SEQUIM — Painting, planting and scrubbing were on the checklists of more than 100 volunteers for Sequim Beautiful Day.
The fifth annual event on Saturday brought volunteers from churches, civic organizations and businesses to help at Greywolf and Helen Haller Elementary schools, Olympic Christian School, the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Food Bank and a home on the 300 block of West Alder Street.
Some of the projects were painting the Helen Haller Elementary School cafeteria and making general yard improvements at some sites. Volunteers joined work in progress by the Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County at the Alder Street house to clean flower beds, plant fruit trees and paint the exterior.
Eric Mahnerd with Sequim Sunrise Rotary said the club’s volunteers had 134 hours into the project leading up to Saturday’s event, and members anticipate about another 50 hours to finish repairs and replace the deck.
The project was funded by a Rotary District grant in partnership with Sequim Sunrise Rotary, and it also served in conjunction with the Rotarians’ Earth Day Project, said Rotarian Becki Roberts.
Beautiful Day started in the Silicon Valley region in 2004 by churches and various partners to help their community, and the idea was brought to Sequim in 2017 with a two-year break during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participating churches were Calvary Chapel Sequim, Dungeness Community Church, Sequim Community Church and Sequim Valley Foursquare. Rotarians, Habitat for Humanity volunteers and members of the Michael Trebert Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution also helped.
After painting a Boys & Girls Club bathroom, Rebecca Tenzythoff with Sequim Community Church said it was her first time helping with the event and found it to be a good opportunity to show how local agencies/groups need volunteers year-round.
“People just need to reach out, whether with a church or not,” she said.
