News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Christopher McClellan and Ashley Miller made a big impact at SPRD this summer.
Christopher McClellan and Ashley Miller came to Sisters this summer looking for ways to help children.
The University of Oregon students were interns with the Portland-based nonprofit http://friendschildren.org, whose founder, Duncan Campbell, is planning to retire to the Sisters Country and was seeking outreach opportunities.
"He basically asked us to dive into the community and find places where we could help," Miller said.
Shawn Diez, a counselor at Sisters Elementary School, steered the pair to Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD), where their volunteer help was a tremendous boon.
"They were awesome," said business manager Anne Heath. "They provided great staff support. The kids loved them. They were a lot of fun."
The volunteers worked with SPRD on Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday they led games and activities in the morning, then went with the kids to Juniper Pool in Bend.
"The kids would swim all afternoon and have an absolute blast," McClellan said.
On Fridays, Christopher and Ashley accompanied SPRD field trips to Scout Lake, Wizard Falls and other places.
Their interaction with the kids allowed the paid staff to focus on setup duties and manage logistics.
"It was a true blessing for us," Heath said. "It was a great asset to the district."
Their efforts were rewarding on a personal level for the young college students. Miller, who is studying toward a career in elementary education, found her interaction with the kids heartwarming.
"I just love watching them grow and mature," she said. "It just brightens my heart to see kids get to a place where they've found an adult they can trust completely."
McClellan felt similarly.
"The thing that I really learned about this summer is that kids just love to be loved unconditionally," he said.
McClellan, who is studying business and religion, said he found great satisfaction in the moment when a child would "get" something new.
The SPRD program offers plenty of new experiences, including river rafting, which almost all of the participants were doing for the first time.
"The kids were always moving, always doing something," Miller said. "One of their missions is to keep the kids outside - no sitting inside staring at a movie screen."
"It meshed perfectly with who we are," McClellan said. "SPRD was just fantastic this summer. Sisters has been a fantastic place to be all summer."
Both Miller and McClellan enjoyed meeting parents of "their" kids on the street and getting hugs from the kids and kudos from moms and dads. Chris said there is something very special about coming into a town where you know nobody and leave there with the feeling that you truly became part of the community.
"It's an experience you don't get elsewhere," he said. "It's been very rewarding to know that the kids have loved us as much as we have loved them."
For more information on SPRD visit http://www.sisters
recreation.com. For more information on Friends of the Children, visit http://www.friends
children.org.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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