Reaching out with helping hands

Shifting its focus from just the homeless to include other at-risk people, the Saturday event in Redmond provided 2,200 attendees with hot meals, haircuts, medical help and more

By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin

Published: September 20. 2009 4:00AM PST

Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

Steven Goodridge, 44, gets his beard and hair trimmed Saturday by a Phagan’s Central Oregon Beauty College student volunteer at the Project Connect event at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond. A former lineman for a cable television company, Goodridge said he’s lived in a tent in the desert since he lost his job in 2004.

Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

Chris King, 23, and Ashley Lair, 20, comfort their dog Sissie Bear as she gets a shot from volunteer veterinarian Deb LaPaw at Saturday’s Project Connect in Redmond.

REDMOND — Joe Ellis woke up in a tent east of Redmond on Saturday morning and walked about seven miles to the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, trekking to Project Connect in search of anything that might help him close the door on two years of homelessness.

Ellis, a 50-year-old former millworker, was one of more than 2,200 homeless and low-income Central Oregonians served at the event, now in its third year.

Originally directed at the homeless, the event has shifted its focus to include those at risk of homelessness, according to director Cindy Pasko.

Pasko, also the director of community development for the Partnership to End Poverty, said that’s a much bigger group than most people realize — around 30 percent of all Americans are less than two months away from homelessness should they lose their jobs or suffer a serious injury or illness.

At the fairgrounds Saturday, around 600 volunteers cooked hot meals and gave haircuts, provided advice and handed out food and toiletries. Doctors provided medical checkups, flu shots and dental care, and veterinarians examined pets and provided vaccinations.

Those eligible for food stamps could be signed up and issued an Oregon Trail card on the spot, and those in need of clothing could choose from more than 80 large bags worth, all collected by Emily Rood, a 17-year-old Girl Scout from Bend.

“The only way we can do this is by everyone in the community coming to help us, from schoolchildren, seniors, nonprofits, government,” Pasko said. “That’s the only way we can do this.”

Emily, a senior at Bend High School, said she decided to gather the clothing as her Gold Award project, the Girl Scouts’ equivalent of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout award. She started collecting clothes in the spring, setting out collection bins at stores around the area, and doing a few radio interviews to boost awareness of her project. Garage sales proved to be a great resource, Emily said — several times, she was able to walk away from a garage sale with several bags of donated clothes after explaining her project.

“It was hard, but it’s totally worth it,” Emily said. “Events like this are awesome.”

Individuals who came to Project Connect seeking help told a variety of stories.

Candy and Jon, both 37 and from Redmond, declined to give their last names — with kids in local schools and both of them looking for better work opportunities, Candy said they’d prefer to avoid publicity. Candy said they came to the event to get checkups for their two dogs, Lilah and Domino. With the family’s only income coming from Jon’s job at a gas station, money is too tight for things like regular vet visits.

“If I could make 40 hours a week, we’d be fine,” Jon said. “But I’m lucky to get 20.”

Jon said he used to earn a good income, working 16 years as a wildland firefighter. But the job took a toll on his body. In 1994, he hurt his knee on a landing while working as a smokejumper, and in 2000, he went through the windshield in a truck crash and slid down a 300-foot embankment. Now, overly physical work is too painful.

Candy said it was eye-opening to see such a large turnout at Saturday’s event.

“It’s enlightening, seeing all the people there are here who need help,” she said. “And it kind of saddens me.”

While waiting for a haircut, Ellis explained that he’d owned his own house before he lost his job as a millworker. Eventually, his unemployment ran out, he lost the house, and he and his wife were forced to move in with his mother. After a short time, they decided they’d be better off on their own, and moved into a tent on Bureau of Land Management land.

“I love my mom,” Ellis said. “I didn’t want to see her go through the heartache of trying to take care of me and my wife.”

Ellis said homelessness was difficult initially, but they quickly learned what they had to do, from figuring out how to keep their tent watertight in the winter, to determining where to find the most generous drivers when panhandling.

The long walk to town looked like it might pay off, Ellis said. Earlier, he’d met with representatives of the Oregon Military Department, and learned that he was still eligible for benefits, even though it had been nearly 20 years since his last stint in the Oregon National Guard. On Wednesday, he’s planning to hitchhike into town to meet with them again, to see about getting his dentures fixed, and possibly securing assistance to get him into a real home again.

Ellis said while he’s not going to get his hopes up too high, two years of homelessness has taught him that people can be remarkably generous.

“This is America. There’s no reason to steal or break in to anything,” he said. “You might stereotype them, ‘Oh, this is a homeless person,’ but most homeless people are good people.”

Scott Hammers can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at shammers@bendbulletin.com