SEQUIM — Steve Blenk died in a tragic U.S. Highway 101 head-on collision in November 2004, but his Scouting legacy lives on in Troop 1491’s annual food drive to benefit Sequim Food Bank.

This year, the Steve Blenk Memorial Food Drive, led by Boy Scout Tristan Tosland, netted more than 500 pounds of canned and boxed foods and nearly $900 in donations, which the Scouts will deliver to the food bank after the new year.

Tosland, a 16-year-old Sequim High School junior, has been involved in the drive since he was 11.

“I’m considering running it next year, too,” the son of Troy and Terra Tosland said with a smile, as he stood near this year’s trailer load of goods the food bank requested — peanut butter, cereal, mac and cheese, green beans and corn.

Troop 1491 Boy Scouts typically collect food donations in early December in front of the QFC supermarket on East Washington Street.

Tosland never met the man who started the food drive he now devotes his efforts to.

Established in 2000

Blenk, assistant scoutmaster of Boy Scouts of America Troop 1491, established the drive in 2000, when it collected both food and blankets donations, said his close friend, Jack Grinnell.

Blenk also was a woodcrafter with a home-based business whose work was renowned worldwide.

Robbie Blenk was traveling as a passenger with his father in their pickup near McDonnell Creek when a dump truck crossed the U.S. Highway 101 center line and struck the Blenk truck head-on Nov. 24, 2004.

Blenk was 48.

The collision left the then-13-year-old Robbie fatherless and injured.

Grinnell took it upon himself to help Blenk’s son, Robbie, earn his Eagle Scout rank — Scouting’s highest — after his father’s death.

“I owed him that. He was a good buddy,” Grinnell said of Steve Blenk, with whom he worked with side by side to help advance local Scouting.

Grinnell described Blenk as “just a big guy with a big heart” who wanted the Scouts “to do the best they could in life as well as professionally.

“He inspired parents around him as well as kids.”

Robbie Blenk is now studying fisheries and wildlife sciences at Oregon State University.

Grinnell has three sons who became Eagle Scouts, and his son, Nick, rose from Cub Scout to Eagle with his pal Robbie Blenk.

Today, Robbie’s father is also remembered in a special Troop 1451 award named for him.

The award recognizes the earning of certain merit badges, including outdoorsmanship and citizenship, which are earned on the path to becoming an Eagle.

There is a memorial plaque on the wall where the troop meets with Steve’s name at the top.

Below, it lists the names of Scouts who have earned the Steve Blenk Award.

“In my husband’s patrol, seven achieved Eagle all together,” Steve Blenk’s widow, Susan, recalled.

Pride in food drive

She still works and lives in the Sequim-area and said she feels “warmth and pride” that the food drive her husband originally led has lived on so long.

She also said she was not surprised.

“Knowing this Scout troop, they’re so dedicated to community service,” she said.

The first year, she said, Steve and Scouts visited downtown Seattle, where they handed the blankets to homeless people living on the streets.

“That was an eye-opener for the Scouts,” she said.

“Steve’s idea was to just make the Scouts aware who the blankets benefitted.

“Then we decided that we wanted it to benefit something more local.”

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.