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Her community volunteering started when she was living in Redding, California and became president of the Newcomer’s Club at just 23-years-old. She hasn’t stopped since. After her arrival here fifteen years ago, Dina became involved with Bend’s Chamber of Commerce. A short stint as a Chamber ambassador led to her involvement with the St. Charles Foundation’s Saints Gala. For seven years, she contributed to its success with community outreach, procurement and fundraising
Personal experience with domestic violence during her second marriage—and her subsequent firsthand knowledge about how that kind of abuse affects women and children—prompted her to reach out to Saving Grace, which provides support and services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, date rape and stalking. In addition to serving on the non-profit’s fundraising committee for several years and volunteering to help with its public events (including sponsoring the art contest for this year’s Saving Grace Children’s Festival), she and husband Duane contributed booth space to Saving Grace during this year’s Winter Fest, where they both spent time helping to raise funds and awareness. “Saving Grace is a very special place to me,” Dina says. “They helped me move on from a particularly dark chapter of my life.” And move on she did.
In 2007, while participating in the Bend Leadership class put on by the Chamber of Commerce, she learned about Cindy Pasko’s dream of bringing Project Homeless Connect (now called Project Connect) to Central Oregon. The program provides low income and homeless people with direct access to basic services, including medical care, dental care, clothing, employment, haircuts, children’s services, assistance in applying for benefits, financial counseling, obtaining identification, vision, pet care, and much more.
“If you wind up moving this forward, I want to be involved,” Dina told Pasko. “There’s really a need for this.” Dina, who continues to contribute marketing and fundraising assistance to the program, was excited that each September up to 700 individuals and 150 organizations volunteer time and donate services to help guests find the resources they need to get back on their feet. The fact that Project Connect also links together non-profits that can work together was equally appealing.
Though she is modest about her contributions to such charitable institutions and events, others are not. “Dina Barker is a community treasure as a person, a woman and a leader,” writes Pasko, last year’s Leadership in Action award recipient. “For two years, she has not only raised large sums of money for Project Connect, she has volunteered tirelessly for countless hours on a host of other project details, whether that be folding clothes or publicly introducing elected officials in front of hundreds of people. Her advocacy for those who are vulnerable and her ability to bring people together for a common goal is a mark of true leadership.”
This year, Dina has added the title of vice-president of Healing Reins Therapeutic Riding Center to her list of credentials. She started volunteering time with Healing Reins, which helps children and adults with special needs discover a sense of power and independence through riding, as a way to be around horses. “I grew up with horses, I love horses, and I don’t have horses now,” she says. “It was a way to satisfy a part of me.” But when the organization needed her fundraising and marketing skills, she traded hands-on time with the horses to help out in a more substantial way.
Dina realizes that her involvement with non-profits isn’t the norm. “So I guess the question is: Are you crazy?” she said with a smile when accepting NEW’s Leadership in Action award at the June meeting. The fact that her sons, 26-year-old Zach Koelzer and 23-year-old Taylor Koelzer, are both out of the house and serving in the U.S. Army allows Dina to follow her passion for community involvement. So does an understanding husband, who willingly allows Dina to “volunteer” him during events throughout the year. And while she knows that most people will never jump into volunteering the way she has, she also believes that we all have a role to play. “Each of us has our own power to give back to the community in a very small way,” she says. “If we all just donated one hour a month—or skipped one latte a week and donated that money to a local non-profit—think of the difference that would make in the lives of the people served by those organizations. Those things add up. Together we do have the ability to change the world.”
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