Kudos go out to tribe’s golf course staff
These days, we are in need of leadership and a strong resilient community more than ever. I hope many readers will agree that one of the visible leaders in our community is the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
Of the many ways they are supporting our community is through the way they choose to operate the Dungeness golf course (The Cedars at Dungeness). Along with many other golfers, I witness the consistent dedication by staff to making the high school teams stand out across the state.
As a father of a son who has disabilities, I have a particularly heartfelt appreciation for the Jamestown S’Klallam support of the Clallam County Orcas, a program of the Special Olympics of Washington. This season begins June 15 and promises to produce more regional and statewide tournament contestants. The tribe offers free training on Wednesday afternoons through the middle of July in preparation for the regional tournament in Tacoma.
The Special Olympics team is managed by Wendy Bonham, another recognized community leader, and trained by the same superb professionals that bring the high school players recognition.
While team registration already has accepted the limit of 10 athletes, partners interested in volunteering individually with Special Olympic athletes are still needed. I can guarantee those men and women volunteers, whether high school age or duffers steeped in the lifelong pursuit of the little white ball, will have a terrific experience working directly with athletes. If interested, please contact Wendy at 461-7817. An orientation will happen June 2.
A stronger community can only happen if we reach out and learn more about each other. Through social activities and athletic opportunities, we build pride in who we are. You too, can be a leader by joining in and participating in worthy causes like Special Olympics.
Together, let’s celebrate the efforts of the Jamestown S’Klallam, golf course staff and Special Olympic volunteers in enriching the lives of athletes whose disabilities can overcome barriers to achieve their own successes.
Watch the newspaper for coverage of the Team Orcas this summer!
Randy Brackett
Sequim
Celebrate diversity
In a jingoistic tirade, an octogenarian about to proudly celebrate his 85th birthday (“On the eve of this Memorial Day,” Letters to the Editor, Sequim Gazette, May 24, page A-10), suggested our “American culture” is “under assault” by immigrants who do not adopt our language and our “national mores.”
If that is true, as immigrants, the Pilgrims should have taken on the culture of the indigenous peoples. Instead, they forced natives to lose their language and their culture.
Those who labored in our fields as “immigrants” were excluded from all civil liberties due to a skin pigmentation different from our own, requiring an Emancipation Proclamation that fell on deaf ears for over a century.
Even citizens were deprived of their civil liberties by our Supreme Court (Korematsu v. United States) and sent to “relocation centers” because of their ancestry.
From the diversity of the food we eat, the music we hear, the clothes we wear, the cultures we bring, the God to which we pray and yes, the languages we speak, all should make us proud such diverse peoples long to come to these United States.
That is still what makes America great and ¡Feliz cumpleaños a usted!
Roger B. Huntman
Sequim
Where was the middle school band?
As much as they wanted to, our middle school band was not allowed to march in the Irrigation Festival Parade this year, mainly due to a personality conflict between the teacher and principal.
And they weren’t told until the week of the parade leaving them to feel even more let down. Now, was that really fair to our kids … to deny them this opportunity they’ve been looking forward to and working toward for so long? I think not. There had to be a better way.
What a shame. Sorry kids!
Linda Grubb
Sequim
