SEQUIM — A roomful of past Sequim Citizen of the Year honorees had their hands full. Earlier this month they were charged with choosing the 2007 award recipient.
They wanted to do more, said Rand Thomas, owner of Thomas Building Supply, a prominent philanthropist and the 1995 Citizen of the Year.
So the group, which included Nina Fatherson (1991), Esther Nelson (1996), Annette Hanson (1997), Lee Lawrence (2005), and Bob and Elaine Caldwell (2006), created a new award.
On Tuesday, during the Citizen of the Year luncheon at the Sequim Elks Lodge, Thomas presented the award to the first recipients: a couple who looked like they loathed the limelight.
Bill and Esther Littlejohn, longtime supporters of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and many other local charities, received the first Sequim-Dungeness Valley Humanitarian Award.
Thomas had to list a few of the Littlejohns’ gifts to Sequim.
In the last two years alone, the Littlejohns have given a total of more than $3.5 million.
That included a large donation to build the Littlejohn Radiation and Oncology Wing at the Olympic Medical Cancer Center, as well as money to Olympic Theatre Arts, the Helen Haller Elementary School playground fund and the Littlejohns’ scholarship fund.
They also placed a conservation easement on 40 acres of Sequim farmland — valued at well over $3 million — to be preserved forever.
Bill, 61, grew up in Sequim; he and Esther will celebrate their 40th anniversary this September.
The Littlejohns’ holdings include Olympic Ambulance Service, Sherwood Assisted Living and The Fifth Avenue and Lodge retirement homes.
In his short speech, Bill said Sequim was and is still a great place to live.
“I love you all,” he added.
Like the Citizen of the Year prize, the humanitarian award comes in the form of a plaque with no cash attached.
