Community Education Program
A stroke is a “brain attack” and will affect 1 in 5 Oregonians in their life-time. But there are ways to prevent stroke and minimize the often disabling outcomes of stroke.
With a grant from the Central Oregon Health Council, Stroke Awareness Oregon is doing just that through a new community education program called, “Stroke 101 – Awareness & Prevention.” This 1 hour presentation covers the causes of stroke, identification (BEFAST), education, stroke prevention and recovery.
A regional program serving Deschutes, Jefferson, Crook and Wheeler counties, SAO is ready to share life-saving information across Central Oregon. Contact SAO to schedule a presentation at your workplace, service organization, non-profit, church group, business, school group and/or affiliate groups. To schedule with us contact 541 323-5641 or email education@strokeawarenessoregon.org.
We invite you to join our dedicated group of volunteers and SAO staff to help fulfill SAO’s mission and purpose.
“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.” – Lili Alpaugh, Founding Volunteer Coordinator.
To learn more about Stroke Awareness Oregon fundraisers, resources, and volunteer opportunities, please connect with our team via email at education@strokeawarenessoregon.org.
The Central Oregon Health Council exists to build an equitable and integrated health ecosystem that improves the health of Central Oregonians through collaborative work and community partnerships, utilizing data-driven decisions to achieve quality improvements, lowered costs, and empowered providers.
Stroke Awareness Oregon (SAO) exists to minimize death and disability from stroke through prevention education
and to support the best life possible for stroke warriors and their loved ones.
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Thank you for your interest in Stroke Awareness Oregon! We look forward to connecting with you further. You can reach the SAO team by phone, email, or in-person at the SAO office in Bend, Oregon. If you or a loved one are displaying signs of stroke please Call 9-1-1 immediately. Time = Brain!
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!