Travis Cole, Packaging Team Leader 2, at work and suited up, ready to spread some holiday cheer!

Travis Cole has worked in the packaging department of the Tillamook plant for 17 years and has been a team leader for the last 16 years. He’s sort of the go-to guy with all the answers.

Travis is a 10 year veteran of one of the local volunteer fire departments, and he stays busy on his 160 acre beef ranch, giving bull riding lessons to little tykes (they start em’ off at five years old!). During the holiday season you can find him decked out from head to toe as Santa.

Travis has been playing the role of Santa for 23 years, a tradition handed down to him from his dad who had done it for as long as Travis can remember. It started off as something that he did for friends and family, showing up to Christmas dinner to hand out gifts, but it quickly turned into more. Donating his time (and suit) to local merchants, charities, schools and organization dinners, he estimates he’s had his photo taken with thousands of kids.

His favorite Santa memory was when one of the large chain grocery stores sponsored a family and asked him to deliver the gifts. The dad had been seriously injured in an accident, and the store employees pitched in to provide a holiday meal and gifts for the kids. They had no idea Santa would be knocking at their door. Travis said the excitement of the whole family was overwhelming.

When asked what it takes to be a good Santa, Travis chuckled and said “a big belly… and you have to be good with the kids, talk to them and make them comfortable so that their mom or dad can get that perfect picture. Then everyone is happy.”

I think it has more to do with his big heart and that twinkle in his eye. I’m proud to have a coworker like Travis — it’s people like him that make our community shine.

By Aimee

As Tillamook’s communications and member relations coordinator, Chandra Allen is focused on the needs of the cooperative’s membership, as well as preserving and telling the Tillamook story.

Chandra loves working with the farmer-owners of the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), and learning from them about dairying. “I have so much respect for what they do,” she says. “I love to get out on the farms and talk to the farmers and hear their stories.”

She produces a monthly newsletter for the farmer-owners, as well as their annual report. Her job also includes managing the Young Cooperators (YCs) program, which prepares younger or future farmers to take on the role of owning and managing their own farms and the cooperative.

“Being a farmer isn’t just about managing your cows,” Chandra says, and the YCs program provides training on a variety of topics, from soil samples to financial statements and everything in between. The YCs also attend national conferences and events to understand the broader dairy industry.

Chandra is also caretaker of Tillamook’s historical archives, which include 3,279 photos and objects as well as numerous paper records. From butter churns to cheese wheel slicers, from photos of our facilities and employees to the letters written to establish Tillamook’s first advertising program, the archives are a treasure trove of Tillamook history. “It’s fun to see how people lived, how they worked, what they wore, and how they spoke,” Chandra says.

Outside work, Chandra enjoys the lifestyle of a small coastal town, and she gives back to her community through leadership on the Tillamook County United Way board. She’s an avid Oregon Ducks fan, and football weekends in Eugene are a family tradition during football season.

“I’m proud to say I work for Tillamook — I love the products and I love the people who make them,” Chandra says. “I can’t say I make the cheese — that would be awesome — but I love having a role in it.”

By Karen

Georgia working at the Tillamook Cheese Factory fudge counter

Seven days a week during peak visitor season, Tillamook fudge is made— with real Tillamook Butter— in two large pots. It’s then sold in containers or by the pound in fudge loaves, on tempting displays behind the glass counter.

Our most popular Tillamook Fudge - Peanut Butter Chocolate

The fudge team has created over 40 flavors – variations on vanilla, chocolate, and milk chocolate fudge. The most popular flavor is Peanut Butter Chocolate, except among little girls, who seem drawn to the pink-and-white Raspberry Cheesecake. The newest flavor is Candy Bliss, a vanilla-pecan-caramel-chocolate confection.

Tillamook Fudge beckons visitors behind the glass case at the Tillamook Cheese Factory

Georgia says Tillamook is one of the best companies a person could work for. When her husband passed away several years ago, “they were so good to me—they went above and beyond,” she says. And when she remarried, to childhood friend Stan, “everyone was very happy for me.” Georgia and Stan have three adult daughters and three grandchildren, happily living close by in the Pacific Northwest.

The highlight of making fudge, Georgia says, is seeing the results as each batch is finished. And over her 10 years at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, she’s enjoyed watching some of her coworkers grow up from teenagers to adults with their own kids. “It’s been fun to watch,” she says. “They’re really good people.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you couldn’t have a better job than this one,” she says.

By Karen