Enumclaw center honors supporter’s war effort to collect treats for troops

A large crowd gathered at the Enumclaw Senior Activity Center for its Veterans Day celebration Nov. 10 to sing patriotic songs, honor those with military service and to give Dorothy Clark special recognition for her tireless effort to provide holiday gifts for soldiers overseas this season.

According to Director Jobyna Nickum, each year members of the senior center support an Operation Support Our Troops project. This year’s request was to collect word games, crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles and the like for soldiers overseas – in this case, soldiers in the 3rd Stryker Brigade in Iraq and the 5th Stryker Brigade in Afghanistan.

“The senior center has always felt it’s import to support our troops,” Nickum said. “We have done something every year since the war started.”

Those at the center set up a box and collected books and games. They also accepted cash donations for the United Services Operations (USO).

Go-getter Clark, who is in her 80s and legally blind, went one step beyond.

She made up fliers and went door-to-door through her neighborhood and downtown, raising approximately $800 for the senior center’s project.

“Dorothy took it upon herself to take it outside our doors,” Nickum said. “She delivered these fliers herself, yet she’s unable to read them.”

Nickum and Donna Elzenga, the center’s activities director, presented Clark with a red, white and blue afghan and a bouquet of patriotic-hued flowers during the Veterans Day service.