PORT ANGELES — Since she was 6, the Port Angeles clubhouse has been her home, said Addison Holland, the 2019 Washington state Boys & Girls Clubs Youth of the Year award winner.
Sleep-deprived but still excited after her win against 13 others from throughout the state the day before, Holland — called Addie by those who know her — said that after she was taken from her mother because of abuse and neglect and a father who “choose alcohol over me,” the Port Angeles unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula club became her anchor.
“It was the first place I felt safe and supported,” she told a crowd at a fundraising breakfast at the Vern Burton Community Center on Friday.
“I was home.”
Holland presented the speech that won top marks from judges in Seattle on Thursday — a day that was also her 18th birthday.
In her speech she mentions that she has had massive hearing loss in both ears and so has a speech impediment.
But nobody missed a word of what she had to say.
“I have a future,” she said. “I can look forward to college.
“That scared girl I once was has become a strong independent woman because of my club.”
Mary Budke, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, said that Holland is the first member of the Port Angeles unit to win the statewide contest and only the second in the history of the organization to ever do so.
To get there, Holland went before four panels of judges, provided three written essays and letters of recommendation from such businesses as T-Mobile, Disney, Seahawks and Columbia Bank, Budke said.
Her speech was 25 percent of her score.
Two selections were made: military youth of the year and traditional youth of the year.
Holland will compete May 7 in a regional contest in Beverly Hills, Calif.
If she wins there, she will go to the national contest in Washington, D.C. The name of the winner of that award will be announced in the Oval Office, Budke said.
Holland lost hearing at a young age because of a bad infection, Budke said.
She had hearing aids in kindergarten but years later, on the eve of ninth grade, had not had new ones, Budke said.
The Boys & Girls Clubs, working with a donor, bought her new hearing aids at a cost of about $1,800 before she began high school.
Now — “she’s an outstanding student. She’s on the honor roll,” Budke said, “and she been a club kid since she was 6 years old. She has wanted this [award] since she was 12.”
“She’s remarkable.”
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
