Growth

As we approach 30 years of creating access to adaptive outdoor recreation, moving to a new headquarter location matches the growing needs of the organization. Over a year ago, the search for an office space that is accessible and fits our vision of growth began. After months of work, a custom mural by the OAS admin team, and countless vehicle loads moving 13 years of accumulated programming, office, and outreach materials, the move has been completed!

With a fleet of adaptive bikes, loads of winter equipment, four vehicles (the bus, two vans, and a Ford Escape), countless thank-you notes, and reflections on athletes’ ‘Best Day Ever,’ it was a big move. There’s a lot of stoke from the OAS team looking forward.

Part of this move was eased thanks to our partnerships with:

• Bend Parks and Recreation for allowing us to store adaptive bikes and two trailers at Pine Nursery Park.
• Mt. Bachelor and Hoodoo Ski Area for the mountain offices where a majority of winter equipment is stored.
• Kendall Auto Group for their sponsorship of the Toyota Tundra (other wise known as The Beast).
• Awbrey Glen Golf Club for safekeeping of the single rider adaptive golf cart.

Vision

Whats next for OAS? Learn about the vision for OAS beyond a new headquarters in our 2034 Strategic Vision document by selecting this link!

Reflection

In the old headquarters, there were two garage bay areas to use as a workshop for equipment repairs, storage, small team meetings (when vehicles were pulled out), and shared offices. The program office housed three desks for full-time staff members within arm’s reach of each other, another office with two desks, and an enclosed office attached behind that was utilized by current OAS Executive Director, Pat Addabbo.

With seven full-time staff members sharing close quarters with each other and equipment storage each season encroaching into common areas – it was evident that to continue matching the growing needs of programming, a new location was needed. But without the old office and the community that supported that initial move, we wouldn’t be where we are today! We reached out to Jeremy Fox, current OAS winter instructor and then OAS Program Director, to share some memories of the space in its first year.

Jeremy Fox

“OAS officially moved into the “office” in 2010 or 2011 as I recall. Some of the board members had been looking for a space for the organization, as we were also going to have an Executive Director (Christine Brousseau) and needed more space to store equipment besides the ski areas and peoples’ garages. When we moved into the space, it was like “Wow, this is so much room!  We can have trainings here, happy hours…meetings!!!” We moved all the ski equipment into the cargo bay area during the off season, and started acquiring summer equipment. I used the meeting room as my office and put the work laptop on a cardboard box for a stand-up desk. A board member (Amy O’hran) and her husband built the shelving in the back of the cargo bay during one Thanksgiving. A volunteer (Chuck Delaney) who had connections at a hardware store made big upgrades to the bathroom. We would hold winter season staff training in the meeting room, and it felt so much more official than meeting at a Mexican restaurant to review OAS’ policies. Having that physical space gave everyone involved a sense that OAS was becoming more official, bigger, better.”

Present

For the foreseeable future, 345 SW Cyber Dr Ste 103 is the new OAS Headquarters where athletes can utilize the Park and Ride next door for community programming or come inside to the waiting area/lobby before meeting with their instructor to be fit-up with an adaptive mountain bike. Meetings and orientations have already taken place in the new conference room, where there is enough space to accommodate our growing community.

This would not be possible without the community’s support of OAS and the passion we all share on creating access to outdoor recreation for individuals with disabilities. Thank you.