Located at:

143 Certury Dr. Suite A

Bend, OR 97702

Phone: (541) 647-4587

Fax:

Bend, Oregon

Owners:  Dr. Cara Walther and husband Steve Porino
How Oregon got Fitwize
On February 4th, 2008, Cara Walther, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon, was returning home to Bend from Europe after a stint as the U.S. Women’s Ski Team doctor.  She was seated next to a guy named Warren Gendel.  Turned out they had more in common than bad food. She always had a commitment to preventing knee injuries, the kind she had and a growing number of girls are having today. Gendel, founder and president of Fitwize, was in the business of helping kids, too. Walther was a big believer in getting kids, particularly girls, hooked on physical activity. Same with Gendel. On and on it went. But, you already know how the story ends:  Oregon gets its first Fitwize 4 Kids.
The Bend Fitwize Team
Owner -- Cara Walther grew up in upstate New York.  At age 13 she was among the top ranked US skiers before enrolling in the country’s top ski racing school, Burke Mountain Academy, in Vermont.  The core values there – sound mind, sound body – set the foundation for her life. So did the two ACL knee injuries she had in successive years.  She worked her way back to become an NCAA All-American at Middlebury College. But, the injuries that prevented her from reaching the next level, ultimately led to her along the path of Sports Medicine.  She went on to Dartmouth Medical School. During those years she also coached the Killington Mountain Ski Team until she started her Orthopedic Surgery training at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and then another year spent in a Sports Medicine fellowship at the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. She’s been practicing at Desert Orthopedics in Bend, Oregon since 1999, while also serving as a U.S. Women’s Alpine Team physician, including the 2002 Olympic Games and 2007 World Championships. She has spearheaded the ”Kneebound with Rebound,” ACL injury prevention program here in Bend. She is married to Steve Porino, who also attended Burke Academy in Vermont. They have two daughters, Carly, 6, and Reece, 3. By winter it’s Alpine and Nordic skiing. By summer is mountain and road biking, trail running, paddling, and windsurfing.
Owner -- Steve Porino, currently a sports commentator and journalist, is also lifelong athlete, who grew up in the Midwest before heading east to Burke Mountain Academy. He was named to the U.S. Ski Team in 1988, and competed on the World Cup in the downhill specialty until 1992. He returned to school full time at the University of Utah, graduating with a degree in communications. He has coached sports including skiing, water skiing, soccer, and was a fly fishing guide. He parlayed his education and teaching skills into the world of journalism and broadcasting. He was a staff writer for Ski Racing magazine, and has freelanced for magazines such as Newsweek, Ski, and Skiing. His broadcast career started with ESPN in 1998, and now includes work on ABC, Versus,  and NBC, for whom he covered the last two winter Olympics. He is also the voice of World Cup Skiing on NBC’s subsidiary Universal Sports. 

Management/Nutritionist
Husband wife team: Todd Pieper and Cathy Sassin
Manager:  Todd Pieper
Todd Pieper has been living the Fitwize “healthy life” for a lifetime.  He started out in competitive soccer and excelled to the state level before suffering a major knee injury. (That makes four ACL reconstructions among the Bend Fitwize Team of four, which is where our campaign to stop injuries gets its traction.) From there he got into competitive freestyle skiing, and the mountain life has kept him captive ever since. He has also coached kids basketball and soccer. Pieper graduated from California State University, Chico with a business degree.  He has made his living as a carpenter and construction manager, while also finding time to excel in the world of outrigger paddling, the sport that led to the introduction of his now-wife Cathy Sassin.  Together, with their two children, the Pieper family is a living endorsement of a healthy lifestyle. Some people follow the money, other their passion.  Todd Pieper is among the rare to choose the latter, which has led him along a new path with Fitwize 4 kids.  Bend is better for it.

Cathy Sassin: If there is a nexus of nutrition and fitness, that’s where you’ll find Cathy sitting. For about two seconds. … until she’s up and running again. Indefatigable is what she is. She was ranked among the top adventure racers in the world.  You know, the sport where they go for days, over hundreds of miles of gnarled terrain, stopping occasionally only because they have to. That’s the kind of energy Sassin brings to everything. She’s been in the nutrition and exercise business for two decades. She continues to run her own business called Intrafitt, where she designs individualized nutrition and fitness programs for all walks  -- world-class athletes to recovering heart patients.  Before that she worked as high-profile trainer aƒt Venice Beach’s Gold’s Gym, and authored the “Gold’s Gym Workout Journal.”  Her impressive resume helped her land a spot as “Panther” on the television series “American Gladiator.”  More TV work followed including announcing adventure races networks including CBS. But she has put those aspirations aside. Her first passion these days is motivating others, spreading the gospel of health and fitness, be that losing a few pounds or a few seconds. Well, maybe it’s her second passion. The first being her husband and two children you can often find her carrying around town, one under each arm…the kids that is.