PORT TOWNSEND — A founder of a Habitat for Humanity resale store and a scholarship foundation is one of five winners of the Jefferson Award of Washington, which is given for outstanding public service.
Jean Camfield, 78, was notified about the award earlier this week.
“It’s a real honor to be recognized for things that you would do anyway,” Camfield said.
Camfield, a member of the Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County board of directors, was one of the founders of the Furniture and More Store for the organization.
She also helped create and support the Port Townsend High School Scholarship Foundation in 1976, which has awarded some 500 scholarships to students since.
Camfield said she is proud of the positive impact of both her Habitat and scholarship activities.
“It’s great to have a positive impact on a kid,” she said.
“When you see what going to college does for them, it’s very gratifying, and having a stable home can also make a real difference in their lives.”
Volunteer work seems to run in her family. Camfield’s brother, Skookum founder James Westall of Port Townsend, won the statewide Jefferson Award in 1991.
Camfield and Westall are among the three North Olympic Peninsula volunteers who have been given the award in the past 20 years.
Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County founder Rose Crumb of Port Angeles was recognized in 1998.
Aside from Camfield, this year’s other statewide award winners are Ahndrea Blue of Seattle, Megan Johnson and Peggy LaPorte of Federal Way and Jim Theofelis of Seattle.
Awards breakfast
The winners, who were chosen from a list of nominees by a six-person panel of statewide community leaders, will each receive a commemorative medallion at the 2011 Washington State Jefferson Awards breakfast April 13, which will be from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Space Needle in Seattle.
The national Jefferson Awards were created in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Sen. Robert Taft as a way to recognize outstanding achievement in public service. They have been awarded in Washington state since 1977.
State awards are provided through a sponsoring agency working with a news outlet to focus on “unsung heroes” who would normally be unrecognized.
In Washington, the awards are administered by the City Club of Seattle along with KING-TV, which will send a crew to Port Townsend on Tuesday to film a profile of Camfield.
The profiles of the five winners will be broadcast on the station during the week of March 28 through April 1, with each shown on consecutive nights on “Evening Magazine.”
The national nominee will be chosen through votes at www.king5.com. Online voting will be open from April 1 through April 8.
The national award is comparable to “the Nobel Prize for Public Service,” said City Club spokesperson Jessica Jones.
Camfield, who has lived in Port Townsend for all but 10 of the last 60 years, worked as business manager for the Port Townsend School District for 35 years before retiring in 1999 and becoming involved in volunteer work.
‘Sold hot dogs’
She said that she and another volunteer ran home tours and “sold hot dogs” for nine years to build up the scholarship fund, which now operates on interest.
She and fellow Habitat board member Richard Spindor led the effort to purchase a place for the resale store, which moved, along with the Habitat office to 2001 W. Sims Way in Port Townsend in 2005.
Other North Olympic Peninsula recipients of the statewide award have been Joseph De La Cruz of LaPush in 1977, Ronald N. Black of LaPush in 1979, Nell and Herb Bromley of Port Townsend and Gene Kure of Port Angeles in 1981, according to City Club.
For more information, see www.seattlecityclub.org.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
