Tours and Community Service Activities

 TOUR AND COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITY REGISTRATION OPENS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 at 12PM 

REGISTER HERE

TOURS

Discover the Journey of Waste - Knott Landfill and Worthy Garden Club/Hopservatory

Monday, June 23, 2025, 9am-12pm
Price: AOR member rate: $85; non-member rate: $125
Capacity: 25

Join us for a guided tour of Knott Landfill, where you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how waste is managed in Deschutes County. We will also visit Deschutes Recycling’s composting and recycling facility. You’ll observe operations at the active landfill site, learn about the environmental protections in place, and see how organic material is processed into nutrient rich compost. We’ll also see where landfill gas is burned off and why, and learn more about options for creating green energy and why waste reduction is important. Tour is outdoors, and elements can change quickly with gusty winds. Closed shoes are required. Safety vests will be provided.

Then we will head to the Worthy Brewing Eastside Campus to meet up with their executive director and organic farm manager. The Worthy Campus serves as a living classroom, where they offer natural science education through public observatory access, gardening classes, and school visits. They will highlight their garden that produces food and herbs for the restaurant, serves as a model and educational resource for the community for regenerative soil production, and features native pollinator plants. And we will make sure to meet their ever popular poultry crew. We will learn about their partnerships in Central Oregon to support pollinators, school gardens, and native plants.

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Waste Reduction Stars: Hayden Homes Amphitheater and Deschutes Brewery

Monday, June 23, 2025, 10am-12pm
Price: AOR member rate: $85; non-member rate: $125
Capacity: 20 

If you love a complex waste sort, then this tour is for you. You will have the opportunity to see firsthand how the award-winning Hayden Homes Amphitheater Green Team goes about their solid waste, recycling, and compost sort after a big concert. Join Justin Alvarado, Sustainability Manager, and his team as they do the post-sort of materials for all the food and beverage vendors. They have become one of the greenest music venues in the country, and in 2024 won the Live Nation Award for Sustainability. Some of their other practices include eliminating single-use plastic water bottles, encouraging concert goers to bring refillable bottles, and providing water stations. Bike parking spots (300) for those choosing greener transportation are right outside the venue. 

We will walk a short distance to the famous Deschutes Brewery for a tour of their facility highlighting their efforts to reduce energy, minimize their carbon footprint, and protect wild places. One of the brewers will guide us through their riverside campus and each participant will be offered tastings along the way. Some energy conservation highlights are: a nighttime cooling system in their warehouse, destratification fans and efficient condensing heaters, and using thermo-breaks adjacent to their coolers to keep heat out and insulation under the concrete floor, making the chilling units more energy efficient. They are dedicated to optimizing their equipment, conserving water, recycling and composting their waste at the various pubs they own, and sourcing local ingredients. Currently they are partnering with Patagonia Provisions to brew a new beer.

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Local, Sustainable Brews & Creative DIY: Bevel Craft Brewery and DIYcave 

Monday, June 23, 2025, 2pm-4pm
Price: AOR member rate: $85; non-member rate: $125
Capacity: 25

Bevel Craft Brewing is a small brewery producing about 550 barrels/year with no outside distribution. We will tour their facility, highlighting what makes their brewing and sustainability efforts unique. They send their used grain to a farmer and spent hops and yeast to an ostrich farmer. You will be treated to three different tastings throughout the tour. Bevel is situated in a fun gathering space with food carts, outside fireplace, and seating. 

You will then walk next door to DIYcave. It is a space that provides tools, classes, workshops, and private instruction to the community. DIYcave volunteer Quentin, an avid plastic recycler who uses bits of recycled plastic to make molds in their heat press, will give us a tour of the facility and shops such as woodworking, digital fabrication, metal, and more.

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COMMUNITY SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Sawyer Park SOLVE Cleanup

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 12:30pm-2:30pm
Price: Free
Capacity: Unlimited

Join Bend SOLVE for an afternoon cleaning up Sawyer Park. Formerly an Oregon State Park dedicated to the district in 1980, Sawyer is a large community park stretching along both sides of the Deschutes River that offers a large variety of activities for patrons.

Sawyer Park is located an easy 10 minute walk from the Convention Center, and parking is available.

Transportation to this event will not be provided and participants are encouraged to either walk or carpool with fellow attendees.

The group will meet to check in and depart from the Convention Center.

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Gleaning on a Farm with High Desert Food and Farm Alliance

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 12:30pm-3:30pm
Price: $85 AOR member rate; $125 non-member rate
Capacity:10

Join High Desert Food and Farm Alliance for an afternoon at a local farm to glean food and give back to the community.

The High Desert Food and Farm Alliance was developed in 2010 and formalized in 2012 to address the barriers and challenges with food access and production in the high desert region of Central Oregon. They believe that everyone deserves good food, and define good food as affordable, nutritious, and culturally preferred food that is easily accessible and sustainably produced in Central Oregon.

NOTE: The registration fee for this activity will cover transportation costs to/from the farm, with the remaining proceeds donated to be donated to the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance.

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Float the River in Tumalo Creek’s Green Tubes

Tuesday, June 24, 2025, 12:30pm-4:30pm
Price: $85 AOR member rate; $125 non-member rate
Capacity: 30

Participating in Tumalo Creek’s Green Tube Program is an excellent way to enjoy the beauty of the river while contributing to its preservation.

For this activity, you’ll receive a green tube along with mesh bags to pick up litter as you float down the river corridor.

NOTE: The fee for this event will cover the costs of transportation to/from the Convention Center, as well as the river shuttle. Remaining proceeds will be donated to the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council (UDWC).

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