SEQUIM — A couple with ties to the region’s most documented archaeological find and an advocate for people with disabilities are finalists for Sequim’s top civic award.
A committee of former award winners have nominated two finalists for the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce’s 2018 Citizen of the Year award: Clare Manis Hatler and Don Hatler (as a joint nomination), and Nicole Lepping.
Clare Hatler
The nominees will be honored at the chamber’s annual award luncheon, set for 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Guy Cole Event Center at Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.
The community is invited to the event. Cost for lunch is $22 for chamber members, $25 for non-members, or $5 for coffee/tea only.
A lunch RSVP is required by noon today.
Don Hatler
Call 360-682-6197 or email to office@sequim chamber.com, or register online at sequimchamber wa.chambermaster.com/eventregistration/register/ 7594.
In the summer of 1977, Clare and Manny Manis made world headlines and “put Sequim on the world map” when they turned up the skeletal remains of a mastodon in their backyard.
Nicole Lepping
For the next eight years, the Manis family opened the property to people from around the world to visit the site and watch the archaeological work taking place; it became a major U.S. tourist attraction. A recent study of the Manis mastodon provided proof of the oldest human settlement found to date in the Americas.
The mastodon, through the Manis’ generosity, remains in Sequim, partially reconstructed as part of a large exhibit at Sequim Museum & Arts — a cornerstone exhibit at the museum’s exhibit center for years.
Clare’s other community projects since then have included participation as a charter member of the Dungeness River Audubon Center founding board, serving as its nonprofit treasurer for many years; a long-time member and officer of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society Board, and working with the Washington Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which resulted in the 1915 Railroad Bridge being placed in the National Register of Historic Places.
She has also served in board positions and as a long-time member of the Clallam County League of Women Voters and Sequim Museum & Arts. Before that, she worked as a tool designer and graphic artist. After Manny died, Clare married Don Hatler in 2001.
Since Don’s retirement to Sequim in 1997, he has played a major role in helping to manage an important community resource: water.
Don has volunteered on several boards and committees to preserve the Dungeness Watershed, including the Clallam Conservation District’s board of supervisors, Puget Sound Anglers North Olympic Peninsula Chapter, and the Dungeness River Management Team (DRMT) representing sports fisheries.
He also served on the Clallam County Marine Resources Committee.
Before retiring and moving to Sequim, Don was involved in real estate, was a business broker, and owned a marina and sailboat dealership.
Lepping is a former special education teacher who worked with mobility-challenged children.
At the end of 2017 she saw a video demonstrating use of a specially designed wheelchair bicycle used to provide a way for any mobility challenged person to be given a ride on a bicycle.
Recognizing Sequim was an ideal location for such a service — with its demographic of older individuals and the widely-used Olympic Discovery Trail for bikes — she applied for and was granted nonprofit status for Sequim Wheelers.
In February and March, Lepping began contacting and meeting with individuals and groups in the community to raise funds to buy a wheelchair bicycle. She saw an outpouring of support from both individuals and community groups to purchase the $9,000 bike, sufficient to purchase the first bike with delivery in April.
Lepping set up a board of directors for the nonprofit. She and another board member traveled (at their own expense) to meet with the Portland Wheelers, in Portland, Me., for training and an exchange of ideas.
Determined that the Sequim program would be free-of-charge to all who wanted a ride, Lepping began seeking volunteer riders and by late spring training on the bike and safety training for riders began.
The official program launched the first week of July 2018, and during the following 15 weeks the Sequim Wheelers provided 90 wheelchair bicycle rides to people in Sequim — some from local assisted living facilities.
More than 25 volunteers gave rides during the summer season.
Through continuing contributions, grants and a large donation from one person to the Sequim Wheelers program, a second wheelchair bike has been ordered for use in 2019.
