SOAR hires Carrie Ward as its new director

The Sisters Organization for Activities and Recreation (SOAR) has acquired 27 years of recreation management experience in its new director, Carrie Ward.

The SOAR board announced this week that Ward will replace the retiring Tom Coffield at the helm of the 10-year-old organization.

Ward told The Nugget of coming to Bend in the early 1970s because of the outdoor recreation opportunities. She hired on with the Bend Parks and Recreation Association.

Ward received a degree in Parks and Recreation Administration from the University of Oregon while volunteering as a recreation program leader in the summer months for the association in Bend.

“I wouldn’t leave so they finally had to put me on staff and start paying me,” she said.

Eventually Ward was promoted to director of the recreation services district, which was followed by a promotion in 1995 to the executive director position.

Three years ago Ward walked away from this job that seemed made for her, in a town that exuded her lifestyle. She was forced to leave by the very forces that brought her to Bend in 1972. The rest of the country had come to recognize the City of Bend for its scenic beauty and outdoor opportunities. As Bend suffered the attendant growing pains, its parks and recreation district began to change as well.

“I was too close to it; too close to its growing pains and I just got caught in the crossfire of a very political situation, in a very political time. I think that is a good way to summarize it without going into the gory details, which I do not want to do,” said Ward.

SOAR Board Chairman Bonnie Malone said that the reason for that parting of company (Ward and Bend Parks and Recreation Assoc.) was that there had been a paradigm shift on the board of directors and that shift highlighted some programs and diminished others.

“She (Ward) didn’t feel that was fair, so the board made its choice,” said Malone. “and we (SOAR) don’t care. We are thrilled.”

SOAR was seeking a local option levy on May 17 of 35 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to maintain and expand its programs (see election results at http://www.nuggetnews.com.)

Ward says that she has Tom Coffield’s big shoes to fill, but the shoes are going to be even bigger if the SOAR tax levy doesn’t pass.

According to Malone, if the levy passes it will financially stabilize SOAR.

“For me personally and probably the rest of the board, it would be a huge sigh of relief to not be concerned about how to keep the doors open for people who cannot afford the programs,” she said. “There are too many fund-raisers.

“If the levy doesn’t pass, we are going to examine our budget and see where we have to make sacrifices,” said Malone. “At the worst we would be back in the trenches in fund-raising and try to figure out a way to do it better, rather than lean on this town anymore. SOAR is not going away. It’s our baby.”

After Ward moves to Sisters in a few years when her son graduates from Mountain View in Bend, she might start to find what she has left behind in Bend — a changing population with changing values. Ward’s challenge will be negotiating the costs and benefits of that change in her administrative role at SOAR.

That, Malone said, will work in SOAR’s favor.

“I think it is a great advantage to have Carrie because she has already been through the experience of the growing pains in Bend. She’ll be way ahead of us in recognizing the problems before we do.”