Meet our Community: Rod

Rod and Bob Shaw at a Regal Cinema luncheon, where Rod received an award for living the Regal value of "We Inspire"

If you’ve ever been to a Bend Elks game, you’ve likely run into Rod. The "Concessionaire Extrordinare" had worked summers at the Elks stadium since 1972 when he was 7 years old, and is arguably the friendliest person in Bend. Today you may run into him at the Regal Cinema in Bend, where he’s worked for the past year and a half doing what he loves to do - interacting with people and making sure they enjoy themselves. He’s always trying to make someone laugh, which in turn makes him laugh!

Rod was born and raised in Bend, and knows the city like the back of his hand. He started meeting with Thrive in 2017, first at the Downtown Bend Library. Though his initial reason for seeking services is lost to time, he eventually became something of a “regular” when Thrive started providing drop-in services at his apartment complex in late 2017.

Rod has lived in the same affordable housing apartment using a Housing Choice Voucher for the past 19 years. He lives with an intellectual disability, which means that he sometimes needs a little extra help understanding the details of things like his Voucher, Social Security income, and other paperwork. Over the past 7 years, Rod recalls all the different things that he worked on with Thrive. It’s quite a list, and because he is stably housed, it’s a list of many of the “other” things that Thrive works on with folks:

Help understanding SNAP (food stamp) changes
Annual paperwork help for energy assistance through the LIHEAP program
Assistance in understanding why his Social Security amounts changed
Filed an appeal to Social Security when they charged him thousands of dollars in overpayment
Assistance finding and applying to jobs
Annual Housing Voucher recertification paperwork assistance
Help when he started working more and was at risk of losing his Housing Voucher
Connections with physical health providers
Dial-A-Ride application
Connected with Deschutes County IDD services for more consistent case management
Started working with Good2Go for one-on-one support

As we said, quite a list! After all, it has been 8 years, and a lot of things tend to come up. Rod is grateful for the folks he has worked with at Thrive- consistently working with Britta for about 6 years, and in the past year working with Megan.

When we asked Rod what he would say to someone that needs assistance, he said,

“Whatever the issue is - if it’s rental assistance, food assistance, if it’s gas assistance, anything, go to your local Thrive Central Oregon. There is help out there if needed!”

These days, Rod is advocating for better transportation in Bend. A daily Dial-A-Ride user, he knows first-hand how difficult it is to access and rely on, and wants the system to be better.

When he’s not working, he takes part in the Special Olympics - both bocce ball and bowling for “forever” he says. In fact, over his lifetime he has received over 500 medals from the Special Olympics! Rod also loves watching old TV shows- Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, the Brady Bunch, you name it.

Right now he’s hoping to get a ride to the Beaver State Comicon at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds on May 31st and June 1st- where he hopes to see Jerry Mathers (Beaver, from Leave it to Beaver!). He’s having a hard time finding a ride- so if you know of anyone going, email us at britta@thrivecentraloregon.org. We’d love to connect you with Rod :)

Thank you so much to Rod for being such a bright light out there in the community, and for trusting Thrive with your needs since 2017 ❤️