Friends and Supporters,
I want to update you on what Cascade Astronomy & Rocketry Academy (CARA) has been up to since our launch back in October of 2023. It has been a while since we published our activities outside of social media, so here is a quick overview of what has been happening since our announcement to form CARA.
We started with several goals, including the following:
Since 2023, we have been involved in school programs throughout Central Oregon and here locally in Sunriver and La Pine, introducing over 200 students to their first views of the Sun through CARA’s telescopes. We have also conducted rocketry programs in LaPine schools, and estimate that over 90 students launched their first rockets with us! Further north, we interacted with over 200 Redmond kids and adults that attended Space Night in 2024.
CARA has finished five major outreach programs that offered free viewing of the Sun and nighttime objects. We set up solar telescopes in public parks and offered nighttime viewing in the Old Mill District. In just a few hours of these sessions, we had over 400 people come by to view through five of CARA’s telescopes. As a NASA Solar System Ambassador since 1999, I also presented a couple of NASA related programs, including the Europa Clipper Program at Worthy Brewing in 2023.
This has been the most complex and challenging task in our mission. We identified three primary partners for long term plans of building a science center and observatory. All three of the prospective partners have declined to move forward. Today’s economic climate does not lend itself to long term financial commitments, but we will continue our outreach and have identified three additional potential partners with which to share our concepts of a permanent facility. We have discussed purchasing our own land and moving forward, but at this time, we don’t see that as a feasible option.
CARA has strengthened our partnerships with many organizations. We have grown our partnerships with OMSI, Bend-La Pine School District, Sisters School District, Redmond School District, and plan to continue expanding local educational partnerships. In addition, we continue to build our relationship with aeronautics educational programs with Oregon Rocketry, George Fox, OSU, PSU, University of Oregon, University of Washington and many others. In the last two years, we have helped hundreds of students receive their high-power certification in rocketry. Some students have gone on to national and NASA certification programs.
CARA is grateful to have received grants and donations from individuals, Oregon Community Foundation and Sunriver Rotary. We started out in October 2023 with $300 in our checking account. As of July, we have about $10,000 set aside for educational programs, current assets of over $6,000 in educational supplies and materials, and over $45,000 in telescopes and accessories.
Our goal for the 2023/2024 academic year is to bring astronomy education programs to the classrooms.
As of July 2025, we have raised over 30% of our goal for fundraising in this category, and we have completed dozens of programs in the schools, some of them funded by CARA and other donors.
Our objective is to help teams throughout the Northwest to be able to compete in a wide variety of rocketry competitions. Students will apply for grants which will be awarded based on their applications.
As of July 2025, we have raised over 30% of the goal for fundraising in this category. We are excited to still be able to help high school and college students reach their goals.
We are working on obtaining a variety of meteorites that can be used for educational and public programs.
As of July 2025, we have raised over 100% of the goal for fundraising in this category. Through generous donations, we have one of the finest collections of meteorites that we can take into schools and programs. This includes a lunar and Martian sample. We will be adding more information soon on our website.
This is a fundraising for solar viewing equipment and is part of our long term goal of offering state of the art solar viewing programs.
As of July 2025, we have raised over 20% of the goal for fundraising in this category. However, this has not limited our ability to offer solar viewing. Due to in-kind donations, we have been able to offer fabulous views of the Sun during our public outreach and educational programming. We will be looking at revising this goal for our 2026/2027 goals.
We are currently looking to add three large telescopes. Our friends have come forward with some very high-end instruments for us to add for our educational programming.
As of July 2025, we have raised over 100% of the goal for fundraising in this category. Through grants via COVA and generous donations, we have numerous telescope options. In June of 2025, we have had the opportunity to add another fine instrument and am hoping to raise another $1200 to get it operational for the fall season. We have easily obtained our goal of putting together wonderful instruments and accessories to allow us to provide public outreach and educational programming.
So, what’s next for 2025 and beyond? There has been some discussion of raising funds for a portable planetarium that would be beneficial for reaching our short-term goal of offering educational programs, while showing the need for our long-term goal of a permanent planetarium. This would require funding from a grant source and would be the largest project to date. In October of 2025 at the next board meeting, we will discuss where we are with that plan.
I plan to move forward with proposals to three local organizations to gauge interest in a partnership for a permanent facility. I will also be working with our board to put together a comprehensive plan to get more involved with local schools for the 25/26 school year. We have short term goals of getting more information on our website, including a list of telescopes, information on the meteorites and photos of our past pubic and educational programs.
As we move forward, I hope to share updates on a regular basis. I will say that 2024 was a hard year, but I am optimistic that we can forge ahead and navigate the economic climate that we all face. I want to thank you for your continued support and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Thank You,
Bob Grossfeld
Executive Director, Cascade Astronomy & Rocketry Academy
www.cascadeastronomy.org | bob@cascadeastronomy.org
