By Michael Dashiell
Olympic Peninsula News Group
SEQUIM — Longtime Sequim resident Bob Duncan’s spirit — including his passion for golf and for helping the more vulnerable residents on the North Olympic Peninsula — lives on.
The second annual Bob Cup to Benefit Clallam Mosaic, set for Saturday at The Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course, helps raise funds for local individuals with developmental disabilities.
Prior to his death, Robert “Bob” Raymond Duncan and his wife, Mary Jane, had committed to helping Clallam Mosaic secure a permanent location to serve individuals with developmental disabilities.
Mary Jane, a board member with Clallam Mosaic, said all funds raised are going to that cause.
“We made some money [last year], and we’ve got more sponsors this year,” she says.
The tournament was successful in 2016, Mary Jane said, “really because Bob and I have been around so long.
“We’re hoping for a good turnout.”
The memorial tournament kicks off with player/team check-ins between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and a shotgun start at 9 a.m.
Teams will be competing for one-year ownership of the Bob Cup on which players’ names will be engraved as the second winning team.
Throughout the event there will be several contests to challenge and reward players in the spirit of fun and charity.
In addition, Alaska Airlines — Bob Duncan’s employer for 32 years — has donated two round-trip airline tickets to anywhere the airline serves (excluding Cuba). The tickets will be raffled during the barbecue lunch that follows the tournament at 2:30 p.m.
“Alaska Airlines has been awesome,” Mary Jane said.
The cost is $100 per player and includes the lunch; barbecue-only tickets are $20 for preregistered attendees, $25 at the door.
Bob Duncan’s family moved to the area when he was 5, and the Duncans were among the originating families responsible for creation and ownership of the Dungeness course.
Bob, an avid golfer himself, graduated from Sequim High School and took on a career as a pilot.
He met Mary Jane in Palm Springs, Calif., and the couple moved in 1988 to Sequim, where they raised four children.
In addition to his piloting career, Bob was an inventor with three patents to his name, including the invention of an immersion suit (Thermashield 24+) designed to keep individuals stranded in cold water warm and alive for up to 24 hours.
Bob, who died Nov. 27, 2015, saw interest in helping those with developmental disabilities grow over the years — especially with his brother-in-law David Dow, who has Down syndrome.
For more information or to register, go to www.clallammosaic.org/bob-cup, call 360-683-6314 or email bobcup@clallam mosaic.org.
About Mosaic
Clallam Mosaic (formerly known as SNAP) originated in 1998 as a place for individuals with developmental disabilities to go once the “school bus stopped coming.”
Clallam Mosaic provides a space where individuals with developmental disabilities can go to have a sense of belonging and where they can continue to grow rather than lose precious skills they have worked so hard to achieve.
Now in its 18th year, Clallam Mosaic’s mission and vision have evolved. The organization “strives to create an inclusive community that enhances the quality of life for all individuals with developmental disabilities, whether they are toddlers or seniors, whether the disability has minimal or large impacts on life activities and whether the disabilities are intellectual or physical in nature.”
Clallam Mosaic provides year-round educational, recreational and leisure opportunities to individuals with developmental disabilities and hosts the county’s Parent to Parent chapter, which supports families and caregivers alike.
In 2016, Clallam Mosaic delivered more than 800 hours of programs to more than 80 individuals with developmental disabilities and more than 600 hours of caregiver respite, seminars, networking and support activities for 130 families/caregivers.
Alternative options for these services are few or nonexistent in Clallam County, program representatives say.
For more about Clallam Mosaic, call 360-797-3602 or email info@clallam mosaic.org.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
