Sisters salutes...

• Sisters is grateful for the efforts of more than 1,000 firefighting personnel who have battled the Pole Creek Fire. Students, families of Cloverdale firefighters, BJ's Ice Cream and many citizens organized by Sue Stafford of Sisters baked cookies, provided ice cream and delivered fresh socks to firefighters, who were most appreciative of the support.

Stafford noted that Key Club students crafted a huge banner for the fire camp, signed by many students and faculty; the students donated baked goods, candy, cases of baby wipes, and boxes of hand warmers. The collection effort began on Tuesday after Holly Chapman, president of the Key Club, responded to the post on The Nugget Facebook page asking for people to get involved in letting the firefighters know how much the Sisters community appreciates all their hard work. Students from the leadership class also contributed, as did the general student body.

• The Sisters Middle School leadership class wrote:

Dear Firefighters and those helping with the Pole Creek fire,

Thank you for helping our town - you truly are OUR modern-day heros. We realize that you are not only sacrificing your health from being so close to the fire and smoke, but also know that you are away from your family and probably missing out on fun things back home. This is Outlaw Country and the fire/smoke is forcing us to miss team practices. When the smoke clears, we will dig deep and practice hard and be strong to represent our tiny town well - thank you for being a role model for us. We appreciate you doing your best to help our community.

• Bill and Cindy Rainey, members of Sisters Country: Prepared & Ready Leadership Team, wrote: We would like to thank the leadership team of the 2012 Sisters Preparedness Fair and all the volunteers, too many to name, for making the fair such a success.

The members of the Sisters Country: Prepared & Ready Leadership Team are Jeremy Ast, Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District; Leland Bliss, Sisters School District #6; Jen Collins Watson, American Red Cross Blood Services; Jim Cornelius, The Nugget Newspaper; Jack McGowan, Community Volunteer; Karen Parmelee, American Red Cross; Vaunell Temple, Sisters LDS Church; Katie Williams, Black Butte Ranch; Debbie Willitts, Sisters school nurse; Karen Ritchie, Sisters Elementary School teacher; Kelly Cundiff, intern and project manager. A tremendous amount of planning and hard work went into making the fair the success that it was!

In addition, we would like to thank The Nugget for its support of the fair.

And, thanks to all the community members who attended the fair and are now well on their way to being better prepared for any emergency.

• Black Butte School staff, board and students wish to thank Sisters Habitat for Humanity ReStore for its generous donation and support in helping the school purchase tennis and racquetball racquets and other sports equipment to enhance its Health & Physical Education Program.

The ReStore also donated an overhead projector, which was a tremendous help to student art projects and to Stephanie Blakelock, health and PE specialist at BBS and ski school instructor and Mountain Cub supervisor at Hoodoo Ski Resort, to accomplish the amazing Candy Mountain mural on the walls near the Mountain Cubs Ski School room.

Habitat ReStore Manager Robin Tawney ROCKS!

• Sisters High School Principal Joe Hosang announced that Drew Corrigan has been named a "Commended Student" in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program, recognizing him for his exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2013 competition for 2013 National Merit Scholarship awards, commended students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the competition.

• Together For Children, a parenting program that works with families with children from birth through 3 years old, wish to salute some champions of their program.

For many years the Sisters community has been tremendously supportive of the program. On September 15, Kris Calvin, owner of Earthwood Homes of Oregon, went above and beyond the norm.

For the fourth year in a row, Knife River Construction in Tumalo has opened up their lot to hold the Big Rig Celebration, a fundraiser for the not-for-profit that gives children from 2 to 6 years old the opportunity to climb on equipment, talk with a Sheriff, blow a loud horn or dig in a gigantic sand pile.

This year Knife River was short of large "rigs" for the event and put out an appeal for help.

Kris, unhesitant in agreeing to bringing a piece of equipment, trailered a fork lift from his business in Sisters to the Knife River lot in Tumalo to assure that the 400 children and 800 adults that participated in the annual celebration would have a marvelous experience.

This, along with free admission for the first 100 kids made possible by Knife River, made it a gigantic success.

Salutes also go to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department, Richard's Produce, the Cloverdale Fire Department, Morning Star Relief Nursery, Cascade Natural Gas and Sisters-owned Shortweb Survey for their generous help. Others who also helped make this an event to remember were Walmart, the Phoenix Inn and Sunriver Resort.