PORT TOWNSEND — Seven volunteers — two of them teens — will be honored with the Jefferson County Heart of Service award for 2016 at a noon luncheon May 10.
The luncheon, which is open to the public, will be at Fort Worden Commons. Sponsoring Rotary Clubs will purchase lunch for each honoree and his or her guest. Others can purchase lunch at the Commons.
This year, the volunteer contributions of two youths will be recognized along with those of five adults.
They will receive framed award certificates honoring 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 11th year for the Heart of Service award, sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News, the Rotary Club of Port Townsend (noon club), the Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary Club and the East Jefferson Rotary Club.
“The class of honorees this year truly represent everything this award is intended to recognize,” said Terry R. Ward, publisher of the PDN.
“These outstanding community-minded individuals possess hearts of service and an honest desire to make a difference in the community.
“Jefferson County is indeed a better place because of each of their efforts.”
Honorees
The youth honorees are:
■ Ben Rolland, a Port Townsend High School senior who co-founded the Port Townsend Youth Entertainment Coalition, a 4-H/WSU-chartered club aimed at providing safe and drug-free activities for young people.
■ Olivia Ejde, a Chimacum High School senior whose volunteer work has encompassed everything from bringing holiday cheer to assisted living community residents and raising funds through the school’s Interact Club to serving on the 4-H Robotics Team, the Roboctopi, which has received national attention.
The adult honorees are:
■ Elma Beary, Chimacum School’s indefatigable volunteer who, nominators say, is “the heart of our school.”
■ Helen Cleveland, longtime volunteer for Habitat for Humanity Furniture and More Store, the Port Townsend Film Festival, Centrum and the Port Townsend Visitor Center.
■ Linda Herzog, who established Quilcene Conversations, which led to a number of improvements in her adopted hometown, and who continues to work for a better, safer community.
■ Bill Putney, who provides engineering and technical expertise to many organizations, including volunteering as the project manager for installation of an automated weather station for Jefferson County International Airport.
■ Bruce Starr, who is in his 12th year of volunteering for the Gatheringplace, a private nonprofit that offers enrichment programs for adults with disabilities, and who had provided services to the Tri-Area Food Bank Association for 27 years.
A blue-ribbon judging committee selected the Heart of Service recipients from 19 nominations made by individuals, clubs, churches, businesses and other organizations.
Here is more about the honorees.
Ben Rolland
The group Rolland co-founded, the Port Townsend Youth Entertainment Coalition, aims to provide activities for youths that are safe and free in terms of cost, as well as free of alcohol, drugs and bullies.
The coalition, run by youths, has put on such events as an outdoor movie on the dock, a rap battle, a pre-Thanksgiving dinner and a tractor race, among others.
“Even though it is his senior project, he has gone above and beyond, more than quadrupling the hours needed for his senior project,” said nominator Stevie Riepe of the Class of 2016.
“Ben has so much potential to not only change this community but the world,” Riepe said.
“Ben has changed our community more in the past year than anyone else I know.”
Rolland also volunteers at the Port Townsend Food Bank, has planted trees to improve salmon habitat, has worked on trail crews and started a community center repair project. He is also in Boy Scouts.
School activities include Interact — which among other things organizes students for First Night, put on by the Jefferson County Historical Society — Students for Sustainability, Associated Student Body, golf, basketball and Yearbook.
He is a member of the National Honor Society.
“In addition to his dedication to service, Ben also excels in Mock Trial and Knowledge Bowl and maintains an exemplary academic record,” said science teacher and adviser Lois Sherwood in a letter of support.
Olivia Ejde
Ejde, a Chimacum High School senior, is active in the school’s Interact Club and in the 4-H Robotics Team, the Roboctopic, which was recognized at a national competition last year.
She is the founder and mentor of Chimacum Elementary’s Girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) club.
“Olivia’s caring, compassion, enthusiasm, leadership and expertise . . . extends to her senior project: developing a program for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) integrating mathematics and science projects for girls at the elementary level,” said her nominator, Linda Kostebader, East Jefferson Rotary sponsor for the Interact Club of Chimacum High School.
“She continues to give many hours to the girls and to the robotics team.”
In the Interact Club, she helped with a Santa photo fundraiser, painted pumpkins with residents of San Juan Villa, provided safety information for primary and elementary school students, caroled at Christmas and gave Christmas cards and Valentine’s Day cheer to the residents of San Juan Villa assisted living facility.
She is president of the Associated Student Body and is in her second year as student director on the Chimacum School Board.
Ejde also is a member of the National Honor Society, Mathematics Club and Knowledge Bowl.
She plays on the varsity girls soccer team.
Elma Beary
Beary was nominated by the Chimacum School staff for “serving behind the scenes, continuously and tirelessly providing vital services to students, families and faculty.
“There are some who want to name a building after her. Others propose we use concerts and school social activities to publicly acknowledge her hard work and dedication to the community,” said Matthew Orr of the Chimacum Elementary Multi-Age Program, writing for the staff.
“The difficult part is that our Heart of Service 2016 nominee . . . neither craves the attention nor the idea of being memorialized. But Elma is the heart of our school,” Orr said.
Among her many services to the school is organizing school supplies for children. She is involved with Backpacks for Kids and organizes an annual community swap meet, the Back to School Clothing Exchange.
Twice a year, Beary coordinates a classroom competition to collect food for the area food bank as well as the Campbell Soup box top competition to raise money for school equipment.
She organizes games for the Fall School Carnival, manages the lost and found, coordinates a holiday gift shop for students, sets up book fairs and operates a book shop on campus.
She also schedules class pictures and vision and hearing screenings and does photocopying for teachers and office staff, including creating notices to go to parents about upcoming school events.
Beary raises money for the fifth grade with a midweek lunchtime popcorn sale and sets up a fifth-grade graduation ceremony each year.
“Elma is the most amazing volunteer that I have ever seen anywhere in my 44 years of living,” Orr said.
Helen Cleveland
The Habitat for Humanity Furniture and More Store is “just one of many Port Townsend organizations that has benefitted from Helen’s enthusiasm and tireless dedication,” said fellow Habitat volunteer Katy Friedel in a letter of support for Cleveland’s nomination.
Cleveland also was one of the original volunteers for the Port Townsend Film Festival.
“Fifteen years later, we expect to have her smiling face greeting our film-loving patrons in September,” said Janette Force, film festival executive director, in her letter to Heart of Service judges.
Cleveland is a longtime volunteer for Centrum as well as beginning her 18th year volunteering at the Port Townsend Visitor Information Center.
She and her husband, Bob Cleveland, support the Port Townsend Winter Shelter through making a meal for shelter guests on one of the nights assigned to their church, St. Paul’s Episcopal.
She is also a longtime volunteer for Just Soup, a cost-free lunch served at the church to the community each Wednesday.
“Helen is the type of person who makes Port Townsend and Jefferson County the wonderful place that it is,” said nominator Carolyn Eagan.
“She is willing to help wherever needed; she really does have a heart of service.”
Linda Herzog
About six years ago, Herzog established the Quilcene Conversations group, in which members of the town get together to discuss how to improve it.
The Quilcene Conversations Google Group device now directly reaches about 350 email addresses.
“Linda was one of the original group of neighbors that encouraged Quilcene to take complaints about change into self-action,” said Kathleen Kler, Jefferson County commissioner, in her nomination.
Said Cass Brotherton, another nominator: “She was the major person behind starting the Quilcene Conversations to get community input on what the residents wanted to have happen.
“This resulted in the reopening of the gas station and store, creation of landscaping in town, replacement of the floating dock, creation of a gateway as well as a logo and slogan to identify the town.”
Herzog is president of Count Me in for Quilcene, a nonprofit that serves to fund the projects selected by residents.
She helped to get a community grant for exploring options for a downtown septic system and lobbied for use of that grant as well as one to improve safety through slowing drivers on U.S. Highway 101 as it travels though Quilcene.
Herzog has served on the Jefferson County Economic Development Council and the Jefferson Farm to School Board, and is now a member of the Jefferson County Community Foundation Board and the Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Board.
She volunteers at Quilcene School and at Quilcene Fire District.
Herzog attended Jefferson County Board of Commissioners meetings for two years, from 2011-12, and reported back to the community via the Quilcene Conversations Google Group on anything of interest in South County, according to Nancy Biery, another nominator.
Herzog also was campaign manager for Kler, who was elected to the Jefferson County commissioners in 2014.
She has tutored children in reading, served as an officer in the local garden club and weeds the school garden.
“Linda Herzog is the chief organizer and doer in Quilcene,” said Carol and Brian Barker in their nomination.
“Her efforts are truly spectacular.”
Bill Putney
Among his many projects, Putney volunteered to be the project manager for installation of an Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) station for Jefferson County International Airport.
“As an engineer, Bill volunteered many hours of his time and expertise to lead the AWOS project,” said Larry Crockett, Port of Port Townsend executive director.
“Frankly, the project would have been significantly more difficult and expensive without Bill’s tireless work.”
Putney has provided engineering and technical expertise to many organizations, including the Port Townsend branch of the American Association of University Women; KPTZ FM, where he served as chief engineer until 2012; KROH, the Port Townsend Christian radio station; the Northwinds Arts Center; and the Port Townsend Film Festival.
“His leadership and technical input have enabled these organizations to provide enhanced services to literally thousands of community residents in the areas of emergency preparedness as well as arts and culture,” said Polly Lyle in her nomination.
Putney is president of the Jefferson County Pilots Association,
“He was the driving force behind getting the FAA to publish an instrument approach to the airport, enabling pilots to land during periods of low clouds and visibility,” said Patrick Shannon, past president of the association.
Putney is working for just about all the nonprofits in the county, according to Force in her letter of support.
“Bill’s approach to community is to Lean In,” Force said.
Bruce Starr
Starr has volunteered at the Gatheringplace, a private nonprofit that offers enrichment programs for adults with disabilities, since 2004, said Linda Ferris, Gatheringplace director, in her nomination.
He developed a plot of land behind the Gatheringplace at Point Hudson into a garden, writing the initial grant for it and then a second grant for a deer-proof fence.
With a third grant, the Gatheringplace built a greenhouse.
“Bruce Starr has given our garden project years’ worth of hard work and dedication, constant improvement and the enlistment of outside help and financial assistance,” said Nancy Mann, Monday gathering Cooks coordinator.
“Not only do we save hundreds of dollars on food for our cooking class, we experience the joy of seeing it grow, harvesting from it and being able to prepare and eat food grown just feet from our kitchen every week.”
Starr also volunteers with the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Chimacum and recently retired from working for the Jefferson County Food Bank.
“He’s been volunteering in Jefferson County for 27 years,” Ferris said.
“Truly, Bruce Starr shines in the world of volunteering in Jefferson County,” Ferris said.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
