10
Wednesday, September 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Veterans
Man’s legacy will support environmental protection
Gil Staender, a long-time
Last week, Staender’s
organization resident
of Camp Sherman estate donated $530,000 to
the Sisters area, loved the Western Environmental
offers awards and
the great outdoors. He was a Law Center, in Eugene.
guide on Mt. Hood and sum-
“This is the largest gift
mited more than 50 times. He our organization as received
for students was active in the Mazamas, in our 24-year history,” said
Sisters VFW Post 8138
will be sponsoring its annual
VFW awards at the local
schools again this year. One
student will be selected from
each category to receive the
monetary reward:
• The Patriot Pen Award
($100) is given for a middle-
school-grade essay on patri-
otism. The essay is due in
October.
• The
Vo i c e
Of
Democracy Award ($100) is
given for an essay and voice
recording on patriotism. The
essay is due in October.
• The Arts Award ($100)
is given at Sisters High
School for a patriotic poster
design. The project is due in
March.
Brochures detailing the
projects will soon be avail-
able at the Sisters schools.
Call 541-549-1132 and leave
a message or mail Sisters
VFW Post 8138, PO Box
682, Sisters, OR 97759 for
more detailed information.
The Nature Conservancy, the
National Audubon Society,
Greenpeace, Utah Wilderness
Coalition, and other conserva-
tion societies.
He and his wife, Vivian
Staender, spent a year in the
Arctic, in the wilds of the
Brooks Range of Alaska in
1965. They authored sev-
eral books about the experi-
ence. They sold their house
in Lake Oswego and moved
to Sisters in the 1960s, where
they purchased a section of
land north of town. They built
a stone house “off the grid,”
before being off the grid was
popular, and named the place
“Wildhaven,” which has
been donated to The Nature
Conservancy. Gil taught
school in Sisters, and the
couple helped legislate for
the very first bottle bill in the
U.S., passed in 1971.
Though Staender died a
year ago, his legacy lives on
— and continues to impact
the wilderness world he so
loved.
David Lawlor, development
director for the Western
Environmental Law Center.
“It was unexpected. It is very,
very meaningful to us.”
Lawlor said the organiza-
tion’s board of directors will
meet soon and discuss the
uses to which the generous
behest will be put.
The center has multiple
purposes in its legal efforts
to protect wilderness, wildlife
and the environment. It has
worked on endangered-spe-
cies protection and is work-
ing to protect the Cascade-
Siskiyou National Monument.
It also fields a climate man-
agement team tasked with
keeping fracking out of sen-
sitive areas and litigating
regarding the impact of coal
plants and coal burning.
Lawlor said the board
will explore potential expan-
sion of their programming
and the possibility of adding
PHOTO PROVIDED
Ali and Rick Geraths of Sisters presented the Western Environmental Law
Center in Eugene with a gift from the legacy of Gil Staender for $530,000.
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“Enriching the lives of those we serve, one day at time”
life, which, Lawlor said,
added much to the impact of
the gift for the organization.
“All of our staff and board
members were floored by
Gil’s generous gift when I
sent an email today telling
everyone,” Lawlor told the
Geraths. “We are all so very,
very grateful and apprecia-
tive. Having the knowledge of
Gil’s personal life makes the
gift so much richer and more
meaningful.”
capacity through the use of
the Staender behest.
He also noted that the orga-
nization intends to name its
giving program after Staender
in recognition of the scope of
the gift and the extraordinary
life the German immigrant
built in the American West.
Ali and Rick Geraths
of Sisters, who were close
friends with Gil, traveled to
Eugene and shared photo-
graphs and stories from Gil’s
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