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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2020)
2 Wednesday, June 24, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Gratitude for Sisters community spirit Joe Hosang Sisters High School Principal Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. To the Editor: I want to thank everyone who helped with the Class of 2020 Street Banner and Keepsake Project. When Citizens4Community brought up the idea with parents and the school, we knew it was important for Sisters to come together to honor our graduating seniors during a tough time because of COVID-19. We were limited as a community in how much we could sup- port our Sisters High School (SHS) seniors at graduation, but we could show our love through these banners. We had no way of knowing C4C would get so much support for the project. This just shows how, as a community, we really are all in this together. I9m a Class of 2021 student, and I had lost a lot of hope for these last couple years of my high school experience. Not knowing if or when I would go back to school has been a scary thought. But after seeing how our community has supported the Class of 2020, I know that, no matter what, it will be a great year. I have gained even more of a love for my commu- nity while watching this banner project hap- pen. We are all facing such tough times right now, and seeing this kind of support from my community truly warms my heart. Olivia Bertagna C4C Youth Board Member s s s To the Editor: As two Sisters High School graduates and community members of color who have returned home before our final year in col- lege, we are saddened by the racism under- girding our nation9s historical and contempo- rary actions towards people of color. The murder of George Floyd by police officers marks only the most recent wrongful See LETTERS on page 15 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Monday Sunday Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Sunny Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Showers 80/51 86/56 91/57 79/47 61/44 65/46 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Creative Director: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partner: Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65. Published Weekly. ©2020 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper9s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. When our high school team was told in April that we would not be returning to school for the rest of the year, our hearts sank for the seniors. There were literally tears from a number of us. This lasted for about two days, and then we began to rally. We had ideas of how to celebrate our graduates com- ing from everywhere, and we put together a core team of Lynne Fendall, Jillian Frankl, and Mel Petterson to collect ideas for a few weeks. These three were the heart, soul, and energy of graduation. While we were collecting ideas for graduation, a two- person team, Lynne Fendall and Mel Peterson purchased <Class of 2020= signs from the Grad Night Party fund- raising account and deliv- ered them like a covert Navy SEAL team to each senior home. That same week VAST Church and June9s Asian Kitchen provided lunch for our entire district. The fol- lowing week was teacher appreciation week. Since we had great feedback with the senior signs, we thought that the teachers would appreci- ate something similar. One problem, no funds. Lynne Fendall, having a <can- do= attitude, reached out to the community. Within 24 hours, our community ral- lied and donated enough money for us to purchase signs and help us pay for lunch for the teachers. I still remember her giv- ing us updates on an hourly basis of how many people were donating. Our com- munity is amazing! A team including Jillian Frankl, Tim Roth and Lynne Fendall went to work again deliv- ering signs to the teachers9 homes. Things really started moving for graduation when Roger Dwight and the Rodeo Board offered to help with graduation. They said they would provide park- ing attendants, build steps and provide us with a stage, while Matt Cyrus donated his white trailer for us to use as a backdrop to the stage. Jerry Kaping and WellHouse Church connected us with Terry Cowen of New Life Radio, 104.9 who then said they would pay for our air time. We now had a place, a stage, and sound. The next big piece was getting a video screen. This almost paused the produc- tion because of the cost. Lynne found Mark Stenied of Northwest Video Wall out of Seattle. This gentleman really helped us out with his knowledge, efficiency, and cost. When we secured the screen, it was game on! I remember feeling so overwhelmed by all the technical questions. Enter Brad Tisdel. Within a few days of having an under- standing of what we needed him to do, he connected with all the key production play- ers, acquired Ethan Singer from Nexus Productions for sound, and calmed our anxiety. There is no way we could have pulled off gradu- ation without Brad Tisdel. We connected with Sam Pyke from Hill Shadow Pictures to organize the videos as well as produce the Senior Song along with Rick Johnson. Samra Spear rallied the valedictorians. Tyler Cranor, Dan Schmidt, and Cole Seymour produced the introductory video of the staff. Susie Seaney col- lected all the senior pictures and baby pictures to create the senior slideshow. Susie also took an unexpected roll of acting liaison with Citizens4Community (C4C). About two weeks from graduation Amy Burgstahler and Olivia Bertagna from C4C reached out and said they wanted to honor the graduates by purchasing an individual banner for each of the graduates. I remem- ber thinking, <how cool, but how can we take on another initiative?= The answer was: <Ya live in Sisters, just ask for help.= So Susie Seaney connected with Olivia and Amy and another gift for the graduates was in the works. I9m still amazed at the support to make gradua- tion special and memorable. C & C Nursery was bringing in truckloads of plants and trees to spruce up the stage. Three Sisters Floral donated flowers for each graduate. The Rodeo Queens, Mikaela Kollermaier and Riann Cornett, carried our Outlaw banner and our national flag. I remember standing next to Brad Tisdel on graduation night, feeling this event may have been a little bigger than graduation. I felt like this was something our commu- nity wanted to make hap- pen to feel some hope, some love, some joy. And we truly did it together. I love Sisters and I am so very grateful for your caring generosity. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.