Locals receive donated clothing

Volunteers sort donated Columbia Sportswear clothing. photo by Jim Mitchell Early Saturday morning a line starting forming outside Sisters Elementary School. They were not waiting for one of the Folk Festival acts. They were waiting for winter clothing.

The third annual giveaway of Columbia Sportswear outerwear and footwear was about to begin.

Within 40 minutes, over 250 people, including 20 under the age of five, had received a free jacket and/or boots to help them through the winter.

This year's giveaway began last fall when Wayne and Luann Danforth drove to Portland and returned with a trailer full of Columbia Sportswear outerwear. The clothing included items that could not be sold at retail: Salesmen's samples, prototypes, defective customer returns and manufacturing rejects.

The Columbia Sportswear "Rethreads Program" started years ago.

Sisters resident Kathy Deggendorfer, daughter of Gert Boyle ("Ma Boyle" of Columbia Sportswear advertising fame) said, "When my husband and I owned Columbia Outfitters in Bend we facilitated getting those items and giving them to the Women's Guild and the Assistance League."

The Sisters version of Rethreads began three years ago when the Danforths, who had been close friends with Marie Lamfrom (Kathy Deggendorfer's grandmother), took it on as a project. The Lamfroms founded Columbia Sportswear in 1938 as Columbia Hat Company.

The Danforths contacted Theresa Slavkovsky, Sisters Director of Family Access Network (FAN), who readily agreed to handle distribution of the clothing to needy persons in the community.

The Danforths sort the clothing and, in a true community effort, a network of Crossroads neighbors and friends repair, launder, and otherwise prepare the clothing for use. When completed the clothing is re-boxed and stored.

This year, with the help of the Kiwanis Club of Sisters, the Danforths and others, 74 large cartons of clothing and footwear were hauled to Sisters Elementary School, sorted and laid out in the school commons area.