Jeanine Cyr, the woman who founded Foundation of the Arts in Mill Creek who also served one term on the Mill Creek City Council, died March, 29, 2004 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 63.
An active community member, Cyr served on the board of the arts foundation, which puts on the Arts Alive! annual art show, up until her death. She also was a member of the Mill Creek Rotary Club, where she served as president at one time. Cyr was also on the city of Mill Creek’s Arts and Beautification Board, and served on the Mill Creek City Council from 1990 to 1993.
“She was a valiant lady,” said Mary Kay Voss, a Mill Creek City Council member and arts foundation board member. “This is a great loss to the community. She was very generous with her time.”
Cyr started the Foundation for the Arts in Mill Creek a decade ago with less than 10 members. Today, the non-profit organization meets monthly, has 160 members and a board of 12. It puts on the annual Arts Alive! art show each fall, and awards a college scholarship, the Jeanine Cyr Scholarship, which the arts foundation named in her honor a year ago.
“That was her dream,” said Donna Rickman, an original board member of the arts foundation. “She wanted to do something for Mill Creek and give scholarships for kids.”
Arts Alive! began as a single-day event in an office building near the Mill Creek post office. It later moved to city hall, and last year moved to the Mill Creek Country Club, and became a two-day affair. The event now includes a patron’s night before the show opens to the general public.
“It came out of the blue with her,” said Cyr’s sister, Donna Wood of Mill Creek, a member of the art foundation board. “She said there was no appreciation of the arts in Mill Creek, so she started the foundation to change that. She always appreciated people who could really (create art).”
In addition, the Foundation for the Arts in Mill Creek expanded its scope to put on classes in watercolor painting and photography and has done field trips, where members visit places like the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
“That was her baby,” Voss said about Cyr’s involvement with Arts Alive! and the art foundation.
The Foundation for the Arts has set up an art memorial fund in Cyr’s name to purchase art that will be placed in the city, Rickman said.
As a member of Mill Creek Rotary, Cyr served as president for one year during mid-1990s. She earned the title of Paul Harris Fellow for contributions of $1,000 or more to Rotary International, and always played a key role in the local chapter’s annual auction, which she helped establish.
During Cyr’s term on the Mill Creek City Council, the city dedicated three parks — Library, Highlands and Heron. It expanded the library and annexed three areas. The Council also adopted a ban on fireworks in the city limits during Cyr’s term.
“She was always involved,” Rickman said.
Cyr was born March 10, 1941 in Bellingham, and graduated from Bellingham High School in 1959. Cyr worked as a bookkeeper, office manager and worked in real estate. She came to Mill Creek 10 years ago, after living in Lynnwood.
Cyr painted some during her life, more as a hobby. Wood said Cyr’s passion was traveling. Wood went with her sister on three cruises, including the Bahamas, elsewhere in the Caribbean and the Mexican Riviera. Wood said one of her sister’s unfulfilled dreams was to visit Europe, but Cyr did visit Asia as a member of Mill Creek Rotary.
She is survived by her sister, Wood, a brother, Dennis Noice of Edmonds, a son, Raymond Scott Cyr of Mill Creek, and a grandson, Alexander Cyr, age 5, of Mill Creek.
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