrigation controllers that use sensors and adjust the amount of water used depending on the weather. Ensure your soil is healthy and rich in nutrients. Then it’s time for the fun stuff–deciding how much turf to keep and picking out the right plants for the new xeriscaped space.
Plants in the Xeriscape
The Oregon State University Extension Service offers an excellent guide to selecting plants for xeriscaping. Its recommendations include grouping plants that require similar amounts of water and sunlight together, and incorporating plants that provide different functions to create a diverse landscape. From ornamental chokecherry trees to fescues and phlox, there are plenty of plants that require little water but make a big impression. Bonus: The more diverse the plants in your landscape, the more varied the animals and insects attracted to them, making the environment even healthier.
And don’t forget the mulch. It prevents water from evaporating, counters erosion and cools the soil. An added bonus? Mulch will also cut down on your weeding time.
Start small. “You can do more than you think,” Denning said. Whatever you do will make a difference. Need more ideas on how to conserve water while creating a beautiful landscape? See waterwisetips.org.
Don’t be fooled by National Solar’s name. It may have “national” in the title, but the company is based in Bend and has served the Oregon market for more than 15 years, making it one of the oldest and largest solar contractors in Oregon. The company has 20-plus local employees in NorthWest Crossing, and people may have seen its vehicles around town or its sponsorship recognized on the Mt.Bachelor Sports Education Foundation vans or as a key sponsor for several years of the Bend Marathon.
National Solar was founded in 2009 by Janelle and Justin Lancaster. Shortly after starting the company, the Lancasters brought John Harley into the ownership structure to build out its installation teams; he’s also involved in training future Licensed Renewable Technicians for the industry. National Solar’s own electricians and installation specialists have been on the roofs of more than 3,000 Oregon homes and businesses. The company focuses on high-quality solar panels, back-up generators and solar battery storage, creating custom clean energy solutions that work specifically for any building, not a one-size-fits-all approach. To help meet back-up power demand, National Solar partnered with Generac, a manufacturer of generators, now located in Bend.
Janelle Lancaster took time out of her busy schedule–complete with an April run in the Boston Marathon–to chat with Bend Home + Design.
Business Q&A
How did you get into the solar business?
In 2009, at the end of the recession, we had an exterior remodeling company and decided we didn’t want to continue in that realm anymore. We wanted to do something with a little more meaning, and something a little more exciting–something people wanted versus something people had to have. We’d been thinking about solar for a while and decided to give it a shot. Solar was just picking up here in Oregon, and it seemed like a great time to hop in. We knew a lot about construction and had the basic building blocks and team members.
We’ve surrounded ourselves with great employees who have helped us from a start-up to one of the largest solar installation companies in Oregon; our success and longevity are because of our employees. We’re a full-service company that stands behind our community. It’s been a fulfilling ride that I wake up to every day, proud to be part of an industry that is changing how we get power to our homes.
Why is Bend prime for solar?
We get a lot of sun here year-round and that makes the financial side of going solar very attractive. State of Oregon incentives and the 30% federal tax credit sweeten the deal, shortening the payback period. In addition to our sun, most people living in Bend are here because of the outdoor lifestyle. Solar and protection of this beautiful place go hand in hand. People here want to do something to protect that.
What’s the most common misconception you hear when talking with a potential client?
The most common misconception is that you’ll never pay it off; that it will never pencil out. That’s just not the case these days. Federal tax credits and state incentives make the payback pretty quick. With utilities raising rates by double digits, it just makes more sense to get a system to hedge yourself against the rising cost of power.
What makes a rooftop suitable for solar panels, and if it’s not ideal because of nearby trees or angles, are there other options?
Ideally, a south-facing roof is the most desirable placement. But here in Bend, we have many low-slope roofs that make solar possible from different angles. Installation of ground-mount systems is another option if someone has sufficient space on their property.
What’s the current state and availability of battery storage to power our homes at night, during weather events such as heavy snow and to feed solar energy back to the electrical grid?
As a partner with Generac, we offer a wide array of reliable back-up systems that have become more cost-effective and user-friendly in recent years. The Oregon Department of Energy and Energy Trust of Oregon also offer battery system incentives to help offset the cost, as well as the 30% federal tax credit. Battery and grid tie combinations are a feasible investment.
How feasible is it in Central Oregon to have enough solar arrays and generating options to be 100% off the grid?
The feasibility is not quite there yet, given the current cost of power, coupled with the cost of a large system, and the amount of energy needed to be produced daily year-round in most homes here in Central Oregon.
What makes National Solar different from other solar companies?
National Solar has been in business for more than 15 years. Today you see a lot of start-up companies from out of state coming into our communities, knocking on doors and offering complicated financing solutions and overpriced solar. It’s just not in a homeowner’s best financial interest. We are here as part of the community. Everyone on our team lives here, plays here and educates kids here. We’re here for the duration–it’s not a one-year gig for us. We’re invested in our employees, paying living wages and being a big part of their lives. What makes my job fun is doing the best I can for our employees and team.
Jim and Nathalie Peterson left behind Scottsdale, Arizona, and bought the venerable Mockingbird Gallery in 2007. Sixteen years later, Mockingbird continues to reign as a jewel in the heart of downtown, attracting tourists and locals alike keen for an infusion of culture. The pair also runs Peterson Contemporary Art (PCA), a short walk away. In total, the galleries represent about 85 artists, peddling pieces ranging from whimsical bronze animals to large-scale abstract oils. Bend Home + Design talked with Jim Peterson about the galleries’ success, the current trends in Central Oregon art, and why Bend is a perfect spot to sell fine art.
Q: What are the challenges of running galleries, particularly in Bend?
A: High-end, collector-style galleries have to fit a certain demographic, a certain community. We all know about Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Carmel and Jackson Hole—communities that have built reputations as great areas for galleries to thrive. Frankly, when we came to Bend from Scottsdale, which is really a gallery community, one of our concerns was where are these art buyers going to come from? What is it about Bend that can support high-end art sales? Bend offers a microcosm of what Scottsdale offered us—that is, a well-balanced support system built on locals and tourism. This is a growth community, a growth economy. People are moving here because they want to be here, not because they have to be here, and they’re building really beautiful homes. So that supports our efforts, plus the secret is out on Bend as a tourist community.
Where do you see your role in providing the Bend community with cultural enrichment?
We have cultivated a group of exciting artists that we think really interest art buyers, collectors and viewers. We know our cultural role in this community is also a space where people can just come and get their art fix, and we thrive on that. We love those conversations. I know people who come by almost monthly, whose intention is not to come in and purchase art, it’s just to be inspired and maybe talk art. We love to make time for those people.
How are Mockingbird Gallery and PCA different, and how did that separation come about?
As we were building Mockingbird up and growing it, we had two different groups developing under one roof, and that’s really what led us to experiment with another location. Mockingbird would be considered the more representational traditional blend. PCA would be more contemporary and modern. That said, we have hybrid artists in both locations. The goal was never to take the edge out of Mockingbird, it was just to create another venue. At PCA we have abstract art mixed in with more representational touches.
What do Bend homeowners seem to look for in art these days?
A lot of these new homes being built are big. During the pandemic, people were building, they were at home, and artists were asking me, “Are we going to be okay? Do you want me to give you small pieces now?” And I said, “Opposite. Get us big works of art.” And that’s exactly what started selling. These large walls need to be filled up, and [homeowners are] looking for something fun.
Where do you see the art market going in Bend?
It’s only going up because Bend is growing. I talk to people in Scottsdale, I talk to people in Santa Fe, and I know that some of these more established art markets are trying to figure themselves out again. Not everybody in those larger art markets will tell you that all is well, but what I can tell people is that we have the right ingredients here in Bend to thrive. We have been thriving, and it’s exciting. I don’t see anything changing that because this is going to continue to be an appealing place to live. We’ve captured the spirit of the type of person who loves Bend and living here.
How to Get in Touch
Mockingbird Gallery
869 NW Wall St. #10, Bend
mockingbird-gallery.com
Peterson Contemporary Art
550 NW Franklin Ave., Bend
pcagallery.com
Biancha Emery, a 16-year-old Caldera High School sophomore, doesn’t have a driver’s license. She doesn’t even have a permit. Yet, she routinely cruises down steep hills, taking curves and hitting 85 MPH with no brakes.
Wearing spikes, a thin race suit and a helmet, this 16-year-old skeleton racer spends her days throwing herself head first onto a sled so small it looks like a boogie board. At dangerous speeds, she careens down a winding ice track. “Going fast is always fun,” Emery said. “I liked it after my first run.”
Emery’s father is a former bobsledder. When she was 14 and the family lived in Utah, her father suggested she try skeleton racing.
“The first time sucks,” she said, laughing. “It’s really scary. I got bad ice burn and I hit basically every single wall the first time and I said, ‘I never want to do this again.’”
But she was hooked, and she discovered she had a natural skill for steering and judging turns. Though she said she’s not much of a risk taker in other parts of her life, she found a need for speed. Each run takes about 50 seconds and covers close to a mile of ice.
Young But at the Top of the Sport
Though she’s only been competing for a short time, at age 14, Emery became the youngest skeleton racer to ever start from the top of the track at Lake Placid. She’s also the only female skeleton racer on the U.S. Olympic development team and is currently ranked eighth in the world, though she doesn’t think her friends at school really understand what she does. Emery said, “I think a lot of people don’t realize how much really goes into the sport.”
With only two tracks in the United States—one at Lake Placid, New York, and one at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah—Emery travels frequently to compete in Canada, South Korea, Austria and Norway, among other spots.
When she trains during these competitions, Emery is only allowed to do two training runs each day. “The G-forces take a lot out of you,” Emery said.
The G-forces are at their worst on the curves, and Emery feels an incredible amount of pressure on her back, head and shoulders as she’s slammed into the ice because of the force.
“It’s very unforgiving,” she said.
Training in Bend
When she’s not competing, Emery trains daily here in Bend, lifting weights and completing sprint workouts at the Central Oregon Community College track. She also attends training camps, including visiting push tracks where she can work on sprinting, holding and pushing the sled, which weighs about 70 pounds. She also plays lacrosse for Caldera High School.
In a sport with little room for error, crashes happen. Biancha’s mom, Michele Emery, remembers watching her daughter flip while racing at Lake Placid. She held onto her sled so she wouldn’t be disqualified. It’s this kind of athleticism that keeps her calm as she watches Biancha race.
“I have confidence in her. I have confidence in her ability. She’s an amazing driver,” Michele Emery said. “I don’t stress out. I just want her to have the best run she possibly can.”
Emery competes in the Youth Series as part of the USA Bobsled-Skeleton team, a season that starts in October and runs through March, giving her the chance to compete in several international races before the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea beginning January 19.
After that, it’s all up in the air, but Emery dreams of someday competing in the Olympic Games. She knows she’ll still be too young in 2026 when the next Winter Olympics come around. By then she might even have her driver’s license, though Emery’s not interested in getting a car. She wants a motorcycle.
Coming out of the challenges of the past few years has emerged a newfound respect for the home office. Months hunched over a laptop on a couch with virtual meetings at the kitchen table made many people long for a quiet, organized space where work could be a priority.
PJ Hurst Design
PJ Hurst, a Bend-based interior designer, found herself in much the same situation, but with a skillset and design eye that made her DIY home office remodel an inspiration for others. Using a six-week timeline and a variety of low-cost materials, Hurst took an awkward loft space and turned it into a functional, attractive work area–almost creating a nostalgia for those days of endless Zoom meetings. Almost.
The home office was part of a larger remodel of a decidedly country-meets-Pacific Northwest motif—think bears and trees and heavy wood. “It definitely needed to be upgraded,” Hurst said. Luckily, she’s no stranger to DIY.
Taking on a Homeowner Design Challenge
Hurst decided to take on the home office as part of Better Homes & Gardens’ One Room Challenge. The goal of the Challenge? To implement a design and remodel of one room in the house in just six weeks. The upstairs loft area had an awkward nook that measured just 5 feet, 6 inches across, but ran 20 feet long in an L shape. The previous owners had shoehorned a desk in the corner, and it had only one other design element–a giant stuffed bear. Hurst knew she could do better.
“It didn’t really have a flow or a purpose,” she said. The one-room challenge provided a timeframe. She gave herself another parameter–to stay on a tight budget by trying to use repurposed pieces and accessing the bulk of her materials on Facebook Marketplace.
The office space sits outside the primary suite, and Hurst wanted the door to signal to others it was a closed-off space where she could focus. She took inspiration from the charred wood look of Japanese Shou Sugi Ban siding and used a Stikwood product to create a chevron design on the repurposed door. It became the launching-off point for the showstopper centerpiece–the dark beam and box ceiling.
A charred-wood look of the ceiling features Facebook Marketplace-scavenged beams, and it proved to be Hurst’s biggest challenge. “It took a lot of muscle and work to go up and down that ladder,” she said. The beams were heavy, and the boxed angles on the sloped ceiling required hours of work and math to create. “It was more complicated than I could have ever imagined.”
Another risk was the ceiling. She wondered, what if a dark element on the ceiling made the space look smaller? Hurst offset the risk with the window. Fortunately, the openness and light of the loft space kept it from feeling oppressive.
The centerpiece of the Room – The Desk
Another key to a functional workspace for Hurst was a long, L-shaped desk where she could spread out blueprints, paint samples and other plans. Heavy cabinetry would have overwhelmed the space and made it feel smaller. Instead, Hurst installed a floating butcher block from Lumber Liquidators, attached to the wall with heavy-duty brackets. I can stand on that desk, and I have,” Hurst said.
Add engineered oak flooring (another Facebook Marketplace find picked up for $450 from a contractor who had some leftovers), walls with hand-trowled cement created with a readily available product called SureCrete and an oak plywood wall to create an area of interest, and the space came together, looking simple and clean.
Revamping the Stairs
Though not technically part of the office remodel, Hurst’s stair renovation completely changed the look of the home and served as a finishing touch on the loft space. Removing the white, heavy balusters and handrail in favor of dark metal and light wood opened the space and created a sculptural piece–the first thing visitors see when they enter the home.
While Hurst believes most at-home DIYers could handle the bulk of remodeling tasks she took on in her home office, she cautions against working on stairs without professional help.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life,” Hurst said with a laugh. “It is best left to the professionals. It took a lot of knowledge, understanding codes and getting everything lined up.”
The stairs create a perfect entry to the fresh new office.
Completing a project such as this is more within reach than it looks, according to Hurst, who said it can be accomplished with attention to detail, patience, and a willingness to spend some time perusing YouTube for instructional videos.
“Design is a language, and to me as a designer, that language can be curated and refined with repurposed materials and just a little can-do attitude,” Hurst said. “It’s easy to just look at Instagram. But it’s so much more rewarding to roll up your sleeves and get your hands into building something, and then to use what you create and have it function well.”
This winter, while driving to Mt. Bachelor on a bluebird day, keep an eye out for a man on a bike with a splitboard attached to the frame. He’ll most likely be smiling. That’s Stratton Matteson.
Matteson, 25, grew up between Oregon and Vermont, and moved back to Bend in his teens. His parents were both environmentalists, and he remembers summers spent traveling through public lands in a Volkswagen van. That outdoor childhood naturally led to splitboarding and other activities in the backcountry. But how to access the backcountry? He wasn’t much for snowmobiles or helicopters. He spent several seasons traveling the west in his van, finding powder along the way, before a friend suggested to him that this type of snowboarding and environmentalism just didn’t align. “It was a little bit of a push,” he said. Matteson remembers thinking, “I’m traveling around, I’m using all this fuel just for really the sake of my own enjoyment. And that didn’t feel integral to me.”
That sparked a change. Matteson, who owns a small native plant restoration-based landscaping business in Bend, decided it was time to take action for himself. Matteson was highly influenced by Rob Greenfield, a sustainability activist whose high-profile projects have included wearing trash around New York City and growing and foraging all his food for an entire year. Matteson took a cue from Greenfield: “[Projects] like that were really inspirational to me as far as living the change and creating it now, rather than waiting for someone to tell you to change or policies to force it.”
His plan started simply. In 2018, Matteson committed to using only his bike to get him to the trailheads that would be the start of his splitboarding adventures. “I don’t think I actually ever doubted I could do it,” he said. “And once I was doing it, I didn’t really want to turn back.” The commitment wasn’t without its challenges. There was the weather, of course, and the added time to reach the places he wanted to go. But there was also the issue of friends who found his method for cutting fossil fuel consumption inconvenient—they wanted him to come on their far-flung adventures, no matter the impact of his carbon footprint. He resisted.The payoff? “The adventure,” Matteson said. “The adventure is exponential when you add this level of getting there on your own the whole way. It’s also extremely fulfilling, just like climbing a mountain, when you climb the whole thing from your house, there’s a lot of fulfillment there, and joy.”
You might as well try…I do think one little drop in the lake ripples out. You’ve got to start somewhere, and someone has to commit to something and start that cultural shift.
Since 2018, Matteson has kept his commitment and expanded it to include biking basically everywhere. Matteson has bikepacked to areas around the west, but he’s also gotten to know his local area on a deeper level. “I could go travel all around and get these brief little glimpses and brief little tastes of places, but I think part of this cultural change is a deep localization of all sorts of things, and one of those would be our recreation and traveling and adventure,” he said.
The reward for Matteson is in the powder.
Staying close to home is Matteson’s way of combating what he sees as a cultural issue with overconsumption—of learning to be OK with less. We can all do our part, he said, and he stresses that little changes from each of us can add up to big change overall. Case in point: a great deal of transportation emissions come from trips that are within 2-to-3 miles from home. Matteson challenges the community to shift those trips from cars to bike, walking or public transit, even carpooling. That, he said, would make a big difference, and it’s doable. He also suggested people consider their bigger trips, particularly by plane—he asks: Are they necessary? Can you find adventures at home instead?
Next up, Matteson plans to make his landscaping company into a bike-based business. “I don’t want to be part of the problem,” he said. “You might as well try…I do think one little drop in the lake ripples out. You’ve got to start somewhere, and someone has to commit to something and start that cultural shift.”
Bend has certainly changed during the past few decades. The number of roundabouts and breweries has exponentially increased. The home prices have gone through the roof. The proliferation of familiar business names—from Starbucks to Sephora—has become commonplace. However, some things haven’t changed. Chief among them, longtime local businesses that have not just survived, but thrived. Meet several familiar faces of businesses that have stood the test of time.
If you grew up in Bend, there’s a good chance you got your first bike at Sunnyside Sports. It’s equally likely that since then, you’ve bought your kids—maybe your grandkids—their first bike there, too. Jim Desmet and Gary Fowles opened Sunnyside Sports in 1972 on Irving Avenue. Over the years it moved and changed owners a few times before settling in a little house on Newport Avenue in 1990. The current owners, Susan Conner and Mike Schindler, bought the business in 2013, but that’s certainly not when their relationship to Sunnyside started. Schindler started working at the shop in 2000, and Conner has been there since 1988; she was the first woman they hired. Before Sunnyside moved in, the building housed a taxidermy business, and when Schindler started in 2000, the lot across the street—now housing Spork and other businesses—held a used car dealership. “There was nothing on Newport,” Conner said. “We owe (former owner Don Leet) a ton for that vision. One of the appraisers, when we were going through the design, said we should put garage doors in it so that when we went out of business it could be an auto shop or something.”
The bike business continues to change. More and more big bike companies are buying shops to control how their merchandise is marketed and sold. The proliferation of e-bikes, and technology and software complicates the industry. Nevertheless, Schindler said, “It’s still hard to get away from some of the things that make bikes beautiful. Even though chains are messy and they break, and derailers are not elegant-looking, [they are] still efficient.” It doesn’t hurt that Sunnyside’s pros often are still able to work on the bike someone bought from them in 1975 and still offer free checkups for those old bikes—as well as for their newest e-bike. “Bikes always need service,” Conner said. “You’re always going to need a person with a wrench who knows what they’re doing.”
Sunnyside specializes in bikes, but it also sells and rents Nordic ski gear. While other bike shops have popped up and dropped away, fifty years in, Conner and Schindler agree that what has kept Sunnyside going is the personality behind it. “Our people are the gold. Mike and I work for them,” Conner said. “You can buy bikes anywhere. And so to keep the staff and keep our people long term…I think to me that’s it, that’s all we have really in the end.” Mike believes a small business’s success is the result of a committee—it’s not one person who has an idea and rules with an iron fist. “Sunnyside’s a big ship, and it’s been around for awhile and it’s had multiple owners, and we’re taking the helm, but it’s almost its own energy and vibe, and we happen to fit that vibe and our staff and customers do, too,” Schindler said, and Conner agreed. “It’s its own thing, and we’re stewarding Sunnyside right now, and then hopefully someone else will be groomed to steward it through,” Conner said. “It’s not ours. We’re almost in service to the store. We work for Sunnyside.”
When we think of Bend’s growth, much of it has transformed the city’s west side. Amidst that growth is a garden center that opened in 1970 and continues to prosper today. Each year at the start of April, Galveston Gardens’ gates open, signaling to the community that it’s time to prepare for spring and get some plants in the ground. “We sell shovels. We don’t sell gold. We sell shovels,” said owner Dino Cloward. “What we’re really doing is helping green the earth again.” Cloward’s family has owned the property on Galveston Avenue for 100 years, and they live there still. When Cloward was about 10 years old, his parents, Giovanna and Richard Cloward, began considering a business they could continue long into old age. Galveston Gardens was born. This is the ultimate family business—started by Cloward’s parents. On a recent weekday Dino Cloward’s daughter Luciana was moving pots in the hot sun and preparing for the next day’s hoards of customers.
Luciana, Maria and Dino Cloward are the future generations of Galveston Gardens.
It’s not an easy business. Being open between April and September means that’s the only time the business earns money, and the other six months are spent preparing for that busy season. The work itself is physical—dragging hoses, moving heavy pots and bags of soil. When it’s tough, Cloward returns to his family’s Italian roots: “Get Mama! Get the dog! Get everybody involved and get all our neighbors! And we get in…We just pile in and go for it.” Galveston Gardens has seen plenty of change over the years, but where growth may have hurt other businesses, it’s only helped the garden center. “When we first started, there were 30,000 or 40,000 people living here,” Cloward remembered. “I don’t even know the number today, and it doesn’t matter to me. It’s just a lot. Growth, growth, growth.”Today, people drive from Seattle and San Francisco to pick up their flower baskets.
The region’s growing zones have changed, too. Where once Bend was a Zone 3-4 (meaning some plants simply wouldn’t grow successfully here), Cloward said it’s morphing to a Zone 6-7. “Bad for planet Earth, great for gardening,” he said. The garden center now sells lemon and olive trees, as well as plants that use less water and produce more blossoms. At the end of the day, Cloward and Galveston Gardens seek to be a beacon in the community, a place that gives back and helps Bend be its best self. “We have a responsibility—politically, financially, physically and in our neighborhoods,” he said. “Show up, have your heart here and make a difference.”
Downtown Bend has been at the forefront of our changing city, and Pegasus Books of Bend has succeeded through much of that change. Pegasus was founded by Mike Richardson, who launched Dark Horse Comics in Portland. Pegasus opened in 1980 and Duncan McGeary worked there from the beginning, before buying it in 1984. “In 1980 [downtown] was a disaster,” McGeary said. “That’s something people don’t realize about Bend is that the ’80s were not great, the mills were having trouble, the lumber industry was having trouble and they had built two malls which had emptied out downtown. The irony being that they’re both gone and downtown Bend is thriving.”
Duncan McGeary of Pegasus Books of Bend
Pegasus was part of a group of small businesses that moved into downtown Bend and made it interesting. His store remains, while many have closed up over the years. For McGeary, the foot traffic in downtown Bend has always made the rent worth it—and he said his landlord has always been fair. Longtime Bendites think of comic books and games when they think of Pegasus, but over time it’s grown to much more. The store also has new and used books, graphic novels, sports cards, toys and lots of pop culture stuff, including a nice selection of anime and manga. While he may not be able to change the locals’ perception, he’s proud to have stuck around through good times and bad. “I’m stubborn,” he said of sticking around through ups and downs over the years. “I don’t quit.” Bend is better for that stubbornness. On a recent weekend, McGeary greeted a very steady stream of customers—some browsing, some knowing exactly what they were looking for, and nearly all leaving with a book or a game in hand. McGeary marked the purchases down with a pen on a clipboard. You won’t find elaborate window displays at Pegasus–McGeary admits that he rarely changes them out. Instead, he believes it’s the product that keeps his business going. “To me the main job is to get good books, good comics, good games,” he said. “If you’re doing that job right you don’t have time to do anything else.”
McGeary doesn’t believe that books and bookstores are dying. “I actually think that there’s a lot of room for indie bookstores,” he said. “People are coming around. I know that in downtown it works. … COVID actually helped bookstores. [People] couldn’t spend money on dinner and the movies.” Lucky for McGeary and Pegasus, many turned to books, and while Bend’s rapid growth has turned some longtime residents off, McGeary is a proponent. “I don’t object to the rents, I don’t object to the tourists, I don’t object to the growth,” he said. “It’s funny, because I am a [Bend] native…I could not have made a living in the downtown Bend that I grew up in.”
One sign that your business is an official Bend institution? You have collaborated with Deschutes Brewery on a beer and it’s named after your store. That’s right, there’s a Patient Angler Pale Ale. The Patient Angler Fly Shop, a fly-fishing equipment shop, opened in 1984. It was originally founded by John Harken who started the store out of his home. Peter Bowers—whose background was in mechanical engineering and who worked as a bartender and then managed a tire shop—was a frequent customer who bought the store twenty-five years ago. Bowers’ Bend story is one we’ve heard before. He fell in love with Bend during a weeklong visit, and within weeks had packed up his life in Arizona and moved here. Fly fishing quickly became Bowers’ “ultimate goal and passion.” While a lifelong hunter and fisherman, Bower found that Bend sparked his love of fly fishing, and he sat in the shop on the weekends soaking up knowledge.
Peter Bowers of The Patient Angler Fly Shop
Twenty years ago, he moved the shop to its current SE Third Street location—previously the site of a film-developing business. The traffic has been a boon for business. “This shop has always been a local’s favorite,” Bowers said. “Everybody says ‘Location, location, location,’ which I didn’t really realize until I moved it over here because I had 27,000 cars a day going back and forth and seeing the sign that says ‘Fly Shop.’”
Bendites who know fishing, Bowers said, know to visit The Patient Angler. What makes his shop the best? “Me,” he said, laughing. “It’s professionalism, it’s customer service, it’s knowledge of product.
I know more about every product in this shop than every other shop put together,” he said. There are a lot of places to go these days for both equipment and information—the internet, sure, but also big-box stores like REI. Bowers firmly believes there is such a thing as too much information out there, and he’s happy to educate customers properly. “It really comes down to service in the long run. I can’t tell you how many times people bring me stuff from a big box store,” he said. “And it’s the wrong stuff, and then I have to educate them on why.” Bowers hasn’t spent money on advertising since the Yellow Pages. He employs full-time salespeople, and doesn’t focus on selling the most expensive rod, but instead on selling the right equipment.
It’s his high level of knowledge that makes a store like this stick around. There are repeat customers, of course, but The Patient Angler also sees tons of out-of-towners and new fly fishing enthusiasts. His success, and the sport’s increasing popularity, is a double-edged sword. On a day off, Bowers sometimes shows up to his favorite fly-fishing spot only to find someone already there, holding a map and using a fly Bowers sold him. Still, it’s a double-edged sword he can live with for a long time to come. The only change he expects to see going forward? He’s hoping Deschutes will start canning Patient Angler Pale Ale so he can sell branded coolers full of his namesake beer.
In 1964, when Marvin Wodtli was just 2 years old, his parents built a home out on Billadeau Road east of Bend’s city limits. They raised cattle and hay on their 40 acres, and it was so isolated Wodtli could walk out the front door and shoot a gun in any direction. “You couldn’t hit a house,” he said. “It wasn’t until the early 1970s that it started building up out here.”
Wodtli was a farm kid, working his parents’ land and moving pipe for his neighbors at two cents a pipe. It was all he’d ever done, and it got old fast. “I wanted to do anything but be on a farm,” he said. While his classmates were skiing and playing, “we’re moving pipe and doing hay, cleaning ditches. With a farm, it’s seven days a week. You don’t get Saturday and Sunday off.”
To that end, after high school Wodtli went to school to become a machinist, then switched to business administration. In 1989 he started a floor-covering business, then eight years later began managing Floor Decor, which he purchased and ran until he walked away in 2019. According to his wife of fourteen years, April Wallace, the business had changed, thanks in no small part to HGTV home renovation shows and the internet. “It was just a whole new era in terms of buying and merchandising, beyond what we’re used to,” she said. “So that became stressful.”
“I had a choice. I could either sell out and go work for someone else,” Wodtli said, “or I could do something with the property.”
Where did he end up? You guessed it—back on Billadeau Road. Wodtli and Wallace built a home on the remaining ten-acre property back in 2014, but when they began to think about farming again, they soon realized hay wasn’t a viable option, in part due to dwindling water from Arnold Irrigation District.
It was time to find a profitable, drought-resistant crop. “Everybody was getting into hemp, and to me that’s a fad,” Wodtli said. Plus, he didn’t like the smell of it, so after much research, he picked something more pleasing.
Marvin Wodtli and April Wallace
On June 1, 2019, the couple began to plant Lavandula Grosso, a classic French hybrid lavender, on the 8-acre plot. They tilled the field, ripped out the underground irrigation system and laid 12 miles of drip line; put down 8 acres of weed mat (stapling it at every foot); and eventually planted 15,200 lavender plants—by hand.
They finished planting on July 18, 2019, and 2nd Life Lavender was born. The company is named for lavender’s life-affirming properties, Wodtli’s second career and the farm’s second life. With their own harvester and two stills right on the property, Wodtli and Wallace harvest, distill and bottle their own lavender essential oil and hydrosol.
Wodtli and Wallace completed the 2021 harvest themselves over 29 days. Lavender can mold easily, so they only harvest what they can distill each day. It takes about 2.5 hours to distill a pot of lavender, and they distilled 98 pots last year. Right now, they’re selling their oil and hydrosol directly to practitioners and businesses. It’s not a big operation, but the goal is to become a wholesaler: bottling the product and selling it in bulk—to chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage therapists, for example.
2nd Life Lavender’s plants are organic certified, though the farm hasn’t been certified. “We follow all the practices—we hand weed, we spray nothing,” Wodtli said. “A lot of people when they harvest, they cut the lavender and put it on a tarp, drag it over to a trailer, dump it out on the ground and then load the pots to distill it. Our harvester puts the lavender in bags and then the bags go into the pots, so it never sees the ground.”
His care extends to the still, too. Wodtli filters the water before it goes into the still, then filters the oil when it comes out. “We’re doing everything we can think of to make the purest product,” he said. Indeed, the jars filled and waiting to be bottled are remarkably clear, with not a speck floating in them.
The farm conserves a ton of water as well. Wodtli estimates he saves about 60 percent of the water previously used to grow hay. He built a storage pond—when it’s full, it can hold 350,000 gallons of water. “There is no way, if we had kept the hay field, that we would even be able to have a hay field. We unknowingly got in at the right time to make the changes.”
Wodtli praises the benefits of the lavender oil and hydrosol, from the well-known (stress reducing, sleep enhancing) to the unlikely (hand softening and burn healing). Maybe one of the best benefits of Wodtli’s lavender farm? It has given his family property a new, sustainable life and has also breathed new life into Wodtli, who had grown tired of his previous career.
“My belief, through my whole career, has been to do the best job you can,” he said. “And I’m doing that. That’s what we continue to do.”
When Jamie Nesbitt first moved to Bend from the Bay Area in 2015, he was surprised to discover no LGBTQ+ event at Mt. Bachelor, as he’d seen at other ski resorts over the years.
Unlike those who may have idly wondered the same thing, Nesbitt did something about it. Nesbitt, the president and one of the founders of OUT Central Oregon, and his partner reached out to Mt. Bachelor in 2017 to see whether the mountain might support such an event. “I said, ‘We’re not asking for anything, just a rainbow flag and a table,” Nesbitt remembered. “Their response was amazing.”
From that phone call, Winter PrideFest was born. The event started in 2018 with discount lift tickets, $200 of Nesbitt and his partner’s personal money, and a theory—that there was a desire for a visible celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in the great outdoors. Now in its fourth year, the March celebration has garnered thousands of dollars in grant money and grown into a multiday event with a variety of gatherings and parties expected to bring more than 1,200 people to Bend.
“When Jamie first called, his concept of starting a small and welcoming winter event that would celebrate and encourage the participation of the LBGQT+ community within winter sports fit so well with the vibrant, open arms of Bend, Mt. Bachelor, and Oregon outdoors,” said Reese Thedford, Mt. Bachelor’s director of sales. “There was no doubt of the need for such a celebration and that we wanted to be part of its success and growth.”
Turns out, Mt. Bachelor staff had long discussed hosting an event tailored to the gay community but weren’t sure who to contact to get the ball rolling. “That really set a lot of the foundation for OUT Central Oregon’s mission—visibility,” Nesbitt said. “Clearly there are a large number of LGBTQ+ people here, but where are they? So our mission is inclusivity, of course, but it’s also about visibility.”
Photo courtesy of out central oregon
In Winter PrideFest’s first year, Nesbitt was relieved Mt. Bachelor wouldn’t require the usual 20 people for the group ticket discount. He needn’t have worried—upwards of 150 people showed up. It’s only grown from there.
City Councilor Barb Campbell heard about Winter PrideFest and suggested OUT Central Oregon apply for a grant from the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund. Nesbitt and other group members had two weeks to write it, asked for $10,000, and got every penny. Bend companies have been involved in making the program a success as well. Blackstrap creates custom-designed gaiters for PrideFest participants, Seventh Mountain Resort has been a welcoming host from the start, Silver Moon Brewing and Immersion Brewing have both served as brewery partners, and other bars and businesses around the region have happily partnered with OUT Central Oregon and Winter PrideFest.
In return, the Winter PrideFest has consistently over-delivered on just how popular its events will be. In 2019, Nesbitt said he expected about 300 people at Immersion for the opening event—and 450 crowded the brewery.
For the 2020 event, OUT Central Oregon was again awarded a grant, this time for $17,500.
The cultural grants have allowed OUT Central Oregon to get the word out about the event, and to expand its offerings. In addition to skiing at Mt. Bachelor, other events include Wigs, an ice-skating event at Seventh Mountain Resort, as well as dance parties, Sunday brunches, movie screenings, a drag tubing event and a panel on LGBTQ+ visibility in athletics.
Among those OUT Central Oregon asked to be on the panel was Wyn Wiley, an environmentalist drag queen who uses the drag name Pattie Gonia and who aims for inclusivity and equity in the outdoors. “For the queer community, the traditional narrative is to run to big cities for acceptance, when really there’s a lot of beauty in going in the other direction and running into the forest,” Pattie Gonia said. “But the truth of the matter is, a lot of queer people don’t feel safe outdoors. It’s a very cis, white, straight-dominated space with a lot of homophobic people in it.”
photo Brenda Berry
Their trip to Winter PrideFest was illuminating. “I was literally like, ‘I have never heard of Bend, Oregon in my life. What is this?’ But I’m all about it. I love queer people in rural spaces and mountain towns, so let’s do this.”
Pattie Gonia liked Bend so much, in fact, that she moved here in March 2021. And now that she’s here, she wants to see some big moves from Bendites. “My critique of Bend then and now is that it is a place that needs to embrace equity, embrace diversity every single way,” she said. “It’s so segregated, so lacking in true inclusion work, and we really need to celebrate people and organizations—not just OUT Central Oregon but all the organizations that are working to increase opportunities both in the city and outdoors for marginalized groups, and I think we have a long way to go.”
To that end, Pattie Gonia’s work with Winter PrideFest is not done. And she encourages allies to step up, join in and make Bend a more inclusive, comfortable place for everyone. “Allyship is not a noun, it’s not a title or a badge you get to put on yourself,” she said. “It’s a verb. It requires action, getting uncomfortable, showing up with the capital and resources you have to give. Allies are always welcome. This is not a space that we’re trying to make that is exclusively queer. We want to see you there! Show up at community events like Winter PrideFest. Come out. Show up. You are invited.”
The event in March will be bigger and better than ever, thanks to another marketing grant and an eager public ready for events after 2021’s hiatus. In addition to the ski days at Mt. Bachelor (complete with a DJ spinning on the snow), 2022 Winter PrideFest will again feature a sports panel, as well as ice-skating, a dance party and opening social, small happy hours, movie screenings and other events that celebrate the outdoors, the LGBTQ+ community, and encourage equity and inclusivity.
photo courtesy of out central oregon
“We didn’t want it to be a Whistler party, these events that have been around for 20 to 25 years at big mountains. Oftentimes they’re marketed only to men, and they’re just party, party, party,” Nesbitt said, laughing. “A guy in a speedo on the chairlift is not the vibe we want, and it never was.”
What Nesbitt and OUT Central Oregon really want is to practice inclusivity—beyond the LGBTQ+ community to everyone, especially those who are marginalized. They’re putting their money where their mouth is, offering scholarships to Mt. Bachelor’s Ski/Ride in 5 and partnering with organizations like Vámonos Outside (connecting the Latinx community to the outdoors) and The Father’s Group (building community by overcoming racial discrimination) to encourage more inclusion.
“This is for everyone. This is not just for the LGBTQ community,” Nesbitt said. “We are taking pride in beautiful Central Oregon and our mountains, and we feel we’re celebrating all of that with Winter PrideFest.”
In some ways, Placed: An Encyclopedia of Central Oregon is exactly what it sounds like. Locals who pick up a copy will recognize some of the topics right away—Pandora moths, Sparrow Bakery ocean rolls, wildfire, juniper trees and the specific way our red-tinged volcanic dust smells.
But really, Placed is much more. The anthology, released last fall, takes care to go beyond the typical Central Oregon grist and delve deeper. Edited and privately funded by Ellen Santasiero and Irene Cooper, Placed is organized into an encyclopedia format, an A-to-Z of all things high desert.
Initially, five women came together to work on the encyclopedia after getting the idea from former Oregon poet laureate Kim Stafford. “It was really with a wink and a nod, you know? Here’s this thing, go do it,” Cooper said. The group got started, then hit a big snag—a global pandemic. Santasiero and Cooper decided to press on and complete the project.
The result is a broad look at Central Oregon in all its diversity, and lack thereof. Placed doesn’t read like a practice in creative nonfiction. There are poems, expository writing, even a work of fiction. And its voices are not typical, either. Small regions like Central Oregon tend to have insular communities of writers, and this book goes beyond that cadre of the usual suspects, grabbing work from professional writers and newbies.
Cooper said the group started by asking people they knew from their writing network to submit two pieces, each under 800 words. Then the group talked about what topics they knew they’d want included, for example a piece on the local food scene. Turns out, one of Santasiero’s neighbors worked for High Desert Food & Farm Alliance, and while she wouldn’t call herself a writer, she had written a piece about her work for friends.
At times, the book can feel a bit disjointed, jumping around the landscape and from idea to idea. But that approach becomes part of the charm. This motley band of writers reveled in Central Oregon’s natural beauty, and then added its own twists. “We didn’t talk about it,” Santasiero said of the variety of styles and ideas featured in the book. “It wasn’t an overt thing. We just feel like writing is writing, and a different genre can reveal the optics or subject in a different way. We just left the doors wide open and were excited to see what we got.”
Those who pick up the book may notice it’s labeled as volume 1. There’s no funding for another volume, said Santasiero, but she is hopeful Placed will garner attention and lead to a second edition. “It’s this sort of glimmer in our eye right now because this was a labor of love. I have faith, but it’s just going to be an organic process.”
Cooper, for her part, believes there are plenty of topics that haven’t been touched yet. “There’s more to say about how people have navigated lockdown and quarantine. There’s more to say about what relationships and what community looks like in the past year,” she said. “I think one of the things I’m fairly impassioned about is avoiding the socioeconomic homogeneity that has affected so many towns in the West. That’s always been a concern of mine—hearing from people whose voices are fairly soft in the community. If we were to cast our net again, I think we’d be pleasantly surprised by what we’d find.”
“I would call it my love letter to Central Oregon,” Santasiero said. “I moved here thirty-one years ago, and I’ve made a really good life in Central Oregon. I think of it that way, it’s something I feel like, personally, is giving back to the community that has supported me.”
Pick up Placed in Bend at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, Roundabout Books, the Bend Store or The Workhouse, or order through your favorite bookseller.
