News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
As teachers and students put the finishing touches on their new classrooms, the fund-raising campaign for the classroom-raising project is wrapping up.
The "thermometer" on the middle school grounds that has measured fund-raising progress is red to the top now, signifying that the project has reached its financial goal.
According to volunteer Dennis McGregor, contributors who still want to get their name inscribed on a brick must fill out their information form and get it in to the school district by the end of January.
McGregor said there will be a celebration in May to acknowledge the community's effort; the bricks will be installed by that time.
The classroom raising effort, which mobilized members of the Sisters community from all walks of life to contribute funds and labor, has attracted statewide attention.
Other school districts and community organizations are studying Sisters' effort with an eye toward creating a similar community drive.
"North Bend has invited us down to tell our story," said schools superintendent Steve Swisher. "At least once a week, sometimes more than that, some kind of phone call comes in (inquiring about the project)."
According to Swisher, the will to make the project happen dovetailed with a large pool of volunteers with the expertise to take it on.
"People with the skills in the trade and profession said, hey, we think we can do it," Swisher said.
And there was something intangible about the effort that struck a chord in the community.
"I think there's some nostalgia to it, the idea of a community coming together like a barn raising," Swisher reflected. "Truly, I think there's an appeal to that."
The superintendent noted that Bill Willitts' contribution as project manager was critical to keeping the project moving forward.
Willitts brought the management abilities he developed as the owner of a 180-employee manufacturing company to bear on the project. Willitts' role was typical of the way the effort matched people's skills to the project's needs.
"We found people who were suited to the functions we gave them," Willitts said.
Willitts admitted that taking on what turned out to be a half-million dollar project in a small community like Sisters was a bit daunting.
"If you think about it too deeply or try to quantify it, it can overwhelm you," he said.
But it worked.
"Everybody did what they said they'd do in short order," Willitts said. "It came together in a kind of magical way."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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