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Volunteers with verve

RUSS CARMACK/THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Profits from Isabella Lafreniere’s Pink Boot Project help fund mammograms for low-income women.

CHANDRA CONWAY; The News Tribune
Last updated: May 21st, 2006 01:21 AM (PDT)

They give their time and talents to the residents and the City of Tacoma. Now four individuals and four groups will be honored for their volunteer efforts at the City of Destiny Awards ceremony Tuesday evening.

Isabella Lafreniere

Age: 18.

Residence: North End.

School: Senior at Tacoma School of the Arts.

Award: Youth leadership.

Isabella Lafreniere’s fundraising efforts for the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Tacoma sprang from her artistic talent. Two years ago, Lafreniere took a black Sharpie pen to a pair of yellow rain boots and created a customized gift for her sister Sophie, now 12. Lafreniere’s mother, Bree – who is the resource center’s director – recognized the fundraising potential in the gift. Lafreniere agreed and the Pink Boot Project was born.

So far, more than 50 pairs of boots designed by more than a dozen volunteer artists have been sold at the resource center and at auctions. Each pair costs $100. Sale profits help fund free mammogram services for low-income women.

Doug McArthur

Age: 76.

Residence: North End.

Award: Adult leadership.

Doug McArthur first volunteered as a baseball coach in the Tacoma community at the age of 18. Over the years he has indulged in his love of sports and community service by coaching a total of 30 youth baseball and football teams. (Along the way, his 1956 Stanley’s Shoemen team took the National Amateur Baseball championship.) McArthur has worked in Tacoma as a sports broadcaster, Metro Parks director and University of Puget Sound athletic director. He was key in the effort to get the Tacoma Dome built, remains active in Dome issues and gives his time to the Tacoma Athletic Commission. He said the city thrives on the volunteers who nurture it.

“If a sense of community means anything to you at all, then you should get involved,” he said.

Tacoma Events Commission

Award: 20th anniversary.

The City of Destiny Awards is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special award to the Tacoma Events Commission. The commission reached a high point in its city events efforts last summer with the Tall Ships Festival.

Carole Lail, the commission’s director of human resources and volunteers, said 3,000 volunteers helped create the unforgettable event.

“Every volunteer gave everything they had and more,” said Lail, a Lakewood resident.

HomeStreet Bank

Award: Corporation, business or entrepreneur.

Last month, more than 100 HomeStreet Bank employees and their family members volunteered at local parks during Metro Parks Tacoma’s annual Parks Appreciation Day. The bank has supported the event since its inception in 2002.

“We look at parks and open spaces as long-term investments in the community,” said University Place resident Peter Carlstrom, assistant vice president and Tacoma branch manager. “It helps everybody if our neighborhoods are cleaned up and look good.”

Blueberry Park Volunteers

Award: Neighborhood or community group.

Seven years ago, East Tacoma resident Charlotte Valbert, 77, and a group of her neighbors set out to carve a community park from a former blueberry farm that had grown wild.

More than 5,000 volunteer hours later, visitors to Blueberry Park can lounge on the grass or stroll among neat rows of blueberry bushes. Two walking trails will be completed by October. Valbert, who secures grants and coordinates the volunteers, estimates that nearly 400 local residents pitch in during the year to maintain the park on East D Street. “I find out what everyone likes to do and then I fit it in to what I want to do,” she said with a laugh.

John Wohn

Age: 72.

Residence: North End.

Award: Adult sustained service.

John Wohn calls himself a good people watcher. He’s had plenty of time to indulge in that pastime during his long-time volunteer work at the Shanaman Sports Museum.

Wohn got involved with the local sports history museum in 1994. He helps catalog the museum’s contents and has given tours to tens of thousands of visitors. Wohn, who also gives his time to the Tacoma Badminton Club and the Tacoma-Pierce County Volleyball Officials Association, doesn’t keep an eye on his volunteer timecard. “I added up my hours one week and it scared me so I don’t look at them anymore,” he said.

Ironworkers Local 86

Award: Employee or union group.

Seattle resident Lee Newgent and a dozen members of Local 86 regularly contribute their ironworking skills to United Way’s Day of Caring. Newgent, who is president of Local 86, said as soon as he got a good look at the group’s 2005 volunteer assignment – the Development Council’s Early Childhood Center in Tacoma – he knew one day’s work wouldn’t be enough. “The staff was completely overwhelmed with maintenance issues,” he said.

Newgent, 45, put out a call for help, and Bates Technical College Ironworking Apprenticeship instructors Jeff Butler and Greg Lochrie and 70 students volunteered their skills. In all, the group put in around 700 hours worth of work to make repairs at the non-profit community center.

Elizabeth Clair

Age: 17.

Residence: North End.

School: Junior at Bellarmine Preparatory School.

Award: Youth sustained service.

Elizabeth Clair, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, is on a mission to stock each local Habitat home with a book collection. Four years ago, Elizabeth founded Under the Roof Reading Begins to provide the youngest familiy members with an assortment of reference, fiction and nonfiction titles. Elizabeth said that while Habitat homeowners are dedicated to building a better life for their families, they do not always have the means to advance their children’s reading skills.

Elizabeth organizes book drives and secures grants to buy books. With the help of several dozen volunteers, Elizabeth has delivered book collections to 30 Tacoma families and five Gig Harbor families. Currently, there are 115 Habitat homes in Pierce County.

“The need is going to be there for a long time,” said Clair. “And hopefully, we’ll be there, too.”

Awards ceremony

The public is invited to attend the City of Destiny Awards ceremony.

Where: Jason Lee Middle School Auditorium

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

For more information: Call 253-591-5790. TV Tacoma will broadcast the awards ceremony several times between June 5 and June 15. For more information, call 253-573-2489 or visit http://www.tvtacoma.com/.

Originally published: May 21st, 2006 01:00 AM (PDT)