News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Articles from the December 14, 2021 edition


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 13 of 13

  • Local Longest Night event commemorates houseless struggle

    T. Lee Brown|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    The Longest Night is a national event memorializing the lives of people who died due to conditions of houselessness. During the Winter Solstice Labyrinth Walk on December 21, local advocate Mandee Seeley will undertake a labyrinth walk to commemorate folks who have died while unhoused in Sisters Country over the last several years. In 2020, when the annual solstice walk was canceled due to COVID-19, Seeley had the idea of connecting the large national memorial with a... Full story

  • Year-end Holiday Artwalk at Sisters art galleries

    Helen Schmidling|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Sisters Arts Association’s (SAA) Artwalk through local galleries will take place on the Third Friday — December 17 — because the Fourth Friday in December is Christmas Eve. Stroll through the galleries and meet the artists whose original work will delight your eyes. At Hood Avenue Art, walls came down, lights went up, and the dust has settled. Hood Avenue Art has grown to more than 2,000 square feet and added five new artists: sculptor Gary Cooley and painters G... Full story

  • Camp Sherman kids rock their Winter Performance

    T. Lee Brown|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    “Penguins, attention!” yelled a man in a wild red jumpsuit. “Penguins, begin!” answered a small group of tots dressed as aquatic flightless birds. Thus began the annual Winter Performance in Camp Sherman on Friday, December 10, presented by Black Butte School. Dancing and singing on the road in front of their picturesque school, the kindergarten and first-grade penguins made way for Frosty the Snowman. Kids sang and danced the familiar story, with Zoe Gonzalez playing the par... Full story

  • Season of giving continues in Sisters

    Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Sisters is a generous community year-round, but especially in the annual Christmas season of giving. Blazin Saddles’ bike drive is in its final days. “If anyone that lives in or around Sisters is in need and could benefit from a bicycle this holiday season, we would love to try to help,” said Blazin Saddles owner Casey Meudt. “We have a lot of bikes available again this year; however it is first-come, first-served for donations of the bikes that we have cleaned, tuned, and replaced any necessary parts. We are also donatin... Full story

  • Solstice walkers to gather on darkest day

    T. Lee Brown|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Since ancient times, people have gathered together when the day is darkest and the night is longest. They often light fires or candles to symbolize the return of the sun on winter solstice. Around these parts, solstice is marked by walking the Sisters Community Labyrinth. After skipping a year due to COVID-19, this year the walk takes place on Tuesday, December 21. Participants are invited to contemplate the theme “Honoring Our Losses,” as they gather together for a brief chat... Full story

  • Music program performs holiday showcase

    Charlie Kanzig|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    After months of restrictions on live audiences, Sisters High School (SHS) and Middle School choir director Rick Johnson desperately wanted to get back to some semblance of normalcy for his music students. The result was a “Holiday Showcase” featuring a variety of performances on Friday, December 10, in the high school auditorium. To limit crowd size for health safety, only students’ families, staff members, and a few special guests were invited to the performance, accor... Full story

  • An immortal “Christmas Carol”

    Jim Cornelius, News Editor|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Charles Dickens was working under pressure. He had a deadline and a hole in his purse where his money drained out. His recent stories had not sold well, and his wife was pregnant with their fifth child. Dickens needed a hit, and he thought he had one — if he could get it finished in time for the 1843 Christmas season. It was already October; he didn’t have much time. The story he had in mind wasn’t just a potential money-maker; it might have an impact on a society tha... Full story

  • Letters to the Editor…

    Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Cost of living To the Editor: The ladies behind the desk at Kiwanis Food Bank who fill our food boxes; the men and women who pump your gas; the girls at the motels that make the beds and clean the tubs, toilets, and floors every day; the waitresses who serve your food and those in the kitchen who cook it and wash the dishes; those who drive around every week collecting your garbage; those who clean your homes; the checkers who wait on us every day and often have to put up with attitude that sometimes is not so nice; the... Full story

  • Construction class has new project

    Charlie Kanzig|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Jason Chinchen needed a new project for his Sisters High School (SHS) construction class this term when the traditional job of creating walls for a Habitat for Humanity house had to be put on hold until new construction begins on the next house. Chinchen wanted the students to have a similar learning experience in wall-building so the idea of creating sturdy 8-by-10-foot storage/garden sheds took hold. “While we were waiting to price out and arrange for delivery of the materia... Full story

  • City may make drivers slow down in neighborhoods

    Sue Stafford|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Drivers may soon head a 20 mph speed limit in all of Sisters’ neighborhoods. That’s one of the recommendations from a recently conducted traffic safety audit. At their December 8 meeting, City Council approved Ordinance 519, making amendments to the City’s Transportation System Plan (TSP). The primary focus of the 2021 amendments to the 2018 TSP includes extending the Sisters planning horizon from 2030 to 2040 to be consistent with the City’s newly adopted Compreh... Full story

  • Sisters author brings the past to life

    Katy Yoder|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Fernando Aleu is living a fascinating, richly diverse life. A vibrant, handsome man of 92, he has stories, and now a book, that reflect his sense of style, education, and experiences spanning the globe. He’s a retired neurologist — businessman and patriarch. His charming personality is magnetic, drawing in friends and admirers as effectively as an alluring fragrance. He’s also proud to call himself a Sisters resident. Growing up in Spain, prior to and during World War... Full story

  • Mule deer in steep decline in Sisters Country

    Jim Cornelius, News Editor|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    The numbers of deer wandering through town, lounging beneath juniper trees, grazing on lawns, and crossing Cascade Avenue in the crosswalks may give a deceptive picture of the health of mule deer populations in Sisters Country. While there are lots of healthy “town deer,” populations across the Deschutes National Forest as a whole have declined 56 percent from 2004 to 2021. In the Metolius Basin, the surveyed population of 3,359 mule deer is 46 percent short of the obj... Full story

  • Transparency essential for democracy, capitalism

    Erik Dolson|Updated Dec 14, 2021

    Remember the “information age”? Well, we can forget about that. We find ourselves instead in the age of misinformation, where there is too much fake news, too many rumors, too much going on “behind the scenes,” too many “anonymous” sources, too much about a “stolen election” without a shred of proof, too many companies hiding poison behind “trade secrets.” Here’s the truth: Democracy, as envisioned by Jefferson, requires an “informed electorate.” Here’s another: The marke... Full story