Bottom of the 7th, two outs in the last inning of the game with a man on second. Omar steps up to the plate with the score tied 10 – 10. The pitch comes in low and soft and Omar swings anyways. The crack of the bat is quickly followed by groans from the field and cheers from the dugout. On Friday, July 25, 2025 we had our yearly company employee bash, an event where Cascade closes up shop for the day and focuses on hitting over the fence instead of building them. In this article we’ll take a break from our normal informational content and do a quick recap! Plus why events like this make a Cascade Fence & Deck a great place to work for and with.
Softball Tournament
The day started with the national anthem at 7:00 a.m. sharp, then the 40 or so players split into the 4 separate teams. The first round matchups consisted of owner Leif’s team vs General Manager Louis’s team. On the other field Crew Lead Jason matched up against Foreman Kyle. Louis’s team got out to a hot 10 – 2 start over 4 innings before giving up a couple of RBIs to make the score a respectable 10 – 4. Then at the top of the 7th key hits from installers David and Creighton and a blast of a home run by installer Michael made the score 10 – 10. This led to the bottom of the 7th where with 2 outs Omar hit a solid hit between first and second to drive in the game winning run. After this first game finished, we all made our way to the second field just in time to catch Jason blasting his third home run into the nearby river. The score was 22 – 20 and defense had left the game an hour ago. A few key hits later from Jason’s team built them a 26 – 20 lead and a trip to the championship game.
The excitement from Jason’s high octane offense was very short lived. Louis’s team locked down the infield and kept the bases rolling on offense. By the time the third place match finished up the score was a painful 26 – 3. A notable highlight was when Nick our Media Director blasted a moonshot into right field…only to be caught out by our CFO Angela. Despite the result everyone who came to play had a great time and pushed to their absolute limit. On Monday, the common conversation at our morning stretch and flex seemed to be how sore everyone was.
To the River
After softball, everyone drove down to the Kalama Marina for the rest of the bash. Because everyone was so sore, people immediately dispersed to ride jet skis, play basketball, spikeball, and volleyball. Foreman Seth brought his flag football set and quickly a 10 v 10 was set up as well. While everyone doubled down on games, Estimator Mike went to work on the grill cooking up burgers and sausage for lunch. One thing I’ve especially appreciated about the bash is this couple hour window of free time to hang out, play games, and get to know some of the people better that you normally wouldn’t work with on a daily basis.
The fun and games were capped off by a eight team relay tournament. The relay consisted of running down and up a brutal hill and dunking in the river, a bottle flip, carrying an egg with a spoon, jumping with a ball between your knees, and blowing up and popping a balloon. The championship round of this tournament ended with leading a teammate blindfolded through an obstacle course. Nick our Media Director finally won for his team after a close match with Lacey Installer Chase.
Gifts
The day was capped off at 2:00 p.m. with gifts. The gifts were laid out at the start of the day so everyone had time to eye exactly what they wanted. Gifts consisted of everything from a laptop, a Blackstone, multiple grills, tools, VR headset, hot tub and the list goes on. Each employee came away with at least one gift and order was decided by a random raffle run by Leif. The bash gifts are always a highlight of the year and only a few hours later, videos of Jason’s pizza oven and Markus’s grill came rolling in.
Why do we do it?
It would be easy for Cascade Fence and Deck to skip the bash, most companies do. There’s a reason though why Cascade is rated one of the best places to work in the Portland Vancouver area. While the bash is part of that rating, it also comes in the form of full health insurance for employees and their families, competitive wages, and a great company culture. Our employees bring that same softball intensity to their craft, fun and an energy boost while also caring greatly about results. Studies show that happy employees work at a 13% higher productivity. We’ve noticed as well that happy employees care about quality too, when an employee feels cared for and supported they’ll give that back to the company and customer tenfold. It’s one thing to say all this but hear what some of our employees have to say:
- “Thank you Leif and everyone that made today possible. Cascade is by far the most generous company with the best culture I’ve ever worked for.” – Cody, Foreman
- “It’s fun to see everyone play just as hard as they work!!” – Carrie, CSR
- “Thank you Leif, and everyone that helped with the set it up and with the food! It was a really fun time! Definitely enjoying my time here at Cascade!” – Chase, Installer
While the bash may seem like a big expense it contributes to a greater goal of creating a company that our employees want to work for. This all trickles down to the homeowner, who can rely on their estimator and project manager to communicate quickly and honestly. They can also trust the craftsmen on site to care about their project and the overall quality. We trust our employees too, that’s why we offer a lifetime workmanship warranty for that extra peace of mind.
Conclusion
If you want to join a team that cares about you whether you’re an employee or a customer head over to our career page to fill out an application or click here to get a free quote! We hope some of you can join us next year for our summer bash! That is if you’re ok with getting smoked in softball.
