Special Olympics Oregon has been fully moved into the office and we couldn’t be more excited! Our new space was so nice we decided to share, and who could think of a better team to share it with! As many know Special Olympics’ mission is to provide athletic competition, events, training and so much more to individuals with intellectual disabilities and their Oregon branch recently moved in with our team!

Their Story:

Special Olympics Oregon (SOOR) fell on hard times recently and came face to face with a difficult road ahead, but in a tremendous rebound effort they brought on Britt Oase and Lori Van Dyke as their new Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, respectively. These two along with the rest of the amazing crew at SOOR made the hard, but necessary decision to put the upcoming 2018 and 2019 games on hold, in a decisive move towards their goal of regaining financial stability.

“It is important that Special Olympics Oregon be a good community partner to all stakeholders, including our athletes and their families, volunteers, schools, the many supporters we have in law enforcement, the corporate community, donors and vendors. Currently, we don’t have the funds available to pay for services we have used in the past, hindering our ability to carry out our 2018 schedule as planned.” – Britt Oase

Lending a helping hand:

Doug Westervelt, our President and CEO, extended a helping hand to SOOR a few months ago by proposing an idea while we were making plans to move into a new space, “why doesn’t Special Olympics move into the new office with us?” We would have the room in the new office, and we could offer them a workspace rent-free! SOOR accepted the offer and plans moved forward to have our two organizations under one roof.

Our service team has since moved their entire infrastructure to the PDX.net office. We have set their team up at new workstations, with desks provided free of charge by Fully, a local ergonomic office supply company. We will also be providing our full IT services to their team pro bono and we are hoping over the next six months the efforts taken by our team will help alleviate some of their pains.

Cut to today, two weeks after moving in, Special Olympics Oregon is working in harmony with the Portland Internetworks team. Their vision is set on the horizon to swiftly bring back financial stability to their organization and get the athletes out competing again. We at Portland Internetworks are ecstatic to help support them along the way.

If you would like to meet the Special Olympics team or hear more of their story in person, stop by. We are always happy to have friends over, and our doors are always open. We know our new roommates at Special Olympics feel the same way. See you at the office soon!

Join us in welcoming Special Olympics Oregon to the office!