BELLINGHAM - When Thad Allen showed up for work at the local Department of Corrections office Thursday, Jan. 26, he was expecting a quiet meeting with his boss.
Instead, he walked into a room of people cheering him on for 25 years of hard work reintegrating parolees into the community, a job that earned him a lifetime achievement award from a local nonprofit.
Allen was chosen to receive a Meritorious Correctional Staffer Service Award from the National Coalition of Community-Based Correctional and Community Re-entry Service Organizations. The group is based in Whatcom County but works with nonprofits and gives yearly awards nationwide.
"A few of us have been saying for a while now that he needs to be recognized," said Kim Burkhardt, the coalition's executive director. "He's hands on. He's got a practical sense of how to help people reintegrate into the community."
Allen said he was surprised by the award - but thankful - saying that his success wouldn't be possible without the help of others in the community dedicated to helping inmates start new lives.
"I'm just kind of shocked," he said. "I'm not really into individual recognition. Really, this is a group effort, a community effort."
Despite his humility, the people who work with him and have been helped by him along the way said he was well-deserving of the recognition. Allen works to find housing for sex offenders and the mentally ill, he interacts with halfway houses and he volunteers with local organizations.
"He has spent most of his career working with the most difficult people," said Ray Baribeau, co-chairman of nonprofit Prison Fellowship's Whatcom County Ministry Delivery Team. "He has what we pray for for our volunteers. He has the right balance of wisdom and compassion."
Working with released inmates was only part of Allen's challenge. He had to speak to communities and neighborhoods about sex offenders and some dangerously mentally ill parolees that would be moving in near them. People were often upset, and he had to explain why the people were moving in. Usually, he was able to assuage their fears.
Chene Harding said Allen is driven to see his clients overcome the challenges that face them. Harding is a former inmate who now works for Womencare Shelter, goes to school full time at Whatcom Community College and volunteers for prison ministries. She was the first person helped by the Whatcom County Re-entry Coalition, of which Allen is a member.
"They have a lack of self-worth and fear, a lot of fear," Harding said of recently released inmates. "Thad is one of those people who encourages them to strive for something better than when they went in."
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