Sisters salutes...

•Jeri Buckmann, events director for the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, wrote:

First I want to thank everyone for a beautiful tree lighting ceremony. Many thanks to Joel and Dude Aylor of Sisters Tree Service for donating your time and equipment to bring the tree in, Deschutes Land Trust for donating the beautiful tree, Brad Grimm and his crew from the City of Sisters for all your help, Sisters Folk Festival for the sound equipment and Gary Frazee for the stage.

The sounds of Christmas at the tree lighting from Lola Knox and the Bell Choir and Si Simonsen for directing the caroling.

I sincerely appreciate all of the hard work that goes into making the tree lighting a great event.

Thank you to Patty Vandiver, Chamber Board President, Lon Kellstrom, Mayor of Sisters, Brad Chalfant, Deschutes Land Trust and Pastor Ted Rodrigues for joining us that evening.

Second, thank you to all the groups that participated in the parade. It was all of you that made it a great event. A large turnout, great weather and awesome entries made it one of the best parades ever.

We had a lot of fun with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Chamber right after the parade. Thank you to the Coffee Depot for providing the coffee and hot chocolate. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

•Michelle Summers, director of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Sisters High School, saluted pianist Stephanie King:

Stephanie King is an amazing asset to this community. In addition to being a wonderfully gracious and giving woman, she is an astounding musician. Without her, my choral program would suffer greatly!

•The local 4H group, The Happy Hounds, took first place in the animal category at the Redmond Area Chamber of Commerce's Starlight Parade.

The group also made more than 500 dog biscuits and 150 fleece toys for the Furry Friends Pet Food Drive and the kids will be helping with Santa photos at Sisters Arts Works next Saturday (see "Holidays in the Sisters Country" section for details).

•Oregon Adaptive Sports thanks Hoodoo Mountain Resort:

Ben and Sharon Sparrow, members of Oregon Adaptive Sports (OAS), would like to give a really big shout-out to Hoodoo for all of the support you have shown our organization over the last few years.

OAS is a nonprofit organization that provides recreational opportunities for people with disabilities, and has the largest adaptive ski program in the state. We Sparrows have been involved with them as volunteer instructors since 2001.

When we approached Chuck and Matthew at Hoodoo, they were more than generous in their welcome. Every one of the Hoodoo family, the management, the lift operators, rental shop techs, ski school, ski patrol, even the kitchen and maintenance staff, has helped in some way to help us do what we do.

The words "thank you" can't convey the gratitude we feel towards our Hoodoo "family," and we will always appreciate the efforts everyone has made on our behalf. And even though we are reaching out and expanding our programs to other ski areas, we still call Hoodoo home.