6A | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 | SIUSLAW NEWS
VISION from page 1A
“One thing that happens across
the board with these projects is that
you get people who want to look
at a little area and not look at the
bigger picture,” Sarles said. “That’s
happened with several areas in
Parks and Rec. If it’s your passion,
of course that’s where your focus is,
but I think we’ve had some trouble
gathering a team and leadership
that really wants to look at the over-
all recreation issues in the commu-
nity.”
In the case of the Siuslaw Vision,
there were representatives from
Siuslaw Youth Soccer Association
(SYSA), the Mapleton swimming
pool and the picklers.
Each organization was having
varying levels of success, the most
advanced being SYSA, which has
built up a rather sizeable system of
players and partnerships with edu-
cational organizations.
Still, the group of soccer volun-
teers have broader ambitions in
mind, including creating a soccer
center and hosting tournaments
that could bring in players from
across the country, even interna-
tionally. That’s what the picklers
have in mind with their project.
“They’re not just throwing
up some goal posts,” Sarles said.
“They’re looking at a pretty major
project.”
But these projects, different in
scope and goals, were disparate, the
visions too narrow.
“The energy was divided,” Sarles
said.
So, the Siuslaw Vision Parks and
Rec program went to the wayside.
“If you only want to do one thing,
and you’re not inviting people into
your fold, you’re going to fall on
your face, eventually,” Beaudreau
said. “You can get something going,
but if you’re not including other
people, your vision is going to die
out. Nobody’s going to help because
you’re narrow-minded. It depends
on what you’re doing, but I still
think it’s super sustainable if you
work together and invite people in
the fold.”
For these projects to really be-
come successful, Sarles and Beau-
dreau believed looking at a broader
project could really get the pickle-
ball rolling again.
“I would like to see some sort
of indoor recreational facility, and
that’s personally as a parent of a
young child,” Sarles said. “When it
starts raining, there are not a ton
of indoor opportunities to burn off
energy from a crazy five-year-old. I
grew up in a large city, and our rec
centers had ceramics classes, paint-
ing, drawing, fencing, karate.”
She also envisioned a center that
could host child care, while Beau-
dreau saw possibilities for bringing
education from schools and the li-
brary system into the mix.
Commerce could also take off.
Food kiosks, like a juice bar, could
be introduced. Even the local farm-
ers market could get involved,
selling directly to a “local produce
only” health conscious restaurant.
There could even be a satellite
clinic that could help treat sports
related injuries, among other needs.
“If you’re inclusive on all of those
areas, you can get more people do-
ing more cool things and having a
really cool experience and having
an educational experience,” Beau-
dreau said.
Going big would also get big
funding, Sarles suggested.
“For example, someone threw out
that maybe we could get a health
improvement district and look at
it from a healthcare point of view,
instead of pure recreation,” she said.
“That changes how we can look at
that program. We could go through
different healthcare providers, dif-
ferent grants.”
But getting to that grand vision
will take some organization and
leadership from the community —
and thus far, no vocal leaders have
come to the forefront.
Champions
“We’re looking for communi-
ty champions,” Sarles said. “We’re
wanting volunteers who have a pas-
sion for a particular area and can
jump in, gather a team and make
something happen. That’s how the
farmers market and our cooking
skills education programs were
both started. Someone saw that
need in the community and decid-
ed to do it.”
Finding these people can be dif-
ficult, however. The picklers were
finding issues gathering those with
the know-how and wherewithal
to take on even their own, smaller
project. But with so much public
interest in these types of programs,
why is it so difficult to find people
willing to take the reins?
“That’s a loaded question,” Beau-
dreau said. “There’s a lot of factors.
They work full time.”
“Or they volunteer at 10 other
places and tend to do everything,”
Sarles added. “They burn out.”
Sarles and Beaudreau believe
there are large pockets of individ-
uals out there with the willingness,
knowledge and connections to get
these types of programs off the
ground, but their voices aren’t be-
ing heard.
“That’s a challenge because we
want more people involved,” Sarles
said. “One phrase I liked from our
gathering was the concept of ‘pro-
found inclusion.’ We’re wanting to
make sure we’re talking not just to
the usual suspects that are involved
in everything in the community, but
the people who may not be hanging
out at the coffee shop or the library
or involved in volunteering.”
To get a recreation center going,
organizations need to organize,
plan, and then search out new voic-
es to help out.
At that point, the team would
have to decide to move forward,
including designing the facility,
settling on a place to build it and
finalizing what will go in it. For
something as potentially massive
as a community rec center, it may
seem like an overwhelming task.
The solution to that is to take it
slow, with the help of as many peo-
ple as possible.
“Take the bigger picture and
make it doable,” Beaudreau said.
“Break it into steps.”
Sarles used the newly developed
Florence Farmers Market as an ex-
ample, an organization that grew
out of Siuslaw Vision.
In that case, the market had dif-
ferent teams take on aspects of the
project. One team talked to local
farmers about getting enough pro-
duce. Another team took on adver-
tising, while another looked into
hiring a market manager.
“It’s just breaking it into steps to
see exactly what is happening. You
have things you get to check off and
you feel like you’re moving — and
that prevents burnout,” Sarles said.
But all the planning in the world
won’t mean anything if funding for
for when deciding a project’s worth.
The larger the group of people work-
ing on a project that affects a broad-
er population of people, the more
likely it is to get investors interested.
Once an organization, funding
structure and overall plan is put
into place, proposals can be given to
a city or county to create a partner-
ship in furthering the project. Gov-
ernments are more apt to take on a
venture if the legwork and planning
are done by those who already have
a proven passion.
“The government helps make
a foundation to help everyone do
things with, but it’s the people that
make a community livable,” Sarles
said.
And it’s livability that makes
projects like a recreation center so
vital to a community like the Siu-
slaw.
“Do it”
Sarles pointed to ongoing com-
plaints from young professionals
that resources such as childcare
recreation and options for food are
limited in the community, which
can scare off potential residents, in-
cluding doctors and business own-
ers.
“To have our community be able
to survive in the next 50 years, we
need to build a good foundation for
professionals to be able to stay here,”
Beaudreau said. “For the young-
er people, what do we want when
we’re older? We want healthcare, we
want more job opportunities. We
may not go to the doctor frequently
now, but 10, 20 years from now, we
will want to go to the clinic and get
an appointment right away with our
doctor. We can make changes now
to help people who are currently
needing help or services, and make
it continue into the future.”
The future is what the Siuslaw
Vision is most concerned about.
While many of the projects it is
working on take a relatively short
period to accomplish, like the
Farmer’s Market, Vision is also
ready to help out with more ambi-
tious goals, like a recreation center.
The Vision has multiple resourc-
es, including partnerships with
state and local government agen-
cies, schools, the Florence Area
Chamber of Commerce and busi-
ness generating projects such as the
Oregon Regional Accelerator and
Innovation Network (RAIN).
It can also look at other projects
in the community, and match orga-
nizations with each other to ensure
a greater chance of success.
“We don’t need four different
groups trying to accomplish the
same thing,” Sarles said. “Visioning
is about trying to build all those
players and attempting to get every-
one to work together.”
Siuslaw Vision has also been
working with other communities
around the state, recently hosting a
statewide event in Florence to listen
to challenges other cities have been
facing and the solutions that are be-
ing implemented to fix them.
“Even though each community
is different and has different needs,
we can still learn from each other
and have a resource,” Sarles said.
In that session, the Vision found
the Siuslaw region is not unique in
its challenges, as other communities
face housing shortages, employ-
ment difficulties and issues with
getting sustainable projects off the
ground. However, through listening
to each other and building off ideas,
the communities are finding unique
ways to create a livable and sustain-
able future.
But to make that happen, mem-
bers of communities need to band
together and make it happen.
“If you want to do something, do
it,” Beaudreau said. “If you have an
idea, think of ways you can connect
with your neighbors, family and
friends to make something happen.”
Whether or not the picklers,
along with any other communi-
ty interest group that wants to put
their stamp on the Siuslaw region
and make it sustainable for gener-
ations to come, band together to
make their dream sustainable is un-
known.
The pickleball is now in their
court.
To learn more about Siuslaw
Vision, visit rivercal.org or call 541-
590-2425.
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the project, along with a reasonable
budget, is not in place. This has
been one issue that the Mapleton
swimming pool has faced.
“The problem with that is it’s
not energy efficient and they were
spending $8,000 a month just on
heating, which didn’t even include
staffing and maintenance,” Sarles
said. “It was just their energy bills.
That’s their challenge.”
While many organizations look
to grants to start projects, they are
generally limited to specific proj-
ects. In addition, it will take long-
term funding through endowments
to make it sustainable — “No foun-
dation wants to fund you forever,”
Sarles said.
Of course, there’s always taxes
which could be used to fund a rec-
reation project.
“People want these things, but are
they willing to fund them and sup-
port them?” Sarles asked. “It’s really
easy to say, ‘I want this, but just don’t
raise my taxes.’”
But the more people get involved
and search for funding sources, the
less likely the need for a tax burden.
“I think that the more you can
involve different people who invest
in something, they’re more likely to
value it and use it. I do think that the
community investment piece is im-
portant,” she said.
It’s also important to expand such
projects beyond city limits. While
many recreation groups go straight
to the City of Florence to help fund
their dream projects, the city’s re-
sources are limited in the best of cir-
cumstances.
“If you’re limiting everything to
just the city, you’re missing a lot of
people who are integral to our com-
munity,” Sarles said. “The people
that we know and interact with don’t
necessarily live in Florence. There
are tons of people in Mapleton, Swis-
shome, Deadwood and Dunes City.
There’s people in unincorporated
pockets of the region.”
“And many people come here to
visit, shop and work,” Beaudreau
added.
Getting community support can
also help with “collective impact,”
which funding organizations look
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