PORT ANGELES — Seven community members who have done outstanding deeds of public service were recognized last week with the 2011 Clallam County Community Service Award.
About 125 friends, family members, associates and admirers packed into the meeting room at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church for the 90-minute award ceremony Thursday night honoring W. Ron Allen, Jaye Moore, Dewey Ehling, Colleen and Ray Divacky, Alan Barnard and Stephen Rosales.
The annual award, now in its 31st year, is co-sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News and Soroptimist International of Port Angeles (noon club).
Throughout the night, the audience was moved to both laughter — and even to song.
As Ehling received his framed award certificate, a “flash mob” of singers Ehling has directed surprised him and audience members by bursting into the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.”
“[The Soroptimist International] have had the privilege to co-sponsor this event and honor these amazing people who are passionate about their causes,” said Cherie Kidd, a Port Angeles City Council member and the event’s co-host for the Soroptimists.
Later she added: “This is an amazing service for our community to give a special view of some very special people.”
Awards criteria
Criteria for the Community Service Award includes longevity of service, number of people affected, time commitment and making a lasting contribution to the quality of life in Clallam County communities.
“These are seven people whose unselfish efforts have made Clallam County a much better place,” said John Brewer, publisher and editor of the Peninsula Daily News.
The seven merit both honor and imitation, he said.
“They are role models for all of us, not only because they’ve aspired and dreamed, but because our local heroes’ achievements are within our own reach,” he said.
“They show us that all of us can build community, that all of us can be part of something greater than ourselves.
“It won’t make you wealthy. It will enrich your life and lives of those you serve.
“It will fulfill you and challenge you. And it will make our small corner of the world a better place.”
Here are summaries of the recipients in the order they appeared at Thursday night’s event:
Dewey Ehling
Known as the county’s “Music Man,” Ehling went on stage for the first time at the age of 3 nearly 80 years ago and intends to keep performing as a conductor and musical director for as long as he can — or, he joked, until someone tells him to stop.
Nominated by Paul Martin, co-author of a popular history book about Port Angeles, and presented by Phyllis Darling, former executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Red Cross, Ehling has bettered the community through his participation with Olympic Theatre Arts, the Port Angeles Symphony, the Peninsula Singers, the Port Angeles Light Opera Association, Readers Theatre Plus, Sequim Community Aid and other groups.
“For [many] long years, this good and unselfish man has given virtually all of his time and considerable talents and has entertained and motivated us in ways that we may never be able to measure,” Darling said.
“He defines himself in relationship to the people who he cherishes so much and who cherish him right back.”
Before allowing Ehling to respond, the more than two-dozen singers suddenly stood up at their tables and burst into Handel’s “Messiah.”
“Congratulations has been defined in many ways, and the best way has been told to me at the end of rehearsal every week by a psychologist who passes by me,” Ehling said afterward.
“He passes by me and says, ‘Thanks for the therapy.’
“And that is the best way I could have defined music.”
Ehling began his music work on the North Olympic Peninsula when he was asked to direct PALOA’s production of “The Pirates of Penzance” some 39 years ago.
“After that, I assured them I would do anything I was capable of doing,” he said.
Jaye Moore
Moore works tirelessly as director of the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, a nonprofit, state and federally licensed facility in Sequim that rescues and rehabilitates injured wildlife and releases the animals back into the wild.
Moore has run the center, which now partners with Greywolf Veterinary Hospital, for the past 29 years without government funds, with each permanent animal resident of the center costing about $1,000 per year to house.
She was nominated for the Community Service Award by Nicola Andrews of Port Angeles, Diane Hood of Sequim, Wanda Brouillette of Sequim, Melissa Randazzo of Port Angeles and Sandy Moak-Gyori of Port Angeles — and was presented to the audience by Kidd.
“Jaye is an exceptional lady,” Kidd said.
“When my son Doug was a little boy, he used to say: ‘I’m small, but I’m mighty.’
“Well, Jaye Moore [who is 4-foot-11] has been described as small but mighty — she might not be very tall, but her spirit is mighty.”
Called “the St. Francis of the Olympic Peninsula” by one of her nominators, Moore said she began rehabilitating wildlife as a child growing up in the Clallam Bay-Sekiu area.
She said she was a tomboy who was bored and had little else to do.
“I was always dragging in some poor bedraggled creature, and my parents put up with it — and it just got worse as I got older and, well, here I am today,” she said.
Colleen and Ray Divacky
A couple that will go to any length to help the Joyce community and the children of the Crescent School District, Colleen and Ray Divacky are known for their quiet volunteerism — backed up by hard work, energy and leadership.
Nominated by Phil Brand of Joyce and presented by Jim Leskinovitch, a member of the Olympic Medical Center Board of Commissioners, the Divackys help plan activities at the Crescent Grange and community events including Joyce Daze and Joyce to the World.
Colleen is a para-professional for the Crescent School District and is a member of the Crescent Educational Foundation.
Ray is on the board of the John and Myrtle Gossett Charitable Foundation and, with his wife, serves on the Joyce Community Scholarship Foundation board.
“Many of the programs would not go on without them,” Leskinovitch said.
“They have served as hosts for 18 foreign exchange students [over the past 12 years] and ensure that they leave with the best care and impression of our country.”
Colleen said she began work at the school after retiring from the Postal Service.
“I thought, ‘What on earth am I going to do with myself?’” she said.
“My greatest pleasure is to work with the children. And Ray is with me all the way — it doesn’t matter what I volunteer us to do, he is with me.
“I am so thankful for all of the opportunities that make us feel more a member of this community that feels truly our home.
“Thank you for being here. It is a wonderful and unexpected honor.”
A man of few words, Ray, with a smile, added: “I can’t emphasize her words any more. She’s a good woman.”
Alan Barnard
Barnard said he planned to be a hermit when he moved to the North Olympic Peninsula but just couldn’t resist the urge to get involved.
Nominated by Michael Gawley of Sequim and presented by Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, Barnard has sat on a host of committees, including chairing both the Port Angeles Public Safety Advisory Board and the Clallam County Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Committee.
Barnard also led a group to dedicate a 9/11 monument at Francis Street Park in Port Angeles and organized “Wings of Freedom” tours that have brought vintage World War II aircraft to Port Angeles’ William R. Fairchild International Airport. (Barnard announced the planes will return again this June.)
“I like to say Alan is my allied supreme commander of the Clallam County Air Force — which is really just his one plane,” Benedict said.
“But he is actually really significant to the [Emergency Operations Center] because if there is any disaster, he has gone through something like 40 hours of training.
“My hat goes off to him because I was forced to go through it, and it is tough training.
“And if there is ever an emergency, Alan is always one of the very first people to show up.”
Barnard, a real estate broker, said he got involved in his two passions — public safety and flying — and though he initially resisted getting involved, he now enjoys volunteering.
“About 20 years ago, when I moved up here, I was going to drop out and live in obscurity, and no one would know who I was, and I was going to live the life of a hermit,” he said.
“How am I doing?” he asked.
The room erupted in laughter.
“We all get frustrated sometimes looking at the big picture and how we would like things to be,” he said.
“But living in a small community, we can fix things.
“You don’t have to wait for an election. You can simply get busy and fix and get more people to join in and get it going — and that spirit can move mountains and get some of these things done.”
Stephen Rosales
Rosales said he is a “volaholic” — which, he explained, is a “volunteer-a-holic.”
Rosales spends more than double the time of a full-time job volunteering each week.
Joe Borden, known as “Mr. Sequim Irrigation Festival” and a 2010 recipient of the Community Service Award, presented Rosales to the audience.
Borden said Rosales works about 60 hours a week as a volunteer at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula and about the same amount of time at the Sequim Food Bank, where he is the interim director.
He also works with the Sequim School District and local Little League teams.
“I am retired military, and I spent a lot of years knowing that it was duty, honor and country,” Borden said.
“Well, Stephen knows that it is duty, honor and community.”
Rosales said he was touched but that he felt the real “community heroes” were the men and women in law enforcement and the military.
He also challenged all those in the room to put education and children first.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘hero’ because the real heroes are people like Sheriff Benedict, who puts his life on the line every day — that is a hero right there,” he said, gesturing toward Benedict.
“I also want to say there is no future for this country without education. We have to turn to support the school districts.”
Rosales was nominated by his father-in-law, Bryce Fish of Sequim, a 2006 recipient of the Community Service Award, with endorsement letters from Jim Pickett, a 2007 recipient of the award, and Tom Schaafsma, who received the award in 2009.
W. Ron Allen
When Ron Allen of Sequim began his job as chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe 34 years ago, there were zero dollars in the tribe’s bank account.
With the support of the tribal elders and the tribal council, Allen built the Jamestown tribe into an industry — with the 7 Cedars resort and casino, The Longhouse Market and Deli, Cedars at Dungeness Golf Course, Jamestown Family Health Clinic and businesses that include Jamestown Excavating, Jamestown HomeBuilding and JKT Construction, an annual budget of $26 million and more than 700 jobs.
Nominated by Jim Hallett, president of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Sequim resident Ree Hutson and presented to the audience by Mike Gentry, a Port Angeles-based architect, Allen was hailed for devoting a lifetime to improving the community — creating businesses and jobs, contributing tens of thousands of dollars annually to support innumerable county groups and charities, and promoting the heritage of the Klallam people.
“Many movements in the world are defined by technology or spiritual need or a vacuum that needs to be filled by just the right person,” said Gentry.
“I believe that Ron Allen is one of those great men that we can trust and depend on to lead us on the right path.”
Allen said he hopes to help the larger community of Clallam County look forward during the tough economic times.
“This is not a timber-driven community anymore, so we have to think about what else can we do to employ lots of young families and create jobs,” he said.
“When we started, we had nothing, and now we have an annual budget of $26 million.
“We are able to help make a difference in the community.”
_________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
