Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

I would like to express my appreciation to all the helpful hands at my car accident on Highway 20, Tuesday, December 3. Sorry, I can't remember many of your names.

Thank you for the expedient response and for Steve Fisher from the Sisters/Camp Sherman Fire Department who was able to get to me in seconds when I was trapped in my overturned car.

The Sisters Fire Department, The Cloverdale Fire Department, Glen Miller's crew, Ali Mayea, and all the concerned bystanders, you are what makes the town of Sisters a special place to live. I appreciate all that you did for me on that day. I am thankful for living in a community like Sisters where people help one another in a time of need.

To all my friends and neighbors, thank you for your calls of concern. The baby and I are doing fine.

Many thanks,

Kathy Stuwe

A friend of mine recently was asked to contribute to a fund that will provide a private reading program for a young Angolan refugee now living in the Portland area. The cost will be $1,080 for that special program.

My friend contributed, mainly because of respect for the person who asked for the donation. What bothered him was that $1,080 was about one-sixth the annual budget of the Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank, which last year provided food to fill emergency needs of 1,150 persons in our community, including 89 children under the age of 5 years. (To be clear, some of the those who received food from the Kiwanis Food Bank were repeat recipients. But, the point is that 1,150 food services were made right here in Sisters. And that doesn't even include the Christmas Food Share.)

The contribution to the Portland project was relatively small in dollars, but was exceedingly small in the number of persons helped -- one. My friend would have felt much better if that contribution remained in our community to help the many in need here who have to call on the food bank for temporary help.

If you have such a dilemma -- or would just like to do something in your community that just makes you feel good -- I would urge you to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Sisters Kiwanis Foundation, and mail it to PO Box 1296, Sisters.

Funds for the food bank and Christmas Food Share are raised through the foundation. You can be sure your Sisters neighbors in need will be helped by your generosity.

Lorri Craig, President

Kiwanis Club of Sisters

In reply to inquiries about Camp Polk Cemetery, we offer the following information:

We are of the pioneer families buried there: Farthings, Taylors, Stidhams etc. Our family has been active in the upkeep of the cemetery for many years.

The original perimeter was much smaIler. In 1942, Vine Stidham was hired by Nellie Miller to enlarge the area and put in the present fence. Sam Pappas and Doc Foley were his helpers. At this time the families of William Cobb, John Cobb Fannie and George Stevens donated the extra land and gave a permanent easement for a 40-feet-wide road from the cemetery to the county road, Camp Polk Road.

There are no graves outside the present fence. The pioneers kept their graves all facing the same direction, headstones to the west feet to the east in orderly parallel rows. Most of them were outlined with local rocks. Over the years, people have unknowingly removed these rocks to put on the newer graves, causing the old graves to be lost to future generations.

Some of our information for the cemetery maps we have published came from first-person testimony, diaries, letters and papers from pioneer families. We studied mortuary records, old newspapers, historical society records etc.

We have made headstones for persons whose grave sites we could not locate but records show are there. They were part of the history of Sisters also and deserve to be remembered. This area is very rocky. A different location would be more suitable for a new cemetery.

The printing of our updated map of the cemetery has been delayed due to family illness The older one is available at the Sisters Library, from some old-timers and the mortuaries.

We hope this has clarified some of your questions about the Camp Polk Cemetery.

Sincerely

Former Outlaws

Joy Stidham Timmens, Lavinia Stidham Wolfe, Frank Wolfe

Congratulations to all the people who put on the Christmas Parade. The parade was excellent and the turn out great.

Our out-of-town guests wished they would have brought their grandchildren. I hope we go on to have many more years of enjoyment and everyone continues support for our wonderful town.

Marcheta West