SOAR dedicates "Coffield Center"

Ben Coffield unveiled the sign honoring his father. photo by Jim Cornelius Tom Coffield spent much of Friday afternoon, June 25, guiding tours of the recently-opened SOAR (Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation) facility near Sisters High School.

Then, in an emotionally charged ceremony, the SOAR executive director found out that his name will be on the recreation building -- in honor of his service to the organization, which is approaching its 10th annniversary in Sisters.

Coffield's son Ben and current SOAR President Mike Gould unveiled the facility's new sign, created by the Sisters High School art department. The sign reads "Coffield Center -- SOAR" with the emblem of a soaring eagle.

The sign and the name of the center had been kept secret from Coffield, according to founding SOAR board member Bonnie Malone. So secret, in fact, that Coffield thought the sign just wasn't ready for the Friday grand opening festivities.

"That was his only disappointment -- that everything, that the sign -- wasn't ready," Malone said.

Coffield was visibly moved by the naming of the SOAR center in his honor.

"It's extremely flattering," Coffield said. "There's a lot of people that made that building possible. I hope the building is used heavily over the next 20 years. I think it's a building that was needed in the community and I'm just happy to be a part of it."

Coffield was instrumental in securing the approximately $900,000 in grants and donations that funded the building (with no tax dollars used). He is also the man who took the "part-time" job as director when the district was founded in 1995, understanding, as Malone said, that there is no such thing as "part-time anything."

Others came in for recognition of their efforts in launching SOAR. Founding board member Colin Adams credited Tom Worcester, a Kiwanis club activist, with sparking the movement toward an independent organization in 1994, after the failure of a ballot measure for a parks and recreation district.

"Tom said, 'We've got to do something for the kids in Sisters,'" Adams recalled.

It was Worcester who came up with the acronym of SOAR that became the organization's name.