Press Release: SAO and Hayden Homes Join Forces to Tackle Stroke Education

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Local Non-profit and Hayden Homes Join Forces to Tackle Stroke Education 

Hayden Homes Donates $110,000 over a 4 year period in partnership with Stroke Awareness Oregon to bring light to the stroke community across Central Oregon. 

 

Bend, Oregon – Stroke Awareness Oregon is celebrating an incredible milestone with the continued monetary support of Hayden Homes in their latest donation. With a commitment of $100,000 over a four year period, and an additional $10,000 donated in honor of the organization’s dedication to new education and recovery programs. 

 

Stroke Awareness Oregon is honored to continue partnering with Hayden Homes and continue the conversation around stroke education, prevention, and recovery. With the help and heart of an organization such as Hayden Homes, the programs provided by Stroke Awareness Oregon can reach far beyond the local community, and extend across

the state. 

 

“This is an incredible opportunity for the organization and a true testament to how important this work is. 1 in 4 people will have a stroke in their lifetime. It is crucial that we set up the preventative measures, early education, and the recovery support for those that will feel the impact of stroke.” – Jim Patterson, SAO President 

 

Hayden Homes has continually supported Stroke Awareness Oregon, with a Match Challenge taking place in May of 2023 for Stroke Awareness Month. Hayden Homes has a personal relationship with the disease and in tribute to veteran employees impacted by stroke, has dedicated tremendous support and monetary involvement in the stroke community. 

 

About Stroke Awareness Oregon

Stroke Awareness Oregon (SAO) is the only community-based 501(c)(3), in Oregon, dedicated to supporting the recovery of stroke survivors and their families, while regionally emphasizing the education, prevention, and recovery of stroke across the State.

Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the greatest source of permanent disability worldwide. As an advocate of the medical and stroke community, SAO is a hopeful force for a society of improved brain health and longevity, enhanced recovery, and the reduction of stroke related death and disability.

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Story Preview | A DRIVING FORCE – Alesha Goodman

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.”

______________________________

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!