News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Shawn Diez honored Evelyn Brush for her advocacy for children last week at SPRD’s picnic in the park.
Evelyn Brush has touched hundreds of young lives over the past decade-and-a-half in Sisters.
As a preschool educator and Girl Scouts leader, she helped set many a Sisters girl on a path of good citizenship and leadership. Now she's moving into a new phase, helping others become more professional in their approach to early childhood education.
"That whole thing of trying to raise the level of the job (child-care provider) to a profession is a real passion of mine," she said. "For the last year or two I've been teaching classes, doing evening workshops, mostly with home-based child-care providers."
Her passion has led her to pursue a master's degree in adult education through Oregon State University, which she will use to pursue a new career in training preschool child-care providers. She is also interested in using her experience with The Ford Family Foundation's Ford Institute Leadership Program to involve herself with community-based leadership programs.
Brush will move to Portland this summer.
"I haven't lived in a city since 1988; I'm excited," she said.
Brush came to Sisters in 1995, when her then-husband landed a job with the Black Butte Ranch Police Department. After an experience with Waldorf education, she launched the Waldorf-based A Joyful Noise preschool program in Sisters in September of 2001.
The Waldorf principles call for an arts-based program, which can be a hard sell to parents who want their kids learning their letters and numbers early. But Brush believes in the principles, and notes with a smile that "not one child who ever did preschool with me ever failed kindergarten."
In recent years, competing programs emerged at Sisters Park & Recreation District and Sisters Christian Academy, and the market for Waldorf education shrank as recession-bound parents became anxious about early "academic" development.
Brush closed in January 2012.
"I was tired," she said. "I was ready."
Her calling, which also included leadership of Sisters' Girl Scouts program, kept her tied to work most hours of the day. Now that she has a little more freedom, she's enjoying some of the classic Sisters Country activities she's been unable to access in the past.
"This season I have a bucket list," she said. "Having a good time doing it."
That list includes hiking to Tumalo Falls, giving golf a shot and taking horseback riding lessons.
She got a boost on the latter when Shawn Diez presented a gift certificate for riding lessons to her at Sisters Park & Recreation District's Picnic in the Park last week. Diez saluted her for her work as an advocate for children and for creating a nurturing environment in Sisters.
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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