Condon's Fabulous Fourth of July Grand Marshal: Kathy Burres

This year's Grand Marshal (Kathy Burres) love of volunteerism and giving back to her community stems from a very patriotic family. Her Grandpa Bernhard Galle drove an ambulance in World War I, her father Geb Galle was in the Navy during World War II and is a Pearl Harbor Survivor who fought in all the major battles in the Pacific except for one. Her father in-law Jack Burres also fought in World War II as did her Uncle Louis Galle. Kathy's brother Gabe Galle fought in Vietnam as did her brother-in-law's Steve Palmer and Jim Burres, all of which were in the Navy. Finally, her son Nick Burres retired from the Air Force after serving 20 years and seven deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kathy (Galle) Burres was born in Grafton, North Dakota on November 22, 1952 to Geb & Jean Galle. She is the middle of five children. Her older siblings are Lynda and Gabe followed by her two younger siblings Joann and Ben. They lived in North Dakota until her parents sold their refrigeration business and her dad went to work as a civilian for the Air Force.

The Galle family moved to Idaho and then to Baker, Oregon. In 1965 they moved to Condon where her father was stationed at the Condon Air Base and was in charge of all the civilians. Kathy attended school in Condon from 1965-1970 where in 1970 the family moved to the Bonneville Dam where both her parents were employed and she graduated from Cascade Locks High School in 1971. Kathy attended the Hollywood College of Beauty in Portland and graduated in January 1973. She worked at two different beauty salons in Portland until she moved back to Condon in November 1973 where she went to work for Laurel Wikstrand.

On June 14th, 1975 Kathy married the love of her life Dave Burres who was born and raised in Condon. Together they have three children Tony, Nick and Carrie. Dave worked for Ernie Barnett for 20 years, then Bob Kammerrer before driving truck for Jack Gray. The company would go through multiple buyouts until Walsh Trucking took over and where he finally retired in 2015.

Kathy loved her clientele as a beautician! She took off time to raise Nick & Carrie while they were young, but later continued her career as a beautician working for Sue Smith, Sandy Greiner, and Lloyd & Suzanne Smith until March 26, 1995 when she started at the Bank as a teller when they opened the Condon branch. She was the Manager of the Bank for 15 years until she retired in 2018.

Kathy has been well known in the Condon community between her job and her multiple community projects including:

-Gamma Upsilon from 1977 - 1989

-Skate-a-thon, Walk-a-thon and Bike-a-thon

-Volunteered for the Carnival at the Grade School for many years

-Annual St. Patrick's dinner Co-Chairman from 2002 - 2017

-Annual Community Easter Egg Hunt organizer from 2003 - 2017

-Coordinated the Condon Fabulous 4th of July Parade 2002 & 2003

-Helped with Teach Children to Save Money at the local schools

-Board of Directors at Summit Springs from 1997 - 2018 and was a Chairman twice

-Summit Springs Golf Tournament Organizer from 2005 - 2015

-Established the Main Street Scarecrow Contest in 2010

Columbia Basin Dinner organizer-3 separate years.

-Chartered the Lighting of the City Park for Christmas from 2008 – 2016

-Incorporated decorating the Street lamps for Christmas in 2008

-Booster Club Member

-Member of the St. John Catholic Church and past member of the Finance Committee

-Formulated a toy drive to give to the children in Southern Iraq while Nick was deployed there in 2004

-Inaugurated military pictures of all those who served in the Bank window

-Honor Flight supporter for World War II Veterans

In retirement, Kathy has spent a lot of her time taking care of her family and dealing with medical issues. But her favorite is watching her Grandson Caeson! In 2022 she spent most of her time in & out of the hospital battling cancer and other health issues. With help from her family she has been on a great path of healing & plans on keeping up with her passion of volunteer work as she is able to, taking care of Caeson, and spending time with family and friends, finally traveling as much as she can. She enjoys trips to Moses Lake to see her Dad (who will be 103 years old in a few weeks) as well as her sister and brother-in-law. She also enjoys visiting Utah to visit her son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons.

Kathy is very proud of her accomplishments & volunteer work but her pride is in her children and grandchildren.

Tony worked for FedEx for several years as well as the Navy shipyards in Bremerton, Washington and now resides in Tacoma, Washington.

Nick graduated from high school and went straight into the Air Force where he served 20 years. He also volunteers as a coach for the Special Olympics and was a Big Brother for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program for eight years. It was getting stationed at Hill AFB Utah where he met the love of his life, Amy and they were married 11/12/13.

In 2018 Nick graduated from college at Utah State University. His wife Amy is a 1st Grade teacher and the whole family enjoys visiting her classroom as she is the best teacher and very loved by her students. Nick and Amy have two sons Dakota and Carson who both graduated from High School in Farr West, Utah. Dakota is a machinist and Carson is going to Weber State University to become a flight nurse.

Kathy's daughter Carrie also graduated from Condon High School and volunteered as a mentor. She moved to the Portland area for work where she was in Customer Service and Safety. She met the love of her life Rob Scott and they married in 2009 alongside Rob's children Amber & Baeley.

Amber & her husband Curtis have 2 children Jaedyn age 12 & Lauli age 6; they reside in Keizer, Oregon. Baeley and his wife Lydia are recently married and live in Beaverton, Oregon. Carrie has also survived Cancer & deals with other ongoing health issues. Rob and Carrie decided to move to Condon in 2021 so they could raise their son Caeson. Rob works at the High School where they enjoy being home in Condon and supporting all the school events that they can attend.

As many in the community know Kathy is caring and compassionate, loves volunteering, and is dedicated to our community. She has spent many hours doing lots of different projects which brought a notable "spirit" into the Condon community. It kept her busy and distracted while her son Nick was deployed seven times overseas.

She has taught her children and many more the love of volunteering and what it means to give back to others. Both Kathy and Carrie are now passing on the tradition of volunteering to Caeson. Caeson has also been recognized by the Rural Community Builder Department by K'lynn Lane as a remarkable soul as he enjoys visiting Summit Spring and giving out treats and gifts to the residents to brighten their day as well as cheering for our local sports teams. K'lynn says he has the intentions to be a community leader at the age of 4 with his indelible mark of the hearts of those he touches and the impact he has on our community for his compassion and service.

This is just one example of how giving Kathy is and her love she has for our community.

Kathy would like to thank all of you for your support and help throughout the years! She has done so much to help this community there just isn't enough time to list it all, but if you see her stop and say Hi!

Happy 4th of July from your 2024 Grand Marshall Kathy Burres and her family!