For ten years, Morgan Schmidt has been serving the Central Oregon community in many facets. From her career as a pastor, to a run for Deschutes County Commissioner, to a move to the nonprofit sector, Schmidt’s journey has given her much to be thankful for.
1. Where are you from and how did you get to Bend?
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and went to college in Boston. I participated in a college internship in Seattle, and after graduation returned there to work with teenagers and college students as a pastor. Eight years later, my predecessor at First Presbyterian in Bend reached out with a job opportunity. On my first visit to Bend, I fell in love.
2. How did you get involved with community projects in Central Oregon?
For me, being a pastor has always been about serving the community in meaningful, tangible ways. When I moved here, I served as the Director of the Bend Youth Collective, a progressive, ecumenical youth group formed by a handful of local churches. We met with community leaders, nonprofit visionaries, and civil servants locally and across the west coast, engaging around equity issues like houselessness, economic injustice, food insecurity, immigration, and community service.
3. How did Pandemic Partners get started and what was its biggest success?
Pandemic Partners started on March 12, 2020, when many of us realized that COVID-19 wasn't going to be a far-off problem reserved for other countries or big cities — it was going to impact all of us. For me, being a pastor was always about community service and First Presbyterian Bend has been rooted in that work for a long time. I started the Pandemic Partners Bend Facebook group with the thought that it might be a way for people to ask for help and offer help in a new reality where we couldn't always be face to face. Overnight, the invitations of a few friends turned into 3,000 Bend residents who had the same vision. Before long, there were 12,000 of us doing what we could to help our neighbors.
4. Why did you run for Deschutes County Commissioner?
I ran for County Commissioner because of all the stories we couldn't share on Pandemic Partners. There were limits to what a Facebook group of neighbors was able to offer. We did what we could, with as much generosity as we could, and still there were systemic injustices that exacerbated the effects of the pandemic on our neighbors and our community. The best part of the experience was being able to really listen to my neighbors and speak to our collective imagination that we could build a County full of communities where everyone has a chance to flourish.
5. How was the transition to being an Executive Director for the American Red Cross?
In some ways stepping into my role at the Red Cross was a big change — working for the largest humanitarian network in the world is much different than being a pastor in a local church. And at the same time, it's on brand for me.
6. What has been your best experience with the Red Cross?
I had the honor of deploying as a Disaster Chaplain to the wildfire in Lahaina last August. Being present in the aftermath of a disaster of that magnitude — there's only one way through and that's if we all remember we belong to one another, and if people come out of the woodwork to help one another. I was humbled and awed by the Ohana that was embodied on Maui.
7. What do you love most about living in Central Oregon?
I love the people here. I met my life partner and my best friends here. I love Central Oregon because we show up for one another and are trying to build a community we dream being a part of. And it doesn't hurt that this is the most dog friendly place in the world.