SEQUIM — Constructing playgrounds and wheelchair ramps and building up the ShelterBox program in the community and throughout the world are among the volunteer work that earned Tom Schaafsma recognition as Sequim Citizen of the Year for 2009.
“This is a humbling experience, and I think I speak for all the nominees, both past and present, that none of us did it with this end in mind,” Schaafsma told about 75 people at the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce awards ceremony Tuesday.
“We do this because we love the community, and because we are thankful for how richly blessed we are,” Schaafsma said after the award was announced by former Sequim Mayor Walt Schubert who, with his wife, Sherry, won the 2008 award.
“We are blessed with the health, talent and ability to help, blessed with a country that gives us the freedom and ability to do this, blessed with a community of folks that support and encourage every one of us,” Schaafsma added.
Schaafsma, one of three persons nominated for the annual award, is a carpenter and Rotary Club member who helped raise record-breaking donations for ShelterBox USA and helped build Olympic Theatre Arts’ stages.
Other nominees
The other two nominees for Citizen of the Year were given Sequim Community Service Awards at the luncheon at the SunLand Golf & Country Club.
They are Joe Borden, chairman of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, and Cynthia Martin, founder of Parenting Matters and First Teacher resource center for families.
The chamber presented its first Citizen of the Year Award in 1968. It is an honorary award with no money attached.
Vern Frykholm, who nominated Schaafsma, ticked off a long list of accomplishments, emphasizing his work with ShelterBox USA.
“When Tom heard about the ShelterBox program — which provides large containers with tents, sleeping bags and cooking aids to families that have lost their homes and possessions to natural disasters — he pursued that and was selected as one of the first five members of the U.S. Disaster Relief Training team,” Frykholm said.
“When he was on a family vacation in August 2008, he left to help with relief of a 7.9 earthquake in Peru, and later that year, Honduras needed supplies and he spent his Thanksgiving there.
“He spent his own Thanksgiving helping others and thinking about missing his own Thanksgiving at home.”
Return from Colombia
Schaafsma recently returned from a trip to Colombia, where he helped his son, Torin, build a playground.
“People in the village could not believe someone from another country would fly down to help build a playground for their children,” Frykholm said.
“Of course, now he has requests from several other villages to build a playground for their children.”
Schaafsma said he believed the community was the source of his ability to give.
“Everyone of you has contributed mightily to the community,” he said.
“There is nobody here that, within the constraints of what they can do, hasn’t contributed in meaningful ways to make Sequim the place we want to be.”
Patsene Dashiell, who nominated Martin, said the leader of Parenting Matters has been a constant source of inspiration.
“During my first year attending First Teacher with my own daughter, I made a lot of friends that are still my friends today, and Cynthia is one of them, and now I work with her,” Dashiell said.
“She has always felt strongly that parents are the first teachers, and there is much sobering research that backs up the importance of starting early in a child’s life.
Grants for community
Dashiell said that during 19 years of work, Martin has brought in more than $1 million in grants for the community.
“She is focused and directed, and knows how to get things done even in the face of obstacles like budget cuts,” Dashiell said.
Martin said that she and her organization put out about 25 newsletters per year giving advice to parents of children of all ages.
The monthly newsletters go to 10 school districts in Washington state.
“We help parents all the way through, because it is one tough job,” she said. “A lot of them are don’t know how to do it well.
“My husband often reads the newsletters for errors and he always says he wishes we had known all of this information when we were raising our children.”
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays, who nominated Borden, said he appreciated the work Borden has done for the past 15 years — the last five years as chairman — for the Sequim Irrigation Festival each year.
“I came here when I was somewhat of a reckless youth who was trying to live a fast life,” Hays said.
“In fact, many of my friends and I liked to joke and call it the ‘Irritation Festival’ — though I think that was a lot of peer pressure.
“But the one thing that I always loved was the parade — and that is because it made me feel like a kid again.”
The importance of the oldest continuous festival on the North Olympic Peninsula is “the commitment of those in the community — like Joe — volunteering do so much for Sequim,” Hays said.
‘The essence of Sequim’
The festival is “the essence of Sequim — about the community rising up to keep the tradition alive.”
Hays added that Borden was on more boards and committees than he could count.
“I once heard that he was asked if there were any committees in town that he wasn’t on — he said he was trying to learn to say no,” Hays said.
“Obviously he is not learning very well.”
Borden said he was honored by the Community Service Award.
“I love this community and what it stands for,” Borden said.
“The people of this community make it all happen — that is why I fell in love with this place.
“The people who stay involved really make Sequim what it is and I couldn’t do the festival without the hundreds of volunteers who make it happen.
“It is such a privilege to make it happen.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
