Our Story: A History of United Community Partners

UCP is never alone in our work. We are lucky to have nearly 40 mission-based organizations here in the Pine Valley Area. We all work together and find alignment whenever and wherever we can to make the most of what we have. Most of our active volunteers wear many hats and attend the meetings of more than one or two local organizations. We have deep ties and memories running through all of our efforts. Because this is our home and these are our neighbors. And well, there’s only about 1400 total of us out here in the wilder part of the wild west, 300 or so in town.

Every story starts somewhere. Ours began in the winter of 2001, around a table in Halfway City Hall. The city was running on just $12,000 a year in tax revenue—not nearly enough to build the future our families deserved. Mayor Marvin Burgraff knew the city couldn’t do it alone. So, he brought together nine neighbors and gave them a challenge: create a ten-year vision for all of Pine Valley and start making it happen.

The nine people who answered the call were leaders, thinkers, and doers. Tony Sowers was the strategic architect, the methodical planner who laid the institutional foundation for everything to come. Zella Sly was the steady hand who would provide crucial continuity through the challenges ahead. They were joined by Gordon Kaesmeyer, Kert Lorence, Dale Beatty, Ralph Smead, John Binford, and Carey Julick, each bringing their own unique skills and deep roots in the community.

And then there was Rev. Bill Shields. As the pastor of the Pine Valley Presbyterian Church, Bill understood the soul of our community. He knew that a thriving town needed more than just economic development; it needed connection and culture. His economic analysis was sharp—”We need to diversify our economy to create stability and opportunity,” he noted—but his foundational insight that arts and cultural programming were essential infrastructure would prove prophetic.

From their very first meeting, the founders’ ambitions went beyond forming a simple volunteer committee; they were focused on building a lasting institution. They incorporated as United Community Partners and filed for 501(c)(3) status, creating an “umbrella organization” that could receive and administer grants for the entire community.

Their plans quickly translated into action. In their first two years, they secured nearly $270,000 in grants—a staggering sum that brought a $243,026 Community Development Block Grant for Halfway’s sewer plant and a $26,540 National Fire Plan grant for fire hazard reduction. They hired a program manager, Mike Higgins, and invested in professional grant-writing training. From its very inception, UCP also demonstrated its commitment to a wide range of community-led initiatives, providing fiscal sponsorship for the Pine Eagle Community Preschool, supporting the Pine Eagle Education Foundation (PEEF), and giving a home to the Full Measure Singers/Full Measure Players choir and theater group. They proved their model worked: by working together, our small community could attract the resources needed to solve our own problems.

The Quiet Years & The Revival: Resilience and New Energy (2003-2012)

No organization’s path is a straight line and often the best stories involve a lot of wandering. After the initial burst of success, UCP entered a quieter period. The day-to-day work of running a nonprofit is hard, and maintaining momentum was a challenge. This dormant period, however, became a lesson in resilience rather than a failure. Thanks to careful stewardship from dedicated board members like Zella Sly, Nancy Warner, and Shauna Hanley, the organization’s finances remained secure, preserving over $18,000 and waiting for the right moment to be reignited.

That moment came in November 2010. Zella Sly helped bring a new group of community members to the library table. People like Ruai Gregory, Phil Wreden, and Denise Christianson brought fresh energy, building on a preserved foundation of $13,327.64 in the main account and $5,264.22 in investments.

This revival was driven by the power of community champions. When the Pine Valley Fair Association needed to rebuild its grandstands, Lynda Byrd and Casey Rowen stepped up to lead a massive fundraising effort that raised over $90,000, with UCP providing the fiscal sponsorship that made it possible. When the Pine Valley Museum wanted to create a historical tour, Denise Christianson championed the project, bringing together property owners like Galen West and Terry Vaughan with local historians. UCP also supported the Pine Valley Cross-Country Ski Club, led by Galen West, Ivy Wreden, Linda and Tom Collier, Tom Nash and Maureen McMahon with grant applications to the Leo Adler Foundation.

And then there was Ruai Gregory. Over the next decade, Ruai’s sustained leadership would come to embody the very spirit of UCP. Her tireless work to develop and support the Pine Eagle Community Preschool—securing grants for playground equipment and building partnerships with the school district—created a vital piece of infrastructure for Pine Valley families and demonstrated how a single, passionate champion, backed by UCP’s organizational support, could create lasting change.

The revival period brought a new wave of energy, but to sustain it, UCP needed to evolve. This era was about building the systems and infrastructure to turn volunteer passion into professional-grade impact.

During this period we struggled to keep regular meetings, to have a quorum, to keep a secretary taking minutes. It was a very thin on the ground period. As we are committed to projects coming from project champions we worked on getting our infrastructure and communications to the community up and running consistently.

A key project from this time was the Main Street Stage. It was a perfect collaboration: Rev. Bill Shields provided the vision, Bill Schuhle handled logistics, and Steve White, a treasurer who provided crucial continuity across administrations, offered financial backing and strategic support. Built on land owned by Tony and Pat Sowers and involving local musicians like Ron Neal and Mark Christianson, the stage became a downtown hub for community events. By 2013, UCP was also celebrating the successful completion of the Fair Grandstand project and ongoing support for the Recycling Center.

This period also saw the arrival of Liz McLellan whose presidency marked a turning point by establishing UCP’s digital infrastructure, securing Google Workspace for Nonprofits, and systematically digitizing the archives. When frequent board turnover became a challenge, she developed self-serve training materials to onboard new leaders efficiently.

This new capacity was put to the test in 2013 when a devastating frost threatened to wipe out Eagle Creek Orchard. UCP, through Liz, provided pro-bono web and social media expertise to launch a crowdfunding campaign that saved the farm, proving UCP’s new role as a partner that could provide critical, hands-on technical assistance.

The organization’s support touched every corner of the community. When applications for the D’Tour Youth Program and an after-school program were declined in 2015, UCP’s response showed its maturity, offering specific feedback and connecting applicants with resources, like Julie Zaccone’s offer to help with US Bank grants. UCP provided grants to the Cornucopia Arts Council for Pine Fest, the Halfway Community Gym (championed by Denise Cairns), the Friends of the Library for a garden project, and the library’s “Kindles and Bikes for Books” program. It fiscally sponsored a $4,000 donation for shade sails at the fairgrounds and also provided grant support for the Pine Valley Cross-Country Ski Club. It provided an interest-free loan to PEEF for art supplies at the request of Vicki Johnson.

Cultural projects flourished: the Seed Sharing Station, championed by Liz McLellan and built by Kert Lorence; the popular Outdoor Women of Halfway calendar (still one of the most popular pages on our website), organized by Jennifer and Terry Whipple Simons; and support for music festivals like PineFest, the Chautauqua Music Festival (led by Sara Artley), and the Clear Creek Music Festival. Discussions were held for a community gun range and even a community insurance initiative.

This period culminated in the work of Kat Davis, whose presidency saw a major revision of the bylaws. Informed by Bill Schuhle’s conversations with founder Tony Sowers, this created a modern governance framework that solidified the lessons of the past 15 years and ensured UCP could manage major grants with transparency and accountability.

Today, UCP is the organization the founders dreamed it could be. The resilience learned in the quiet years and the systems built during the renewal have created a foundation for our most ambitious work yet. The project champion model is at the heart of everything we do.
This was the era when Jenn Berg and Pam Conley took professional training and created our modern accounting systems, a crucial step in professionalizing our operations. Pam’s cartographer’s precision bought much needed organization to the archives Liz built. It was also when a board retreat led by Kat Davis, Deanna Bowmen, Pam Conley, and Linda Bergeron resulted in a comprehensive rewrite of our mission, vision, and services, making it easier for the community to understand how to engage with us.

This robust foundation allows us to support a wide array of projects, both large and small. Our flagship initiatives include:

Pine Valley Firewise: Championed by a dedicated committee including Pam Conley and Debi Lorence, this nationally recognized program has secured major grants to make our community safer from wildfire.

Pine Valley 2050: A community-wide effort to create a shared vision for our future, these planning sessions have become powerful incubators for the next generation of local leaders.

Mentor Match: Championed by community members like Stacy Green, this program connects young entrepreneurs with experienced mentors, culminating in a “Shark Tank” style competition.

Dark Skies Over Halfway: A project to preserve our stunning night skies, championed by passionate local astronomers.

But the story of our impact is also told in the incredible variety of other community-driven projects we support. When Kevin Pfiefer had an idea for the Mountain View Disc Golf Course, UCP provided the support to make it a reality. We’ve continued to support the Halfway Farmers Market (championed by Bill Shields, Amari Fauna and Chloe Flore and Kim Jones), the Lions Club’s senior meals program, the Oak Tree Ranch farm show, and the Pine Valley Fair carnival. We’ve helped launch a wedding destination website, HalfwayHitched.com, to boost local tourism.

And we continue to innovate. The Hells Canyon Action Hub (HCAH), first proposed by Pam Conley and Millicent Simpson, began as an idea for a shared space for local classes. That spark grew into a bigger vision: VELMA, a local, agent-based tool being built by Liz McLellan to help people schedule events, book venues, and share announcements in one private, secure, community-owned platform – which will fund space rentals for instructors and workshops around town. The project is still taking shape, a testament to our commitment to evolving and finding new ways to serve Pine Valley.

From a nine-person team around a table, United Community Partners has become a sophisticated and impactful organization woven into the fabric of our community. The journey has been one of vision, resilience, and the unwavering belief that the best solutions come from the community itself. As we look to the future, we do so with a proven model for success, a deep well of community support, and an unwavering commitment to empowering the people of Pine Valley to build the future they envision, together.

Visit our Pine Valley Idea Bank to see all of the ideas that have come up over the 24 years we have worked together.

To review and help us remember – visit our comprehensive history living document (coming soon).  We know it is far from perfect. It is what we have been able to capture from the archive of minutes. We are trying to confirm and expand on the details. If you have corrections, clarifications, stories missing –  please get in touch.