PORT ANGELES — Six volunteers will be honored Thursday during the reception for the Clallam County Community Service Awards for Public Service.
The longtime volunteers — one a couple — will be given five framed award certificates at the reception in the downstairs meeting room at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave., Port Angeles.
The reception, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m., with the program starting at 7 p.m.
The award honors community 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 year’s recipients are:
■ Angie Gooding, an accomplished teacher who, since she returned to her hometown a year and half ago, has founded Port Angeles Citizens Network to find solutions to drug addiction and is working to create safe and healthy activities for teens.
■ D. Michael “Mike” Phillips, who has contributed community service for 50 years, serving in Rotary, United Good Neighbors — a predecessor of United Way — with the YMCA and, mostly recently, as a church dinner chef and a delivery person for Meals on Wheels.
■ Gene and Norma Turner, a couple who donate their time to an plethora of good causes, from Norma’s tenure on the League of Women Voters, the Charter Review Committee and Prevention Works! to Gene’s work in the schools, with Habitat for Humanity and in his garden, the source of truckloads of donated produce each year.
■ Rita Berson, the tireless and innovative manager of the Friends of Port Angeles Library Bookstore, who has revved up both interest and revenue to fund creative programming at the library.
■ Cheryl Bowers, president and founder of the nonprofit New Leash on Life, who trains service dogs for veterans and others with disabilities.
This is the 37th year of the Clallam County Community Service Award, begun by the Peninsula Daily News and now co-sponsored by Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Noon Club.
A blue-ribbon judging committee selected the six people from nominations made by individuals, clubs, churches, businesses and other organizations.
