Join Our Volunteer Teams!
Our team works in partnership with hospitals, community leaders, and businesses to
continually provide stroke education and resources to the community.
We love getting involved with events and are always looking for new ways to fundraise!
“Of all the work I’ve done in my life, the most rewarding has been when I’ve volunteered for a worthy cause, such as with Stroke Awareness Oregon. To volunteer is to care, and to want to make a difference in the world. Now more than ever, our world needs people like us to step up, and provide a wholehearted service without expectation of getting anything in return. But we volunteers, do receive so much in return: the satisfaction and joy of knowing we’ve done something to improve the lives of others. To me, that is invaluable.”- Lili Alpaugh, Founding Volunteer Coordinator
I invite you to join our dedicated group of volunteers and SAO staff to help fulfill SAO’s mission and purpose. It’s a fun positive group of people who enjoy working together. I can promise that you won’t regret a single moment!
B.E.F.A.S.T. Outreach – One of Stroke Awareness Oregon’s primary missions is to make B.E.F.A.S.T. a household safety word.
We’ve stretched out to neighboring towns across the Central Oregon region which include: Bend, Redmond, LaPine, Madras, Prineville, Sunriver, and Sisters.
Our operations team simply gives you a list of places to visit, and we even create support packages! All we need from you is to visit and talk about stroke!
Presentations – One of SAO’s CORE beliefs is education. Our team is always in the community sharing educational presentations on stroke.
SAO has two community presentations: Stroke 101 and Stroke Heroes. Stroke 101 is a 1 hour presentation covering the causes of stroke, identification (BEFAST), education, stroke prevention and recovery. Stroke Heroes is a 30-minute interactive presentation geared toward 4th graders age students and programs.
Get in Touch! – Our team is always growing, and our mission is never-ending.
There are many ways to get involved with Stroke Awareness Oregon. Between organizational help at the office, support group assistance, and varying events – there is no shortage of help needed.
Events – The whole 9 yards! Our organization loves holding events. From stroke survivor barbeques to high-end plays – We’re always out in the community looking for ways to:
If you’re looking for a chance to meet stroke survivors, be inspired, and provide the support at some of these events, this might be for you.
We’re continuously thankful for the medical community and granting us the ability to do outreach!
These include:
Join our MVP Partners and make a lasting impact—connect with us today to support stroke survivors!
Fill out this form to get connected or to offer your support!
by Jake Sheaffer
“I once threw a canister of my supplement powder at the wall and dented it. That’s something I can’t imagine ever doing before my stroke, but it’s just another part of my recovery to work on.”
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On an early October weekend in 2019, Alesha Goodman and her longtime boyfriend Drew hiked over 50 miles of rugged desert landscape in the Ochoco National Forest in Central Oregon. They were on a nine-day hunting trip they’d been planning for months. While Drew streaked up the steep slopes of sagebrush and loose rock, Alesha tarried behind breathing heavily, fighting the searing pain radiating from the base of her skull. An active thirty-four-year-old who frequented local gyms, walked her dog daily, and hiked on weekends, Alesha never suspected the severe neck pain and nausea she’d had for the past week and a half were signs of an impending stroke. And not just one stroke, but two. Two potentially fatal strokes that would occur within an hour of each other the day after she returned from the Ochocos.
An only child, Alesha was close to her parents and her grandmother who lived on her parents’ property later in life. As a kid, she delivered newspapers in her Bend, OR neighborhood, and in her spare time, she wrote children’s books for fun and read voraciously, prompting close friends to refer to her as a “living encyclopedia of odd information.”
On the Monday morning after she got home, Alesha sat in traffic at a parkway off -ramp, still in discomfort from the neck pain and the nausea. She had new symptoms, too, dizziness and feeling faint. Regardless of the pain, she readied herself for work, but she had an uneasy feeling about her job.
Over the weekend, Alesha had received multiple text messages from her employer, a jewelry company in Central Oregon, about an issue with her company email and password, but with no cell reception, she couldn’t respond to her manager’s concerns. After searching through Alesha’s desk for her email password and not finding it, but instead finding an important legal document she’d already dealt with but had not yet disclosed to her boss, the company hired a specialist to get around the digital safeguards. That day, Alesha was let go from her position.
Purchase the Book to Learn More About Alesha’s Journey!