Wednesday, April 15, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon TOUR: Garden club has historically used event funds to award grants Continued from page 3 which have helped beautify our town while enhancing our natural surroundings and educating our children about the importance of the natural world. The garden tour was the brainchild of Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show founder Jean Wells Keenan in 1998, when she approached the garden club about offering gar- den tours to the participants enrolled in her Quilters¾ Affair classes during Quilt Show Week. Thus, was born the original Annual Quilt Show Garden Tour. That initial effort raised $4,000 for the garden club which promptly returned it to the community. From that day to this, the money raised by the tour has gone to support fulfill- ing grant requests from local nonprofits and schools that are focused on gardening and the natural world. Money has been given in support of the Sisters Elementary School Garden Club and greenhouse, middle and high school greenhouses and garden programs, Sisters Community Garden, Sisters Library landscaping, City parks, Deschutes Land Trust, Camp Caldera, Sisters Rotary Club, Upper Deschutes Watershed Council for work with Sisters students, Barclay Memorial Park, Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, and Seed-to-Table. The tour provides a diver- sion from classes and an opportunity for visitors and locals alike to experience the homes and gardens in the Sisters area, while admir- ing more quilts belonging to the garden club members and the homeowners. Wells Keenan was made a Lifetime Member of the garden club in appreciation of her help and encouragement with the tour. Her own garden has been part of the tour several times. Homes were added to the tour starting in 2000. Since then, other features have been incorporated such as raffles for quilts and the sale of yard art by local artists. An additional stop on the tour has been at the Sisters Community Garden where lunches prepared by garden members have been available for purchase to help fundrais- ing for the garden. A three- salad lunch has included homemade bread or rolls and desserts. Visitors are invited to eat in the garden while enjoying the view of the mountains and the quilts hanging on the garden fence. Last year, 195 lunches were gone in an hour-and-a-half. With no garden tour this year, the community garden will not be offering their lunch. Doctor seeks dog from biting incident By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief The doctor treating the man who was bitten by a loose dog on the Peterson Ridge Trail at the south end of Sisters on March 25, is hoping the owner of the dog comes forward. Without knowing the his- tory of the dog, the victim is left with worries about pos- sible disease. Dr. Eric Wattenburg told The Nugget last weekend that, while the possibility of rabies is remote, it is a looming con- cern as long as the status of the dog involved remains in question. Dr. Wattenburg said that in cases where a dog who has bitten a person is identi- fied, it can be quarantined for a period of 10 days and its behavior observed to warn of any sign of rabies. “Or,” he said, “if you have evidence that the dog¾s been vaccinated, it¾s pretty much case closed.” With the dog¾s identity and status unknown, the bite victim is faced with a deci- sion whether to pursue treat- ment on a preventative basis. And that treatment is unpleas- ant and expensive.