Sisters couple has a passion for volunteerism

Cindy and Bill Rainey make a dynamic duo with their powerful commitment to volunteering in their adopted hometown of Sisters.

The Raineys were a driving force behind the founding of Sisters Country: Prepared & Ready, a community-based organization dedicated to helping families in the Sisters community to be prepared for any kind of emergency, from fire to freeze to earthquake.

That commitment meshes well with their service to the Red Cross, where they serve on Sisters' 11-person Disaster Action Team.

Cindy worked for the Red Cross for three years and has been a volunteer since 1994.

"I was basically a volunteer my whole life," she said.

Bill had a long and successful career as a corporate attorney. Now that he's retired, he is an active volunteer, too.

He serves as chair of the Deschutes County Planning Commission.

"I want to protect the beautiful country we live in," he says. "At the same time, I recognize that we need a good economy and businesses."

Balancing the love of wide open spaces and the need for a vibrant economy comes naturally to Bill. As a corporate attorney, he developed an intimate understanding of the requirements of business - and as an avid hiker, he fed a passion for the scenic and the wild.

It was hiking that brought the Raineys to Sisters Country. Bill knew the area from his youth, when his father worked for the Bonneville Power Administration and traveled around the Pacific Northwest.

Driving across Kansas, where Bill was working at the time, the couple started talking about retirement destinations. They wanted a place where there were no limits to the backcountry hiking opportunities.

"I said I like the Pacific Northwest, but I don't want the rain," Cindy recalled. "Bill said, "I have the perfect place for you: Sisters, Oregon.'"

Carol "C.B." Davis, who would become a dear friend, found the right piece of land for the couple. It was an easy sell.

Cindy acknowledged that she was sold the second she stepped off the airplane in Redmond - by "the smell of the juniper."

"We built a garage with an apartment over it," Bill said. "That was completed in 2001, just after 9-11. We were coming up here to hike."

Bill retired in 2009, and the couple made Sisters their permanent home.

They quickly became active members of a vibrant community.

"There's a camaraderie here, a can-do spirit," Cindy said.

The Raineys became members of the Kiwanis Club of Sisters as well as volunteering for the Red Cross. In a move Bill acknowledges may seem unusual for a corporate attorney, he also volunteers with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"My passion is individual liberty," Bill said. "I don't agree with everything the ACLU does, but they protect things that are important to all of us."

If individual liberty is important, so is individual responsibility. That is the theme of Sisters Country: Prepared & Ready. The movement grew out of conversations with Jack and Jan McGowan, also avid volunteers in the Sisters community.

"We realized as we talked that we all had a passion for preparedness," Cindy said.

Individuals taking responsibility for themselves and their families won't be a burden on stressed emergency services.

"People who do best in an emergency are those who are most prepared," Cindy said. "Everybody will do better. We won't be deer in the headlights. It just makes for a better community."

The couple also tries to boost their community through service on the Central Oregon Scholarship Committee of the Oregon Community Foundation. They were knocked out by the quality of the students the foundation assists.

"We weren't prepared for the excellence of the students applying for those scholarships," Cindy said. "It's a tough committee to be on."

The Raineys have two children of their own: a son who recently moved to Paris and a daughter who took the family hiking tradition to the next level and became a professional climber in Ten Sleep, Wyoming.

With all of their many endeavors, most folks in Sisters will run across Bill and Cindy Rainey at some point. Hopefully, it won't be in the context of some kind of disaster, but if it is, you can be assured they're ready for it - and they'll help you be, too.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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