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Volunteers help Sequim shine for ‘Beautiful Day’ service event

Published 3:30 am Wednesday, April 29, 2026

By Matthew Nash

Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Sue Rockett with Sequim Community Church helps paint the Sequim Police Department’s Dog Agility Course in Carrie Blake Community Park on April 25 for the volunteer event Sequim Beautiful Day. Rockett participated last year and said she loves it. “I love being able to help the police and community,” she said.
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Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash

Sue Rockett with Sequim Community Church helps paint the Sequim Police Department’s Dog Agility Course in Carrie Blake Community Park on April 25 for the volunteer event Sequim Beautiful Day. Rockett participated last year and said she loves it. “I love being able to help the police and community,” she said.

Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Sue Rockett with Sequim Community Church helps paint the Sequim Police Department’s Dog Agility Course in Carrie Blake Community Park on April 25 for the volunteer event Sequim Beautiful Day. Rockett participated last year and said she loves it. “I love being able to help the police and community,” she said.
Dillon Riley helps tape off a portion of Olympic Peninsula Academy’s sign so a portion of it could be repainted during the volunteer event Sequim Beautiful Day. He helped at the event with his parents Josh and Heather and sister Aubrey, who attends the school.
Sequim Gazette photos by Matthew Nash Dungeness Community Church volunteers Steve Young and Sue Schaafsma help spread bark at Helen Haller Elementary during Sequim Beautiful Day. Young said the event is a good way to show that church members care about their community.
Myka Stewart, 9, paints a portion of the Sequim Police Department’s Dog Agility Course in Carrie Blake Community Park on April 25. She and her mom Nikki with Sequim Community Church wanted to help fellow church volunteers for Sequim Beautiful Day.
Paula Huls, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, helps load a dumpster during the Rally in the Alley event on April 25 in Carrie Blake Community Park. She said it was her second time helping and she just wants to give back to the community and help people with spring cleaning.
Brian Holden with Sequim Community Church helps paint near the Sequim Boys & Girls Club’s bathrooms during Sequim Beautiful Day. He assisted Sequim Valley Foursquare volunteers during the project. “Service work is great,” he said. “I love to help.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Jim Lewis with Trinity United Methodist Church went with his wife Marlene to help pull weeds near the north entrance of Carrie Blake Community Park during Sequim Beautiful Day. They’re both Master Gardeners, he said, and they primarily help at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden and felt like this was a natural progression.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Susan Chandler with Sequim Community Church helps pull weeds near the north entrance of Carrie Blake Community Park during Sequim Beautiful Day. “Sequim is the most beautiful place to live,” she said. “We need to take care of it and steward it. It’s a blessing to be out here.”
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Tyler Conkle with Sequim Valley Foursquare works with fellow volunteers during Sequim Beautiful Day to paint and replace fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wall panels and cove base by the bathrooms inside the Sequim Boys & Girls Club.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/

Saturday brought the sunshine, and a host of volunteers with a service mindset for another Sequim Beautiful Day.

The annual multi-church service event brought out more than 150 volunteers on April 25 from six different churches and multiple nonprofit groups, such as Habitat for Humanity and Scouting America to projects across the Sequim area.

Susan Chandler with Sequim Community Church was one of the volunteers helping pull weeds near the north entrance of Carrie Blake Community Park.

“Sequim is the most beautiful place to live, and we need to take care of it and steward it,” she said.

“It’s a blessing to be out here.”

Projects included landscaping, painting, power washing, and projects catered to mobility-challenged volunteers.

Patsy Lovelady with Dungeness Community Church helped at the event for the first time spreading bark dust courtesy Cascade Bark around Helen Haller Elementary with several volunteers.

“Sequim is known for helping each other, and I’m all about that,” she said.

Steve Young, another Dungeness Community Church volunteer at the school, said the event is a good way to connect with the community and show that church members care.

Associate Pastor Rick Dietzman at Sequim Community Church, who co-organizes Sequim Beautiful Day, brought the event from Silicon Valley to Sequim in 2017.

He said the idea behind the event is that local churches already have volunteers in place across the community, so they wanted to unite those efforts and do a significant amount of projects at least once a year “to really bless them” and provide a positive viewpoint of what Christian churches can do.

Sequim Beautiful Day signs can be seen at the project locations.

At Olympic Peninsula Academy, the Riley family of Josh, Heather, Dillon and Aubrey with Sequim Community Church worked together to paint and tape off portions of Olympic Peninsula Academy’s sign.

Aubrey, a seventh grader at the school, said it was fun to paint and that it feels good to help the sign look nicer.

Nine-year-old Myka Stewart went with her mom Nikki to help repaint the Sequim Police Department’s Dog Agility Course in Carrie Blake Community Park. Nikki said they attend Sequim Community Church and this was their first year to help. Myka said dogs need to train and this was one way she could support the police.

Dietzman said projects are planned to be about three hours and Rodda Paint donated paint.

Project locations this year included Carrie Blake Community Park’s entrance, Rally in the Alley, the Dog Agility Park, Obria Medical Clinic, Sequim Boys & Girls Club, Sequim’s Little Explorers Early Learning Center, Calvary Chapel Sequim/Ramen Shop, Helen Haller Elementary, Greywolf Elementary, Olympic Christian School, Olympic Peninsula Academy, and mobility challenged projects at Sequim Community Church for Operation Christmas Child, Clallam County Foster Children, and First Step Family Support Center.

Volunteer churches included Calvary Chapel Sequim, Dungeness Community Church, Sequim Community Church, Sequim Valley Foursquare Church, Trinity United Methodist Church and Thrive Church Sequim.

Future volunteers are welcome to inquire at sequimbeautifulday.org and facebook.com/SequimBeautifulDay.

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