It is hard to believe...

But, RARE has served Oregon for 15 years – one tenth of Oregon’s 150 year history! Woohoo - this is cause for celebration and fellowship!

This is a blog about the life and times of those of us who chose to serve Oregon’s rural communities (and have a great time at it).

Use it to keep up on the latest celebration news, and reconnect with former RARE participants. Share it with your fellow alums, visit often and then join in September's celebratory event!

Include in your post
· The year(s) you served and your community
· Where you are now
· What you have been doing since RARE
· Share a little about your RARE experience. Don’t forget to dig out those old photos of you during your service term – you know the ones with the funny hair cut or you covered in mud…

Ready to post?
Email Bonny and she will get you set up as a contributor (bonnycushman@yahoo.com).

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Upstate NY RARE


Name: Scott D. Doyle
RARE year: 1999-2000 (Year 6?)
RARE Community: Florence
Home: Ithaca, New York
Sign: Aquarius

A real pleasure to see RARE almost old enough to get its license and folks getting together to celebrate. Can't say enough about what RARE taught me about myself, Oregon and rural communities. I'll never forget some of those wicked rainy days on the Oregon coast rolling back from a planning board meeting to my place in Old Town behind "the Snag" and also being floored daily that the community didn't write me off as some young punk kid from New York, but rather embraced me. It was a strange balance of feeling on the edge of the earth, but also right at home.

My time with RARE, UO, CSC and ONHW hooked me on planning and service learning, so much so that I actively explore the development of a RARE model for Upstate NY, my childhood and current home. There are great students throughout NY looking for the opportunity to contribute - and great Upstate communities that could use the support.

Though I travel in my mind to Oregon on a daily basis, I am proudly back in Upstate NY. After a brief stint at Cornell, I now serve as a Senior Planner for the Tompkins County Planning Department. I work predominately on farmland protection, conservation planning, and natural hazard mitigation. Small but great department based out of Ithaca (no doubt the hipest town east of the Mississippi). My sweet wife Ruthie and wild 3-year old Evie (took this killer photo in an Adirondack diner) and I live in the City of Ithaca.

I love RARE and love the fact that this 15 year celebration is happening. I'm picturing Ken Kato ripping it up with some hungarian dance he picked up in the Peace Corps and perfected in Astoria, Jason Smith not being admitted because he has his UW rain slicker on, and Adam Zimmerman biking up from Coos Bay for it...so, I'm doing my damndest to swing on out for it mid-September. If I can pull it off that I would peel down to Eugene after the White Stag bender Friday night to get my Duck Football fix Saturday morning. Anyone headed back down I-5 Friday night?

Go Ducks. Hope to see you soon.

Scott
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1 comment:

  1. Terry BlackAugust 20, 2009 at 2:06 PM

    Oh Scott, I am so glad you are coming, are you bringing your family?

    Terry

    ReplyDelete

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