The nugget., April 04, 2018, Page 16, Image 16

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Wednesday, April 4, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The people behind The Nugget...
Teresa Mahnken can
scarcely believe 18 years
have passed since she first
walked through the door of
The Nugget Newspaper.
She came to The Nugget
simply seeking a job and
wound up finding a family.
In the year 1999, Teresa
and her husband, Barry, left
Seattle, Washington, looking
for a change — a place with
four seasons, a place on a
smaller scale than the boom-
ing tech capital Seattle had
become. They found them-
selves in Reno, Nevada, but
that wasn’t quite the right fit.
“Barry’s folks, prior to us
leaving Seattle, had moved to
Sisters,” Mahnken recalled.
“They said, ‘Why don’t you
guys come here? We have
four seasons here.”
So, they did.
Before leaving Reno,
Teresa submitted a résumé in
response to an ad for an office
administration position at The
Nugget and then-publisher
Erik Dolson had called her.
“I had an interview days
after we got here,” she said.
She remembers talk-
ing with long-time Nugget
employees Leith Easterling
and Jim Cornelius and decid-
ing that The Nugget would be
a good fit.
“I just had a sense, yeah,
this sounds right,” she said.
“I guess, 18 years later, it was
kind of meant to be.”
Teresa wears a multitude
of hats at her station at the
front counter of The Nugget.
She manages classified adver-
tising, subscriptions, circula-
tion, and provides all kinds
of administrative support to
her colleagues — who have a
profound appreciation for her
as a colleague and as a person.
“Teresa is the most on-
top-of it person I know,”
said graphic designer Leith
Easterling. “Before you ask
her to do something, she
already has it done! She really
is amazing. And she is a beau-
tiful human being as well. I
feel really lucky to know her.”
Production manager Jess
Draper said, “Teresa is an
amazing person, patient and
kind under pressure, steadfast
in her service to every person
that walks through the front
door. She never complains
about a long day, and backs
up her co-workers in what-
ever way necessary to meet
the team goals.”
For her part, Teresa rec-
ognizes that working closely
and often under pressure with
colleagues creates a bond that
feels like family. The crew has
Teresa Mahnken
been through a lot together —
the birth of children, the loss
of parents, changes in rela-
tionships: “A lot of life mile-
stones — happy and sad,” she
says.
And, since she is the per-
son people interact with first
when they visit The Nugget,
she’s established a bond with
many members of the com-
munity as well.
“I love happy customers,”
she said. “I love having some-
body smile at me when they
walk through the door. The
Lance Trowbridges, the Jim
Andersons — those are some
of my favorites.”
She’s found in Sisters what
she and Barry were looking
for when they left Seattle —
though she could do with a
little less of the fourth sea-
son, which is hanging on
tenaciously.
Teresa considers herself
a “big reader” and she loves
to walk. She feels very much
at home in Sisters, especially
when the weather turns nice
and it’s time to get out in the
yard.
“I love being in the yard in
the summer,” she said. “I love
the smell of grass. I don’t care
what I’m doing in the yard —
I just love being in the yard.
I love the birds in the yard,
PHOTO PROVIDED
Teresa Mahnken loves her Nugget family and the customers she works with
each week.
too, actually. I’m kind of
obsessed. The birds are very
entertaining.”
She appreciates Sisters’
human environment, too.
“There’s so much gener-
osity in this community,” she
said. “There’s so many that
give so much of themselves
here.”
She includes her Nugget
colleagues in that assessment.
“I hope (people) know
how much we all really care
about the paper,” she said. “I
don’t feel like anybody here
just punches in for a job, for
a paycheck…. We really care
about what we do; what we
produce.”
Now you can help The Nugget
continue its journalistic mission
The Nugget
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PHOTO BY GARY MILLER