Lions Club recognizes environmentalist from Sekiu area

PORT ANGELES — A Sekiu woman has won an award for outstanding achievement in protecting the environment, and a video crew for Lions International’s Video Magazine will arrive in Port Angeles on Friday to interview her, among others.

Nancy Messmer of the Clallam Bay-Sekiu Lions Club was given the Judge Brian Stevenson Fellowship at the District I convention in Sooke, B.C., on Saturday.

Messmer, 66, and her husband, Roy Morris, are founders and members of the steering committee for the Washington Clean Coast Alliance (www.coastsavers.org), formed in 2007.

The group sponsors two coastwide beach cleanups each year, including the Washington Coast Cleanup set for this coming Saturday.

Filming Friday

The Lions video crew plans to begin filming at 1:45 p.m. Friday on Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles.

Along with Messmer and her husband, Carol Bernthal, superintendent of Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and Nir Barnea of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Ocean Service marine debris program also will be interviewed, Messmer said.

A second video will be made in Port Angeles to honor the outgoing president of Lions Clubs International, Joe Preston of Arizona, Messmer said.

A group of Lions from Sequim, Port Angeles and Clallam Bay-Sekiu will sing a song that Preston wrote, “Strengthen the Pride.”

Rialto Beach

On Saturday, the video crew will be on Rialto Beach for the annual Earth Day Beach Clean Up.

There, the crew plans to interview Sarah Creachbaum, Olympic National Park superintendent, and Lions Club members who are volunteering for the cleanup, as well as Jon Schmidt of Sequim, Washington CoastSavers coordinator, and his family.

The video will be posted on www.lionsclubs.org sometime in the next couple of months, Messmer said.

District I is an international district. It covers the Olympic Peninsula from Forks to Quilcene and Vancouver Island in Canada.

Global goals

Protecting the environment is one of the four global service action goals of the club. The others are sight and hearing, feeding the hungry and engaging youth.

Messmer, once the environmental chair for the district, became the environmental chair for Multiple District 19 in July.

The multiple district includes Washington, northern Idaho and British Columbia.

She has been traveling throughout the area researching the environmental projects of individual Lions Clubs.

“I am creating brochures and a website and linking the work Lions are doing so we all are more active,” Messmer said.

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