Seven local heroes will be honored with the Clallam County Community Service Award for 2011 on Thursday.
The award recipients are:
■ Ron Allen, tribal chairman (1977-present) and CEO (1982-present) of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe — and impressive community and business visionary with a national reputation.
■ Jaye Moore, selfless director of the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, a nonprofit, state and federally licensed facility in Sequim that rescues and rehabilitates injured wildlife and releases the animals back into the wild.
■ Dewey Ehling, Clallam County’s “music man,” whose efforts stretch from the Port Angeles Symphony to the Peninsula Singers to Sequim Community Aid.
■ Colleen and Ray Divacky, longtime community activists who have contributed energy, hard work and leadership in Joyce and for the Crescent School District.
■ Alan Barnard, whose volunteer activities stretch from chairing public safety advisory committees and spearheading 9/11 memorials to coordinating anti-litter campaigns and promoting local aviation.
■ Stephen Rosales, tireless volunteer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula (Sequim and Port Angeles), Sequim Food Bank, Sequim schools and Little League.
The Clallam County Community Service Award honors the “dedication, sacrifice and accomplishments” of community leaders and volunteers “who have made a difference in Clallam County, who have made our communities a better place by doing extraordinary things for their neighbors, their community or the environment.”
This is the 31st year of the award, begun by the Peninsula Daily News and now co-sponsored with Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Noon Club.
The seven recipients of the 2011 Community Service Award will receive framed award certificates at a reception that begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the downstairs meeting room at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave., in Port Angeles.
The reception is open to the public and will include coffee and desserts.
Admission is free.
A judging committee that included past Community Service Award recipients selected the seven from almost 25 nominations made by individuals, clubs, churches, businesses and other organizations.
“These are truly local heroes, working to make community life stronger, tighter, happier, richer — busy people who unselfishly give their time and energy to help others, who always seem to be able to make time to offer a hand or a shoulder,” said John Brewer, PDN editor and publisher.
Ron Allen
“Ron Allen has devoted his life to making our community a better place,” said James D. Hallett of Hallett Advisors, an investment advisory firm based in Port Angeles, in a letter nominating Allen.
“His dedication, sacrifice and leadership continue to produce extraordinary results across a wide spectrum of everyday life; from education to employment to health care,” wrote Hallett, who also is president of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Noting a February PDN article “about Ron’s creative vision for transforming the former Rayonier site as well as focusing on his 30 years of tribal leadership,” Hallett added:
“Ron’s eyes sparkle when he talks about ‘our community,’ ‘our heritage’ and ‘our future.’
“And this ‘our’ encompasses all of Clallam County and beyond.”
Endorsing Hallett’s nomination were Tom Keegan, president of Peninsula College, and Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb.
Also nominating Allen was Ree Huston of Sequim, who noted books outlining projects “he instigated which benefit our county, state and nation.”
Allen is a former president of the National Congress of American Indians.
Jaye Moore
Her nomination came with a stack of endorsements from volunteers at her 29-year-old wildlife center.
“The center is run from the property of Ms. Moore, who receives no government funding or revenue towards her efforts — no mean feat considering the average cost of $1,000 per year to house a permanent [animal] resident of the center, which has been in operation for almost three decades,” wrote Nicola Andrews of Port Angeles.
Wrote Melissa Randazzo of Port Angeles: “Jaye is the St. Francis of the Olympic Peninsula . . . whose love has saved the lives of thousands of otherwise hopeless and doomed wild animals.
“She has toiled in obscurity. She has never received a single cent of income from her work or a single cent of support in grants.”
Colleen and Ray Divacky
A nomination letter by Phil Brand called the retired couple “pillars of the Joyce community” and noted their years of innumerable volunteer activities, from Joyce Daze to Joyce to the World, from Crescent Bay Lions Club’s Sunday breakfasts to activities at the Crescent Grange.
Colleen also works as a para-professional for the Crescent School District and is a member of the Crescent Educational Foundation.
Ray is on the board for the John and Myrtle Gossett Charitable Foundation and, with his wife, serves on the Joyce Community Scholarship Foundation Board.
They’ve hosted 18 foreign exchange students over the past 12 years.
Brand lauded “the ideas, enthusiasm and leadership generated by this couple . . . if there was a picture in the dictionary next to the definition of ‘giving,’ it would be a portrait of Ray and Colleen Divacky.”
Stephen Rosales
Four people wrote detailed letters nominating Rosales for his Community Service Award.
Three of them came from former Community Service Award honorees — Jim Pickett (2007), Bryce Fish (2006) and Tom Schaafsma (2009), all of Sequim.
“Stephen is one of those rare individuals that truly walks the talk,” said Schaafsma.
Fish and Pickett noted that at the Boys & Girls Clubs, Rosales staffs the front desk (he knows all the children by name) and works as a fundraiser and the facilities coordinator, including driving the bus, working as an unpaid volunteer for more than 60 hours per week in order to reduce the club’s staff costs.
At the Sequim Food Bank, he is president, interim director and stock person, often delivering food on holidays, weekends and evenings to those less fortunate.
In 2007, he was named Citizen of the Year by the Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce.
Dewey Ehling
“Consider for a moment just the number of theatrical, cultural and community-aid groups with which he [Ehling] has been associated,” wrote Paul J. Martin of Port Angeles in a nomination letter.
“Olympic Theatre Arts, Port Angeles Symphony, Port Townsend Symphony, The Ballet Workshop, Port Angeles Light Opera Association, Readers Theatre Plus, Port Angeles Community Players, The Peninsula Singers, Sequim Community Aid.
“As musical director and/or conductor for the large shows produced by these organizations, Mr. Ehling has . . . honed the talents of hundreds of musicians, prodded and cajoled dozens of choirs and directed entire musical stage productions.
“The man is a force.
“At the same time, he’s a kind, hands-on, warm human being who has had a positive impact on his community.”
Alan Barnard
It took Michael Gawley of Sequim three single-spaced pages to list Barnard’s achievements.
Barnard, a broker for Windermere Real Estate in Port Angeles, has contributed “countless hours of his own time, and frequent use of his own resources, to the betterment of the community through numerous service projects and organizations . . . all contribute to the well-being and vitality of the citizens of Clallam County,” Gawley wrote.
Barnard’s resume includes chairmanship of both the Port Angeles Public Safety Advisory Board and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Committee; county emergency management aviation coordinator; representative of the city of Port Angeles on the Clallam County Opportunity Fund Board; and Port Angeles organizer for the Wings of Freedom tour when it brings vintage World War II aircraft to William R. Fairchild International Airport for a living history exhibit.
He also led a citizens group to dedicate a 9/11 monument at Francis Street Park in Port Angeles.
He protected photos and memorabilia belonging to Pearl Harbor survivor Lee Embree, delivering them to The Museum of Flight in Seattle for display there..
