PORT ANGELES — Several years ago, Sean Coleman took his kids out BMX riding and believed the facilities were not good enough in Port Angeles.
So rather than complain or look to someone else to do something about it, he very much took matters in his own hands.
“I thought there was more that could be done there” at Lincoln Park, he said.
“And we just kept building and building.”
From those humble beginnings came the Lincoln Park BMX track. It took years of work and fundraising as Coleman led a team of volunteers to build not only a nice BMX track for the Port Angeles kids, but one of the premier BMX tracks in the entire nation.
This past year, the Lincoln Park BMX track hosted the Gold Cup Pacific Northwest finals, an event that brought thousands of BMX riders and their families into Port Angeles for a weekend in September. Next year, the park will host the Washington state finals.
And the Lincoln Park BMX track was ranked No. 2 in the nation for fundraising.
Then, he led the effort to build a pump track in Port Angeles, similar to a BMX park, at the Erickson Playfields.
For all of his hard work, Coleman, the track operator and president of the Lincoln Park BMX, was honored this past week as the 2022 Washington State Volunteer of the Year. Coleman received the award at the Washington Festivals and Events Association banquet held in Bellevue on Nov. 2.
Coleman admitted he doesn’t necessarily like to talk about himself. “It’s definitely humbling,” he said. “I’m quite humbled and flattered by the whole thing. It’s not why I do it.
“I hope everyone enjoys watching their kids at the track as much as I do,” Coleman said.
The Lincoln Park BMX track is ranked by BMX USA as the No. 1 in the state of Washington out of 11 tracks in the state, No. 4 in the Pacific Northwest and No. 9 in the nation. This is all despite all the challenges that come from a BMX track located in an area with cold, wet winters.
Lincoln Park BMX is being honored later this year in Tulsa, Okla. Every year, BMX tracks around the country raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through a program called Race for Life.
Coleman isn’t done. In addition to the two local tracks, he’s putting his energy toward improving coordination between Washington tracks.
“We want to get all the tracks in the state working together. By making every track better, it makes our track better,” he said.
Marathon awards
Coleman wasn’t the only local winner. The Port Angeles Marathon Association as also a big winner at the WFEA awards banquet.
The Port Angeles Marathon Association won a total of seven awards, with the most prestigious being the Run the Peninsula series winning “Best in Show” for the state of Washington. Run the Peninsula is a series of five races — The Elwha Bridge Run, the Sequim Railroad Run, the North Olympic Discovery Marathon, the Larry Scott Trail Run and the Jamestown S’Klallam Run — across the Olympic Peninsula from February to December.
“It’s great to be recognized as one of the best events in the state of Washington,” said Race Director Victoria Jones. “It considers a little bit of everything that goes in to putting events on.”
The Port Angeles Marathon Association also won best promotional video for Run the Peninsula, best promotional item (the race series medals) and best healthy lifestyle event.
The North Olympic Discovery Marathon also won for best postcard mailers and the kids’ marathon won for educational program and community outreach.
Jones stressed that Coleman deserves the biggest spotlight for his award. “What he does is mind-boggling,” she said.
Other local group also won wards. The North Olympic Peninsula Chapter Event of the Year went to the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend and the Twilight Festival in forks.
The Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts received three awards — Promotional poster (Small Glories); direct season concert and direct mailer and newspaper tabloid.
Olympic Medical Center Foundation received two awards — Event recap/annual report and sponsorship proposal for Harvest of Hope.
Sean Coleman, left, and Victoria Jones with the Port Angeles Marathon Association were honored by the Washington Festivals and Events Association and a banquet in Bellevue last week.
