Citizen, business of year honored at awards gala

PORT ANGELES — Danny Steiger, CEO of Lumber Traders, received the Citizen of the Year Award at the eighth Port Angeles Community Awards gala at Field Arts & Events Hall.

Steiger was recognized Saturday for his leadership of the employee-owned company and its investment in the community, such as transforming the former Sears store on Lincoln Street into Angeles Rentals, and his advocacy for the affordable housing crisis by offering nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity discounts to support their projects.

“This is just neighbors helping neighbors,” Steiger said. “I’m grateful to be able to make an impact in this community.”

Also nominated for Citizen of the Year were Marty Brewer, Port Angeles School District superintendent, and Fran Howell, president of the Port Angeles Food Bank.

The event was presented by Business Health Trust and sponsored by the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Sound Publishing.

Eran Kennedy, publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, presented the awards to each of the winners. Shannon Cosgrove hosted the evening’s program.

Swain’s General Store received Business of the Year for its 66 years of contributing to the economic prosperity of the community, its commitment to its employees and its philanthropic generosity.

“The store is a family, but the customers own the store,” said General Manager Don Droz, citing the example of people running down shoplifters out the door and into the parking lot.

“We tell them, ‘Don’t do that!’ But they feel it’s their store,” he said.

Radio Pacific and Wilder Auto, two other longtime businesses, were finalists for Business of the Year.

Rose Thompson received the Young Leader of the Year award, which goes to individuals between 18 and 39 who have a positive impact on the community by making contributions beyond the responsibilities of their job.

Thompson, 39, has her hand in many events in addition to her role as executive director of the Dungeness Crab Festival and as owner of Fogtown Coffee Bar.

“I get to make fun for people for a living, and I do with the help from the community,” she said.

Finalists for Young Leader of the Year also included Jaiden Dokken, Clallam County’s first poet laureate, and BRIX Marine Managing Director Perry Knudson.

Educator of the Year went to Jason Gooding, a counselor at Lincoln High School, the Port Angeles School District’s alternative school, and at Seaview Academy, its online school. Darren Mills, who teaches English at Stevens Middle School, and Everett Young, who teaches English at Seaview, also were finalists.

Elisia Anderson, executive director of First Step Family Support Center, accepted the Organization of the Year Award on behalf the nonprofit, which is a safety net for children and families in Clallam and Jefferson counties by providing food, clothing, counseling and connections to resources.

Anderson was accompanied to the stage to receive the award by the other four members of First Step’s leadership team.

“We do everything as a team,” Anderson said, including delivering 750,000 diapers to 900 families last year.

Clallam Mosaic and North Olympic Baseball & Softball also were finalists for the award, which recognizes nonprofit, faith or service organizations.

Emerging Business of the Year went to Ridgeline Homecare Cooperative. Administrator Alicia Campion accepted the award on behalf of the nonprofit that is owned and operated by its caregivers and that advocates for the elderly.

The award recognizes businesses that are between 1 and 4 years old, or that have significantly reinvented themselves within the last four years, and have filled a significant or unmet need in the community.

Angeles Rentals and BRIX Marine also were finalists.

The 18 finalists for the six awards were selected from more than 180 nominees submitted by community members. Seven judges met four times to decide on the finalists and winners.

This year’s judges were Kennedy Cameron, United Way of Clallam County; Joe Cammack, owner, Jim’s Pharmacy; Julie Hatch, manager, Kitsap Bank, Port Angeles branch; Colleen Robinson, executive director, Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County; Ken Simpson, owner, Angeles Electric; Brian Smith, chief of the Port Angeles Police Department; and Jon Unruh, owner, Little Devil’s Lunchbox.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.