FAN advocate saluted for service

Theresa Slavkovsky has been the lead “family advocate” for the Family Access Network (FAN) since that unusual agency opened an office in Sisters 10 years ago.

She and the second Sisters advocate, Shawna Bell, were recognized for their work at the last school board meeting, on Jan. 9 (see The Nugget, January 11, page 1).

Interviewed in her office a day before that meeting, Slavkovsky was typically modest and straightforward. At a reporter’s urging, though, she talked a little about her personal background, which few people know despite the fact that she may have greater name familiarity than most of the elected officials in Sisters.

“My family and I have lived in Sisters for 17 and a half years,” she began. “Before that, my husband and I were missionaries for 10 years.” If that conjures up images of exotic foreign countries, forget them.

Slavkovsky was referring to a special place in New Mexico called the Lord’s Ranch. It’s right across the border from Juarez, Mexico. The ranch is run by a Jesuit priest but is nondenominational. It grows food for the poor of Juarez.

“They come from the interior thinking they’re going to get into the United States. They are squatters, living in cardboard homes. They have little holes in the ground, without covers, for bathrooms,” she said.

The Lord’s Ranch had several food banks in Juarez. It also operated a prenatal clinic and a small orphanage.

Slavkovsky met and married her husband, Rick, there. He had come from Oregon, where he attended both high school and college at Mt. Angel Seminary. They moved to Sisters 17-1/2 years ago to be near her husband’s mother. Among other things, they eventually became the first family to occupy a Habitat for Humanity Home.

“Six more years and we’ll have it (the mortgage) paid off,” she mused.

Theresa is a native of Phoenix, Arizona, born and raised there. She attended Phoenix College, a community college, and obtained an associate in arts degree in liberal arts. What was her career plan? To become “a social service worker. But I went to Lord’s Ranch to visit and ended up staying there because I wanted to do more than just be in school. I went there for a year but ended up staying for 10 years.”

Now, however, as a FAN family advocate she is in fact a social service worker. The job fit perfectly, since it required only a two-year degree.

“You know, the biggest part of this job is heart,” she said, adding after a pause, “and endurance.”

Her husband has since become a journeyman electrician. The Slavkovskys have three children: Judah, 24, who is attending Harvard Medical School; Mary, 22, who has just finished a degree in Spanish at the University of Guadalajara and is doing volunteer work in Mexico; and Rose, 18, a senior at Sisters High School.

Theresa seems content with her job. Contemplating her situation, she first jokes about not having any gray hair when she started (none are visible now). But then she says calmly, “I have faith; God helps me through. And I have the support of this community, and Shawna, and the school district, and great support from my family.”