PORT ANGELES — Seven ordinary people were recognized for doing extraordinary things at the 2010 Clallam County Community Service Awards ceremony last week.
About 130 friends, family and community members packed the fellowship hall at First United Methodist Church in Port Angeles on Thursday to see Joe Borden, Susan Hillgren, Don Stoneman, Roger Wheeler, Dan Wilder Sr., Sue Nattinger and Coleman Byrnes receive framed certificates in the 30th annual civic appreciation gala.
Some of the winners were moved to tears as they made their acceptance speeches for the awards co-sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News and Soroptimist International Port Angeles (noon club).
This year’s recipients had vastly different skills sets, but shared a common dedication to improving their communities.
“Some of these people you may not have heard of,” said Cherie Kidd, awards committee chairwoman, Soroptimist member and Port Angeles City Council member.
“They just do their work and that’s what they do.
“They don’t ask for recognition.”
Honors dedication
The award honors the “dedication, sacrifice and accomplishments” of community leaders and 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.”
The judges — Kidd, Kathy Balducci, John Beitzel, Gary Braun, Jim Hallett and Jim Lunt — narrowed to seven winners a list of almost 30 nominees received from clubs, churches and other organizations.
Criteria for the awards includes longevity of service, number of people served, time commitment and making a lasting contribution to quality of life in the community.
John Brewer, publisher and editor of the Peninsula Daily News, said all seven have given unselfishly to make Clallam County a better place.
“To me, they’re inspirational in both spirit and in deed, and heroic in the most untrivialized sense of that word,” Brewer said.
“They have made meaningful differences in the lives of their neighbors in their communities. They’ve inspired and they’ve engaged others.
“They get things done.
“They deserve analysis and I think they also deserve imitation.”
The service award began in 1980 as the Citizen of the Year. It became the Clallam County Community Service award in 1991. All awards are equal, with no one volunteer singled out as citizen of the year.
The Soroptimists began co-sponsoring the event 12 years ago.
Each honoree was introduced by a judge. Several of the judges had received the community service award in the past.
Award winners
Here are summaries of the award winners as they appeared:
• Borden is known as “Mr. Irrigation Festival,” Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce’s “go-to guy” and is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders, attending funeral services and serving as a member of an honor guard for fallen military heroes.
Nominated by Elisha Elliott and Deborah Rambo-Sinn and presented by Beitzel, Borden is a retired Army master sergeant and the chairman of the Sequim Irrigation Festival Committee for 14 years.
“He’s cool,” Beitzel said. “He gets it gone.”
Borden received many letters of support with phrases like “tireless effort in support of his community” and “Sequim wouldn’t be the same without Joe Bordon,” Beitzel said.
Borden serves on several boards and committees in the Sequim area.
“There’s hundreds of people that give out time, give out effort and give out energy to make this all work,” Borden said.
Borden draws on his military background in his community service work.
“I consider working with the community just like I considered my duty to my country,” he said.
“Duty, honor, country. Duty, honor, community. That’s what all this stands for, and that’s why we all do this.”
• Hillgren has worked tirelessly with Clallam County’s at-risk youth for more than 12 years.
Nominated by D.J. Eshom and Pam Fosnes and presented by Braun, Hillgren is the director of nonprofit TAFY — The Answer For Youth — a drop-in youth center in Port Angeles that provides warm meals, shelter and education for at-risk youth.
Hillgren has been a counselor for adolescents since 1998. She is also a member of several community, school, business and church boards.
She said her father taught her to “work hard and don’t waste any daylight” and her mother taught her to “feed everybody and make sure they have warm clothes.”
She said her faith drives her to reach out to at-risk youth.
“We give our kids hope, and hope is free,” she said. “It doesn’t cost us anything to love these kids.”
Some of the youth and young adults in jail reach out to Hillgren because they have nowhere else to go, she said.
“Nobody should not have somebody to talk to,” she said.
• Nattinger and Byrnes, who were joint recipients, are longtime hands-on, “no brag, just action” volunteers for Streamkeepers of Clallam County.
Nominated by Ed Chadd, coordinator for Streamkeepers of Clallam County, and introduced by Balducci, the Salt Creek couple are two of about 150 Streamkeepers volunteers in the county.
Nattinger and Byrnes also volunteer for other projects, such as those for Olympic National Park, state Department of Fish and Wildlife and North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
They pick up trash, conduct water-quality studies, remove noxious weeds and study birds, including the endangered marbled murrelet.
They help restore salmon to area creeks, document steelhead runs, and survey bull trout populations.
John Miller, Clallam County Department of Community Development Director, read a letter submitted by Chadd.
“In all of these endeavors, Sue and Coleman demonstrate dedication, good humor, patience and a burning curiosity about the wonders of nature, which they hope to preserve for future generations,” Chadd wrote.
Nattinger said she grew up on the Peninsula and fell in love with its natural beauty.
“It’s such an honor for me to be able to give back and do what I can to help preserve all that and have something to pass on to my children,” Nattinger said.
• At 79, Stoneman volunteers thousands of hours of hard, physical labor to maintain and improve hiking trails in Clallam County.
Nominated by Ron Farlee and introduced by Hallett, Stoneman oversees the Gray Wolf Trail Crew and is known as a master with a saw.
Twelve people — park rangers, fellow volunteers, Forest Service and Park Service crew leaders and recreation managers — wrote detailed letters nominating Stoneman for the award.
“Some of the tools he used I think haven’t seen the light of day in centuries,” Hallett said during a moving introduction that focused on Stoneman’s mentorship and willingness to share his skills with others.
“He’s probably volunteered more time and talent than any individual in the maintenance and improvement of a wide variety of trails in Clallam County.”
Stoneman became choked up as he talked about working with the trail crew in Olympic National Park and throughout the Peninsula.
“I’ve got a great crew,” he said.
Stoneman recounted stories of sawing through piles of mangled trees, and ended with a footnote about watching a person climb out of a wheelchair and navigate around a root.
“Everybody has to have their own experience,” Stoneman said.
“So we make trails for everyone.”
• Wheeler is a leader in youth baseball and basketball. The owner of RJ Services Inc., in Port Angeles has devoted hundreds of hours to building parks and playgrounds.
He said the greatest reward is going back to the field he helped build and seeing the smiles on kids’ faces, whether they’re 6 or 18.
“With the smile — whether they did something wrong and then they knew it was alright or whether they got that first hit or made that first basket — it’s just a great feeling,” Wheeler said.
Nominated by Kevin Russell and introduced by Lunt, Wheeler co-founded the North Peninsula Building Association’s Future Builders program. He serves on several North Peninsula Building Association committees.
The Future Builders program takes students and teaches them a wide range of construction skills building a house from groundbreaking to finished product in one year.
“The whole objective is when they graduate that year there’s a for sale sign in that yard,” he said.
“This is our 11th house I think we’re on and it’s worked.”
The program has generated more than $100,000 in scholarships and donations to projects at the skills center at Port Angeles High School.
• Wilder Sr., owner of Wilder Auto Center and Wilder Toyota-Scion in Port Angeles, is a countywide community volunteer, educational leader and philanthropist.
He was one of three finalists for the 2010 national Time magazine Dealer of the Year Award, which recognizes new car and truck dealers for exceptional performance in their dealerships and distinguished community service.
Nominated by Judge S. Brooke Taylor and introduced by Kidd, Wilder has served on the Olympic Medical Center Foundation board for 20 years and has sponsored the foundation’s well-known Great Olympic Duck Derby, supplying a Toyota truck to the top winner since 1989.
“I feel very humbled,” said an emotional Wilder, referring to the six other award recipients.
“All that they do make what I do pretty insignificant.”
Part of the benefits package at Wilder Auto Center and Wilder Toyota-Scion allows employees to send their children to Peninsula College for two years with paid tuition.
Wilder has served as a member of the Peninsula College Board of Trustees, donates and raises money for scholarships and speaks to students about the importance of education.
He has been on the Independent Bible Church elder board for almost 30 years and actively supports the Olympic Kidney Center board, the Peninsula College Foundation, Young Life and United Way of Clallam County.
In 2009, Wilder received the Robert P. Mallon Dealer of the Year award from the Washington State Auto Dealers Association.
He was also selected Time Dealer of the Year for Washington state.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
