“I’m an experienced bike rider. It’s easy for me to bike around town. But it can ge hard for others. They don’t find it easy, and I want to be able to share that experience with them.” — Brian Potwin M any Bendites might think of Brian Potwin as “The Bike Guy,” since he works […]
Source Spotlight
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Source Spotlight: Helping Vulnerable Vets
Kathy Skidmore and JW Terry of Central Oregon Veterans Outreach
T he words on the marquee outside Central Oregon Veterans Outreach pretty much say it all: NEED CANNED FOOD TENTS TARPS PROPANE COLD WEATHER GEAR. COVO is ramping up for its busiest time of year—the winter months—when veterans and others are most in need. At COVO, no one is turned away, and as Executive Officer […]
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Service to Community
This Veteran’s Day, one local family shows what it means to serve, through the Eagle Scouts, the U.S. military and more
F or this family, the practice of service to community runs strong. Three generations of volunteering and giving back came together in Bend this past weekend. The occasion was the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Jesse Fishkin, 17, a member of local Boy Scout Troop 25 and a senior at Summit High School. Jessie […]
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Source Spotlight: The Summit of Rugby
Summit Kuehn, co-founder of Central Oregon’s Timberwolves Rugby Club
O n a chilly afternoon in Riverbend Park, with a cold wind blowing off the Deschutes River, Summit Kuehn is so bundled up that her pink-dyed hair is barely visible. She’s taking a short break from coaching the Timberwolves Rugby Football Club to chat up a visitor about her passion for the sport. She gushes […]
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Source Spotlight: Robert “Bobbo” Marsh
L ong before he began rafting four seasons ago, Robert “Bobbo” Marsh, or the master of fire and water as I like to think of him, had a 30-year career with the U.S. Forest Service. He traveled the west coast as a wildland fighter, topping out with a management officer rank. Bobbo began flatwater kayaking […]
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Source Spotlight: Mike Ficher
Host of “The Ultimate Oldies Show,” KPOV Radio
A s a young adult living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the ’80s, KPOV radio host Mike Ficher got to learn all the rock ‘n’ roll dances: the Hand Jive, the Twist, the Stroll, the Bristol Stomp, the Watusi, the Hully Gully and the Madison, to name a few. Eventually, he became one […]
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Sally Pfeifer
A Beacon of Light for the Homeless, the Addicted and the Distressed
W hen I first walked into Pfeifer and Associates, I thought I had mistakenly gone into the tattoo shop next door. Funky, brightly colored walls, industrial counters and smiley, pierced and tattooed folk greeted my confused self. Sandwiched behind the Domino Room, this unassuming office space is home to bubbly, no-nonsense Sally Pfeifer, owner and […]
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Jim Long
The City’s Affordable Housing Manager Is Exactly The Person You Want Working On This Crisis
An eternal optimist. With a shade of cynicism. You might not know it, but Jim Long, the City of Bend’s Affordable Housing Manager of 12 years, looks at the housing crisis with an infinite supply of hopefulness, passion and […]
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John Reed
Brewing Champion
“I like a beer and pizza and to have a good time. Drinking beer is a social enterprise, and making it can be one, also.” A mong the beers that have graced Bend’s Growler Guys fill station is Machine Gun Maggie, an IPA clocking in at about 10 percent ABV. That heavyweight beer is the […]
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Debbi Wise
Victim Advocate
A workplace injury with a meat cutter led Debbi Wise to her vocation as a victim advocate for Deschutes County — a position in which she has excelled for more than 20 years. After sustaining the injury at Wagner’s in Redmond, she underwent a placement test that landed her in the county’s victims’ assistance program […]