Stoffel receives state honor for safety fair, more

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Considered a “Renaissance woman” and outstanding team leader by fellow volunteers, Donna Stoffel of Blyn recently received a state honor from the Washington State Volunteer Service Award in the Peninsula/Coastal region through Serve Washington.

She was honored April 21 by Clallam County Fire District 3’s fire commissioners via a proclamation.

Stoffel said volunteering is her way of “giving back to the community that’s been so good to us.”

“It also means I can be an active participant if there’s ever a disaster,” she said.

In the last year, Stoffel, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) 3 co-captain, provided hundreds of volunteer hours.

She led Sequim’s third-annual Safety Fair with 32 public service groups, 60 volunteers, and more than 1,000 visitors at the Guy Cole Event Center. She also led CERT volunteers’ traffic and parking support at the Soroptimist’s Garden Show, and she crafted and delivered Clallam County’s annual aircraft ground safety training for Clallam’s Disaster Airlift Response Team (DART) ground support personnel attached to three local airfields. Stoffel also organizes and trains monthly her 30-member response team.

Stoffel got her start serving the Sequim community right before its most recent turbulent time, the COVID-19 pandemic. She moved to the Blyn area in 2019 and went through CERT’s academy in January 2020. She went on to support CERT’s efforts supporting food, vaccine and personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution.

“It was interesting,” she said of the early days of the pandemic. “We were the last academy class to graduate for a while.”

As for the formation of the Safety Fair, she said it was a brain child of CERT captains to better educate the community.

Its first year, it had a number of agencies and a few speakers, Stoffel said, and now it’s outgrown the inside of the Guy Cole Event Center and features a number of touch-a-trucks and more vendors outside.

This year’s event is set for Oct. 3 at the same location with more vehicles, speakers and demonstrations with hopes to have two helicopters on scene.

Stoffel, originally from Colorado, said her grandfather, father, brother and nephew were all volunteer firefighters.

“I knew I’d never be a firefighter but CERT appealed to me,” she said. “It’s something I could do with my abilities.”

Charles Meyer, a fellow CERT member, nominated her.

He wrote in his application that “(Stoffel’s) commitment to volunteerism is evident in her proven desire to help others.”

“Her dedication to emergency response activities is focused on being of service during some future disaster in order to save lives, reassure and comfort the fearful, and provide material aid to our most vulnerable citizens in times of crisis,” Meyer wrote. “She has chosen to pursue the greater good for the greatest number.”

He added that her commitment to volunteerism is evident in her proven desire to help others.

“She has chosen to pursue the greater good for the greatest number, because it really matters,” Meyer wrote.

According to district documents, the Washington State Volunteer Service Awards recognizes and honors “the multitude of acts of kindness demonstrated by individuals, families, and service groups in communities throughout Washington.”

Asked what she wants citizens to know about volunteerism, Stoffel said when disaster strikes, it’s important to help at least one person.

“If they help one person, then that’s one more person who will survive and thrive in a disaster,” Stoffel said.