PORT ANGELES — Put on a hat and volunteer.
That advice from Edna Leppell of Forks captured the spirit of the Clallam County Community Service Award recipients for 2015.
Leppell and five other community heroes were honored for their selfless deeds Thursday in a ceremony at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles.
Each recipient was recognized for making a difference in Clallam County by doing extraordinary things for his or her neighbors, community or the environment.
“I’ve put on many hats,” said Leppell, who has volunteered on the West End for 66 years.
“There’s lots of things out there that you can do. A lot of people don’t know who’s doing it or what it’s for, but I go down there, and I do it for my own satisfaction.
“All I can say is put on a hat and volunteer.”
Other recipients of the 36th Clallam County Community Service Award were community meal organizer Reath Ellefson, natural resource conservationist John Willits, service club workhorse Peggy Norris and Special Olympics leaders Wendy and Russ Bonham.
Each recipient received a framed certificate and a round of applause from nearly 150 attendees in the church fellowship hall.
Among the guests were members of the Clallam County Orcas Special Olympics team.
What started as an 11-member bowling club in 2007 has grown into a program of more than 100 Special Olympians who compete in bowling, golf, softball, track and field, swimming and basketball, said Jim Moran, who introduced the Bonhams.
Moran said it took considerable “patience,” “love” and “dedication” for the Sequim couple to build the Orcas program into what it is today.
“It may sound like we give a lot, but we get back so much more than we give,” Wendy Bonham said.
“It is such an honor for us to work with these athletes, to work with the volunteers that come and help and the parents and the caregivers and all the people that we get to rub shoulders with.”
“We are thankful for this honor,” she added. “We hope that it will bring attention to the program.”
The Clallam County Community Service Awards were begun by the Peninsula Daily News and have been co-sponsored by Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Noon Club for the past 17 years.
PDN Editor and Publisher John Brewer and Soroptimist club program chair Cherie Kidd, who is a Port Angeles City Council member and former mayor, host the annual awards ceremony.
“When you make the world better for others, you actually make the world better for yourself,” Kidd said Thursday.
Nominations for this year’s awards were solicited from individuals, clubs, churches and other organizations.
The 2015 judges were Ed Bedford, Wendy Clark-Getzin, Mark Nichols, Wayne Roedell, Moran, Brewer and Kidd.
This year’s award recipients were “everyday people who have found ways to serve others and give back to their communities, often with very few resources and very little recognition,” Brewer said.
“They have inspired and they have engaged others and they get things done.
“They show us that all of us can build community, that all of us can be part of something greater than ourselves.”
Leppell began volunteering in the Forks area when she graduated high school in 1949, said Nichols, Clallam County prosecuting attorney.
Leppell’s popular dried apples, which were shared at the ceremony, have raised thousands of dollars for Quillayute Valley School District scholarship auctions.
Examples of Leppell’s contributions to the West End include bouquets and a greenhouse for long-term care residents, founding what is today the West End Youth Baseball League, establishing 9/11 and Vietnam veterans memorials, and making yellow signs to remind passers-by “This family is supported by timber dollars.”
“Edna’s contributions reflect a true lifetime of service,” Nichols said.
“She truly knows what it means to give back to the community, and it shows.”
Leppell is also known for the funny clown costumes she wears in West End parades while riding on lawn mowers, motorbikes and other machinery.
“Now I’m on a golf cart,” she said. “When I got so I couldn’t move around, that was the best way to go.”
Willits was nominated for his passionate dedication to preserving the North Olympic Peninsula’s natural resources, Kidd said.
A former Weyerhaeuser forester, Willits launched the forest technology program at Peninsula College in 1968.
“He taught for 27 years at Peninsula College, retiring as an assistant professor in 1995 after seeing his students graduate and move into key forestry positions in our area and far beyond,” Kidd said.
Willits received the community service award for his work with the North Olympic Land Trust.
His Quacker Farm in the lower Dungeness Valley was the first of 74 properties to enter into a conservation easement with the land trust.
There are now 204 acres of Willits family property protected through conservation easements, Kidd said.
The nomination packet for Willits had endorsement letters from owners and managers of some of Clallam County’s notable land stewards: Merrill & Ring, Clallam Conservation District, Robbie and Jim Mantooth, Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, Nash’s Organic Produce and North Olympic Land Trust.
Robbie Mantooth used the words “integrity” and “ethics” to describe Willits, and Nash Huber said Willits “walks the walk,” Kidd said.
“It’s good to see all of my friends here,” said Willits, who has Parkinson’s disease.
“It takes a lot of people to do this. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. I really enjoyed working with the land trust. I really enjoyed working with the students.”
Ellefson was absent Thursday because she had booked a flight to Hawaii to celebrate her birthday prior to being named an award recipient, Brewer said.
A cancer survivor with boundless energy, Ellefson is known for organizing huge community meals on Thanksgiving Day at Queen of Angels Church in Port Angeles.
Last year, Ellefson and her team of volunteers served more than 1,000 free meals on Thanksgiving Day and hundreds more on Christmas and at a veterans stand down.
Since she started the Thanksgiving tradition in 2008, Ellefson has gathered gifts for attendees and clothing for those in need.
“Reath is motivated to do the work of Jesus Christ with her hands and her heart,” Marcia Logan said in a nomination letter that Bedford read at the ceremony.
Norris was the first female president of the Kiwanis Club of Port Angeles in 1993 and then the first female Kiwanis lieutenant governor in 2000.
Through Kiwanis, Norris has been an energetic volunteer at Beausite Lake camp for special needs children, Port Angeles’ Dream Playground and the Waterfront Trail. She’s helped build a new fence for the YMCA and new bleachers for the high school track.
“She finishes one project and there’s always another,” Clark-Getzin said.
Norris’ research skills and love of local history have made her invaluable to the Museum at the Carnegie, said nominator Cal Mogck.
Norris, also a cancer survivor, encouraged audience members to attend service club meetings to find the right opportunities to volunteer.
“Every night,” she said, “I can go to bed and think: ‘I think I did good today, and boy, I’m still happy.’”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
