Coreen Jones, Brick Leever and Ralph Dapar love to be around people. And they like to stay active. That\u2019s why they volunteer every week at the Kent Senior Activity Center.<\/p>\n
But none of them expected to be an award winner at the Senior Center Volunteer Appreciation Tea May 15 at the center.<\/p>\n
Jones, 72, was named the Kent Lions Club Senior Citizen of the Year. Leever, 85, received the Senior Center Longevity Award. Dapar, 77, was chosen as the Senior Center Volunteer of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just about speechless,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI\u2019ve only been in the state for a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow volunteers nominated the three for the awards. Senior center staff picked the winners based on their involvement and commitment to the community. There are more than 200 volunteers at the senior center.<\/p>\n
Jones, who moved to Kent from Oklahoma after her husband died in order to be closer to her daughter, has a long list of volunteer work that earned her the Lions Club award for work at the senior center as well as out in the community.<\/p>\n
That volunteer work includes jobs at her church, at a elementary school, transporting people to shopping and medical appointments, service in the deli and cafe at the senior center and her secretary role on the Kent Senior Advisory Board.<\/p>\n
Terry Rottkamp, a neighbor of Jones and also a volunteer, introduced Jones to the senior center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love people and I like to help people,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main reason I volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones, a retired administrative assistant with the federal government, also works out five days a week at the Senior Center fitness room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lift a few weights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Leever volunteered for more than 20 years at the senior center before he and his wife moved in February from Kent to Everett to live closer to two of their children. He started to volunteer with softball, volleyball and other sports in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted something to do to keep busy, so I came here,\u201d said Leever, a retired office-products salesman. \u201cI worked at the coffee bar and that\u2019s where I\u2019ve been every Friday for the last 20 years. I just love this place. It\u2019s like home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leever also served on the advisory board and helped in the deli and cafe when needed. He didn\u2019t expect any type of longevity award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just one of the guys,\u201d Leever said. \u201cAn award is not necessary. But they wanted to do it and I was proud to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dapar has lived in Kent about a dozen years. He volunteers with the deli and cafe, the advisory board, the coffee bar, the weekly Tai Chi video program, the karaoke program and the Wii program.<\/p>\n
Dapar started to come to the center with his father-in-law before each started to work in the cafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept coming twice a week in 2000 and I\u2019m still doing it,\u201d said Dapar, a retired Boeing engineer.<\/p>\n
The ability to meet new friends kept Dapar coming back to the center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at the older citizens here and they have a wealth of knowledge and talent,\u201d Dapar said. \u201cThat motivates me to come here and meet them. We have some 90-year-olds who are fun to talk to. We talk about our past. That\u2019s all we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as his fellow award winners, Dapar couldn\u2019t believe staff picked him for the honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a total surprise,\u201d he said. \u201cI had no idea. A friend said I was nominated, but I paid no attention. There are so many people who deserve the award over myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more about activities at the Kent Senior Activity Center, visit www.ci.kent.wa.us\/senioractivitycenter, or call 253-856-5150.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coreen Jones, Brick Leever and Ralph Dapar love to be around people. And they like to stay active. That\u2019s why they volunteer every week at the Kent Senior Activity Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":5162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}