The love of Julia Child started with Descoware.

Kandy Clark noticed how well one of her colleagues' Descoware pots worked and decided to buy a signature piece of Julia Child's cookware. Gradually, the collection she began through garage sales expanded to Julia Child cookbooks and enlivened her passion for cooking.

Clark loved the 2009 film "Julie and Julia," which intertwines Julia Child's early years in the cooking profession with blogger Julie Powell's challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book. In 2010, Clark donned a curly brunette wig and blue apron as she clenched a plastic chicken and meat cleaver. Her Julia Child costume was the runner-up in the 2010 Halloween costume contest at Clackamas County Bank (CCB).

Whether at CCB, her place of work for 34 years, volunteering for a community event or pursuing one of her many interests - they range from wine tasting to vintage cars - Clark embraces the philosophy "carpe diem." Clark, 54, is the 2012-13 second Sandy Mountain Festival princess.

"If you need something, she's the person to ask," says daughter Kelly Dreger of Troutdale. She is the friendliest person and is always there to lend a hand."

After graduating from Tokay High School in Lodi, Calif., Clark and her husband, Dennis, moved to Sandy in 1977 to be closer to her brother. The two were high school sweethearts and had married after high school graduation in 1975.

Having spent childhood summers in the Mount Hood region, Clark quickly felt at home in Sandy. What she continues to love most about the city is the sense of small-town community - that if someone needs help, it's offered.

Clark, one of the longest CCB employees, began in 1978 answering and filing checks. Ed Storey of CCB says Clark still brings the same bubbly and happy spirit to work that she brought at age 20.

Through the years, she has been a teller, a loan secretary, an operations officer and an administrative officer - the position she's held since 2005.

"She's just a tremendous asset," says coworker Kathy Edwards. "She puts herself in the receiver's shoes - she takes a step back and looks at how information will look to the customer. She has a mechanical skill that allows her to look at something and figure out how to make it work."

Edwards calls Clark a primo volunteer. Outside of volunteering through work, Clark is involved with many community organizations and events, including Relay for Life, the Salvation Army, Mount Hood Foundation and Gresham Breakfast Lions Club.

"Charity should begin in your own neighborhood," Clark says.

She believes the golden rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you is timeless.

Clark's husband died last year, but she's close to her two daughters - Dreger, who lives in Troutdale with her husband George, and Jenny Clark, who lives in Sandy with her husband Jerry - and her three grandchildren, Logan, Ariella and Dashul, who call her "Umi," or Grammy in German.

"It's so fun to watch how their personalities develop," Clark says.

Clark carries on the hobbies she and Dennis shared a love for, such as camping and refurbishing vintage cars such as her 1956 Ford pickup.

She was the first employee to ride her bike, a beach cruiser, to work when CCB got its first bike rack, and Clark helped initiate a wine-tasting group that has traveled all over Oregon.

Clark also has a strong interest in genealogy and dreams of visiting Germany, where her grandparents came from.

But above all else, friends and family notice her love of community and care for people.

When Dreger was looking for new tennis shoes for one of her children, Clark showed up two days later with almost-new Nike Shocks she'd found for $5 at a consignment shop.

"Helping and volunteering comes naturally to her," Dreger says. "She's very dedicated to her community, children and grandchildren. It's exciting to know she's more tough than girly, but fits the requirements of princess to a tee."