Bend’s Community Center not closing doors (yet)
When people have nowhere else to turn, Bend’s Community Center is often where they end up.
“This young man came in — I guess he and his wife were living in their car and they needed some blankets. He got them right then and there,” said Virginia Reddick, president of the United Senior Citizens of Bend.
Grants were slashed, and now the non-profit’s future is in limbo.
“It would just be a tragedy if this goes away in my opinion,” BCC’s interim director, Linda Heatley, said Friday.
Running on donations and a kitchen full of volunteers, BCC provides a makeshift home for the needy.
“There was this lovely young lady, she had a job interview and was either living her car or on the streets,” Reddick recalled. “She came in and had a shower, and washed her hair, and she looked fine. But she was worried because she didn’t have any deodorant, and they even gave her that.”
Randy Steffen volunteers, and has for the past six years.
“We feed anywhere from a couple hundred to over a thousand on Sundays,” said Steffen.
Prepping and cooking for BCC is part of his weekly routine; he hopes it stays that way.
“If they didn’t have us to provide the meals that we do, I just don’t know what they’d do, –I guess just not have another meal,” said Steffen.
The pantry’s stock is dwindling, but people in need continue to line up, plate in hand.
“People just don’t realize, they need help, and that has been provided here for many years,” said Reddick.
All the hard work that got BCC to where it is today, and could be gone in an instant.
“We’re just going to take this a day at a time. And when we know something, everyone will know,” said Heatley.
Bend’s Community Center also serves lunches to seniors but financial woes will keep the program and the non-profit on a week to week basis. If that does not work, they may close permanently.
BCC is contracted with the Central Oregon Council on Aging to provide lunches for seniors. Closing won’t mean the end of those meals, but it will complicate things for seniors who don’t drive.
For more information: http://www.bendscommunitycenter.org/
