SEQUIM — Fire District No. 3 Chief Steve Vogel remembers the hassle and danger of clearing students from Sequim High School’s playfield to make it safe for air-ambulance helicopters to land, pick up and transport sick or seriously injured patients to Seattle or Port Angeles hospitals.
Those days are gone.
A $120,000 helipad was constructed this year near the Jamestown Family Health Center and Olympic Medical Cancer Center east of North Fifth Avenue in Sequim.
Second of two checks
Vogel received the second of two $20,000 checks from the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild on Wednesday.
The first was given in April to Olympic Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Erik Lewis, who joined the luncheon Wednesday.
“It is awesome,” Vogel said at the guild’s luncheon at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Community Center.
“This is, in my opinion, one of the most outstanding gifts the hospital guild has ever given.”
The hospital guild, raising money primarily through its thrift store at 204 W. Bell St. — which is operated by about 50 women volunteering there each week — has in its 40 years donated $1,741,000 to the community.
It has given money for Clallam County Fire District No. 3 emergency medical equipment and training, hospital medical equipment and medicine, and nursing school scholarships to Peninsula College.
“Ladies give up Saturdays to keep it open,” guild President Jean Janis said of the thrift shop.
Today, the guild has more than 100 members, who joke about paying an annual $5 membership fee to be volunteers for the guild.
“That’s really unbelievable for a bunch of little old ladies,” quipped Addie Curtis, the guild’s publicity chair.
The guild also donated $25,000 this year to the Sequim Health & Wellness Clinic, which offers free services to the needy.
Simplifies everything
Vogel said in general it simplifies everything to have a permanent helipad that is in protected air space covered by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Lewis said the helipad was designed for larger military helicopters in the event of a disaster or other emergency requiring landing.
He said he expects that local donations will pay for most of the facility, including lighting for night landings, a fenced and grassy area surrounding it, and a ramp for emergency personnel to load patients onto copters.
Lewis said the hospital guild’s support has had a “positive, cumulative effect” over the years.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
