© 2001
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
All rights reserved

Comments to
Eric Dolson, Publisher

Sisters workers find jobs rewarding
By Jim Cornelius

Joyce Palmer.

If you have to work for a living, it's nice to get up in the morning looking forward to your day. For many of Sisters' long-time employees, the pleasures of their work are all wrapped up in the love of people.

Palmer says she's often asked whether she gets burned out on the "Christmas spirit" working in a themed store all year round.

Greg Shingler.

"I don't lose that," she said. "You just look forward to the holiday even more."

Greg Shingler started at Ray's Food Place in August 1995 as a "fifth manager" and has since worked his way up to Assistant Manager. He started in the grocery business in 1976 and he still loves the work.

"I'll stay with it till I retire," he said. "It's done very well for me."

For Shingler, teaching and training are the highlights of his job. He enjoys passing on his knowledge in a way that helps employees improve their work lives.

"I try to share what I've learned in the 26 years (in the business) so they can work easier," he said.

By the same token, training a variety of people is also his biggest challenge, learning how to communicate with and motivate people with different needs and interests.

Mary Cantu-Burdick.

Shingler says he enjoys the variety in his job in Sisters, meeting different people all the time.

"The four seasons is really nice," he said. "You have your fishermen, your hunters, your skiers -- all that."

Mary Cantu-Burdick of Bedouin has stayed on the job for seven years, assisted by owner Janit Brockway who made it easy for her to schedule around the needs of her child.

Cantu-Burdick adopted her son Christopher in 1996 and Brockway offered her a highly flexible schedule.

"She gave me options," Cantu-Burdick said. "I just like working here because Janit is such a caring, wonderful person."

The willingness to work around children's needs and schedules reflects what Mary sees as a common community value.

"It's so nice to work in a community that is so family-oriented," she said.

Terry Bliven.

Her customers are a pleasure, too. Working in a shop that carries exotic clothing and unique sundries, she meets people who are perhaps a little unconventional, with interesting stories.

"I love interacting with people," Cantu-Burdick said. "That's my favorite thing."

In her nine years at Sisters Drug Company and The Cook's Nook, Terry Bliven has participated in an enterprise that has grown both in scale and in terms of the products and services offered.

"I started out years ago, when there wasn't even a Cook's Nook," she recalled.

That's where Bliven does most of her work these days, but she does any kind of work from dusting to serving customers at the pharmacy to creating displays and gift baskets.

"Tim and Deanna (Muir, business owners) have such a knack for pulling talents out of you that you don't know," Bliven said.

Leith Williver.

Customer service is stressed at Sisters Drug and The Cook's Nook, and that fits right in to Bliven's work ethic.

"I find it really rewarding working with people and serving them," she said.

That outlook turns customers into friends. One woman comes in each year just to say hi and get a hug.

The Nugget's production manager Leith Williver has been on the job for 10 years. She enjoys working on a deadline to turn a client's advertising needs and visions into a graphic reality each week.

"I like the creative aspect of the job," she said. "You get to see the fruits of your labors."

She also likes the variety and changeability the newspaper business provides.

"No two days are ever the same in the news business," she said.

"It doesn't get monotonous."

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