I attended the eighth annual Piazza auction and fundraiser two weeks ago. A gala event, with a fun theme – a “tropical shipwreck” party. Island music was performed by Biff Moss, a regular entertainer at Bahama Breeze, and Moss, whose parents are Piazza volunteers, also served as auctioneer. There was a pretty full house at the Spirit of Washington Events Center – not bad in a so-so economic climate and businesses donated oodles of great auction items.

Piazza Renton, in case you don’t know, is the group that is responsible for all of the events in downtown Renton. They put on the Spring Festival, the Fall Harvest Festival, the tree-lighting event (coming soon!), and their volunteers are the backbone of the Renton Farmers Market and the Return to Renton Car Show. This group works, folks. Almost all of them are retired Renton area citizens. And, the greatest part of Piazza Renton is that they give a significant part of their fundraising efforts back into the community. They’ve donated to King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, the Renton Clothes Bank, Renton Rotary Salvation Army Food Bank, CAST For Kids, Renton Community Foundation, the Boy Scouts, and others. If you asked any of the volunteers why they work as hard at they do, they would likely say they do it just because they love Renton and love the camaraderie of the group.

The evening was also special because Piazza Renton honored one of their own as “volunteer of the year:” Pat Roland. Pat is a fixture for 18 weeks at the “Kid’s Patch” at the Farmers Market. Each week, Pat smiles her way through hundreds (yes, I said hundreds) of kids and parents visiting her table each week—helping them play with her homemade playdoh and bubbles. That many kids would rattle most of us. But she does it all, with a great nature and I don’t believe she would mind my saying, a wicked sense of humor. Even when she encounters a kid who “isn’t using their best manners” she does it with aplomb.

Pat will laugh at that word, which is precisely why I used it. Pat hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She’s an avid hockey fan, used to curl — which she laughingly said “no one in Seattle has any idea what that is” and at one time worked for an oil company “before coming to America.”

After losing her husband, Pat found that volunteering at the Piazza gave her something rewarding to do and a place of community in which she can think about other people. In addition to her station at the Farmers Market, Pat is also the driving force between the tree-lighting event and Santa’s visit, and a regular volunteer at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. In introducing Pat’s award, Fay Moss said: “Pat is dedicated, fun, friendly, funny, and loves the kids. And, they love her too.” Indeed, we all do!

Susan Bressler is an active member of a number of Renton organizations, including Piazza Renton. E-mail her at scbressler@comcast.net.

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