SEQUIM — Food donations soared across the North Olympic Peninsula thanks to volunteers on Saturday.
Several pilots with Disaster Aircraft Response Team, DART, of Clallam County gathered at William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles that morning before traveling to Sequim Valley Airport to deliver donated non-perishable food to the Sequim Food Bank. The pilots planned to distribute donated food to food banks from Sekiu and Forks airports in the afternoon after fog had lifted.
Andra Smith, Sequim Food Bank executive director, said members of the Peninsula Food Coalition met with Alan Barnard, DART chairman, in January about meshing the DART training exercise with a food drive.
Barnard coordinated the training event to test his Clallam County Disaster Airlift Response Plan and test how pilots and planes could help in a catastrophic event, such as a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Emergency planners have warned that a quake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the coast is bound to happen at some time.
Over the summer, Barnard and other volunteers worked with a Bellingham Fred Meyer and with Saar’s in Port Angeles to host food drives for the training event.
Poor weather conditions delayed pilots from flying to Bellingham earlier in the day, participants said, but pilots planned to fly later in the day and make second drop-offs.
Barnard said the DART plan was conceived in November 2016, and approved by Clallam County commissioners in January of this year.
Ray Ballantyne, a Sequim DART pilot, flew the food in from Port Angeles for Smith and Stephen Rosales, Sequim Food Bank board president, to pick up.
On why he helps, Ballantyne said he wants “to use what I have to help others.”
He and other pilots could help in transporting essentials, such as medicines, food, and/or people in and out of catastrophic areas, organizers said.
DART pilots are not reimbursed for their fuel due to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines.
The DART training was in conjunction with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Division.
For information on Clallam County DART or to volunteer, contact Barnard at abarnard@olypen.com.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
