PORT TOWNSEND — Five community heroes will be honored May 23 with the Jefferson County Heart of Service Award for 2006.
The recipients are:
* Andy Mackie, the “music man”‘ of Jefferson County (and probably the whole state).
* Peggy Schafran, who organizes medical forums and free stroke and vascular disease screenings in Port Ludlow.
* Bruce Marston, whose volunteer efforts stretch from Wild Olympic Salmon and the North Olympic Salmon Coalition to the Boiler Room teen center in Port Townsend, Ecumenical Christian Helping Hands Organization, Helping Hands Sunday Soup Ministry and other groups.
His wife, Julie, often helps him in his volunteer work.
* Ralph and Pat Williams, tireless volunteers with Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County and many other organizations.
The Heart of Service Award honors the “dedication, sacrifice and accomplishments’ of community leaders and volunteers “who have made a difference in Jefferson County, who have made our communities a better place by doing extraordinary things for their neighbors, their community or the environment.”
This is the first year for this annual award, sponsored by the PDN, Rotary Club of Port Townsend (noon club), Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary Club and the East Jefferson Rotary Club.
A judging committee selected the five recipients from nominations made by individuals, clubs, churches, businesses and other organizations.
Ceremonies at Worden
“These five are truly local heroes, working to make community life stronger, tighter, happier, richer,” said John Brewer, PDN editor and publisher.
“They are the backbone of the community — busy people who always seem to be able to make time to offer a hand or a shoulder.
“And they may be people whose names many residents don’t know. They don’t give to our communities because they expect either reward or recognition.”
The five will receive framed award certificates and heart-shaped medals designed by Steve Rafoth, president of the Rotary noon club, at a luncheon that begins at noon Tuesday, May 23, at The Commons in Fort Worden State Park.
The luncheon is open to the public. Friends and admirers of the recipients are invited to attend.
Lunch with entree, salad bar and beverage costs $11; soup-salad bar with beverage costs $9; salad bar-only with beverage costs $7; and beverage-only is $1.50.
The food service line opens at 11:30 a.m.
Andy Mackie
A Scottish-born former cowboy who lives in Quilcene, Mackie has shared his love of music with thousands of students in Jefferson and Clallam county schools.
Mackie not only teaches students how to play and enjoy music (he teaches harmonica to children in five school districts, including Sequim), he teaches them how to make instruments — and has found financial support for his nonprofit Andy Mackie Music Foundation to supply thousands of instruments to youth and also provide college music scholarships.
Mackie says his goal is to bring music to every child on the North Olympic Peninsula.
He estimates that he’s taught more than 6,000 kids to play harmonica — and several thousand to make strum sticks and guitars.
Many of the kids play their instruments in community parades.
Suffering from heart problems and physical injuries, he was spending $600 a month on medication until, about six years ago, he decided to put his money into music instead of medicine.
But his vision goes beyond bringing music to youngsters.
“In a national survey, the No. 1 thing kids said kept them out of trouble was music,” Mackie told PDN columnist, Jennifer Jackson in a 2003 interview.
“And the University of Washington did a survey that showed employers look for people who excelled in music.
“What it takes to be good at music — the dedication, the discipline — carries over to any job.
“I tell kids, if you want a good job when you get out of school, learn to play an instrument.”
Peggy Schafran
Schafran was nominated by Jefferson County Fire District No. 3 (Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue).
“Peggy has literally taken the ‘Heart of Service’ in the Port Ludlow community right to the heartbeats of her friends and neighbors,” the nomination noted.
“Peggy’s passion to raise the level of awareness regarding healthy hearts and stroke symptoms directly impacts the wellness of our residents.”
By arranging medical forums on heart disease and screenings for stroke and vascular disease, she has “single-handedly brought a wealth of information to our mostly senior population,” noted the Port Ludlow Voice monthly newsletter.
“Peggy Schafran is an unsung heroine in Port Ludlow. She quietly goes about bettering this community through information on issues we all benefit from.
“She says she wants to make a difference — ‘When I leave this world I want to know I have helped others.’ You have, Peggy — in spades.”
Bruce Marston
Marston became active in community, youth and environmental groups shortly after he and his family arrived in Port Townsend in 1981 from Baltimore, Md.
“He very much embodies the ‘Heart of Service’ . . . I have lived in Jefferson County since 1979, and, in all those years, I dare say that no one other individual has had such a profound, positive and lasting impact on so many people’s lives as he,” said Lou Salsbury of Port Townsend in a nomination letter on behalf of Marston.
Said internationally known sculptors Tom Jay and Sara Mall Johani of Chimacum in another nomination letter:
“Bruce Marston has a profound instinct and drive to serve the common good.
“What’s amazing is that his enthusiasm has only grown after 25 years, and he has continued to grow into his role as a considerate, humble and effective advocate for the community causes he supports.”
A third nomination letter, by Wilma L. Hackman, manager of ECHHO — Ecumenical Christian Helping Hands Organization — of Port Townsend, noted that Marston drives people to medical appointments in Seattle or Everett “or on some other long trip that few others would be willing to do” and helps elderly residents with household chores and grocery shopping.
“Bruce Marston epitomizes the ‘local hero’ you are seeking . . . Bruce has been involved in and supported in one way or another just about every worthwhile cause event in the county, from cultural events to shelter for the homeless.”
Pat and Ralph Williams
Giving back to the community truly describes this Port Townsend couple.
This spring’s newsletter of Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County, a nonprofit organization that builds decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need, noted:
“Ralph, a transplant from Wisconsin, has been with Habitat since the planning stage [in 1996-97].
“Pat, a Port Townsend native, started by working with the garage sales when HFHEJC was just making itself known in the community.”
She is now a member of the group’s Steering Committee and is shift supervisor for its Furniture and More Store.
She helps Habitat with mailings and, like her husband and Bruce Marston, does volunteer work for ECHHO.
Ralph, a retired electrician and former Port Townsend School Board member, helps with the construction of new Habitat homes, is a volunteer reading tutor at Grant Street Elementary School and does pickups for the food bank.
Howard A. Fosser, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Port Townsend, told the judging committee that the Pat and Ralph seem always to be “first in line when it comes to helping.”
Within one’s reach
Said PDN publisher and editor Brewer:
“This new award, the Heart of Service Award, created by the PDN and the three Rotary Clubs in Jefferson County, is all about community, and about heroism, and about recognizing where the two join together.
“It joins with other major awards given in this county, such as the Port Townsend Citizen of the Year and Business Leader of the Year.
“Local heroes build community. They dream and aspire.
“These five recipients of the first Heart of Service Award are inspirational in both spirit and deed, heroic in the untrivialized sense of the word — they have journeyed, sacrificed, taken risk and often conquered adversity.
“The Heart of Service Award is inspirational, too — recognizing that the local hero’s achievements are within everyone’s reach.
“A local hero grasps a community need, judges what can be done, gathers the necessary forces, then draws fully from within.
“Their special achievement deserves analysis — and imitation — but it can’t get either unless brought into the open, onto center stage, and that’s our intent, too, with the Heart of Service Award.”