Sunshine Café auctions off Tim Quinn editorial cartoons
by MATTHEW NASH
Sequim Gazette
What tickled Sequim’s funny bone for 25 years could be big help for one ailing local girl and her family.
Dianne and Allen Drake, owners of Sunshine Café, 145 W. Washington St., recently obtained some of longtime editorial cartoonist Tim Quinn’s cartoons that were featured weekly in the Sequim Gazette from 1992 to 2009. Dianne Drake intends to auction off the items monthly for 10-year old Violet O’ Dell, who was recently diagnosed with brainstem glioma, a cancerous tumor and is receiving treatment at Seattle Children’s.
Drake said she’s a longtime family friend of Violet’s and felt the art could do some good.
She’s known Violet’s mom, Jess, since she was pregnant with Violet, who is the same age as Drake’s grandson. Both children celebrated their first birthdays together in the café.
Drake said the idea of auctioning Quinn’s art came to her in the middle of the night.
For years, she’s displayed his art in the restaurant and considers herself one of his biggest fans.
“I got the newspaper and went straight to his cartoon every week,” she said.
Drake plans to run an ongoing silent auction every 30 days with the highest bidder winning. All proceeds help Violet’s medical expenses. No minimum bid is set.
Cartoons from 2009 and miscellaneous years are on display in the cafe and in a book for viewing. Every 30 days a new year of art goes on display. Right now, 46 cartoons are available. Art from 2009 stops bidding Oct. 31, and art from 2008 begins November 1.
A 2012 calendar is being compiled featuring some of Quinn’s timeless cartoons. It is planned to be available in December with proceeds helping Violet.
Drake said Quinn loved children and teaching them art. His first cartoon ran Aug. 29, 1984, in the “Jimmy-Come-Lately Gazette.” He crafted them weekly until his death in Dec. 2009 due to natural causes.
His cartoons included Slick the Slug and sometimes hidden pictures and messages. The Sunshine Café sold a lot of his standing art, such as walking sticks. He became close to the Drakes because his apartment was above their café.
Quinn was a multi-medium artist and has work across the peninsula, including at the Dungeness River Audubon Center, chainsaw art on the Old Olympic Highway and the recently restored mural (by his friend Jackson Smart) “Olympic Visions” in downtown Port Angeles at First and Laurel streets.
Drake feels the cartoons are a perfect fit to help because Violet loves art. She’s been keeping in touch with Violet and her family via the Internet.
Violet’s stepfather, Jeremy O’ Dell, told the Gazette she’s doing well and reacting well to radiation treatment.
Her steroid doses are going down too, he said.
“She has another month here and hopefully, she’s home before Christmas,” he said.
“Her biggest problem is determining what she wants to wish for with Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
She’s hoping for either an interview with Taylor Swift, a backstage pass to a Justin Bieber concert, a new puppy with access from her bedroom to the puppy’s house, or a playhouse with a swimming pool, O’ Dell said.
Donation jars are at the Boys & Girls Club, 400 W. Fir St., Sequim; Chevron’s 101 Outpost, 822 E. Washington St.; Kettel’s 76, 192 W. Washington St.; Mini Fairmount, 808 W. Washington St.; and the UPS store, 1400 West Washington St., suite 104.
A benefit fund continues at Chase Bank, 680 W. Washington St., Suite D.
The Boys & Girls Club hosts a Zumba-thon, 1-3 p.m. Oct 29.
Rubber bracelets are now available at Sunshine Café for a suggested donation of $5 with proceeds helping Violet, too.
For more information on the ongoing auctions, contact Dianne Drake at 683-4282.
Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
