2018 Event staff and volunteers

The cadre of volunteers who put their best efforts forward for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show are nothing if not loyal. Volunteer once and you are liable to still be doing it 10, 20, even 30 years later.

Volunteers encompass all ages, abilities, interests, and locales—and they aren’t all quilters. Hang around long enough, though, and you might be bitten by the bug. Many have succumbed, like current SOQS board chair Jeff Omodt, who came in through the back door by helping his church provide 600 lunches in four hours on quilt show day to visiting quilters.

Omodt’s Sisters Kiwanis group has also been involved for years helping to hang and rescue quilts, and he was enlisted in those duties. In 2013, Omodt joined the board of the quilt show. After taking an Absolutely Beginning quilt class from Lawry Thorn in 2014, he said, “I was hooked, big time.”

“My quilt went into the show that year, and like 1,200 other quilters, I stood proudly by my quilt, hanging on a downtown building, while friends and family took pictures. Life-changing! Now every year I learn more and more about quilts, quilting, and quilters,” Omodt explained.

After discovering the Cherrywood Challenge in 2017, Omodt brought their Lion King exhibit to the Sisters Fire Station. In 2018, the Cherrywood van Gogh exhibit came to Sisters (including Omodt’s rendition of the famous artist), and this year the Challenge theme is Prince—think “Purple Rain.” Those who know Omodt can’t wait to see what he does this year.

Another Sisters Kiwanian, Warren Seaward, has been hanging quilts on quilt show day since 1979, after moving to Sisters with the U.S. Forest Service. Seaward thought that helping out with the quilt show would be a “great way to serve the community.” He and his family will celebrate their 40th year of hanging quilts on Dixie’s (formerly Leavitt’s Western Wear) as well as several other buildings in the same vicinity, as the family affair has grown and his two daughters, Linda Bafford and Chris Brophy, have become team leaders.

None of the Seawards are quilters, but Warren is an accomplished cross-stitcher who for many years presented his handiwork to the outgoing Kiwanis president with the Kiwanis emblem and the recipient’s name carefully stitched.

In 2009, SOQS awarded Seaward his own stepladder emblazoned with a plaque for his years of volunteering. With Seaward now in his late 80s, that is the only ladder he is allowed to use. He will be out with his team early on the morning of July 13, helping to turn downtown Sisters into an outdoor gallery of quilts.

With a full-time paid staff of only two people and no volunteer coordinator, the smooth and organized operation of the quilt show is nothing short of a miracle. The new executive director, Dawn Boyd, is in awe of how everyone knows their job and when it needs to be completed.

Nine hundred jobs totaling 3,000 hours of volunteer time pays off with a week-long, community-wide celebration of quilting when Sisters welcomes more than 10,000 visitors from all 50 states and 27 foreign countries. Some volunteers come long distances every year to lend their efforts to this amazing event.

One of 410 volunteers last year, Chris Shimizu of Sacramento, California, and her two teammates Marion Shimoda and Cathy Bullis, were named the Volunteers of the Year. They make up the Quilt Return Shipping Team, ensuring that every one of the 1,200 quilts entered in the annual event is carefully packaged and safely returned to its owner or to someone who purchased a quilt during the show.

Shimizu has been volunteering for a decade, coming north with her husband to spend three or four weeks in Sisters. She has been quilting for the past two decades and enters a quilt or two each year.

“For the past 15 years, I have attended the Quilter’s Affair classes and the quilt show. I was inspired to volunteer when I saw the army of individuals who make the show successful each year. I wanted to give back to the community and support the continuation of this beautiful event. Each year, I meet new friends and visit with those I’ve met in the past, like a reunion,” she shared.

Her eight-year-old granddaughter Aila comes to Sisters every year with her grandparents.

“Last year, a highlight for her was meeting Vincent van Gogh [portrayed by Omodt] and taking a photo with him in the special exhibit. She especially enjoys sewing her own bean bag in the children’s sewing tent. Soon she’ll be exhibiting her own quilts,” Shimizu added.

Patrick Chambers, a young dad of an eight-month-old son, works for the Sisters branch of First Interstate Bank. He was born and raised in neighboring Redmond and, as a child, came to the quilt show with his mother. She taught him how to sew and when asked if he is a quilter, he hesitated before answering, “In a way.”

Chambers has been volunteering for the quilt show since moving to Sisters five years ago with his wife. First Interstate has a policy that if an employee volunteers over eight hours in the community, the bank will contribute $10 an hour to the organization. Chambers’s four volunteer jobs last year netted a $240 donation to the quilt show.

“I like going to the show and understanding the inner workings of the event,” he said.

Chambers also enjoys meeting new people every year from different places as he hangs and takes down quilts and serves on the Quilt Rescue Team armed with a two-way radio for instant response.

“If I didn’t work during the week, I would do even more,” Chambers admitted. The week before the quilt show, he does help out with folding and tagging quilts and sorting them in preparation for hanging.

Although he’s never entered a quilt in the show, he did say, “It’s possible.” When asked if he’d teach his son to sew, he responded, “I expect I will.”

From its simple beginnings 44 years ago when Jean Wells Keenan hung a dozen quilts in front of her fabric store on Cascade Avenue, the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show continues to add new events and exhibits every year, including the special Sunday event on the FivePine campus. Each addition requires more volunteer hours to make it happen.

The largest outdoor quilt show in the world, free to the public, still manages to generate enough money to cover production costs ($220,000 last year) and work with and support other community nonprofits. None of this would be possible were it not for the dedicated, skilled, and willing volunteers who give their all year after year.

If you are interested in joining the SOQS army of volunteers, visit their website, sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org, and click on Volunteer Info. •