Born in Whitehall and raised in Three Forks, Sally Buckles has spent her working life growing and bettering the Boulder community with an emphasis on Emergency Services of many kinds. She moved to Boulder her junior year of high school, and after graduating from Jefferson High, she continued her education at the Butte Business College, followed by stints in Seattle, Chicago, Bozeman and Great Falls. She would later find herself back in Boulder, commuting to Helena for work at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana.
As a proud mother to Brian and Marci, Buckles dedicated herself to “many jobs no one else wanted.” Her works of service included being Jefferson High secretary, City of Boulder Dispatch (where she used H&L frequency radios reaching from California to New York), Jefferson County Deputy from 1980 to 1997, all this while being an important part of the Jefferson County Emergency Medical Services for 36 years. For 15 years, Sally was the Director of the Boulder Ambulance and in that time, she was also a state officer for Montana’s EMS Association. During her work with the Tri-County FireSafe Working Group, she received the respectable Sonny Stiger Award.
Buckles’ community service has not slowed, as she’s served terms on the Boulder City Council and the Boulder Transition Advisory Committee (since its induction, serving as Chairman of Marketing and Finance Advisory, along with serving on the advisory board for the Elkhorn Community Foundation). Along the way, Buckles and friend Betty Charlton created “The Gift Shop” in 2016. A once-traveling shop at gift shows has turned into a bustling store on Boulder’s Main Street full of quality furniture, jewelry and handmade items.
Nowadays, Buckles’ volunteer hours are shared with spending time with her sisters, attending Broadway shows and NCAA Basketball games and – most importantly – loving on her great-grandson Kashton Connole, one of few fourth generation Boulder residents.
We thank Sally Buckles for the many years of support during our Fair & Rodeo along with her example of giving selflessly to the community, all while having a smile on her face.
