Bingo
Bingo is scheduled for Tuesday afternoons and Monday Nights
We are here to encourage our older adults to use their skills, develop their potential and continue their involvement within our community. We are here to promote healthy independent living and encourage our seniors to be visible contributors in our community.
What's Happening!
There are numerous activities here for people of all ages to enjoy.
Lunch
Lunch is served Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 to 12. Bring your to go containers to take home your left overs
Yoga with Michelle
Yoga is a great for your body and mind. Join us on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:15 a.m.
Rhubarb Festival
At the Rhubarb Festival you will find everything from “Grannies Homemade Pies” to local vendors selling their wares. Music, food and good old fashion fun makes this event a hit year after year.
Ladies Bunko
Hello Members, March 10 at 5 p.m. Lets get this party started !! It's a potluck , bring something yummy, and the center will provide beverages!! Costs $5
Please RSVP 541-536-6237 so that way we can get a head count . Don't worry if you haven't played before it's easy pesy ,well show ya !!
La Pine Activity Center News
Providing activities for the entire community in order to support our Seniors. Completely funded by donations, memberships and fundraising.
Carol Brewer has lived in La Pine since 1970, coming here from the Fall Creek area near Springfield to run the old general store on Hwy. 97 (called the La Pine HiWay Center). Her family purchased the store in 1946 but her whole family moved here in 1970.
“We had three children, and my husband was in the logging business,” says Carol. “He lasted just one year here full-time, choosing to spend weekends here and work over in the valley during the week. I stayed here with the kids and ran the store. At that time, my two oldest children had to travel to Bend for high school (three hours each day on the bus), while my fourth grader got to go to school here.”
I asked Carol if things have changed much in La Pine since then, and she replied, “That’s putting it mildly! When my husband’s family first came here in 1946, one of them had the job of counting the cars on the Dalles-California Highway each day. One day a total of 58 cars went by…and 38 customers came in the store. There wasn’t any electricity in town in 1946…and no telephones, police or fire department. La Pine was just a spot in the road.”
“Years ago we had a binder full of names of people who came here to vacation during the summers. But many streets weren’t paved yet and didn’t even have names. I lived in the back of the store for ten years.”
In 1997 Carol retired from the Hiway Center, and about five years after that, Homestead Quilts began renting her building. Carol still owns the Chamber of Commerce building next door, too.
“I moved to my current home on an acre and a half in La Pine in 1980,” says Carol, “and paid $12,000 for it, so I guess things have changed quite a bit since then.”
Carol stays busy helping out at the Center making Granny Pies and “helping wherever there’s a little job to be done.“
She decorates the tables at the Center for events and says “People really enjoy sitting down to lunch here, and it’s nice to have the tables decorated attractively. I come to lunch here at least twice a week.”
“There are a lot of places in town that really need help. We have a very unique little city, and we don’t always agree with everyone, but if somebody needs help, by gosh, they’re going to get it.”
“The people of La Pine are caring people, and when I ran the store, we would get the same people each summer coming up to vacation. And they would always say, ‘we love coming here because you’re real: friendly, honest, helpful…and that’s the best compliment you can receive.”
If you attended the recent Winter Traditions Craft Fair in November of 2022, then you’ve seen Amy Hill’s wonderful work in decorating the Community Center. She also decorated the Activity Center itself for the recent Storefront Decorating Contest, so she’s a talented addition to our Center family of volunteers.
Amy and her family have lived in La Pine for 10 years, but she actually lived here 20 years ago for a brief time.
“My husband and I got married and moved to California for his job, but we decided we didn’t want to raise kids there, so we came back to La Pine,” says Amy.
When she’s not at the Center, Amy owns Hillstead Farm, a plant and gift shop she operates out of her home.
“I’m known as the Crazy Plant Lady, but I’m just a stay-at–home mom with two children,” says Amy, “and my husband is a Microsoft network engineer who works from an office on our property.”
“Last September my dad was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and I just wasn’t coping very well. Jamie invited me to help out at the Center and volunteering there really helped me through a tough time. It gave me something to do, something fulfilling and helpful to take my mind off things.”
Amy continued, “A big part of volunteering is setting an example for our children in what we do for others. We always donate meals at Thanksgiving and it’s really important to raise your children to appreciate how important taking care of our seniors is. And everyone at the Center is so happy to see you when you walk through that door! Everyone there knows my story and what I’m going through and Jamie has been a rock. She checks on me periodically, and I feel like I’ve made friends and belong to a family that I didn’t have before I started volunteer there. It’s a great place to be!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope this new year will be one filled with fun and informative activities and events at the La Pine Activity Center, for everyone in our community!
First off, I would like to thank St. Charles for their very generous donation of $5,000 to our Center, which makes them a legacy donor! We are excited to build this lasting relationship with St. Charles to help our seniors!
I’m in the process of getting plaques made for each person (we had 65 sponsors!) who paid $50 each to sponsor a bumper for our newly-paved parking lot. That’s 65 inductees into our Bumper Hall of Fame!
We are already getting calls from prospective vendors for our 2023 Rhubarb Festival, to be held June 17 and 18. This two-day event is sure to be a fantastic time for our community!
We are starting up our 2023 campaign to get local businesses to advertise in this newsletter, as sponsors for the Activity Center. Please, if you know of any business that would like to be featured here, let us know and we’ll reach out to them.
I’m having a box made to be placed on our front counter, for suggestions on what benefits we can offer people who become members of our La Pine Activity Center. I would like to find out why they come in, and what they would like to see that they have not seen offered here. Right now, Center members get a warm building in the winter, AC in the summer, internet access, a chance to socialize, do crafts and games, eat lunch, play bingo, attend parties and dances, find out about health and senior resources, and get discounts on classes we offer. But I’m trying to figure out more benefits we can offer (10% off room rentals for members, for example).
So please stop by or call the Activity Center and let us know what YOU would like to see happen here; we are open for the WHOLE community, not just seniors! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Janice has been a volunteer at the La Pine Activity Center for less than a year, since around the time of the Sportsmen’s Show in April of 2022.
“As a former accountant, I asked if the Center needed any spreadsheets done,” said Janice. “Jamie turned around and pulled out the envelope of Rhubarb Festival vendor applications and said, ‘here!’ Ever since then, she’s had her hooks into me! Jamie keeps her volunteers involved and busy! I also work the front desk on Monday afternoons and have worked on the Cascade Relay as well as the recent Winter Traditions Craft Bazaar. Jamie is a whirlwind for getting people motivated!”
Both born and raised in SE Portland, where Janice was an accountant and her husband was a CPA they have had a cabin in La Pine for nearly 40 years. They purchased the two adjacent acres, then combined the acreage and had a home built about 15 years ago. “The camaraderie of the other volunteers at the Center and the fact that Jamie will do just about anything for anybody makes this endeavor a wonderful experience. She likes a resolution to a person’s problem,” said Janice. “I’m looking forward to staying with the Center as a volunteer, and we’re always looking for more!”