'Kitchen Cowgirls' are rodeo grand marshals

Pat Page and Eula Curtis, Sisters Rodeo's "Kitchen Cowgirls," have been chosen as Grand Marshals of the 2009 Sisters Rodeo parade.

Page was born and raised in British Columbia. In 1954, the Canadian moved to Washington State to work in banking in the U.S., where, she believed, there were better opportunities for women in business.

Banking eventually took her to San Francisco, where she continued working in the industry until she retired.

In 1980, Pat married Jim Page. The couple moved to Sisters in 1989.

"We had visited the area with friends from Portland in 1985 and loved it," she explained.

Pat and Jim saw their first Sisters Rodeo in 1989, "the last time I got to see the rodeo until 2008," she said, laughingly.

The couple became friends with Squawback neighbors, Dixie and Curt Morken and Cathy Williams, who encouraged the Pages to join the rodeo association in 1990.

With the Morkens, Page created the Sisters Cribbage Club. She also became a member of the Sisters Garden Club and a volunteer at Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce. She served as secretary for the Squawback Homeowners Association.

Page was concessions manager of Sisters High Mountain Jazz Festival for two years, after several years of hosting in the festival's hospitality suite at the firehall. Getting to know fire department personnel drove her to begin volunteering for the fire department's annual Christmas dinner. This continues to be one of her favorite events of the year.

Page is a member of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, where she serves on the hospitality committee and volunteers for the church's Quilt Show luncheon fund-raiser.

"I always end up in the kitchen," Page said. At rodeo, she organized food service during Tuesday evening and Saturday work parties, often among the first to arrive and last to leave. She was the rodeo concessions manager for 15 years.

After her husband suffered a stroke, Page continued to prepare meals for rodeo at home and then serve food and help manage the kitchen at the rodeo grounds while someone else stayed with Jim.

Although retired from management, Page can still be found in the kitchen at any rodeo work party or meeting from February until after the rodeo. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, and bakes cookies for her friends every week.

Page's passion is geneology. She is a member of Bend Geneology Club and spends hours on the computer doing research. She has produced a bound family record for relatives around the world. Next September, she will visit one of the newly discovered distant cousins in Australia.

Along with helping in fund-raisers for other organizations like Sisters Park & Recreation District and St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church, Page is an asset to neighbors in times of illness or crisis. Neighbor Mary McGuire stated emphatically, "I don't know what I would do without her. I could never repay her for the help she has given me."

All of this effort for others is a habit she developed when she moved to Sisters.

"I learned that volunteering is what I like to do," Page explains, with a twinkle in her eye.

Eula Curtis was raised in Marcola, Oregon. She met her husband, Russ, on a blind date and they married in 1943.

While Russ served in World War II, she worked for Darigold and the railroad in Springfield, Oregon. After the war, their lives changed dramatically.

Russ was hired as a cartographer, mapping for the U.S. Geological Survey. The couple and their three young children "lived in seven Western states and moved 61 times," Curtis explained.

They often lived on Native American reservations where Russ was working.

"In 1947, Russ had a summer assignment in Prineville and we loved it there. We decided then that we would retire in Central Oregon," she said.

They purchased land in Sisters, and moved here in 1973.

All three of the Curtis daughters, Suzie Aylor, Patty Swarens and Nancy Curtis, also live in the area. The close-knit family camped, rafted and fished together, and still share vacations. This summer they will cruise the inland passage to southeast Alaska.

Curtis worked for the City of Sisters from 1980-1985, with Mayor George Sproat, and for the Sisters Fire Department under Chief Don Mouser.

In 1992, Curtis became a SMART volunteer at the beginning of that program. She recently reunited with one of her first SMART readers, Lauren Kallberg, who is now a volunteer in the program herself. Curtis still volunteers in SMART every week, enjoying the time with children.

Curtis volunteered at Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce for seven years, happiest at the information desk where she greeted visitors with a big smile. "I love meeting people, so that was the best job," she said.

She has received certificates of appreciation from Deschutes County for several decades on the elections board and from AARP for multiple years of registering seniors for tax assistance.

Curtis joined the rodeo association in 2000, working at the ticket gate. After the death of her husband in 2005, she became more involved, reassigning herself to the kitchen.

She "owns" the kitchen sink and threatens anyone who tries to relieve her of her dishwashing "duties."

She has worked the Sisters Fire Department Christmas Dinner for the last two years and is considering volunteering in the kitchen at the Sisters Senior Luncheon.

"I heard they need some help there," she said.

For more than 20 years, Curtis has practiced water aerobics with the same core group of women. They began at the Redmond community pool, were guests at Sisters Inn until that pool closed and now drive to the Eagle Crest pool.

Curtis is ready for any new adventures, and knows what keeps her smiling.

"Volunteering keeps me busy," she says. "It feels like I am helping, and I love it."