Five of Clallam County’s top volunteers were honored for their significant contributions to the community.

More than 50 people gathered Thursday night at the Port Angeles Senior & Community Center to formally grant each of the five winners a 2025 Clallam County Community Service Award and celebrate their legacies.

“This is a night about passion, and about commitment, and where the two join together,” Sound Publishing Regional Publisher and event host Eran Kennedy said. “The Clallam County Community Service Awards are one of the greatest honors we can bestow on community service members.”

This year’s winners were Heidi Simpson, Sherrilyn Phillips and Paul Forrest of Port Angeles, and John and Karolyn Burdick of Clallam Bay.

“These are everyday people who have found ways to serve … often with very few resources and little recognition,” Kennedy said. “They get things done.”

Together, the five individuals have volunteered for more than 17 organizations or programs.

Heidi Simpson

Simpson said she was “completely shocked and overwhelmed” when she learned she was one of the award winners.

Simpson’s list of volunteer contributions include time spent with the Port Angeles Lions Club, the Hurricane Ridge Ski Team and St. Andrew’s Place Assisted Living Community.

For more than 10 years, Simpson also ran the Ski and Snowboard School at Hurricane Ridge with her husband, Ken, with whom she co-owns Angeles Electric in Port Angeles.

“It’s hard to find some part of our community that Heidi hasn’t been a part of,” Cherie Kidd, judge and president of the Soroptimist International of Port Angeles – Noon Club, said when presenting the award.

In addition, Simpson has spent many hours volunteering with the Clallam County Fair, selling hot dogs and supporting the junior rodeo.

When she realized the YMCA did not have an operational youth and government program, she volunteered to restart it and then spent many years mentoring teenagers who came through the program.

“Volunteering in a community like Port Angeles represents everything that’s right in the world,” Simpson said as she received her award. “A place for everyone to pitch in to help make our community a better place in some way.”

Sherrilyn Phillips

Phillips said she was “surprised [and] humbled” when she was announced as a winner. “I don’t do things for recognition, [but] it’s always nice to be recognized.”

Phillips has many years of volunteerism under her belt, including 34 years with the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and more than 20 years spent as the design chair for the foundation’s annual Festival of Trees.

“To say that Sherry is the embodiment of volunteerism would be an understatement,” said Lorie Fazio, judge and director of operations for the Clallam Economic Development Council. “Her heart and efforts have shaped the very fabric of Clallam County.”

Phillips has been a member of Chapter IV of the Philanthropic Education Organization since 1998, helping to raise funds for women’s continuing education. Since graduating from Port Angeles High School in 1960, she’s continued organizing events for them — including a summer gathering for her class’s 65th reunion.

Phillips said she tries to follow the motto that her parents raised her with: “To whom much is given, much is required.”

Paul Forrest

In addition to serving for more than eight years on the Port Angeles Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission, Forrest’s crowning contribution to the community is the creation of the Shade Street Tree program, which has given more than 300 free trees of six different varieties to Port Angeles residents over the past two years.

This program started in 2018, when Forrest had a vision to increase the city’s tree canopy from 24.5 percent to 40 percent, excluding ravines.

To accomplish that goal, Forrest became an arborist. He spent more than 1,000 volunteer hours from 2020 to 2024 coaxing trees to grow. He also provided presentations to service clubs and organizations and met with city staff to develop the program.

“A street tree program is not as important as homelessness and drug addiction,” Forrest said. “But the impact is positive and enduring.”

Now, Port Angeles owns the program and annual funding for the program is a line item in the city’s budget.

“It’s hard to get a program to stick, it will kind of die with the visionary a lot of times,” said Steve Burke, judge and commissioner for the Port of Port Angeles. “This program is actually sticking.”

John and Karolyn Burdick

The Burdicks were honored for a long list of projects they’ve been part of. The 84-year-olds worked on conservation with the North Olympic Land Trust and North Olympic Salmon Coalition, volunteered with water management decision-making and worked in the Hoko-Lyre Watershed on habitat restoration.

They’ve worked with Clallam Bay School children to plant 60 trees as part of the “Plant for the Planet” campaign, and cared for the Clallam Bay Community Garden for several years.

“They don’t just advocate from behind a conference table,” said Sara Maloney, judge and director of philanthropy for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula. “They are out there in the land, shovels in hand, leading by example.”

The couple also has spent decades volunteering with the North Olympic Library System’s Clallam Bay branch, with Karolyn serving as president of the Friends of the Clallam Bay Library.

“There is nothing quick and hallmarky about these things,” Karolyn said as she accepted her award. “You work hard, you spend a lot of time, and you don’t know if you’re going to succeed. But it’s worth it in the end.”

John is the president of the West End Youth and Community Club and has been responsible for upkeep of the Sekiu Center.

“After all these good words, I’m pretty sure I’ll get in heaven,” John joked as he received his award. “Or at least somewhere near it.”

Choosing the winners

The five judges who chose the winners out of a wide pool of nominees were Kidd, Burke, Maloney, Fazio and Rod Fleck, the attorney and planning director for the city of Forks.

“Judges had an incredibly challenging job,” Kennedy said.

To choose winners, Kidd said judges consider the longevity of the project, the number of people affected, the time commitment required and if the candidate made lasting contributions to the quality of life in their community.

The work done by the winners of this award started years ago, and it will continue for years into the future. Their legacy of volunteerism won’t end with them, either. Many of them acknowledged their children and grandchildren, who were raised to uphold the same values of service that their parents modeled.

“You become like the people you hang around with,” Kidd said. “Tonight, I’m a better person just being around you all.”

This was the 45th year of the Clallam County Community Service Awards, which are co-sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News (PDN) and the Soroptimist International of Port Angeles — Noon Club (SIPA). The awards began in 1980, with a single individual being named citizen of the year.

Starting in 1991, they became the Clallam County Community Service Awards. Three to seven people have received this award every year since then, Kennedy said.

Next year, the PDN and SIPA will partner with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula to help add a new facet to the program: youth community service awards. Although the 2026 awards will continue to honor adults in the community, it also will spotlight the volunteer efforts of three people ages 12 to 19.

“This is groundbreaking, that youth of this age will be honored right along the adults,” said Mary Budke, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula. “I look forward to next year, as we proudly carry forward this vital tradition.”